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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1982-08-02 I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS II COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS �f CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK I ,E AUGUST 2 , 1982 � �( I TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ,lAppeal No. 1455 Appeal of Joseph & Rita Calvo 1 110 Cobb Street NO ONE SHOWED jjAPPEAL NO. 1456 Reconstruction Home , Inc. POSTPONED 1 318 S. Albany Street APPEAL NO. 1457 Collegetown Motor Lodge, Inc . 2 312 College Avenue 4' ;APPEAL NO. 1457 Executive Session 4 �! I JiAPPEAL NO. 1458 John Novarr (Valentine Dorms) 5 II 115-17 Valentine Place ! APPEAL NO. 1458 Executive Session 19 !APPEAL NO. 1459 Donald Dieterich 20 509-11 E. Buffalo Street EAPPEAL NO. 1459 Executive Session 23 , APPEAL NO. 1460 Cornell University 24 316 Fall Creek Drive If i 11APPEAL NO. 1460 Executive Session 54 APPEAL NO. 1461 Joseph V. Junod 55 j 207 W. Clinton Street I 'APPEAL NO. 1461 Executive Session 57 CERTIFICATE OF RECORDING SECRETARY 58 �i i' ,I ! i I t O M i I' �j i !1 I !i I {� I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS {I CITY OF ITHACA COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS I AUGUST 2 , 1982 ; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I ' ll now call this hearing to order. This is a i �fformal public hearing on a number of cases that are listed in the { agenda posted on the door for any of you who do not have access to ! Ija personal copy. I 'd like first to introduce the members of the lfBoard: Margaret Haine Toni Stevenson Donna Ward Bette Bagnardi I Charles Weaver, Chairman Thomas Hoard, Building Commas- 1 sioner $ Secy to the Board li Barbara Ruane, Recording Secy I! i` This hearing is being held under the City charter, its Zoning Ordii ,finances. The Board will not be bound by strict rules of evidence l I' �iin the conduct of the hearing but the determination will be founded. 11upon sufficient legal evidence to sustain the same . The Board re- i H 1, quests that all participants identify themselves as to name and ,, address and to confine their discussion to pertinent facts of the jcase . It will also be necessary to come forward and speak to this ! !! microphone here which is the only one that is wired into our tape �1recorder so that your remarks can be on the record. If you, in I 11ithe course of the hearing find it desirable to make comment from is iIthe audience, it is fine with me, but it won't go on the record unless you come forward. The cases will be heard in numerical order of listing on the notice of hearing and after hearing all of the cases the Board will then retire to executive session. Upon. lthe conclusion of the executive session the Board will reconvene Ito a public hearing and interested parties may receive verbal Il information on the results of any decisions , For those of you who " f� I 11don' t wish to cruise the corridors until we are done with our deli i berations , you can call the office of the Building Commissioner i !! after 8 , 30 tomorrow morning and get a message . a%/verbal report atl tthat time . I believe we are ready for the first case please . r ; SECRETARY HOARD: The first case Mr. Chairman is appeal number 1455: �I Appeal of Joseph & Rita Calvo for an area variance under Section 30 . 49 and l 2 j� and Section 30 .25 , Columns 11 and 13 for deficiencies in minimum front yard setback and minimum setback for one side yard, to per - mit the extension of the existing screen porch on the existing one-family house at 110 Cobb Street . The property is located in an R-1b use district, in which the existing use is permitted; however, under Section 30 .4 the appellants must obtain an area variance for the listed deficiencies before a building permit can be issued for the addition. Is Mr . Calvo here? Then appeal number 1456 , the appeal of the i Reconstruction Home, Inc. has been postponed. The Planning Board i + did not act on it at its hearing last week so we will go on to appeal number 1457 : Appeal of Collegetown Motor Lodge , Inc. for , an area variance under Section 30 . 49 and Section 30 . 25 , Columns 12 , 13 and 14 for de- ficiencies in minimum setbacks for both side yards, and minimum rear yard setback to permi an addition to the existing motel at 312 College Avenue to provide two additional room and a meeting room. The property is located in a B-2a use district , in which the existing use as a motel is permitted; however, under Section 30. 49 the appellants must obtain an area variance for the listed deficiencies be- fore a building permit can be issued for the addition. MR. ROSTEN: Arthur Rosten of 205 Willard Way in the city. Pri- marily I want to build a meeting room and - which is the first floor of the building. If we build the second floor we will put two motel units in it just because its the logical thing to do - that' s about it . The primary use is for meetings and small groups , of thirty-five to up to fifty people and primarily guests at the (motel . Cornell has shown an interest in needing this facility - �people from Cornell and this is primarily what we want to do. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Could you clarify your comment about the two rooms - that might logically go on the second floor. MR. ROSTEN: Well if we build two stories we would put two motel units on the second floor because we have access to it from the I , building that we presently have - just remove a window and use than as a doorway and just the way its located, it makes sense to do that rather than storage or anything else . But the basic main reason is for the meeting room. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Are there any questions from members of the Boardl? MS. BAGNARDI : You say the meeting room will accommodate between thirty-five and . . . ? i i - 3 - I' MR. ROSTEN: It will accommodate up to fifty persons . We need it i for thirty-five people. MS. BAGNARDI : How many parking areas do you currently have? MR. ROSTEN: Forty-eight. And if we build the two units this will I{ give us a total of forty-three rooms . So there is a lot of park- ing - in fact when we counted and laid it out we found out we had i places that we didn't know we had - overgrown with weeds - we Iweren' t even using them. I MS. BAGNARDI: Do you park behind the motel? MR. ROSTEN: Yes. The old honey butter factory. We us that, yes . l j CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to i speak in favor of this application? Is there anyone who wishes to I speak in opposition to this application? We ' ll have the next case i i i I i I � i i fj ii i i i I I 1 li 4 I !i !I i i i �I � - 4 - I' i! BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA i! AUGUST 2 , 1982 R EXECUTIVE SESSION APPEAL NO. 1457 i I} ; The Board considered the appeal of Collegetown Motor Lodge , Inc . {! for an area variance to permit an addition to the existing motel at 312 College Avenue to provide two additional rooms and a meet- ! ing room. The decision of the Board was as follows : MS. BAGNARDI : I move that the Board grant the area variance requested in appeal number 1457 . I! MS. STEVENSON: I second the motion. i FINDINGS OF FACT: �11) The additional two units and meeting room will not adversely �I i jl affect the neighborhood. 112) The proposed use is a permitted use . i� �' 3) There is sufficient parking . (! � 4) Practical difficulties have been shown in meeting the setback �Irequirements - the setbacks are already deficient for the � i existing structure . INOTE: 5 Yes ; 0 No Granted �. i III I ! ' I l i �I I � �I I` II i ( ii i I � I 1� II - 5 - I !, BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA AUGUST 2 , 1982 SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1458 : Appeal of John Novarr for a use variance unde� 30 25 Column 2 f Section , r an area variance o under Section 30 . 49 and Section 30 . 253. Column , 11 for deficient front yard setback, to perms the conversion of the Valentine Dormitories at 115-17 Valentine Place to thirty-six (36) apartments . The property is located in a P-1 ' use district, in which the proposed use as i apartments is not a permitted use; therefore the appellant must obtain a use variance , and i under Section 30. 49 the appellant must also i obtain an area variance for the listed defi- ciencies before a building permit can be ! issued for the conversion. i MR. NOVARR: I 'mJohn Novarr, I live at 202 Eddy Street, and I would be the owner of the project that we are talking about on i Valentine Place. I wrote a letter to the neighborhood which I hav also used as part of my rpesentation and I read it to the Planning I Board and it seemed to answer a lot of the questions that they had so why don't I read it again here . This is the one that is dated July 7 , 1982 . "Applicant intends to reconstruct the interior of the existing Valentine dormitory structures , converting them from a residential dormitory into thirty- six apartment units . It is the applicant's plan to build ten two-bedroom, eleven studio, thir teen one-bedroom, one four-bedroom and one caretaker ' s studio apar - { ment. The apartments will be small and each bedroom or studio wil ! Jibe provided with one single bed.. All apartments will be totally furnished. There are forty-three parking places provided for the ( forty-eight prospective tenants and one caretaker. The density wi l be much less than when it was a dormitory, housing approximately seventy people . Th.e owner plans to hold on to the development for a long period of time He also hopes to place a manager on the j premises in the second year, when he can afford it. In the mean j i time , the owner lives at 202 Eddy Street, only a few blocks from j the apartments, and will himself deal with- any problems which may arise . It is the owner' s premise that people who wish to live alone are probably more serious students, and therefore prople who wish ito live more quietly. People will be living in generally small I I! � 6 - r I! self-contained units , which are not conducive to parties and large! gatherings , rather than a dormitory with public rooms and an atmos phere which encourages large gatherings and noise. Hopefully, the! I! !� apartments will be priced such that single and married profession �i I als might also be interested in renting. While the apartments wil� certainly be attractive to people who wish to live within walking , distance of Cornell , the owner hopes to rent to a variety of people . ( There will be no pets allowed. The Valentin dormitory, built in � I 111929, formerly the Tompkins County Hospital Nurses ' residence , has ! it lsremained vacant for some years . The property is presently owned Eby Ithaca College and was used by them in previous years as a 1Iresidential dormitory. The property is wholly located within a 1P-1 district and the land area comprises approximately four and i one-half acres . In its present state , as publicly zoned property, ! ' the Valentine dormitory is not saleable or economically useable. I� Ithaca College lost money when it used the property as a dormitory ] i because they bused the students back and forth to the main campus . ] I They attempted in May 1979 to sell the building and offered it to !; Cornell University. Cornell was not interested in purchasing the building . Since 1979, there have been fifty or so people who have looked at it, and eight or nine formal offers . In all cases i except one, the plan for the property was for apartment conversion. (!Tom Salm, Ithaca College Vice President , says that Ithaca College 11has incurred a major hardship. They have been unable to find anyone 11interested in over three years in buying the building for public usle . They have lost 12 to 15% per year over this period of time on their !investment , and, as stated, the only interest shown in the building) i I !has been one which would necessitate a multiple residence use. i Since multiple residential use is permitted in the adjacent zone , IIthe zone most affected by the proposed use, and because Ithaca I�College has incurred hardship, the Board has authority to grant a Fuse variance to allow multi-family use. In that regard, alternates I Isrelief is hereby sought; (a) a use variance (b) an area variance . ! ► 1 I guess , Tom, we can ignore the area variance one of the area I i warances. ,j I t I Ji 1� I 7 - I it (! SECRETARY HOARD: You still need the front yard. . . . ii 11MR. NOVARR: One of the area variances - okay. "Regarding (a) , ( the size of the lot and its location are ideal for multiple resi- j II I i! dential use , parking is available, and access to the arterial Rout � 79 (State Street) is only one block away. The neighborhood traffic i Iwillbe minimally affected. Operation of the apartment units would Abe less burdensome than the permitted dormitory use . Regarding H (b) , the masonry building is five stories tall , and one corner II appears to be very close to Valentine Place. " - This is the part (! that is not a problem any longer - the fact that it is five storie$ ! tall . It should be noted though that its - the corner of the i building sits essentially on the property line and that is a probl4m i II ; and I do need an area variance for that , is that correct? ! SECRETARY HOARD: Right. j i lMR. NOVARR: I 'd like to make a few points - having read this to a i ii number of people over a lot of weeks now, I have changed my though lin one or two areas . Number 1 , I 've increased from thirty-five to �Ithirty-six apartments , my initial proposal so I can put a manager II Ion the premises in the first year and that is the plan now. In I regard to the statement in the last paragraph having to do with ,! traffic I would guess that if one out of every two people who liv� 11 l! in this place have a car, there will be about twenty-five extra Il cars there. That' s not a lot of extra traffic on a city street. h I� the other hand, I suppose, if I were living on that street and I i1were used to no traffic � going up and down it , I might see this diff ferently and I believe that some of the neighbors do. It ' s been i gvoiced in a number of meetings that - while most of the neighbors !! seem to be generally in favor of the use r they are worried about ; the street and the extra traffic and I believe that they are hopin ' that withthe added tax money the street can be made - can be main+ fjtained better both in terms of filled pot holes and that sort of 11thing and they hope that it will be plowed better than it is , in I� ��Ithe winter time . They have a fear that cars won't be able to get I I, up there and onto State Street on bad winter days. I also have a I 1lletter Here which Tom Salm wrote to Tom Hoard. This is the proper ! 8 - time to read this letter? "This letter is written in response to I the City' s eminent consideration of Mr. John Novarr 's request for the necessary variance to convert Ithaca College ' s Valentine Dor- mitory into thirty-five apartment units . As you know, the College �` has been trying to sell this property for more than three years , Jow ears ago the Cit of Ithac had an option on the property C Y g Y P p P Y � ! hoping to find Federal monies that would permit conversion to a I jco-op housing arrangement . Unfortunately, Federal monies were not � availab . e During the past three years more than fifty interested parties have toured the building. This has resulted in eight or nine formal purchase offers all of which have been unacceptable be- cause they contained some major impediment to a reasonable sale. lWe have cooperated fully with all interested parties in an effort i �to move the property. Since it is no longer useful to Ithaca Col- j lege, we are most anxious to see it put to good use by another party and begin to generate tax revenue for the City of Ithaca. Our inability to move the property has become a hardship for the College. Obviously, we are losing revenue because we do not have the funds from a realized sale to invest , I'f we assume a sale price of $150 , 000-$200 ,000 and further assume a conservative interest rate of 120 , the College has lost from $18 ,000 to $24 ,000 per year lfor each of the past three years.. In addition, the College contin- ('ues to use staff time for people to show the building, maintenance ►lland security personnel to keep an eye on the building, plus some i ,modest utility, cost to light the building to prevent vandalism. In summary, thebuildi.ng is a hardship for Ithaca College because it is f (producing no revenue and is making unproductive use of personnel i time , it would seem to me that the ultimate use of this building must be for some kind of multi residence use, Because of the large building the cost is too high to turn the area into a few single � I family dwellings. Therefore, it would be to the advantage of the City, Ithaca College and the developer to proceed with renovation of the building as proposed by John Novarr. Should you need furthe information, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, /s/ Thomas Salm, Vice President , Business Affairs. " i I� i - 9 - I think from my point of view this probably covers it . I would be happy to answer any questions you people might have. Ii MS . BAGNARDI : John, how long ago was it used as an Ithaca Colleges 1I dormitory? MR. NOVARR: I believe three years ago was the last time it was ;! used. It has been closed for three years . Probably May or June of 1179 would have been the last . . . i i MS, BAGNARDI: So up until that point it was occupied by. . . ? I I MR. NOVARR: By about seventy students . i!SMS. WARD: John, I come up with fifty-nine beds , am I wrong? ' IMR. NOVARR: Yes. I SIMS. WARD: You have ten - two bedrooms -- that would be twenty bedsJ ! MR. NOVARR: That' s right. i MS . WARD: Okay. Eleven studio would be eleven. I I� i' MR. NOVARR: That 's right. ; MS. WARD: Thirteen one-bedroom would be thirteen, j i �! MR. NOVARR: Right.�IMS . WARD: One four bedroom, so that would be four. hMR. NOVARR: Right. i; � MS. WARD: And then the caretaker . hMR. NOVARR: Right, I 've got forty:-nine beds . Thirty !IMS . WARD: Okay, I must have added wrong. fMS . STEVENSON: What is to prevent them from moving the single bed ', lout and putting in a double? MR. NOVARR: That is one of the questions that came out at the ,, PlanningBoard meeting. Most of the bedrooms not all but most i' g� ' ' i of the bedrooms in this proposed development , are under 100 square ; feet. City law states that those bedrooms have to be 120 square ,ifeet, I believe, before two people can inhabit the bedroom. In factual fact I think that everybody realizes that if a woman and hey fj 11boyfriend or a man and his girlfriend want to share a bedroom, it I! (iis difficult to do much about , I'm doing what I can. The bedroom ii fare small , they will be single beds in each bedroom, supplied. I 'm ! not going to go into those apartments once a week and see who is �iliving in them. If two names start showing up on a mailbox that ` belongs to a one-bedroom apartment , I ' ll have to deal with it . I ' ljl I it I II - lo - have to deal with it because the City law states they are living i J it illegally in that apartment . But - I don't know if that satisfac- 1 �I torily answers your question but it isn't a scheme which has f authomatically planned for thirty more people than I 'm telling you will be in there. If an occasional person sneaks in it would probfi I ably be par for the course. If it is pointed out to me or if it 1 causes a problem or if I discover it myself, I ' ll act as the law (! would expect me to act. Am I supposed to entertain. . . CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You don't have to sing , dance or a thing, John I 'm waiting . Does anyone on the Board have a question? Thank you; very much. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in support ofl ; this application? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition Ito this application? Come forward. `! MR. STEIGER: Mr. Chairman, my name is Raul Steiger, I live at I 1935 E. State Street and I 'm not speaking in opposition. Can I ask ; fIsome questions or . . . ? It is my understanding that the Planning i, lBoard approved this based on a limit of the number of tenants . Is ! that correct or am I: incorrect? IICHAIRMAN WEAVER: I' ll read the motion of the Planning Board and I1their discussion precedes that motion but this may answer your ' question. "Motion; By Mr. Sampson to recommend APPROVAL: seconded ) i 11by Mr . Holdsworth with the amendment that approval be subject to limiting the Certificate of Occupancy to a maximum of 49 occupants i ' Discussion over the necessity of this provision followed. Mr. Sam�- ! son accepted amendment as friendly. Vote: 3-0 ." !j MR. STEIGER: Does that mean that if the bza approves it that it 1 i will be within that restriction or not? I I ( CHAIRMAN WEAVER; It doesn' t - the Planning and Development Board i ;( recommendations to us are merely that, We will be independent - ! our decision will be that that will restrict or not restrict the 11 ! applicant. There' s is - their recommendation is not binding on us I i so if you wish- to speak in support of their recommendation that (' some limitation be put on the project, go ahead, 11MR. STEIGER: John, is there any reason that the bedrooms couldn' t ; I Ibe made into or the living rooms couldn't be made into bedrooms it and be legal and have two tenants in each apartment - two occupant I I� i 11 in each apartment? 11MR. NOVARR: Some of the apartments aren' t set up in such a way 1Ithat it would allow that. The studios , for instance , a bedroom- I 1� living room all in one - I really can't answer that - I don' t knowa iTom is there a law which says you have to supply rooms in a one orl ila two bedroom apartment - you have to supply a living room or can ; ( they all be bedrooms? i , SECRETARY HOARD: In the layout in your building you would have a I I Hprivacy problem. You would be having people going through - if th,, i �Jiving rooms were made into bedrooms - to get to the other bedroom '; �I 1you' d be going through someone elses bedroom and that is not per- ' mitted under the code. So there are a number of . (;MR. NQVARR: I think then that the answer to your question is that j the building code has already taken care of your concern. It couldn' t happen, legally. I have no problem if the BZA wishes to i Ilstate that the living rooms can't be used as bedrooms in issuing tho I variance for this project I don't have any problem with that. Iti' s i !illegal anyway but if it makes - if it seals it for you, it ' s fine ,with me. (,IR. STEIGER: Well do you have a problem with limit of number of 1'9ccupancies? MR. NQVARR: In a general way, I don' t. What bothered me with the Aiscussion that took place on just this issue a week ago was that i I�.t puts me in the position of trying to enforce something that to j Some degree is unenforceable . I can't go in the thirty-six apart- i pents once a week to check out what is going on. I SNR, STEIGER; That isn' t really our concern John, We own real ;state too and you can bend the law in a good many ways and one of i i i�hem is to rent double occupancy, where you are not allowed to and Ili We a real concern about that , R. NQVARR: I have no intention of breaking the law, j R. STEIGER: There was a discussion about the parking area -- can i jyou tell us your intent on that in regard to the where it will be?, I �ECRETARY HOARD: John, could you come forward so we can make sure *hat this is on the tape? i' !� I I - 12 - R. NOVARR: Sure . The layout of the buildings is such that the upper building, which is the older building, has an entrance to the lower building off the ground floor so that one could walk - (Mr. ovarr went to the blackboard and drew the layout) . Okay. This isl the front building, this is the back building (pointing to sketch o the blackboard) the land slopes like that . The entrance to this uilding is right here . There is no elevator in the five story uilding. In order for people to not have to walk up five floors f om round level, there is a passageway which hits the back building from the ground floor of the front building, snap dab in the middle ' -- in other words, two and one-half floors up. There is a parking blot up here which exists and there is a proposed parking lot down ere. My concern is that the people who live in the upper floors � f this building park in the upper parking lot so that they are able to walk through the ground floor of this building to get into his one, because I think I ' ll have a problem renting a five-floor alk-up. The people who live in the lower floors of this building would park down here and they would have no more than a two-one-hal loor one-one-half floors of stairway to walk up. I believe that ! our concern is that the parking lot which is on the plan presently# �hows enough cars so that there is an enlargement of that lot which tikes it closer to the property line than you are comfortable with. ; 've told your wife that if there is a way for me to make my tenant appy, and make you happy and thereby cut the size of that lot down, Ln the direction that approaches your property, I will do it. But What I won' t do is to jeapordize my ability to rent by forcing i eople who live in the upper floors of this back building to have Q park down low, I''m hoping that there is some compromise that we an make concerning that so that I don' t approach your property lin nough so that it upsets you. On the other hand, you should under tand that from my point of view, I 've got to be able to park enoug ars up above so that this building doesn' t turn into a five floor I alk-up for anyone . That ' s as I understand it - that was the dis ussion of the parking. There is enough parking available on the roperty to accommodate- I think all the cars , I don' t think I hat was a Question at all . 13 - i IMR. STEIGER: Currently? R. NOVARR: No . I {ICHAIRMAN WEAVER: May I get in the middle of this for just a minute !MR. NOVARR: Sure . CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Assuming a positive action by this Board which i would allow - would then make use of this building as a multiple i �!residence, is the proposed parking within the then regulations of I I ,Ithe zone? ;Or does it come too close to the adjacent property? 11SECRETARY' HOARD: No, it would comply, hCHAIRMAN WEAVER: It would conform. Go ahead. I +SIR. STEIGER: Am I correct , and I am not asking a leading question I because I am ignorant of the law, am I correct in assuming that if ithis variance is granted that any future construction on the site ;I I jfor additional occupancy would have to be again approved by this !�oard? i CHAIRMAN WEAVER: New construction? Yes sir. MS. BAGNARDI : You mean like an addition to the property or other I buildings? IIHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes . � I l" � MR. STEIGER: Okay, I state our position this way. We have a I ' roperty that is adjacent to this property and we agree that something luseful needs to be done with the Ithaca College property. We don' t ', i agree that it is a hardship to them at all considering what they aid for the property. There is no way that it could be a hardship ' I ,�or them to own the property but something useful needs to be done wth. that property, This is as acceptable a proposal as we 've seem I providing that certain restrictions are met and admittedly, selfish7 py, for our own protection, and I know there are other neighbors IIII C hat might have different interests , selfishly for our own protec- r lion, the restri,cti..ons would be on the number of occupants and on I the distance of the parking area from our property which. is now seventy feet. And in summary with the restriction that the Plannin4 !Board put on their approval in terms of occupancy and if we had an agreement that the parking area would be no closer than it is to ebur property line , we are in support. If that is not the case , I i '!� I I� i - 14 - I not only think that it should be denied - now I state that we are in opposition but I believe it should be denied so that we can 1have further time to develop our case. The current proposal for (I ' development seems to be as reasonable as any that we 've seen and obviously the City choses , from past experiences in regard to this , the City choses to see that to run the risk of seeing that wooded I area not wooded anymore , which I think is very unfortunate, but that being the case and the need for tax revenues to the City, and ) for various other reasons , we would support - based on those re- strictions but if those restrictions would not be met , I think that we should have an opportunity to come back and oppose it when we have had further opportunity to develop our case. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Do you wish to respond in any form John, while you are up here? MR. NOVARR: Perhaps ,just one item. The crux of the matter, I believe, is whether the Board sees Ithaca College with a hardship. ) I don't believe there is any question but what Ithaca College has tried in every ligitimate fashion that they can think of to sell this building to some organization which would allow it to continu having a P-1 use. That doesn' t give them many options . Because Ithaca College can' t find a purchaser for the building which would use it within the P-1 specifications Ithaca College does have a hardship and my understanding of things is that once the Board recognizes that that hardship exists , that the building cannot The sold to somebody that would continue using it as it had been used, then the Board would in all likelihood give me the approval that I am looking for CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Questions? MS. BAGNARDI ; I have another questions, John. On your plans you have proposed to Put a parking area there for twenty-three cars . MR. NOVARR: That ' s the parking lot that is in question Bette . It lexists but it doesn 't go as close to this property line presently � as this drawing shows . In other words this parking -- the existing parking lot has been expanded so that it is this size now. MS . WARD: How close does that make it to that property line? ! i - f, i MR. NQVARR: You mentioned. . . . j i VOICE IN THE AUDIENCE: (unintelligible) ,IMS. WARD: How many spots are you putting in? You said some of ii ; them are there. i i) ! MR. NQVARR: T don't know. But there is room right at the moment ! to put ten, twelve or fourteen cars in that lot somewhere in there; ! So it appears to me that in approximate numbers it would be almost I + doubled in size from what it is presently. MS. WARD: The bottom one John is the one that I thank of as being I so small . This is where the building just sits in I guess I am confused about this bottom area. This is where the building sits j �ilin., then this is just - is this the downhill area? i MR. NQVARR: Look at it this way, probably be easier . This is Valentine Place, the city owns this piece of property. In order tc ! get to this lot one would drive here and then back in and there ( would be a path put in - none of this exists now— this is here but this is not and there would be a path so that people could wall ifrom the lot to Does that answer your question? IMS . WARD: Yes you did. MR. NQVARR: In regard to the other question, one inch on this scare !j equals forty feet. Roughly that is the closest point to this piece , of property is something approaching that, so what she says is cor- IIrect -- it is somewhere in the neighborhood the new lot is some- � i liwhere in the neighborhood of forty, feet from their property line. IMS, BAGNARDI : Do you have any plans in this area down here - all I that wooded area? i 11MR. NOVARR: I presently have no plans to develop that land. But what I've told people when they've asked, is that there are very I 1Ifew places in Ithaca at this time that are developable that are j within walking distance of Cornell that are four and one-half acres ;lin size. The reason that the future development of the property i Il isn' t really an issue is that, as it was pointed out, no developer I! 'coudl do anything without coming back in front of this Board. But ! to answer your question, I have no immediate plan nothing sitting (Ion mydesk that looks like this or even much that is up here that i I � - 16 - 4 jj relates to putting more buildings on the property. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to 'i speak in opposition to this application? Please come forward. MRS. DITZELL: Good evening Mr. Weaver and Mr. Hoard. I 'm Mrs . i! Ruth Ditzell of 111 Valentine Place the direct northeast neighbor to this property. We share the driveway that this property sharesi (( because of the fact that we have a permanent right-of-way through (� it and we also have eight tenants which occasionally go through lthis driveway. We have a couple of cars which would add to the traffic of these forty-nine people which may be there. Now I have 1' talked with a number of the immediate neighbors - the one at the top of the road, the Catalfanos , Mrs . Menke who is on the - I had � I the numbers with me before but she is around the corner on State; Street from Valentine Place, Mrs . Rats who is on the corner of Valentine -lace. I omitted the next family because one is employe at Ithaca College and I and my husband who are the next house , arel (� all in opposition to this and then on the other side of the road - 1 � I !11 there is a house on the corner which we omitted for reasons that w� think they would probably rather not be involved. And then there is the one in the middle who is here to speak at the Planning I ; Board - the Zinders, Mrs , Herron in the next house and Mrs. Dean 11 are all in opposition to the traffic. Now Mr. Novarr' s plan is a �I good plan as far as the building itself is concerned and the best 11 that we have heard but it is not his fault that we are built on quite a steep hill and i.f some of you have been down that hill you ! I ii know that it goes down quite steeply and then continues even more I steeply down below that, And all of the traffic, as I understand, will have to comedown make a turn around in this parking lot or ! iin one of our driveways in order to get back of Valentine Place 11which is very, difficult in the winter when it snows . Mr. Zworker of Ithacare has stated that he would close off to all car traffic i the passageway that goes between Valentine Place and around to I ;jIthacare as soon as it is sold and there will only be foot traffic , (, allowed there, That has always been an emergency exit from our Ij lstreet in times- when it was- snowy and difficult to get up the road, �j i� 17 - Ii I don't believe there have been over fifty people - probably forty or fifty, I don' t have Ithaca College 's records , but probably only that amount at the top figure because I can tell from the fires - the times when they had fires in the middle of the night - alarms and all the people would be outside. I don' t believe there were over fifty people at the time that they had it. One year they j rented it to Cornell and at that time there were probably somethin like seventy and that was a really bad year. The cars were parked i all along on the right-of-way and that 's supposed to be a fire lan and we could hardly get out of our driveway at all many mornings . We were just blocked right there because we couldn't get out becau e of the cars parked all over the place . And as someone pointed out at the Planning Board meeting, the street is thirty-five feet wide with a fire truck coming down there, it could not get through if there was one car parked on Valentine Place - which we feel will happen if there are all of these cars with their visitors in this house. Now it would be very nice if it could be limited to forty- nine people but we know there will be visitors , there will be parties , there will be get-togethers, there will be a lot of cars we know there will be extra noise . Now Mr. Novarr just can't help the fact that it was built on a steep hill and the fact that the rooms were very small when it was built and it was there for vir- tually turned down or improper for people to live in beeause of its size - the rooms were too small . It was: formerly used as a nursing home and I 've lived there the best part of my life was born and raised on that street and in that house moved away somel years and we are back there and have been there a number of years since. So we are really natives of Valentine Place and we live in the oldest house there, too , on the street. Our neighbors are vex concerned about the snow removal , the traffic for Mrs . Roger' s children and the Zinders have a little child. We are concerned about getting out of the street. They, are concerned about parking on the street. So I just wanted you to know that they are not all in favor of this plan. I am sorry to see it sit there empty, too, j but there are other possibilities such as a hospice where there ' i !i 18 - i� wouldn' t be a lot of traffic or storage with an elevator so that �i people - there is a need of storage in Ithaca - if they were able i! to put things in an elevator and park in these small rooms they Ii !i would be ideal for storage area but I don 't know whether Mr. Novara i' I could change his plans that way or not . He has done his very best` ;i to try to accommodate us, as neighbors there, and we do appreciate that but we are very concerned about the fact that it is going to ff� Iibecome like College Avenue and right now it is a very quiet , nice , ! spark-like atmosphere and street and, of course , we would like to ' keep it that way it may be selfish but we like it that way. Ij CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to i ! speak in opposition to this application? There is one fact that ' was discussed in the Planning Board meeting that this Board not only can grant a variance and can grant a conditional variance that some of you have petitioned that we do , I''d like to point out thai ( the same enforcement problem of civil action is the only recourse I' I , for a violation of zoning as it is with a violation of a housing ! code or the building code . So whether or not this Board grants ! this and whether i,t grants it with a condition on the Certificate 11 of Occupancy the problem of enforcement would still be a civil t I ! action and the experience there has been slow and tortuous . Anyone I lelse who wishes to speak on this application'? Next case please. I i !i I I i� I i ! i I ,i i I I ' i I - 19 - �' I i j BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK j COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS AUGUST 2 , 1982 j 'I EXECUTIVE SESSION I, ; APPEAL NO. 1458 i The Board considered the appeal of John Novarr for a use variance and an area variance to permit the conversion of the Valentine Dormitories at 115-17 Valentine Place to thirty-six (36) apartment - The partment .The decision of the Board was as follows : I hMS. WARD: I move that the Board grant the use and area variances requested in appeal number 1458 . I I SMS. HAINE: I second the motion. FINDINGS OF FACT: j 1) As to the use variance the hardship has been developed by i letter received from Mr. Thomas Salem, Vice President of Ithac4 i' College and the fact that the P-1 zoning severely limits the i number of uses and users for this property to the point where M! i no serious offers have been received for permitted uses . j !i 2) As to the area variance the practical difficulties have been shoran in meeting the front yard set back requirements in that i I the existing building cannot be moved. I�II! VOTE: 5 Yes ; 0 No Granted i �I I l I ,i li I jl I i j� li I i i j !i I - 20 - i f i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS AUGUST 2 , 1982 i SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1459 : Appeal of Donald Dieterich for an area vari - ance under Section 30 .49 and Section 30 . 25 , 1 Column 12 for deficiencies in minimum set- backs for one side yard to permit the con- version of one efficiency apartment to a one-bedroom apartment in the existing four unit apartment house at 509-11 E . Buffalo St . The property is located in an R-3a use dis- trict, in which the existing use as a multi ple dwelling is permitted; however, under Section 30.49 the appellants must obtain an area variance for the listed deficiencies before a building permit can be issued for the conversion. MR. SHARMA: My name is Jagat Sharma, I 'm the architect on the proposed addition, I live at 110 Maplewood Drive and I represent the owner. The proposal here is putting an addition on the back o ala two-family dwelling presently used as a multiple dwelling. The ipresent building, 509-511 , has four apartments . On the first floo there is a two-bedroom apartment, and a studio in the back. On th� second floor there is a two-bedroom apartment and the third floor there is a studio . There is parking available on the site - a three car garage and four spaces on the lot or five spaces on Ithe lot, a total of eight car parking available. What is being proposed here is to put a second floor addition on the studio part of the first floor the back of the building is a single story studio and it his a living room and a bathroom and a kitchenette. What we are proposing is to take the bathroom out , put a new set of� Istairs and put an eight by ten bedroom and bath on the second floo . The total additional area will be three hundred square feet out of , I which the portion of the bedroom and the bath will be one hundred ninety eight square feet. The rest of it will be a porch which wild r Abe used by the third floor tenant. Presently he comes down on the roof of this so by, using the same stairs he will be using it as an enclosed porch. Under the present zoning it complies with all the requirements except for a side yard (unintel'ligible)- by five feet. I believe we have a varying side yard r it varies from three I I ,I 21 - I Ii feet to two feet but the building has been there for almost fifty , ! years and it is heavily landscaped and there is existing condition , it� there is nothing that can be done to increase the side yard. It i$ ', properly maintained a good sized apartment inside - there is no i l� intention by the owner to cram it up with more people . The reason ] for this addition is only to provide a decent convenience for the listudio apartment and also to provide an outdoor porch for the thir4 floor studio , because it gets very hot . We presented this appli- cation before the Planning Board and their approval put the condi- i tion on it that we should have only a maximum of six occupants . W4 �, do not agree with that condition because without the proposed addil I tion of the proposal that we have in front of us today the buildin4 ' has two, two-bedroom apartments, each two bedroom has a living roo4 !, thirteen by twenty feet , one bedroom with a eleven foot eight by lieleven foot nine, the other bedroom is thirteen feet two by nine feet seven - so without even putting the addition and without even ; using the studio there could be a time when two families could live lin the building , each occupying a two bedroom and we could have a I ( total of more than six people laving in the building, a family of three can easily live in a two bedroom apartment. The owner bough ' the building twenty-five years ago and it has been in the same con; i I dation as he bought. His intention is not to crowd more people inj �ithough we comply with the requirements of the parking for four i apartments and we have medium size that complies with the require- i ilments of the multiple dwelling . So under these conditions that th 11 !; climate can come - the rental situation may arise that the bualdin I IImay go back to renting to families rather than to students you cou d ( have more than six people living at least four in two apartments � or five in two apartments, two bedroom apartments , and one in each ' studio - you could have seven people living right there , That is I not the intention but it could happen because the rooms are big enough and therefore we disagree on the condition that was put by the Planning Board . There was a concern expressed in the presenta-, ; tion before the Planning Board that too many parking spaces in the ; i back. There is forty feet - there is a garage in the back of the !property. The house and the existing garage - there is forty feet ' I I � - 22 - 0I I i between the building and the garage and forty feet in between the II building and the side yard and it is heavily landscaped, there is I' no - in fact you can' t even see the building when it will be built] it is very difficult to even take pictures of the building so tho I point is not that we are trying to create some kind of adverse li = environmental thing you know - putting a high building from a I design point of view. The only reason for this is to provide a i i i decent convenience for the studio tenant and for the tenant on thel ( third floor studio. As far as the materials are concerned we are I i going to match whatever is there in window size and trim and siding . That ' s all I have to say. i �ICHAIRMAN WEAVER: Question. In your judgment - the present re- iquirements in meeting the housing code occupancy limitations that I 4the maximum legal occupancy would now is seven persons? II IiMR. SHARMA: Under the Housing Code you could - in each two bedroo* 11apartment - the east bedroom you can have more than one person living because they are more than one hundred twenty square feet. 1 �lEach two bedroom apartment has two hundred sixty square feet of i' living room, one hundred thirty-seven square feet of one bedroom, one hundred twenty-six square feet one other bedroom, So under thq 1 Housing Code you could have a situation where more than one person ; �I is living in each bedroom but that is not what has happened in they ,ipast and that is not the intention of the owner. But even then we � i I� comply with the requirements of the parking under the present I l (! zoning we had to provide only four car parking and we have eight on the lot. �jCHAIRMAN WEAVER: Anyone on the Board have any questions? Thank i you. is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of this I� application? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition? JI Next case. it it ,i I i it i� r j 23 - 1` BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS i COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 2 , 1982 EXECUTIVE SESSION ( APPEAL NO. 1459 ' The Board considered the appeal of Donald Dieterich for an area variance to permit the conversion of one efficiency apartment to a one-bedroom apartment in the existing four-unit apartment house ; at 509-511 E. Buffalo Street . The decision of the Board was as follows ; MS. HAINE; I move that the Board grant the area variance re- quested in appeal number 1459. MS . BAGNARDI; I second the motion. FINDINGS OF FACT: 1) The proposed change does not increase or change the proposed difficulty. 2) The proposed change does not adversely impact the neighborhood VOTE; 5 Yes ; 0 No Granted. (i I I i it I i i - 24 - i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 2 , 1982 SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1460 : i Appeal of Cornell University for a use variance under Section 30 . 25 , Column 2 and for an area vari- ance under Section 30 . 49 and Section 30. 25 , Columns 11 and 13 for deficiencies in minimum front yard setback and minimum set back for one side yard to permit the use of the residence at 316 Fall Creek Drive for the Modern Indonesia Project (a research E facility consisting of offices , library, and seminar; room) . The property is located in an R- 2a use dis- trict , in which the proposed use is not permitted; therefore the appellant must obtain a use variance , and under Section 30 .49, must also obtain an area variance for the listed deficiencies before a building permit can be issued for the proposed use . An earlier appeal for use of this property for offices for the University Publications Office was denied on October! 9, 1980 . I i Ij MR. HINES : My name is Bob. Hines . This evening I represent Cornel� I f, University in its application for a variance from the strict applir cation of the zoning laws that pertains to its property on Fall Creek Drive, pictures of which are being circulated, and it ' s i depicted on this map which I placed on the board as 316 Fall Creek! i� Drive shown just across the way from the gorge at Fall Creek, and fi j Cornell 's hydro-electric station. Have you all seen that? This particular piece of property was purchased by Cornell Universityy s i in 1965 for $36, 000 . and since that time has been used intermit- tently as a rental residence and most recently as an accommodation! �' for admissions office in 78 . Its last use as a family residence preceeded that in August of 1978 . The proposed use of this prop- erty as set forth in the application and the matter came before tho Planning Board last week I might add, although not necessarily germane to this particular Board' s concerns , Idon't think the Planning Board' s function was fulfilled either by its comment that 1 i; i , 25 - i they were concerned that I didn't make a statement or by anything else they said. The Planning function is to see whether there is any planning impact by the use of this property as a center for the Indonesia program. They declined to make any profound statements in that regard. I might say that I don't think that there is any significant residential impact to the use of the property for the t `t proposed purpose of housing the Indonesia program. I will confess ; i that I 'm not an expert on what the Indonesian program consists of i '.! other than what I 've read and tried to encapsulate in the proposal ; ; that is before you, I' probably can't expand on it very much unless you have some specific questions and then perhaps I could try to add a little information. But in any event it will not serve as a i! residential facility for any students . It will not serve as a i residential facility for faculty - it will be a learning center an a teaching center for graduate studies at Cornell University. The : `` hardship imposed on Cornell University by its continued use of thio ;; property as a residence is occasioned not so much by an extreme !: change in the neighborhood which is generally the reason that hard4 ,; ships occur to impacted property but the change in the last fifteen i, or twenty years has occurred primarily because of demographic con- ; = sideratons . This house is a six bedroom structure it 's a lovely !' home I think the picture shows that. However, as ,Tack Burns , who ,, is here tonight, will tell you, it has over 3 ,000 square feet of ; floor space . The Building Department lists something like 2 ,800 square feet just on the first two floors and it has a third floor consisting of three bedrooms and some adjunct area. In 1978 , the i: last year when it was used as a residence and the heat had cost ;: something in the neighborhood of $2, 000 to heat it, the estimate lnow is that it would cost 4 ,000. to heat it, because of rising i i - 26 - I utility costs . So we have a situation where we have an extremely large single family residence and we have very few very large fami!- lies who would be interested in occupying it . We have a situations that the residential market has changed considerably. I think as Jack will tell us , this house is functionally obsolete - one doesn' t f build houses like this anymore for a number of reasons and because'; ?` of the rising cost of heating and maintenance it is very difficult;, j to rent and John Mangeroni from the Real Estate Department at Cor nell University will tell you about the impracticability of renting it as a residence economically. Now T posted on the board to the west of us a map of the immediate area. Those properties in red are owned by Cornell University. I 've previously indicated where 316 is located somewhat in the center and facing the creek - the gorge. Those properties marked in pink. which doesn' t show up - just a little darker than the white there is property which is Cornell related that is, fraternities , sororities or residential' living units for students. This Board is always during my very limited experience, been very interested in the opinions of neigh- i bors and we ' ll get a few tonight - Mr. Rob:ey will tell us that the citizens and residents of Cornell Heights - which extends quite a bit to the north and substantially to the east are not in favor of this. They are really not neighbors in any practical sense of the word I doubt if any of them ever travel down Fall Creek Drive I for any particular purpose , We have a couple of people who live f; I down the street who are here tonight who will very likely testify about their concern and their concern is of interest r neighbors concerns are always of interest but this Board is concerned with; hardship and although they may be unhappy with the prospective use ; P - what has it got to do with the primary issue before this Board? - 27 - Has Cornell sustained an economic hardship with respect to the use of this property as a single family residence? Now in particular i I 'd like you to listen to the testimony of John Mangeroni with ;'respect to the difficulty and the economics of renting this parti- cular property. In the past, I know from listening to the comments ,,of this Board that you've been, I think, sometimes unduly concerned! ,with the efforts that an owner selling property before you can es- Itablish a hardship. Now any property can be sold if you lower the „price enough - anything will be sold. And it may have a market 4i value as a residence but I suggest that if the market value was ;substantially below its reasonable economic value that it is a !'hardship and one of the best evidences of that - (the map fell from'! lithe blackboard) I hope that isn't indicative of the way this argue i iment is going . Just wiped out Cornell Heights always wondered if ;;that neighborhood was stuck together. I think maybe it has served ;its purpose Mr. Hoard, T don' t know, But in any event - that is fine Mr. Osgood, we 'd be glad to leave it up, I 'm sure . I happen `'to be the man who grunted at the last hearing, I 'd like to introduce hnyself - I noticed in your letter you said I was disturbed because !I said a man from the rear of the room grunted in response to a ` question that the University. . . VOICE FROM THE AUDIENCE: Are you in the habit of quoting people ' s ;letters without asking their permission? Are you in the habit of �j ;quoting other people without asking . . . 'CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Could we hear one person at a time? We ' ll give ; anyone . . , pardon me sir but we' ll give you all the time in the world to speak when your turn comes. When it 's someone else ' s time ' i! ''I wish you would please be quiet, give him a chance to do his thing : ;alright? ItIR. HINES: Thank you Mr. Chairman. I want to conclude before I 28p - - ;introduce the other two gentlemen simply by saying I think one of the best evidences of hardship for use as residence is the lack of ;;rentability. Saleability has always intrigued this Board but I !'think we should look probably in this case , to the issue fo rent- �ability - economic rentability as evidence of economic hardship and ;;with that I would like to turn the meeting over to - or the next ! thing to John Mangeroni . i! MS. HAINE : May I ask you a question? Has the University attempted; 'to rent this property as a residence? t'MR. HINES: Yes it has rented it - and they rent other similar i ;;properties . '!MS . HAINE : Since 1978? 't !MR. HINES: No. Since 1978 this property - I think John is probabl '!more familiar with that but there was a previous application two ;;years ago to use for the the University Publications part of whic4 iris right up behind the instant 316 and that was denied and that is i 'fin litigation but in any event, John will answer that question for ;,You. He is from the Real Estate Office . i ' MR. MANGERONI : I 'm John Mangeroni and I'm the manager of the Real !jEstate Department at Cornell University. I 'd like to use the chalk; ;;board for a minute. As Mr. Hines was saying, the square footage in .!this building is approximately 3 ,100 . It has been examined by the i� '!Modern Indonesian Program and they feel that it is suitable for i� fitheir purposes , The alternatives whi,ch. Cornell University has to house this program are essentially two . One is to lease space or jrent it, the other would be to build it . We have no other office ,ispace at the University that is currently suitable for the program 4 for could be finagled to be vacant. With leases in Ithaca, inclusive iof utilities running approximately $10 . 00 a square foot we are talky 'i.ng about a $31 , 000 . a year cost to Cornell to rent space to put i - 29 - !: this facility. To build space at approximately $50. 00 a square foot, we are talking about $155 ,000 . to build space plus land value of approximately $20 ,000 . and although Cornell perhaps may =have land it would still be the value of that land dedicated to ':this facility. So building it , is approximately $175 , 000 . This is i ' the nature of the hardship which is imposed on the University in Minot being able to occupy it . The other side of the hardship is whaj ;;would the University need to get out of the house in order to rent i! ' it so that it would carry its own weight . Jack Burns is going to `!tell us later that the current value of the home as is is about $65 ,000 . Now that may seem awful cheap for a house that looks that] ";nice and is that large but there is a substantial amount of work ;and repair which needs to be done to the home . The current taxes cion the property for last year were $4 ,740 . Per month that would be FI 1395 . The maintenance on the property - it has not been occupied i ':'nor properly maintained for several years , Generally in our depart 'hent we are now figuring 50 of the placement value of the home which would be $7 , 500 . Last year, vacant , internal maintenance ran, �4 1;1 $475. and we currently have a $1 , 000 . contract on the grounds care I! ';with Village Greenhouse this year so I think the $7 , 500 , is in the kball park. That divided by 12 per month is $625 . 0:0 a month. If i '!we were to cover rent and maintenance- or taxes and maintenance thO . rent would have to be $1, 020 . But if you assume that Cornell should f '.receive some kind of a return on its investment of approximately $65 , 000 . , at 15o thatIs $9, 750 . a year or $813. $1 ,833.. a month rent to cover its cost. The estimated utility bills on the property ' run about $4 ,000 . Currently those would be paid by the landlord i ,'and that would average about $313 , a month. So in order for a '!family to live in this home , and Cornell not to suffer an economic i - 30 - hardship, we are talking $2 ,166 - approximately $2 ,000 . Now you can ' say, well Cornell doesn' t deserve to have a return on its investment. We are still talking $1 , 300 . a month just to cover costs . We have ; several other homes up in that area, as the map depicts , which we do rent and which we do take an economic loss on. There is current ply one property that is located at 202 Fall Creek which is vacant - it has been vacant since June 1st and for rent . Our Department, ink ;';accordance with the past policy of renting only to Cornell staff ano +;faculty has advertised that among the University by sending letters' Ito all deans , directors and department heads and personal contact with Knew move-ins . And it is still vacant today. We recently lowered ` I ''the rent on that (unintell) . Are there any questions? MS. WARD : What is the property assessed for? 'SIR. MANGERONI : I don' t have an assessment with me.. 4S. BAGNARDI: But your taxes . . . 4 , 700. tax bill . Do you have a ;,breakdown of that? What kind of taxes? MR. MANGERONI : I could provide you a breakdown. That ' s your total ; your city, school , total tax bill real property tax bill i134 , 740 . 'SIS . BAGNARDI: $4 , 700 , on a house that would probably sell for ;$65 , 000 . ? OR, MANGERONI: The value of the property I 'd be happy to say ;that the property is worth a lot more than that and it probably is . ; ,You might be able to say that you could sell the house for more and ; yould be very pleased, The house needs about $50 ,000, worth of wort Ws about $115 , 000 . house. ISS . BAGNARDI: So Cornell is going to maintain in this letter that ;;came with the appeal - says regular maintenance of the house - lawn 4nd plantings as planned to assure its residential character is pre4 ll these years and it �erved as Cornell has owned this property a 31 - still has $50, 000 . worth of maintenance to be done to the property `: currently? MR. MANGERONI : The property had been used - that is correct - the .,property had been used as a rental property. What the University Chas found, as many other landlords have found, that single family ;property with taxes and esculating utilities and maintenance costs today are very difficult to carry themselves . a Ms . Ward: What does Cornell rent it for in the past? How much? �IMR, MANGERONI : I don't know, I 'd have to find that out . ;IMS . WARD: Do you want to run that maintenance by me one more time? =How do you arrive at 625? MR. MANGERONI : We figure 50 of the replacement value of the housef. i '!That' s what we budget to the properties , per year. Approximately f "3% of that is to replace capital type improvements . Another 20 for s f routine maintenance. ! MS. HAINE: Why is the University not repairing the building that ;the Indonesia Project is in now? i MR. MANGERONI : I don' t know. In the documents and discussion I 've Hheard there is an extensive amount of work that needs done there . I Ii ;IMS, BAGNARDI : Where is that located? i 'MR. MANGERONI : It is on West Avenue. !i i MS. WARD: When did you try= to rent it? Have you tried recently? f: E �MR. MANGERONI: We have not tried to rent it since the last time itj i ;;was occupied in 77 - 78 . Then it was used as an office . . . I 'MS. WARD : Why have you not tried to rent it? ''MR. MANGERONI : We used it as an office for one year and then there; ,was a plan to put the University Publications Office in there . Tha request came before this Board and was denied and the property has ;;been in litigation since that time , it has been vacant . i '!MS . BAGNARDI : The heat cost or utility cost are - I have $2 , 000 . f i i f 1 1 32 - ' MR. MANGERONI : $2 , 000 . in 77 - 78 . MS . BAGNARDI : Has there ever been any sort of survey or study done; on insulation costs - what kind of windows do you have in that ,building? To cut down. . . MANGERONI : The house is definitely not energy efficient and ;'would require that as an expense to fix it up. Most of the repairs; i a lot of it is things that have occured over a number of years !;and in the meantime the masonry work a lot of the bricks need ;repointing - the roof is at the point now where it needs a new ;;roof - the roof is leaking and has damage. MS. BAGNARDI : How long ago were those photographs taken? MANGERONI : Ten days ago , s l�!CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You mention $50 , 000 , to rehab the building? �IMR. MANGERONI: Yes . CHAIRMAN WEAVER: For the purpose you are appealing for, or to put ;it back where it was? �MR. MANGERONI : To put it into a good residential use would take "about $50, 000. That figure is just an estimate made by one of the 1 ;;rental people in our office. We do have a breakdown of that . I� ''IMS . WARD; How much is it going to cost to put it back into shape I i Jor Cornell to use? ! 1: MR. MANG.ERONI T don' t know. ;SMS. WARD: I mean, if the roof leaks you've got obviously - to 11do something. I I'MR. MANGERONI : Yes , that i,s correct. '':MS. WARD: You have no idea what that cost will be? ,EMR. MANGERONI : I 've got it on the sheet there and most of these ;'things, in order to bring it into an A, No . 1 office or academic 'kind of building would need to be done . And the question is not E I 33 - to be that these things do not need/done nor that using it for this use we can get around this . A hardship is that by renting it we can in no way recover the costs that are needed to fix it and pay the I taxes and get a return on the property. '; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Before you leave us , there is a legal use of thil ;' property as a single or two-family dwelling , as it is now zoned. That is my understanding . Have you made any attempt to determine `; the feasibility of other legal use? i I I; MR. MANGERONI : A two-family dwelling? Briefly we have . There - the stair ways and access to the building as it is presently set up do not tend in that direction so there would have to be some majorf ;': structural type of repairs done to relocate stairs and exits as well as , I 'm sure , safety requirements as well as fire proofing th ceiling in the lower apartments and things like this . It would be more expensive . i j MS . BAGNARDT : There are six bedrooms? MR. MANGERONI: Yes., there are six bedrooms. I ;SMS, BAGNARDT; How many baths? 4 MR, MANGERONI ; Let me look at the floor plan. On the first floor ; there is an enclosed porch that is currently not heated. There is ' ;' a 14 x 18 living room, a 15 x 17 entry way, 12 x 15 dining room, j !� 17 x 19 library, half bath, and a 5 x 5 small room, 9 x 9 pantry, '` two stair cases and a 12 x 13 kitchen. The second floor there is : I , one full bath excuse me , two full baths, three bedrooms and a 6 13 master bedroom walk-in closet kind of arrangement . As well as la 12 x 15 entry way - sort of a landing on the second floor that ii ;, quite large and grandiose , Third floor there is one bath and thee$ "_ large bedrooms. .! MS . BAGNARDT: Thank you very much. l f i V� V i 34 - i MR. MANGERONI : Any other questions? Thank you. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Anyone else who wishes to speak in behalf of this application? Come forward. ±LMR. BURNS : My name is Jack Burns and I was asked to go through th; ; property last week with John Mangeroni and I was asked to give some ;; type of what my feeling was as to value of the property. The prop- '' erty has been very well described by John and it is a large ramb- ling piece of property with over 3 ,000 square feet . Needs a lot of Ework and the thing that - I put a price of $65 ,000 . as is . John i I ; says that it would need $40 ,000 to $50, 0000 to bring it into shape The baths and kitchens are all old-fashioned. But the main thing is since this is a residential piece of property - now who would i want to buy this as a residence? And could what kind of price i ;, would make it reasonable for some family to buy it and live there I �lwithout paying too much on a monthly basis . I just put a figure 0 sof $65 ,000 on there just on the basis that there is a terrificly ; poor arrangement of rooms hugh rooms - large entrance area there ; with all open and open areas going up to the second floor ter- ' I ribly inefficient as far as heating is concerned. They have an i I ;; old furnace there right now should have at least two furnaces I `; there because of the length of the house . It is a beautiful look- :ling house but just to give you an example- if you bought it for !' $65, 000, put $20 , 000 down and had a $45 , 00.0 mortgage - and if you , ,, are fortunate to get a 10% mortgage in today' s market , you know i it would cost you roughly $4 , 800 a year or 1400 a month for your ; mortgage payment. $4 , 700 for taxes , $4 ,000 for utilities . Then i ;, you are coming in to $1 , 200 a month. Now- we have a °very wealthy I ., community here but I 'm just wondering how many people can afford td pay that kind of money for a large house and the maintenance which ! s 35 - I haven' t even put into it . So if one does do the work that has ' to be done and I am not an expert as far as roofing and things like that and I can't tell you how long the furnace is going to last bu' ;; you do have to budget for this type of thing and if you go in and ; put $30 into it - $30 or $40 thousand dollars - you are talking ;' $100 , 000 immediately and then you have a big house with huge utili-r ' ties - you could put a lot of insulation in and you can do other things but nevertheless the utilities are going to be there and they are going to get worse . your taxes� I don ' t know who put the . assessment on here but it is unbelievable - $4, 700 for taxes on a single family home - so those of you who live in the area maybe you ishould thank yourself lucky stars that you are not paying that ;'; kind of overhead and maybe Cornell should have complained about it !.. before but nevertheless, according to my figures that is what it :, is , so I put a price on there of $65 ,000 and that's really what I don' t - I think it would be very, very fortunate if Cornell could lget very much more than that. 1' think that is rather top price for that property in today' s market . The replacement value of course would be at $50 , 000 which is minimum that means without fireplaces and things like that and a lot of the top line things you put into modern homes for 3, 000 square feet you are talking 150 and 20 ,000 for the land $170.,000 but that 's replacement value and but they .have 3 , 000 square feet right now which, if they sell it , I doubt very much they could get more than $65, 000 . That 's a figure there is no definite price- you can go up or down a little ways but ' that is what I am talking about, If you have any questions I 'd be +°happy to try to answer them. ! MS. WARD, What do you suppose it is assessed for if the taxes are ; $4 , 700? 36 , MR. BURNS: Well $30 a square foot, I just figured out maybe $120 , 000 . MS. WARD: (unintelligible) MR. BURNS : Well , if it is 4 ,700 . 1 just worked it back just a few minutes ago - I don' t know t really is assessed for then " MS. WARD: And you don't know what I either? ' MR. BURNS: Well if that ' s the case that 's what the assessment liwould be somewhere around $120 , 000 . ,': MS. BAGNARDI : How many fireplaces are there in the house Jack? ; MR. BURNS : Well , there is at least two or three . I think there is two fireplaces - one in the entrance area which is nice . , . I ; beg your pardon? There is three ? There is one in the big room the additional room there - the large library I guess they call iti so there is three fireplaces , IMS, BAGNARDI : How many places are there to park cars? I know there is no garage - but on the side of the property there seemed to be , places to park cars , How many cars would MR. BURNS : I should think maybe three or four at the most , It is jia narrow lot , Anything else? , CHAIRMAN WEAVER: In your judgment about the saleability of this at Pany price - the price is not necessarily the restricting factor, ,: is it? Are there not several houses each year listed - take the and fifty that have been thrown around here - that woul& .,easily go between one hundred and one hundred fifty thousand? `'.MR. BURNS: In that area, ''CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You mean I,thaca area, residential area. AR. BURNS: Oh yes . There is other houses - 1 think you have to :'take each one on its individually because I have 212 Fall Creek that f( I 37 - i :; was sold recently and Mr. Warren' s porperty on the corner of Wyckoff and Wait , in that area and of course they have been sold - there i4 . one on Oak Hill which is out a little bit farther and Iroquois and ;; they run over $100, 000 but there is - on Oak Hill and Iroquois - they are a little bit more residential in nature and then in the Warren and the Fall Creek Drive property it 's a different type of ;! house - I think it ' s in both cases - they are much better con- dition and much better fitted to a residential use . i!` MS . STEVENSON: How many bedrooms in the Warren house? :;, MR. BURNS: Oh 1 think they've got about . . . , VOICE IN THE AUDIENCE: Nine bedrooms . i MR. BURNS: Nine bedrooms in the Warren house . ;; VOICE IN THE AUDIENCE: It was sold to a family with two children. : MR. BURNS: Alright okay. It ' s a large house and a very well ke�t 1house . A very, very and keptup over the years very well . CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Are there any other questions from the Board? Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor of ! this application? ,' MR. HINES: Could I submit the floor plan, Mr. Chairman� on that? , . CHAIRiMAN WEAVER: yes sir. Thank you. Is there anyone who wishes ' to speak in opposition to this application? Yes, please come for- ward. 1 i' -1MR. ROBEY: I am Bryant Robey� and I live at 209 Wait Avenue . I I have lived in the Cornell Heights neighborhood for eight and one- half years . I 'm chairman of the Cornell Heights. Civic Association ' which was an organization formed two years ago largely in responses to Cornell ' s efforts to deal with this property then. I have a pre!,- pared statement which I won't read but just submit for testimony, I i 38 - "This request by Cornell is essentially the same as one presented ] in October, 1980 , that was denied 4-0 by the Board of Zoning Ap- peals . At that time Cornell wished to place its University Publi- ! ' cations Office at 316 Fall Creek Drive and the Modern Indonesia ' Project on Wait Avenue. Now, the University asks that the Indon- lesia Project be placed on Fall Creek Drive, Since the BZA denied Ithe variance two years ago, it should take the same action today. , I know of no facts that are different, The university still does ,: not meet the criteria necessary for a zoning variance ; it has amply :: room to expand elsewhere- -since this Board acted two years ago Cornell has found funds to renovate several buildings and to con- struct a $6 million geology building, And the 316 Fall Creek Drivq ; property could be used as a residence. Several such homes have sold in the past two years to families . The neighborhood is as much !, opposed to conversion of properties into offices as it was before .; r ,. Because this case is virtually identical to that in October , 1980, " E I would like to request that the material prepared for that meeting!- - the written record of the BZA meeting and the Planning Board,- -be- E ; come part of the record of this request, The neighborhood does not; have funds to hire a lawyer and repeat i,ts case each time Cornell i brings up the matter, and we devoted considerable time and effort i to the issue before. Indeed, this matter is still in litigation. i 1,liCornell 's claim has been that it is exempt from city zoning laws ,;,for an education use . In its case before the University said, 'The! r !:appellant wishes to be on record that a variance request is not necessary and not appropriate in light of its exemption for educa :!tional purposes . ' (Oct . 6 letter to BZA from Shirley Egan, Associate ,!University Counsel) The city and the neighborhood believe Cornell `'enjoys no such blanket exemption. Last January State Supreme Court - 39 - Justice Robert E. Fischer of Binghamton upheld the BZA' s denial of variances for the Modern Indonesia Project and for 316 Wait Ave . ; According to the Ithaca Journal ' s account of the decision: 'The - Judge found that the Ithaca city ordinance does not totally exclude educational uses from residential districts and the ordinance is ;! thus not unconstitutionally restricting. But the Ithaca situation ; ; involves a large and expanding educational institution situated in ``! a small community, where the needs of both must be accommodated. ' ; (Jan. 5, 1982 , story by Jane Marcham) My understanding is that ,a Cornell plans to appeal Judge Fischer' s decision and that the city . will continue to defend the decision of its BZA and its zoning laws . ; If the courts rule that Cornell University is not bound by zoning Maws , then it can simply expand at will--wherever and whenever. Such a decision would be the end of Cornell Heights and other neighbor- '. i `! hoods next to the campus , Over the years Cornell has purchased ,; numerous properties in the Cornell Heights neighborhood, Any further conversions of residences to offices or group quarters ;; places the neighborhood at the risk of eventually being gobbled ups i,iby a large institution that desires to spread beyond the bounds of pits campus into surrounding residential territory. Cornell may ; believe that the Modern Indonesia Project would be compatible with , existing uses , but I do not believe it . Its current location is in a sorry state of repair, and the university has not seen fit to , renovate the building or move the program to suitable space on ,, campus , which it surely has the resources to do . Instead, it is ', asking Cornell Heights residents to sacrifice a longstanding ; family residence to the needs of some graduate students . Presumably ;'when 316 Fall Creek Drive begins to fall down around them, they twill move on to another residence. In the past two years the BZA I is 40 - has denied several other proposed conversions in Cornell Heights . i The neighborhood, after all , is zoned residential for a purpose ,: to preserve and protect the character of the neighborhood. And we ! i hope you will again deny this request for a variance ." I would - like to make some brief remarks, the first of which is , since Bob ;: Hines predicted what I would say, I ' ll permit myself to making an ; observation that I really don' t know the answer to either . We I ° like to think of that map in Cornell Heights as the big red peril . ; °FI 've seen maps like that after the war with the encroachment - ,. and I 'm sure that in Bob Matyas ' office somewhere there is map whete everything is red up there. That is , I think ultimately the issue ; ;, here . Many of us live in large ramshackle houses that need insula i `; tion - that have more bedrooms than people and sell for over i $100, 000 . I bought one a number of years ago in much the same sha�e "las the house that is in question here and have invested money and ; fixed it up and it's a fine property now. Several cases have come ; up during the last two years as most of you know - involving houses ;; that are very similar in nature and in each case the applicant made! I ,; precisely the same case as Cornell they wanted to turn them into ; '± group homes rather than offices but it was the same hardship argu- ' ment . I think in virtually every case the house subsequently sold ` '' to a family for a decent price . I 'd like to refute one statement !! that Mr. Hines made actually T believe it was factually correct ! but I thinkthe implication was wrong. He referred initially that that house was used in 1978 temporarily as an admissions office . I� believe that was in violation of the zoning, if I could make that '. observation and that was called to the attention of Cornell and thely I� ,' told us in the neighborhood that it was only being done temporarily ;; and that they would abide by the zoning after that and in fact they► I 1 i i i 1 i 41 - did. I think they pleaded that the admissions office had some ''; overflow that year and they needed that office . When we objected ; and pointed out that it was in violation of zoning they agreed to ,, change that use and it has been I think rented to a family since then or in any case it has been vacant. My basic line of argument ' ': tonight is that this is really exactly the same case that members I` of this Board heard two years ago in October 1980 at which time it ! l Iwas denied 4-0 by this Board. At that time Cornell wished to placo ;; the University Publications Office at 316 Fall Creek Drive and thel . Modern Indonesian Project on Wait Avenue. Now the University asks ; ,, that the Modern Indonesian project be placed on Pall Creek Drive ar�d J�my argument is that if the BZA denied the variance two years ago it should take the same action tonight.. I don ' t know of any facts ' that are different . I don' t think that the University meets the criteria necessary for a zoning variance . It has room to expand ; elsewhere - in fact, since the Board acted two years ago , it has =, allocated six million dollars and built a geology building on Cam- ± ;;pus and has renovated other buildings and I 'd also last year, 1 !i ' those of you who were on the Board remember, we had a lawyer that we �f ''hired and presented a rather lengthy case. We do not, as a neigh- ;; !borhood Association, have the funds to do that every time Cornell ;;brings this matter up and I 'd like to ask, that the record of the '! last case in October 80 be made part of this hearing on the grounds ! that theE property is the same and one of the uses is the same . In 'fact in Cornell ' s presentation two years ago , T believe , they I can quote it to you actually .t "s in the record of last time, buts '!they made the case that the two houses were essentially the same i !iso I think that 's a reasonable request and it would prevent us froml ;;spending hundreds of dollars more on a lawyer to defend our selves .; 42 - It says "the appellant , Cornell University, is before you today ., with two appeals , the facts of which are similar ." That' s their i own words . As you know this matter is still in the courts, I real�y can ' t understand why Cornell is coming forward tonight since it s; still is in litigation. The Judge has ruled that they do not have i ' a blanket exemption from zoning , that I believe Cornell intends to ;: appeal that case and the City is , I believe, defending the action of the BZA. To conclude let me say that over the years Cornell ha ;,,, purchased numerous properties in the Cornell Heights neighborhood and the map, I think, shows you where they are. Our contention hand, contrary to what Mr. Hines says , we are neighbors of Fall Cregk ;' Drive, we consider ourselves neighbors, I used to live on Fall Creek '' Drive - I go down it every day, I know people who live there , it 's ' a close knit neighborhood and we think of it as part of the neigh, , borhood. We believe that any further conversions of residences into ., either offices or group quarters, places the neighborhood at a real] :risk of being, eventually, gobbled up by the University - that every ° conversion makes it that much easier for the next conversion - the ? ,:hardship gets harder and eventually what is now one of the nicest ;;neighborhoods in the City, will simply cease to exist , Cornell has; :;stated that they think the Modern Indonesia Project is compatible with the neighborhood but I 'm sorry, I just don' t believe it . I ;;think the major point in evidence is that its current residence is in a disastrously bad state and the University has not seen fit to ;repair it or to move the project to suitable space on campus . Manyl of their other programs, as you know, are housed on campus this is not the only alternative . So they are asking us residents to 'sacrifice a long-standing family residence in order to serve some graduate students who won't be around in three or four years and - 43 - then when the building starts falling around them in another thirty years , I presume they will move on to a new residence elsewhere . '! Mr. Chairman, I believe there are other - I think everybody out there now, with the exception of the appellants , are members of the neigh- borhood - I don 't know if they all will speak but I think they are ; all here in opposition. Thank you. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Before you leave, your request to have the formet deliberations or material I'm not sure I understand exactly what ; you are asking for. ! MR. ROBEY: Okay. A large record was compiled two years ago and Ij ;; believe Mr. Hoard has it in his office somewhere or it is now in ;; the hands of the court . At that time the neighborhood presented a ; petition, for example , with some fifty signatures and a legal re- sponse - we went and hired a lawyer r as you can understand, we ; can' t do that every two years , so believing that that testimony i ' j relevant also to this case-, it is the same property and the same ; i use although Cornell has switched the two around I would like to ask the Board at least to consider that argument as well as what I say tonight . CHAIRMAN WEAVER, Are there any questions from members of the Board? Thank you. Ids there anyone else who wishes to speak in : opposition to this application? Come forward. �IMR. OSGOOD: My name is Russell Osgood, I almost live at 212 Fall ' Creek Drive I bought the house on May 20th, Before I comment on , + E economic hardship I just want to say- that is the most unique chart ! I 've every seen at a zoning hearing. Where is Fall Creek Drive on the chart , I cant make out . Okay, I couldn't tell which was Fall Creek Drive . In any event I live in the house which is almos + this house right there (pointing to map) that ' s 202 Fall Creek I 44 - Drive which the Cornell fellow referred to as being the one that they've tried to rent and can't rent. I ' ll just comment on that first. The bushes at 202 Fall Creek Drive extended over the side walks to the entrance to the house until about ten days ago so anyone who wanted to rent the house had trouble getting in the 'i front door to the house until my neighbor complained about it to Cornell and they came and cut down the bushes . I also know, be- , cause I attempted to rent 202 Fall Creek Drive about six weeks ago ;; for a friend of mine and was told that it was not for rent and thea t ± about a week later I got a notice from the real estate office saying lIit was for rent . So if they are trying to rent it it has not been ii a very serious rental effort and in any event I am sure eventually ` they will rent it. Now on the economic hardship issue, my house his ii ;; nine bedrooms , it is a single family house, it has no insulation, j ,. there is a leak in the roof - it has a lot of similarities with th ' house that Cornell is attempting to rezone . I think on balance , 1what little I know about the other house, mine is probably in bettor ! condition. On my house there were a number of bids on the house in excess of $100,000 before I bought the house in May - well I bought it on April 20th and we passed papers on May 20th, The people whoj `; owned the house before me made a comment to me about renting the I' house, by the way, and this will go to the point of whether Cornell; ": could rent 316 Fall Creek Dirve, if they wished, they said they hac ! people calling them left and right trying to rent 212 Fall Creek - j ' families trying to rent 212 Fall Creek Drive and in fact they did : rent it to a family for two years before they sold it to me so on i ! the economic hardship argument, its hard for me to see that hard ; ship has been made out . In addition T think even by Mr. Burns ' a ! own estimate which looks low to me , it certainly lower than the e i i i 45 - i city' s assessment - that is still in excess of what Cornell paid for the property and it seems to me that would be something to tako into account . This situation is not one where Cornell is going to lose any money even if they sell it at this absolute rock bottom ,, price which I still think is below a market price for the building 11, Now on the merits of the matter, apart from Cornell's: hardship argu ment which I don' t find convincing, I'm not a member of the Cornell i = Heights Civic Association and I have not been a part of any of thej i '; prior cases on this matter, and I as an initial matter, don' t take ; jthe position that every house in Cornell Heights should not be coni if ii' F i verted by Cornell University that ' s not my feeling. Now maybe after I have been through a few of these hearings I will change my imind but I have, at least, an open mind on the issue. On Pall Creek Drive you have a kind of a unique situation even for Cornell Heights ( though and that is there is no office on the street right now, as +, I understand it, and the street is extremely private , You cannot see any office building from it .. The only public building of any ;! kind you can see is that fraternity and on the corner you can see l Jt hidden up in the wood but that isn 't an office building, that ' s ) a fraternity - a living residence for students. So it isn't as ; though there are offices all around on the street and I invite any ; imember of the Board who wishes to come up and drive up the street :; and you will see it is an extremely secluded quiet residential !istreet. Therefore on the merits of it I would think this would bel % an inappropriate street to convert any house on it even though, ads ' r iI say I don' t, as a blanket matter, oppose all conversions. I 'm ;, not even sure I would oppose all conversions on Fall Creek Drive , if Cornell could make a convincing case that they need this house for , the Indonesian Studies Center but they haven''t made the case here f they have an office for the Indonesian Study Center - I walk by it - i 46 - it ' s the most atrociously maintained building that I am aware of. I don't know the reasons for it - it may be indicative of what will happen to 316 Fall Creek Drive if they do then convert it to the i Indonesian Studies Center . The final thing I have to say is my j jhouse is occupied by a family and I think it would be desirable in the long term for both Cornell and the street and the character of ! the street that they make a good faith effort to sell this house. I 'm aware of two people who have approached the University to buy the house and have never received a response to their request - ,, without even mentioning a dollar figure on the house . Two people , who have personally told me they have written to Cornell or con tacted Cornell and tried to make an offer on this house and they ; did not even get a response from Cornell so it seems to me that 1 ,; Cornell hasn' t even made an attempt to sell this in order to pre- '' serve the residential character of this particular street and Cornell Heights so T hope the Board will deny this request promptly. ', CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in oppol- ition to this matter? Come forward please. I MS. LOCEY My name is Jean Locey and T currently live at 111 Heig4ts i ;: Court. I have lived in the Cornell Heights area for a year now anc ,; prior to moving in to 111 Heights Court , I was one of the people i' .': that attempted to rent the house at 312 Fall Creek Drive, with an I ;, option to buy, however there was a family in the house at that time i ,land T moved into 111 Heights Court. On July 2nd I called the Cor, ; nell Real EState Office and asked if the property at 316 Fall Creel `: Drive .was for sale and if so would it be possible to see the house i I ' ll be getting married in the near future and my husband to be wa$ ; going to be in town for the weekend I was told to call back Tues ' day morning and talk to Don Riley Don Riley said the house was irk - 47 - : litigation and did not know what would be happening with it - that ; the case would be appealed in February - and I said well would you ; 3let me know when the decision was reached and would you please makq '! a note that I am very interested in buying the house . He said he ;; would put a note in the file . On duly 16th I wrote a letter to ;'. Senior Vice President, Mr. William Herbster, and I 'll read it to p ;; you. "Dear Mr. Herbster. I am a professor in the Art Department here at Cornell University and I have lived in the Cornell Heights ,; ,, area for the past year. I would like to purchase the Cornell prop= erty at 316 Fall Creek Drive to use as my residence. I have long '. admired the house . I note that it has been empty for at least the ; past year and there have been no signs which suggest that Cornell iplans to use the house in the near future. It seems sad to see a ! house as attractive and potentially productive as this one stay ; empty. I would like to sit down with you or your representative tc " discuss the purchase of the house . I look forward to hearing from , you. Yours sincerely, /s/ Jean Locey" I have not had a reply from ;' the letter. I haven't been able to get inside the house , I 've looked , in all the windows and have made up an idea of what is inside by r' looking at the outside of the house, It has a delightful yard - I 'm an artist , the man I will marry is a writer and an artist , I da own a loft in Manhattan, in Soho, that is 3 ,000 square feet it ' s :,, a house that I could use I may have a family - I may, not it ' s not an issue with me . I would like very much to have an opportunity I to make an offer on the property. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You referred to two different contacts both in July, one July 2 and another July 16th r what year? !`MS . LOCEY: This year, I 'm sorry, 1982 , r ' MS . WASI'LCHAK: I don't have any notes to speak from. , . ItCHAIRMAN WEAVER: Your name please. - 48 - MS . WASUCHAK: I 'm Pauline Wasilchak, I live at 216 Fall Creek �' Drive - I 've lived there over thirty years . When I came here they ; were all beautiful old homes , well taken care of. Since then Cornell owns the greatest majority of them and when you say the Indonesian house is in atrocious condition - the houses that Cornell '; now owns are all getting exactly the same . They are all neglected i ` - the lawns are never mowed unless you push for it, if you call ' someone they shuffle you from one person to another till you finally ; have to threaten to get the city to do it and send them the bill . ?: couldn' t even walk down the sidewalk a couple of weeks ago - the ,, trees wereJway over the shrubbery was way out - you had to walk in the street - that ' s at 202 Fall Creek Drive. There is another 1:1' house - I think its 220 - the paint has been peeling off for years .; t `! The lawns have all turned to weeds - there are trees growing over ``. these beautiful old homes - nothing is taken care of, I think they t got a machete and chopped down the shrubbery to make it look like they got rid of some of the debris it ' s absolutely a shame what ,: they are doing to that street and it breaks my heart because we havle a beautiful home that we take care of and we are so happy that Mr. Osgood is going to move in next door to us: - at least we ' ll have ! two people there that are interested in the property because the ,' rest of them are all owned by Cornell except Mr. Coles which is nowj on the market . Nothing is repaired or taken care of and that ' s what ;'bothering me about that street and I hate to see that happen with ' I t; this house if they get it . If this is any indication of the one ' they have that is now the Indonesian Studies place, if this one goes down hill the same way we are now turning into a small ghettio l every house that Cornell gets its hands on is neglected that ' s ,why they get in this bad disrepair. That' s what i wanted to tell ypu. s 49 - CHAIRMAN WEAVER: - Thank you. Yes sir, come forward. MR. PENNER: My name is Richard Penner, I live on Wait Avenue in Cornell Heights - I 've lived in this house for eight years and in iCornell Heights now for twelve years . The issue I think, princi- pally in Cornell 's - their approach is - this year, one of hardshi� two years ago it was that they deserved a blanket exemption and that ' s the case that is now in the courts . We have seen a lot of 1 ; numbers and at one time I taught a course on charting and graphing ] , and the whole one thrust of that was that you could always fudge ,; the numbers to make it support your case, In fact, in Cornell J 1 ;; Heights in the last year families have bought three large house ;, the Osgoods , The Bems who bought the Warren's house and Hirshmannsj 1who bought one theirs adjoined a fraternity and they've all had ;' Cornell next door fraternities next door, the admissions office next - door, they are still desirable as family homes , I approached! Cornell this past spring to see whether the homes at 218 or 220 Fall Creek Drive might be for sale , Neither of these is in litiga-1 i ition and the explanation was because some of the homes on Fall Creek i ;;Drive were in the courts the University Counsel ' s office, who is :not here tonight but the University laywers had told the real gestate people , do not those are not for sale - so I ''m really - question the whole issue of hardship , They are not trying to sell ,f ]the houses that are still in good condition there is some questio4 ' as to whether they are trying very hard to rent the houses that are; ;;vacant -- the one at 316 has been vacant now for four years apparently ;they have not tried to rent it and the one at 202 r there is some r question about whether they were very receptive to inquiries about I�iits rentability. So the question of hardship T believe these homes - this one and others that Cornell has could be sold - could I so - be rented if they made a good faith effort to do so . I believe that using it as an office where it will be vacant much of the week - vacant nights and I think without homeowners taking care of li it it would quickly go downhill . I 'd like to see Cornell ' s appeal ; rejected. ':; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard in opposition to this matter? There being no further - yes . Come ! i ;! forward. This is new material I assume? j; :. MR. MANGERONI : Yes it is . Based on some of the comments I wanted , to clear up some misconceptions both for the neighbors perhaps and ! jfor the Board . This case is very different from the case two yearA fago . It is not the same program that was desired - designed for '•:' this house . The other program had a much more extensive and busy 3. Fuse than the Indonesia program does . It is also two years later d' ;' than it was two years ago and the composition of this Board is dif- ferent the economic times are different the residential and ,'!. rental housing markets are extremely different than they were two �3 years ago . Second, Cornell has not rented this home it has not been occupied for residential use since it was last occupied as an admissions office. No attempts have been made to rent this home a-9 '; its use which is needed by Cornell , is for this program and was fot' R ?' the past program. Third the judge in the previous case did not rube ithat Cornell did not have a blanket exemption from zoning. He !' simply referred the matter to a different jurisdiction. Fourth, i ,, there is no suitable space on Campus or elsewhere for this program that is why the program has been in unsuitable quarters for two jyears this property has been vacant for two years with the hopes ` ` that the litigation would be ended and could be occupied with the j ;; program. We did not want to occupy it with the rental residence and have it tied up for a year and make the necessary residential im- i - 51 - provements only to have the court case over with a month later - i have it tied up for eleven months and have to - the residential improvements which were made would have been for naught . For Jeans information, I received a letter from Mr. Herbster last Wednesday and have tried twice to call her, the house is not for sale. And ' to all those who have made offers on the house it is not for sale . ; Cornell University owns the home, we should be able to use the homo i - the figures which I have shown, if you think they are fudged you ! can take off 80% and you are still talking over a thousand dollars '; a month rent - it will not rent for 1, 000 a month and Cornell has 1i; hardship in owning this home and having it sit vacant - and not being " able to use it. l ! CHAIRMAN CHAIRMAN WEAVER: One question which I am unsure about now that I 've '' heard all of the people speak about the present housing for this pto- , gram and proposed location. Have you made a demolition decision on the present quarters or . . . ? ;SMR. MANGERONI: Yes . Again I 'm not that 's not in my department ibut through correspondence and conversation when the Indonesian ;, program moves out that home is planned to be demolished to the best i of my knowledge. ',! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: From what I have heard you are doing a pretty good ;' job without it . Thank you. Mr. Hines, i. t ',' MR. HINES: I don 't have any I wanted to remark on one the ; litigation the present status of the litigation , I 'm not involved !' with that. It is on the court calendar there is certain factual ! e issues that the Judge wants to hear. It isn' t true that they didn'It i .! hold that Cornell had a blanket exemption or didn't have a blanket ' lexempti.on but in any event I don't think that that litigation bears,. �'; on this hearing but I do want to emphasize that our application 52 - tonight in no way waives Cornell ' s right to make such a position before a court. We did not raise it here, did not come in on the ;! same grounds because I think two years ago as I was advised by Counsel ' s office, that this Board didn' t think it was within its jurisdiction to rule on such things - so I haven' t raised it. I ' do want to just re-emphasize the point I made at the beginning . :; The economic hardship comes from its inability to rent the property ;` for economic return. It is not fair to compel Cornell University j oto sell the property. We should have an equal right to rent it i{ ,; economically and get a fair return and the evidence is that we can 1not do so . I don' t think it is germane also that Cornell may havq !i i! let some properties down the street become in a modest state of disrepair. I appreciate what Mrs . Wasilchak says and some of the , others - I don' t think that is germane to the hardship issue. Itj ,I,may be that those properties are not being repaired because they are 'Inot economically sustainable in their present use but in any event , (, that seems to be a thrust of what they say and I don't think it ' s i! germane . So I urge that this application be granted simply be is ,; cause economically this product - 316 this property cannot be :,rented for a fair return and that is the hardship that we are urging i jtonight. In addition I think the sale of the property would be a ;!value far lower than its alternate use for the Indonesian program i ;which is another hardship but the main thrust is that the rental ',value of this property at 316 Fall Creek. Drive would have to be so :high that we couldn't find a fair rental market for it. I might i :add, Mr. Osgood' s house was on the market for a couple of years !,!;before it sold - that ' s the only one in the neighborhood, ;;CHAIRMAN WEAVER; We could go on with rebuttals to the rebuttals , Pand so forth, is there anyone on the other side of this argument ;that feels there has not been an adequate discussion of the issue? it 53 In that case , I thank all of you for your patience and we' ll hear `; the next case please. I i 54 - i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 2 , 1982 EXECUTIVE SESSION i APPEAL NO. 1460 : i ;; The Board considered the appeal of Cornell University for a use ivariance and an area variance to permit the use of the residence at 316 Fall Creek Drive for the Modern Indonesia Project . The property is located in an R-2a use district , in which the proposedl ;! use is not permitted, and under Section 30 .49 , must also obtain an ' ;; area variance for the listed deficiencies before a building permit ; ., can be issued for the proposed use , The decision of the Board was ; as follows: I ' MS . BAGNARDI : I move that the Board deny the use variance reques- i ted in appeal number 1460 . i1 MS . WARD: I second the motion. I: FINDINGS OF FACT: i 1) No evidence of hardship was presented at this hearing. The ;E prices indicated in the University' s argument do not support the argument of hardship and the fact that neighboring proper ties are selling for equivalent prices would indicate that there must be a housing market at those prices . E i! 2) This is a residential area and the intrusion of non-residential activity would be damaging to the character of the neighborhood.. 3) Testimony was received from the public that there are other large houses in the neighborhood that have been sold and con- form to the prescribed use. Ii VOTE: 5 Yes ; 0 No Denied i t s4 S5 - i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 2 , 1982 } - SECRETARY HOARD: The next case Mr. Chairman is appeal number 1461 : �i Appeal of Joseph V. Junod for an area variance under Section 30 . 49 and Section, 30 . 25 , Columns 4 , 6 , 7 , 11 and 13 for deficiencies in off-street parking, mini- mum lot size , minimum lot width, minimum ! front yard setback and minimum setback for one side yard to permit occupancy of the existing single-family home at 207 West Clinton Street as a Doctor' s office plus an apartment . The property is located in an R-3a use district , in which the proposed use is permitted; however, under Section 30 . 49 the appellant must obtain an area variance for the listed deficiencies before the proposed occupancy can be permitted. 'MR. JUNOD : I 'm Joe Junod. I am here to present my case for the ;,, appeal and I wanted to correct one thing in the documents that you ;'may have . It says that the house has been on the market for six -;months . That ' s incorrect - it' s since October of 81 so I guess f ':that ' s about ten months now. I guess the only thing I have to say ! is that it - in that time I've had one reasonable offer which was from the doctor whose attorney= appeared before you in February and jprior to that and since then there have been no reasonable offers ;;and one unreasonable one . There has just been one other offer, and; is 1that ' s my case for a hardship and the other points that I wish to !make are listed there . :CHAIRMAN WEAVER; Toe there is one comment here in your appeal that' ,attracted my attention and that is on page 3 b "the only possi `!ble extra parking on the lot would necessitate paving the back yard', ,:and garden area which seems undesirable since it would change the e character of the neighborhood more than the doctor's office itself.!' 56 - Is it your proposal that this variance be granted without provid- ing any additional parking? MR. JUNOD: Yes sir . My feeling on the pavement - paving the back! i yard is that it would change the residential character because the` t 'i back yard is the residential character of that neighborhood not tho front yard. i CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Let ' s go a step further then. The Zoning Ordi- nance requires that you provide adequate parking for the use and if the use that you propose increases the parking requirements so i that it creates a substandard parking situation it would be one of the considerations of the Board in not granting the variance . The desirability or undesirability is none of my business - the Ordinance says you should have more parking if you are going to do certain things and we are not here to protect back yards or ;; neighborhoods from the Zoning Ordinance requirements , in fact , theoretically they protect th-e neighborhood all the protection it i has a right to and so I just wanted to make sure that you stand firm that you propose no additional parking? i MR. JUNOD: No sir. It is just my contention that a doctor 's of- h ` fice would not inflict unreasonable parking overloads on that ; neighborhood. ° CHAIRMAN WEAVER; Alright. Thank you, Are there any questions ofd the members of the Board? Thank you. I's there anyone else who wishes to speak in support of this application? Is there anyone ` who wishes to speak in opposition to this application? SECRETARY HOARD: We 'll go back to the first case, appeal number 1455 : Appeal of Joseph_ & Rita Calvo for an area variance under Section 30. 49 and Section 30. 25 , Columns 11 and 13 for deficiencies in minimum front yard setback and minimum setback. for one side yard, to permit the extension of the existing screen porch on the existing one-family house at i i i l - 57 - 110 Cobb Street. The property is located in an R-lb use district , in which the existing use is permitted; however , ; under Section 30 . 49 the appellants must obtain an area variance for the listed deficiencies before a building l permit can be issued for the addition. Is there anyone here on this one? (no one showed) i !! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The Board will now get a drink of water and go into executive session. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 2 , 1982 EXECUTIVE SESSION 1 APPEAL NO. 1461 : s The Board considered the appeal of Joseph V. Junod for an area ,. variance to permit occupancy of the existing single-family home at ! i 0! 207 West Clinton STreet as a Doctor 's office plus an apartment . The decision of the Board was as follows : '' MS . STEVENSON: I move that the Board deny the area variance re- fit f quested in appeal number 1461 . a i' ! MS. BAGNARDi: I second the motion, FINDINGS OF FACT: 01) There is not sufficient parking. 'i2) Would be an increase in traffic in the area. ! 3) Practical difficulties were not shown. NOTE : 4 Yes ; 0 No; 1 Abstention Denied. i `s i i - 58 - I i I , BARBARA RUANE , DO CERTIFY THAT I took the minutes of the Board s r of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, New York, in the matters of i Appeals numbered 1457 , 1458 , 1459 , 1460 and 1461 on August 2 , 1982 ' 1 1 in the Common Council Chambers , City of Ithaca, 108 E. Green Stree; Ithaca, New York; that I have transcribed same , and the foregoing I is a true copy of the transcript of the minutes of the meeting and ; I the executive session of the Board of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, New York on the above date , and the whole thereof to the ' best of my ability. /,,/4 /tr Barbara C. Ruan Recording Secretary i f I Sworn to before me this i <.: day of C : w_t 1982 i Notary Public JEANhiANKINSON NOTARY PUCLfCS., STATE OF NEW YORK !o. o5•i660800 4 1 7 IN T(iI( KiNS COUNTY, 4RCH 30,I9 ✓ I' j I 1! i 1 'E r