Liliana Connelly-Ferrari claims a hardship in her application to the Historic Design Review Board for a variance from city building rules.

    The woman claims she must undergo pelvic surgery that will leave her on crutches for six months and in need of constant assistance. While a hired nurse or a family member helps her she wrote, she will need an extra bedroom.

    The board which regulates architectural styles in historic neighborhoods, is scheduled to take up Connelly-Ferrari's request at a 6 p.m. meeting today in City Hall

    Dayton Lummis who lives in a one story house across the street from Connelly-Ferrari's house between two existing two-story houses, recently filed a written objection.

    When Connelly-Ferrari built her house about a year ago, she knew very well that a second story was not permitted," Lummis wrote "Now, with her foot in the door,she seeks to manipulate the system and compromise the common good for her own purpose.'

    Lummis said he will be out of town this week, but Maureen Robins said she and her husband, Jean Bergeron, who live nearby on Allendale Street, plan to attend today's meeting.

    "We'd prefer not giving the variance, especially because her situation, as she states it, is temporary, and she'd be building a permanent structure," Robins said "Our houses are small and close together, and we've seen the effect (0f two-story structures).... It isn't so much about one individual. It's the integrity of the neighborhood."

    According to tonight's agenda, the 406-square-foot, second-story addition proposed at 317 W. Houghton St. would bring the home's height to 20 feet in an area where the maximum height for the "streetscape" is 14 feet.

    The Historic Design Review Board originally regulated only architectural style of new construction in the downtown and older residential areas, while building heights were set by zonining laws. In late 1992, however, the City Council expanded the board's purview so that it could regulate the height of buildings based on the average heights on the same street -- the streetscape.

    In a recent letter to the board, Connelly-Ferrari said her proposed second story would not "damage the character of the streetscape because there are already two houses with a second story right across the street."

    One of those houses belongs to Amelia Hollis Romere, who obtained one of the city's first hardship variances to add a second floor.

    "This is the house that I was brought home from the hospital to," Romeo said of her home at 316 W. Houghton St. "It only had one bedroom and it did present a hardship because my children couldn't come to visit me."

    Connelly-Ferrari "is just trying to do the same. What is it going to hurt?" Romero asked. "There's a lot of people in the neighborhood that say yes. There are the negative ones that are protesting, but there are more positive than negative."

    Conelli-Ferrari said Monday that her lot is too small to allow a ground-floor addition to her l,OOO-square-foot house. She said her need for another bedroom is not solely limited to the time that she will need assistance because her daughter, who lives in California, is looking to move in with her permanently.

    She said neighbors supporting her request include David Gonzales, Jeanne Martinez and Theresa Gutierrez.

    Connelly-Ferrari, a native of Italy who has lived in Santa Fe since 1970, said most of those who support her are Hispanic natives while her opposition is largely from people who have moved to Santa Fe from elsewhere.

    "It makes me feel almost like throwing in the towel and not even bother because I don't want to be put in the paper and all this," she said of the opposition. "I feel very embarrassed. ... I don't want to make a big case of it."