Two private home rebuilding projects get variances from ZBA

The Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved the construction of two multistory single-family homes on Waltham’s west side.

Both houses are owned by families who intend to demolish the houses currently on their lots. In both cases, the petitioners requested permission to build closer to the front and back of the lot than the city’s zoning would allow.

Bret Francis, the lawyer representing the applicants for one of the houses, at 103 Clark Lane, said the variance was required because of the unusual shape of the lot and the positioning of the adjacent Sanders Lane, which is not officially recognized as a road on city maps.

One neighbor came up to ask about drainage conditions for the project, since the area is prone to flooding; the project’s architect reassured her that the house’s planned construction would not involve digging any further into the ground and would not infringe any further into the water table.

The other house, on 43 Hibiscus Ave., requested additional variances from the zoning code to allow increased lot coverage and tandem parking on the lot. 

Joseph M. Connors Jr., the lawyer representing the petitioners, argued that without the variances, the lot — which was subdivided in the 1920s and then again in 1950 — was too small to build on. “I believe it’s one of the smallest lots in the city [and] I’ve seen houses in the city converted from city coops,” he told the board.

Connors said that the lot originally housed a standalone garage constructed in 1928, which  was renovated into a house 22 years later. He argued the current house is “presently not habitable” because it is underinsulated and prohibitively small. 

ZBA vice chair Mark Hickernell said he didn’t understand how the lot was subdivided into such a small area in the first place, but that at this point, “what’s done is done.” The board voted to allow all requested variances.