|
To somewhat paraphrase Led Zeppelin, a Rehoboth Beach woman has been granted a stairway… to her home.
The Rehoboth Beach Board of Adjustment unanimously granted a variance for an outside staircase at the Seafood Shack restaurant in one of the more unusual cases the board is bound to hear this year.
Pat Whittier is the owner of the property at 42 1/2 Baltimore Ave., and leases the property to Seafood Shack. Whittier lives in an apartment upstairs.
However, she said attorneys for the restaurant told her she could not use the interior staircase after business hours to get to the apartment because it would not be kosher with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.
Whittier said the restaurant doesn’t mind if she accesses her apartment after business hours if she built an outside staircase.
The building is more than 100 years old, and Whittier said she was looking for only the minimum size staircase.
“I just want to be able to access my home with exterior steps,” Whittier said.
Board member Willis Sargent made the motion to approve the variance, saying, “It seems to me this is an extraordinary hardship.”
Sargent said he sympathized with the restaurant because it could be subject to fines or worse from the liquor board, as well as issues of trusting someone in the restaurant late at night, even if the person is the landlord.
Chairman Thomas Evans said, “It is a strange situation but [speaking to Sargent] you’re right, fundamentally there is a practical difficulty.
“And that practical difficulty would only be remedied by doing a separate staircase in some location.”
Board member Clif Hilderley joked, “For a 100-year-old building, it’s causing a lot of problems.”
|
