The front yard to less than ten feet.

Zoned R two five residential.

Applicant Gianni and Laura McCone.

All right.

So yeah, this is a uh Rachel Dresher.

Good evening.

Uh with the planning and zoning.

Uh so this is a request for a special exception to construct a front porch less than ten feet from the front property line.

Um op open front porches are permitted obstructions.

Um, however, they cannot reduce the front yard to less than ten feet without a special exception.

Uh so some things to keep in mind uh that we're gonna touch on in the presentation is that the property historically had an open front porch.

Uh there are other dwellings along the block base that have open front porches less than ten feet from the front property line, and there it it's a one-story front porch that does meet all of the other zoning requirements.

Uh so this property is zoned R25 and is surrounded by residential dwellings.

And according to the nineteen fifty-nine sandboard maps, an open front porch did once exist on the property, uh, but was some at some point demolished prior to nineteen ninety two.

Uh the applicant is proposing to construct a one-story open porch.

And the open porch would be six point four two feet deep and would extend eighteen point two feet along the front of the dwelling.

So again, this section seven dash two oh two E of the zoning ordinance does allow a front porch to obstruct the front yard, um, as long as the front yard is not reduced to less than ten feet.

Uh so the applicant in this case is requesting an exception of one point eight two feet to construct the porch eight point one eight feet from the front property line.

Uh so staff is recommending approval.

Uh, because it meets all of the criteria.

Uh the front porch would not be detrimental to public w welfare.

Uh, we find it's a reasonable distance from adjacent residences.

Uh the proposed one-story front porch uh would be remain open and complies with side yard setbacks, so it's unlikely to reduce light or air to any other property in regards to the character and um compatibility with the neighborhood.

Uh again, the property historically had an open porch, and there are other dwellings uh on the same side of the street that have a porch that are similar distance.

Uh and then as far as it being the only reasonable means in location, uh just do the existing dwelling, uh it's already existing, and this is the only location for a front porch.

Does the board have any questions for staff?

Okay.

Hearing none sorry flipping through here the porch depth is it six feet uh five inches so if it was built to maintain the 10 foot front yard it would then be like five foot I'm trying I'm on the fly converting decimal feet into feet and inches here but uh or like four foot ten inches or something yeah it would be less than five feet um okay thank you other questions um is there uh explanation as to why they need that additional one foot eight point eight whatever it is uh I think just usability um just making it a functional space when we researched porches um back when we did Infill regulations to allow um an open front porch we found that um between six and eight feet was the like the typical depth of a front porch for you to be able to sort of put a chair and stand up and kind of just use your front porch um so between six and eight and anything beyond that is kind of extra so porches that are up to eight feet in depth actually are eligible to be excluded from FAR if you want um sort of a larger you know more expansive porch that additional depth uh counts towards FAR.

So eight feet is kind of what we typically see as an open front porch.

So this isn't even quite meeting the the depth of the um average porch that we see um the other properties that have porches do we know the depth of those are around this around okay yeah we didn't really measure but just in looking at the street view they look to be roughly I would say between six and eight maybe some of them are a little bit deeper even maybe ten feet across the street um but we didn't specifically measure the depths of other porches 6.42 is toward the smaller side of the porch porch size um I would say so I mean I I don't have the exact dimensions but it um it's definitely not going to be the largest of the front porches by any means.

Okay hearing no other questions we can move on to the applicant's presentation.

Back over here yes please sir.

Gotcha thank you.

I'll be honest good evening my name is Gian McCone and my wife Laura and I are the owners of uh 409 East Custis Avenue.

I think Rachel did a very good introduction I don't know if there's much more I could really add to it other than to reaffirm that the question you asked and I have not measured each of the individual other porches.

Ours is probably the smaller um definitely not the largest of the other existing porches from similar properties um that were built around the same time as ours which is the late 1800s the early 1910s give or take.

And I would also add that I think uh it it was already highlighted I think our request is modest and that the space we're asking for is to enjoy reasonable functional use of it.

Doesn't have to be too big doesn't have to be you know something ostentatious and wrap around we're really just looking to put back what was there for a very long time happy to answer any questions any questions for the applicant?

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you sir.

Thank you.

And I don't see any people here for public comments.

So shall we move on to deliberation?

Sure.

Opinions questions, thoughts would anyone like to make a motion?

Uh Mr Chair?

Yes.

May I make a motion to approve you may?

Based upon staff's recommendation.

Do we have a second?

I would like to second that motion okay hearing a second all those in favor of the motion say aye.

Aye.

Aye aye.

All those against hearing none the motion is um unanimously passed.

Thank you sir.

Good luck with good luck with your porch.

Thank you.

Appreciate your time thanks so much.

The next item on the docket is the consideration of the minutes from the January 12th 2026 Board of Zoning Appeals hearing Ms.