001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, and I'd like to welcome members of the public and everybody here to the uh, Town of Winchester zoning board of appeals monthly February uh, board meeting today, February 24th, 2026, Tuesday evening uh, held here at the Winchester Town Hall P. Francis Hicks room. I put >> Yeah. Yeah. My um, uh, tonight here this evening is myself, Aubrey English. Uh members Marian Marino and Paul Mitchell and alternate member uh Tom Cook. Uh absent tonight, excused is um members Ryan Horvy and Ellie Gun and absent is alternate member Tyler Ashbury. Um so in general, the way we run these uh we conduct these meetings are as follows. Each application comes before the board presents its um presents its application as to what what their project is. Members of the board are
002um allotted the opportunity to ask the applicant questions in reference to their application. Uh then the chair will open up the form to the members of the public who wants to um speak either in favor or uh opposing this uh the application. And uh then once the public form is closed uh we will give the applicant the opportunity for uh a final plea with with the board and uh then the board will take the opportunity to discuss the motion and uh we'll then vote on its um on the application. Now, uh unlike most other boards and by state statute, um you have to have a a majority of four votes to have your application uh pass. Um seeing that there's only four members tonight, four four board members tonight and I would be seating Mr.
003Cook as a full voting member tonight. Uh we would give the uh applicant the opportunity if they want to either proceed with the application they would but under the understanding they would have to have the vote of every each and every member sitting member of this board tonight. Um if not we they also uh the application would not go forward but because there's only four members present sitting tonight if you wanted the opportunity to uh maybe be heard by a full five uh five board member to uh maybe have one opposition and four in favor. you could have that opportunity uh to continue your application to the ne next meeting which would be March 24th. Um I'll I'll I'll ask the public if there's any questions as to what I just explained. I don't know
004if I explained it u as best as I could. Um but hearing none uh I will go ahead and open up uh application ZBA 26-1 for 740 Lake Drive. The applicant here present Why don't you get yourselves all set there and I'll set up there. I'll just have one of you guys just tap that microphone there in front of you to where it's green so uh >> we can and YouTube land can hear you. >> All right. Let me know when are you like on? >> Yep. >> Okay. Yeah. Tap it towards uh tap tap the side of it if you would >> till it's green. >> There you go. >> Speaker. >> Thank you. So it might be this cable. >> That's a brand new cable just >> Okay. >> Oh, that's not connected
005to anything. Aha. >> That's it. That's good. Okay. >> All right. >> Hello. >> We all set? >> Yes, we are. >> Okay. just uh have you folks introduce yourselves and state your name and address for the record. >> Yep. Hi, my name is Mark Richie and this is my wife Jill and we're the owners of 740 Lake Drive. >> Okay. And before we proceed any further, Mr. Richie, do you do you understand what I when I in my opening remarks that we only have four sitting members correct of of the board tonight. Again, I'm uh as such this is just a rare occasion this happens, but I am affording you if you want to proceed with your application tonight, you have you may more than welcome to do so. uh you would just have
006to get the affirmative votes of each and every sitting member tonight. >> You do have that op option if you want to continue this to the next meeting if we would have more board members, but I'm going to leave that decision up to you, sir. >> Okay. Yeah, we're going to continue. >> That's that's fine. You um before to we all notifications have been sent. We received. Okay. >> Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Ricky. >> Okay. Um the purpose of this meeting is um we request a variance for um related to garage placement and setbacks in order to improve safety and compliance given the lots constraints and permission to replace existing worn out and dated deck and roof structures. The existing conditions currently are a detached two-car garage which is here. This is existing the gray
007box and um which is located very close to um the property line on the southern part which is right here. That's the property line and uh there's no rock walls or wetlands on the on the property. There are no easements or rideways on this property. The shape of property is gentle slope from the road to the lake. an average um slope of 6%. The adjacent properties are residential single family homes. There are no fire hydrants in this area. The existing sewer and electrical feeds to the house will remain intact. Um the hazards um that we have are backing out of this garage into onto Lake Drive and there's also um different uh driveways in the area. Um, and gives us unsafe visibility and proximity to the road as well as to our neighbors driveways. I
008said that limited visibility for drivers of vehicles on Lake Drive due to the proximity of the garage to the road. Limited maneuvering space due to lot geometry and current garage placement. The garage, the roof, and the deck show significant aging and are hazardous because they lack appropriate modern foundations and are rotted in multiple areas. Current lack of gutters and storm water controls creates hazard for drainage and control runoff. So the proposed improvements we're proposing is remove the existing two-car garage which is located here. worn out of the worn house roof, the rotted deck using appropriate place dumpsters, and the use of silt socks to minimize disruption to the joining properties and lake. Construct a new attached two-car garage, which is here in the green, and then also a breeze, which is in this green, and
009improve the setbacks both on the front and sideyards as follow. The setback from the east side would be would change from the existing 26.3 to 56.9 and the setback on the south side would change from 3.8 to 11.8. right here, the existing north side setback of 17.3, excuse me, 17.2, which is here. And also, I can actually blow this up a little bit more, I guess. And then the west set back is going to stay the same at 23. The new garage will be built where the existing asphalt parking area is right now in here. This is all asphalt in there. And replace the roof and change the current three roof pitches to just a standard two roof pitch and still staying under the maximum elevation guidelines of 30 ft. An additional second floor living
010space on the south side with no change to the current footprint which is here. Additional second floor living space on the south Oh, I said that already. I apologize. Remove the existing deck with no change to current footprint which is here. Storm mortar improvements. We're adding gutters to all the structures where there's none existing now um to the house, garage, and the breezeway. installing engineered dry wells and rain gardens and improved drainage where currently none exists. The changes result in a decrease to the current impervious coverage from 51.2 to 48.8%. Resulting in an improved ratio. Again, the reason for the variance is safety hardship. As previously stated, the current garage location requires backing directly onto Lake Drive, creating a safety hazard as well as limited visibility for both the homeowner as well as drivers on
011the road. Physical hardship of the property lot is unusually long and narrow. Existing garage placement is constrained by proximity to the property lines. Not self-created. The conditions as are the result of lot shape and existing layout, not a new or unnecessary expansion. Previous steps taken met with the board of inlands and wetlands earlier this month resulting in approval. met with engineers, architects, excavators, and hired a survey surveyor who assisted us with the layouts that you see here and plans um that you have in your packet. We have posted and required the sign signage of the property. Ads placed in the newspaper. Certified letters have been sent to the appropriate neighbors. We have had extensive discussions with our neighbors about the plans and they have expressed strong support and have submitted letters stating their approval which
012is also included in your packet. In summary, the benefits of the of the proposal, no change in the building footprint of the house, minimal impact on neighbors and community, reducing existing nonconformities rather than creating new ones, no change in use, still a single family residence. safer and more logical placement of the garage. Improved safety benefits for the shared roadway. Improve drainage which reduces runoff impacts. Overall improvement to the property's condition and appearance. Neighbors have expressed strong support and improved pvious and pvious ratio. We'd like to thank the board for your time and consideration and offer this time up for any questions you might have. Oh, and hang on. >> Thank you, Mr. Richie. Any uh questions from the board as to this application? >> Sorry. >> The only question I have is you mentioned you
013were going to have dry wells to help with the drainage situation. I don't see them on here. >> So, I can I presented that to um inlands and wetlands and I can pull that up for you. >> I do have that. That's all on this. So, So here and here are two dry wells, 4x6 drywall. Did all the calculations. I can give you all the numbers that we ran through. Each drywall will roughly um be able to take 750 gallons of water at one inch. There's a calculation depending 90% of the water goes onto the roof and there's um a coefficient that you calculate how much comes off each side. And then these are the um silt socks. Much better than a silt fence. Um and I doubled up on both sides for them. >>
014Those would just be temporary. >> Yes, these are just temporary during construction. >> That's correct. Rain garden in this area, this area, and this area. This area over here is gravel and then asphalt here. That's a boat launch. The rain garden is a depression with all the soil under it. >> Yep. And these are uh this is the example of the rain garden and this is the drywall across section of it. >> So you're less impervious and you're adding >> adding more. >> Correct. >> You're pulling back the water that runs into the lake. >> Correct. And in inlands and wetlands, they did ask about the rain gardens up here. And we said that there is a storm drain down here, but there's times that the rain gets heavy, comes off this road and drains
015into the property. So that's why we put one here and one here to help before it even starts coming down the property. >> With the addition of the dry wells and the rain gardens, they've implemented the L guidelines. So actually they get 20%, >> right? And they've put 15% on there. >> No, I if you look at the variance request who put 15%. >> Well, on here on the plan, it says 15%. So they >> that the surveyor by >> they can change that. Here's Tyler. >> Um if you look at my variance request for the increase in impervious coverage, it's based off of 20%. Great. >> And I know Mark had mentioned the addition of the second floor. That's not for this application. That's going to be for their next one. Right now, we're
016just looking at the variance for the garage. >> You want to go back to the other >> one one second here. Mr. Asbury just joined our meeting here. Would welcome to do so. Um, have you had an opportunity to look over any of this application as well that we're doing right now? >> No, >> we had not. Okay. I don't know if you need um me and Mr. Richie to kind of go over kind of like what's going what the application is and I'll have you uh seated as an as a full voting member tonight as well too. >> Okay. >> You haven't reviewed yet? >> I apologize. >> Oh, no problem. >> You haven't reviewed your packet? >> No. >> Okay. >> There's a little bit of snow out there. >> Yeah. So, I
017kind of ran through this. I can go through it again quickly if you want to hear it. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Okay, we'll start. So, hi, my name is Mark Richie. This is my wife, Jill. We're the owners of 740 Lake Drive, and we uh thank you for your time. And the purpose of this evening is to request a variance related to garage placement and setbacks in order to improve safety and compliance with the lot constraints and permission to replace existing worn out and dated deck with roof structures. So, the existing conditions we currently have, as you look up there, we have an existing two-car garage right here, which is very close to Lake Drive and very close, let me just try to move this. Uh, Oops. And very close to the property line,
018which is here. I don't know. Let me It's okay. So the there are no rock walls, wetlands on this property. There are no easements, rightways on this property. The shape of the property is a gentle slope from the road to the lake. Average slope of uh 6%. The adjacent properties are residential single family homes. There are no fire hydrants in the area and the existing sewer and electrical feeds to the house will remain intact. The hazards um that we have are backing out of this garage into the roadway. Lake Drive is unsafe because of limited visibility and proximity to the road as well as to the neighbors driveways. Limited visibilities for drivers of vehicles on Lake Drive due to the proximity of the garage here. Limited maneuvering space due to lot geometry and current garage
019placement. The garage, the roof, the deck show significant aging and are hazardous because they lack appropriate modern foundations and are rotted in multiple areas. Current lack of gutters or storm water controls creates hazards for drainage and control runoff. The proposed improvements of what we're doing is remove the existing two-car garage and replace the worn roof on the house, rotted deck using a appropriate place dumpsters and the use of silt socks which I showed on the previous. I can go back to that. Um, and construct a new car, twocar garage with attached breezeway, which you see here in the green. This is the proposed garage and this is the breezeway. Existing ECR setback is 26.3 feet. The new one will be changed to 56.9. The um let me see. There we go. The southside is existing
020is 3.8 which is here and it'll change to 11.8. So it's more centered on the property. The existing north setback which is here 17.2 doesn't change and the west side is 23 that will not change either. The new garage will be built where existing asphalt parking area is here and here. Uh we replace the roof and changed the current three roof pitches to two continuing to stay under the maximum elevation guidelines of 30 feet. An additional second floor living space on the south side with no change to current footprint which is on here. Replace the replace the remove deck with no change to the current footprint. Storm water improvements. Add gutters to all structures, the house, the garage, and the breezeway. installed engineered dry wells, rain gardens, and improved drainage where currently none exist. Changes
021result in a decrease to the current impervious coverage from 51.2% to 48.8 resulting in an improved ratio. Reason for the variance are as follows. a safety hardship. As pre previously stated, the current garage location requires backing directly onto Lake Drive, creating a safety hazard as well as limited visibility for both homeowners as well as drivers on the road. Physical hardship of the property lot is unusually long and narrow. Existing garage placement is constrained by proximity to property lines and not self-created. The conditions are the result of the lot shape and existing layout, not a new or unnecessary expansion. Previous steps taken, we met with the board of inlands and wetlands early this month, resulting in an approval. We met with engineers, architects, excavators, and hired a surveyor who assisted us in the layouts and plans
022you have in your packet, which is this is from Tim Wy. We have posted the required excuse me we posted the required signage on the property ads placed in the newspaper and certified letters have been sent to the appropriate neighbors. We have had extensive discussions with our neighbors about the plans and they have had expressed strong support have submitted letters stating their approval which is also included in your packet. In summary of the proposal, no changes in the building footprint for the house. Minimal impact on neighbors and community. Reduces existing non-conformities rather than creating new ones. No change in use. Still a single family residence. Safer and more logical placement of the garage. Improved safety benefits for the shared roadway. Improved drainage. Reduces runoff impacts. Overall improvement to the property's condition and appearance. neighbors expressed
023strong support and approved pvious and impervious ratio. Thank the board for their time and if you have any questions right at this time when you walk into we were at the point where this board was asking questions. I know if you have any questions of uh >> I don't believe I have any questions. >> Okay. >> Thank you for going through that. >> Point of order. Mr. Chairman, if you are going to seat Mr. Asbury, you need to declare that for the record. >> I believe I just did, sir. I I I I believe I did. I when he walked in, selectman Marino, when he walked in, I said, "U Mr. Asbury just joined us and he is being seated as a full member here to have a full." >> Yeah. Yeah. It's on the
024record. Thank you for your point of board, sir. >> Any other questions from the board? >> Just a small clarification. >> Uh I see the gravel driveway now existing. >> Yes, >> that's going to remain. >> Uh let me go back to that. I was just going to one really quick thing. Um Tyler, I was just going to show you that you asked questions about the drainage and all that and this is the what I presented at inlands and wetlands and this shows dry wells, gutters going to the dry wells and silt socks and rain gardens here, here and here. >> Okay. >> Go ahead. >> This existing garage, is that being removed? >> Yes. Okay. Sorry. No, that's >> I have one other question for the board. This says a special exception for variance.
025Why is this a special exception? >> Nope, we have a variance >> for the garage for the setbacks and then we have a second application. >> That's okay. So Tom, to your question in here, >> this all of this existing is gravel from from uh let me think about this is from here. Yeah, from here all the way to here all the way to the road. This is coming out and it's going to become a rain garden. And this is also coming out and going to become a rain garden. So says grass planting, but that's going to be rain garden here and here, which I showed on the previous one. And so that changes the pvious and >> and grass where the existing, >> right? That's Yeah, that's >> Yeah. So the gravel driveway would
026remain >> on the north side. >> Yeah. >> Uh yes. >> Oh yes. On >> from this line forward, but right now it's from here to here. And this is right. >> And then the new driveway, is that asphalt or? >> No, it's just it's it's just gravel. >> Okay. It didn't specify on here. I just try to clarify. >> Yeah, >> thank you. >> It's a good question. >> Any more questions? Any other questions here this time? At this time, I will be uh I will open up the floor to many members of the public who wish to speak either in favor or opposition of this application. >> Did you have some If you want if you want to come forward so we can hear more too. That's that's fine too. >> We've been
027through this before. I just got out of surgery for the throat. Didn't do too good. Again neighbors. I bought 736 in 2015. So I'm neighbors. for several years. And um I just want to say they're absolutely so respectful about the lake. Jill was in the ha for many years cleaning the streets and everything else that she's done and very very respectful. In fact, she is so cognitive of presence she invented. excuse me to eliminate weeds without any damage to the lake. She scientifically come up with this. I know one of the agreements is okay. So that's what I'm going to say. They're so respectable. Anything they do with everybody and um say you um or two. The garage, excuse me, but being an eyesore compliment years ago, the owner allowed me to put a Volkswagen
028Beetle convert in this garage for about two days. The garage started tilting. I was lucky enough to get the Volkswagen, but it was really Not only an endanger but this lake road is the most narrow road in Winston and right where their house is the most narrow and nobody knows who owns what they're all over the place. People come to my house and they're parking in their driveway. If you happen to have an SUV or a Cadillac, it sticks out. It is really dangerous. So falls down. >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate. >> No, you're good. Appreciate your remarks here. >> I was singing the song. Any uh any other members of the public present who wish to speak in either for or against this application? >> Go ahead. >> Questions? >> You have a question?
029>> Question. >> Is this is this for the Is this for the applicant? >> I'm a neighbor. >> Okay. >> Uh >> could you first identify yourself? Hover. Okay. 7:42. >> We're the immediate neighbor. >> This side right here. >> Southern. >> Okay. Sure. Go ahead. >> Right here. >> Couple of questions. The patio and the stairs and the access to the second floor on the lakeside are disappearing. Yes, Mark. >> Is that is that is that is that correct? >> The the stairs are right in this area. So they're being moved from the front to the south side. >> Yes. >> It'll be a new thing. >> Yes. >> Okay. And what is there now? Will you increase your frontage the leg? >> No, we're not. We're not changing anything to the front of
030the lake. >> No change in footprint. >> Sounds like you're reducing or increasing it a little bit. Having more space by taking away the balcony. So, this is this is kind of hard to show, but this is there's going to be an upstairs above the deck, but >> that's current deck that stays the same. >> The current deck is going to be here like this, but above it, this green part is going to be the second floor, >> but that stays the same. >> So, that's >> it's Yeah, it's >> But that's not for this that's not for this application, >> right? But no, that's true. And going back to your new garage. >> Yes. >> The elevation of that new structure is >> single story of course. >> Um I do have that. Give
031me I can pull that up right now. >> That's it right there. That's going to look like >> there's another >> Yeah, it's it's just one level and it's it'll have just the peaks all match. >> There's another elevation that shows the elevation of the top of the roof. >> Yes. From the lakeside. >> Yes. >> But I think you were asking for the garage side, right? No, >> it shows the garage elevation. Top of garage elevation here. I just can't read it. It's so small. >> Okay. Yeah, that one is So when we did this and it was drawn up, >> it's A1-2, >> right? So when it was drawn up, that was um I'll show you the new one for though that because Excuse me. Give me a second here, Mike. You got
032this one. >> Yeah. >> Nice. >> Okay. So this is the I think the one you're looking at this is the latest because the town of Winston has their own calculation on how they do the on how they do the maximum height and it's it's half of the the grade level which is here which is 4.0 No, I believe I can't. Let me and then the next one is your first level which is 9.1 and the second one is 8.1 and then they do Winston does this. Let me just pan over here. Let me see. All right, let me do it this way. So, what Winston does is they do that the roof line here half of the the peak. So it's it's it's the midpoint of the gable. So the one that you were
033just looking at, the previous one, Tom, is it was done by the architect designing this, but he didn't know what the regulations were. So then I sent him this and then he redid it. >> And this is the latest one. >> Yeah. That >> right. And that's that's the one that he redid it because you don't take the full 8.1 here on the on the first on the ground level. You take half and then you do halfway up the midpoint of the gable. So that's why that one is obsolete. Correct, Shane? >> Yeah. And you should have gotten in the second packet that addition. So the first packet had it the way the architect did it, which was not based of our zoning regulations. In the second packet, there should have been it redone. as
034though it's not increasing our or decreasing our setback. >> Obviously, it's we're getting further away from that. >> And I I agree with the statement that I saw garage disappearing is Not not a bad thing, >> right? >> And I guess what else were you talking about? >> Yeah, my only my only other question coming into it was to understand where the entrance to the garage was. So that was clear from what you showed that from the road pulled in direct >> versus the other way. Seat.