Zoning Board Reelects Chair, Approves Extensions for Projects Delayed Due to Poor Economy

In a week filled with reorganization meetings and newly elected officials, the leadership on the Zoning Board of Adjustment remained constant with the reelection of Kevin Orr to the position of chairman of the board on Wednesday night.

Orr will begin his second year as chair, and has been serving on the board since 2006. The chairman has also been a member of the Planning Board since 2006, currently the only crossover member between the two boards.

"Thank you very much for support in electing me to the chair of the board for now the second year," Orr said at Wednesday's board meeting. "I am looking forward to working with all of you in the new year as well as the new members."

Board members Lisa Marshall and Bruce Lasko have moved from their 2009 roles as alternates, to voting members – replacing Carol Bianchi and Gwenn Gilmore, who switched to the Planning Board in 2010.

The board also has three new members: Michael Viola, Scott Ross and James Ratican. Viola replaces 2009 member Kathleen Kleiber, and the latter two take over Marshall and Lasko's previous roles.

After the reorganization portion of the meeting, the new board heard its first public cases.

The state of the economy forced two applicants to seek to extend bulk variances previously awarded by the Zoning Board. Both were awarded unanimous approval.

"You have probably heard this, I don't know how many times, but the reader's digest version is, we planned a project and then when it came time to do the work, the money that we had set aside for this project was about half the money that we thought we had set aside," Paul Schmall, owner and application for a lot on Peachtree Road, said to the board. "Therefore, we put it on hold rather than doing something less, which to my opinion would be not done well."

The Zoning Board also heard two from two applicants during the completeness and public hearings portion of the meeting.

The households of John Gannet of Woodstone Road and Michael Moshier of Dogwood Way were both awarded bulk variances with unanimous votes.

The Gannets applied to add side and rear additions to their home and were approved with the applicant accepting several conditions stipulated by the board planner.

The board also accepted the Moshier application for permission to knock down an aging and structurally unsound one story ranch and pool on the property in question, and replace it with a newly built home.