2828 Chippewa St.

Staff Recommendations: 

In April 2015, a Certificate of Appropriateness was issued for the renovation and rear addition at the property. A subsequent final inspection in March 2016, resulted in a failed final inspection due to inappropriate handrails at the front porch, inappropriate lighting at the front porch, and the roof mounted condenser. The current owner closed on the property a week later. 

The owner has agreed to correct the inappropriate handrails at the front porch and the inappropriate light fixture has already been removed. The owner is requesting retention of the roof mounted condenser. The Guidelines state that rooftop equipment is not permitted where it is visually obtrusive from the public right-of-way and in this case the current location of the condenser is visually obtrusive. However, due to lot constraints, there are not many options for relocation of the condenser.  The house sits too close to the side property lines for the condenser to meet building code in the side yards and the rear of the house has a large double door that prevents the condenser from being mounted to the rear wall. 

Staff recommends relocating the condenser unit to the right side of the roof, closer to the eave. This will help to obscure the visibility of the unit, as the right side of the property is much less visible due to the neighboring house.