House Expansion Zoning Variance Challenged in Court

By Andrew Gorosko

A Riverside man has filed a court challenge over the Zoning Board of Appeals’ (ZBA) recent decision that allows the man’s next-door neighbor to build a house addition.

In the lawsuit filed August 25 in Danbury Superior Court, Douglas Ross of 114 Underhill Road, in the Riverside section of Sandy Hook, seeks to overturn the ZBA’s August 4 granting a zoning variance to Derek and Tricia Bobowick of 116 Underhill Road to construct a house addition.

The 116 Underhill Road property is located in a R-1 (Residential) zone, which requires a minimum 25-foot sideyard setback distance for buildings, according to the legal papers.

The lawsuit states that the 116 Underhill Road property does not now conform to the zoning regulations, noting that the existing side setback on the southern side of the property is only 15.4 feet.

“In July of 2004, the Bobowicks applied for a variance…to allow for construction on the property of an addition to [the] second floor of the existing dwelling. A portion of the proposed addition would be supported by cantilevers, and it would be built along the entire length of the dwelling. The first story of the dwelling would remain unchanged,” according to the lawsuit.

The proposed addition would reduce the existing 15.4-foot sideyard setback to 12.5 feet, according to the suit.

Following an August 4 public hearing on the variance application, at which the Bobowicks and Mr Ross presented testimony, the ZBA approved the variance, “stating as its reasons that [a] hardship had been demonstrated, and that the cantilever of the second floor would be over an existing deck and would not increase the existing [zoning] nonconformity,” according to the court papers.

Mr Ross contends that the ZBA acted illegally, arbitrarily, and in abuse of its discretion by deciding that a building addition would not increase 116 Underhill Road’s existing nonconformity to the zoning regulations.

The suit states that the Bobowicks did not demonstrate that they had a hardship, as is required to obtain a zoning variance. It adds that any hardship was self-created by the Bobowicks.

Mr Ross is represented by attorney Camille DeGalan of Danbury. The town has an October 5 court return date.