we good all right good evening today is thursday april 16th welcome to the city of delray beach board of adjustment meeting uh clerk could you please call the roll jesse slasher here mark ronald here suzanne donahue here brenda cullen here are ramirez here john delacio here next approval of the agenda staff are there any changes to tonight's agenda no sir all right can we approve the agenda do we need the motion to approve it so moved a second vote yeah all in favor all right opposed nope all right agenda's passed we'll now move on to the minutes are there any amendments or adjustments to the minutes nope hearing none is there a motion to approve the minutes so moved a second all in favor aye aye opposed all right minutes are approved we will move into swearing of the public uh if anyone is planning to speak on any matters tonight they will need to be sworn in the notary of the state of florida do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth next uh public comments if anyone would like to speak on any non-agenda items now would be the opportunity seeing none we will move into the public hearing items i will read the rules this hearing shall be conducted in accordance with the city of delray beach quasi-judicial rules the applicant in the city shall be permitted to present their case the public shall be allowed to speak for three minutes each or a maximum of six minutes if the person represents an organization or group of people who are present but agree not to speak the board and the applicant may be allowed to cross-examine a witness the city or applicant will will be allowed to offer rebuttal testimony the decision to approve or deny an application or appeal may not be legally made upon personal views as to whether a project is a good project or not nor may a decision be based on the number of citizens who support or oppose a particular project the law requires that all decisions must be made on the basis of whether the project meets the requirements of law the comprehensive plan and the land development regulations all right staff would you please read the agenda item into the order um file number 343-2026 and the applicant is here thank you um among my fellow members have there been any ex parte communication no i emailed staff a question about the agenda but otherwise none all right with that we can move on to the applicant's presentation quickly seconding the agenda find a way around it thank you very much i appreciate the committee's time and madison and jennifer you guys have been great so i appreciate all your help and guidance because it's my first time presenting to delray we're new residents of three years ago so this was a new process for me so i've learned a lot and i apologize if you could state your name and address okay yeah my name is jonathan capon 972 dogwood drive delray beach thank you you so um i've got uh the agenda so we can is somebody do i oh i got it right here thank you yep i'm going back that's what i'm doing and there's the file okay put a small agenda together got 10 minutes to go through it and i'll just introduce uh my wife i'm jonathan my wife sean is over here and um steven little my architect is right here and adam nelson is acting as um my owner's representative and a partial general contractor as well this is adam over here uh this is my property on dogwood drive um we've owned it for three years um we love the neighborhood we've enjoyed it when we bought it we had envisioned doing a renovation um that involved um several different things and what we're here to talk about today is uh the covered patio that we desire that would replace the tiki hut okay that exists in the in the back of the land so the legal description is there and that's our lot notice and i'll be speaking about uh the shape of the lot as it's on the cul-de-sac and quite a bit of the the front of the property is on the cul-de-sac about 80 percent of it we'll be talking a little bit about this is the way the house is today um we bought the house exactly like this and uh we learned very quickly that the tiki hut is uh very bug infested and very um tall and blocks a lot of view both from our house our neighbor's house and others it's just very tall and somewhat unsightly and quite honestly was is leaning very much to the west right now this is our desired look in looking at the space i'm sorry about you know the different view i thought i was getting the right view when i was in the kayak but i didn't get the right view but this is our desire so it's a lower profile uh roof and it will connect to the house and essentially replacing the tiki hut almost exactly about six feet to the west of that but it's in it's actually sitting one foot further away from our property line than the tiki hut sits today so that's what we're shooting for thank you madison and jennifer for helping me through these seven questions but these are the questions i think that all the applicants for relief uh go through so um so the question is the special conditions and circumstances exist that are peculiar to the land structure in the building and as i mentioned the cul-de-sac lots that are one off of the points um are very compressed in size okay and you know so as they build the house like in the front the house was built 17 feet from this from my property line in front same thing in the corner of my property it's built too close to the street and i think it was done that way to try to give me some depth in the house um however i've been to a lot of these corner lots you know one off of the point and many of them have the same situation where the living space inside in the family room is 16 by 17 it's relatively small comparative to other homes that have depths of lots of 100 307 feet where the depth of my lot is 80 feet so when they built the home they built it encroached a little on the front side but also compressed it in the back so it's very you know close which is why our former owner of the home had built the tiki hut that was that large in that regard um the new covered porch uh as i mentioned will only encroach uh will encroach one foot less than the existing so that's question a and i guess it's appropriate to see if you have any questions regarding that there'll be time at the end thank you second question the literal interpretation of the regulations would deprive the applicant of rights commonly enjoyed by others properties subject to the same zoning and the granting of this variance will really have no effect on the neighboring property properties or setback requirements based on the above statements in section a so it's really related i found this question a little bit redundant so i answered it that way so i don't think it deprives anybody of anything um c the special conditions and circumstances have not resulted from actions of the applicants and we have made no changes to the home other than the hgac unit that we replaced right when we moved in so we have not done any changes d the granting of the variants will not confer unto the applicant any special privilege um that's denied to other land structures buildings under the same zoning neither the the permitted nor non-conforming use the neighborhood land structures and buildings under the same zoning shall be considered grounds blah blah granting um so my answer to that was that i think the opposite would be true um if we're denied the request um we would not have the benefit that others have been granted uh including the home right across the canal which i'll show you some photographs of um as i've um an avid kayaker my wife and i have gone down every you know every street and there's well over a hundred different structures that have you know been built in the backyards of tropic isle i think because of the nature of the neighborhood and trying to get especially the ones on the southern side because the sun comes over and across that way so there's a lot of heat outside there e the reasons established from the variance petition justify the granting of the variance and that the variance is the minimum variance that will make possible the reasonable use of the land um and my comment is granting the variance keeps the current shaded space provided by the tiki hut not really trying to grow it that much um it's currently about 18 feet by 17 feet this one is 19 foot 10 by 20 so it is slightly larger and um it's positioned to the west by about eight feet the granting of the variance will be in in in harmony with the general purpose uh an intent of the existing regulation will not be injurious to the neighborhood or otherwise detrimental to the public um my comment was the granting the variance will allow us to harmonize the look and feel of the outside space with our house as opposed to having again the tiki hut that is very bug infested i've had termites there i've had beetles i've had just horrible bug problems and it's certainly not hurricane proof it's leaning at about you know five degrees right now off of off of plum and um so i think it'll improve as we saw in the photographs quite a bit the look and feel of the home so great this is a view from my master bedroom there's the tiki hut and um my neighbor directly across the canal 959 evergreen she happens to be in the exact same position on the cul-de-sac she's just facing uh north i'm facing south um and this is her home and i'll zoom in on the structure that was built i think it was five years ago when she did an interior renovation so she has built that and that is about a foot and a half from her property line and that's even closer up on the same photograph so then going back and going forward so i look at that every day and um so i took a few other photos just to see um this is a couple of blocks away um this one's right on their property line this one's three doors down from me this is one that was under that was under construction when i took the photo back in january and that one is right on the property line um so that's brand new construction as of this january and and this is another one a different home that again is being built similar size to what what we're doing so i'm here today basically sean and i you know are really respectfully asking the committee to grant us relief from the restrictions on the ldr 434 h5a and it'll allow us to build the covered patio using high quality architecture steven's done a great job and it'll harmonize our home with the look and feel that tropic isle really desires because everybody is building much bigger going up higher they've done some things that we're not doing to the home we're just kind of painting it restuccoing it building a couple of covered patios that will allow us to enjoy the outside space so that's what i'm hoping to the committee will agree with and that's about it let well under 10 minutes you actually have 15 minutes so if you want to keep going you can go keep going no well i concluded i think if you need to go back so no i'm done thank you thank you uh staff presentation you can sit and we'll we'll call back up we'll call you back up if there's any questions hi my name is um jennifer bios i'm a planner for the city and this is 972 dogwood drive the request is from land development regulation section 4.3.4 k which is our development standards matrix for residential zoning districts to reduce the rear south side set back to five feet whereas a minimum of 25 feet is required um i'm not going to go um through this again um john did a good job of that um this is tropic isle neighborhood i believe our last variance back in october was in tropic isle neighborhood too and i believe the one before that was as well so the house was constructed in 1981 and the footprint of the house remains the same um there have been no alterations to the footprint maybe um some small like ac roof um repairs stuff like that nothing that changed the footprint um it was built with legal non-conformities and the current residents um consist of about three thousand thirty two hundred square feet of living space so this is what they're proposing um i tried to color code it a little bit so it would stick out so the cheeky hut is the light yellow which is looking to be removed and you can see the pool in the blue and then the proposed covered porch and they pretty much he uh john did say it's um one foot less but they pretty much line up where they are now and you can see where the five foot setback is in the red and then you see um to the left of the proposed covered porch uh the one of the existing legal non-conformities of 24.97 where 25 feet is required but that's how the house was built i think i did okay so the request is to construct the patio enclosure and the rear rear setback of the property to increase the outdoor living space the proposed patio is 19 feet 10 inches long and 20 feet wide for a total of about 400 square feet um the proposed patio enclosure is open on two sides and um has an eight foot wall to accommodate a tv and fireplace this is the slide i was looking for um it may be a little bit hard to read but um john touched on the cul-de-sac a little bit um where it where you see the driveway that actually meets the setback of 25 feet and then you have the cul-de-sac where it does have some existing non-conformities of where the house was built um the ldr does allow when you are on more than 50 of a cul-de-sac that you get a five foot reduction so um some of the house is still built not to the 20 feet but that is what it is allowed and so they are it's it's generally meeting um the code section this house was built in 1981 with these already existing i just wanted to give the definition and um i pulled this from the internet just to show you what a screen enclosure looks like i i know there was some talk about it at last meeting and a little bit of confusion so our definition of a screen enclosure is a framed structure completely covered with open mesh screening only and this does have a hard roof and we do allow hard roofs so here's the covered porch at five feet from the property line with the hard top solid wall to accommodate additional amenities and open on two sides so if you have a screen enclosure with a hard top you can go up to 10 feet from the property line because this is not a true screen enclosure and it's more of a structure they are having to go for the entire 20 feet and so they're at the five feet still they do have 106 feet of open space so again the open space comes into play if it was a screen enclosure it could go 10 feet but they want to go to the five feet and these are your findings and um that basically concludes my presentation sounds good thank you would anyone from the public like to speak on this matter you can approach were you sworn in ma'am just state your name and address maureen smith 968 double drive i'm just to the west so this is beautiful and i'm really happy that my husband and i are happy that this is getting the attention it deserves because it's a great house on a great lot i haven't seen any of this before that's the only reason why i'm here because we've had conversations and we're really happy about what they're doing um that's that's why i'm here i'm like the first time i want to see what it what it looked like and i'm glad they're getting rid of the tiki hut um i love that i'm not sure i'm not following if it's screened in or not it's not screened in okay because we've lived on the lot since 1999 and we've always had you know great a great view i'm not going to lie it's been a great view our neighbors have always been very nice to us we've always you know enjoyed the wad the intracoastal for what you know it's not 100 but it's always been a nice little spot where we can stand outside and see the water i love it i love what they're doing my husband's really happy um we don't see a problem with it i'm just wondering he um john says that the roof is lower it's not as tall as the cheeky hut the cheeky hut was really tall but i guess in the perspective in the rendering it looked like it was much higher the architectural than what it looks or in or in the elevations than it does in the rendering um i don't i don't see we're really happy i don't see any problems but we did talk and he said i don't plan on blocking your view maureen so that's kind of like okay well we got like a little deal going here you're not going to block the view and you can do what you want so that's where we are so i just don't know are we good yeah well no you know if you want to make a comment during wait you were the applicant yeah you can have a rebuttal after yeah no we're happy we just you know we've gotten used to that you know our our um our french doors are angled towards the intercoastal and you know it's just been a beautiful for us it's been a beautiful day every day you know living there so if it's going to be it for them i'm i'm kind of curious why i'm i plan furniture i'm a landscape architect so i kind of like plan patio furniture and stuff and i'm like okay 19 feet can you really it's a lot of space to walk around if you're gonna have sofas and stuff like that it's just extra extra luxurious space it's no cramped there's no cramping in so i'm just five that is time on the three minute timer if you could just wrap okay so are the are the um the column's going to be located in the same place as the tiki hut column so the board doesn't necessarily answer questions like that that would be more so something you can bring up in your rebuttal sir unless there's more public comment i just want to make sure if i guess if you have if there's any other questions you want to be answered yeah sorry i'm friendly with some of the guys that are doing the work on the property i know them and i know they're going to do a great job and um they said that the columns are actually further back than the yeah so we yeah so we can we can move on yeah so we can um we'll ask some of those questions for you so we can have a debate but yeah thank you for that um if one second so are there any other public comments okay so now i guess we'll allow your rebuttal if you'd like to answer some of those questions sure not not a problem um the tiki hut height okay is is the the pitch is much steeper so um it it'll the pitch on the new roof will be much lower so from a visual standpoint okay the hairs of the tiki hut okay that come down right now they come down and touch my head so they are at about six foot one inch if i get on my tiptoes um the new height will be nine foot one okay and the overall height will be about a foot lower than you have now so what you'll be getting is you know you're you're you're if that's the amount of space you're not seeing it'll be much reduced from your property uh you asked about the posts uh steven the posts are um about a foot by a foot square 12 inch by 12 inch if we can um sir if you're gonna be you'll have to be sworn in and you'll have to come up okay so the posts are about 12 inch by 12 inch um the current tiki hut posts are about 10 inch by 10 inch round these will be square okay and but there's not four of them because two are it's attached to the house so there's only two posts now instead of four thank you thank you john all right so we'll move on to okay we'll move on to the board discussion cross-examination well does the city have anything oh any rebuttal to the we do not we do not suzanne would you like to start we'll go yeah i do have a question so on what we're seeing there on the left the tiki hut is already at a five foot setback yes so the setback really isn't changing from what existing is it's just getting moved down correct it's um getting moved to the west and i believe there is still approximately 20 feet from the neighbor um to the west and the setback for side interior in this neighborhood is eight feet eight and a half feet so they still have they're still well and within okay thank you mr ronald it looks like an improvement to me for sure i just had a couple questions for staff so the ldr doesn't provide any specific roles when it comes to intercoastal or any there's no specific adjustments they're made when it comes to intercoastal the only thing um that is specific to it is the open space um there are certain rules with the open space that's why i kind of mentioned it again um because the pools are allowed to be set back five feet um with any uh common open space as long as there's 50 feet uh the it's why it was brought up for the porch as well um the covered the screen enclosure could go 10 feet um but this particular addition or covered porch uh is completely in the setback uh because of the columns is it the when when the applicant was presenting some of the neighboring structures most of those were open on three or four sides so would that that would be subject to different setbacks than what they're asking for is that is that correct or is it the column no a lot of the um a lot of them know because they are they were all open as well um you did see the one large pergola um that's also in the setback um so none of these would be allowed in that setback and the 25 foot setback okay sorry just one more time you said the pool is allowed within a five foot foot setback there is a provision in the ldr for swimming pools as long as there is at least 50 speed 50 feet of common open space behind it they can impede in the rear setback but would they run into an issue if they wanted to put a screen enclosure over their pool potentially yes okay i guess will there be any kind of a problem like if hopefully we don't have a hurricane with this screen enclosure where the way it's going to be set up there is no screen on it and this i mean honestly the tiki hut as john said is not in really good condition this is going to blow down in a hurricane they're building a permanent structure it's made out of concrete okay yeah you asked my next question which was building standards assume it's built otherwise compliant with code this is going to be tied into the uh the trusses for this are going to be tied into the house and then it'll meet asce 22 24 it's going to be engineered to not move whatsoever sounds good that's all i have if they add enclosure to the size can that be added to the leading square feet of the house if it was conditioned yes and just one last question whether or not there's actually screens doesn't really have any effect on anything versus open no i i think there was some confusion last meeting what kind of structure was allowed and it's the screen enclosure that allows you to come closer in your setback um with a hard roof i i don't know why that is but it is in our ldr understood any other comments questions clarifications nope ready so i know you all have done this before but i'll just read the six different findings and we'll vote we'll do a roll call vote after each one and you'll vote yes or no so this is file number pz 4342026 the date is april 16th and this is for 972 dogwood drive the request is it's a variance request from land development regulations section 434k development standards matrix residential zoning districts to reduce the rear south setback to five feet whereas a minimum of 25 feet is required associated with the construction of a patio enclosure pursuant to land development regulations 2.4.11 a5 following consideration of all the evidence and testimony the board of adjustment for the city of delray beach finds as follows so number one the special conditions and circumstances which exist are peculiar to the land structure or building involved and which are not generally applicable to the other land structure or building subject to the same zoning economic hardship shall not constitute a basis for granting of a variance jesse slasher yes mark ronald yes suzanne donahue yes michelle wilson's absent brenda coleman yes or ramirez yes john delacio yes number two the little the literal interpretation of the regulations would deprive the applicant of rights commonly enjoyed by other properties subject to the same zoning jesse slasher yes mark ronald yes suzanne donahue yes michelle wilson's absent brenda coleman yes or ramirez yes john delicio yes that the special conditions and circumstances have not resulted from the actions of the applicant jesse slasher yes mark ronald yes suzanne donahue yes michelle wilson's absent brenda coleman yes or ramirez yes john delicio yes that granting the variance will not confer on the applicant any special privilege that is denied to other lands structures and buildings under the same zoning neither the permitted nor conforming non-conforming use of neighbor neighborhood land structures or buildings under the same zoning shall be considered grounds for the issuance of a variance jesse slasher yes mark ronald yes suzanne donahue yes michelle wilson's absent brenda coleman yes or ramirez yes john delicio yes that the reasons established in the variance petition justify the granting of the variance and that the variance is the minimum variance that will make possible the reasonable use of the land building or structure jesse slasher yes mark ronald yes suzanne donahue yes michelle wilson's absent brenda coleman yes or ramirez yes john delicio yes that the granting of the variance will be in harmony with the general purpose and intent of existing regulations and will not be injurious to the neighborhood or otherwise detrimental to the public welfare jesse slasher yes mark ronald yes suzanne donahue yes michelle wilson's absent brenda coleman yes or ramirez yes john delicio yes steen do we have a motion could yes can someone read the motion to approve move approval of the variance request for 972 dogwood drive pz 000434 2026 varboa from ldr section 4.3.4 k development standards matrix to reduce the rear south set back to five feet whereas a minimum of 25 feet is required associated with the construction of a patio enclosure by finding that the request is consistent with the findings set forth in ldr section 2.4.11 a5 a dash f there second second we'll do a final roll call vote yeah correct jesse slasher yes mark ronald yes suzanne donahue yes michelle wilson is absent brenda coleman yes or ramirez yes john delicio yes concludes i'll read this paragraph yeah pursuant to ldr section 2.1.7 f all decisions of the board of adjustment are final based on the entire record before it the board of adjustment approves the variance solely for the purpose as presented at the meeting the board of judgment adjustment adopts this order this april 16th 2026 thank you so we'll close number seven we'll move on to reports and comments from staff we do not have any reports and comments however we will see you all in two weeks on may 7th for another variance application wonderful from the attorney nothing it's nice to meet you all if you ever need to discuss something beforehand feel free to email me uh or call me just not as a group obviously just individually um from any of the fellow board members i guess i just have a question do we know when no michelle will be replaced is that that is handled by the city clerk's office okay all right madison sorry did you say in two weeks or did you mean them next month two weeks is may 7th if you can believe that yeah okay i do know yes to those questions if you can move it to the following week i could be yeah all right well with that we'll adjourn if something happens the following week i'll be back