By Chris Frost
Eagle Times News Editor
CLAREMONT, NH — The Zoning Board on Monday, Oct. 16, denied an application for variances from front and side setbacks for an addition to the building at 15 Bond Street.
Chairman Todd Russel made the motion, which board member Richard Collins seconded.
Russel said approving the project sends a bad message because applicant Baltzar Guaman made improvements and then asked permission to do those improvements after the fact. He converted the house to a three-family unit and was told to return the property to its original configuration.
Guaman, of Charlestown, NH, was represented by Jay Barrett, and City Planner deForest Bearse said she had nothing new. An interpreter was on hand.
Barrett said the hearing started two weeks earlier and gave the board a project rundown as he sees it.
“The board very wisely agreed that it would be best to complete the file with a letter of authorization,” said Barrett.
Guaman reached out to him on July 5 while he was in the area attending other business and asked him to look at the property.
“He explained there were some issues with the city; he wasn’t too specific about what they were, but I assured him that I would check with the building inspector and deForest and determine what the issues were,” Barrett said, which were both building code issues and zoning issues.
Barrett thought about it for about a week and suggested to the planning and zoning staff that it might be good to have a meeting at North Street to review the project, determine the actual issues, explain them to Guaman and move forward.
“We had an interpreter at that meeting; it was a good meeting, and I think we covered a lot of ground,” he said. Barrett recommended they focus first on the zoning issues and then the building code issues. “The building code issues can wait because the building code and building inspector might change depending on how we get the zoning issues resolved.”
He said they agreed to get a boundary survey of the property.
“It’s a small lot about 60 feet by 100 feet deep,” he said. “We needed to determine exactly where the boundaries were and exactly where the existing building in question is in relationship to those boundaries.”
Barrett said he called in a favor from Wayne McCutcheon, a friend, who produced a good boundary survey in a “very short time and didn’t have any problems with it.”
“The survey did show there are some front and side setback issues,” he said. ‘The other thing agreed upon during our July 15 meeting with the staff was that the three-family residence that Mr. Guaman was hoping to build was going to be difficult in the eyes of the zoning ordinance. There is nowhere near enough land area, and he agreed at that meeting that this would be his primary residence and it might have an accessory dwelling unit. It’s not going to be a three-family dwelling unit.”
He said they understand the front encroachment was about 2 to 3 feet.
“It was a pre-existing, non-conforming structure as far as setbacks go prior to the present owner purchasing the property,” Barrett said. “There was a two-story front porch that was taken off, and an enlargement to the front of the building was made that increased it by two feet and made it closer to the street.”
He said work was done in the back that does not violate the rear setbacks but goes into the side setbacks a little.
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