Zoning Board approves new single-family home on nonconforming lot in Piety Corner neighborhood
The Zoning Board of Appeals this week gave the owner of a residential lot the go-ahead to build a single-family home on the property despite a zoning code clause that would otherwise prevent it.
The lot in question, at 16 Smart St., is currently sitting vacant. The front of the lot is significantly wider than the back in a way that violates sizing requirements. Waltham’s zoning code requires residential lots to maintain a minimum width between the front of the lot, where it borders the street, and the back of any residence constructed on it.
This lot does not meet that minimum width requirement, and has not since it was originally subdivided in 1958. The petitioner — Anne Young, who inherited the lot from her late mother — would like to sell it to Brian Leone, who hopes to build a single-family home on it.
In the filing documents for the case, Young requested that the board waive the lot’s minimum width requirement and allow the construction of a single-family home, which the documents say would meet other zoning requirements and not require additional relief from the board.
Leone added at the meeting that he had discussed the construction with some neighbors who had not raised any concerns with it.
The board voted unanimously to grant the petition.
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Not sure why this is news — this is the daily work of the ZBA, granting (or not) changes to residential properties that are in some way non-conforming with current zoning. It looks like this project meets all the setback requirements of zoning and could have been built by right, except that the lot technically is non-conforming due to the width reduction going back. Quite a waste of the board’s time and the applicant’s money. All to maintain an outdated low-density suburban ideal.
The underlying issue is that current zoning makes our historically small lots non-conforming, putting additions, decks and other expansions under the authority of the ZBA, even when they meeting building code and setback requirements. In RA4 districts, over 60% of the properties are non-conforming under zoning requirements instituted long after the lots were created. In some neighborhoods, that number approaches 90%.