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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1982-05-03 �I i li I �E BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS j COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS j CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK j� MAY 3, 1982 CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I 'd like to call the hearing to order. It is a j formal public hearing of the Board of Zoning Appeals to hear ap- peals on a number of cases . First I 'd like to introduce the Board: i Donna Ward Bette Bagnardi Toni Bush William Wilcox Peggy Haine Charles Weaver, Chairman 1 Thomas D. Hoard, Building Commis- sioner & Secretary to the Boar Barbara Ruane , Recording Secretar We are listening to appeals on the Zoning Ordinance which is part i' of the City Charter of the City of Ithaca. The Board will not be jbound -�y strict rules of evidence in the conduct of the hearing j Ibut the determinations shall be founded upon sufficient legal evi- dence to sustain its decision. We request that all participants identify themselves as to name and addressand confine their dis- cussions to the pertinent facts of the case under consideration. i i, The cases will be heard in numerical order as listed and after ;j hearing all cases the Board will retire into executive session. Upon the conclusion of the executive session, the Board will re- j, convene e;; convene into public hearing and interested parties may receive i' verbal information as to the results of any decisions . For those ,i I� of you who do not wish to wait for the conclusion of the executive jsession you can hear the results by calling the Building Departmen during business hours tomorrow, We keep a tape of the entire pro ceedings as you are to be heard you must come forward so that yo 'i (i speak to the microphone which will may possibly not allow you to i ! be heard in the back of the room but will get you on tape, where Ij �Iwe need your record. So , Tom will you call the first case? ff SECRETARY HOARD: The first case Mr. Chairman is appeal number 111430 : Appeal of Janet Jonson for an area variance under j Section 30,49 and Section 30, 25 , Columns 4 , 10 , 12 and 14 , for deficiencies in off-street parking, maximum permitted lot coverage, minimum depth of j one side yard, and minimum rear yard depth, to per- mit conversion of the existing two-family dwelling at 329331 West Seneca Street to a six-apartment i ;j r I 2 - multiple dwelling. The property is located in a B- 2a (business) use district which permits the use as a six-unit multiple dwelling; however under Sec- tion 30 . 49 the appellant must obtain an area vari- ance for the listed deficiencies before a building permit can be considered for the proposed conver- sion. it MR. JONSON: Good evening. My name is Ivar Jonson and I live at ii ii 111 N. Plain Street. I brought some pictures along that I have 1; marked 1, 2 and 3, and I ' d like to send them around. When you see those pictures , take a good look at one of the pictures that I marked number 1 . If you notice the alleyway of the building next IE fito it. I bought this property above approximately seven years ago and that' s the way it was built - it ' s nothing that we - but if you would look at the picture - the building is a beautiful look- ing building the building must be 70 - 80 years old and and it' s i a gorgeous looking building and the problem that we have - it is I 5 ,810 square feet of building space in the building. We have two I, apartments in there. The heating bills for January alone for I January on one side was $400, 00 a month and the rent we got in was $310, 00 , There is no way that we can hang onto the building - we .i 11 have to either increase the apartments in them to six u:',Iits or I don' t know what to do , I have talked to several realtors in the neighborhood and asked for parking and they told me yes, just buy one of these houses and all you've got to do is tear it down . Well if that is the solution for all r here is a beautiful looking building and if we added more space would be like 200' or 300 ' awa l I' from a parking place, If that' s the solution to all the buildings is to tear down buildings to get parking place because we got to have to live within the rules of 180 square foot space for each laving unit you are going to see that what is going to happen in Ithaca is that you are going to have four houses and then a parkin IIlot and four houses and you are going to start tearing down the li houses for parking places, With the building like this , if I tear the building down I don' t have to pay taxes pay $1800 a year tax on the building if T tear the building down to make parking '1 lots out of it I don't have to worryabout heating ating bills I don' t have to worry about any of that stuff. So economically it makes ii ii if ;I I I - 3 - i; more sense to tear the building down but there again, the building I I!� is , like I said, it' s - you don 't find a building like that and to I me to remodel would make it efficient , so people can afford to live I in it. When there is 3,000 square foot on one side and heating it bills are between 400 and 450 a month for one side, it doesn' t i 11 work. The building needs a lot of work - that' s about all I 've 11 I got to say unless you have some questions. !f MS. BAGNARDI : These six apartments will they be basement, first ,I i; I floor and second floor? i MR. JONSON: They will be first floor, second floor and third floor. MS. BAGNARDT : Is the attic presently being used for living space? ii MR. JONSON: Right now we use first and second floor but the build- i� I+ ing is not insulated so all the heat has just disappeared and like I I said, the building does need a lot of work. But I ' d also like j to point out that this building is located in a very high traffic 1 area it' s on Seneca Street there is a lot of traffic and that p. building does stick out on the corner, it is a good looking build- ing. There is no question about it and if you look again on pic- ture number 1 , the building on the right hand side was built , I i it apparently seven years ago the person who built the building was De Furman he must have came here and got permission - there is no from the red brick building to the next building is thirty feet - so there is no way I could sell that building to a two I I family home because there is no garden, there is nothing, in the back there is no lawn around it ,, so apparently at one time that i� was permitted because he must have come here to get a variance to build and this is what you've got. Now times have changed in- terest rates have risen to 200 , heating bills are going out of i� sight now we 've got another problem and so what has happened in � the seven t , to eight years - I think I don' t have to tell you, you �I already know. i MS. HAINE: You mentioned public parking? ,I MR. JONSON: Well there is a public parking place between 200 and i '1 300 feet from my building and that is over by the Goodyear Build i ing on State Street next to the Fire Department. l I - �, 4 I CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Mr. Jonson do you have any - you are asking for conversion to six apartments, do you have any kind of figures to indicate the cost? You are saying it is difficult to operate it Inas is . . . Is therenecessarily a need for six apartments? li I MR. JONSON: Okay to remodel the building the way it is , is going I' to cost between 40 and 45 , 000. to remodel it for two units, the way it is . The numbers doesn't work out, no way. You are going i to lose $15 ,000 a year by renting it out for $300 . a month for ftwo units . If you increase it to six units it is going to cost yo Ilbetween 60 - 65 ,000 to do a good job and then the numbers will work out. But what I am saying is this, I will do a good job . I won' t i - I will leave the outside identical the way it is and not touch anything of the building on the outside, I will only remodel on the inside and leave the architecture the way it was. it !j MS . WARD: Mr. Jonson, your electric and gas if $400. 00 in January. What is it for a year? MR. JONSON: Well I tell you what they were in - the three worst months. In January it was $399. 86 plus 7 . 56 tax - that is on one side. In February it was $212. 48 and in March is was $205 . 32. Now you can double that because there is two sides to the building. MS. WARD: Wand what is it in the summer? i" MR. JONSON: The summer months? I could imagine about $100. 00. I� The taxes on the building right now is $1 ,800, 00 a year. MS. BUSH: Are these six two-bedroom units? One bedroom units? MR. JONSON: They would probably be two bedrooms like one bed- rooms - one bedroom or two bedrooms . Like i said, I didn! t come I didn't make any plans because I came here- then again it is very expensive to draw plans and hire an architect. The architect j fee for - to remodel this building to get it all up - is going t be like $4 , 000. r will work with the Building Department with plans and everything after I get some kind of insurance that it is going to be worthwhile to do it and everything will be done under the New York. State building code with the staircases and whatever it takes to do it. And it will be done like I said the brick�I , �c on the outside and everything will be cleaned up so it will look like �1I4 I I lit was done because I feel the building should be restored. MS. BAGNARDI : How many people currently are renting there on each side? i 1MR. JONSON: Right now on one side we have an old couple and the is lother side we 've got three students . i I� SMS. WARD: And both sides pay equal rent? MR. JONSON: Yes. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Are there any other questions from the Board? Thank you. Is there anyone that wishes to speak in favor of this appeal? Please come forward. MR. CLYMER: My name is Bob Clymer, I presently reside at 329 W Seneca Street which is one of the houses in dispute. I didn' t plan to speak this evening but I thought I should make clear a few points which I think Mr. Jonson may have left ambiguous. We pay about $380. 00 a month $379. 50 on our side, I am not sure what the I i other side pays and that does not include the cost of utilities . We pay for our own heat and electricity and I 'm not sure how hot the Brinkerhoff' s , which is the older couple in 331, keep their home, we keep ours around 60 most of the time and we had the house , insulated with plastic and we put a damper in the fireplace and our gas bills which is the way the house is heated - not electric, for January do not exceed $15G. 00 and it went down steadily since then and I 'm not sure if that ' s even relevant because we , as renters , pay for that -- the Jonson' s don' t pay for that on our side and I 'm not sure what they do on the other side. Any questions? CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor of this. appeal? Is their anyone who wishes to speak against this appeal? We' ll call the next case. �j li i I !I - 6 - I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1 CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK MAY 3 1982 EXECUTIVE SESSION II IIAPPEAL NO. 1430: i' IIThe Board considered the appeal of Janet Jonson for an area vari- ance to permit conversion of the existing two-family dwelling at 1329.-331 West Seneca Street to a six-apartment multiple dwelling. The decision of the Board was as follows : i+ ' MS. BUSH: I move that the Board deny the area variance re- quested in appeal number 1430. MS. WARD: I second the motion. VOTE: 6 Yes; 0 No Denied FINDINGS OF FACT: X11) There is not sufficient off-street parking adjacent to the i I building and the appellant has not indicated that parking would l be provided within the area indicated by Section 30. 37 of the i i Ordinance. 2) Increasing the number of dwelling units from 2 to 6 would seriously increase the density on a lot in which the percentage Iof lot coverage is already substantially exceeded. I� I, i I i �I i ii f� I� ii i� BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS I CITY COURT CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK May 3 , 1982 j i TABLE OF CONTENTS I APPEAL NO. 1430 Janet Jonson 1 329-331 W. Seneca Street APPEAL NO. 1430 Executive Session 6 APPEAL NO. 1431 SGF Pizza, Inc. 7 374 Elmira Road APPEAL NO. 5--1-81 SGF Pizza, Inc. 7 374 Elmira Road APPEAL NO. 1431 Executive Session 9 I APPEAL NO. 5-,1-81 Executive Session 9 � APPEAL NO. 1432 William Tucker 10 307 South Plain Street APPEAL NO. 1432 Executive Session 11 APPEAL NO, 1433 Timothy Maguire 12 601-19 West Clinton Street I APPEAL NO. 1433 Executive Session 46 APPEAL NO. 1434 TC Bd of Representatives 47 120-128 East Buffalo St (Boardman) APPEAL NO. 1434 Executive Session 49 APPEAL NO. 1435 Andrew H. McPherson 50 f 116 W. Seneca Street i APPEAL NO. 1435 Executive Session 50 APPEAL NO. 1436 Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce 51 122 West Court Street ! i ! APPEAL NO. 1436 Executive Session 51 i CERTIFICATION OF RECORDING SECRETARY 52 I I I I i s i ii li - 7 - i' i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS I COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK MAY 3 , 1982 it jSECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1431 : �i j Appeal of SGF Pizza, Inc. , d/=b/a Godfather' !i Pizza, for an area variance under Sections 30. 49 and 30 . 25 , Column 11 , for a deficient E front yard setback, to permit the construc- tion of an addition to the rear of the res- taurant building at 374 Elmira Road (formerly li Lum' s) . The property is located in a B-5 (business) use district where the use as a restaurant is permitted; however under Sec- tion 30. 49 the appellant must obtain an i area variance for the listed deficiencies before a building permit can be issued for the proposed addition. i MR. LEAMING: My name is Larry Leaming, I 'm the Director of Opera- ( tions for SGF Pizza, franchisee of Godfather 's Pizza. The intent i i1of the appeal is for the addition of a 8 x 32 ' addition to the rea of the building primarily for dry storage and a walk-in cooler. i The reason that the appeal has to be made is because of the front yard variance. The building sits twelve feet from the right-of- i 'way which makes the building in non-conformance . The addition to the building and I can show you a survey of the lot and a set of 1 �building plans - is only extends eight feet beyond the rear of the building and in fact is not even visible from the roadway as 'ilit sits. This will give you a better idea (Mr. Leaming took the �I 1Iplans around to the Board members to better show them what he plan to do. This discussion was not picked up by the tape recorder) . CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Are there any Questions from the Board? Now do I�you want to continue with your sign appeal? j� I' SECRETARY' HOARD: The next appeal is appeal number 5-1-82 : Appeal of SGF Pizza, Inc. , d/b/a Godfather ' Pizza, for a sign variance under Section 34 . 8B (setback requirements for free-stand- ing signs) of the Sign Ordinance to permit retention of the existing non-conforming j sign at 374 Elmira Road (formerly Lum' s) . j The sign is now on City property; a ten foo set back is required for free-standing sign in the B-5 (business) zone in which the property is located. ,JMR. LEAMING; The second appeal is for the use of an existing I� g pole Ilsign that is in front of the former Lum's Restaurant, The pole �I i' !I i 8 - I ii sign as you can see by the site survey, places it within violation ljas far as front yard setback. The reason we are making the appeal its primarily threefold. One , that the sign is existing and has ,, been for a number of years, we' d like to just utilize the sign pol das it sits without impacting the neighborhood in any - differently 1 ; than it is already. Secondly is that the setback which is 10 feet I, �ifrom the right-of-way would cause an unusual expanse as far as our concern in having to relocate the sign and thirdly the position of ( the building as it sits now which is actually 12 ' from the right- of-way in placing that pole sign back ten feet - places the pole i 1two feet in front of the existing building which inhibits the visi- bility of the use of the sign primarily because of the existing building and we 'd like to maintain the -- as good a visibility as our competitors in the market. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Any questions from the Board? Thank you. Is there anyone that wishes to speak in favor of these two appeals? � (no one) Is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition to these two appeals? (no one) We ' ll call the next case. J i i I I .j I i I it I� li �I Il { - 9 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS �i COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK i! MAY 3, 1982 %i EXECUTIVE SESSION i+APPEAL NO: 1431 : I, 'The Board considered the appeal of SGF Pizza Inc . , for an area variance to permit the construction of an addition to the rear of i ' the restaurant building at 374 Elmira Road (formerly Lum' s) . The decision of the Board was as follows MR. WILCOX: I move that the Board approve the area variance j requested in appeal number 1431 . I�MS. BAGNARDI: I second the motion. VOTE: 6 Yes ; 0 No Granted. jFI'ND1NGS OF FACT: i1) The addition does not appreciably alter the characteristics of the building. i � 2) Does not unfavorably affect traffic in the area or other it activity in the area. 3) Does not increase the area deficiency of the front yard. ! APPEAL NO. 5-1-82: ( The Board considered the appeal of SGF Pizza , Inc, , for a sign variance to permit retention of the existing non-conforming sign a 374 Elmira Road, The sign is presently on city property; a ten foot set back i,s required for free-standing signs in the B-5 zone. I MS. HAINE; I move that the Board deny the sign variance re- quested in appeal number 5-1,82 , MR. WILCOX; I second the motion. VOTE; 6 Yes ; 0 No Denied �1FINDINGS OF FACT: I1� 1) There was no showing of hardship, i 2) The existing signage regulations would require the relocation of the sign ten feet -back. I I i. i'� I it !I 10 - i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS j COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK MAY 3 , 1982 j SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1432 : Ii Appeal of William Tucker for a special per- mit under Section 30. 26 , and area variance i under Section 30. 25 , Columns 11 and 13 , for existing deficiencies in front yard setback and one side yard depth, and Section 30. 42-( , for setback requirements for an accessory Ij structure, to permit the use of the garage !� at 307 South Plain Street for the home occu- pation of catering service. The property i I located in an R-2b (residential one and two family) use district in which a home oc- cupation is permitted, but only if the Boa d of Zoning Appeals finds that the proposed u e meets the requirements of Section 30 . 26 for a Special Permit and the definition of a ihome occupation. The appellant must also obtain an area variance for the listed area deficiencies . IMR. TUCKER: Good evening, my name is William Tucker , I live at 1307 S. Plain Street. My purpose here tonight is to apply for a special permit to turn my garage into a kitchen for a catering purpose . CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Will there be any alterations to the garage other than internal? MR. TUCKER: No, no more than just internal . CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Are there any questions from the Board? SMS. BUSH. Will you be hiring anyone in your business? jMR. TUCKER: No, the business is awful small and me and my wife ca I handle it so there won't be no hiring for awhile anyway. I CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Any other questions? Thank you Mr. Tucker. Is ( there anyone that wishes to speak in favor of this appeal? (no a ` one) Is there anyone that wishes to speak against this appeal? i !I (no one) We' ll have the next case. t i c i1 I 1 i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK MAY 3 , 1982 EXECUTIVE SESSION I I jAPPEAL NO. 1432 : ,d The Board considered the appeal of William Tucker for a special 1 ;; permit for existing deficiencies in front yard setback and one side i , yard depth, and setback requirements for an accessory sturcture, 'I to permit the use of the garage at 307 South Plain Street for the home occupation of a catering service. The decision of the Board If was as follows : SMR. WILCOX: I move that the Board grant the request for a i t Special Permit in appeal number 1432 . �, MS . HAINE: I second the motion. VOTE: 6 Yes ; 0 No Granted, FINDINGS OF FACT; I I jl) There w%11 be only two employees . � 2) Meets the qualification of a home occupation. 'i3) Does not increase traffic in the area. I' 4) Would not adversely affect the character of the neighborhood. l+ I Ij I I i i i it i r s Ii I� II I� ISI i ii l i'. ii ii 12 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS j CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK 1 MAY 3 , 1982 ii SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1433: 1 Appeal of Timothy Maguire for a use variance under Section 30. 25, Column 2 , to permit the use of the property at 601-19 West Clinton Street (former Co-op Store) for an automobile dealership. The property is located in a B-2a (business) use dis- trict where automobile sales and service is not a permitted use. SMR. MAGUIRE: Thank you. My name is Tim Maguire and I 'm the owner : of Maguire Ford. I� I 'd like to take the opportunity to show some sketches , if I can, s; to the Board. Please bear with me. First one is an aerial photo- ;, graph of our facility at Trumansburg, New York. It shows part of 1,11the abai.lable three and one-half acres that we have there for stor age and sales and service , including a body shop in the back of IiMaguire Ford. The second is an artist' s rendering - I have one lismall one which I could show and I have one larger on of what we i� (, anticipate the existing Co-op grocery store would look like as a �IFord Lincoln- Mercury dealership. I have some photographs of the I! ;; existing facility that show what the complex looks like or did thi i, I� spring with a little snow on the ground, The location of the sign .i I1which is approximately 100' from route 13 , of the existing merchants 1 I ;building out front and if ypu flip that over it is on the back sid i (;also of the proximity to route 13 and the interesection of route 113 and 96b. The adjacent property directly adjacent to the Co-op, I I! there is a , some frontal pictures of the Co-op as it exists - of the street, of the Tommy Oil Gas Station across the street , of the ; lot behind the Co-op that is unattended and overgrown with brush 'sand debris , of the back of the Co-op as it looked and currently ;' looks as a vacant building and as it looked as the back of a groce y i ; store and again the present. I also have a small layout of the fa is 11cili,ty a plot plan and in this plot plan it shows some trees and i� 11shrubs and benches that are in the front of the existing Co-op stole I I ;and I 'd like to make it clear that we would not take away from that fiat all except for the placement we would have to remove and place ;someplace else , one tree, and the artist' s rendering shows the i i - 13 - i; service department exit there and the curvature of the exit would allow the placement of retaining all of the trees and benches in ! that area. I think this gives some - you can see by looking at ;! some of the pictures the nature of the building, the complex, and the neighborhood. (Mr. Maguire passed out pictures and discussion i twok place which wasn' t picked up by the tape recorder) You can see lithe back of it - what it looks like and what I hope to show you. i' The service department entrance would be about in this area here 11 !land it would go through and come out on the other side. The ser- ! vice exit would be right here - it would come out here with the ,; curb . Again, all the benches and what have you would be retained. The proximity to route 13 would be approximately, I'm going to say - 350 to 400 feet from this building to route 13. The Co-op sign ;his where we would expect - within any Sign Ordinances - to put up :1a Ford, Lincoln-Mercury franchise sign not in the neighborhood 'i where it would be lit up all night or anything like that. (Unin !i ' telligible) The ones that are remaining, yes , it has , I under-- stand on this end the Coles Pharmacy has gone out , there is an army and navy recruiter in there. I think Boltons Donut I heard I some question about their staying in the complex. And this sign i i ,! where we would hope to have our sign rather than, as I say in the ' residential area. And you can see the proximity of the whole par - ding lot relative to route 13. What we would hope to do there is I 128 , 000 square feet in this building and that's probably one of the largest buildings in the area for rental and the automobile dealer iship is one of the few buildings that would utilize that kind of 'i space, We would put an indoor used car show room in this area I !: which i.s the glass front of the shopping - grocery store - this was „ the original so used cars will be inside, not `outside for display. ' New cars would be in this area and we would probably have a row of �1 iInew, cars along (unintell) . In the artist' s rendering we show thr e I 11cars in the display area.. i. I! MS. BAGNARDI : Where will your sign be? I1MR. MAGUIRE: .Well , this is where the Co-,op sign is now. And we i Hwould hope to put a grand sign up there and whatever was within ii 1; 14 i �' sign limitations on the building itself. Nothing ornate , just to identify (unintelligible) . This would be an indoor used car show room - up here would be the office area and the service department ' would be through here - and the driveway . . (unintelligible) i� I also would like to show the Board, if I can, this is a Department !1of Transportation count of traffic and it shows traffic in front o j I have marked a couple things on here - one is the intersection of ' route 13 and 96b of which they show 16,800 cars a day, going ii jthrough and that year count was in 1980. In front of Zikakis Chev Irolet which is route 13a to the Ithaca City limits , they show 1; 13 ,000 cars and that' s also in 1980. That' s traffic by the store ;1 lin one day - an average day. The other one shows routes 13 , 34, is 196 , 96b which was taken in 1977 and that basically is in front of the Co-op. And that shows 9,950 cars a day. The Department of ii ( Transportation informs us that you could conservatively estimate ;tan increase of 10% a year so if I was to say that that was approx- imately 10,000 cars a day go up and down Clinton Street in 1977 , iif I took 78, 79 and 80 1 would say that would be in the range of i; 1113, 000 cars a day, according to their statistics and their infor- ' mation that they gave us and I have if anybody cares to look at !! those, I think what we are saying is that Clinton Street is a main thoroughfare in town, with that kind of traffic. A few facts !, and opinions and I realize that before this meeting is over with i' that th.ere probably will be a great deal of emotion by residents i ! who feel that they don't want to have a Ford, Lincoln-Mercury iI' dealership in thier neighborhood, And, with all due respect to , them I feel that we would not be a detriment to the community or to the neighborhood, I feel - we feel that a variance is necessarir i for the reasonable use of the existing Co-op building, Granting of the variance would be in harmony with the property and the neighborhood which you have pictures and a description of what we i ! plan to do. Our presence would not be a detriment or injurous to the neighboring property owners . The resale of the property would i i; not be hurt by our being in the old Co-op building. The building �i his zoned commercial and its a 28 , 000 square foot building that som - , body is going to have to do something with. And I am confident that ii �1 fj � - 15 - i an automobile dealership can be an asset to the community. With it of the available retail space available in downtown Ithaca and II am thinking of Rothschilds that just went out or the Ithaca ` Center or other retail areas - a Ford dealership is reasonable for i ; this 28 , 000 square footage building. As I 've indicated in some of i. !(the pictures , the sign is to be approximate 100 feet from route 13 I� !near the existing Co--op. sign and within all sign requirements. I have clarified with you through 1980 data that would show traffic in front of the place in line about 13, 000. If I said that that' s I! inaccurate for today and I projected two more years , you are talking ;anywhere from 14 to 15 ,000 cars a day on average down Clinton Street I` (;regardless of who is in the Co-op. With renovation and decor of lithe interior which we expect to do with it , we would not and could i ,!not put any loud posters or penants or material that would in any !!way take away from the image of a Ford or Lincoln Mercury dealer- ship and I have someone to discuss some of the requirements of a Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealership relative to the community, her 11 !! tonight. If we felt that transports delivering vehicles occasion- , ally would be a problem, I would have all deliveries made in Tru I mansburg, New York. If a transport coming in on average of let ' s say one a week is more of a deterent or more of a problem to the i1neighborhood than meat trucks, grocery trucks coming in all day an fall night in grocery stores , as I say, I could have the transports ,Igo someplace else so there would be no truck traffic in there . Al used cars, of which maybe dealerships in the picture of our dealer jlship showed used cars out front - used cars would be on display �jinside the facility - they would not be out on the street in the ( neighborhood and they would not , again, be a deterent to anyone ' s I !property value. We would retain all the trees and benches except lone tree which we would relocate in front of the Co-op store be- �icause aesthetically we believe it is a benefit not only to the jidealership but of course to the neighborhood. All OSHA occupational !',safety health regulations would be observed and that means oil or !;cleaning fluids if there was any reservations about that all fire jcodes would be observed. The building is fully sprinklerized and 1; k� i �i l I 16 - I f we would adequately provide other protective devices necessary to ' make sure there was no fear of a fire or explosion or something of i (that nature. There would be no gasoline stored on the premises. !No bulk gasoline storage. Shrubbery would screen the back of the Co-op and we would neaten up that area in the back which currently i; ;;there are pictures there that show it to be in I don't know, a ;vacant lot that is trees and debris and garbage in it. With us we !,would have a service department entrance in that rear and we would i +have to and would certainly not only tidy that area up, improve it Wand renovate it, so that it would look more like the front of the !building than the back of the building. We would not use any street ii parking for customers, etc. As I look through some of the notes o 11the Planning one of the predominant things that some of the residents 4rought up was the traffic. If I go through the rationale with you (land I ' ll try not to take long at it, appreciate the time to be up !here we anticipate selling 500 cars a year, on average, in order i Ito sell two cars you have to talk to ten people . If I was to take i !that 500 expected car sales and break that up to how many people �i ;have to come in, that' s 2500 people a year have to come in the dea- lership. That averages out to ten people a day to buy a car to i sell two a day. I anticipate that we would write thirty repair orders a day in the service department . And I would anticipate Hthat we would write and sell approximately twenty-five - what we !call parts counter tickets. That means sales of parts to people i ! who come In either wholesale or retail, If you add up the ten i 'people coming in a day to buy a car, the thirty people comin in a day for service and the twenty-five people a day coming in for parts , that' s sixty-five cars or potential people a day. If T was Ithat ' s on average and if I was to say a bad day, I think you'd be (talking seventy-five people. I can't imagine any grocery store of Zany size whatsoever coming anywhere near that. It has to be i !hundreds and hundreds a day going to any busy grocery store, espe- !11cially any store with. 28 , 000 square feet in it, to support it . May- !i 11be that ' s one of the reasons the Co-op didn't make it because it (, did not have the available parking and the appeal, with all the C i' 17 - I competition in the area. In Trumansburg we employ twenty-one em- I ployees . Last year we paid $272 , 000. in salaries in Trumansburg. If money from an employer turns over seven times - if I look at , that with - in turns it goes to the grocery store , to his employees , I Iletc. that' s $1 ,900, 000. turned over. I 'm expecting very moderately i Ito double our number of employees and I 'm talking in the range !I probably minimum - some of the people would be displaced in Truman isburg and come to Ithaca and we are talking a minimum of twenty-five jpeople. We expect to do $6,000,000. in gross sales in our first year. If you take 70 of that as sales tax you are talking $420,00 . iRothschilds , which is a terrible loss to the community and a terrible i ' loss to the downtown area, averaged $3,000,000. last year, in sale! . I, hWe are talking doubling the Rothschilds volume and this is not dis- placing one business in Ithaca to another location - this is bring- ing in a new business that isn' t here and employing a minimum of twenty-five people that aren't here. Much of the Ford business currently is going elsewhere , it' s not going to Tompkins County, it' s not going to the City of Ithaca and I feel that this would be Ian advantage for the City of Ithaca. I believe that with the num 'fber of people employed, the number of dollars in sales and sales , tax generated that this is a viable business in the area. We are recycling an old building and providing new business to Ithaca, I , feel that our business wi11 help other businesses in the area and lli_f there is a concern by the residents that we will not be an asset Ii Ito them because they want to buy donuts or they want to buy groceries , ,well we hopefully can be asset to the - those businesses in the (mall - in the existing co-op mall . As I said earlier an automobil agency .s one of the few businesses that can support a 28 ,000 I square foot building. There is a great deal of retail space avail- able in downtown Ithaca at the present time. The location of the I� !Co-op is not the most desirous for many potential businesses, An lauto dealer a brand name, I 'm talking any of major manufacturer , can draw people to a location that may not be the best because 11they will come for the product or if you have a reputation for ser 1';vice they' ll come for the service and I believe we have a good 1� ii 18 - ; service and I think that our history and our success in Trumansbur substantiates that . The history of the Co-op makes it difficult to ent. Many grocery stores in the area, I think eliminate any j possibility of the Co-op being a grocery store again. They've ';' grown and grown and unfortunately did away with their parking in ', front. There is some question as to what is available to come into it ,; the Co-op. At the Planning meeting there were suggestions of 'j 1Ileather shops, YMCA, which was ruled out, and other businesses ! that would help the neighborhood. And I 'm all in favor of helping i. any neighborhood but I think it is unrealistic to think that many j of those businesses could or would come to that area because of the l physical layout of the building . The Chairman of the Tompkins Ii i County Board of Reps indicated to me today that he did not expect ij to even consider the Coop as a site for County offices because there was some question about that the viability of that for Il Social Services, etc. And his indication was that they were going Ito try to utilize the Biggs Building hospital which is off the t ` County tax roll and possibly utilize that. And that 's already owned by the County. I had the opportunity Sunday to stop down I talked with Mr, Hughes, who I respect and appreciate him being !! here here and pointing out his concerns. I asked Mr. Hughes , respect- Ifully, and correct me if I am wrong Mr. Hughes, I said I am here to try, to find out what your reservations are about us being down ; there and I said, is it traffic? And you said, no I never com- I 1plained about the traffic, I don' t think the traffic would be a problem. I asked what else? He said well I don't want some hotro i �� - he didn' t say hotrod, some young fellow trying out a car and jsqueeling tires on mr street or in the neighborhood, And I said I that won't happen if there is a salesman wi.th. the car, And I said ,s it the renovation or the presentation of what the building look like and 1 presented him with a picture of th-e prospective building ! and no, that' s not it and we talked for maybe rive or ten minutes more and what 1 got out of that was the fact that we were going ;; from a B-2a to a B-4 and that he felt that that was a lowering of the standards of commercial standards and that would be a deterrent I i� ii - 19 - I� to the neighborhood and I appeal to him and the other residents that I 'm an honest business man, that I don' t misrepresent my l'product or myself and I don' t misrepresent myself tonight to you. 11I would do everything in my power to make it an asset to the com- i Imunity - an asset to the neighborhood and to live in harmony with ii everyone there and I'm certainly concerned with all of your concerns (land respective of them. And if I 've said something wrong Mr. HughEs ii ;!please correct me. IMR. HUGHES: You did fine. MR. MAGUTRE: Okay, thank you. And I guess the reason for this variance - we feel there is a need for a Ford, Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Ithaca, we would not have any large trucks here, we 1Aoul not have any body shop repairs here, or unsightly wrecks sitting ; out back or unsightly large trucks taking up space or causing prob- lems and we want to be a part of the community. I do have a repre Iisentative from Ford Motor Company, Mr. Art Mullen, with your permi - Ision, that would like to address what Ford Motor Company requireme is are for a facility and what impact dealerships have had on communi- ties such as Ithaca where the dealership is located downtown. May I, I ask Mr. Mullen to speak? CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Before you do, we have outlines of the building hand pictures but I 'm not sure that we have a site plan that indi- cates what outdoor space will be a part of your lease so we don' t know SMR. MAGUI'RE; There will be adequate parking you are talking along the back of the building? CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well do you propose to use any space in front of the building? Or does your lease anticipate that being the wester - most boundary? � MR. MAGUIRE; Okay, That' s a common area to the front of the build �ling for the merchants, We would put along the back of the buildin I - I don' t know if you have a schematic Mr. Knowlton do you have that with you? Maybe we can show you, If you look at it �- there is (parking also, and it doesn 't show here but there is parking along H th.e curb in here and along the front of the building is 128 foot it i - 20 - I, ( long and there is parking along there for customers - for the show froom up front. Do you see where I 'm pointing? ((( CHAIRMAN WEAVER: West Clinton Street side? �MR. MAGUIRE: Yes, the West Clinton Street side - off the street - 1 ;but on the property of the Co-op and that goes with that. And the i :all along the east side of the property is what we are talking i! about here. (IMS. BAGNARDI : You have some numbers here - nineteen in one area? �i i!MR. MAGUIRE: Well there is approximately forty spaces along that ;outside edge. We are talking of utilizing that area for new car storage along there , okay? We have in Trumansburg, three and 0 one- ;:half acres of storage also. You have - I may get this wrong - 8,4 i) q �Isquare feet in the main grocery part, where the circular glass is linside the building that will be utilized for used car storage - fthere will be no used cars stored outside at all for display pur- poses. So the only display you will be talking about will be ap- 1proximately forty vehicles along the back of new vehicles and you might not even have forty there. Okay? And you would have display ;hof new vehicles inside the building for storage also and I say tha ,would be a max along the back. Again, this is zoned commercial an I - maybe I shouldn' t say this because I 'll get my emotion involve lin it I probably shouldn',t, When I went in front of the Plannin i ('Board I heard some comments from a Board member who I respect, and i I don' t want to make it sound that I don' t, and I aksed her a ques ii tion, I said is a car dealership a dirty word? You know, maybe the reputation over the years of a used car salesman or something i jithat doesn' t go today, not in any brand name product that is a dreputable product and is a reputable business in the community. I I1stand on my record as a dealer and I stand on i guess , the integrity ilof my dealership and my operation, as I think we do with any brand i i jIdealershi.p in the City of Ithaca and the integrity is there and if ,you are going to be here for the long range you've got to do thing_ Bright and a commitment like this, while this may be one appeal that lyou look. at , this is a lifetime commitment to me and I want to do it 1 (right. I's there anything else Mr. Chairman? I I j, 1 21 - CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Merely clarification. There are a number of par - ing spaces that are oriented toward Center Street - one the contin- uation of the space on the eastern edge of the property and anothe '! aligned with the front edge of the . . . jMR. MAGUIRE: Where your pen is now sir? I CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes . Is that land also involved in the lease? MR. MAGUIRE: The Co-op owns that property and at this point it is ; Okay? A lot depends upon the actual setting up - we have now worked , out all the details and I won't try to make things up for you - a �Ilot of it is in the planning stage yet. We would not put any on- !! street parking, we would not put cars on the street that were re- 'I'paired or customers waiting. It would all be off-street parking. I don' t know if I answered your question or not. Currently it would 11be part of the lease. I would expect, at this point, as I say, !I ! there is some things that haven't been worked out yet. ' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: But you in your proposal to us tonight , you in- 1clude the parking spaces that I am covering with my hand? MR. MAGUIRE: It includes behind the building and that space where 'your hand is probably would be employee parking or something of i;! that nature, it would not be in and out parking. '! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: But it would be in your lease? �IMR. MAGUIRE, I would expect it would. But not as a traffic whe e f !' i.t would come in and out all the time. I clarify that to the best hof my ability, Are there any questions from some of the Board !members? MS, WARD: What are You planning on your store hours being? !MR. MAGUIRE; Okay, they would be the same store hours that we have ;'now and that basically is 8 : 30 5 : 00 for the Service Department �iexcept WEdnesday, which. is 8 : 00 at night, The Sales Department is l '!Monday through Thursday until 8 : 00 o' clock at night and Friday and 'Saturday until 5 ; 00 and no Sunday operation. MS. WARD: And the transports you were saying arrive once a week? iMR. MAGUIRE On average. I was trying to have a correlation with ' the grocery store. You have daily breads , you have meats , you have �itractor trailers that unload groceries , I don' t know how often - ii 22 - ; compared to a transport that may be once a week or twice a week. I I Now bear in mind we have two facilities and if necessary - if it was iia prerequisite or if it - if you found it to be to the neighbors II would have all deliveries made to Trumansburg . 'i SIMS. BAGNARDI : How long has your business been in operation in Trumansbuxg? ' MR. MAGUIRE: We have been in Trumansburg for five years . And las J k1year we sold 372 vehicles. i! MS . BAGNARDI: And the closest Ford dealership is Cortland? 1MR. MAGUIRE: Cortland or Spencer. There is one small dealership Jin Groton but it very very small , and is not . . . l sjMS. BAGNARDI: On the sign would your representative from Ford dis ;; cuss the sign? Often times there is the criteria that businesses ; use , like Ford, what size dimension sign do they use? i 1MR. MAGUIRE: They will go with whatever the Zoning Ordinances are I'lli in the particular community, they have to. They usually have a i ; free-standing sign that is on a pole as - somewhere there is a I I ;' picture of my dealership - may I just have this one? You may see ,, one free-standing sign right there, if you can see that - and it i 11an identification brand sign. They like to have it and I think it (' identifies the dealership throughout the nation. It' s not etched i in stone and I think Mr. Mullen will say that - we have to go with , whatever the Zoning Ordinances are Sign Ordinances . Would it be alright to have Mr. Mullen say just a few words? ! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Please do. i SMR. MULLEN; Good evening members of the Board. My name is Arthur { ' E. Mullen, I'm the Market Representation Manager for Ford Motor Com- pany and our area encompasses the majority of New York State and part of northern Pennsylvania, It is my pleasure this evening to ; speak on behalf of Tim Maguire and just give you a brief overview it of some of the criteria which the Ford Motor Company looks at when i we look at a project of this nature. Number 1 , Tim submitted his (' request to us about six months ago. It went through a rather exten- sive xte -sive review and we accepted his project and also the expense that !; he was going to go to. Some of the items that we look at very 6i I, i ii �I i� I - 23 - ! Iclosely are the size of the facility and whether it can meet the demands and requirements of our customers. He has fulfilled all o ! these needs . In addition to that we look for the proper size and location - he has fulfilled that need. He has shown you a mark up ! of the way he is going to renovate this particular facility that has Timet the criteria for which we always look. He has also anticipate ; some of the problems that would arise in going into a rather resi- I ;idential area and that being that he has , and we have authorized hill i to have , an off-site location for his body shop in Trumansburg, New York. I might add that the compatibility of this dealership i Ila residential area of this nature is an accepted format in several ! areas of New York State . By the way, I have thirty years of cre- 'ldentials with Ford Motor Company and I am also responsible for about 11175 franchises within our Ford division. I ' d like to just cite an (, example for you several examples of areas where a dealership is located in a residential type community as we are looking at right llnow. Pittsford, New York, Penfield, New York, and Webster, New i ,� Y'ork. Not only is the dealerships that are located there compatible of with the area but they, very frankly, are compatible with the type ;hof individuals that live in that area. By that I mean they are I. j clean, bright, well built facilities. We believe that the building Ij that is now unoccupied can be an asset to this particular community. I ! Tim Maguire, very frankly, I'm sure that most of you have in the 1course of events, let' s say, driven by his dealership in Trumans- burg, New- York. I think that the condition and the way he keeps the �i 11dealership in Trumansburg speaks well for Tim Maguire and the way '! he will sustain that type of operation in Ithaca, New York. We , �i ,! very frankly, support Tim Maguire and would, very frankly, like to ! ! see him in your town. We would like to bring representation of th ,! Ford Division of Ford Motor Company to Ithaca, New York. We unfor n ' tunately have not had that representation for the last few years - � Qr at least year. If there are any questions that the Board would ( like to ask me, I' d be glad to answer them. I heard a question !i - rai,sed earlier about our identification program. The Ford Divisio i of Ford Motor Company has and has been voted by many of the adver- tising agencies in the United States one of the finest advertising ii !i l - 24 - i; I I programs in our sign program which can easily be identified. It i maintained by the Ford Division of Ford Motor Company. It is not i Isign that the dealer purchases - we grant him the privilege of having flour sign and it is our sign forever. We maintain the sign on a is 1strict maintenance schedule . We also are very strict when it come lto other related signs within the Ford Division of Form Motor Com- i! Ipany franchise. For example , if he has a used car sign, he is ob- I ligated by terms of an agreement with the Ford Division of the For i. LMotor Company to maintain that sign to our specifications . If he does not , of course , it could be a violation of his sales agreement . ; And by the way, all dealers work under a sales agreement with the ' Ford Division of the Ford Motor Company. They must maintain the ; standards - high standards - which we believe our dealer body in t1le !! U. S. carries. If there - I think there was one other item that Ti I ' wanted me to discuss with. you. We have, on the average, a field representative in this location, twice a month. Tim Maguire is visited by a representative of the Ford Division of Ford Motor Com ii jlpany at least twice a month. We hope that that would ensure the I' I' high standards that we would like to see all of our dealers main- ? ltain. Mr. Chairman? Any questions? ! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Are there any questions from the Board? Alright Thank you. ii 1MR. MULLEN: Thank. you. IjMR. MAGUI'RE: I won't take much of your time , It ' s going to be an emotional situation with. the residents r. maybe I'm saying that too ; strongly - I think. if you look at it objectively, as Mr. Mullen 1indicated, in some of the upstate areas that they have dealerships I �I in similar situations to the Co-op and have been renovated - that i are automobile dealerships in harmony with that - they have $100 , j 000. homes within a stones throw of these particular examples that he gave . And I don' t believe that it would, again taking a com- mercial establishment in a commercially zoned establishment and �i i putting a Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership would detract from the �i neighborhood and I appreciate your time. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. ii i MR. MAGUIRE: Thank You. i, �i 25 - I I �I ( CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor of this appeal? Come forward. �IMR. JORDAN: I am Ralph Jordan, the director of Business Developme t I Hfor the Tompkins County Trust Company. I have several reasons for ;; being here this evening. One goes back about five years ago when i Tim Maguire came into Ithaca, New York, at which time I was the !I executive director of the Chamber of Commerce and I can remember ,I iivery succinctly telling Tim what a wonderful community that we i Thad here - that we supported business and that a business such as f, 11 that that he was planning to bring to this community could certain - I look for Ithacans to support it and I certainly hope that I i �jwasn't too far wrong in making that type of a statement. I realiz ; that we are living in a very frustrating age we have a tendency i 11to complain about poor government, high taxes, inflation, but you know we brought most of this on ourselves, We face a problem in �� the City of Ithaca today -; with the Rothschilds Department Store 11which has been mentioned previously this evening, and I can't help f j� but stand here and feel that had we not procrastinated in that �I '; situation Jim Rothschild might still be in business today. This ' last weekend we read in the newspaper of another corporation going into chapter 11 and I' can tell you that there is many more out ! there that are right on the borderline, And I sometimes get emo- tional myself because I can remember - it wasn' t too far back when I people would help one another build a home , get a business started i but it seems today that we 've become isolationists , we all build a little shell around ourselves,—and say that what is good for me is good for me and T could care less what is good for the community a is whole. I would like to point out that in my humble estimation the greatest blight in any neighborhood is when a business becomes ill and starts laying off people, stops buying goods and services , leaves a vacant building, people find it more difficult to pay ( their taxes pay the mortgage on their home and that, I tell you, lis when blight really starts in a neighborhood T cannot help but feel that an empty building is a tremendous blight in any area I whether it be a central b.us ;ness distract or whether it .be a resi, i, ' dential neighborhood. And I 've passed by the Co-op on several II j - 26 - �I ! occasions during the YMCA times and others , really expressing some i!; Ilpersonal opinions that I wished that something would go in there ;; that would fill that empty building . And I have to say that know- ging Tim Maguire as I know Tim Maguire I 've gone by his building on the Trumansburg Road many times - it is clean - aesthetically ,, pleasing and I can tell you as I stand here this evening that Tim !! Maguire is an honorable business man. I think it is quite easy to lunderstand that in a neighborhood it is very simple to generate !, opposition to any type of foreign business or activity that might want to enter that neighborhood. But I think you have to weigh ve y !' carefully in your minds tonight, what really is good, not only for this neighborhood but icor the community as a whole. You know we a e ;' losing tax base in Ithaca, New York and I would tell you that if i .! continues and if we continue to have problems of businesses going j out of business and we continue to oppose good honest , clean busi- nesses that desire to go into business, somewhere we are going to ! come up with a minus and when that happens and the tax base starts ;! eroding and then the City has to charge higher taxes , its going to be the very same residents who oppose these businesses that are i i going to be crying because of the high taxes . I just have to say that I think there is a solution to this problem tonight and I �j Jthink that solution comes in the form of evaluating where the neig - lbors feel that there is an existing problem! and I can stand here 'j and feel very comfortable that knowing Tim Maguire the way I know Tim Maguire, that if these matters are talked out intelligently an ! reasonably that there is a solution in concession, And I would task, ton,ight that you not leave that building on the vacant rolls much- longer and I don't think there is any necessity to do it �lbecause T think that that building can be filled with this auto dealership I think it can be a complement to this community and �II think the neighbors: may find that it is not only liveable but ! can be pleasant and that Tim Maguire is a good person to do busi- liness with. And I would ask tonight that you try to work out what- ever differences you may have because I think that filling that it g building at this point in time is very important. Thank you.. 'i ii jl I� - 27 - i) I CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Is there anyone that wishes to speak in favor of this variance? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in ' opposition? �MS. FURMAN: My name is Carol Furman and I live on 310 S. Corn 1IStreet , which is right in the neighborhood of that car dealership ;' that is in question. I wanted to bring all this talk about business '; down to the people who live there and a group of us got a petition together that we 'd like to give out to the Board members here. Th reasons: that we came up with (unintelligible) (she passed out lithe petitions) I feel very strongly about it not being there and ilfor one, for me , it doesn' t furnish a service as a person who live ' in that neighborhood. I guess r. I'm not sure about the traffic ,I j1problem - my sense is that the traffic may indeed be very great on Clnton Street but , for sure, if people take test drives and stuff they would go onto my street, Corn Street, and elsewhere in the I ! neighborhood. I think that it may be true that a car dealership (might be one of the few businesses that could take up the whole area the 28,000 square feet in question, but I don't see why it Iican' t be divided up into smaller areas so that smaller businesses can use it. I would like to see the businesses that would go in there, to benefit the neighborhood. I think that the car dealer ship probably that Tim Maguire would like to bring in would be ver clean and neat but what I'm scared of is that it could also open u , i I once he leaves, I don' t know exactly what a B-4 means but my sense 4s that it could open it up to almost anything. . I don' t understan I why it has to be changed from the B-2a to a B-4 variance to a zon- ing - it seems sort of interesting that it is in this neighborhood � in particular that one would feel comfortable about trying to change I Y g ! the zoning. So I guess I know there are a lot of people here ;; from the neighborhood - who came here tonight and I imagine some of them would like to speak but there is a huge number back there (± who feel very strongly about this. !' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank. you. Is there anyone else who wishes to , speak against the variance? f J, MS . FURMAN: r have these petitions too - about 100 people - actu- ;; ally as a result of this I did go around to house to house and did I i i! �1 28 Iget to know the neighborhood much better than I otherwise would have known it. About 100 people have signed petitions - not just I ;! myself but through othere people so I have these petitions here I j that have been signed by members who reside in the neighborhood or who work there . I guess I would present them to you. j! MR. HUGHES: My name is George Hughes I live at 524 W. Clinton Street and unfortunately I 'm not connected with any big bank or anything like that and these figures of millions of dollars that have been floating around here tonight have left me really ! upset - I haven' t been out of that neighborhood much and when they , got talking like that I anyway - the other night - Wednesday niglit Mr. Maguire noted that he had sent out fifty-one notices to people about the change in zoning and since there was only something like six or eight of us here that night he cited the fact that it didn' Iappear that anybody cared about this - you know - change so I talk( d with two or three people and then I went out within 200' of the ; Co-op premises r I didn't - everybody signed it I suppose, I thin ithere was two or three houses where people weren't home - I didn' t get, but here is the petition; "We, the undersigned, who reside I within 200 feet of the Co-op premises known as 601-619 West Clinto Street, Ithaca, New York, have signed this petition expressing our �Ivigorous opposition to the granting of the variance being sought b Maguire Ford, Inc. as prospective tenant and by Stewart Knowlton has owner of said premises The use contemplated is not an allowed i 4 use in B-2 District, the present zoning for this area. Despite the expressed intent of the applicant, we have never seen, nor do we believe there is an auto dealership with all new and used cars and cars awaiting repairs completely housed within the dealership ibuilding, nor .s this possible for the Co op site, That, therefore , iit is not only possible but highly probable that once a dealership land reapir garage become operative on said site, the said site will take on the appearance of an auto graveyard. There will be a con i ,Isi.derable increase in traffic and noise in the neighborhood which I, 1jwill have very detrimental effect on us and on our property values 11and will definitely change the character of the neighborhood for !(the worse. That the applicant has made no showing of practical I! I it 29 - I 'difficulties or unnecessary hardship nor special circumstances !which must be found to warrant the granting of the variance. The l , recent purchaser of the real estate purchased it with the full knowledge of the zoning regulations for the Co-op site . That said jjzoning regulations are not peculiar to the applicant but are appli cable to everyone living in or doing business in said neighborhood �i IThat in light of all the above to grant said variance would amount 'Ito another giant step towards spot zoning. " (,This petition was ( signed by people in the neighborhood see appeal folder for names ' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to speak against this? MARGO CLYNES: My name is Margo Clynes, 306 Elm Street , Ithaca. � My concern is not Tim Maguire Ford, my concern is changing the zon ing from B- 2 to B-4. That residential neighborhood that exists I to the north of Clinton Street over to Green has for the past couple � of years been trying very diligently and very hard to make it a very safe and lovely neighborhood. It is going to take time but f they are visibly working very hard. I 'm terribly afraid that if you (( change the zoning to a B-4 it is going to destroy that effort . It iisa very strong effort and it' s a very sincere effort. And chang � ing it at this time does not complement it as was stated before, s II hope that it not changed. Thank you. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. For the information of any intereste party, this Board has no authority to change the Zoning Ordinance . That is a legislative activity reserved to the Common Council . No do we ordinarily make recommendations pro or con so it is not at I issue tonight that there be a zoning change. The only matter be- fore this Board is whether, under the rules of the local ordinance that a variance may, be granted to the existing Zoning Ordinance. W': are limited to that activity, Now, will you please come forwar ? MS. HECTOR: My name is Sarah Hector and I reside at 203 W. Buffal Street. T am here as a neighborhood resident and as -cha viceair- man of the House REcycling Committee of Neighborhood Housing Ser vices. In the past year my committee has expended a great deal o energy and expense to save and move two houses that were victims I - 30 t I 1iof a zoning variance. These are the two houses that were moved jjfrom the corner of Meadow and Buffalo Street to the two lots across il from the Co-op. The city has provided areas for activities such i ' as car dealerships. The Co-op site is not appropriate for this fuse and therefore was not zoned as such. The introduction of a li i' �Icar lot will seriously jeopardize the efforts of Neighborhood I' (,( Housing Service , southside residents and the city to make the neigh- borhood eig - borhood a more attractive and desirous place to live . I strongly urge the Board of Zoning Appeals to consider these efforts and not grant a variance to a business that is not compatible with the ( residential nature of this neighborhood. Thank you. iCHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to speak against this variance? Come forward. IMS. HJORTSHOJ: I'M Martha Hjortshoj and I live at 41S W. Clinton ! Street. I have a letter here from Beth Prentice which she asked ImeI to read. "This letter is written in support of strong neighbor- hood resistance to the proposed variance for a B-4 use by Maguire Ford at the Co-op Plaza. Both long-term and new homeowners in the neighborhood immediately adjacent to the Plaza have invested an extraordinary amount of time and money improving their homes. These investments were made because of a strong commitment to the area as a quiet, residential location and because of the belief i that property values would be increasing due to the work of Ithaca I ' Neighborhood Housing Services We can document at least $860,000 worth. of investment in the past three years in the adjacent six blocks bounded by the creek. on the south, Meadow Street on the west , Vhe odd side of W'. Green Street on the North, and the even side of S. Plain Street on the east. These statistics are extremely con servative, reflecting only, those investments reported by building permits and direct I.NHS loan assistance. Much more money has been spent by homeowners than these amounts , as well as a considerable amount of time and effort, The proposed B-,4 use would have a seve e �negative impact on these adjacent blocks and is quite unsuitable Ii at the edge of a residential neighborhood. While INHS is , of ! course, supportive of viable commercial ventures in or adjacent to 9 i it i 31 - the neighborhood, we do not want to see these located at the expense of the residential character of the neighborhood and at th expense of investments by individual homeowners and INHS. While lithe neighborhood has improved tremendously, its future is still i ilprecarious ; incursions of this type would undermine confidence in ii lithe area' s future and impede the upgrading that has occurred to date. I hope that the Board of Zoning Appeals will agree with ii neighborhood residents and their strong feelings that this varianc 1� request should be denied. Much private and public money has been I ;; invested and should not be undermined. Sincerely, /s/ Elisabeth '1C. Prentice, Director" She also asked me to say that she was very sorry she couldn't be here to read this herself she had to i' ` leave early and also to point out that this is only the second tim �, that INHS has ever objected and asked for a variance not to be ! granted even though they are asked to do that often. I would also i lli.ke to add on my own behalf that I feel that it would be a very ;j unfortunate thing for the neighborhood, as a resident. It seems !Ito me the Co-op really hasn't been empty very long, only, I think, I isince February and to talk about it as a long term derelict buildi g i Iisn' t fair, Also once a variance is granted for a B-4 use it seem !! that it would also- a B-4 variance would allow things like gas jistations, service garages, and historically once something has bee I , zoned for a more commercial use it doesn't tend to revert to a ii less commercial use. So I 'm just here to say- that on behalf of my !' immediate neighborhood. ii ij IiCHAIRM,AN WEAVER: Thank you. rs there anyone else who wishes to llspeak? Please come forward, i 1MR. GAFFNEY: My name is Bill Gaffney, I live at 220 Cleveland ;'Avenue , approximately one block from where the former Co-op was . I !Jive only got a couple things to just say , is Mr. Maguire - he ! did point out the fact that his dealership can draw anywhers and i , that people go to get his product and if that is so there are ! places in this city that have been set up and zoned appropriately ! for car dealerships , We have a whole string of them out on South !! Elmira Road and I suggest that maybe he should investigate going lsomewheres else besides in a neighborhood where we are looking for ii - 32 - something that is going to provide a service to the neighborhood , which was the original purpose of the Co-op shopping plaza being �lbuilt as it was . And one other thing is that I think we should al H ; take a look at what Pritchard Dodge has done to the area that they are in. The houses just to the south of there are in awful shape. !j They have been that way for years and it is hard to get people to it invest in those houses there because of the dealership there. It is a the dealership has been kind of a blight on the neighborhood and a hardship on those people that live there. And I can' t see ; where there is a hardship case here which would warrant changing ; the zoning there or granting the variance for this -- that is all III have to say. Thank_ you, I ' CHAI'RMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Will you please come forward? li IMR. SLATHER; Good evening, I`'m Raymond Schlather, and I 'm one of �i !? the First Ward Alderman - T represent the good folks who live in !! this area as well as the good portion of the City of Ithaca and I am here to speak to this and certainly to speak out against the ' granting of this variance and I make these statements not solely I Ikon what Mr. Maguire would call emotional arguments , though those ;; are the types of arguments that are not always bad, especially whe ! you are talking about neighborhoods and what I am here to speak in ( connection with are the facts - the law. The whole purpose of zon ! ing and the function it serves in both preserving neighborhoods an lipreservi,ng an organized economic base in any given City, You I, ,, separate the commercial from the residential , you separate the in- i, iidustrial from the residential , you put the car lots and the car ;,; dealerships where other car dealerships are - you permit the resi i Idential areas to develop as residential areas, So with that as 11 ; somewhat of a premise T, you look at some of the cases . First of all , and as we are quite aware, we are not talking about changing ; the zoning laws, obviously, we are talking about a use variance. And as all of you know, a us.e variance requires a much greater li showing on the part of the applicant than, for instance a request it ,! for an area variance, And with that premise in mind you look at !' some of the cases, For instance even with area variance there is I'; fi i i i i - 33 - i� irequired as a required showing that the applicant demonstrate , not I merely an inconvenience but he must also demonstrate that there are (practical difficulties in utilizing the property in any accepted ;fashion because of a literal application of the Zoning Ordinance. jThat' s a Court of Appeals case , Fuhst v Foley at 45 New i York 2nd, 441. Now that' s an area variance standard so we go and look at a use variance standard. Now you take a look at the �iCroissant vs. Board of Zoning Appeals which is at 83 , AD2d 673. ; And it talks about, in this particular case, you had a gas station 1that lived in a community and its been pumping gas for many years and the gas station says look we want to put in a car wash adjacen i Hto our facility. We think. we are doing the community a service by fl putting in this car wash - it is a benefit to the community and the iCourt says no, that is not enough. The Board of Zoning Appeals says Ino, that is not enough, A mere service to the community, a benefit !to the community is not enough. You've got to show unnecessary ; hardship -- use variance -x unnecessary hardship. You have to show ,that under the uses permitted in that district there can be no Ij dreasonable return. You have to show that the plight the current , plight of the owner is due to unique circumstances . You have to show that the intended new- use does not alter the essential char acter of the locality. Three phase requirement! And interestingly !enough and probably most impprtantly, the Court of Appeals and the i Courts of this State have long recognized that self-created hardship is a significant factor when considering an application for a use ii �jvariance. And I respectfully submit that that/ s what we have in 4hi:s case. First of all , I might note to the extent that there ili.s any claim of hardship it is self-created and in that connection, i I;T, sat here through the appeal and I did not hear one word of i. ',economic hardship. There has not been a case here that somehow by not permitting this to be a dealership there is economic hardship. 1 !!The case has not been made - there has not been any proof, The jowner of the property hasn't even spoken. So the question is , have they, even gone forward prima facia, in the established or any type 11of a hardship and if they have, if there has been a showing of i' l ii �I - 34 - i hardship which I have missed, then you have to ask the question, I was it self-created? And certainly in this case I think a strong ,, argument can be made for that because you have here - an entity - I Ha Co-op that was in a B- 2a zoning structure - commercial establish !Iment, being sold under basically For Sale conditions to a develope )who knew full well what the zoning requirements are and, in fact, j I 'm not even sure the sale is consumated today - so certainly we 11cannot claim that the hardship - such as it exists - was not self- created. Alright , so these are some of the facts , let 's turn to ; some of the more attractive emotional arguments. We have a neigh- borhood, you've heard the people speak, you've seen the petitions j, and the petitions - the one petition I saw was quite lengthy and ; quite detailed and I' though rather persuasive you have what has I been pointed out, a group of people who have been trying, in this ; particular area, with the cooperation of the city and the coopera- i ; tion of the Ithaca Neighborhood Housing, to redevelop and revitali e it ithis very important part of southside of Ithaca into a vital and lthriving and prosperous and desi;reable neighborhood section you Ii have the history behind this place in that a long time ago it was i i1 ;fall residential but there was a give to permit the Co-op to come i las a fruit and vegetable stand and that this then was expanded to 1permit this Co-op Plaza so that what you are . looking at here, even though technically, it is rezoned - what you are looking at here i; 11is almost a variance from a variance. You have the fact that they 1 are other plaices to locate in the city and I speak as most genuinely as I can muster, the City of Ithaca does not want to drive Tim ;! Maguire away from the city, we just want to put him in the right ,I ; place in the City - the r ,;ght location, Granted the tax arguments tare very attractive it is hard to turn down that kind of sales tax '! revenue but the fact is that is not one of the criteria by which. I this Board makes its decisions , And that/ s a very attractive argu ,IMent but it' s a misleading argument so I respectfully submit that 1by, denying this variance does not necessarily mean that Mr. Maguir �I is not going to be: in the city of Ithaca that we are not going t. I� have a Ford dealership here. That can be worked out hopefully, i1 I I - 35 - just as with any business - if there is a market for a dealer- shipFord- here it will be located here and it will 11 be located in the properly zoned area. So that ' s all I have to say. !( CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to speak against '' this? E '!MR. MENDELIS: My name is Joseph Mendelis and I live at 413 West I (Clinton Street. I , unfortunately do not have any color, glossy ,,prints to show work that I have done to the inside of my house. I 1I ( suppose when I die they will disect my lungs and find plaster dust 11in there from where I respackled the walls and sanded down the woo ii �Ifloors and I don't think that I will be alone in a time frame of j`maybe thirty to forty years from now, if I can live that long but I know from my own existence in the community over the last two year Ithat this neighborhood is not the type of neighborhood that wants Ito go down a commercial path! This is the type of neighborhood i �1where people are interested in residential community - they are it liinterested in repairing their houses you know there are certain .I houses that are run down in this community - there is no doubt there i its an overgrown lot that ' s next to Co-op we cannot deny that. The ( pictures have been submitted, ' m sure that there are cardboard iiboxes there, etc. Just as a point of interest , I certainly would i (wonder what how those pictures would compare to the fancy artist ( sketches that were submitted when the Co-op Shopping Center wanted I'to move in to that residential spot. The reason that I am against it is certainly emotional - you may be able to tell - because my family lives in this community but also from some purely business �Ireasons you know it seems from the last meeting that I went to (;there seems to be this scare routine that, oh my God, we've got jEthis abandoned building, there is going to be rocks thrown through ,'the windows and it .s going to be boarded up the Co-Qp has only Ijbeen out of there a few months - if you are just going to put the ;;first thing that comes along in there you know, ire could put a is 11chem .cal plant in Rothschilds - by that type of reasoning. The true lquestion is , is it going to benefit the community in the long term. I IlYou know short term, it might be great we'11 get somebody in they I I , �i i' �I 36 - right away - Ford dealerships go out of business , there are Ford ! dealerships that have gone out of business in the last ten years i '! this county, is that true or not? I mean, who was in Maguire Ford I , before Maguire? Who was up at Triphammer Road before whoever is jin there now? I believe that was a Ford dealership. We have no ,( guarantee that this dealership is going to survive. We have no ,! guarantee that any of these promises that have been made by Mr. Maguire are going to be kept four years from now or ten years from now. I mean, I 'm sure that guy is as honest as the day is long e is going to want to do as much as he can to get that business and Imake it successful . He' s got flashy guys from Rochester to come i land talk about how Ford has all of these specifications well that: , �lis great , Ford has all of those specifications for a car dealershi - they are making money, that' s what their motive is. That guy in , Detroit doesn' t care about my three kids walking dow the street. , Mr, Maguire- I 'm sure he' s honest but you tell me that some kid i not going to be able to drive a car without a salesman - I mean really, I've gone for test drives and I 've never had a salesman iiwith me and to be real honest with you, if I get a block away, I hit the gas a little bit because I want to see what the pickup is - if I can pass that hay truck. He cannot guarantee that that is not i i ' going to happen on that street. The revenues that are going to b supposedly earned from this building are speculative. What is ithe car industry doing right now? We were talking about Chrysler � going out of business a couple of years ago and Ford and GM are no i' doing all that great right now. Ford just had a huge loss so - what ! type of guarantee are we going to get of all this income? What ar the expenses that are going to come to the community? This guy is i going to have a block of slashy cars parked out there, - how much its it going to cost the Ithaca City to patrol that area to protect ,Ithose cars? It is real easy to say we are going to make six milli n I dollars next year but that is just in the air. I mean you know it is going to cost money to protect it you know it is going to cos it ! � in terms of the neighborhood - just in my block alone there is I) ;! three professional families that have moved in within the last two E f� ij t� ii �j 37 - i I years and they have all invested in their property. I havent' had anything from Neighborhood Housing and I 've certainly made an in- Ilvestment in my property - that 's the whole trend. You know, you ii i'pointed out pictures of the gas station across the street - why �j doesn' t he show a picture of that beautiful church right around jjthe block that was restored. That place is beautiful . It is a I ! historical landmark with a beautiful stone foundation and nice jisiding . That neighborhood is on the upswing - it' s a residential i! community. It' s not a parking lot. There is just no legitimate �Ireason for allowing that in the neighborhood. There is a question !lo£ the community a service center - there are chemicals involved with that - there is no guarantee that these chemicals are going t be taken care of. I see little kids playing across the street fro ( Tommy Oil all the time. You can' t tell me those kids aren' t going Ito go over there in that guys back yard at night on say Tuesday IInight when he is not open, How about Wednesday night just think o how quiet it is right now and that ' s a pretty busy street out ther during the day, right? Clinton Street at night it is fairly quiEt ! too. Can you imagine 7 : 00 at night - got to get the summer tires off - BRRRRRRRRRRR - can you imagine that noise -- that is a block laway from my house I tell you I 'd rather have a bread truck in there. But there are other uses for the property. A car dealership is simply an inappropriate use. There area million different possibilities to use that building. You could sub-divide it into smaller shops as was mentioned - you could find some other alterna tiVe use. This community i..s supposed to be really bright and one cf the best cities in the country. You mean to tell me that all of these fancy planning guys and real estate people and developers �1can' t pick out a really snappy proposal for a bunch. of stores to go in there or some other use other than just a car dealership? IlYou mean to tell me that we are so down in the dumps that we just have to snap up the first thing that comes along? How long has it ; been on the market? God there are homes you know, in this whole !! community R they are worth. thousands of dollars you know I 11809000. , 50, 000. dollar homes > they, are not selling right away, r ;6 �I 1 it - 38 - ; That' s because of the economy - that' s not just because of where ! they are located. We can't use - we just shouldn' t be governed by ii use of scare tactics - you have to think long term. You look at �Ithe general trend of the community and the general trend of the community is residential. There are a lot of people that are inve - ting their time and their money and it' s not disposable income , as a business man would invest, you know, with the gamble of making Imoney, it ' s sweat equity it' s money that people are putting into , their very homes the place where they live , the place where they are raising their children. It would be a slap in the face to those i ,people who have invested all that, to put a car dealership into that community and I certainly hope that this Board can see further tha ! the very near term, Also I noticed that some of the maps that wer i jgoing around . . . IICHAI'RMAN WEAVER: if you'd like to be on the record the tape recorder ! listens to that microphone over there and if you would wander over I there we would have you on the record, and there would be a blank on the tape. I don' t want to reduce your oratorical skills but really we don't have you on the record at all unless you speak to the microphone. MR. MENDALIS: I certainly, would hate to have to repeat everything because . . . CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I wouldn' t want you to so if you have material t give us and it has to do with- this case, we'd be glad to give you Mair hearing but you are rambling on and we've been listening to this for about an hour. (outcry from the crowd at this point) I would be very glad to listen to all of you but r am just trying to get him to get on the record over where we have asked everyone else otQ stand, which seems to be reasonable . i R. MENDALI'S: Okay, ,that is eine. Before I get on the record, may II Just point out something to the Board which requires my being out 1n that area? If you look at a, present zoning map all you've !!been shown so far tonight is this little area right in here. If you 1Ilook at the whole (unintel-1igible) you can see that this is an intrusion into a generally residential community (rest was unin- ible Well I guess now I will have to talk for the ,Itellig ) i - 39 - record so I ' ll try to make it very brief because I don' t want to bramble on. I really do want to apologize if I have spoken too lon a but I feel that this is very important to my family, I have three small children and I would like the community to retain its resi- I jidential aspect for them as they grow up. I do not think that the jissue of the traffic on the street is really a valid issue , the ! Department of Transportation figures only show a twenty-four hour ( period they do not show when the traffic is - anybody that lives � i:n that area knows that most of the traffic is during the rush hour i in the morning and late evening when people are leaving. Generally in the evenings, the traffic on that street is very much reduced and i Tito add to that traffic would not be very good for the community be f ! cause of the many children that play in the community - also the ' fact that he is going to have a service area indicates that there s I ' going to be many chemicals and he is not proposed any solutions for !' dealing with chemicals that would be available in the shop such as �' ox lygen acetylene, benzine and all the other chemicals that go alo g ii with a service organization. I 'm sure that he is an honest busine s- hman with good intentions, however this location is not appropriate is for his intentions . And I certainly hope that he finds an appro- I� jlpriate place where :.he will be welcomed into the community but I just do not think he is going to be welcomed into a residential community, where the people are trying to improve their houses and ' improve the tax base of the community by improving the worth of lithe community. If you look at the long run I think you will find !! that having a lot of people who are interested in their property j! contri,buting to the development of that community will be far more I �limportant than someone who is motivated solely on a profit motive. ' Also as far as the hardship of Mr. Maguire to find another area ; for a dealership , people enter into businesses for profit and they ! have to be willing to take the risk as they arise and that applies Ito the owner of the property as well . He didn't do this for phile thropi,c reasons , he is taking on a property to make a profit and I I don't think that he is really owed anything over and above the ! what the community is owed for their efforts. i I ii ii - 40 - i ( CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to Ispeak against this variance? Yes . i' MR. MORO: My name is Joe Moro and I live on 214 Fayette Street !; which is in the immediate neighborhood. I 'd like to just cite a 1couple of cases in which zoning decisions were made and, matter- of-fact in favor of the neighborhood, and there was some pretty I I !! heavy scares about the vacant building and the fact that if we (' don' t get zoning changed the building will turn vacant - the windo s will be broken and you' ll have a worse site than you ever would ha e i1had if the business was in there. At Harbeck Paper Company which Js right around the neighborhood - or around the corner from my 11house _, about five years ago there was an appeal for a variance to i. build a much larger building on a site which already had a buildin i! I , as a matter of fact it was Harbeck Paper Company. The appellant i• iisaid that he really needed the new building or the business would ;die . Well fortunately the Zoning Board turned him down and the ;;Place was resented within three months and there is a perfectly ! 'Mine business in there well maybe I shouldn' t say it is perfect! i 11fine. That 's the other problem. Once the Zoning Ordinance is given (lout a new renter or a new owner can do about what they want because the City can't really stop them once they've gotten their variance. In this particular case I guess the city has even taken the new i! ;;owner to court and all the person got was a $100. 00 fine and I think that is a pretty good deal for the business to pay $100. 00 t Ido what they want all year long. And in another case in that same ,!spot, Gadabout Bus Service which is - alright - a really great thing I ;;for the community and it really should have been there that' s i ;what they said. It was turned down which is a good idea, even 1 though - where was Gadabout going to go - ,just as where would ; Maguire Ford go in thecity? Well Gadabout went to a parking lot right near a veterinarian and it even worked out better because th ,person who runs Gadabout loves animals and now also works for the �i !{veterinarian so I am sure that in a lot of cases you are going to i! ifnd something that works -, given enough time and T' don't think that we should be imposed upon because Rothschilds went bad. Roths- ! 1,childs reasons may have been other than the City of Ithaca - they I� - 41 - ii may have - the business may not have been so good and I don' t thin ' that should be a reason for us to have Maguire Ford in the neighbo - lhood. Thank you. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Is there anyone who wishes (the aud- ;hence is clapping loudly at this point) now if you will all pleas I� 11hold the applause I assure you it certainly doesn' t influence me in 11a positive manner and it takes up our time. We are glad to give 1you a fair hearing if you' ll just give us the time to do that. Ye! . IMS. YOUNG: My name is Meryl Young and I live at 220 Cleveland �JAvenue. I don't want to make a long speech here - I just want to jsay that at some point the people in power, the people in govern- ment , the people that we appoint to positions such as yours , have !! to start listening and respecting the views and desires of people i ,. that live in these neighborhoods, We are constantly being encroach- ed ncroac - ed upon by growing commercialism and I just really don't think that kit ' s fair to the people that are spending a lot of time and money lin building a neighborhood up so that their children can grow up there and be safe and that 's it . H CHAIRMAN WEAVER, Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to �Ispeak? Yes, come forward. MR. HOFFMAN: My name is Dan Hoffman, I live at 607 N. Tioga Street . I 'm speaking not as a resident of the neighborhood but rather as a i �Imember of the last Board of Directors of the Co-op Super Market. You may know that the Board does not functionly exist since the dissolution of the Corporation but I have spoken to several other li ( members of the Board and I believe that I am speaking for them r. tonight as well when I say that most members of the Board are very { disappointed that this use of the former Co-op Food Store is con- templated and that we hope that the concerns of the neighborhood care heeded. I' d like to make a couple of points. At the time that I ; the purchase offer was accepted by the membership of the Co-op i �4neither the Board nor the membership was aware that this use was i! contemplated. If we had been aware I'm sure that we would have i taken a different attitude and would have been much more reluctant I! to let the property go even though we were under financial stress . i `i I i - 42 - i E Also, at this point, because the Co-op membership has formally I i ( accepted Mr. Knowlton' s offer, we are bound by the terms of that i offer. During my time on the Board and my involvement in the ef- , fort to save and to reopen the grocery store two years ago, I be- jIcame very aware that a primary concern was to serve the neighborhood i 1Ineeds for food and basic services . The incredible effort that wen w into the attempt to save the Co-op would not have happened if it had I I (not been for the interest and support of the neighborhood. The !!neighborhood is not opposed to commercial use of that site. The residents very badly wanted to preserve a commercial facility that I� timet their day to day needs . Some other points that I would like t ii IImake clear from my prospective as a former Board member. The firs His that I don't believe that it is reasonable to draw conclusions !;from the Co-ops inability to rent vacant spaces at the Co-op. Be- i� � causI e it was under such financial stress the Co--op could not afford I Ilto provide any renovation or improvement to the sites that were s' ; being offered for rent and I think that this had a lot to do with i I�discouraging potential tenants. Also the Co-op was not qualified or prepared to handle the real estate operation. This became more and more clear in the final days of the Co-op' s existence . The Co- op Board reacted positively and quickly to Mr. Knowlton' s offer (because we respect his efforts at the East Hill Plaza and believed ;that his purchase of the property would benefit the neighborhood. !i IT'd be the first to admit that the Co-op has not always been the a !perfect neighbor and has made mistakes in the past . If it hadn't (made so many mistakes most of us wouldn't be here tonight . One of those mistakes was the demolition -- about ten years ago - of several houses across Clinton Street for an additional parking lot. In recent years the Board of Directors tried to correct some of these mistakes for example by selling that property lot —that parking blot for a return to residential use with the cooperation of INHS. i !!I think it would be a shame to reverse this trend now and to leave ii !the Co-op with a legacy that is so objectionable to the southside I (residents . I am sure that there are more appropriate uses compatible li with the zoning classification and I hope the zoning board will have i Ii li - 43 - the patience and the foresight to enable us to find out what those it (uses are. Thank you. H CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to ',!speak on this matter? Where are three letters that will be read !into the record. "To Whom It May Concern: I am unable to attend ;}the hearing because of a school board meeting conflict. I have asked "my neighbor, George Hug es, to deliver my message, which follows : 11The southside neighborh od, especially the streets near the Co-op �IShopping Center, is predominately residential . It comprises a pop - lace of one of the greatest age , education, economic, racial/ethnic, i lisex and handicapping di ' ersities within the City of Ithaca. It has one of the states histo ical landmarks . As a member of this neigh- ! borhood, I love it. People, who live here or drive within or through fit, seem sensitive toward the safety of our neighborhood children. Our children and/or their parents and other adults can now walk safely to school , shurc the library, the southside community i center, the local shops etc. Route 96B (Clinton St. ) is already i! 1busy enough as it is. To add a car dealership here would: 1) Increase the flow of traffic, 2) Reduce the number of parking spaces ! within the lot and lead , to potential traffic jams , 3) Invite more non-.neighborhood people to either "hang around" or test drive too many vehicles within our neighborhood, 4) Attract people from many places, especially during the day, early evening and on "special �Isale" periods , and 5) Increase the flow of heavy transport deliver trucks , Therefore, as a citizen and resident , fi strongly oppose granting a variance for a car dealership or any other business whit 11has potentials for overburdening the community with. heavy traffic. �i �I welcome Maguire Ford to our community on a Route 13 location, /s/ Eunice (:Fat) Faddio-Reed" "To Whom It May Concern: We are the ijowners of property dixectly across from Maguire Ford. We have ( previously lived in downtown Ithaca. My wife was brought up on i! Albany Street and when first married, we lived on Clinton Street property which- was sold to the Co-op. For the last 5 years Maguire i Ford has been our neighbor. During that period of time we have had ! no complaint about noise, excess traffic or the maintenance and up- Iikeep of their property. They have always proven to be an asset to i 44 - the community. We do not feel our property value has decreased by I jliving across from Maguire Ford. If Maguire Ford were to occupy '; the old Co-op building we are sure the community and neighbors in , the area would feel as we do, happy to have them as a neighbor. ii l� /s/ Raymond Langlois , Sr. and Betty Langlois. " "Chairman, Board Ijof Zoning Appeals, City Hall , 108 East Green Street, Ithaca, New York 14850 Dear Sir: I regret that I will be out of town and unable to attend the May Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. I wish jto oppose strenuously the request for a variance to permit the 11operation of a car dealership on the Coop site. This use is abso- lutely, under any and all circumstances , incompatible with the surrounding residential neighborhood. Iobject to this proposed u e as a neighboring resident, as the president of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, and as the vice-chairperson of the City Planning i iBoard. As a resident, i am outraged by the request for yet anothe A-4 use in a B- 2 zone on the Southside. Far too many unwarranted 111B-4 variances have already been granted; for example, look at the .i 1600 and 40.0 blocks of West Green Street. In both cases, the appel nts received their variances and then blatantly flaunted the terms of I� those variances . Signage violations in the 30.0 block of West Gree ( Street go unprosecuted.. On Center Street, illegal retailing plus three other businesses still operate despite the best attempts of he City Building Department and the Assistant City Prosecutor (Note: that should be Asst. City Attorney) to shut them down. Our neigh- borhood can not take yet another exception to our zoning ordinance Do not ask our neighborhood to continually bear the burden of com- mercial expansion. As president of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Se - vices , I am gravely concerned by the threat to residential propert values which such a variance would pose. Neighborhood residents i the surrounding blocks have invested tremendous sums in rehabili-- Iitating their homes, encouraged by the belief that this was a neigh �iborhood "on the way up. " In fact, the City' s 1977 upgrading of the ; surrounding zoning from R-3 to R-2 supported that belief. Do not 'i �Inow start "downzoning" us. INHS is strongly committed to the resi ii Idential character of Clinton Street. In fact, we have just moved I i - 45 - i i ` two houses off the commercial strip, off Route 13 , and put them on lClinton Street, directly opposite the Coop. Let ' s make it a fair I! trade. We take the houses off Route 13 , you put the B-4 businesses !lon Route 13. Let ' s keep our auto dealerships where they should be , i� where they can most effectively grow and prosper, out on Route 13 . Jinally, as a member of the Planning Board, I can find no justifi- ;! cation for this variance to be granted. It is quite simply very bad i' planning to allow a B-4 use to directly abut an R-2 use . The dra- matically more intensive use would be visually unavoidable, as much more intrusive signage would be permitted and as alterations to the building itself (display windows , lighting, etc. ) would occur. No , car dealership, no matter how well maintained, ever belongs in the (middle of an R-2 neighborhood. Please remember the history of this site ; as the Coop grew from a vegtable stand with a variance to a ii ,; supermarket on its own limited B-2 parcel , it was always first and i , foremost a neighborhood facility, The only reason we ever permitted I I � a small commercial zone in the middle of a residential community was because that zone served and enhanced its neighborhood. This B-4 fuse would use and abuse its neighborhood. Please deny this variance , request. Thank you. Sincerely, /s/ Susan Jean Cummings ." CHAIRMAN WEAVER; I' ll call the next case. I lMR. WILCOX: Mr, Chairman, we'd like to call Mr. Hoffman back up here. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Mr. Hoffman. MS. BUSH I just have one question, If the sale of the Co-op to ! Mr. Knowlton has not been completed, is your purchase offer contin- gent upon any lease arrangements? MR. HOFFMAN: I was not a party to negotiating the lease I don' t believe it is but I can't answer your question. CHAIRMAN WEAVER, Thank you, Is there any other member of the Boaid who wishes to ask a question of any of those who have spoken to us . (no one) I ' ll call the next case, I Ij ii I i I! ! fl !i 46 i� BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS 'i COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK MAY 3 , 1982 EXECUTIVE SESSION li IIAPPEAL NO. 1433 The Board considered the appeal of Timothy Maguire for a use vari- iance to permit the use of the property at 601-19 West Clinton Street l for an automobile dealership. The decision of the Board was as follows: MS. BAGNARDI : I move that the Board deny the use variance requste in appeal number 1433. MS. BUSH: I second the motion. VOTE: 6 Yes; 0 No Denied FINDINGS OF FACT: 1) Use requested is not permitted in the B-2 zone . 2) No evidence of hardship was developed by the appellant. i I i i I� �i - 47 - ii BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS I! COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS 'E CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK MAY 3 , 1982 it ', SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1434 : Appeal of The Tompkins County Board of Repr - sentatives for an area variance under Secti n 30. 25 , Columns 5 and 13 , for deficiencies i off-street loading and minimum side yard de th to permit subdivision of the property at 12 - j 128 East Buffalo Street (Boardman House) in o a separate parcel . The property is located in a newly-designated B-lb (business-office I use district, and would be deficient in re- quired off-street loading and one sideyard ii setback if subdivided as planned; therefore a variance for these deficiencies must be obtained before the subdivision can be ap- proved. I I MR. EVANS: I 'm Gary Evans on the staff of the County Planning De- partment and all of our remarks have been submitted to the Board i i 1writing and I'm simply here to answer any questions that you have about the statements that we 've made. I CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Reading your statements and looking at the 1 property there is question in my mind access to the Boardman House as propsoed would not only be across property retained by the county but would also have part of their structure on county land, is that I 'm a little confused looking at that not where you propose to have the line but how this can function at all? 1 MR. EVANS: Well the access is indeed over county owned property i which is intended to be retained. The access however is simply Ito one basement stairway it is not an access it is necessary t ' the day to day functioning of the building - so much as say the front and west side access area On the other hand, that walkway i between the two buildings is the only access to building C it is essent l to its day to day functioning and so the decision was to retain that entire walkway but in the to grant access easement lalong that side and the maintenance easement along that side and lalong the rear as well in the event that that would be necessary. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is it contemplated that the cover over that base 'Iment stairway will continue in place on county property? Would that 11then be on county property? 11MR. EVANS: You are talking about the entrance toward the rear? i 11 I, I I - 48 - ly 1 I CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I am still talking about the basement entrance . !i 11MR. EVANS: Right. Okay. There are two basement entrances One j ;lin the front and one at the rear. The entrance at the rear is par of this complex of the obscure structure which is the stairway to the second floor of building C. One side of it is a vault which ! housed the transformer which was used by Ithaca College to distri- , bute electricity -- no longer in use . So without analyzing how thi gs Ii mare fastened together there, I can 't say that any part of that can j� be removed without the whole thing having to be redone. There are i no plans to do that at this point. However it is recognized that ,I 11there is a potential problem - a new owner of the Boardman House d might be terribly offended by that transformer vault and would I like to remove it and so that would have to be worked out at that , time. We certainly recongize that as a potential problem and are jwilling to deal with it, however the new tenant new owner, would I like to. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Are there any questions from the Board? Thank , you. Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor of this appeal? j� Anyone who wishes to speak in opposition to this appeal? We' ll hear the next case please . I i` i I' i I !i ji ii I� i i i' is I, 1! ii i i - 49 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS I CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK MAY 3 , 1982 EXECUTIVE SESSION �{ APPEAL NO. 1434 : i The Board considered the appeal of The Tompkins County Board of I Representatives for an area variance to permit subdivision of the property at 120-128 East Buffalo Street (Boardman House) into a I separate parcel . The property is located in a newly-designated B-1b (business-office) use district , and would be deficient in I' required off-street loading and one sideyard setback if subdivided i' as planned; therefore a variance for these deficiencies must be I{ obtained before the subdivision can be approved. The decision of I I the Board was as follows: � MS. BUSH: I move that the Board grant the area variance re i quested in appeal number 1434 . i' MS . WARD: I second the motion. + VOTE: 6 Yes; 0 No Granted. FINDINGS OF FACT: i! 1) Practical difficulties have been demonstrated. �i2) The property is located in a special B-lb zone which does not I, require off-street parking . j3) The County is going to give any and all easements necessary, 1',' for full use of the building. i i I� if I' .i li it i{ I' I ii !I I� .f 50 - 1 Li BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS !� CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK i� MAY 3, 1982 Il SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1435 : !' Appeal of Andrew H. McPherson for an area variance !I under Section 30. 49 and SEction 30. 25, Columns 6 and 12 , for deficiencies in minimum lot size and one i side yard setback, to permit the construction of a ij small addition to the existing four-unit apartment house at 116 West Seneca Street to creat an addi- tional bedroom. The property is located in a B-la (business) use district in which multiple dwellings are a permitted use; however under Section 30. 49 the appellant must obtain an area variance for the listed deficiencies before a building permit can be �i considered for the expansion of a non-conforming structure. '' MR. MC PHERSON: My name is Andy McPherson and I live at 116 West Seneca Street. This is a house consisting of four, one-bedroom I! .. apartments. I want to convert one of those apartments into a two- bedroom apartment for my own use. I can do that in one of two ;+ ways - one way, eliminates one of the apartments , making it a thre jjapartment house - the other by installing a stairway on the outsid of the building in a 6 ' x 12 ' structure enables me to keep the I lapartment house as a four unit building and still have a two-bed- 1Iroom apartment, I have a drawing indicating what I want to do - ICshowed the Board members the drawing - discussion was. not picked jjup by the tape recorder) I don't have anything further to add. fICHAIRMAN WEAVER; Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favo Ii lof this appeal? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition to this appeal? We ' ll have the next case then. (I EXECUTIVE SESSION +APPEAL NO, 1435: MS. HAINE : I move that the Board grant the area variance re- quested in appeal number 1435 . f SIMS, BAGNARDI : I second the motion. i' JIVOTE: 6 Yes ; 0 No Granted i +,FINDINGS OF FACT: f, I! j1) There would be no great impact on the neighborhood. i12) This is a permitted use in the area. 1;3) This use does not increase the side yard deficiency in any way. i, i� I! I - 51 - 1 (i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS f� CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK MAY 3 , 1982 i ! SECRETARY HOARD: The last case is appeal number 1436 : I Appeal of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce for an interpretation of the Zoning Ordinance under Section 30.49 and of a variance granted to the Chamber in 1972, to determine whether the Zoning Ordinance or the 1972 variance placed conditions or limits which would prevent expansion of the non- it conforming use. In lieu of a favorable interpreta- tion the appellant is requesting a use variance unde Section 30. 25 , Column 2 , for permitted uses , and an it area variance under Section 30. 25 , Columns 4 and 11 , for existing deficiencies in minimum off-street park ing and minimum front yard setback, to permit the expansion of the office use in the building. The property is located in an R-3a (residential) use district in which offices are not a permitted use. "! The current use was permitted under the 1972 variance, and the appellant is proposing to expand the office use beyond that described in the 1972 appeal . A pre vious appeal was heard by the Board for a similar proposal in December of 1981, and the Board denied the requested variances . This property is located at �i 122 West Court Street. IMR. ADAMS: Mr. Chairman, members of the Board, my name is Armand s !!Adams, I'm the Corporate Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce and a ;!such have made the application for review that we have here. As I� ;!was indicated in the summary, this is a resubmission of a modified i I;plan presented to this group last November and December. I should !;point out a little bit of the history for the benefit of the three :new people on the Board. In 1972 the Tompkins County Chamber of i HCommerce purchased the premises at 122 W. Court Street from a Mr. i Mrs. James Love. At that particular time it had been used as a �i residence and was in the residential area a condition of the pur- i !chase offer was that they be able to get a variance for permissio ,Ito use the property for a business use of the Chamber of Commerce. "That variance was granted by this Board under variance number 974 li'i by application made in February of 1972 and granted on March 7 , 19 11! 72. At that particular time the Board of Zoning Appeals, Planning lBoards were not as detailed as they are now in thier construction I n nd !Ithough the request was made for the business use, they didn't take ; into consideration that they also might need an area variance be I ! cause of the front porch was less than ten feet from the sidewalk, !i I �I - 52 - i 1,as are all houses on that side of the street. This is a beautiful ome as most of you know, with five or six doric columns and the ;front of the porch is within eight feet from the street line insteail i bf ten, but so are the others and some of them are as little as fou i ;Meet from the street line whereas we are eight. That wasn't con- i; jisidered at that particular time. At the same time the matter of th arking was not considered so there wasn' t an area variance for tha . We decided over the course of these six or seven years - since I I i' 1�1972 , that the facilities were adequate. We needed to have however loore room. When we first purchased the property there were two sma 1 !4partments , one on the first floor and one on the second floor with Separate entrances and those were maintained as such because even i hough the variance for business use was granted, these were per- �} iss ble uses in a zone that had been permitted as a business zone I 'Ke didn' t change the zone but it was a business use so those apart- �� ents were continued. Well at that particular time it cost us 56, 000. to buy the place , we put in a $19,000, we had $75 ,000. in- j#rested in the house . Most of those expenditures had to do with new Pghting, new carpets and things of this sort for the arrangement pf the room. But over the course of the years we have outgrown i' {the place , the space that we had and we need to take more room, the �puestion was , should we locate in some other place in the City, �$hould we go and start the business up around the Commons , should �e go out to the Pyramid or various other places so we looked around nd we hired the firm of O'Brien and Taube to make a feasibility ,�tudy. This has been in the process for three or four years . Most ipf the people who are in the back of the room, except for those that Ore from the previous group, are members of the staff or Board of ' he Chamber of Commerce but I would point out the various history - i �he feasibility study started when Ralph Jordan was the director �nd now Mrs . Simmon is the executive director it started under th residency of Ray DiPasquale - he has since gone on we've had two �f �¢r three others since and Bob Barlow who is here, is president at t e ii I resent time. The Chairman of our Buidling Committee (un ;ntell) I�ommittee has changed and the Director of our Portfolio is Mr, Bill $ennett who is here also. As a result of that feasibility stud !! Y, i I' - 53 - i I ;lit was determined that if we could get full use of that operation ! and have a conference room available for the use that it would be !feasible for us to put in as much as $94 ,000 more . And that was (determined we do. So we made an application last November to the !0lanning Board and last December - to your group for permission to construct the necessary changeovers to modernize that building, put !iin a new furnace and to spend some $94,000. most of which had to do r. Faith repairs to the heating system and plumbing and so forth. When jle made application for the permission to build, Mr. Hoard said we I, i1would - though we had a variance to start with back in 72 , we - his is involving a further extension because we didn' t have the ermisson for the extra parking outside and we were within the ten "feet front zone and we were asking for something on the third floor Ilthat was an expansion - we couldn' t get on the other variance so !,ae made an application. The action of this Board at that particular I !time with the other members, after a presentation on our part , we ;!thought we had pretty well covered the question of hardship, (uniqueness and changes in the area was by a 3 to 3 vote on what was !;called findings , first that . there was a variance in 1972 which we !!knew about. Second the variance didn't need to be expanded on and third, that we did need an area variance to have additional parking of only ten spaces when it might be required twelve in the back Iground and we needed an area variance to allow us to be within !eight feet of the front street instead of ten. The vote on that I' as 3 to 3 and as a result the determination of your group was that because you didn' t have a 4 vote that therefore it was a denial of I our request to do something then, whereas it was our position that it should have been a 4 vote to turn it the other way - in other words to takeaway a variance we should have had the four votes , lWe did decide that we would came in with a modified plan. We here today with abstantially the same plan except that instead of ( spending $94 , 000, we are going to spend $62 , 500. , we are not going f ! to develop the third floor which was the only expansion whatsoever Iwe are going to take the former attic space and make it into a con- I I!ference room. And the only change on the outside would be outs! e f i Ij I I - 54 - ii istairway for OSHA and safety purposes to take it down but that was lithe only plan for the outside or change in the building but we now dare not going to do that instead what was to have been an office I�upstairs on the second floor is to be expanded by taking out a ,i closet and leave one conference - or room that we use now for small ( conferences to be enlarged a little bit . Now, all this is covered ii lin our presentation - the copies of which you have and in this sam ;presentation we discussed the question of hardship and pointed out i ( factually that the best use of this particular property - the only Muse that it could be used for - was the use that we are proposing I ;( for the business use of our group. That if the property were to b I fused for its possibly most beneficial use that of permitted by the (,present restrictions as to the residential area, we would at the m st ( have four apartments - no business operation and the owner apartme t i nand the cost of that square footage would be prohibitive and much I (more than could be reasonably expected as gainful employment. �IThere definitely the only in the best use having already been i! Ilgranted the variance on the basis of the hardship as it was estab- Ilished in 1972 - we are asking for nothing more. Now, what we do Iipoint out in the papers that have been submitted and copies of which (l you have , that with the table - the large table in the back - the ( three comparisons each one of these - and T think that all of yo (have a copy - the last page on your papers the three comparisons I I Icompare present use , the proposed use, maintaining one apartment, and the proposed possible use if it was all residential . Now T wart Ito point out about this one apartment. We are not proposing to haie i any apartment on the first floor , we have to use that for our office space, that is one of the reasons that we had to come in here. Th second floor we also do not propose to have an apartment permanent y. We want to take the position that we have the right to use the whole building for business purpose but for the present, at least until some of the changes take place that are proposed by the Board of �iRepresentatives and the possibility of room tax law and expansion f ! the tourism program, we probably wonIt need that second floor wh t lis now an apartment, as a business office, but in six months or a ear I! we expect we may so we are merely askin that we have If g permission t ,I Ii I - 55 - ij 'I !use this building exclusively for business purposes but with the ii I�understanding that until such time as we need this extra space up- !,stairs , we will still continue as an apartment and that could be ii 11done as you know now that on State Street any one of the business I I; !areas , if a person wants an apartment on the second or third floor, lithey can have it because that' s one - the residential use is a per- Ilmitted use in the business zone and that is what we are asking her . , So I would like to submit two or three things for your considera- !{tion one of them is an additional chart to replace page 14 in the ;papers that you have an it is a summary of the alternatives for �I jithi,s particular modified program which shows the - how the expenditure, i! !!of the $62 , 500. will be divided as between the hard cost and the �Isoft cost, and the difference being that we do have such things as (financing and architects fees and things of this sort that need to i I1be folded in. But of the $62 ,000, most of it , again, is repairs I�but we don' t want to spend any money on repairs until we know how I� 1we are to be able to use the building. Now the building is unique I�!� - we wouldn' t tear off that front porch because as I said - this is 111a beautiful columns that are there - of all the ones on the street I� �J - this is the one that is the most frontage - the rest of the, as I i said, four feet and things of this sort so we don' t want to do that . We have indicated in the papers that you have there that ten space f Tare available for parking. We think we only need seven we have eight now we have room to go two more but for the full use of th building, ten will be adequate for us so we are asking permission Ito have a variance so far as area is concerned permitting the use of ten spaces . There will be no change in the use of the building the neighborhood there is no additional parking - over what we have. There is not going to be harmful to any of the neighbors Iwe sent out the usual letters to the people within 200 feet and as was indicated at the time of the other hearing, all of them were ir ( favor of this particular program and felt that it was beneficial i to the neighborhood. I do want to - at this time, introduce as a 11matter of record t- and the same papers, that appear n .I p pp in pages 1 !; through 5 and I do offer that in evidence and other members of our f! r I 'I 56 'i !group here today will present themselves and discuss the individual .! jproof or answer your questions with reference to the fact. So I ' 1 1�offer this in evidence although you have this in part - there was ';some question last time as to whether we had made the record com- !I 1plete in introducing the facts of the situation. That , together �fwith the large chart that you have, the small chart that I just jipassed out will indicate the figures on comparisons for business fuse , for our proposed complete use or the use that will be permitted Ilin the zone itself. Mr. Taube will discuss these figures. Also , present, as I said before, is Mr . Barlow, who is President of the Chamber, Mrs. Simmon, as Director will would like to make a statement. Mr . Agard is here to testify as to the real estate situation and answer some of the details that are in this exhibit that I have presented and the chairman of our or rather the Dir- ector of our Portfolio for Administration who has charge of both ( finance and planning, Bill Bentley who spoke the other night , is I here also . They are all prepared to make some statements - we want �1lto save your time so I will merely ask that with the presentation of the five page exhibit exactly word for word that you have now, ith the also introductions which I offer of the amended alternate age one of this presentation, I would ask that Mr. Taube give some lof his comments concerning - oh, another statement also that I woul like to reintroduce that was also at the other group is a letter that you have from Mr. - Tompkins County Trust Company - excuse me - from the Citizens Savings Bank with reference to the proposal of the financing plan and I would offer that in exhibit also. That is a letter dated December 7th addressed to me from Mr. Gesslein of th ;(Citizens Savings Bank. With those three articles which I offer Tinto v ;dence I would ask that Mr. Taube make his presentation and answer any questions that you may have but we are all prepared to - of course, at the same time present the matter in this way but ! if you have any questions concerning these - the facts contained in the papers you have before you, one of us could answer you but ! �! n the meantime we' ll let Mr. Taube carry on. i R. TAUBE: I ' ll be very brief. I'm David Taube of O'Brien $ Taube i I ip 57 - �i (Associates , 106 E. Court Street. The new estimated cost summary I 11th11 at was given to you is intended to clarify, of the $62 , 500. how 11the costs are broken down between the repairs and the improvements !p jwhich is to indicate to a certain extent a weighting towards the ilrepairs which are necessary. We found that in our feasibility report ilquite some time ago and the Chamber certainly feels that without the I !expanded use of the space it would be a very serious hardship to 'put - with respect to putting in the costs particularly of the ( repairs vs the improvements for additional space in view of the i fact that the building would not have enough square footage to meet !their needs just over the next few years . The repairs themselves 'I I think - very importantly for the community, show that this building is - has been there and is a part of the community. Of the $43,000 cost a major portion, of course , is a new heating sys ;item which is necessary and it also includes totally refinishing the exterior of the building, scraping and repainting, neer insula- ;Rion in the building, an entirely new roof, refinishing of the ;entrance and then interior work that would include plumbing and I 1electri,cal rewiring. The improvements are basically limited to 11the additional parking, some miscellaneous work on the interior (for the new rooms . The first floor apartment which- we would conve t (for use as storage, office equipment machinery as expanded space , !and of course the conference room and a small area bout 100 square I lifeet of additional office that would come from a stair that is not ; currently used at all r it is not used for exi,ti,ng, Are there any i questions regarding the improvements costs? Thank you. � MR. ADAMS: Mr. Barlow would you care to make a statement? MR. BARLOW: Mr. Chairman, members of the Board, my name is Robert Barlow, T am employed by Cornell University and r am the president of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce for 1982 . I 've been a I ,Imember of the Board of the Chamber for about the last four years . p�I think that the basic point i,s that the Chamber has occupied these premises for the last ten years to the best of my knowledge fit has never generated any noise or any traffic problems that I ca i' f`discern. We are not proposing any fundamental change in the use o II: i� i f 'I 58 - I! l the building. We intend to leave the exterior looking exactly as �lit is , except better because we are going to put on a new roof and jpaint it . There are interior renovations which have been describe I'in detail by Mr . Adams and Mr. Taube which we propose and other than ;I I1that our intent is to continue to use the building and occupy it as good neighbors just as we always have for the last decade and that leaves me somewhat puzzled as to why we are here but anyway that is i�the basic point. Thank you. MS. SIMMON: Mr. Chairman and members of the Board I 'd like to make � a brief statement. My name is Virginia Simmon, I 'm Executive Di- rector of the Chamber of Commerce and I live at 211 Willow Avenue. i For the record I' d like to read in this statement that you have in front of you. "Statement to the Tompkins County Board of Zoning Appeals regarding permission to use facilities at 122 West Court Street Totally for Business Purposes . The Chamber of Commerce is an association of businesses in the county whose main goal is the promotion and maintenance of the economic health of the community. At present , we have an active interest in several areas outside I the usual ones of an internal administrative function. The most time-consuming of those activities come under the "aegis" of our Business Development Portfolio - the Tourist operation and the Small Business Council, among others . The Tourist Council con- tracts with the City and County at the present time for tourism promotion to a small extent. With those funds, we perform activi- ties (a.dvertising, brochures , information centers , etc. ) to promote tourism in the county. In the very near future , we hope to see the passage of the long talked-about two percent room tax, which will greatly enhance and expand this effort into a full-fledged Conven- tion and Visitors' Bureau. WE see that beginning within the next few months , and there is a good possibility we will be expanding our tourist and convention operation by two, possibly three persons . For those of you who have visited our offices , the need for addi, i � tional space is quite obvious, The Small Business Council , also , i,s a quickly growing operation. Although not as imminent as the (Convention Bureau, it is our hope at some time 'in the next few years i ;lto be able to provide space and staffing for the Council. We are I, - 59 - 1 !;currently utilizing the space within our offices to the fullest. `The Business Development Portfolio activities along with the other ,programs we have a part in will definitely need additional space . i ��e currently are planning to expand the conference room on the se- 1cond floor , making it possible for us to retain the apartment in th I' rear on that floor for the time being. However, it is crucial that 1we expand the first floor to use the entire building. In spite of 4pur current plans to retain the second floor residential unit for the time being , we would like to urge the granting of permission or one hundred percent business use, because although in the imme Iliate future (the next twelve months) does not create a space I 1�roblem (assuming expansion into the first floor apartment space) , I; � e feel that the one hundred percent business use permit would afford ; as the continuity we will need to continue to serve the Tompkins I -Iounty community. Thank you. /s/Virginia L. Simmon, Executive I� Director" IPHAIRMAN WEAVER: Virginia, just a moment, Question that you might js well tackle for clarification. Looking at the white chart I� here, I notice there are a couple of rentals , Can you explain what ithose are? �S . SI'MMON: Are you speaking of the we have some office rental pace in the building. Are you talking about the current use of he building? CHAIRMAN WEAVER: There are two listed rentals in this . . . S. SIMMON: Yes, we currently- have on the second floor next to our onference room which we are now utilizing -- the one we want to I xpand - we have two small rental office spaces which we do rent . don' t know whether that particular one refers to rentals or wheth r � t refers to the rental of the residential units . R. ADAMS. : I think you are referring to Century, and Donagal, S. SIMMON: We do right now have two office rental spaces. They re relatively small but we do rent them out, R. ADAMS : Mr. Agard do you have anything to add to this? R. AGARD: I think everything has been said that needs to be said. JHAIRMAN WEAVER: Dick, you better- come up front. IR. AGARD: My name is Dick Agard, I 'm a real estate broker and a R 1 i 60 - i i `member of the Chamber and a Director . It seems to me that the lChamber, as a result of the 1972 variance, obviously purchased the jproperty in good faith and now is finding - we are finding ourselves i in a catch 22 situation where we need the space for business use and are perhaps unable to use it as we thought we could when the I�property was bought in 1972 and I think there is a clear hardship i : situation here which the Chamber is faced with because we own the i1building - it isn't a question of buying it - we've had it for ten iyears and there is clearly a hardship being created space-wise by virtue of the present set up of the apartments. SMR. TAUBE : May I just very quickly add. . . . iCHAIRMAN WEAVER: You will have to add it up here. I j,MR. TAUBE: I want to go home too. But we've been through four lboards already, I just want to make sure of two items . One very important point I think that I probably should have mentioned is , the fact that the second time that we are here the Board is based 11in part on suggestions from the Planning Board from our first ses ision as well as , I guess, informal sessions with the city following the BZA meeting a year ago last year I believe it was . And the ++, changes that we have made have been in an attempt to meet what we lunderstood to be the wishes of the Boards and the City. I also `` would like to point out - in contrast to this evenings session - a of the fourth meeting we have had no objections - at least I am unaware of any objections whatsoever from the neighborhood in all four meetings . And thirdly relative to the hardship issue - it may be very difficult to go through all the figures, but the bottom line of the comparative chart was simply to shwo that the - if the chamber were not to be granted the use of the additional space would of course be put in a position of having to find new space and the sale of this particular piece of property not being able to be sold as business would most likely fall into the same problem that many large residences downtown fall into - cannot sell it for quality (apartments because of both the particular layout of this building, Ilthe incredible costs to not only improve - bring the building up F 'Ito date but to make it into four or five apartments . The cost I o� Ii fj 61 - ii then to a new owner would be extremely prohibitive . Thank you. I (` CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Anyone from the Board have any questions? 1MR. BENNETT: My name is William Bennett, I live at 431 S. Geneva (! Street , I am a director of the Chamber of Commerce and I am the i� 11Director of the Administrative Portfolio of the Chamber. Since I ' too want to go home, I will be extremely brief and to what everyon else has already said, I would only point out that prior to all of i IMr. Taube ' s work in compiling the figures that you have before you f four committee also looked at the possibility of selling the existi g structure and purchasing comparable downtown space or building a n w jbuilding and needless to say, found both of those alternatives to i be totally out of the question economically, Before we proceeded with the study by Mr. Taube and the four hearings that have taken 1place in the last two years, Thank you. jCHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank. you. "MR. ADAMS: Now if you have any questions of anybody . . . i CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I have some of you, if you will, A matter of clarification. Looking at the optional uses, as indicated by the I present situation, and assuming that the 1972 variance limited I,your non--conforming use to the space you now use for business pur- f �fposes , now you will have to live with that assumption, i 11MR. ADAMS: Okay, I' ll assume it . j! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Would you then express the hardship that the Board suffers as the hardship that any business would experience ; where they have a growth of activity and don' t have more space on site. �IMR. ADAMS: Yes, Mr. Chairman, I think the basis of that would be that �Ithe only use of this building, other than the use that we have , would I' be for the permitted use if you are going to speak of the apartments !i '; in which case there would be the most an owner occupied apartment and four small ones, We figure it would cost - the figures are ; specified there - but to put in new bathrooms , neer kitchens for if these apartments to make it useable under any type of a reasonable 1program for a fourteen plus room house the biggest house on I ! the block would be prohibitive to use it as a complete residen �� tial area for the price that was paid for it and for any other Ii i 62 - �j reasonable use that that building could be put . Now assuming as y u 1� sa that the rant in 1972 was limited to just the first floor, � Y� g !fit can no longer be used then for the purposes of our particular i group. As Mr. Taube pointed out, if it were not permissible to USE ;pit as then planned and as we need it now, we would have to sell Ifit for its best possible use and we' d be lucky to get somewhere J! ,near the - but not as much - the $75 , 000 that we already have in- i ivested in it, And probably less than that by virtue of the fact that there is a new heating plant to go in and if we say we 've i igot $49 ,000 you are going to have $137 ,000 in a house that cannot I l, be sold for that so if we were to sell that particular place and i' get the most 70 or 80 thousand dollars as would be indicated on , some of the information on the five pages that we made as an exhi Mbit , that would be a definite financial hardship that would have �; to be born by the Chamber of Commerce and would be in addition to whatever grants that they might have had in - if you were to assum for the purpose of argument only - that we didn't have the prior 1 rights in 1972 . I 'd like to speak to that because that particular 1 jgrant was not limited in any way except that we did say that we Idid have two apartments but those two apartments could be used in any business operation, T don' t know whether T answered your ques - tion Chief completely but we certainly are hard pressed to find an possible use of this particular place for a reasonable value other than the use that we propose to put to it -, it isn't big enough fo our present use under the limitations as indicated by the first i �ileft hand column there - even that is costly for us but it isn't ( large enough for us so we can' t use it for that and we couldn' t sell it for enough if we wanted to put it on the market that anyon 'I else could make it into apartments, and use it for the intended purpose of that particular -- so T think tha:t .definitely is a , hardship and it is unique to the standpoint that this is the only , building in that whole block that is this size with so many rooms , M Iso poorly arranged with the two outside separate exits and some Rube Goldberg type of arrangement that we have to change around '1 ,( when we make the internal arrangements, That is why we went into iI i� 63 - I this feasibility study with a great deal of detail and spent sever- al thousand dollars , I assure you, in two years time to find out I whether we could use the place and the determination as presented by the feasibility study the full copy of which you have as pre- 11 sented in the other group. We've only put certain pages in as to �i this package that you have here but you have the full feasbility study - is that this is the only useable operation otherwise we �E would have to sell it and look for another place. E CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I' ll pursue this just a minute and may Mr. Taube ii and Mr. Agard can help. I 'm not anticipating the Board in any I; way I 'm just trying to clarify one fact. If you are limited to li the present area business use, and you say that that is inadequate jfor your needs and it went on the market as I understand the E i Zoning Ordinance, and at least - a given that the variance allows continued business use of the space you now use for business use - II that as a marketable house , the only alternative is not the one shown as residential four apartments , plus owner, but rather a frame structure with business use allowed on the first door plus I two apartments which is not has not been addressed as I see it - with any of these (unintelligible) maybe . I MR. ADAMS: Except that our information did indicate that under i ! that particular plan the very limited number of square feet that I ipurposes would be available r 1 , 214 feet that would be useable for business III' square foot which. in the: estimation poses would cost $12 . 82 -a a jj of the O'Brien and Taube was an unreasonable expenditure, But I'll let Mr. Taube go into that further too , i MR. TAUBE: I believe part of the answer was in the original study on page 120 where we perform the analysis that Mr, Bennett refer- red to comparing the cost to the chamber for renovating the exist- ing space, purchasing and renovating a comparable structure and I then new construction and the figures, although. I must be very j! careful not to compare the bottom line figures against the revise I j� the wide chart that you have there, because certain items were jused in a different context, The cost to the Chamber for the square footage went approximately ten-fold on a purchase and renovation i I i ! I - 64 - 'I and then I believe it is probably thirty-two fold to new construe E tion. The Chamber is a non-profit organization it' s intent is j �' to help the community, help business , etc. etc. and I think the Chamber has been very frugal in a sense in the way it has chosen to use its operating costs and I have been privy to this in trying I� G to put together the analysis in that - certainly by no means is !! an extravagant amount of money being spent on luxurious office I, lsuites but rather a very good structure where they can operate fr m j and put their resources to better use in the various programs in- eluding the small business council , etc. In looking at the alte - natives when we analyze this, the costs to the Chamber would have literally sky-rocketed if they were to move into alternative loca- tions. When the Chamber' s finance committee began comparing the costs, there were literally programs that would have to be dropped right out of the picture if they were to try and absorb the cost - even partially - of their overhead expenses , So I think, in a sense that' s answering the question - it is two-fold - on the !� one hand we feel that it may be very difficult to sell this parti- cular piece of property: on the other hand it probably even mo-re I !j difficult to go out onto the market today and try and find com- parable space, existing, renovated or new construction. ii CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Can you further identify page 20 for us? ' MR. TAUBE : That would have been in the original report which was submitted at the first BZA hearing. MR. ADAMS; If I may make the statement , I would be pleased to introduce this although it was introduced as evidence in the othe proceeding r it hasn't been in this . This is the complete feasi- j bi;lity study made by O'Brien & Taube that was a part of the exhibit and you have one copy here I know in the original the other file. On page 20 that he refers: to is in this . The only difference is that this has now been changed by the modification i� that the pages that I passed around where instead of doing the third floor as 'a seminar study room - conference room - with that as eliminated but I will be glad to submit copies of this page 2 I� but you do have - I'll leave my copy here although. I know Mr. HoaTd i� has a complete copy of the whole feasibility study as a part of the it 65 - !I I� other exhibit but I would like to offer it in evidence right now so that we will be sure that we do have it in evidence and will i submit to you as many copies as you need of that page 20 or any of the other part. Mr. Hoard has the one copy but - may I offer that in evidence sir? r CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes . Thank you. Does any member of the Board II have a question and of who? No rebuttals - but come forward. 1 MS. SIMMON: I wanted to expand a little bit on the answer to you question. No rebuttals . If I may I would just Like to inject one I chunk of logic according to Simmon and it may or may not be rele- vant. But as I understood the question, the question was that made I' (� the assumption that we did not have full use of the building when i, the variance was granted. I don't know how that was but I do kno from talking with Chamber Board Members and people who were around at that time that the building certainly was bought with the assum- ption that some time in the future we would have full use of that building or permission to expand as the time permitted. Thank you . CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to speak on this matter? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition to this 4 variance? MR. ADAMS: Would you like us to submit additional copies of this feasibility study that included page 209 CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I wanted - he referred to page 20 in his testi- mony and we had no page 20. I MR. ADAMS; But I would be glad to submit copies if you would i like them. i CHAIRMAN WEAVER: One will be sufficient I believe, ( MR. ADAMS: Thank you very much. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The Board will now go into executive session which means would the rest of you all please have a drink of water or anything else that suits your fancy. I� fj I { ` - 52 - i {I (i 3 I I , BARBARA RUANE, DO CERTIFY THAT I took the minutes of the Boardf of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, New York, in the matters of 1 Appeals numbered 1430 , 1431 , 5-1-81 , 1432 , 1433 , 1434 , 1435 and I 1436 on May 3 , 1982 at Common Council Chambers , City Hall , Ithaca,, i I New York; that I have transcribed same , and the foregoing is a I {i i true copy of the transcript of the minutes of the meeting and the i executive session of the Board of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, ' on the above date, and the whole thereof to the best of my ability. li i i I� i ii Barbara C. Ruane I 1 Ij Recording Secretary i { i{ l I; jSworn to before me this it i w — day of 1982 i j+ Notary Public {j JEAN J. HANKINSON NOTARY PUBLIC, STATE OF NEW.YORK M N0. 5 6-16 60800 QUALIFIED IN TCIW1K.iNS COUNrf., ! MY C4��..%'11SSION EXPIRES MARCH 30,3 !i I) t I (I i h i j. !I { (i �I ( i� i