Zoning Board Denies Apartment Owners' Appeal

The Hellertown Zoning Hearing Board denied at its March 21 meeting.

By a unanimous 3-0 vote (board member abstained and board member Thomas Dietrich was absent), the board agreed that the appeal should be denied because Hellertown’s zoning ordinance states that rear dwellings are prohibited in all zoning districts.

“Technically, (this apartment) is a rear dwelling,” said ZHB chairman Jeffrey Hahn. 

The board also failed to find evidence that would entitle the owners to a variance or special exception.

Paul Pierce, who says he has lived in the apartment for more than a year-and-a-half, told the board that he owns the property with Jason Chew. The apartment is on the second floor of a garage located behind a house at 96 Kiernan Avenue.

Chew lives in the house on the lot with his wife (Pierce’s sister) and Pierce’s mother, while Pierce and his girlfriend live in the apartment.

“The point of buying the property was so we could stay together,” Pierce said. 

Pierce’s attorney Stephen Shelly argued that Pierce should be allowed to live in the apartment because he owns it.

“If I go home and want to sleep in my garage, I can,” Shelly said.

In addition, Shelly introduced a copy of the deed and a real estate notice acknowledging the property consists of a lot with two addresses--one for the house and one for the apartment. 

Pierce said the real estate agent for the property presented the apartment as a loft apartment with its own street address. 

“It was presented to us as an apartment,” he said.

Board solicitor Thomas Caffrey said Chew and Pierce received “poor, inaccurate information” from the realtor, but that did not entitle them to a variance. 

Concerns about the apartment's use surfaced earlier in the year, when the was asked to provide bus transportation for a child living at 1625 Clauser Street. The district then contacted because it could not find any record of that address on file. 

Acting zoning officer and Hellertown borough manager Cathy Kichline said neither nor Northampton County had the Clauser Street address on file, and there was no record of an occupancy permit. She said a cease and desist order was given to Chew and Pierce on Feb. 12. 

Kichline also explained that the apartment does not meet other zoning and possibly safety requirements. 

“Based on the 2008 zoning amendment, the minimum square footage required for an apartment is 650 square feet,” she said. “Based on (the layout of the apartment), it is only 576 square feet.” 

As with any zoning decision, Chew and Pierce have 30 days to appeal the decision to Northampton County Court.