The City of Rockville Board of Appeals held meeting 03-2026 on September 16, 2026. Chair Alan Frankel presided with members Jimmy Hauer and Roy Deutschman. The Board unanimously approved a zoning variance for 5 Lee Court, approved the prior meeting minutes, and acknowledged a transition in City Attorney assignments.
Good evening. My name is Alan Frankel, and I am the chair of the City of Rockville Board of Appeals. With me at the Dais this evening, or to my left, Jimmy Hauer and to my right, Roy Deutschman. We are here this evening at meeting number 03-2026. And our first order of business is a variance application 2027-402-VAR concerning a variance for a side yard setback at 5 Lee Court. If you are going to participate in this hearing this evening by video, please be advised that during the pandemic, the Board of Appeals came up with a set of rules that are have now been codified into our rules, and it is assumed that you are familiar with them. Mr. Oslick. So let's get started. This is a presentation by our planner, Chris Davis. So Mr. Ross, uh Mr. Oslick, if you would please swear in Mr. Davis so that he can tell us about this variance. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Davis, could you identify yourself for the record? Yes, Chris Davis with Community Planning and Development Services. And will you provide truthful testimony this evening? I will. Great. Please proceed. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. As Mr. Chair indicated, this is a variance application for the subject property located at 5 Lee Court. As you can see, the subject property is outlined in blue on the screen. It's located at 5 Lee Court, which is approximately at the intersection of Lee Court and Warfield Drive. This is in the Woodley Gardens area of the city. It has a land use designation of single family residential detached and a zoning distinction of R90 corresponding with one of the city's residential zoning districts. The specific proposal by the applicant this evening is a zoning variance from the side yard setback requirements in order to convert an existing carport located on the property into a full fully enclosed one-car garage. As you can see, uh the property is improved with a one-story dwelling. As part of the applicant's proposal to improve the dwelling, notably uh the livability of the site. Um several improvements are proposed, including a one-story addition to the front of the home, as you can see in the dark gray, um, along with a cover porch to the front entry. Um like to note that that those improvements are not included in the subject request for the variance this evening. Um the request this evening is specific to the enclosure for the proposed garage. As you can see, that'll be uh an addition to the side of the existing dwelling, um, and will partially encroach into the side yard setback necessitating the variance requests this evening. Um staff's recommendation is approval with conditions. So as you can see here on the screen, uh here is a street view of the approximate existing conditions. Um as you can see from the front elevation, the properties improved with the one-story dwelling and the attached carport. Um, as you'll note, uh car ports are pretty common to this area. Most of the existing dwellings in the surrounding neighborhood are improved with the side entry car ports. Um the applicant's proposal is basically to enclose that area and slightly encroached to the photo east in order to make those improvements in the one uh car garage. Here is a street view of the or a level view of the rear yard of the property. What should be noted here is the unique topography on the property. As we just saw from the front elevation, the property appears as a one-story above grade dwelling. But as you can see, the topography slopes down quite notably to the rear, which allows for a second story lower level in the rear of the property. So here is a proposed front elevation of the dwelling.