Plan for home on narrow lot concerns neighbors
Proposal requires
variances for lot size
and side-yard setbacks

SEA BRIGHT — Property owners along Normandie Place believe their street to be "charming" and are trying to persuade the members of the borough Planning/Zoning Board to deny needed variances for construction of a three-story house they say will overwhelm their neighborhood.

The board has before it a proposal from Thomas Sakariassen of Middletown to tear down the small one-story house at 32 Normandie Place and build a narrow four-bedroom, two-bath home with 2,430 square feet of living space on the 25-foot-wide lot.

The applicant needs variances for lot width — 50 feet is required in the zone — and for side-yard setbacks. The building plans propose an 18-foot-wide house with a combined 7 feet in side-yard setbacks — 3.5 feet on each side — when 15 feet are required.

The board adjourned before making a decision and was expected to continue the hearing at its Feb. 26 meeting. Sakariassen was expected to return with a plan that shortens the length of the house, from the initially proposed 80 feet, 71 feet for the building and 9 feet for the decks on front, to fulfill a request by the board.

The length of the house does not require a variance. It would be set on a 165-foot deep lot with a 40-foot setback from the street. A 25-foot setback is required.

The height also is not at issue as 34 feet 6 inches is proposed while the limit is 35 feet.

C. Lance Cunningham, the board chairman, pointed out to those opposing the application that the legal height for buildings anywhere in town is 35 feet.

The proposed house, designed by Sea Bright architect Anthony M. Condouris, would have a vacant first level for flood purposes, a living room, kitchen and bedroom on the second level, three bedrooms — one designated as an office/exercise room — on the third level, plus two baths.

The lot backs onto the Shrewsbury River and drawings for the house have decks overlooking the water on both the second and third levels.

Martin A. McGann Jr., lawyer for the applicant, said the plan complies with borough’s lot coverage regulations.

"We understand it’s a very difficult lot to work with," he said. "But we feel it’s a drastic improvement."

Bonnie Laird, who owns the house next door at 33 Normandie Place, doesn’t think so. She allowed as how the plans show a "magnificent" house, but said it’s too big for the lot.

"The height of this thing is going to be overwhelming," she said. "The street is charming now. I think (if you approve the application), we’re going to end up with a concrete environment."

Also objecting to the variances were Catherine Palazzo and her husband Robert, who live in Brewster, N.Y., but own the property at 10 Normandie Place.

"The problem with this house is that it’s a tremendous house on a tiny lot, Catherine Palazzo said.

She expressed concern that if the board relaxed the zoning for this applicant, the street — a two-block-long, north-south road in the North Beach area — would become lined with tall houses that would blot out the sun and overwhelm the other homes on Normandie Place.

"I think a 2,430-square-foot house on a 25-foot lot is ridiculous," she said.

Mayor Gregory Harquali asked if the owner had made any attempt to buy adjacent property so as to make the lot conform with the 50-foot-width minimum-lot size.

McGann said the lots to both the north and south have houses on them that would have to be demolished. Sakariassen said neither had been for sale, but he hadn’t knocked on any doors.

In response to another question from the board, the architect said the house to the south was 2 feet from the Sakariassen property line — and only a foot where the chimney bumps out. The building to the north is four feet from the Sakariassen property line, he reported.

Board member Roberta Lane suggested the width of the house be reduced to 16 feet, so as to have at least 4-foot setbacks on either side, and the length be reduced to 50 feet.

"That seems more reasonable," she said.

Other board members sounded similar themes, saying they too thought the house was too much for the lot — either too long or too large. The applicant’s team said they couldn’t narrow it, but indicated they would shorten it before returning.