READING, Pa. \u2013The Reading Zoning Hearing Board voted Wednesday to approve zoning relief for the City of Reading to install a solar canopy and carport on the city hall parking lot along Cedar Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But another request to also install a solar canopy and carport at 509 N. 6th\u00a0St. was continued to allow the board to render a decision next month on March 11.<\/p>\n
The parking lot on North 6th\u00a0Street is next to the public works building.<\/p>\n
Last month, the board learned that the purpose of the proposed canopies is for the generation of electricity, the protection of vehicles from storm damage and the elimination of the need for snow removal on the lots.<\/p>\n
The projects are designed to cover the entire parking areas.<\/p>\n
Both projects each required a variance from the minimum rear yard setback requirements, as well as a variance from the requirement that the solar canopy\/carport is setback from all public roads a distance of no less that 1.1 times the alternative energy system\u2019s height.<\/p>\n
The city lot is in the C-R Commercial Residential zoning district, and the public works lot is in M-C Manufacturing Commercial zoning district.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bethany Ayers Fisher, the city\u2019s sustainability manager, questioned the board on why the decision on North 6th\u00a0Street was continued since the city was compliant with the request for an artist\u2019s rendering.<\/p>\n
Steve Price, zoning board solicitor, said the artist\u2019s rendering was received after the board discussed the matter at a workshop meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were so many issues that were brought up by the board members,\u201d Price said.\u00a0\u201cI thought it would behoove you and the city to request a continuance and then we can make the decision at the March meeting, because otherwise it would have been a \u2018no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were questions about how it affects the historical look at the property and the neighborhood,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut there were so many issues brought up by the board members that we have to sit down in person to hash them out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other business<\/p>\n
Also Wednesday, the zoners approved zoning relief for\u00a0Tomas Inirio to allow him to extend the hours of a proposed restaurant\/bar at 658 N. 6th\u00a0St. and to increase the number of seats.<\/p>\n
Inirio recently purchased the former Caf\u00e9 Waldorf where he plans to increase the existing seating up to 75 and to extend the operating hours until 2 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.<\/p>\n
In new hearings, the board heard a request for a special exception from Maria Castro-Ruiz, owner of Happy Village Daycare LLC to operate a day care facility for more than seven children in the Abraham Lincoln building at 150 North 5th\u00a0Street.<\/p>\n
A variance is also being sought from the requirement for an outdoor play area.<\/p>\n
Keith Mooney, attorney for the applicant, said the applicant will be able to develop an indoor play area on the lower level of the building.<\/p>\n
The zoners also heard a request from DAKS Realty LLC, for a special exception to adaptively reuse the second and third floors of an existing building at 150 N. Fifth\u00a0St. for eight residential units.<\/p>\n
The applicant is also seeking a variance from the minimum habitable areas.<\/p>\n
Mooney, also the attorney for this applicant, said the relief amounts to 1% or 3 square feet less per unit than is required.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013The Reading Zoning Hearing Board voted Wednesday to approve zoning relief for the City of Reading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[53434,43514,43513,53432,53437,53435,53436,128,130,129,43515,53433,18092,53438,43512],"class_list":{"0":"post-111791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-abraham-lincoln-building","9":"tag-bethany-ayers-fisher","10":"tag-caf-waldorf","11":"tag-carport","12":"tag-happy-village-daycare-llc","13":"tag-keith-mooney","14":"tag-maria-castro-ruiz","15":"tag-reading-city","16":"tag-reading-city-headlines","17":"tag-reading-city-news","18":"tag-reading-zoning-hearing-board","19":"tag-solar-canopy","20":"tag-solar-power","21":"tag-steve-price","22":"tag-tomas-inirio"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}