ANC Zoning Committee to Consider Proposed Addition to 1215 E St. NE

Neavelle A. Coles, a real estate agent in Lanham, Md., who bought 1215 E St. NE for $90,000 in May 2001, according to D.C.'s online Real Property Assessment Database, is applying for construction permits to add a 10-foot-by-12-foot two-story addition to the rear of the house and demolish what the application calls "the existing wood porch."

A visit to the rear of the house shows that the porch has apparently already been demolished and the addition already been added. According to a letter from Charles Bryant, Mr. Coles's architect, to the Office of Zoning, the addition to the house adds a first-floor breakfast room and a new master bedroom and bath on the second floor. The letter says Mr. Coles also intends to restore the carriage house, which is on the alley at the rear of the property, as a garage.

Because the house would not adhere to the zoning regulations after the proposed changes (it doesn't adhere to them now, and it wouldn't adhere to them afterwards either), the city's Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) must grant the applicant "variances" from those laws before the construction permits can be granted.

The regulation that seems most pertinent in this case is the one that states that for houses in areas zoned R-4, which all the residential areas in our neighborhood are, houses may occupy no more than 60 percent of their lots. With the porch, 1215 E St. NE occupied 72 percent of the lot, according to the architect's application, and with the new addition, 73.7 percent of the lot is occupied. The addition itself takes up 120 square feet, or 7.9 percent of the lot.

According to the BZA Web site, the BZA can grant such variances where, because of an exceptional situation, the strict application of the zoning regulations would result in "exceptional practical difficulties or exceptional and undue hardship" upon a property owner. "Such hardship may result from physical characteristics which make the property unique or difficult to use. To approve an application for a variance, the Board would have to find that granting the request would not cause substantial detriment to the public good and would not be inconsistent with the general intent and purpose of the zoning regulations."

Mr. Coles's architect says in his letter that unless Mr. Coles is allowed to make the house larger, he will be unable to "generate a rehabilitation of the property that will be consistent with current market expectations of residential properties in the Capitol Hill area." The architect also says that the addition would cause "no aggravation of traffic, noise or lighting."

The architect says that rehabilitating the carriage house would help "maintain a familiar neighborhood-fabric piece on the property."

Residents who have concerns or questions about this project should attend the ANC Zoning and Economic Development Committee meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. at 9th and G (see Calendar), where the proposed changes will be discussed. Generally, the applicant or his representative are present to answer questions.

The committee can recommend that the Advisory Neighborhood Commission support or oppose Mr. Coles's application. The city's Board of Zoning Adjustment, which will hold a formal public hearing on the application on July 29, must, by law, give "great weight" to the ANC's recommendation.

ANC Commissioner Cody Rice, the committee's chairman, can be reached at 544-3734. §