The owners of a Cape Cod-style home on Orchard Drive are seeking permission to use a concrete pad on the side their house to store equipment for a planned pool.
The concrete pad at 100 Orchard Drive currently is used for an above-ground oil tank, according to an application for a variance filed on behalf of the property owners by attorney David Rucci of New Canaan-based Lampert, Toohey & Rucci LLC.
Under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, the minimum side yard setback for accessory structures in the A Residential Zone is 10 feet (see page 59 here). The existing concrete pad is five feet from the property line, while the pool equipment itself will be about 4.5 feet from the property line, the application said.
“The applicant’s proposal is to construct a 14-by-14-foot small pool in the rear yard of the property,” Rucci wrote in a narrative that forms part of the application, filed on behalf of property owners Pieter and Rowena Bergmans.
“While the pool itself will be in compliance with all zoning regulations the pool equipment location is proposed to be sited on an existing concrete pad in the side yard setback. The location currently has an above ground oil tank. The applicant proposes to remove the existing above ground tank and replace it with the pool equipment. This location is currently screened and fenced from the neighbor to the East who supports the Application. This location is consistent with access to utilities, causes less disturbance to the property and continue to be located away from Town easements for sewer and drainage. The pool equipment will be lower in height than the existing oil tank but 6’ closer to the property line. The proposed equipment location will swap out one system for another and cause no additional disturbance to the site or neighboring properties.”
The Zoning Board of Appeals is scheduled to take up the application at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.
In her memo to the ZBA, Town Planner Lynn Brooks Avni wrote that under the zoning regulations, “the mechanical equipment for a pool shall be visually screened and not located in a required accessory yard setback and needs to be located more than 50 feet from any public or private roadway or easement.”
“The plan does not call out the proposed distance to the roadway or the sanitary sewer easement from the proposed location of the pool equipment,” Brooks Avni wrote in the memo. “In order to grant this variance, the Board must make a determination that a literal enforcement of the Regulations would result in an exceptional difficulty or an unusual hardship. Additionally, the hardship needs to be solely with the parcel of land that is the subject of this application and it is owing to conditions that especially affect this parcel and not generally the district.”
According to the application, hardships include that the house is in a legally non-conforming location on the .32-acre property, the new equipment will be in same location and lower than existing oil tank in height and the lot is encumbered by a town storm water drain and a 10-foot sanitary sewer easement.