3427 OAKES AVE 2018-01-02 MF Import

3yo2% DAce—S APPLICATION FOR VARIANCE 9 July 1973 DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE SPECIFIC VARIANCE REQUESTED: My home was built in 1905 before the current building codes were established. The current building code places the front porch foundation approximatly four feet, the roof line approximatly six feet & the porch steps approximatly seven feet beyond the twenty foot building limit line. Without changing the exsisting roof, I would like to enclose the front porch, install a fireplace on the west wall, relocate the front entrance, adding new steps & a small uncovered porch. Enclosing the front porch would use the exsisting foundation lines using a new concrete foundation instead of the present wood post type foundation. The fireplace is presently planned to be a manufactured fireplace form, positioned nearly flush with the inside wall. The fireplace form is two feet deep. Allowing six inches for wall thickness plus thirty inches for roof overhang for a total of three fee:, there should be adequate room within the exsisting roof line or at most just a few inches beyond the roof line but well within the present porch step line, to install the fireplace. A new entrance is to be built immediately to the north of the exsisting Porch, between the porch & window. this will require a new porch & steps. One corner of the proposed steps will extend approximatly eightteen inches beyond the present steps. The new porch will not extend beyond the present porch on the west or the side of the house on the north. ALLEGATIONS OF APPLICANT POINT 1. Six of the seven houses on my side of the block extend beyond the twenty foot line. As far as I know, they were all built that way. The seventh was built within the last three years & appears to conform to the present c-ide. So in a sense there are no special circumstances making my property different from my neighbors. A precedent does exsist,however, with the third house north of me. Its structure lines appear to be the same as mine, as far as distance beyond thetwenty foot line goes. The precedent lies in the fact that a full upstairs floor plan, extending from t!ie north wall to the south wall& to the west edge of the first floor porch, exsists for living area. I am not asking for additional space. I simply want to use the exsisting house lines for added living area. POINT 2. I can see no way that the variance requested will be detrimental to any of my neighbors. POINT 3. The fact that the current code does not allow construction within twenty feet of the front property line is the cause of the problem. As I stated earlier, my house was built many years before the code was issued. I feel that I should be able to use the exslsting building lines to my best advantage, convience and confort.