BOA_9 Franklin Street (HVar) - Statement of Hardship STATEMENT OF HARDSHIP
The property that is the subject of this petition is located at 9-11 Franklin Street. At a public
hearing held on April 21, 2021,the Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously to grant a Special
Permit and series of variances necessary to allow a portion of the property to be developed with
12 residential townhouse sty le dwelling units in three new buildings. The variances included relief
from lot area per dwelling'4 unit, side yard setback, rear yard setback, frontage, lot width and
distance between buildings. During the course of the public hearing, it was determined that
although all three buildings complied with the height limitation of 35 feet, two of the buildings
exceeded the heig ht limitation of two and one-half (2 1/2) stories in the R-2 zoning district. A
request for a variance from the height in stories was inadvertently not included in the initial
petition.
At the public hearing, the Board of Appeals found that there were sufficient grounds to grant the
fairly extensive relief needed to return this property to a residential use consistent with the
underlying zoning. The same grounds support the granting of the variance from the height
limitation requested in this petition.
In addition, there are further grounds to support this request for a variance from the height
limitation. Specifically, the property is located within the floodplain which requires any living
area to be located above the mean flood elevation. Due to this condition, the petitioner elected to
use the first level of each building for parking to reduce the volume of surface parking and provide
more landscaping opportunities. A literal enforcement of the Zoning Ordinance would then leave
only 1 1/2 stories for habitable area which creates a substantial hardship by significantly limiting
the amount of functional living space for the occupants of these buildings. As noted above, the
buildings comply with the 35 ft. height limitation and will be consistent in height with the abutting
residential properties, so the relief requested can be granted without derogating from the intent of
the Ordinance and without substantial detriment to the public good.