Good evening, everyone.

Uh welcome to the June 8th, 2026 meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Uh for those who have not been to a BZA meeting, here's a brief procedural overview.

Um when a case is called, the city staff will have up to five minutes to present their case, after which the applicant and their representatives will also have up to five minutes to present their position.

Then finally, the case will be open to public comments with each speaker limited to five minutes as well.

Uh members of the public who wish to speak must fill out a speaker form for the record, and you can find those forms outside this room.

The board may ask questions during any of these presentations, and the response to the board questions do not count against your five minutes.

However, speakers are asked to only respond to the question and refrain from elaborating, restating their position, or asking questions of the board.

Once public comment is closed, the board will deliberate on the case during which the board may ask additional questions to staff or the applicant.

And as always, speakers are asked to only respond to the question and refrain from d discussion.

So with that being said, Miss Christensen, please call the roll.

Mr.

Liu?

Here.

Ms.

Eveland?

Here.

Ms.

Braun here.

Mr.

Burke?

Mr.

Foley?

Here.

Mr.

Justice.

Here.

Uh we do have a quorum.

Okay.

Uh first item is uh election of a board officer for vice chair.

Yes.

Um so just to let the board know we did have um two board positions that expired at the end of May.

Um Mr.

Patel and Miss Bowman.

Um Ms.

Braun uh was appointed for uh one of the vacancies, um so she's here with us tonight.

Um but without Miss Bowman, she was the vice chair, so we do need to hold an election um to elect a new vice chair of the board.

Um so with that um we'll take nominations for a vice chair, and then there'll be a motion on that nomination um to elect a chair, a vice chair.

Mr.

Lew, I'd like to ask if anybody has uh inquired interest to the chairman for that position.

Of course.

Anyone um would anyone be interested in serving as chair over the next term?

Which I believe is a year.

How long is the term?

It would be until um the next elections, which are typically in January, um, as long as we have a hearing.

It's usually it's the first hearing of the new year.

Mr.

Chair, would you like um I I don't I don't mean to presume, but would you like me to explain what it's been explained to me in the past about the position of the vice chair and what the intent of that position is?

Please so it's my understanding that the the chairman um is largely supposed to be conducting the meeting and uh making sure it's run orderly, whereas the vice chair, the primary goal of the vice chair is to drive the meeting forward, um make it when no one else is willing to make a motion, make motions and move things along.

So um that's at least when I was vice chair and back uh before when um when I was learning from my predecessors, that's what they had told me about the position of the vice chair, and it seems to make a lot of sense.

Okay.

Thank you for that information.

So would any board members like to nominate either themselves or another board member for the vice chairmanship?

Vice Chair Pership.

No.

People keep looking at me, but I don't understand.

Uh those responsibilities sound like something I could undertake for the next seven months of this year or six months of maybe if I can't add the number of months that that should be a red flag for everyone.

Uh but I guess I would nominate myself if no one else is interested.

Please do, Mr.

Justice.

And you've been um serving on the board for what about a year or a little less than that.

So I think this will be the year, yeah.

I was appointed in May, and then this was the June was the first one after that.

Okay.

Would anyone I'd like to nominate Mr.

Justice for position of vice chair.

Mr.

Chair, I'll take that nomination.

Okay.

Well, with uh that motion being made, um all those in favor of this motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those against, same sign.

Okay.

This motion is passed.

Congratulations, Mr.

Justice.

Thank you, everyone.

Uh look forward to the rest of the year as vice chair.

And moving meetings forward and and especially, yes.

Absolutely.

And if uh you know the chair cannot make the meeting, then um, you know, you would be also expected to lead these meetings as well.

Okay.

Uh second order of business.

The next item on the docket is BZA 2026 0007, 20 West Myrtle Street, public hearing in consideration of a request for a special exception to construct an addition in the required side yard.

So in R5 residential.

Okay.

Uh staff may begin your presentation whenever you're ready.

Good evening, Mr.

Chairman, members of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Before you is 20 West Myrtle Drive, which is a special exception request.

The property is located um in the Potomac West small area plan, and it is surrounded by residential um homes.

This lot is actually substandard.

It is a single unit dwelling zoned R2S5.

It is substandard with respect to lot size as well as lot width.

The existing house um sits within the required side yards on both sides.

The applicants have come in with the proposal.

They're bringing in one side of the property into compliance, and then what they are doing is also um expanding an existing wall.

So what they're actually doing is um they're setting the they're setting the addition in.

So the request is really for eight and three-quarters of an inch so that they can go ahead and build this rear addition.

As you can see, they are tying it into the existing house with the setback being measured again from the ease portion down.

So the R25 zoning is a one to three ratio with the minimum of seven feet.

Um so here we are, the special exception.

So what you're seeing before you is that the existing side yard you see there, but they're actually setting the addition in.

And so that they are requesting a 6.27 feet, which means the relief is a 0.73 or 8 and 3 quarters of an inch.

On the adjacent side, which would be the west side of the property, the addition will be in compliance.

So it will meet the side yard setbacks.

And the deck will also be in compliance.

This I'm sorry.

This um this project actually meets the requirements of and the recommendation of a special exception, and I'm available for any um questions or comments if you have any.

Uh the column to the right would be.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

I was trying to I I don't control it.

I don't have any control, sorry.

But it meets all the criteria, each one, yes.

Thank you.

Just wanted to confirm.

Yes.

Um does the board have any questions for staff.

Okay.

If not, then we can move on to the applicant's presentation if you want to have a word about this.

Sure.

Uh well, I'm I'm Nathan Young with my wife Becca Spencer with the homeowners.

Really, when we purchased the home a number of years ago, we knew buying the smallest house on the street would be perfect for the two of us.

But as we wanted to kind of expand our family, like many of our neighbors have who have been here for uh two doors down, has been here for 50 years and done multiple additions to kind of grow their family.

We we kind of wanted to look at doing something similar.

And taking into account both our neighbors' houses, the setbacks, the light, the airflow, and not going either beyond their depth of house and trying to comply as much as possible, and really only uh requesting the easement uh hopefully that we need to build for a family room and for another bedroom and two.

Uh that's sort of the approach that we took with this.

So trying to make all the setbacks that we could work and then remaining the you know, the rest of the house entirely ontouch from the front and either of the existing side walls and the roof uh to truly try and keep and preserve the history of the Cape Cod and then just add what we can to build for our hopefully a few future family.

Thank you, sir.

Does the board have any questions for Mr.

Nell?

Mr.

Janet, of course.

Um, are are you building this addition yourself?

No.

I I guess the uh the reason I ask is that three quarter inch uh apps, which is the thickness of a sheet of plywood.

It seems very odd that you would go through this whole process for three quarters of an inch.

Um so I was curious how that came about.

You don't you don't have to tell me because it's not really relevant, but to the whole decision process, but I'm just interested.

It is eight and three quarters inches uh to to clarify.

Uh from the uh seven-foot setback that uh 0.73 feet uh or is in feet and and not inches on the uh display.

Okay, I thought uh the it says right there in front of us the relief requested is 0.73, which is not even three quarters of an inch.

Is that is it is that a foot and three quarters?

Oh that's in feet.

Oh yes, sir.

I got it.

Yes.

Okay.

Got it.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Brain fog tonight.

Can I understand?

Thank you, Mr.

Foley.

Um any other questions for the applicant?

Not a question, but uh you did a great job of the explanation as to why you were pursuing this special request.

So good job.

Thank you.

Um Mr.

Young, have uh you notify the neighbors of uh this upcoming project?

Spoken with quite a few of the different neighbors, and then the last page in the docket is a letter from the most affected neighbor on the east-facing side.

Um we didn't receive any objections from any of the neighbors we spoke to.

We had a good conversation with all of them, which was actually quite interesting, as they've all done additions, just to learn a little bit more about what they did and why.

Um with no questions from the board, would anyone like to make a motion?

Mr.

Chair, do we have um any uh speakers from outside of Christensen?

Do we have any speakers?

There are no speakers signed up.

Um we're moving to board deliberations.

Yes.

Yes, I'm sorry.

Um you're not the only person with brain brain fog tonight.

Um so before we make a motion, um as part of the deliberation process, does uh do any board members have an opinion or thoughts they want to share about the application?

If I may.

Of course.

Um so we've seen quite a few uh examples of the the same type of requests come through the board.

Uh we have always um I I cannot remember a time where we have not granted the um the the request with you know this is uh very modest amount of um I guess it would be called an encroachment into the setback.

Um this is largely going along the the property lines or the walls of the house.

And I I think that it's it's right in line um with however many have come through here in the past.

And so I would strongly um uh feel that it's it's it's we should just uh we should just approve it as it as it is, and not that I'm making that motion just yet, because I would like to give the other uh board members an opportunity to to speak their mind as well.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Foley.

Um any other thoughts from the board member?

Do you agree with his assessment?

Sure.

Yeah, I would just like to echo Mr.

Mr.

Foley's assessment as to the minor nature of the relief requested, maybe not quite so minor as Mr.

Foley thought uh at the beginning, but uh still well well within I think the history of what this board has uh has approved in the past.

Any thoughts I already expressed mine and I'd like to make a motion that we approve.

Please do uh motion seconded.

Okay.

We have a motion and made and seconded.

All those in favor of a motion to approve this application, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those against, same sign.

The motion is passed five uh two zero.

Okay, thank you, and congratulate congratulations, sir.

The next item on the docket is the consideration of the minutes from the May 11th, 2026 Board of Zoning Appeals hearing.

Um I did receive a few um corrections from Miss Evelyn, and those have been made, those typos have been corrected.

So the minutes appear correct to the best of my recollection from that particular meeting, and the uh things that I had requested corrected have been corrected.

So I make a motion that the minutes are approved.

Do we have a second?

Second.

All those in favor of approving the minutes, please say aye.

Aye.

All those again, same sign.

Okay.

The motion to approve the minutes are passed.

Thank you, everyone.

And I believe those are the all the items on the docket, Miss Christensen.

We don't have any other items and there's no other business to discuss.

Okay.

Great.

Um, I guess you know, before we adjourn, I'd would just like to formally welcome Ms.

Bashir to to the board.

Uh and we look forward to your contributions every month and during during uh these meetings.

And as always, please use us as a as a resource if you have any questions.

Thank you very much.

I am also very much looking forward to it.

Thank you.

And then with that, um yeah, this meeting would be adjourned.

Thanks everyone, draft operating budget and ten-year capital improvement program for the city council and the community to consider.

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Residents can share their ideas and feedback at public hearings, meetings, and even through emails or social media starting in the spring.

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This process is called ad the lead, where changes are made based on city needs and available funds.

The new budget goes into effect on July 1st.

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For more information on the city's budget and how you can get involved, visit Alexandria VA.gov slash budget.

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