Town of Sutton
Zoning Board of Adjustment
PO Box 487
Sutton Mills, NH 03260
Hearing Minutes August 25, 2004 
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The Town of Sutton Zoning Board of Adjustment met at the Pillsbury Memorial Hall, Main Street, Sutton Mills on Wednesday August 25, 2004 at 7:30 pm. The meeting was held to conduct the hearing for Case 04-08 Marion Kelly.
The assistant took roll call - members present were Bill Hallahan, Dane Headley, Doug Sweet, Andy Supplee, Derek Lick
The assistant read the information on ZBA Hearing Case # 04-08
Tax Map # 05 Lot # 772,563 Book # 2623 Page # 1572
The applicant, Marion Kelly requests a special exception to the terms of Article IV, Section B-1 (2 family dwelling) and Article V Section A-1 (uses permitted in a Residential District) to the home at # 21 Southfield Rd., owned by A & S Realty Trust/Marion Kelly; a Rural Agricultural Zone in North Sutton, in order to change one room in the downstairs of the home to a kitchen for the purposes of turning the downstairs into an apartment.
The notice was posted at the Town Hall, in the Intertown Record Newspaper, North and South Sutton Post Offices, and the Bradford Post Office. There was one piece correspondences received in the mail.
Bill Hallahan asked if all fees were paid, and they were.
Bill Hallahan advised the applicant that the board would listen to his comments, then deliberate, then take a vote on whether to grant the variance or not. There are 5 board members and the vote would have to have a majority to grant.
Bill read the ordinances.
Andy Supplee clarified that it is a two family home they are seeking rather than a duplex.
Bill asked the applicant, Marion Kelly to state what she would like to do.
Marion stated that she would like to put in a small kitchen, modifying a small space off of an office, to turn the downstairs into an apartment. She submitted a narrative of the Special Exception Worksheet. There is already a bedroom there and other space would be treated as a living room with the old office space serving as a dining kitchen area.
Andy asked if the apartment would have use of the garage
Marion replied only as an emergency 3rd exit. The cars would not be parked in the garage.
Andy asked where the entrance would be.
Marion replied that it would be through the proposed kitchen/dining area.
Dane Headley asked if there is an office there currently and is that going to be the kitchen
Marion replied that there is a small room off of the office that will be converted and there is a ½ bath down there as well. (looking at the map)
Bill said then it is your intent to modify the downstairs and asked how many bedrooms were in the home presently
Marion replied including the one down stairs there are 4 bedrooms. There are 2 - 1500 gallon tanks for the septic.
Bill asked Doug Sweet if he knew what the requirements were for the septic system for 4 bedrooms.
Doug indicated that he thought there was ample septic but could not be sure that a 3 bedroom along with a 1 bedroom apartment were the same. He thinks the apartment would be considered 1 and ½ bedrooms… it would need to be cleared with the state. Did you mention to the installer that you were planning an apartment?
Marion replied yes
Doug said we still may want to have the state review the leech field for proper capacity
Marion stated that she doesn’t use all the bedrooms now
Bill replied that she could use them all; that could change. When we make a ruling, the ruling goes with the land.
Doug discussed the capacity 4 bedrooms septic capacity would be 600 a day for 3 bedrooms and a 1 ½ apartment it would equal 675
Doug asked about the parking
Marion indicated that there is quite a bit of space there and the parking is not seen from the road. When the office was used as a business there were clients coming in and out, much less now that it is not used as an office.
Bill reiterated that it was not being used as an office
Marion said that’s right...
Bill asked if there could be a chance that the apartment would be used as a business office again
Marion said no
Derek Lick asked how many vehicles are typically at the house
Marion there have been up to 4 but her daughter moved out and that is one less car
Andy asked again about the septic
Doug said that she can get a review with the DES
Derek asked if the Building Inspector goes out to the sites to investigate
Andy replied if he reads the decisions and decides he needs to.
Bill stated that he thought the parking situation would be ok... only gaining one space if 2 are leaving
Andy... on past decisions didn’t we ask the fire chief to inspect
Marion..the basement is finished and has 3 hardwired smoke and fire detectors alone just in the basement
Bill that shouldn’t be a worry, we visited the place it is totally finished and done very professionally
Derek asked if it would continue to be owner occupied
Marion Yes
Derek ..Do you anticipate that it would change?
Marion ..No I don’t want to leave here!
Derek we would object to this becoming a double rental situation
Dane there is also another house on this road that has a rental/in-law type apartment that we approved
Marion stated that she would have relatives and in some cases she may have renters to generate income
The Assistant was asked to read the abutter in which Robin Sellman and Stephen and Cathryn Hosmer objected to the Special Exception and asked that it be denied. (See letter in file)
Marion said she talked to many abutters that had no objections
Bill opened the floor to comments from the abutters
Steve Hosmer stated that he lives at 4 Southfield The development was approved as a single family neighborhood 3-8 years ago and they choose this road for just that as a single family neighborhood. Most of the land is in the back of the homes and the homes are near to the road. We live on a private road and have to be maintained by the residents who live on it. I don’t see the point in trying to add more of a burden in trying to deal with the issues and chance of more liability. Just moved up here full time and don’t intend to make my single family home into a two family. He also states that the neighbor at the end who has been plowing no longer wishes to deal with the issues. Mr. Hosmer stated that he just moved here as a full time resident 2 months ago and he wants a single family
neighborhood. He stated that he heard that they were going to put a stove in the office. He also stated that there have already been tenants there one person 6 months. He has a big problem with the septic question and is in favor of the fire department looking in to the safety issues. He respectfully requested that the board deny the request for the fact that it is a single family residence and doesn’t think the town should be changing the zoning it from a single family residence. I think we should all abide by the rules and the regulations that have been put forth for us to go into this, we all bought in to this with the same idea as single family residences.
Bill noted that he understands Mr. Hosmer’s point. But that there are provisions in place in the zoning regulations that allow for a situation like this if it follows all the rules. By law a request must be granted if it meets the criteria as such.
Robin Sellman, abutter, asked why the selectmen turned down the request. (not answered)
Stephen Didn’t the town approve this as all single family residences
Bill No
Kathy spoke to the issue of the how they could say it is a single family road and then change it It’s a private road and if there is an accident then they are liable for paying for it. Do you think that everyone on the road is going to pitch in and say let my homeowners take care of it, no.
We’ll get sued as the road has to be maintained by everyone, but not everyone does it. There are problems with parking and up keep of the road we tried to get by and there were cars all over the road making it very difficult. Adding more cars to the road will make it us safe. They have a road for their horses and the trailer is there and it makes it hard to get by.
Robin asked to have explained why a special exception was needed.
Bill Generally speaking you have certain parameters that you have to meet with a special exception approval, this board can decide to allow in certain cases, a two family home.
Bill read from a zoning publication and clarified the rights that were given by the ordinances. It is permitted if they meet the requirements and the board agrees to grant and you are absolutely correct that we are not looking to have open season on multiple family homes. He asked Marion if she wanted to reply
Marion stated that two of the reasons that there were cars on the road were that they were having the driveway worked on and the other was her daughter’s graduation party. Yes there were a lot of cars. There are generally not a lot of vehicles, she stated. There is a lot of room to get by, she said.
Bill asked for some clarification on the Liability of each party on the private road
Marion said she was advised by her insurance person recommended an “Umbrella” policy gives her more coverage. There was more traffic when there was the business, it will be less now, she stated.
Bill asked what would be the maximum number of people to rent.
Marion replied 2 adults
Robin Sellman stated that everyone on the road is equally responsible for what happens and why should she pay if one of Marion’s renters gets hurt? No one is being cooperative now as far as the upkeep of the road, I’d have to sue everyone to get my money
Hosmer’s.. yes it is a private road and it is up to all of us to keep it up so if it isn’t sanded in an ice storm, we’ll get sued if someone gets hurt We had a meeting at my house and everyone agreed to care for the road but it’s just not happening and we haven’t gotten back together
Marion I was at that meeting I thought everyone was being cooperative, we just had to have another meeting I’ll have it at my house.
Ron Murray... (will be half owner), questioned the validity of the liability claim.
Derek asked if the residents of the private road have a formal agreement to take care of the road
Steve Hosmer stated that they did not - and with no snow removal they are all on their own now. He read from Article VI information that this is what he was talking about, like decrease in value of the surrounding properties and didn’t want to see this become a habit of changing streets from single family homes We went in to this knowing it was a single family residence, my concern is what happens down the road.
Bill advised Mr. Hosmer that this was not the first time but that there is another right on his street and there have been a few in the past but that the board has to follow the rules and ordinances
Dane Headley noted that he thought that the one on their road was approved as an in law apartment but couldn’t be sure.
Kathy .. Marion has come to three separate times that they were doing this to help out a family in need, then it changed to her daughter, now she’s making it into a two family.
Derek Lick .. do you have the capability to prevent people from traveling up the road
Kathy it is stated that we could put up a gate but who would maintain it and who would pay for it if it was done electronically
Derek tell me about the road as it is today, how many travel on this road in a given day
Kathy. Many cars don’t open my windows because of the dust
Robin its’ grand central station
Steve prior to the construction, there already was a lot of traffic that goes up and down the road and it is taking one heck of a beating with the construction trucks. We are concerned that we may not get anyone to plow this winter as the road is in bad shape.
Derek.. What I’m hearing is that as of today, 10 houses on the road, traffic is very heavy, some attributable to the construction going on teenagers on the street asked Marion
Marion yes quite a bit of traffic on the road one house in particular lot of cars and in and out dropping off and picking up
Derek Marion, are there houses on the street that have more traffic now than you would anticipate having if this were to be a two family
Marion oh yes there is a grand mother watched grandchildren and they go in and out there is also a family with teenagers and their friends are there a lot
More testimony about the heavy truck loads and construction vehicles that will drop off after the houses are built and the builder says he’ll take care of the road once they are done
Stephen indicated that the road has been graded and it still doesn’t help… he’s even considering putting speed bumps there
Marion stated that as she said before they are not adding any more traffic 2 vehicles have left and 2 may come
Andy you will be renting to a child of yours
Marion our child lives in the house right now and one will be in college.. and we thought that if our children ever wanted to they could live there… Originally we were planning to help out a friend and her husband who were coming to live here so that they could save money to buy a home of their own. Just recently, they found out that their daughter has an illness and she will be coming to live with them so they are not planning to rent now. We will make sure that the person we rent to takes care of the property, we do live here too
Ron we plan to put that in the lease as a way of enforcing
Robin we are trying to foresee problems
Bill we do try to measure the input that we have, we have the obligation to follow the zoning, in this case a special exception,
Kathy how do you make sure that the rules put in place are followed
Bill well it’s just like anything else.. the selectmen are the policing authority and I hate to tell you that there are many things that go on that just don’t get noticed
Stephen… before you make any decision on this are you going to get the septic system checked out?
Bill that’s actually a part of the building permit process .. we could state that the septic has to be checked out.. we do try to do our best here
Andy on the liability issue I don’t remember there being any hazards on the road.. hidden driveways so I think it is unlikely that it would be the fault of the driver
Derek I am not an expert on private road, but if someone should slide on the ice and run into a ditch they would look to the maintainer of the road.. with no written document in place it’s a possibility I can see that the person who does the good deed of plowing the road, doesn’t plow it right and gets sued for doing that good deed..given all of that is there going to be increased traffic on the road that wasn’t there before and I don’t see that
(multiple conversations going on about the liability problems, town taking over the road)
Dane trying to get the town to take care of the road
Hosmers trying to get the road up to grade to have the town take it over we’ve run into a road block on that
Marion well I think there should be another meeting of the road residents .. I’m willing to have it at my house…
Bill yes the group needs to keep communication going
Bill Doug actually the road was very quiet when we were there.. middle of day
Bill we make a motion to end public session and go into private session
Motion made to end session by Bill Hallahan, seconded by Andy Supplee
Christine” at this point only the board members are allowed to talk, ask and answer questions the session will be reopened when they are finished with the worksheet
Bill the applicant did a good job on their portion of the worksheet we’ll go through the worksheet
First one I’d like to comment that they are only doing minor inside modifications any other issues
Derek is this the right section to talk about the septic.. not I agree later
Dane this is a street of one family homes, asking to change to an income producing two family we did approve Gaskell one and Whiteheads with conditions. not visible from road and there were conditions
this use is a concern for me
Bill we can place limits
Andy minimal expansion of people using the property same number of bedrooms , only means one additional car, and we could assume that if it stayed as a 4 bedroom as children grow to beyond teenage they would have cars so the likely hood is of one additional car on the road Minimal impact expansion
Dane,, the quality of tenant is more of a concern, the tenant needs to take care of the apartment and if it is owner occupied that would be optimal
Bill she mentions on her form that the state has approved a 4 bedroom home.. we’d want to have the DES review the system and state that it is adequate for 3 bedrooms and a 1 bedroom apartment
The entrance to the apartment is not visible from the road, the parking is off of the street
Fire safety, hard-wired… three on apartment level… no need to have that looked in to
3 ground level exits and two ground level entrances. Reading the works sheet completed by the applicant discussion the appropriate use, it has had people in all four bedrooms.
Derek 2 points.. 1. appropriate there is another property on the road as a two family and 2 there is no change to the exterior property only difference is an addition of a kitchen from an entry way.
Bill her worksheet states that there will be less traffic since it’s not an office use any longer it also mentioned the other two family and that is not grandfathered in just because of that
9 active houses and two under constructions and we only got two abutters to complain
Derek I find in the abutters letter their concern re the character of the neighborhood there is a way to address the character of the neighborhood.. we discussed owner occupied. Marion mentioned that a potential tenant is her teenage daughter.. the problem I see is that if it were a non owner occupied two family that it could become a problem.. trash piled up, rowdy tenants.. etc. I would say that owner occupied would address that issue The other is the liability concern, brought up by the Hosmers and Ms Sellman I don’t see that there is a change in the liability due to less cards not more and the road is already a busy road.
Bill the liability issue exists today already
Derek I think that we could meet some of the abutters needs by placing an owner occupied condition
Bill there are not hazards added to pedestrians
Bill in D here we have the septic issue to address I believe we should have DES evaluate and make that a condition of approval 3 bedroom home with a 1 bedroom apartment
Bill E is it consistent with the spirit of the ordinance.. well if is preferable not to have a 2 family house but if all of the standards are met then it is a reasonable use
Dane when I look at that family, I could not tell that there were any two family homes there and I think that these are not true 2 family homes.. You do not see an entrance from the front it is keeping the rural character I don’t think we’ve see a request for more that 2 or 3 in 4 years but we can place restrictions here
Andy we can restrict the number of people and vehicles
Derek Yes I think that reasonable is a maximum of two persons and maximum of 2 passenger vehicles
Dane I agree
Bill any other questions hearing none I make a motion to reconvene , seconded Dane
need to make the motion and the conditions… following discussion the motion was made as follows by Bill Hallahan:
A motion is made a seconded that the board vote to grant the application by Marion Kelly to add a kitchen and make an apartment in the basement of her home with 3 conditions..
The application was GRANTED with the following conditions:
1. The house is to remain owner occupied;
2. The apartment to house a maximum of two (2) people and those two people are limited to a maximum of two (2) passenger vehicles parked on the premises;
3. That Marion Kelly obtains a letter from the Department of Environmental Services approving the septic system for a three (3) bedroom home and a one (1) bedroom apartment; OR that the septic system is upgraded as necessary, and that a copy of the letter or the upgrade is forwarded to the board as soon as possible.
Roll was taken and the variance was granted unanimously, with 3 conditions.
Bill thanked the applicant for coming in and that they can go back to the town for a building permit.
Andy advised that there is a 30 day waiting period in which time the decision could be appealed and suggested that he wait to start the construction.
The hearing was adjourned, Dane Headley motioned and Doug Sw
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