The hearing was the last for zoning board member Bob Kerr, who announced his retirement effective Dec. 31.

Represented by Daryl Rhea, Immaculate Conception asked for three variances: one to allow the parking lot to be less than 25 feet from the front of the lot, one to allow the lot to not have visual screening along the side lot lines, and the third to allow for a driveway more than 12 feet wide.

Rhea told the board the church could set up parking without the variance but it would limit the number of spaces. The lot would be used only during church services.

Borough ordinance requires some kind of visual screening – a fence or plantings, for example – between the parking lot and adjacent properties. Rhea said screening would be expensive to install and maintain, and would likely collect blowing trash.

Driveway widths are limited to a maximum of 12 feet. Rhea said a 24-foot driveway is needed to provide “reasonable use” of the property.

The entrance to the parking lot would be from Liberty Street and would be signed as one way; and the exit would be to Madison Road .

Rhea said Immaculate Conception wants to provide more parking close to the church building.

Liberty Street resident Sheila Pope, who lives directly across from the property, objected to the variances, saying the replacement of a house with a parking lot, the wide driveway and the lack of screening would all negatively affect the character of the neighborhood.

Pope said she opposed removing the house, but that does not require zoning approval and was not an issue before the board.

Replacing a residence with a parking lot contradicts the intent of residential zoning, Pope said, and the lot and driveway connecting Liberty Street and Madison could encourage people to use it as a short cut, especially since Liberty Street is one-way.

Pope said the parking lot would not be in keeping with the nature of the neighborhood and would affect the value of her property.

She suggested that a planting of arbor vitae – a tall, evergreen landscaping tree – would provide for an inexpensive and effective visual screen requiring minimal maintenance. Rhea agreed that was a reasonable suggestion.

Variance requests require the applicant to show a hardship that would stem from complying with zoning and land development requirements, and Pope noted that economic reasons, given as the hardship relating to the screening variance, were not valid as hardships under the borough ordinances.

Kerr asked if the church considered gating the entrances to the proposed parking lots so through traffic would be barred and the lot would be open only during services.

Rhea said he was reluctant to consider gates for practical and aesthetic reasons.

Additional parking is needed because the church recently changed from four services to three, thus increasing the attendance at each service, said Father Monty Sayers, pastor of Immaculate Conception.

The board deliberated with legal counsel Mike Bogush in private for about 15 minutes, then returned and voted to approve the variance to allow parking in the front of the lot, but to deny the driveway width and screening variances.

Kerr retires

Following the vote, Kerr asked zoning officer Bob Ragon if the board would hear any cases before the end of the year. Ragon said none could be filed in time to be heard in December.

Kerr then announced that this would be his last hearing as a member of the zoning board, as his appointed term ends on Dec. 31 and he is not willing to accept reappointment “for a number of reasons.”

One of the reasons is that he will be 81 years old in January, he said.

He thanked his fellow board members – currently Bill Sanders and Dick Hulings, as well as board secretary Linda LaVan and Ragon, for their service on the board.

The borough’s land use ordinances “were written for a purpose, and I have tried to understand and uphold those ordinances,” Kerr said.

Sanders said Kerr’s retirement “is bad news for us. I really enjoyed working with Bob Kerr.”