(proposed back porch, above)
(existing back porch, above)
Note: The original photo I had posted of her planned porch was incorrect; what is pictured above now is correct.
The Rodgers Forge Community Association has hired an attorney to fight a homeowner’s request to the county for a variance that would allow her to enclose her back porch.
The owner of 300 Hopkins wants to extend her kitchen so she can add a small powder room against the wall that is shared with the living room. She has a letter from her doctor stating that for medical reasons she needs a bathroom on the first floor. Last year she submitted a proposal to the board, which was denied. She modified the plan and was denied again. She submitted a third modified plan (her current plan, pictured above) and was denied again. She then decided to work directly with the county, as the covenants in that section of Rodgers Forge have expired and she doesn’t need board approval to make changes to her home.
However, even though she is not extending her porch, the fact that it would be enclosed means she does not meet the county’s setback requirements — that is, the amount of space required between a home and the street or alley. So she has requested that the county give her a variance. The Rodgers Forge board is fighting that request.
Board president Jennifer Helfrich said she could not comment other than to say, “We [the board] don’t want her to have the variance granted. We support the county’s laws without a variance.”
This isn’t the first time the two parties have disagreed about changes to the home. About 15 years ago the homeowner requested approval from the architectural committee to enclose her front porch with glass. Her request was denied, but because the covenants were expired, she got a permit from the county (there were no setback issues) and built it anyway. She said she now spends most of her time on the porch because it is filled with light.
The variance hearing had been set for May 27 but the board’s attorney, J. Carroll Holzer, asked the county to postpone it because it did not work with this schedule. A new date has not yet been set.
Holzer is the same attorney who represented the board when it sued the homeowners at the corner of Murdock and Pinehurst over variance issues there. The owners wanted to extend their kitchen, which they said meant extending into their side yard; that met county setback rules. The board argued they were really extending the back of their home, which did not meet setback rules. (The house fronts Pinehurst but the board argued it faced Murdock.) The board lost the case, then appealed, and also lost the appeal. The homeowners have since moved. (Read about that case here.)
The owner of the Hopkins Road house, Christiane Rothbaum, said she has resigned herself to the fact that the county will probably defer to the board’s wishes, although she has hired an attorney. Her architect also said she might lose, but he has taken photographs of other RF homes with similar additions that he hopes will bolster her case. See them here:
“I wish that the [Rodgers Forge architectural] committee would work with an architect first rather than a lawyer,” said Rothbaum, whose native language is French. “I wish they would make some designs, and I know it’s complicated, but try to create some sort of lines that within you have to work. That would make people happy.”