HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1983-09-06 ,i
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I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS j
COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS
CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK
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► SEPTEMBER 6, 1983
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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APPEAL NO. 1495 Orson Ledger 4
207 Williams Street
APPEAL NO. 1507 Arthur A & Steve Muka 10
329 Center Street
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APPEAL NO. 1512 Planned Parenthood of i
Tompkins County 13
i 314 West State Street
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APPEAL NO. 1514 Cornell Radio Guild 120
227 Linden Avenue
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APPEAL NO. 1515 Marshall & Caryl Sidle 136
211 West Lincoln Street ►
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BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS
COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS
CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 6 , 1983
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I'd like to call this meeting to order. This
is a formal hearing of the duly appointed Board of Zoning Appeals . ;
First of all I ' d like to introduce the members of the board:
Jean Cookingham
Bette Bagnardi
Michael Tomlan
Peggy Haine
Bea Brownell
Charles Weaver, Chairman
Thomas D. Hoard, Building Comm.
and Secretary to the Board
Barbara Ruane , Recording Secretary.
This meeting will be conducted according to the public rules
and regulations of the board that is provided for under the
' charter of the City of Ithaca. We will not be bound by strict
'i rules of evidence, but our determination will be founded upon
sufficient legal evidence to sustain our findings . We request
that all participants identify themselves as to name and address
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and confine their discussions to the pertinent facts in the case
under consideration. Please avoid extraneous material that would s
:, have a delaying effect. There are several cases to be heard
tonight and thb.y will be heard in the order in which they were
published. Before we start the hearing on tonights meeting
.` because of the unusual number of people who have evidence and
interest in the case I ' d like to make a statement regarding the
;' purpose and the nature of the meeting and how it must be conducted;
; First of all , the reason that we limited the number of people in
.; the hall was for your personal safety and ours too. For those
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who are unfamiliar with the hall there' s an alternate exit
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evidenced by the exit signs here in the doorway that many of
you cannot see that are just around the corner past the press
table that takes you all the way to the outside. Because
of this limitation we ask your cooperation permitting those
persons who are making the appeals as well as those who are
affected parties to have access to the board in the fair hearing.
The board does not operate on a committee system, and it must
form its opinions and findings in an open meeting. It , therefore ,
must be able to hear all the pertinent testimony without inter-
uption and must have free exchange of ideas among its members .
This proceeding is much different from the usual public hearing
in which testimony is heard but no action is taken by the hearing
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body. The board of zoning appeals has no reason to aid or
obstruct persons interested in demonstrating their opinions
outside this meeting, but the board does have an obligation to
hear and thoroughly understand each case which is the purpose
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of the hearing. 17hen the information or actions extraneous to
: the zoning matter under consideration interferes with the conduct
of the hearing it cannot be allowed and will be ruled out by me.
The purpose of the hearing is to inform the board of the facts
which under the zoning ordinance have a direct bearing on the
' case and actions or testimony which stray from this principle
only serve to delay the progress of the hearing if not confuse
the issue before the board. Further, in understanding the reason
and the conduct of the meeting we ask each person who wishes to
be heard to come forward and we have two seats here directed to
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the board and both seats have a microphone which can be turned
on if it pleases the appellant , however, it is only necessary
to make sure that the board hears this thoroughly as that is
our purpose for being here. I believe because there are a
number of people still outside the building and some of whom
are very interested in attending this meeting and also possibly
people who wish to be heard I ask that once you have been heard
that you please leave the room and make room for other persons
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who are still outside of the building. I realize in some of
the cases there may be someone representing one or more persons
or organizations , in such case obviously we don't expect you
to exercise yourself by running down the back stairs and back
in the front , but for those of you who have a statement to make
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and intend that that be the end of your active participation in
the hearing then I would respectfully ask you to then leave the
room. I believe -we 're ready for the first case. j
BILL SULLIVAN: Mr. Chairman, a point of order. My name is
Bill Sullivan, I 'm an attorney and I represent two clients here
`- tonight . I 'd like to reserve comments prior to the commencement
Of the second appeal involving the Planned Parenthood application.
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We don't accept what you've indicated as the ground rules . We
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think it ' s violative of the law and I 'd like to speak to that
issue at the time that it comes up , but I don' t want to be untimel
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'i in my objection.
CHAIP�IAN WEAVER: You are untimely. When the case comes up we ' ll
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give those interested persons a right to speak.
MR. SULLIVAN: This meeting violates the open meetings law
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and I want to put that in the record. . .
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You can put it in the record when we 're going
to hear the case and if you'd like to be out of order continuously;
just persist otherwise we' ll go on with our hearing without
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interruption if you don't mind. May we hear the first case , please
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SECY HOARD: The first appeal is appeal #1495 , the appeal of
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Orson Ledger for a special permit under Section 30 .25 , column 2
and Section 30 . 26 and for an area variance under Section 30 .49
and Section 30 . 25 , columns 4, 6 , 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 and 13 , for de-
ficiencies in off-street parking, minimum lot size, minimum lot
;; width, minimum lot coverage , maximum lot coverage, minimum front
yard setback and minimum setbacks from both sideyards to permit
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the operation of a coin operated, self service laundry open to
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the public in the basement of the existing cooperative dwelling
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i' at 207 Williams Street under a special permit. The property is
s located in an R3a use district in which the proposed use is per-
mitted under a special permit from the zoning appeals
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!i under Section 30.49 . The appellant must obtain an area variance
for the listed deficiencies before a permit can be issued for the
laundry. This appeal has been held over from the July 6th, 1933
meeting at the request of the appellant .
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11R. LEDGER: My name is Orson Ledger. I reside at 192 White
Church Hill , Brooktondale and I am seeking a neighborhood facility;
variance at 207 Williams Street . There are twenty-six property
owners in the area, some of them have more than one residence
there and I believe we've got eighteen signatures in favor of
the facility out of the twenty-six: some of them were on vacation
and I didn' t bother to contact them after I got the eighteen.
As far as parking is concerned the people who will certainly
be using it are living within a one block area of the facility
so parking is not a problem. The neighbors in the area have
'l indicated, which I have some letters , but I don' t have a copy
1with me that are in the file, I believe there were four who
indicated . . . Mr. White , who owns a building next door to the
facility, and also a guy from down the street are very much
in favor of it. Also a Mr. (Carey?) who owns the next building j
;' below him, Mr. Johnson who owns a building just up the street
{; both wrote letters indicating that they would like to see this
; variance granted so that people in the area could use it . It ' s
+' a steep street the tenants in the area have asked me to put
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this in so they don' t have to carry their clothes up that hill ,
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;; especially in the winter time when it ' s a little slick.
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!! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The letters that you referred to are all on
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;' file with the Secretary of the board?
' MR. LEDGER: Yes .
BETTE BAGNARDI : Did we get copies of those?
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MS . BACNARDI: We never received copies of those , did we?
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: No , we did not.
'i MS. HAINE : Mr. Ledger how will you publicize your laundry?
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MR. LEDGER: Well , if I get the area variance I'd like to put j
a small sign up out in front if that would be permissible.
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MS . HAINE : I'm a little concerned because I drove past that
house today and I noticed that there is a refrigerator on the
porch.
MR. LEDGER: That belongs to the tenant.
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MS . HAINE: And there is a lot of large furniture some of
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which was hanging off the edge of the porch. I
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MR. LEDGER: I don' t know about "hanging off the porch" , but
there's a loft bed that one of the tenants are building. . .
{! assembling on the front porch I saw that there last week.
There ' s a couple of couches that they brought in to set on
the front porch. The refrigerator I told him he ' d probably
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have to get rid of it and he started to give me a little static
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and I said, "Look, don' t give me no static, it ' s gonna have to
go.
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MS . HAINE : It ' s been there for months .
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MP.. LEDGER: It has been there possibly two months .
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MR. TOMLAN: Certainly longer than that.
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MR. LEDGER: Maybe, I don' t know just how long. . . I told him
it had to go. . . it ' s one he brought in from some friend of his .
�L MS. BAGNARDI : So he' s just storing it you have enough refriger-
ators in all of your apartments.
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MR. LEDGER: It is a refrigerator that a friend of his brought
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over to him.
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�. MS . BAGNARDI: How many people are living in that particular
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house?
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11R. LEDGER: Six. '
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MS. BAGNARDI : And how many total tenants do you have in the
entire area. . . in the Williams Street area?
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MR. LEDGER: I would guess fifty-some .
MS. BAGNARDI: In addition, White and Carey and Johnson all have
tenants that would be using your facilities , too?
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MR. LEDGER: I believe so, yes .
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MS . BAGNARDI : And the closest laundry is on the corner of j
Stewart and. . .
MR. LEDGER: Ozmun Place has the Wash-a-ton. On the corner
of Buffalo and Eddy Street there is also a laundromat.
MS. HAINE : And there is one across the street on Eddy Street.
! MS . BAGNARDI : So there are three in the area presently.
On our sheet doesn' t it say that (garbled)
SECY HOARD: It would be insufficient by five.
MS. BAGNARDI: But he has two .
iSECY HOARD: He has none.
' CHAIR AN WEAVER: Granting this permit would increase the defi-
ciency by two places .
MS . BAGNARDI : Sir, I thought you said to us that there wasn't
any problem with the parking.
. MR. LEDGER: There isn' t because the people that are going to
; be using it will be living within a one block area. They won ' t
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be driving a car to the laundry. They live across the street .
The farthest one would be a block.
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;SMS. BAGNARDI : But do you understand that if this variance is
granted you will be deficient in parking space? Have you tried
to find any parking spaces anywhere?
MR. LEDGER: Well , no I haven' t looked for any, but I wouldn't
need any because they'd be walking across the street they wouldn' ti
be driving a car. . . and next door. . .probably the furthest tenant
' would be not more than a hundred and fifty feet that would be
using the facility.
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!` MS . BAGNARDI : All of these fifty tenants?
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MR. LEDGER: My tenants live next door to it , directly across the
street and behind it.
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MS . BAGNARDI : So you have six in the house on Williams Street .
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How many in the house next door? Do you know, offhand?
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MR. LEDGER: Sixteen, I believe.
MS . BAGNARDI: And in the other house?
PTR. LEDGER: Eight in the house behind it .
MS . BAGNARDI : I don' t have any other questions .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: No further questions? All right , thank you.
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Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard in favor of this
application? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in oppositon
to this application? I repeat , anyone who wishes to speak in
opposition to this application? All right , thank you.
**EXECUTIVE SESSION"
CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there a motion on this? (Garbled)
MS . BAGNARDI : I make a motion (to deny?) case 1495 that
the variance based on increased density of the neighborhood,
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an increase in the already heavy flow of traffic and that there
are multiple deficiencies already on this property.
? : Second.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The motion is seconded. Any discussion?
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Are you ready for a vote? An affirmative vote on this motion
is to deny the variance so a "yes" vote denies . In case 1495 ,
the board voted 6-0 to deny the application. May we hear the
next case please.
SECY HOARD : The next case is the appeal of case number 1507 ,
jj the appeal of Arthur A. Muka and Steve Muka for an area variance
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!, under Section 30 . 25 , columns 7 and 13 , and Section 30 .49 to permit'
conversion of the existing single family home at 329 Center Street
into a two family home. The property is located in a R2B residen-
tial use district in which the proposed use is permitted. However',
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under Section 30 . 49 the variance must be obtained to list the
deficiencies before a building permit can be issued for the
conversions . This appeal has been held over from the July 6th, i
1983 meeting at the request of the appellant .
STEVE MUKA: I 'm Steve Muka. I live at 2381 Danby Road and
I'm here to request an area variance for 329 Center Street .
The property is located behind the old Co-op. I 'd like to
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convert it from a single family to a duplex and have two ,
three bedroom apartments . The front yard is 34 ' and the
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requirement is 35 ' so I 'm asking for a foot of distance in
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the front yard. And on the side yard it ' s between 2.2 and 3 .1 '
and the requirement is 5 ' there and all other area requirements
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are met. Actually, it has a very large back yard and the total
lot size is 3,400 square feet as opposed to the 3 ,000 square j
feet that are required. The existing floor plan is set up so
a' that it would be very easy to use as a two unit duplex. The
exterior of the house wouldn' t be changed by convertiiYg it from
' a single to a duplex use. All the area requirements are met
and I don' t feel that the character of the neighborhood would
' be changed by converting from a single to a duplex. Both the
housing board and the planning board have already looked at
this proposal . Are there any questions?
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I MS . BROj,1NELL: Do you have a copy of the floor plans?
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MR. STEVE MUKA: Yes .
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MS . BROWNELL: Are you changing the outside of the house in
any way?
MR. STEVE 14UKA: No. I would be adding an exterior stairway
to the back of the house which won' t be visible from the front.
MS . BROWNELL: Will you be living in either one of these?
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MR. STEVE MUKA: No , I don't believe so they are income property.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Any questions from the board?
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MS. BAGNARDI : How many cars can you put in that driveway?
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MR. STEVE MUKA: Two , it ' s fifty feet long.
MS. BAGNARDI: You can tandem park if you had to.
11R. STEVE 14UKA: It ' s a single car driveway, but there ' s no
house across the street so there wouldn' t be any congestion
from across the way. It ' s part of the Co-op parking lot . 5
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Any further questions? Is there anyone else
who wishes to be heard on this matter in favor of this applica-
tion? Is there anyone who wishes to be heard in opposition
to this application?
**EXECUTIVE SESSION**
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MR. TOMLAN: Were there any letters either pro or con from any
of the neighbors?
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SECY HOARD: There is a petition of opposition to the variance-
no letters .
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MR. TOMLAN: I move that appeal number 1507 for an area variance
be granted due to the fact that the deficiencies are minimal ,
the use is permitted, there is no substantial difficulty with
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?I off street parking. (garbled)
? : Second.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I have a motion and a second, any discussion?
!i In this case an affirmative vote is to grant the variance . In
case 1507 the board voted 4 "yes" and 2 "no" and the variance is
granted. May we hear the next case.
SECY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1512 , the appeal
of Planned Parenthood of Tompkins County for an area variance
under Section 30 .49 and Section 30 . 25 , columns 4, 13 , and 14
for deficiencies in off street parking, minimum set back in one
side yard and minimum rear yard set back to permit extension of
the existing uses of 314 North State Street by Planned Parenthood
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to be annexed to the property. The property is located in a
B2a business use district in which the proposed use is permitted.
However, under Section 30 .49 the appellants must obtain an area
variance with the listed deficiencies before a building permit
can be issued for the alterations . This appeal has been held
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over from the August 1st , 1983 meeting at the request of the
s appellant.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I call for the appellant. . .
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M. R. SULLIVAN: Mr. Chairman, again, now I think it ' s timely.
I have a client , the Knights of Columbus , who objects to the
holding of this meeting in this location without the persons
outside being pbrmitted to participate . Under Section 95 of
the public officer' s law a legislative declaration was made by j
the state legislature which says as follows : "it is essential
to the maintenance of a democratic society that the public
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! business be performed in an open and public manner and that the
citizen' s of this state be fully aware of and able to observe
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the performance of public officials and attend and listen to the
deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public
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;' policy. The people must be able to remain informed if they are
to retain control over those who are their public servants . It
is the only climate under which the common will will prosper
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and enable the governmental process to operate for the benefit
of those who created it . " This is a public hearing, it ' s a
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,' public meeting. As such the public is entitled to be present.
sMy client objects to any procedures being had in this forum
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;:. without everybody that wants to be here, regardless of what their 's
position may be, to be present and to hear everything that goes ons
I If this location is not big enough I suggest an alternate location'
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two and a half blocks to three blocks down the street , the central ;
; fire station. You can move all the engines and what-not out of
the bays . There ' s virtually no risk of fire there and the meeting
can be held at that location. Again, we object it' s violative of
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,: the open meetings law and we object to any proceedings taking place .
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Indeed, my client was just permitted to walk in by the policemen
that are outside. The policemen that are outside , there are
six or eight policemen, all on overtime making sure that people
don' t get in. That ' s the antithesis of what this society is
all about : the right to be heard, the right to present petitions
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and all kinds of things like that so we object to any further
proceedings .
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: We take your objections into the record, E
Mr. Sullivan and we 'll be glad to deal with you further as their
representative, however, after the appellant has been heard.
? MR. SULLIVAN: Well , the position of my client is that the people
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" out here have the right to hear what the appellant says and
they can' t do that if you aren' t going to let them in the room. F
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I understand, and so do you, that there is p
Inot any way that they can be accommodated here. . .
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MR. SULLIVAN: We can move down the street.
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! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I don' t have the power to move this board
down the street.
' MR. SULLIVAN: Who does? May I ask?
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;! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You can ask, but I can' t give you an answer
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i" on that. Let me say this that I 've read the same section that
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you have read and if the legislative intent has not been
(garbled) this will be an opportunity for you and others to
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further find out what those limitations are. However, it
does not mean that we have to have an open contract or an
enclosed dome or something so that everybody in New York State
can hear what we say. I'm sure that we will not be accused
of having a secret meeting and with the number of people with
the press here and the number of attorneys representing on both
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sides of the argument the ability, possibly not first hand,
but the ability to know with fairness that this was an open
meeting to the best of our ability and the facilities available
to us tonight. I 'm not going to argue that if we take your
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protest into the records and we' ll carry on whether you do or
not with this hearing.
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MR. SULLIVAN: Two points . There ' s about 500 people outside
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that want to come in, first of all and they can't come in.
Second, under Section 98 of the public officer' s-law it
imposes the duty on the part of the board and on the part of
the public body to find facilities and make facilities available
` big enough to accommodate everyone and that ' s what we 're requesting
that you do. . . is make those. . . find those facilities now at a
R quarter of eight on the sixth of September before proceeding
with any further on this hearing.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you.
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' NORBERT SCHICKEL: I have one objection that I would also like
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to raise. It has to do with the. . .
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I don' t know who you are.
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NORBERT SCHICKEL: Norbert Schickel, I 'm an attorney and
I represent several people in the Salvation Army, as spokesman
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for the Salvation Army.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you.
NORBERT SCHICKEL: I have two objections . One is that , I
1i understand that the notice that gets sent out by law is within
two hundred feet , but I don' t think that is saying the same
that only those people within the two hundred foot area can !
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speak. The second thing is , that in terms of the people who
are going to speak and who are permitted to enter the room
' because as you mentioned the limited number of places available
the people. . .apparently there ' s quite a number of people from
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!' Planned Parenthood on the board requested to be able to speak 1
and I think that I was not made aware of this until about 3 ;30
this afternoon and I don' t know if anybody else on our side was
or are opposed to the variance were -made aware of that and I !
: think that , to me , it sort of seems like it ' s a stacked deck.
!' We don' t know of any rule that allowed that .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: There is a question that I will try to deal
: with as fairly as I can as this hearing proceeds on who shall
and who shall not be heard and I understand that out proceedings
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may well be tested later. However, I hear your objection
and we may be able to answer to your satisfaction as the
proceedings carry on.
MR. SULLIVAN: We join in the same objections , the Knights of
Columbus .
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Will you identify yourselves?
DIRK GALBRAITH: Good evening, my name is Dirk Galbraith, I
am an attorney. I have professional offices at 308 North Tioga
Street , Ithaca and I represent the appellant in this proceeding,
Planned Parenthood of Tompkins County. As Building Commissioner
' Hoard has indicated this appeal seeks an area variance from
Section 30. 25 of the zoning ordinance columns 4, 13 , and 15 ,
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they are respectively side yard, rear yard and parking. The
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property is in a B2 zone, present use is as a medical and
counseling services . The proposed variance would allow the
addition of gynecological and surgical services . The use,
therefore, is a permitted use as a medical office in a zone
' which it is in. The standard for granting an area variance ,
as I believe this board is aware is one of practical difficulties , "
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: because it is an area variance that is sought . Now the precise
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hange which is sought by Planned Parenthood is the connection
' of the presently existing accessory building to the rear of the
; main building to the main building at 314 West State Street for
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the purpose of having an examining room and a patient lounge
of the size required by the New York State Department of Health. {
The accessory building, as the diagram which is next to our
application indicates , is only a foot or so from the main
building. The connection of the accessory building then would
result in a negligible exterior change to the appearance of the
° building. The same size examining room could theoretically
. be constructed within the main building without a variance.
;: However, the effect of doing this would require the gutting of I
a portion of the building which is art old frame building, I
' think of some historical value in this community and it would
.! destroy the previous work which has been done on the building.
''; Such an approach would also be unfeasible from an architectural
point of view and our architect, Mx. Hoffman, is going to speak
; on that point. The second possibility would be to construct
F: an examining room and associated facilities on premises apart
from 314 West State Street , however, that would result in the
division of the administrative services of Planned Parenthood
from whatever other services . . .whatever other premises this
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; would be and again would result in a decrease in efficiency
and extremely high cost. The plan which has been proposed
by Planned Parenthood architect — the connection of the existing
main building to the existing accessory building is one which
- we would suggest is logical under the circumstances and one
which would not increase the present deficiencies of the building
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in respect to either side yard or rear yard. Now in 1980 this
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; board unanimously granted a previous variance to Planned
Parenthood reducing its parking requirements from sixteen
spaces , which would have been the literal requirement of
the ordinance since there was then 4,000 square feet of office
space on the premises , to eight spaces . This variance application;
interestingly was completely unopposed and was granted by
; unanimous vote of this board. So as the facility presently
stands there is a parking requirement of eight spaces which has
been met entirely by on premises parking. The proposed change
would result in one additional employee being added to the
Planned Parenthood staff and approximately six to eight more
patients per week. We suggest that this would not appreciably
!! increase traffic or burden the existing parking facilities . We
plan to have a traffic survey introduced as evidence before this
court. A portion of that parking survey will demonstrate that
within a two hundred foot radius . . . I'm sorry, five hundred foot
radius of 314 West State Street there are 17.1 public parking
spaces on the street and an additional 31 parking spaces in
a public parking lot directly across the street from it . This
is an area which we suggest the evidence will show isnot heavily
:; burdened now and would not be burdened by the granting of the
proposed variance. The proposed change would result in the j
requirement of three additional parking spaces . The proposed
addition or the use of the accessory building would add 600
square feet of floor space to the,,office space presently being
utilized. It would also result in the elimination of one
parking space which presently exists on the premises owing to
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the need to create a door for a second exit to the rear.
Therefore, the total deficiency created by the grant of this
variance over and above the parking which has presently been
permitted would be a total of four spaces . Now in order to
'meet this deficiency and since this matter was presented to
the palnning board Planned Parenthood has entered into written
lease agreements with owners of premises at 412 West Green
! Street and adjoining premises at 113-115 South Plain Street.
' These lease agreements are in a form which has been approved
`'by this board in the past and I am prepared to present them
'; to the board at this time. We believe that this board should
;lin the exercise of its descretion grant a variance to reduce
'' the parking in its literal requirement of the proposed 19
`! spaces to the previously varianced level of eight plus the
: additional deficiency of four for a total of 12 . In other
'!words , that could be satisfied by seven on premises parking
'•! spaces and five off premises parking spaces at the Green Street
location. However, if this board should feel otherwise after
ihearing the testimony in this case and believe that more parking
is required I state at this time that Planned Parenthood is
;prepared to provide up to a total of 19 off street parking
. spaces between the Green Street location and the remaining
! seven on premises parking spaces at 314 West State Street.
At this time I would like to submit duplicate originals of the
' lease agreements covering the Green Street location for the
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( board' s consideration. Mr. Hoffman, our architect , has a
diagram of that premises which will show the number of parking
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spaces which can be accommodated.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Question, is the lease for five or is it I
open ended?
MR. GALBRAITH: The lease by its terms is for one year and
renegotiable at the end of one year by the parties . The lease
;s
further provides that in the event the lease is terminated for
any reason the parties are to notify the building commissioner.
A similar lease. . .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: ray question was , does the lease provide for
five or an open number?
MR. GALBRAITH: I'm sorry, I misunderstood your question, sir.
". The lease provides for 12 spaces and the arrangement that we
have is that should a lesser number of spaces be required by
this board we can negotiate downward with the property owner.
I would add that a lease in similar form has been used to
'f correct a parking deficiency at Zorba' s restaurant and, in fact ,
that lease served as a model for the lease that we presented to
you. This variance would not alter the character of the neighbor
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hood in which the premises are located. I believe that is
demonstrated by the fact that Planned Parenthood has had its
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'! offices at 314 West State Street since 1980 and the proposed
change would merely enable the organization to expand its servicest
There has been— there will be no appreciable change to the
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exterior appearance of the building. I would also suggest that
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this variance is one that is generally supported by the
residents of this community and, in particular , by the
residents of the immediate area in which this property is
i located. Prior to the meeting this evening there was filed
with this board a petition signed by 3 , 683 persons in support
of the grant of this variance application, 2 ,143 of whom are
TAPE CHANGEh residents of the city of Ithaca. Furthermore , 731 have attended
Side Two this hearing tonight and have signed an attendance record,
and most of those people are probably waiting outside at the
moment, and the attendance states that each one of these people
has personally come here to this meeting to support the variance
application. At this time I'd like to submit that to the board
c
and ask that it be made part of the record. Out of the 21
; property owners whose properties are located within 200 feet
i
of the subject property ten property owners have written letters
of support of this variance to the board which I believe are
on file with the board. Out of 16 businesses located on the
same block with Planned Parenthood proprietors of 11 of those
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'; businesses have also written letters of support , those are
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" also on file. A total of 248 people have written to this
`; board for the present application including three clergymen,
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E 15 downtown businesspeople other than those mentioned above,
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; five doctors , seven nurses and five human service professionals .
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In conclusion, this present application requests what I believe
is a minimal variance to permit the expansion of the presently
3
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' existing use in a zone in which that use is permitted. I
would submit that as evidence before this board would demonstrate
that the proposed change is a logical use of the applicant ' s
; space and that practical difficulties exist which would preclude
any other method of constructing the examining room and patient
lounge which Planned Parenthood wishes to construct . I would
further submit , that nothing about the proposed variance would
adversely affect the character of the neighborhood in which
;, this property is located. Now Ladies and Gentlemen of the
board the controversy surrounding this application has made
this hearing the focal point of a great deal of public attention, 1
1
!; and this cannot help but make the task of the board more difficult !
3;
in deciding the issues of this case. I 'm going to suggest
that only a small fraction of what has been said or written
"; to date about this case has anything to do with the zoning
j` consideration which you as a board are bound to consider and
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in considering the testimony in this case I would, therefore,
s
!; ask you to make your judgment on the basis of the evidence
: which` is relevant and material to the case and not upon grounds
;; which are in the end incapable of evaluation by this board.
°' Thank you, and with that I would like to present Ms . Kate
1OPotteiger who is the executive director of Planned Parenthood.
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1At this time , Chairman Weaver, I' d also like to indicate that
we wish to have the following speakers each speak briefly, I
' and I think each one of them is going to be briefer than I have
!
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'' been, in support of this application, they are: Lawrence Hoffman,
who is the project architect ; Carolyn Berman, who is a traffic
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consultant ; Dr. Willard Schmidt , who is a licensed physician;
David Evans , who is a pastor at the Baptist Church; and Susan
Cummings , who is a neighbor and a member of the planning board.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Mr. Counselor before we go further you gave
;I
i' me expertise of some of your witnesses , but not all . I ' d be
interested in what particular zoning related expertise will
' be provided by each of those who speak. We can either discuss
that now or as each person is called, but it seems to me that
, now would be the most appropriate time .
a,
MR. GALBRAITH: Ms . Potteiger is the Executive Director of
j
j Planned Parenthood and I think her need to speak is obvious .
Mr. Hoffman wishes to speak both on the parking issue and the
11 location and adequacy of the parking both on site and in the
rented area and also to describe the physical changes to the
property. Ms . Berman has conducted a traffic study the results
of which we'd like to put in evidence before you, I believe
fi! supporting what I've said about the traffic situation in this
area. Since this is a medical facility and since, frankly,
before this meeting questions had been raised in the media
about certain medical aspects of the— of Planned Parenthood
and for instance things like emergency services , I think Dr. Schmidt
is prepared to speak on those. He ' s also prepared to speak on
the requirements of the state health department which mandate
�s
the particular size of the rooms and why those requirements are
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what they are. I 'm sorry, I need to point out hat he is the
Public Health Commissioner of Tompkins County. Pastor Evans
is pastor of the Baptist Church which is not within the
' immediate area of Planned Parenthood. He was prepared to speak
on the impact of Planned Parenthood' s program from the viewpoint
of a clergyman since it has been stated in the media that
1there is quite a bit of opposition to the application on behalf
of the clergy. Now, for some reason. . . if you don't think that
that is appropriate I would withdraw it .
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' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: No , I will say this for all of those who
! have an interest here that there are a variety of interests
that have been evidenced from the many letters that the
board has received on this matter. However , it is my intention
:!unless the individual has a particular. . .represents someone
' in the affected area of has a particular expertise as to the
' question before us that is a zoning matter I tend to not hear
;; general comments and because our letters indicate that several
11churches in and out of the city have evidenced an interest I
i
!,would assume that coming from the churches that it ' s a religious
aspect of the controversy. . .of the general public controversy
1
;, that is motivating these people to attend. So, I make one
;; exception and there my writing a clergyman from a Catholic
.:' Church which is outside the 200 foot circle of this property,
! but who claims to be representing some person in the affected
.' area would be the only exception that I 'm aware of now. I
; realize that anyone may come before us later. So either I ' ll
;; discuss this with the Reverend Evans later or at this time I
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would express my reluctance to listen to general comments
other than that which would help us make a zoning decision.
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iMR. GALBRAITH: I understand and I think Reverend Evan' s remarks
will be brief and to the point .
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' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , brief and not to the point will not
be allowed.
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SMR. GALBRAITH: Okay, sir. Ms . Cummings is a resident of the
3
immediately affected area she is a person who is very knowledge-
E
gable in the matters of planning and zoning and I think that
' she can also speak on the impact of the proposed change on
;; the neighborhood. So I would like to have her speak.
SIMS. KATE POTTEIGER: My name is Kate Potteiger, Executive
'.!Director of Planned Parenthood of Tompkins County. Planned
;;Parenthood is a fifteen-year-old county-wide agency that
provides medical counseling and education services . We are
! licensed by the State of New York as a medical diagnostic
I
sand treatment center. Our present services include medical
' contraceptive services, annual gynecological exams for women,
;;pap smears , diagnosis and treatment of vaginal and urinary
;tract infections , infertility medical exams , diagnosis and
4
'!treatment of sexually transmitted diseases , and premartial
,:exams . Our (?) of social work counselors provide counseling
on a range of sexuality and reproductive health concerns
S
including herpes , menopause, infertility, sterilization and
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parent-child communications. Pregnancy testing, counseling
and referrals for all medical and legal options is also
provided including referrals for prenatal care, abortion
and adoption. We also provide education programs and training
workshops for the community. Last year 4,000 men and women
came to us for medical and counseling services . An additional
3 ,000 community residents took part in our education programs .
Our offices are located at 314 West State Street . We have
21 staff members in all , eight of these are full time.
That is they work a full 35 hour week. The remaining 13 staff
members work variable hours ranging from five to 28 hours per
week. Our medical director, Dr. Wendy Robertson provides
11 hours per week of physician time. Planned Parenthood' s
administrative offices are open from 9 to 5 every day.
Appointments for patients are scheduled throughout the week
from the following schedule : Monday 12-8 , Tuesday 12-5 ,
Wednesday 9-8 , Thursday 9-5 , and Friday 9-4. Appointments
i1 are scheduled at the rate of four or five patients per hour.
' We currently see an average of 32 people per day or approximately
;: 160 people per week. We have eight on site parking spaces
which are assigned to staff by the agency. Of the full time
" staff 60 percent generally drive to work, among the part-time
staff 70 percent normally drive. Our experience for the past
three years at this location indicates that parking is not a
problem for patients , staff or volunteers . Planned Parenthood
is directly across the street from a municipal parking lot
with .31 spaces . There are 171 on street parking spaces within
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a 500 ' radius of our facilities . Neither staff nor patients
have ever complained about difficulty with parking . About
25 percent of our patients use public transportation or
walk to our facility. There is an Ithaca Transit bus stop
directly across the street . We purchased our current facility
in 1979 . In January 1980 we requested a variance for parking
to enable us to renovate the first floor of 2400 square feet
' for medical and counseling services . The second floor of
1600 square feet was for administrative and education offices .
The number of parking spaces required at that time was 16 .
: No one spoke in opposition to our variance request . An eight
space variance was granted on the grounds that the municipal
parking lot and available on street parking were more than
sufficient . With this variance we proceeded with renovations ;
;' $120 ,000 was raised from local supporters to finance the
i' renovation. Last fall an additional $20 ,000 , in part financed
":I' by community development grant and loans and part by Planned
'' Parenthood funds , was spent improving the exterior of the
building including porch repairs , painting and the installation
i
of storm windows . This financial support from community
contributors represents a significant support in the community
for Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood and the community
' have an investment of more than $200 ,000 in improving and
' adapting this facility as a medical and educational family
:, planning center. It is an investment we are proud of. It
is an attractive setting for staff and patients alike . In
'' April 1983 Planned Parenthood's Board of Directors voted to
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begin offering first trimester abortion services as part of
our (management) and reproductive health care. In order to
meet the standards of the state health department for offering
outpatient surgery Planned Parenthood needs to enlarge its
examining rooms . We basically have three alternatives . One
is to renovate within the existing facility. That is to
rearrange our present space. This alternative is not
workable because it would totally disrupt our present services
while construction was under way. It would also destroy what
is otherwise an attractive and efficiently designed medical
office. The second alternative would be to provide these
services at another location. This would require Planned
Parenthood to duplicate all of its offices : our reception
area, our patient records room, our lab area, interview
f�
rooms , staff offices , our safety systems and medical equipment .
4 j
!! We feel this would be an unnecessarily costly solution to the
;; need for slightly larger examining rooms . We consulted our s
: architect, Larry Hoffman, who designed the interior of our
present space, to help us develop and plan for renovating the
accessory building which is within one foot of the rear of
E
our medical offices . It is our architect 's assessment that
this accessory building is the only logical place for expansion
;ion our property. The buildings can be easily connected and
; integrated with the present exam rooms . We have three examining
;; rooms now. After our proposed renovation we will still have
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three examining rooms two of them slightly larger and an
additional patient lounge and storage area. All three examining
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rooms and new clinical area will be used for all of our
medical services . This renovation will result in the loss
of one of our existing parking spaces to allow for a new
rear exit. The addition of 600 square feet requires an
additional three parking spaces giving us a net deficiency
of four. In terms of the increase in patients and staff
the impact will be minimal . The equivalent of one full
time staff person will be added to the nursing and support
` staff. An additional six hours of gynecologist ' s time will
be scheduled per week. Six to eight additional patients
at less than a five percent increase in the number of patients
seen weekly. Finally, new hours will be added to our patient
F
schedule at a time when we are not presently seeing clients .
The maximum number of people including patients , staff and
i s
: volunteers in the building at any given time will remain at
!; about twenty. This new service then will not mean an intensified
1''. use, but will result in our extending our hours throughout
the week. Thank you.
:: LARRY HOFFMAN: Good evening, my name is Larry Hoffman and
is
I'm an architect and my professional offices are located at
�3
1119 West Buffalo Street. I 'd like to speak very briefly on
just two issues . First the parking and I have prepared for
distribution three plans showing the proposed parking layout
on the existing site of Planned Parenthood, a twelve car
, parking lot located at 412 West Green Street utilizing a
i138 by 123 foot site, and thirdly utilizes the same 38 x 123 foot j
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site, but with one corner of the site eliminated. There
are twelve spaces shown on the full site. There are eight
i
additional spaces shown on the somewhat reduced site . The
sizes of the parking spaces and the means of getting to
them we utilized standard practices for sizes and access .
We have maintained the access to the what is referred to
as the accessory building on the site which has resulted
in seven spaces being shown on the existing site rather than
the current eight. I do have, I believe , enough of those to
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go around. For the past ten years , the majority of my practice
'' has been in the design and construction of medical facilities
i
I around the state at all levels . . . from doctor's offices through
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'; acute care hospitals . I would like to very briefly just go
over some of the practical difficulties of attempting to do
i
;; other than what has been proposed here.
:! VOICE IN THE AUDIENCE : Mr. Chairman, I can't hear him at all
I wonder if he couldn' t speak into the mike.
s
' MR. HOFFMAN: Is that better? It' s on. . .
3
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: It ' s not a very good system. . . I appreciate
your frustration, but . . . .
ii MR. HOFFMAN: I ' ll attempt to speak up.
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' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: All right , go ahead.
MR. HOFFMAN: This facility is under the jurisdiction of
. the Office of Health Systems Management of the State of New
York. The codes that building the addition, the renovation
would have to meet , not only include New York State Building
'' Code, but also Section 710 of the New York State Health Code
; which is , in fact, far more restrictive than the building
;` code that would affect say a doctor ' s office. A facility
71such as this is viewed in the same way as a hospital , ambulatory
`; care center or other facility. In other words , it must meet
,': Section 710 of the New York State Health Code in addition to
all the requirements of the New York State Construction Code.
;:We're dealing with a highly regulated industry. The Office
of Health Systems Management enforces with a great deal of
.zeal . They're requirements are very strict. When the original
i
;'renovation project they came here from Albany, they inspected
';this site on several occasions . . they will do the same for
i;
Ethis renovation. The proposed project fully utilizes the
'`work that has previously been done. It totally utilizes the
;;functional basis on which the original renovation was done
i
!land ends up with a totally unified facility. Any attempt to
partially recreate a facility at an alternate location would
be extremely difficult and would involve the duplication of
6
, a great deal of work that has already taken place. The internal
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,changes to the building are relatively minor. The work that
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would take place on the site will certainly have no negative
impact on the neighborhood and will have, we believe, a very
positive impact on the neighborhood as I 'm sure most of you
will agree are no problems in terms of utilizing the facility as
'; proposed to meet the code requirements imposed by the state.
And whatever requirements are required in order to obtain a
-; building permit to meet all those codes we will do. There
.: are fire requirements that can be met. This is a relatively
;' straight forward problem we do not appreciably. .would
!; negligibly affect the block coverage. And I feel the proposed
`; solution will be an asset to the neighborhood.
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'CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Ms . Berman.
s
HCAROLYN BERMAN: My name is Carolyn Berman. I 'm a private
' planner. .
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! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Say it as loud as you can. pull the mike
ii
; toward you. . . it may help. . .
r
�; CAROLYN BERMAN: Okay, my name is Carolyn Berman. I 'm a
private planner/consultant . I was contracted by Planned
1
!' Parenthood to do a parking survey for them. I obtained a
;;master' s degree from Cornell University in City and Regional
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!;Planning with an emphasis in transportation. I have done
a number of these transportation studies in the past . I 'd
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like to distribute. . . the map that is on the bulletin board
behind you indicates the area that was surveyed at approximately
a 500 feet radius . The red coloring indicates two hour parking
and the green one hour and the light blue unlimited and the
dark blue shaded area is a municipal parking lot . We surveyed
the area on three different days , Tuesday, August 30th from
nine a.m. to eight p.m. , Friday, September 2nd from nine a.m.
to five p.m. , and Saturday, August 3rd from nine a.m. to five pm.
" Basically what we did was we counted all the spaces on the
streets and checked each hour for which spaces were occupied
and then determined availability from that and the percentage
of utilization. If you turn to pages two and three you' ll
; see the results of those figures . On page three there are
I
a total of all on street parking of 171 spaces . At the highest
;; peak of utilization which seems to be at the hours of one and
:; four there are sixty-seven available spots within a 500 mile
',, radius of Planned Parenthood.
's
(Murmers in room)
. . .and that doesn' t include the municipal parking lot which has
thirty-one spaces at its highest peak which seems to be in the j
:; morning from eight to twelve. . . there are three available spots
II
in there. I 've broken each area down by street and provided
: statistics .
"; MR. GALBRAITH: I 'd like to make the traffic size a part of the
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record if we could rather than reading every bit of it .
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MS . BERMAN: It is important, I think, to note that on
Saturday for example no more than thirty percent of all
available parking was utilized. Specifically the municipal
parking lot. At no time was there more than the four cars
in the thirty-one spaces so that if services were to be. .
on Saturday for example parking is even higher than during
the week. The survey was also done during busiest time in
Ithaca. Not only were students here, but so were
parents . And I would imagine that if this study was done
a couple of months from now there would be even more parking
available. As I would imagine a number of students were
; going to the second hand furniture stores in the area, etc. . .
Bishop' s .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Dr. Schmidt.
}
i DR. SCHMIDT: Mr. Weaver, members of the board, I'm Dr. Schmidt .
' I'm Health Commissioner of Tompkins County. Our offices are
located at 1287 Trumansburg Road. I 'm here as an advocate of
i
,, Planned Parenthood' s application for this zoning variance because
;! public health need for this service, this facility and for the
variance in order to make the facility possible. I can' t say
,,, anything about parking except that the staff of the health j
;': department and patients we have referred to Planned Parenthood
t
,, and I have no trouble finding a place to park when we 've gone down !
—36—
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there. I think it ' s important that you consider two aspects
of this application very carefully. First , that as was pointed
I
out earlier by the attorney representing Planned Parenthood
the continuation of the services of Planned Parenthood during
the proposed renovations without interruptions is vitally
necessary. The construction that is planned would provide
the continuation of the current services that they offer and
; without hardly any practical interruptions . It has been well
pointed out that this is a central location easily accessible
by foot , car or public transportation. In the provision of
family planning care the other services that Planned Parenthood
;. provide a central location. A location that is known to the
` recipients , to those that need the services is important and
i
to change this location would make it considerably more difficult j
ito carry on this work at the level that it has been performed (,
E1
in the past. It also was pointed out there are rather stringent
requirements placed upon public health facilities . The Office
of Health Systems Management and the New York State Department
,
of Health have laid down as has been pointed out by others very
;; careful requirements about the types of rooms necessary, the
'' size of the rooms , the equipment that must be in the rooms and
i
,, things of this order which have been, again, addressed by the
architect in the design of these plans and in the proposed
tvariance as the most efficient way of dealing with this problem.
;: Again, the Office of Health Systems Management which inspects these
facilities at regular intervals , I believe, would not continence
j
an interruption of services by construction and therefore the
, 9
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'. proposed plan would seem to be the most effective that could be
r
offered in why the variance is required. Finally, I would like
9
to point out that family planning is absolutely necessary in the
practice of public health in any municipality. In many counties ,
', Cortland being an example, family planning is a service offered
by the health department. In Tompkins County, we believe we are
i
; fortunate in having Planned Parenthood to provide this service
;; under our aegis and with our appreciation. It augments the
;: health practice in this county without additional costs to tax-
i
payers , and you know that I have had the problem of cost pointed
:: out to me at various occasions in the past so that I am concerned
, about providing as good as health as possible at the least cost .
'', I think it is also important to appreciate that the service is
;; that the variance is requested for to provide termination of
, pregnancy services is a necessary and professionally accepted
'; part of the family planning process . That the combination of
: the services that Miss Potteiger has outlined must include
;` termination of pregnancy as part of the service unless this is
available through facilities in the community. There are two
., offices at present that provide this service staffed, operated
'` by private physicians . There was another physician who practiced
in this field until his untimely death recently interrupted that.
I would point out to you that during 1981 when this physician and
'' the other offices were in operation that there were 730 abortions
i
;. requested and performed on Tompkins County residents , that 104
of these abortions were performed outside of the county.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I think Doctor, we don't have a use to bring
this application before us so in the general sense that the E
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utility of the building and the operation of the organization is
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essential . I 'm interested in hearing your testimony, further
f
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discussion will be used for this (mumbling) unnecessary and
', inappropriate argue termination (noise) not a use variance or area ;
; variance that does not address the activities of the building.
DR. SCHMIDT: I understand and would conclude my remarks by
'' saying that the data that I have prepared I hope will be of use
i
' to you in coming to a conclusion in this matter.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you.
<< i
;; REV. DAVID EVANS : I 'm Rev. David Evans , pastor of the First
'; Baptist Church located in DeWitt Park. I 've been pastor and
have identified with Ithaca for seventeen years . I 'm not sure
that I ,m wanted here, but let me simply say (unidentified person
'' says , "Speak into the mike" . ) my purpose for speaking is to
remind all of us that there is a plurality of theological
' convictions , religious beliefs and moral opinions among and
.iwithin religious communities about many subjects . One of which
'': is the one that has aroused the greatest interest in this meeting, ;
,!namely abortion. The reality of abortion places persons of
' theological , religious and moral opinions in great tension with
'historic commitments and contemporay convictions . This has been
1
true in the past dozen years since abortion has become a reality
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yin our state. It has caused religious communities to have to
';rethink the whole issue of abortion and this has been a very
;,painful experience for all . In the final analysis , the issue
. is religious liberty, no group can demand that the law in any
,,way or any devious way be threatened, be allowed that would
.. deny religious liberty. Thank you.
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;! CHAIRMAN 14EAVER: Ms . Cummings . Is this Ms . Cummings?
A
; UNIDENTIFIED VOICE : Yes it is .
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,MS. CUMMINGS : Good Evening. I am here to speak as the. . .
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',` CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You need to identify yourself.
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,iMS . CUNNINGS : Susan Cummings , I live at 214 Fayette Street and
�II'm here to speak as a neighbor, a resident of the neighborhood
;, and a planner. As a neighbor. . .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Let 's go to the neighborhood first. What . . .
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�` MS . CUMMINGS : As a neighbor I live within two and a half blocks
I
`. of the Planned Parenthood facility.
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: CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I would not listen to you as a neighbor two
3
' and a half blocks away so I want you and everyone else to under-
� stand that this will be a matter of very serious contention later I
' on so you' ll have to be qualified some other way.
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MS . CUMMINGS: Alright, I do have planning concerns to speak to.
May I ask you, there have been two parts to speaking as a neigh-
bor, one was personal experience as an individual - shopping.
Omit that. The second capacity was as the former past president
' of Neighborhood Housing, for instance, for five years in which
;. capacity one is intimately familiar with the neighborhood, the
;; development - residential development , commercial intrusion that
isort of area of relevance.
; CHAIRMAN 14EAVER: Ms . Cummings , you realize that we have a
;` particularly difficult problem to deal with in many technical
aspects and one is the right to have a proper hearing for those
' persons who are interested. There is no question that anyone
,,, that lives in the city of Ithaca has an interest in zoning and
good zoning enforcement and there is a lobby of planners both
' professionals here and connected with the university who have
;; special knowledge and particular interests in good planning.
11But , it is my unhappy problem to decide who an interested party
,: to this session is and I'm going to try to rule uniformly tonight
!,! that a person who is not representing someone with 200, who
i
owns property or is a tenant within 200 feet of the applicant ' s
property. And anyone who is not one of those tenants or owners
; or representative of one does not have a right to be heard. i
1I realize that many people will be dissatisfied with that but
I want to state it clearly, so that anyone can expect me to
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enforce this uniformly and fairly and if I do not I would like
to have it called to my attention immediately. So if you're
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really representing, in the general sense, those persons interested
quote, "Good Housing or good planning or neighborhood" more gener-
ally as being downtown. I must say I 'm not prepared to listen
to you.
MS. CUMMINGS : Fine, I understand your difficulties in listening
to our part of this . . .
. MR. SULLIVAN: Mr. Chairman, pardon me. The Knights of Columbus
;, object to that and feel that this lady and well as anybody else
, who wants to speak ought to be heard even regardless of their
;; position. We want that clear for purposes of your tape recorder.
P
,; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: If you give us a moment we will give you a
, chance to be very clearly confronted with the same ruling so
' I'm dealing with this speaker right now if I may. (room noise)
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;MS . CUMMINGS : Alright , I would like to speak and I think it would ,
! be relative for (inaudible) to speak as a member of the city
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`-planning board to pass out to you a sense of the planning board' s
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involvement in the West State Street area. I understand that it
!' is the business of this board to take into consideration that
rather generally hard to get ahold of term planning- issues
, as one of your areas of concern and I felt that it would be
.,,appropriate for me to speak briefly as a long term member of
the planning board.
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;CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Let me speak to that too. This board listens
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it
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,: each month to the recommendations of the Planning and Development
Board and more specifically on this case we had a rather lengthy
hearing on the issue. We received a copy of their final determi-
:nation on the case and I would not like to hear that again by
' the individual members of that board.
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MS . CUMMINGS : Correct , I think there is no need to recapitulate
;!what was said at that planning board meeting, what I had here
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:, were comments which were in the -context of planning policy of
the Planning Department (audible beeps) . . .with references
!' to the American cities studies which. . . j
;:CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Again, I don't wish to embarass you but you
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!happen to be tinely in this problem. First up, first down
;possibly and the question before me as that I see is not the
,;quality of your particular background or experience but rather
kwhether you are an interested person. The attorney for the
lappellant here I 'm sure is listening as others in the room are
,;concerned with the same limitations . I feel that I cannot -listen
' to your remarks as a general person of interest without a direct
connection with the appellant and as a representative of the
;;appellant. I'm sorry.
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; MS. CUMMINGS : That is I understand an interpretation you need
;Ito this particular case and the practical difficulties .
;CHAIRMAN WEAVER: No, our rules and regulations put the burden
!'ion determining who an interested person to a zoning hearing is and
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I'm exercising that responsibility under the rules of the board
as adopted in May of this year.
MS. CUMMINGS: Fine, I Just want among the determination. . .
!; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I 'm sorry, it does not provide that the board
: agreed or disagree with the Chair if directly as the burden
;, upon the Chairman, so I 'm sorry. Is there anyone else -or do
.! you have a summons?
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'! MR. GALBRAITH: Chairman Weaver, at this time that concludes
,: our formal presentation. While we were speaking an additional
forty-six persons appeared and signed the attendance roster on
,; behalf of the proposed variance, and I'd like to include that
:, with the list previously offered to the board. At this time
I would like to reserve the right to present evidence in a
:, rebuttal should any new matter be raised by any objectives `
to the variance not directly raised by the witnesses for the
': appellant to this point and I would like to call the board' s
!` attention. Probably I'm sure that it ' s unnecessary for you, sir
; but for the provisions of subdivision I,F of the rules of this
:' board which states that any person representing any civic group
or association or several property owners should submit a written
'. authorization, from said persons constituting a group to speak
in their behalf and should any one appear in which to speak I woul
': request that such written authorization be filed prior to the
board hearing their remarks .
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' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I generally make one exception to that, counse-
lor. I'm not questioned the veracity of an attorney who appears
in front of us and says he represents clients . . . so. . .
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' MR. GAILBRAITH: On behalf of the legal profession, sir, I
'. thank you. (laughter in room) Sir, there may be other people
' who wish to speak on behalf of the application not part of the
r formal presentation.
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i,' MR SULLIVAN: Pardon me, are we going to be permitted to examine
the witnesses that Mr. Galbraith has called. It is our right i
, as an agreed party to cross-examine these witnesses . In order
''; for Mr. Hoffman to vacate the premises, it ' s impossible now. i
'! It is a matter of procedure we request the right to be able to
; examine these witnesses .
!�lCHAIRMAN WEAVER: Mr. Sullivan, I realize that you're anxious
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to be apart of this hearing, by your actions .
MR. SULLIVAN: Oh, no , we want to wait our turn.
;; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: That ' s what I wish you would do .
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E` MR. SULLIVAN: When can I examine the witnesses?
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!! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: When we come to you, you can ask all the
,, questions of me and the board necessary, but this is not a
eprotest that will fail if you make it at a later moment .
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( CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Now, is there anyone else who wishes to be
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- heard in favor of this application. Left hand or right hand,
left hand. To the rest of you who couldn' t see there were two
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' hands raised in back, one was a left hand, the other was a right
- hand. Now I 'm getting other volunteers but the first two that
I saw. Yes , sir.
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Tape Three PETER MCCHESNEY: I 'm one of three owners of the property located
'' at 317 West State Street which is next to the parking lot immedi-
i
: ately across from Planned Parenthood. My other two partners in
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;; the building are here with me and I'm speaking for the three of
us . We've been there for four and a half years and we 're apart
! of the neighborhood that I think it called to rejuvenate the
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1buildings that have been there. The subject which has been of
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;; discussion has been parking. My business and the other business
:; located in the building depend heavily upon access , not only by
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'! our staff, but by our clients . We both have people coming and
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G! going to visit us and our business depends heavily upon that.
i'l ,cince Planned Parenthood,arrived during the weekdays when we
are open, I have yet to have a client or employee of our office
'- complain of a parking problem in our area, and as a person who
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;1walks the street on a regular basis in that area. I see no parking !
problems existing at the present time and I do not foresee in
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!what Planned Parenthood proposes that one would come about. I
;believe that Planned Parenthood has been an asset to the neighbor- !
s
!:hood. I think that a lot of people have begun to take an interest ;
' in that area, there has been a lot of people fixing up their
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.:properties , taking better care of the grounds and in general
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;
,
making it a place that would attract additional business and
additional people coming to that area. Planned Parenthood, in
my opinion, has been a good neighbor. Their building is well
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''. kept, it is an attractive building and one in which they have
':'. added to and it is certainly a quiet and unobstrusive neighbor.
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I do not foresee any problem as Planned Parenthood is offering
iron what they're going to do to me in their expansion. I believe
on the other hand, the issues that have been raised, are ones
' that are, the situation which is being requested is a legal one
: and therefore, it seems to me it should be judged on that issue,
sbecause I believe they've been a good neighbor.
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( CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes , sir
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MR. GANGL: Could I get his name.
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i1CHAIRMAN 14EAVER: He' ll give it to you on the way out . The
gentleman in the back there in the white shirt wants to know who i
;; you are. So would you accommodate him?
11PETER MCCHESNEY: My name is Peter McChesney.
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;; HAROLD FELDMAN: Mr. Weaver, may name is . .board members , my
11name is Harold Feldman. I live at 105 Cascadilla Park, on the
1
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(other hand, I own property on the corner of Plain and Seneca
'' Street at 228-230 Seneca Street. At the rear of that building,
tare spaces for two cars .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , we have a magic circle there which has a
200 foot radius from the affected property and I must advise that f
you are outside of that limit , also , in that general neighborhood I
and beyond that .
�IHAROLD FELDMAN: May I add one sentence? Or would you suggest
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:: that I stop at this point?
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I must confess that when we go over this we
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1expect to eliminate from the record testimony from persons who are
,, not "interested persons . "
;; STEPHEN BLUMENTHAL: Good evening. My name is Stephen Blumenthal
`sand I operate Gallagher Television at 327 West State Street . I 'm
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;,, going to check the magic circle first . Basically I 'm here to
`: represent myself as an owner of a business and I also represent
-: Mr. and Mrs . Robert Domredas at 3272 West State Street , who are
c
lithe owners of the property that I 'm renting. I' ll first deal with ;
their statements . They are 100 percent in support of Planned
!! Parenthood. In the 40 years they've occupied that residence, their
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., statement is that up until the time that State Street was closed
!' off due to the Commons , there were parking problems since then.
'' There have been no parking problems there now. With regard to my
:'! business , we basically deal with 100 to 150 customers a week. We
;'' have 8 parking spaces in front of the building and 8 additional
;; on property spaces . We 've never had a parking problem whatsoever, :
! any shape or form. I usually carry, myself, between 40 and 100
': sets to cars a month and I 've never had to walk 430 or 440 feet
.'' believe me. I ' d remember that. A couple of things I would like
—48—
to state just in terms of the situation in general . I 've done a
survey, which, granted is not professionally done, mainly counting )
parking spaces that are owned by property people that are off-site ;
;:parking and I would like to state there is an additional 60 to 80
,' parking spaces that are owned by private property people and of
those parking spaces , generally from what I 've counted going the
;; same three week period of student rush, generally they are from
50 to 60 percent vacant . That doesn't address the problem exactly
:' in terms of city parking but I think it should be taken into con-
sideration that if you have roughly 30 percent vacancy of city
`; parking and you are not counting on the 60 or 80 parking spaces
out of the total of 170 city, you're looking at possibly another
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20 to 30 percent vacancy, which would raise the total to almost
50 percent empty during the busiest time of the year that any of
us , as merchants , have to do business . The other thing that I was ;
going to state was that the survey was done during the busiest tim�
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of the year and at the same time we counted and tried to get an
;; equivalency of parking spaces on both blocks either side and we
, find that our block, the 300 block of State Street, has more park
`; ing with fewer businesses than any of the other blocks that run a
! from Meadow Street up to the Commons and we feel that perhaps than
should be relevant as well . That ' s basically the extent of my
', comments .
'' SUE P I'm Sue P and I live at 104 West Titus , but
,! that ' s not why I'm speaking. I worked for the Hangar Theater this ;
+ summer which had offices for about a week or two in the Art Techs
office right next door to Planned Parenthood.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes , but let me ask you are you an owner or
a tenant or a resident of the 300 block of West State Street or
adjacent streets within 200 feet .
SUE P No , I just worked there.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , I 'm sorry I do not believe you should. . . .
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MR. SULLIVAN: Mr. Chairman, can we have a continuing objection to .
;, your ruling or do I have to keep interrupting?
+s CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Mr. Sullivan, I have asked you repeatedly not to `
interrupt and the alternative of that is to try to so position you ,
;! where you can't . Now, I think we can handle our business in a
friendly manner if you will allow it but you are seeming to test
' my patience and there is a limit .
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! MR. SULLIVAN: No sir. That ' s not my intention. I simply want to
" protect the . . .
;; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , you are testing it and I wish you would
'! not interrupt further and if you continue to interrupt, I will ask ;
that you be removed from the room. Now will you desist or shall Ii
ask for help?
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MR. SULLIVAN: My question is of you . . .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Will you desist?
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MR. SULLIVAN: On condition that you give me a continued objection.]
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Will you remove him from the room. I would like ;
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"{! to carry on this without interruption and under the circumstances
I' d be glad to have him called back into the room at the appro-
priate time but I will not have him continually interrupting me.
' MR. SULLIVAN: You just reckon that I be removed from making an
objection, sir?
', CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I 'm asking you not to interrupt .
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: MR. SULLIVAN: I agreed not to interrupt if you' ll give me an
objection.
;; CHAIRMAN 14EAVER: You have not held that at all . and I wish you
would please remove yourself until . . . I 'll send a message out
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to you.
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' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes , come forward please.
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, DONNA PHILBRICK: My name is Donna Philbrick and I live at 316
:; West Seneca. I ' ll move.
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;! S GIBBONS : My name is S Gibbons and I 'm director of
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'(Meadow House which is located at 324 West State Street and we are
;: lessees of this property that is the County of Tompkins divides it
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by lease for our use. I want to speak, not in behalf of the j
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County, obviously, or Mental Health Services , but rather in terms
of our experience at Meadow House with respect first of all to the ;
traffic situation on that block. We have noted noserious prob-
lems , either for ourselves or our clients . We have off-street
parking available for our staff and our clients . It is .adequate.
On this street, we have very seldom if ever noticed all of the
; spaces occupied. In fact, today, in view of this meeting, I did
limy own personal survey of the 300 block on West State Street `.
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checking the empty spaces at 12 different times at 10 :00 a.m, to
= 4: 30 p.m. At no time, over the course of that check, were there
:` less than 7 empty spaces . Frequently there were 16 and 17 empty
,, spaces on the street alone today. Secondly, I would like to
;' suggest that the services of Planned Parenthood has proposed as
" also existing had been extremely valuable to our clients and we
': anticipate that they will continue to be. We serve mentally
'; disabled, emotionally disturbed adults . Those people need counsel-
' ing. We provide that counseling, but so has Planned Parenthood,
'''' for them. Most of our clients walk or are bussed to the agency.
Sixty percent walk to the agency. They also are therefore able
Ito walk to Planned Parenthood in its present location. Because ofd
., problems that they have, frequently they've become pregnant when is
'' they have not intended to be. They need counseling; they need the ;
';, support of caring people. We would continue to hope that Planned t
,,' Parenthood would provide services on that block so that our clients
could experience the kind of help and support they need in some of
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these most difficult of decisions .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard in
support of this applicant? At this time I ' ll call on anyone who
;, wishes to speak in opposition to this application. Yes , sir.
Q
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' JAMES TERRY: Mr . Chairman, Board members . My name is James Terry.;
I'm the pastor of St. James Methodist-Episcopal Zion Church, a
church that has been in the community for approximately 150 years
ji, and has been declared a national historic site. Before I go any
further, Mr. Chairman, I'm having somewhat of a problem after hear
the statements that have been made. You were stating that only
;': those who live in the immediate vicinity were allowed to make state-
ments , but yet at the same time Planned Parenthood has probably
:, made statements that they are serving the neighborhood total
:' community. Now, as a pastor residing in that community at 206
! South Plain Street and the church located at 116 Cleveland Avenue
I'm against the < variance because I believe the variances to be
;; given under the stipulation that it be given in the best interest
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iof the public safety and health and welfare of the community.
,; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , OK. At this point we 're very glad to
;; listen to that argument . I believe that it will be reasonably
lrepresented and the problem that the chair sees is the problem
of sorting out in some reasonable manner, my definition of course , ;
those that are, maybe, injured or not by granting of the variance
:: Generally this is, only in cases that have to do with those who
'` own property in reasonable proximity to the property in question
for who live in reasonable proximity to that. There is not a magic !
yardstick but for reasons of convenience and the fact of ordinance ;
using the 200 foot rule for notification I 'm arbitrarily drawing
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. the line. It must be drawn somewhere and any other number would
:, be just as arbitrary as you realize. So , I do expect the general
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. question of the effect upon the total community will be addressed
by one or many of the other people who will be heard tonight . Now,;
P
if that turns out not to be true we ' ll have to deal with it later
, in the meeting but bear with us please.
: JAMES TERRY: I' d just like it to be known that that was my concerto
; that this community is being represented.
! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I understand. At least one pastor from very
+ close to and involved with the community who says he represents a
!: person in the affected area has been encouraged to address on it
i; here tonight so I hope that will be satisfactory.
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JAMES TERRY: Thank you.
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i CHAIRMAN WEAVER:, Anyone who wishes to yes . Come forward.
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j CHRISTINE BACORN: My name is Christine Bacorn and I live at 323
' West State Street , the magic number, and I' d like to read a letter ,
i that I'm going to submit to the Zoning Board. I 'm here to ask -your
to deny the request for Planned Parenthood for an area variance.
I cite the following reasons : It is my feeling that an abortion
li, clinic on State Street would not promote the health, safety and
` welfare of my neighborhood and community. There are no promises
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being made to anyone about what type of abortions will be performed..
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Planned Parenthood did file a plea of financial hardship, I notice '.
they haven' t filed it tonight but they did say they were going to.
' Essentially they said they needed abortions to make more money.
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�!' So going along withl.,.that statement it seems logical to presume
;' Planned Parenthood would, if granted another variance, expand
services and provide not only first trimester abortions but second !
E:; trimester also. That being the case, my questions are : are their
,; facilities set up for babies that live through the abortion and
have caring, thoughtful methods been planned for the disposal of
abortion remains? Plans that would not disturb any of our com-
lmunity? Also, has Planned Parenthood made adequate provisions for
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emergencies? Right now the driveway-lobby area near the proposed
'; clinic is being used as a parking area. It is also considered by
, all as part of Planned Parenthood' s overall parking. If a woman
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'1were to begin hemorraghing from an abortion how much precious time '
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jwould be lost while cars were moved to allow an ambulance to get
through. I've also heard of instances where delivery trucks were
", found to be blocking this driveway compounding the hazard. This
? situation, a lack of back or side entrance, creates an extremely
1hazardous situation for the woman undergoing the procedure.
Another hazard stems from the garage. It is only a few feet from
the building. If there were a fire at the garage how
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;;;; quickly could a woman who is in the middle of having an abortion
,; evacuate the building? If she is sedated or weak from surgery it
1 could be a real difficulty. Does this promote the health, safety
and welfare of the neighborhood? I think not. Tompkins County
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has an extremely high abortion rate , in fact , the highest among
{
the 57 upstate counties . The question is do we need another
abortion provider. Planned Parenthood filed a statement with the
BZA of financial hardship . If they have spent- more- money than
they should have on their new building, frankly that ' s their
, problem. I don' t think it ' s the city' s task to hand out variances '
,, to keep troubled businesses afloat. A self-created hardship does
,, not justify a variance. I also question as to whether Planned
,. Parenthood has the parking they say they do even without the
l' second variance. How long does an abortion take from the moment
'': a woman walks in to the moment she walks out? Two hours? Three
'' hours? Perhaps even four, and that wouldn't even include compli-
' cations . There is only one area on State Street that has more
than 2 hour parking, that being the Municipal parking lot.
! Because it would be the only legal place for an abortion patient
,, to park, I feel that Planned Parenthood should only include this
area for parking space. That ' s not even to mention how popular .
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'' the parking lot is with people who work all day downtown as a
. long term place to park. I know of at least one person, they ride
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;' together in a car pool , that work on the Commons , that park down
;' there , I 've seen them walking down there and park down there. It '
i+ handy. In the beginning I mentioned the lack of back and side
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1;� street exits . In lieu of possible law suits or simply complaints
'; from patients will Planned Parenthood, if granted a variance, ask
.; staff to park on the street thereby creating an even greater loss
.. of parking space. It was also suggested by Planned Parenthood at
another meeting that a woman who would use this new service would
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not necessarily be driving, but I submit that after a surgical
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procedure such as an abortion, very few people would hop on their i
ten-speed bike and ride home or use public transportation. There j
, is neighborhood and community opposition to granting the variance. !
I respectfully ask the Zoning Board to deny Planned Parenthood' s
request for a second variance.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard on
!': this matter? Let ' s not choose up sides . Someone come forward
here.
` MARGE OVERSTREET: My name is Marge Overstreet but it ' s not really;
;; why I'm here. I have a letter to submit from Steiger' s Meat
,:' Market and we only have verbal approval to read the letter so if
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written approval is required I ' ll just submit the letter to the
1.
:: Board. Is that the situation?
'! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You represent one owner but don' t have written. . ;
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sMARGE OVERSTREET: We spoke to them verbally today and they gave
us permission to read this . letter and present it to the board but
I believe the board has seen it but we thought it should be
,i, presented as an official piece of evidence of disagreement.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The chairman has read everything that has come
i` to the board and copies have been made where copies were not
; severally distributed. so that each member of the board has had
,: access to all correspondence that came to the chairman or to them
individually.
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MARGE OVERSTREET: Is that also in the written ledger and I think
in terms of how many people who are residents and owners of
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businesses . . .
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: If this purports to be a statement by or for
them we can add it to the record.
a
MARGE OVERSTREET: I believe that it is a statement against it
from Steiger' s Meat Market which is located at 333 West State
Street.
!' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. We' ll place these with the record.
Do you know whether the letter .was originally directed to just
`. me or more copies sent to the members?
MARGE OVERSTREET: It was sent to the City of Ithaca and it wasn't ,
!' addressed specifically to you but to the board.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: All right. We have had access to the letter ands
,, we ' ll add it to the record at this time .
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MARGE OVERSTREET: Can I also ask whether or not it would be
- relevant that there was an Ithaca Journal article concerning
Moses Peter Insurance which is located at 301 West State Street
and they plan to move to 313 .
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The letters to the editor don't become a matter
of record here unless they were sent here .
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MARGE OVERSTREET: This was not a letter to the editor but was
'' specifically an article in the Ithaca Journal that pointed out
Cone of the reasons they were moving.
', CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I 'm sorry but we 're not going to take that as
i
a source of direct information for the court.
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' MARGE OVERSTREET: OK. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Miss . May I suggest that that copy so we can
;: identify it other than just subject matter. Is there anyone else
;s
;' who wishes to be heard. Come forward.
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t:
SALLY S I 'm Sally S and I 'm reading the letter from
:" Arnold' s Furniture Store presented by the manager Margaret Wood
, and also she is speaking for Arnold Rosenberg the owner of the
building.
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';` CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Who are you?
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SALLY S Sally S
, CHAIRMAN WEAVER: What ' s your connection with Arnold Furniture.
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; SALLY S We went and spoke with Mrs . Wood and she presented ;
;; us with the letter to present because she asked me if I would
-59-
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, present the letter for her.
, CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Do you know whether that letter has been '
;; presented to this board?
' SALLY S The main part of the letter has been presented to
` the board but she has added a little bit to it that she asked me
`,' to read. Just a short paragraph.
•. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Short or not doesn' t qualify it . I think we have
a problem that ' s similar to the lady that preceded you that with-
out some specific designation as a representative. . .
= SALLY S : I do have her written permission to read this . So ,
!, should I read the original letter or assume that you've all read j
that?
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Please .give us just the addenda.
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', SALLY S : Mrs. Wood said that there are always a few parking
' spaces , however, we do need to occassionally bag meters for
tractor trailers to unload. If someone is -having an abortion
;: what am I going to do with the truck? Unload it a block away?
And that was just her addition to the letter you've already. . .
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" CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. May we have that designation?
Yes . Come forward.
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JERALD SINCOCK: My name is Jerald Sincock but I want to present
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a letter for Armando Natali, the owner of 307 West State Street.
I don' t have his written permission. I asked him verbally. He' s
a friend of mine and I have the letter presented that he ' s against !
the variance because of the parking problems .
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;s CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Again, has the letter been presented to the
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,, board prior to this time?
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JERALD SINCOCK: Not to this board, no sir.
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;, CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well, we 'll accept it into the record and for j
;;; the valid reasons given as a median I must refer it . . .
o I
;1JERALD SINCOCK: Well , I have copies to submit for the record.
!` CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Anyone else who wishes to be heard
Y
'jn opposition. Come forward.
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!; ROSE MALENOWSKI: My name is Rose Malenowski and I have written
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; permission to speak for Ellie Leonard who lives at 318 WestState
Street. Eleanor is opposed to granting the variance. She does
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;! not want an abortion clinic right outside her back door. The
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!; entrance to her building faces the annex that would be renovated
;! and she would prefer not to have that there. She also respect-
' fully asks that the board consider findings of the Planning Board. ;
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,; It is your responsibility to deal with the future and not the
present.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard in
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opposition to this application?
,. NORBERT SCHICKEL: My name is Norbert Schickel . I 'm an attorney
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and I represent several people. I have a number of things which I
would like to present to the board. Chris Bacorn who lives in
; the 300 block on West State Street and I have written authorize-
tion from her as well as a few other people. Also I am authorized,
gas spokesman for the Salvation Army and Reverend Lloyd and '
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;; Elsie Lloyd. I believe they live on. . .Elsie lives on South Plain
'' Street , Reverend lives on Cleveland so they may be out-
; side .the 200 foot spot. I would just like to note for the
`; record that there were several people who were permitted to
speak, in favor of the variance: a pastor who lived outside and
Mr. Schmidt who spoke specifically about the services being pro-
! vided and I think that if that ' s going to be granted to that side
lthen I think our side should also be permitted to speak on that .
p
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: We ' ll certainly respond to your suggestion on
people who have a particular expertise, experienced position, that )
might qualify and help support you in your comment and in your
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case.
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NORBERT SCHICKEL: I 'd like to present to the board 466 people
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who are either in this room or outside the room who signed a state4
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. ment of their opposition to the variance and I' ll present those.
, I'd like to run through some of the reason for the opposition to j
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the variance and they're fairly numerous . I 'll start with four
. that were given by Attorney Bob Holdsworth, who is a member of
the Planning Board and he was one of the people who voted four to
two against it . He said they already have one variance. The
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- variance runs with the land and I think there was testimony here
' today about a lease being granted or having some form of a lease.
If that lease could be abbrogated at any time this variance would
:; run with the land indefinitely and don't think that that lease is
all sufficient to satisfy this board. They apparently have
:; 4,400 square feet and need off-street parking at 250 square foot
,; per space, a total they need of 19 spaces . I 'd like to point out
' that there is a zoning requirement that there be an off-street
loading spot which will take up 450 square feet as required by
ithe zoning code. That would reduce their amount of parking which
they would have by approximately 3 spaces . That' s a deficiency
, which they have as well as their off-street parking. They
;; apparently would have, if you leave the 450 foot off-street park-
' ing space out , they would have a deficiency of 12 or 63 percent,
:; because they need 19 . If you put that in and take out. the space
h that would go for that off-street loading space they would have
a deficiency of 79 percent or 15 out of the 19 . They are almost
+ asking for a variance for their total parking requirement. There
, is a tremendous amount of neighborhood opposition to this . I have ;
with me petitions signed by 2 ,500 people, members of this commun- i
' ity, in opposition to it that I ' ll present to the board. I'd just
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like to note with regard to that that my wife and I spent one
hour at Willard Strait Hall from 6 :00 to 7 : 00 on Saturday, and
we`ve collected 80 signatures during that time. . .more, than 80
. actually, during that hour period. We were not able to get more.
, I know if we had been at Cornell more than that one hour we could
d
have gotten several thousand more. Some other points that I'd
' like to . . . before I go on I ' ll pass the petitions . I' ll
,: also note that at the last meeting there was a of 174
;`: names of people that signed indicating an opposition was present
j! at that and there were 78 that I didn't collect and I have those
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;, that I'd like to present also. Here' s the 2 ,500 and here 's the
08 who were at the last meeting that didn't get in the record.
- I have a statement from the Salvation Army which is . . .there ' s one
' building between their property, the Salvation Army and Planned
;, Parenthood. Incidentally, I think it' s important that the issue
i
:' here is not whether people like Planned Parenthood. Planned
; Parenthood has been in this community a long time. There ' s been
i; virtually no opposition to what services they have provided in
;; the past and when they requested the variance before there was
E! virtually no opposition, in fact , they said it was unopposed. I
think it ' s important that it not be looked on that we're against
Planned Parenthood. The only reason. . . . there was no opposition
'' before when they went for a variance. The only reason they want
;; the variance is so they can perform abortions and we want to speak ;
'; against that because we don't want them to be able to perform
abortions and I think it has nothing to do with any of their other ;
services that they provide. Lieutenant David Champlin, who is
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now the officer at the Salvation Army says , "on behalf of the
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Salvation Army we would like to submit the following for your
consideration. In reference to the variance proposal of Planned
: Parenthood we would like to indicate our opposition to the
; approval of the proposed variance. " Then it goes on to another
; paragraph "In addition, due to the location of our buildings
';land the- already congested parking and traffic problems in the area
we would oppose this variance on the ground that approval would
; only increase the parking and traffic situation. " I have a state
ment from Doris Giles from Steigers , "I 'm opposed to the granting
' of the variance concerning the variance requested by Planned
'; Parenthood. I own a neighborhood business and recommend we not . "
!. I have a statement by Mary Cammabrecko , "I'm opposed to granting
°: of the variance which would allow them to proceed building an
' abortion clinic . " She attends Immaculate Conception Church and
strongly opposed having this death chamber in her neighborhood.
She ' s lived in Ithaca for 14 years and hopes to be here for the
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rest of her life. She loves Ithaca and wants all that can be done '
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- to keep it beautiful .
= CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You didn't include her address , I don' t believe. !
MR. SCHICKEL: It ' s 253 Hayts Road, Ithaca.
;: CHAIRMAN WEAVER: That ' s not even in the City of Ithaca. I
personally have received letters from Owego and I 'm not going to
discriminate against Owego or anybody outside the 200 foot affected
,. area. I ' ll be glad to consult with you on the details of the site '
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and where that circle comes but we 're not prepared to listen to
; people who have casual interest in the national debate rather the
E
,: zoning within the City of Ithaca and on a City Ordinance
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!, that you're speaking. In other words , this hearing is in confor-
; mance with our city ordinance.
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' MR. SCHICKEL: Mr. Chairman, the issue before this board is not
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,, abortion. The issue before this board is the health, safety and
:; welfare of this community and whether the granting of that
,, variance is going to promote the health,safety and welfare of
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,, the community. That ' s in the ordiance.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Let ' s stay with that a minute. I think we need
. to understand each other. Agreed there ' s a question about the
;, effect upon the community in general , however, I repeatedly tried
to describe that in my judgment the parties to this dispute are
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t'ilimited to persons who own property, are tenants , or live within
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i a radius of 200 feet of the property in question.
MR. SCHICKEL: Mr. Chairman, in any other zoning matter have you
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` made that restriction?
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes .
MR. SHCICKEL: That they could only speak if they were within the
.. 200 feet . Because my understanding is that the requirement is
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that the written notice goes to those within 200 feet , it ' s not
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that the others don' t have an opportunity to speak.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I' ll agree with you that on the precise
,! question that the ordinance is silent . However, it' s my judg-
ment that by implication persons who might be agrieved, who might
R!' be injured, live in reasonable proximity to the property. So, if
; you're trying to perfect an arguement that it will influence the E
' whole community you'll be able to do that gotten an appeal
i
. of at least the procedure of this meeting. I hope to be reasonably
uniform in saying if you do not live in the 200 foot circle, do
not own property, or are not a tenant in that 200 foot circle, that
tyou do not have the right to be heard and so , not on a personal
'' basis , or your testimony, but I hope we can hew to that restriction.
;; and if that restriction is faulty, we' ll both be able to find that !
(lout at a later time. That ' s a ruling I 'm going to try to apply
; uniformly. Now, it 's appropriate that you protested that previous
; attorney in representing his case called upon people who I
recognized as , if you will , expert witnesses , and in that context, '
if there is someone you believe would help you perfect your
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and that some particular claim to expertness on the matter before
us , I'd be glad to discuss their qualifications yes or no .
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MR. SCHICKEL: Well, I think when you're dealing with the health,
;; safety and welfare of the community I think everybody is in one
;; sense an expert .
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: There have been a number of findings that did
not allow people who had a general interest , who just lived in
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the community, had any right to an appeal of a local zoning board, ;
so I 'm putting my dependence upon a number of those rulings to
! take some comfort that this is a reasonable restriction. If it
turns out not to be it will have to be decided by higher authori-
, ties than this board.
'' MR. SCHICKEL: I would, then, like to present these nine addi-
tional letters from people who are not within that 200 foot area.
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I' I have an article which appeared in the Ithaca Journal that con-
.
1cerns Moses Peter Insurance, 301 West State Street. He gave , and i
'ithis was last Thursday, September 1 , in an article that was
; written by Helen Mondell , that the agency has a growing need for
;; parking. Incidentally, he has sold the premises because of this ,
as well as a few other reasons , and he went on further "conditions
;; change, requirements change . Ten years ago inspections were not
;': required; parking was not a problem, and of course we hadn' t
a i
;janticipated this much of an expansion. " I' d like to introduce
; that on behalf of my clients . There are papers filed with this
s: board, if people don't have a copy of it I ' ll just pass out a j
!!, copy. I have one of the pages of their reasons for the variance.
P g I
As far as I can see I don' t see any practical difficulty, as they
have shown. I don' t see any special conditions which they've
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shown or anything unique about the particular topic. And I think
, the issue has gotten clouded because people are saying abortion is
legal. Abortion is not the issue before the board and the fact
!; that a business is legal has absolutely no bearing on whether they
,! should be granted a variance or not . Otherwise you wouldn' t have
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": any serious zoning. Every other business would automatically be
entitled to a variance if that ' s going to be the rationale. They
state here Planned Parenthood has already invested more than
$200 ,000 , expansion is also a key to the survival of the agency
;, itself, now I'm using their own words , fees from patient services
° have become the primary source of income. It seems to me that
basically what they are trying to do is become financially stable, ?
and incidentally, they go on to say that inability to expand
services would create financial hardship. Essentially that seems
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to be the reason that they're requesting this variance. That ' s
', the first reason that they give in the papers filed with you.
I'd like to run through some points in that regard. Planned
' Parenthood claims financial hardship in papers filed with the
BZA due to having invested more than $200 ,000 in the premises .
This is self-created hardship and cannot justify a variance .
,; Otherwise businesses could circumvent zoning laws by spending
:; money on the property then claiming they can' t afford it without
' a variance. This would distort and undermine the whole concept
of zoning. If their business is not successful they should sell
! or get into a different line of business as would be expected of
i
;; other businesses or persons . The fact that they have financial
'; difficulties in no way means the property could not be used in a
,; financially feasible manner under permitted use together with the
;; existing variance they have. The variance could only resolve
!, their financial hardship by increasing their income by so many
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;` dollars by abortions . They want to overcome their financial
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,, problems through the death of little babies . This does not justifX
, a variance. Planned Parenthood is a big business . Although it' s
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a not for profit organization it still charges for services and
sales and has money, flowing through the organization just like
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any other business and looks at the bottom line just like any
; other business , And this brings us to , I think, one of the key
= issues in terms of the health., safety and welfare of members of
9
; this community and specifically i ''m talking about the pregnant
women who go in for counselling and also the little babies that
! might be aborted if there is an improper decision made, A
, tremendous conflict of interest would exist if the variance were
! granted between their pro-choice counselling where they purport
to be neutral and advocate neutrality of pregnant women and their
financial need to do abortions , I,f their financial survival is
s
at stake as they've stated in their papers and if they have
financial hardship then there is going to be advocating and pro,
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� moting abortions. Planned Parenthood purports to be pro-choice,
;` however, since they want to abort babies for financial reasons
they would be advocates and promoters of abortion and no longer
+, neutral or pro-choice, The counselors jobs may be at stake if a
;; certain number of abortions per week, month or year are not per--
.
dIformed. And these are papers filed with the BZA saying that
expansion of services are also a key to the survival pf the agency;
itself and patient services have become theprimary source of
income. Again, those two are quotes. We don't want to have death;
for profit , although it 's not for profit in those corporations we.
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, put death for revenue or income. I don't think that ' s an appro
,! priate thing to have. A pregnant woman maybe pressured into a
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; decision she may later deeply regret. This conflict of interest
'' would not promote the health, safety or welfare of either the
,:; pregnant woman who is going in there for the counselling or the
little baby in her womb . We assert the interest of the little
lbaby in her womb before this board but also we assert the right
=lof the woman who is pregnant to not be pressured by counselling
!! where the counsellors job may be at stake if they don' t recommend
;iso many abortions . There are numerous neighborhood churches ,
lincluding five black churches in the area and Immaculate Concep-
ltion, Salvation Army, the First Assembly of God; they're basicallyi
kin that downtown area and they have indicated through their
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;; pastors their opposition to this variance. The variance, we think
iwould change the character of the neighborhood. It' s a neighbor-
hood where, and we want really the whole downtown area to be an
; area where life is celebrated. We don' t want it further eroded
! as it has been in the past . Although Planned Parenthood claims
that an abortion clinic is a permitted use, it could fit as a
fihospital which clearly it' s not , they don' t claim it to be one , or
i
a doctor' s office , and I don' t see who the doctor is who is making ;.
'' the application before this board. As far as I can see I haven't 1
( heard of any doctor who is making the application. The fact that
abortion is legal doesn' t justify a variance. All businesses , as
I mentioned that are presume are legal, but you don't
;; give them variances . I think you denied one to somebody here just '
i
., this evening. They're not entitled to a variance just because a
!: business is legal . The real issue is whether the variance would
,; promote the health, safety and welfare if it was granted, and in
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this regard, the case , even the majority opinion
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recognized that there was an important , in fact five times they
stated in their majority opinions that they recognized that the
state has an important , and this is a quote and was repeated
basically in the same substance four other times , has an important
and legitimate interest in protecting the potentiality of. human
i
` life. Now, that interest we assert as well as that of the
. pregnant woman, as well as the interest of those in the downtown
9
area of businesses in the whole community. There was some testi-
mony earlier as far as the need to have abortion services . I
frankly think that' s a little bit ludicrous because as I think
:, Chris Bacorn just mentioned a couple minutes ago there ' s already
we in Tompkins County have the .hghest rate of abortions in
all the 57 upstate counties . Planned Parenthood plans at this
,, point that they're only going to be doing first trimester abortion .
!' There is absolutely nothing which would prevent abortions from
`;' being done at a later date once that variance is granted. As a
;; matter of fact the Supreme Court in a recent case ruled that any
'` zoning restriction on that particular aspect would. . . . they struck
it down. They tried to make it so they were just done in hospital$ .
E
� So that this board has no authority to limit them in any way to
�!A ust first trimester abortions . With that being the case, the
;; point that Chris mentioned earlier in regard to the disposal of
;; the arms and legs and heads that would, if this variance were
: granted, what have they done in regard to the disposal of these
'' arms and legs and heads and it may be that we don' t like to think
'
about it. But that ' s a reality. You may have heard recently in
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California there is a litigation right now over what they do with
the arms and legs and heads of the little babies who were aborted
. and somebody stored several thousand of them, I don' t know if it
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was in a garbage dumpster or in a basement or something . . . .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Mr. Schickel , could we try to narrow or focus
;: down on what damage you foresee or those persons that you
; represent, in the changes proposed by Planned Parenthood in their
a
;; building as it would affect the neighborhood as has already been
defined for us several times .
? MR. SCHICKEL: I think this - what I've just been raising - is
a very real concern. Chris Bacorn and her family live virtually s
; right across the street. OK? What 's going to be done? Are they
;; going to be put in garbage cans? I don't know. I haven' t heard
i
is one thing about that and there' s absolutely nothing that would
,; prevent them from doing abortions at a later date. I' ll go on
in regard to their concern is what 's going to happen, and statis-
i; tically there are about 400 or 500 babies who live through second j
trimester abortions , what 's going to happen if there's a live
i! baby that comes out. Have they provided for the health, safety
'i, and welfare of that baby? Do they have a facility to provide for
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it? I don't think they do.
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; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: In the oft repeated phrase health, safety and
welfare I 'm sure you tend to be referring to section 30 . 2
: There ' s no question but what is the,,.general statement of promoting,
;; public health, safety and welfare and the most desirable use of
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, the land and conserve the value of buildings and enhance the
value and appearance of the land throughout the city. There
seems to be some narrowing of the zoning ordinance in their
purpose to its affect upon the property, land and the phrase
health, safety and welfare is pretty generally a statement that
i is quite common to local ordinance in its purpose but in its
:' definition goodness knows what it means and to each of us it
;' could mean a variety of things and keep us here for several days
without a resolution. I 'm just saying as it applies to this
, particular application the point is made that you represent
parties that object to abortion. The next question that seems to
! be a narrower and necessary concern of this board is what effect
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iwould that activity have upon the neighborhood. What would happen
, to the land, land value , parking congestion, traffic, noise, ect.
j
' MR. SCHICKEL: I think the disposal fits within that framework.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: In that particular case I would have to lean
!, upon medical authorities and your question has been raised.
i
MR. SCHICKEL: In terms of safety, I believe there is a safety
,: hazard. I went. out and measured it last night . It 's ten and a
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`; half feet wide and that would block cars in driveways if someone
pulls in that property. The safety if there was someone in
there undergoing an abortion who had complications , then that
person' s health or safety would be directly jeopardized by that
! problem. And one other point, if Planned Parenthood said OK we
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:' won' t park in there in their premises and our staff will use
other premises all that ' s really doing would be taking on-street
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' parking spots . Metered spots are one hour long and I don't think
'' that abortions could be done in one hour and the recovery period
; would fit within that - there' s a specific time limit even though
they have coined a meter. I can't see that Planned Parenthood
;' has raised any legal justification for this variance. I ask you
to take a look. What have they said? Financial hardship. If
i
.; you're saying financial hardship - they've got a tremendous
:; conflict of interest . I ' s like to mention that I took some
i
;'. measurements and I've come up with 1 ,140 square feet of parking
,; space in the back outside their driveway or the entrance which
i can' t clearly be considered.'because it ' s only - even if it was j
; 12 feet , it ' s actually deficient. That ' s another deficiency -
they don' t have a 12 foot driveway. Just leaving that deficiency
;;, out for a minute , go to the back. They've got 1 , 140 square feet.
If you take out 450 square feet which they need for the off-street '
I;
;; loading and that ' s another deficiency which they don' t have, you
'; then end up with 690 square feet and you divide that by 180 square ;
, feet per parking space, which is what they need and you come up j
F; with 3. 83 parking spaces which they would have. That will leave
a deficiency of - and you've got to round it off to 3 - so that
': would leave a deficiency of 16 if you actually take it by square
footage. They don' t make the side lot requirements and they want
a variance there to up 'the codes , they don' t meet the
; rear lot requirement , they want a variance there. I think they
., probably, if you count the off-street loading, the side, rear, the '
;; parking, the number of parking spaces - in fact they don' t have
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the proper entries , that ' s five deficiencies which they have in
order to need approval for it in order to get this variance and
I don' t think the community wants that . In their papers that
they filed with the board they indicated that the municipal parkin
ilot has 40 spaces . It only has , I think they mentioned today, 31
'' or 32 . I think that should be noted. Just mention that in
! letters to the editor there was 26 against the variance and 16
,, in favor. They mentioned that they only have 6 to 8 patients , if
they have a financial incentive , and even if they don' t have a
financial incentive which they obviously do, there is absolutely
,. no limit which could be put on the number of abortions which wouldl,
: be performed then. Kate Potteiger mentioned the counseling and
1' services they provide - that isn't the issue. That has absolutely
nothing to do with it . They're not seeking a variance to expand
f�
;; those services and the Chairman let her go on at length as to
;; their services . There is no objection to their services . I don' t ;
know what relevance that has . As far as I .can see, basically,
': we've heard from one person who lives , - or Peter McChesney who has !,
e
a a business there - he's the only one who has been in support of
it who lives in that area. Paul Gibbons - he works at a facility
;; there and I don' t think his personal view should have any weight
in this matter.' Basically there are literally numerous reasons
that this variance - reasons from the ones that Bob
Holdsworth mentioned at the Planning Board right down through some ;
that have been mentioned here tonight - why this appeal should be
denied and why the variance should be denied. I don't see that
I
;; they have come up with any practical difficulties , I don't see
I; that they've come up with any unique or special conditions which
(
exist on that property that aren't to any other property f
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! there. And I think there is a tremendous amount of community
opposition and frankly I would like to see Planned Parenthood
l+ withdraw their request for the variance. I think that they've
, had a tremendous amount of support in this community. They've
' been unopposed in their other activities that they've done and
I think they're asking too much in requesting this . People don' t
have opposition to other services that they are providing but they !.
;, don' t want this particular service. I have nothing further.
Thank you.
" CHAIRMAN WEAVER: It may not come as any great surprise to you
but the board needs a fragment of Now, is there anyone
.. who wishes to be heard in opposition to this . Yes .
.i
LEO J. GANGL: My name is Leo J. Gangl , I'm an attorney and the
f
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man who is going t.o speak is Father Anthony to be known as Tony
�i
of the Immaculate Conception parish which is fairly closely j
', located in connection with Planned Parenthood. He has a number oft
i
j; things which to submit and wishes to make a few remarks and
!, requested that I come up here with him and I do so gladly.
i
FATHER TONY: Thank you for welcoming me . I am representing
(' Immaculate Conception parish and would like to say that this is
. one of the largest parishes in Ithaca, one of the largest churches '
in Ithaca. We have 5 ,000 members of this parish.
i
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Let me interrupt you just briefly. In the
; letter in which there was a request to be heard there was a phrase
that I recall substantially saying that you hope to represent some-
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,, one in the immediate area. Would you be able to identify them.
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FATHER TONY: Yes , I would. I have a letter here from Father
�' Cargess which the Zoning Board hasn't seen so if you would like
me to read it or just submit it .
<< F
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Read it.
;; FATHER TONY: Dear Zoning Board Members . As pastor of Immaculate
! Conception Church, and therefore as a leader of part of the Ithaca ;
I
community, I wish to strongly express my disapproval of any future
f
s;
iparking plan for an abortion clinic on State Street. I would ask
; that you listen to the dissent on the part of the neighbors to the '
: immediate area of the Planned Parenthood building and that they do
: not want this development in their community. If a notable number ;,
of proponents petitioning the board is students associated with
1f i
;: our colleges then I would suggest that the colleges take the mattet
' into consideration on campus . Please give my words .serious con- '
;; sideration. Thank you. Reverend Bernard Carges . I would like to
do what Father Carges mentions in there in terms of representing
'' certain people who live in the immediate area and simply would like
to read what they said. These people are people that not only
.: live right next door but have visible sight of the garage and the
' back of the building and these are their sentiments . Mrs . Faith
Wilkin, she lives at 311 West Seneca Street - I do not want an
i
abortion clinic right out back where I live. This is from William
i
,: Travis - My name is William Travis , I live at 318 West State Street
and I'm opposed to the Planned Parenthood appeal for the variance. :
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I live right next door to their property. I don't want to be
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reminded of abortions every day. This is Mrs . Brown, she ,
lives at 313 West Seneca Street . I wouldn' t want my children
exposed to an abortion clinic out back of where they live. I 'm
; against abortions completely. This is Robert McCann, 402 West
: State Street . Although I am not opposed to legal abortions ,
I do not wish to have this type of thing going on in this
business district . This is Mrs . Leo Goodnough, 407 West State
Street . To Whom It May Concern: Being a Christian, I do not
la
believe in abortion nor do I wish to see an abortion clinic in
this neighborhood. My name is Jay Waite and I live at 322 West
- State Street, Ithaca, New York. I am opposed to Planned Parent-
!: hood' s appeal for the variance, I live right next door to their
;' property and I don' t want abortions performed next door to me.
' My name is Donald Perry, 318 West State Street. I'm opposed to
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'` Planned Parenthood' s appeal in the variance. As I look out my
;, balcony I see the building that abortions would be done in and
it disgusts me . I would not look forward to going in and out of
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my apartment and being reminded of what is happening in there. '
And one last letter which comes from a business down on West State ;
; Street. It ' s Carl ' s Barber Shop which is 502 West State Street.
'I oppose the granting of the zoning variance for Planned Parent-
1` hood on the Tompkins County' s property at 314 West State Street .
oThey have already been granted one variance and it seems to me
( that they not only want a minor exception, they want a serious
,tchange in the policies established to control buildings and land
". use in the downtown business area. ' As a church in this area,
; we have daily masses , those masses are at 7 :00 a.m. , 12 : 10 p.m. ,
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in the afternoon and also at 5 : 15 in the evening. We get upwards
of 50 sometimes 100 people at those masses . Those people offer
to walk through the neighborhood, it is a part of our church' s
understanding that this is something taking place that is wrong
;: and more than wrong, it would offend the sensibilities of the
; people in the neighborhood coming to church. It will have an
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;; effect on the cast of the neighborhood. It will not be something
:' that will go unnoticed, people feel very strongly about it. I
iunderstand that there are many people on both sides of this issue, ;
however I would address the board in saying this that this is
isnot a popularity contest we are running here. This is sizeable
a:
;; community sentiment against , that will somehow effect the charactei
l of that neighborhood were -abortions to be performed there, and
;,: will that effect the businesses in the area. I believe that it
; will . Will it effect property owners? I. believe that it will.
1'iWill it effect tenants? I believe that it will. We as a church
also have parking problems . We find it- necessary to call the
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.' police whenever we are performing funerals . We have holy days
`' of obligation which always fall on the weekends when there is not
'las much traffic on West State Street or other areas there. But
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;,; the holy days of obligation pose a problem for us . We rent spaces :
; out in our parking lot and often there are people who wind up,
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;; you know, blocking someone in because someone ' s parked
there that is not supposed to be there, and they have to be towed
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' away. How is it that the downtown area is going to be secure
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I' of, you know, parking on the street , when we ourselves find it
sometimes difficult to have that .parking ourselves . I have walked ,
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: the area, I have at times noticed difficult times on West State
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Street. Within a very short amount of time one day in just
:, observing the situation. I noticed two cars parked in Planned
!; Parenthood' s driveway that do not go the Planned Parenthood. They ',
went someplace else. These things that are being spoken out
in terms of having a medical facility that goes through these
- kind of procedures in the downtown area without considering the
'I f
place downtown that you are in. I think is a serious error.
' It ' s very difficult to get emergency vehicles up State Street
up 96 to the hospital. There are times when a train does go by.
ii Those are things that should not be left qut in considering public
health, safety and welfare. It seems it ' s a very poor location
to me. I believe that the driveway is a problem and that there
are things that are emergency situations that the board needs
to seriously think of. It ' s not just a problem here of, you know, ;
parking. I believe that the greater good of this community is
served by all of us when we listen not only to both sides and
give the side that maybe has 51% popularity the right . But
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we listen to a sizeable group of people that are saying we do
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oppose this ,variances are not granted for one or two people who
complain and this is something that I would appeal to the zoning
board simply not to ignore.
ss
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well Mr. Gangl, you want to represent yourself
j' with another client .
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MR. GANGL: Yes , I have some other clients at the moment. The
Bacorns . May I have another chair please.
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t s
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You have may mine.
:,MR. GANGL: No , No, we couldn' t take yours . I ' ll stand.
`; UNIDENTIFIED VOICE : There is one there.
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(Murmurs in room)
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MR. GANGL: Mr. Chairman and members of the board. This is
� Lorion Bacorn and his wife Tapecus (?) . I have represented the
Bacorns as long ago as over twenty years in legal matters , and
?i I
+ during that time they occupied the same place they now occupy
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,, at 323 West State Street in Ithaca, New York. They are almost
'; directly across from property that my son owns where Meadow-
! House is located at 324-328 West State Street ,and they operate,
and live there. They operate an antique shop , and it ' s the
! oldest in the city of Ithaca. They will talk now in connection
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;; with their problems and their views about Planned Parenthood.
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MR.- BAC0RN: Mr. Weaver, I know him by that name - I 've been
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:; here about 20 years and I've lived at this same address 323
- West State Street . I've always found that there' s a parking
; meter in front of my house and every day I have to put money
!lin that meter or get the results . And this particular area is
,,, always been congested. It ' s congested area, there is no way of
;! talking about it . At night , I have to take my car and park it
in the public parking lot behind the fire hall if I can find a
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place. If you come in there on the weekend there is no parking
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places . If you come in there late, Kir (?) and I did last
Sunday night. You'd think there 'd be an open parking place .
,. Well , we. had to carry merchandise a good block because all we
s
could get was a city parking lot , and it' s not very good carrying
dressers and antiques for a full block. So, I object to Planned
; Parenthood, because if they get a variance for the parking, how
'` come an owner who lives and payed taxes and lives in this area
has to use a public parking lot . Now there ' s trucks that come
into my antique shop and go out, and even I remember a particular
city official, I won' t mention his name, he' s a police officer,
and he came to see some antiques one day, and he came to talk to
me and he received a ticket. So , I think with this congested
area which has been going on for years and years , it isn' t just
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;` something that we bring up this afternoon, because I've been there '
x' 20 years and I know what happens on State Street . Because I
' practically live in the middle of the street , and that is about
;, all I 've got to say about State Street , and I' ll turn it over to
Limy wife and she'll finish.
; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you.
;', MRS. BACORN: I 'm going to read mine, I 'm not very good at
; speaking but I did notice the mob scene at the parking meter in
front of our house this morning, that I hope people don' t get
!3the wrong idea. It says 15 minute limit , 2 :00 - 5 :00 a.m. , I
wonder what kind of business that they think we're in.
!! (Laughter in audience)
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: MRS . BACORN: As a full time resident since 1966 and a partner in
a small business. I've already filed my protest to the variance
-Irequested. We have heard statements outside of this room by
other businessmen in the area who have the same problems , but
decline to make public statements in fear of reprisal . According to
a recent Ithaca Journal item parking is one reason why one
business is leaving the area... One business that was in the area,
;' which was my son, that has moved, always has had problems parking
`i in that area. He was on the corner of Plain and State. State-
. ments have been made by individuals that they never had any
it problems - Good Luck! We wish we could say the same. Mainly
they are the ones that are parking in front of our house where
we can't work. Our customers had to walk half a block carrying
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!' their merchandise. That can be anything from a bed pencil to
a dresser. As a member of the Salvation Army, a soldier and
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on the Corps council I ask for a denial of the request for a
variance. And I wasn' t going to mention any other issue except
when I heard statements and this is one I have written. I hope
you will be patient. There are other issues regarding the grant-
ing of the variance for abortion on West State Street . It .is
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a very personal thing to me as a close neighbor in the area, and
as a registered nurse. Having worked in surgery, I can see no
solutions to emergencies that may occur, hopefully not so,
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but somehow they do. Post-operative hemorrhages , even with so
called safe and sane surgery this can happen. Has anyone thought
of the amount of money it takes to set up the necessary items
needed? This goes along with the first statement that Planned
Parenthood may have financial problems . OK, they should be of
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necessity beyond the premises not across the street or two or
three miles away. A lot can happen between 314 State Street and
. Tompkins Community Hospital. I don't want to mention the
' octopus because I think everyone knows that and the trains . In
spite of an excellent avenue and service we have here and they
are very, very excellent . We have with the train people manning
? them. I question their complete physical to be obtained from
lsome of these pregnant women as to bleeders . Some are not even
;certain as to how far they are in their pregnancy, how can they
`'know about their bleeding history. It leaves the medical team
!only one choice - an educated guess . I have no criticism at all
of the work being done by the Planned Parenthood people. They
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;;apparently have helped a lot of people, however, I feel strongly
!that abortions should not be added to their services , and I
give this respectfullytothe board. This sounds like Bacorns
i;against Planned Parenthood.
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(Laughter in audience)
jMR. GANGL: Thank you, both of you, and I refer you to the paper
;$I submitted earlier and you all have. . (inaudible)
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you.
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MR. GANGL: I believe you all have copies of the first papers
'that I submitted to all of you through the mail . It is a very
,,short time, at that time, because my son came in from Boston,
Massachusetts , came in from out of state, and as his statment of
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' August 27 says he received a notice about a parking variance
which he ignored until he arrived in Ithaca, to learn that it also ;
involved extensive building expansion and change of use, including
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of course, the abortion matter. The thing was that he threw it
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in the wastebasket, and since obtained a copy of that and instead
,! of laboring you with the matters I .stated. As Walter' s attorney
;'' I just thought of something. I forgot to mention that the lady
;; beside me is my wife, Mrs . Frances Gangl , who also has an interest ',
� in 324-328 West State Street in Ithaca, New York, as I do and
: our son is the recorded deed owner of the property. I might also
,. say that I have no objection at all to the Director of Meadow Houso
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L` Paul Gibbons (?) in speaking and giving his individual view today,
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,; none whatsoever, we get along pretty good. However, the county
': is only a leasee and, of course, have not spoken or entered the
; matter , and although I don't think Paul also did not speak for
!' Meadow House , he spoke for himself. Of course, as I shall show
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later on about the parking situation there, I think that my views
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!' differ from his . I think they are legitmately so, I do not
;': question his honesty. Now, the thing I want to get into immediate-±
ly is to call to your attention the last paper I submitted to you
!' here today. That is dated September 6 , that ' s today's date and
I want to call your attention to some of these exhibits . The first ;
gone is exhibit A, that happens to be the notice that the owners
iof Planned Parenthood sent out January of 1980. That was their
;! first request for a variance. As I say in my statement , there is
'no word ever mentioned in that statement about any medical services ,
none whatsoever. The purpose is given as this in paragraph two :
"Planned Parenthood contemplates use of the building as a facility ;
; for birth control and pregnancy counseling and testing and related ]
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areas . " I submit that the matter which presently involves
medical services and so on that they claim they don' t have to
get a variance for, this is not a variance use change or anything
>' else. I submit it is . The first time around, we did not object
to their coming in there under the circumstances for what the
;; notice they gave us . In fact , we were all for it , in spite of
the fact that they had contemplated having eight off street
;; parking sites . . .they do not have it . I submit that they have
' at the very most six sites right now and that ' s parking on the
, lawn and all over the place and as far as the driveway is concerned
,; one car will block that driveway. If that is in the back of
the rest of the cars parking there, they can' t get out. That ' s
; a problem. I submit that the new application that is now made,
,, which is exhibit B asks to my statement is something totally
different . As I call attention in my statement , a notice to
,, property owners that states that , I ' ll find it here, see. .
; Yes , to quote from it , .renovations will provide additional
600 square feet of medical office space. " Underlining additional ,
f': in other words , what they're saying now is that were (audible
; beeps) medical space and they're first time around they said
. nothing about medical office space at all and I submit that that
> is very misleading when they're supposed to report to the property ]
owners and do not state it . If they had it the first time around, '
they should have so stated, nothing was ever mentioned. Then
also, paragraph two it states : "both the facility will to continues
' to operate as a medical , counseling and educational service which
is a preventive use in a D-2 district" , I underline continue there. )
We have no objections to their continuing their uses they have
., put it to as provided for the last time around that they were
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granted variances by the Board of Appeals , none whatsoever. We
do object to the change of use and that is what is happening here. .
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A change of use to include the performing of abortions , something 1
! much more than having people examined. ' They do have medical
. facilities there but doctors come in and examine people but to
;. offer abortions is something totally different. I submit that
; the request which is made to claim that they have so many variance ,
6
'' eight variances given last time, is something that should not be
allowed whatsoever. They was allowed under the basis of their
` notice to the property owners at that time, and if they have
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'; expanded since then, their uses , then I don't think it proper
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! at this time to say we are legal and we 're not in violation of
izoning. The place is zoned for medical facilities and so on .
it might be but the premises that they have there certainly do
,, not comply with the requirements for an abortion clinic with
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the adequate spaces , you know, facilities for parking, especially, ]
and if they have to build on now and use all the back building
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part which is actually a garage not a carriage house anymore. It
imay have been many years ago when they had horses , but it isn't
i today. They want to include that entire building for facilities
: for abortions. I respectfully point out the amount of land they s
have there, the buildingsthey have there , just isn' t the proper
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;, use where they are already in trouble with their parking. Now
! I have said before that the area is very congested and last
1' Friday I was there and there were only four parking meters that
' were open on the entire street. This is at 11:00 a.m, last
Friday. The city parking lot is entirely full , not one meter
'; available at that point and we hear all these other stories
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about one day may come and so on and see if it ' s a different
- situation. I took one of those four spots right by Meadow House,
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near there by Arnolds anyway, and that left three and when I went
back after I made my trip and so on, I noticed that all three of
.. those places had been taken. Although a couple of other vacancies )
:, had occurred, but that is , in book at least, a very extensive use
! of parking area. Statements have been made that they can use the
;;' city parking lot for their purposes , well if it was full at 11 :00
a.m. last Friday, I wonder if it ' s ever in the situation where
: they can get parking there (noise ) . . . interested if they had
! an emergency there. Now I want to call attention to exhibit C and '
!' before I do, I would like to say that I, as my claim, as I see it
s. here, that the failure to properly notify the property owners
: there,. you know what I mean, constitutes artful deception and
1fraud on the property owners and the Board of Zoning and Appeals .
j' And I think if you look closely at the first zoning request that R
;; was in 1980 and the next one. . . I question strongly the represen-
Tape Five tation lay that they are legal and that the zoning for the area
;; gives them permission to have the medical usage which they now
s
; seek. That is simply not so with the amount of facilities that
1 they have of the building and the parking. Also, I submit that
;! the proposed use change to include abortions is part of the
'; variance request, as my understanding of the zoning rule. Under
,. all the circumstances herein, especially, that is not a part of
it and it should be the 1980 variance requested permitted solely
; for counseling and testing of related areas and we have no
,, objection at all for them to continue in that field. We respect-
.
fully submit that the medical offices for the purpose of performing
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abgrt ;on: are. not a related area to counseling. I think it ' s a
far cry from counseling. We do not ask
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. I will try to expedite it by going along to exhibit C which is a
drawing by Ben Boynton, who is a real estate person, and has been
done at my request . Of the premises owned by Planned Parenthood
,, it portrays a maximum utilization thereof with resulting 6 parking
'' spaces on the east line and the north line, also the required
.. loading area of 450 square feet is shown. Also , the required
, driveway of 12 feet wide for access . The utility pole would have
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!!' to be removed to permit this . This would be the driveway right
next to the building. The building protrusion also would have to
' be removed. The logs and shrubs would have to be removed. And
: then also is exhibit B, which is a copy of Ben Boynton' s letter toli
;; the Zoning Board dated August 1 , 1983 , which claims that the lay-
jout only provides 6 parking spaces with direct street access .
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': Required parking is shown; the letter is self-explanatory. Also
: attached is exhibit E from Ben Boynton. . . a letter dated September
t6, 1983 which refers to exhibit C and B and mentions the new
;; proposed driveway and loading area and sets out the various pro-
1 visions of the zoning law which apply in this letter. They are
!' all stated there and I adopt them as my own . . . . . and belabor you
s
with these provisions of the zoning laws . Also, I agree, of courso ,
!; with all three Boynton attachments . I think it shows that the
situation is quite contrary to what is Planned Parenthood !
cannot comply with the many zoning ordinances that it violates it
'" should not be allowed to add even further to those violations by
; being allowed to open an abortion clinic. Incidentally, the day
that I was there last Friday there was a total of 8 cars in the
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driveway and 6 of them were on the concrete or macadam or whatever ;
it is toward the back of the building. Two of them were parked
. on the lawn, one on each side of a bush that ' s there. While I
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was there examining the place both of those cars left . First one
:: then another, but the condition was such that if any one of those
;] cars , except the back one that was on the driveway, wanted to get
Eout they would have to move cars , and that is the situation now.
'' I've seen it since too. If this is supposed to be adequate park-
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ing, and no plans are made for proper parking, then I say that any '
': kind of an expansion, even expanding their present use would be
:; improper because there would be more cars in there. There would
! be no more parking and if ever there' s a chance that an ambulance
;, has to get in there or a fire truck. . . . they've got it congested.
e
'' By the way, there are mostly foreign cars too or they
wouldn't have gotten that many in there and I submit that by using ]
the parking as Ben Boynton shows on the east side, right on the
I
''' line all the way, you can get up to 6 cars in that area. Five
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: along that line and one in the back, that' s number 6 . I also wish ;
`; to call attention to his letter of August 1 , 1983 in which he
shows the amount of parking that should be allowed for the various
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services that are rendered or expected to be rendered by the agency.
!; Its conclusions here show that the facilities are far short of
the required zoning and if they are going to say "well , the first
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; time around they're OK and we granted some variances and those
; don' t have to be counted this time" I think that ' s grossly unfair
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to the property owners because we abstained from objecting last
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. time around because of their use there. But that has now changed.
I think that that is the most important part of what we should
consider in this matter. I don't think that Walter Gangl , who
owns , and my wife and I who have financial interest in the property+
where Meadow House is now located, should have to be so boxed in
:' that when that lease ends , possibly within a few years , you know,
;., it may end and we have to look for other uses , and we're going to
s
,be blocked -in because we now have adequate off-street parking but
it might have to be another use. It might be a restaurant or
:! some other thing where we have to have some other parking other
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; than off-street parking and I don' t think that our property should ;
1::be jeopardized and have leases suffer. We definitely take the
oeition that the property at 324-328 West State Street is in
P P P Y
;', jeopardy and is going to suffer if these variances are granted and '
" they're going to suffer right away because the area is congested
;!now. I think that Father Tony also mentioned the congestion that
','.he has witnessed and so on. It depends , of course, on the times
s
, and so on. I noticed also that the students have arrived back in
'; Ithaca just recently and any increase in parking is going to be
reflected by the advent of more and more students and more tenants
: in that area. I think that all the papers we have submitted
3
present our position pretty well. I 'd like to speak a little bit
` regarding the claims made. The various claims made by proponents
for the variances and if you' ll give me a little time so I can
' find it here I 've made some notes . I don't think that the amount
`:' of condition one way or the other in all this matter, you know
what I mean, should be the controlling issue . I think that you
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can hire all kinds of people, you can get signatures and so on
but I 'm not saying one way or another that that should be a con-
sideration. We recognize that abortions are legal to a point of
course. So long as they are within the law as defined by the
court and we also recognize from all the news from all over the
i. country there are a lot of problems with abortion, and I don't
,. want to belabor that either, but I do want to say this , that the
claims here made about parking, the fact that 3 and 1 , I think !
it ' s a total of 4 parking variances are all that they're short
'! is absolutely false. All the parking they have now is not
:; adequate and is not properly used and I wonder about the space
they have, if the space that they do give , whether it ' s actually
true. Perhaps the Planning Board and Housing Commission may have
6'
'; data to show and plans and so on to show the actual size of the
inside and the use of every part of the inside and to what extent
gall of it is being used now. I question here that the proposed
change is only one more employee. I assume that' s going to 1
be the doctor that ' s going to perform the abortions . Otherwise,
:: they don' t have any more employees . I think there is a mistake
made about the radius , I guess my notes aren't that full and k
. complete. . . oh, yes , this is the one I wanted to find. About the
; lease of a growing premises to alleviate this parking situation
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(could not understand) — it ' s on a yearly basis and then another
', year renewal possibility and so on and I submit that this is
f completely irrevelant. I mean I don't think you can decide on the
!s
'' possbility that they might give leases to alleviate the whole
situation. The claim of 12 spaces that they can get that way
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is again something that they themselves recognize, you know, what
kind of space they should have and they have got . The drawing
that I called your attention to - Ben Boynton shows it and it ' s
maximum by eliminating many things . You have to remove the
Futility pole there and take a piece of the house off in order to
i( gain access for a driveway through there , and that should be a
12 foot driveway not a 10 foot as they have now. And if you look
; at the lawn over there - one area of the lawn, you know, there ' s
,, a big, big hole there where they've been parking. They've parked
; all over the lawn now and it ' s . . . . I don' t think it ' s a proper way
! of doing business , you know, cutting up the lawn and so on, and
{ go all over the place over there. They should come forth with• a
,, plan that can be properly looked at to see how much of a variance
'1they need and I submit that you should consider the matter of all
the variances that they need, all the proper parking that should
,, exist at that place under the circumstances and conditions that
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,.. exist in that particular area and in consideration of all the
property owners in that particular area. Thank you very much.
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' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard in
; opposition to this matter.
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MONICA My name is Monica ? , I live at (cannot understand)'
'' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I 'm sorry but you're not a resident affected?
MONICA: No, not within the 200 feet.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: It 's my ruling and I 've repeated it tonight.
I'm sorry, we do not intend to listen to testimony from people
; who do not live or own property or are tenants of an area of
within 200 feet of the proposed variance.
MONICA: Basically, I was interested in summarizing what I 've
heard.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , I 'm sorry. Yes , sir.
{ ALBERT STODDARD : My name is Albert Stoddard and I would like to
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.; appear as a so called expert witness. My background is as a
.!' civil engineer. I ' d like• tomake it clear that I'm not licensed
to practice civil engineering within the State of New York.
: Though I have 2 degrees in civil engineering, I am registered in
: Colorado and I would like to address the parking issue.
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.' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: You're talking about your qualification. Where
are you from?
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; ALBERT STODDARD: I am from Ithaca and my current address is 212
;! Lincoln Street.
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'! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: And what ' s your interest in the (noise) area.
ALBERT STODDARD: I 've been a resident of Ithaca for 3 years .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I 'm not talking about the City of Ithaca, I 'm
talking about the affected area within 200 feet from the property.
You don' t heave. . —
! ALBERT STODDARD;, No, sir, but I would like to lend my expertise
to the parking issue there.
' CHATERNAN WEAVER:. I'm sorry but i
:1MR, SCHT,CKEL,, T, think when I, was speaking you said that some
; people
� CHATWN WEAVER: Are you introducing Mr. Stoddard? You appreciat!
1I the dillema of anyone coming forward that has an interest is . . .
1!MR. SCHICKEL; Twould like to introduce Mr. Stoddard as an experti
! in regard -to parking. 1 think there might be a couple of other
11thing.s . I not sure entirely what he is going to speak about ,
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Nor am I , so , you maybe interrupted if necessar
.' You understand what were. . . I'm to limit this disucssion to .
!'] MR. STODDARD: I would like to point out one thing that there
:,,: was a court case in the New York State Court of Appeals . It was
3' the Offshore Restaurant Company versus Linden. It addressed
off-street parking requirements . In that case, the
i, court found that the off-street parking variance was a different
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nature technically involving both use and area particularly if
the off-street parking area is tied to the use of the land in the
City of Ithaca ordinance it is . In either case , the test for an
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. area variance, and this is what the court said in this case, is
: not unless the owner is left with no reasonable use for the
property. .And I would say, first of all , they are currently using '
lithe property - they have a reasonable use. I won' t go into what
.,: the court says in terms of requirements for practical difficulty,
i
but you've already been told that they have not met that . Another
}
requirement for an area variance is that they show special con-
ditions . That it be tied to the property. It ' s a singular dis-
advantage by reason of the zoning ordinance. If the hardship is
f,
common to the whole neighborhood, the remedy lies in a change in
tithe ordinance itself, not in a zoning variance . If you look at
jproperties in that district , the off-street parking requirement
and the problems of meeting that for this type of use , are not
Duni ue to that property. If you look at the adjacent property, if
iE q P P Y• Y J P P Y�
': they were doing this type of use , there would be the same type of
'jparking problem. You had a presentation of a parking study to
; show the parking situation in the area - I'm not prepared to
;; address that, but we've heard from people who have done business ,
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' who resided on that street , who say that there is a parking problem ,
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` the study says there isn't. I would say that that study is not
" completely sufficient to determine whether or not the parking
!' problem exists . They did not look specifically at how long each
. car was being parked in this space. They did not interview people ,
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.who were parking to see what facilities they were going to, what
', areas were generating the demand for the parking, so that that
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' issue is not fully resolved and would require full in-depth park-
, ing so that you can determine , if, in fact, a parking problem exists .
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. I would also add that the claims they've made throughout their
;; appeal, and a lot of it is addressed to the parking situation, have{
been very weak. They have failed to show the significant or prac-
i
tical difficulties . They do not show that any uniqueness to the
property, and in fact , it is not unique to that particular property.
'' They claim to have 8 spaces now, and this is in their appeals,
their writing. Those 8 spaces , as you have heard, require people
to park on the grass . They require access to some parking spaces
. to be blocked. They do not include the 450 square foot off-street '
:; loading area which is required for medical facilities in that
!'' district. If they provided that, and certainly they should be
:' required to provide that, they ought to admit themselves that they ;
:,will give up one space for emergency vehicles , in fact they need
.,; to give up 22 spaces to provide that 450 square feet. Twice in j
:: their appeal they mention .a 40 space municipal lot , which in fact , !
is only 32 spaces and only 32 meters in that area. All the on-
! street parking is limited to one hour so that in addition, as even
:the parking study mentioned, that the smallest number of spaces
! available are in the municipal lot . The spaces that are available
,; are primarily on-street parking, so that anyone coming to take ;
'advantage of their new services will have to use the parking
;; spaces in the municipal lot, but that is the area that is the most
;;full. They claim they will not increase the parking demand because
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they are going to expand the hours and not their services , but
that, again, may only for now. One would expect that if -
since they are claiming financial difficulties , that if the
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' finances are not met, not only will they try to expand hours but
they are going to try to expand the number of people coming in
;'. even though they say they don' t . They've also made a lot of
;; other claims which are not very factual . They say they do not
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a! advocate abortion, however, they will be competing with'.,services
,salready being provided, there has been enough said on that. One
; other thing I would ask you to deny the variance because they have ;
3
.not, in fact, met the legal requirements . Their arguements con-
; cerning parking are not sound; some of them are not actually
' factual.
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' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard on
', this matter?
!WESLEY WELLS : Mr. Weaver, I think we should get Mr . Sullivan to
,? return.
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';CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Sure. Have him come right up here . Come forward]
Gland identify yourself.
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;BILL SULLIVAN: I 'm Bill Sullivan. I'm an attorney. . .offices at
1!417 North Aurora Street. In the last hour or more I think I've
`:walked further out in the hallway than I walked totally when my
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wife was giving birth to our six beautiful children. I just wonde�,
and I pray, that we give birth to something here tonight and that
the matter not. . . . .you know, if somebody wants to interrupt me
maybe they can come up and speak and I ' ll wait till they're done.
w' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Please. I 'll attempt to maintain order.
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!; BILL SULLIVAN: I have several requests in view of. . .
!
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ii CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Why don't you have a chair, please.
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,IBILL SULLIVAN: I feel more comfortable on my feet , do you mind?
'` CHAIRIV,AN WEAVER: Well , you were alluding to your walk. . .
!' BILL SULLIVAN: The doctor, wherever he went , says exercise is
;; good for me. First of all, I don' t know what ' s been going on i
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;here while I 've been out in back but I 'd like, at this point
;;before we proceed any further to have the tapes played back so I
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!' can hear them and respond to any matter that ' s been raised in my
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!. absence.
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,' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: First of all , I know you are a lawyer and I know
!;where your office is but I don' t know what your purpose is in
:being here.
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!' BILL SULLIVAN: I 'm sorry. I thought I indicated earlier that I !
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was appearing on behalf of the Knights, of Columbus .
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER; Well , sir, the Knights of Columbus does not, to
the best of my knowledge, own land within the 200 foot circle.
BILL SULLIVAN: But they are an agrieved party, -sir, and an agrievdd
party, because they have a parking lot that 's constantly full of
. unauthorized people parking and they're affected by a decision
that you people may make here tonight. So , as such, they have
.; standing to be here .
' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well, under the rules adopted by this board,
... I' ll take the responsibility to disqualify you and your client
; from being heard at this hearing.
BILL SULLIVAN: First of all , those rules that have been adopted,
'have they been adopted pursuant to a resolution of the board?
' CHAIRMAN 14EAVER: Yes, sir.
iBILL SULLIVAN: What was the date of the resolution?
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: May 19 . . . . I don' t know the date. . .May 1983.
' BILL SULLIVAN: Those rules don't speak to the question as to
.whether or not an individual or group , such as the Knights of
Columbus , are an agrieved party or not. The court cases speak to
that.
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,, CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I agree with that. However, it puts the burden
,, upon the chairman to determine who interested parties are and who
are not , and earlier and repeatedly throughout the context of this ;
'' hearing, the chair has ruled that persons who do not reside in or
;` own property within or are tenants within 200 feet of this property,
x: 314 West State Street , are not privileged to be heard at this
!` hearing.
!' BILL SULLIVAN: Is that the vote of the group or just your ruling.
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; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: No.
'` BILL SULLIVAN: I ask you to take a vote of the group. . .of the
board.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I 'm sorry but our rules do not provide for that
' comfort to the chair. All the burdens are on the chair and the
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'; chair has repeatedly ruled tonight and has tried to hew to this
ruling, so that anyone who wishes to measure fairness will be able ;
to clearly understand that to the best of my ability we observed it.
BILL SULLIVAN: Well , we certainly object . We havea long state-
,;ment to make and I' d like to make an offer of that statement so
( that it's clear to the record as to what the statement would be
were the statement permitted.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , that' s an interesting way to. . .
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BILL SULLIVAN: It ' s called an offer- of proof, You're not going
to permit an offer of proof?
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_ CHAIRMAN WEAVER; Before a and the chair, to the best of
. it 's ability is meeting the requirements of the local ordinance
and hopes and prays that. it will be measured on fairness to all
in the reasonable hearing of this case , In this case, I choose
not to hear you, and therefore anything that you might have
: introduced had you been able to be heard, is not going to be
accepted.
",:BILL SULLIVAN: Then I' ll appear on behalf of Tropical World,
;,'which is located at 320 West State Street . I believe that 's
!;within your artificial 200 foot circle.
''CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The circle isn't artificial but . . .
s
;BILL SULLIVAN: It certainly is .
ijCHAIRMAN WEAVER: It ' s a -200 foot. . .ICs an arbitrary limit that 's
;been placed in this hearing.
;;BILL SULLIVAN: All right now, as a public service, Tropical World,;
;;the tenant at 320 West State Street , will adopt the arguements that'
,would have been put forth by the Knights of Columbus , and on behalf:
; of the Knights . . .and we' ll adopt that as someone within a 200 foot
circle. I note on your board right behind you, you've permitted
;testimony of 500 feet circles and you've permitted testimony about
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; parking from the Planned Parenthood located 2 or 3 blocks away
from this facility but you're not going to permit somebody located ;
210 or 220 feet away to make a presentation. I don' t understand
it .
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The chair will observe that in listening to the
testimony that I did not interrupt in each case in which the
:. testimony strayed from the pertinent facts of the case , however, I !
' hope that we have adhered to the 200 foot circle as far as those
; persons who have a right to be heard. So , as representing. . .
'`: BILL SULLIVAN: Tropical World, sir. It ' s a business . It ' s
= located 320 West State Street.
' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: All right.
( BILL SULLIVAN: First of all , I have a letter from Tropical World
to read dated September 6 , 1983. The Board of Zoning Appeals ,
; Ithaca City Hall , Ithaca, New York. We are writing our concern
;; over the request of Planned Parenthood for a parking variance.
We moved to the 300 block of West State Street from the 900
!' block of West State Street a couple of months ago. At our former
location, located at the intersection of West State Street and West
. Seneca Street , that was at the octopus , we received numerous
'; complaints from our customers about the difficulty in finding
:; parking. We certainly do not want to experience the same complain
at our new location. Our store is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on
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weekdays . We're closed Mondays. We also have weekend hours . Our "
" brief experience in the 300 block of West State Street has already ;
demonstrated the parking, both on-street parking and parking in.,.
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: the city owned lot across the street, is extremely tight during
:;normal business hours . We fear that additional demand will be
placed on the already fully used existing facilities by the
., proposed variance. There is also expansion going on among other
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:businesses in the area. By way of example, the city health club
., is finishing the renovation of the old Boykin Body Shop building.
!;When they are done and have a full schedule of classes this will
:` further tax the already limited parking facilities . We respect-
'' fully request that the proposed variance be denied. Very truly
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;;yours , signed Theresa Sullivan, President. Now, on behalf of
'Tropical World I request that the tape be replayed at this time.
!;CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The problem that we entertain here, Mr. Sullivan,;
'is practical , and it seems to me that in the review of this case,
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;;the tapes will be available . They will be explained and deciphered
: we hope and pray. The ability for us to play that back. . .you said
-about an hour that you've been absent?
f
. BILL SULLIVAN: You recall when you excluded me from the hearing.
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;!CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well, I don't know when the hearing was . . . .would
run this hearing beyond the capacity for this board to hear it.
.:;BILL SULLIVAN: Are you denying that request?
!;CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes .
's
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BILL SULLIVAN: We object on the ground that it doesn' t permit
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us to know what went on in my absence. Second, we ask that the
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full disclosure of the full contents of your file be made availably
+right now so that I can review it before proceeding further. j
''CHAIRMAN WEAVER: In other words , the application.
(BILL SULLIVAN: I have the application. All these documents that
!:were handed out because we want to use those documents to cross= s
a
iexamine the people that have come in here and given statements .
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!!CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , let me say for the record that we're not
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;!going to allow you to cross-examine anyone nor are we going to
!;allow anyone else who has testified to cross-examine anybody.
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iBILL SULLIVAN: So that' s in contradiction to your own rules .
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!CHAIRMAN WEAVER: No, it is not .
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if I
kBILL SULLIVAN: As well as the law.
I
(CHAIRMAN WEAVER: I'm not able to quote law to you Mr. Sullivan,
!sbut I 'm just saying that cross-examination from you to other
;;witnesses is not going to be accepted.
I I
!'BILL SULLIVAN: We would request that we be given copies of all
`the documents in your file before beingrequired q to proceed further!..
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: This is a practical matter that here your
ability to search through them seems to me to be somewhat limited. ';
'' BILL SULLIVAN: In that event, we request that the matter be
adjourned so that we were able to review them, study them, to
;'bring witnesses in, expert witnesses , to answer the allegations
we believe are supported made by. . . .
+ CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Mr. Sullivan.
i
JBILL SULLIVAN: Yes .
'CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Realizing these restrictions , which may or may
s
!not finally be upheld, do you have some comment on the variance
, that is of your own origin or did you merely want to be able to
' rebut . . . . . your testimony.
::BILL SULLIVAN: Both.
i
;'CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , could you privilege us with what you have `
or are prepared to say without the total record.
(BILL SULLIVAN: You mean before or after I 've reviewed all those
'imatters .
s
',CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes , tonight.
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BILL SULLIVAN: Certainly, but before or after I 've reviewed them
' tonight? j
'; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Please proceed with anything you'd like to say
!,but the problem of playing the tapes, giving you the full record,
, I've said that it ' s impractical for us to provide them. So ,
;;understanding that would you proceed.
'BILL SULLIVAN: On behalf of Tropical World, advancing the argue-
d
'iments that would have been advanced by the Knights of Columbus ,
"would make the following statement : The Knights of Columbus has
;owned property at 30 . . . .
,I
'CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The Knights of Columbus , you alrealdy understand,
I think, Mr. Sullivan, the Knights of Columbus are not a party to
! this . . .
Ii
j'BILL SULLIVAN: But isn' t Tropical World and didn' t other people
jspecifically this young lady from Cornell that did a traffic study,;
ii
1'didn't she come in and talk about parking outside the area of this
; 200 foot circle that somebody put a compass on a map and drew?
'That ' s all that we want to talk about. The same kinds of things
;'that you permitted the appelant to talk about. My concern is the
!;person who sets the procedure also controls the substance. If,
'`for example, one were told you could have only one swing at a base-
i1ball or you've got ten chances to make a first down, you're going
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, to affect the outcome of a ball game. I suggest the same thing
I
here. By artificially drawing circles on pieces of paper and
4
. limiting those that are going to appear and give testimony before
you, you affect the outcome. I don't know whether that indicates
,, previous position on the part of the chair or the board or who-
!" ever. I am very, very concerned about it. Maybe you people
i
aren' t concerned. I'm concerned on behalf of my clients and on
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' behalf of the hundreds of people outside that you are not even
';permitting to come into this place.
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' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , let me give you some comfort that I
expect that this ruling will be tested but not here tonight. If's
! very clear you're talking about the 200 foot circle and it ' s very
F- clear and it' s been established, not necessarily to everyone' s
" satisfaction, but that is the rule that the board—that I am
adhering to and you've already stood there before us and I advise
';you that you can' t represent someone outside of that area
ii before us .
4
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!BILL SULLIVAN: Are you going to permit Tropical World to make a
3
: comment about the Knights of Columbus and their parking lot or no.
JCHAIRMAN WEAVER: Of course not .
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!;BILL SULLIVAN: Why do you permit Planned Parenthood to make
{
;! comment about a parking lot two blocks away? I don' t understand.
' It' s inconsistent .
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BILL SULLIVAN; Well, we accept your rulings and we have evidence
to offer that you apparently don' t want to hear. Sorry about
that . I don't know what else I can say.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to
!� be heard in;-opposition to this matter.
` BILL SULLIVAN: Sir, may I stay in the room?
;; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Sure.
MR. SCHICKEL: Just for the record I think I failed to submit a
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' statement when I was here before. . .this is the original.
' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Would you just speak into the microphone and
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:; say who you are and . . .
e( MR. SCHICKEL: Yes. Norbert Schickel . I was here representing a
i
few people before and I have a written statement which I want
;` submitted and put on record.
! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in
:; opposition to this matter?
FATHER TONY: I also would like to ask the board' s permission to
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; submit letters that were gotten in the neighborhood that were in
;. opposition.
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!. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Are these. . .
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FATHER TONY, These are ones that the board has: already seen.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER; We already have them..
I
FATHER TONY- You already have. them,
; CHAIRMAN WEAVER; It would be redundant to -give us extra copies
We all have been copied with them, Now, it is a point of which
I'd like to have some cooperation from all of you, It seems
i
reasonable that in the hearing of the testimony in support of and
! in opposition to this application that either opponents or
; proponents might well have heard or wish-to add brief remarks of
- clarification of their position. So , I hope that won' t encourage
all of you that we've heard tonight to come up and say a few more
,' words , but I still would like you to be given a reasonable oppor� {
' tunity, so I 'm going back to the proponents of the people that i
;! have applied and first ask them if they wish to add anything to
k
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; the record. Following that, I will grant the same privilege to
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'; those who are in opposition, 'des.
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,, DIRK GALBRAITH, For the record, my name is Dirk Galbraith and i
am speaking on behalf of the appelant Planned Parenthood of Tompkins
;, County. Byway of a very brief rebuttal to the expert testimony of E
; Albert Stoddard, I believe, ladies and gentlemen of the board, the '
'; proper test for the grant of area variance is a demonstration of
;; practical difficulty which need not even include the demonstration !
of economic hardship. I believe the test which Mr. Stoddard
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jrecited, that being whether or not the owner is left with no
Lreasonable usage of the land, is in fact a test for use variance,
:which is something entirely different than what we 've applied for
., this evening. Secondly, I would like to call back to the stand
Dr. Schmidt , if I may, to say a few things about some of the
;medical aspects of the testimony of Mr. Schickel and Ms . Bacorn.
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jMR. SCHICKEL: I object to that Mr. Chairman. I think that you
lruled that that was out of order and that he was not to continue °
'i
: that in the first place.
iCHAIRMAN WEAVER: Well , the question I have, counselors , is
ii
iexactly to what degree we talk about "medical procedures" and in
:'what detail. It does seem to me that in some of your testimony i
i
.;yourself, that you went into quite an extensive journey out into
.' that field and to leave it without any opportunity for rebuttal
?lwould seem to me advantageous . . . . that you can make statements and
tl
Braise questions without anyone having the possibility of answering.
i,
So, if we can keep reasonably narrow in discussion and if this j
; could be a specific response to the questions raised, it would
ii
iseem to be in reasonable context. That puts the burden on the
',doctor to confine his remarks as best he can recall to the
questions that were raised by your testimony and it would seem to
',,'be a reasonable exercise of fairness to allow that. You realize
?`there is a limitation that I 'm placing upon your witness .
'!MR. GALBRAITH: I ' ll try to stay within that circle.
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DR. SCHMIDT: Again, members of the board, I am Health Commissioner
of Tompkins County. I might say I admire your stamina.
I
MR. GALBRAITH: Dr. Schmidt , there has been discussion about the
possibility of emergencies occurring during abortion
procedures . Can you comment on that?
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,'DR. SCHMIDT: Abortions performed in the facility such as
;! Planned Parenthood will make it ' s application for, are limited
;!by the New York State Sanitary Code to first trimester abortions .
! In addition to that , and I should say that these have been done
,,with a great record of safety in this community, and in most parts
of New York State and the United States and there are very care-
" ful rules made by the Office of Health Systems Management and by
Planned Parenthood's specifying what needs to be done to
i
; keep this a safe procedure. I believe that I can say, in my
opinion, that the performance of abortions in such a situation
;; can be done with great safety and practically no hazard. I also
!; would point out that it is also the responsibility of the clinic
., or physician performing the abortion to send the complete
` contents of the to a licensed pathologist for examina-
tion. Therefore, the allusion to arms and legs , I think, was '
i
greatly
MR. GALBRAITH: I have nothing further, really, that I'd like to
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have Dr. Schmidt testify about.
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.. CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Is there anyone else who was a
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;; proponent of this application that needs to be heard additionally
ifrom the original testimony? Is there anyone who opposed this
; application who would like to be heard further?
i'MR. SULLIVAN: May I again request that the people outside be
permitted to come in and talk.
;' CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there a specific person with a particular
interest that would need our definition of an interested person
;; that you can identify out there?
i
' MR. SULLIVAN: I'm still not sure I understand your definition,
but I think anybody that wants to speak ought to be able to have
an opportunity to do so. s
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: There have been quite a few people frustrated
f' in that attempt so far this evening and if you have knowledge of
,;a person who is "an interested person" lives within the 200 foot
circle, owns property within the 200 foot circle or is a tenant
within the 200 foot circle .
- MR. SULLIVAN: I have no specific person but there are 200 or 300
;people outside and they might well be such intereste d people.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard on
'this matter? Yes .
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?SFR. ANTHONY PAUL MUGAVARO: My name is Father Anthony Paul
Mugavaro. I'm a priest at Immaculate Conception Church and am
! representing people in the neighborhood immediately surrounding
Planned,lParenthood. I would like to respond to the Health
s!' Commissioner' s statement here that in terms of the first trimester :
';' there is nothing legally could stop Planned Parenthood from going
;', into second trimester or more. There is no way to say that that
it
.!won' t happen and that those emergencies won't occur? Also, the
;! fact that we haven' t had emergencies presently in Ithaca doesn't
,,mean that they won' t occur. Here is an article from the Center
f`
of Disease Control in Atlanta that reported 24 abortion related
' deaths in teenagers in a three-year period and I think it ' s kind
of like saying we ' ll never have a nuclear war, the more that we
,keep building things and keep doing things . I think it ' s a weak
" arguement. Also, I would say that in terms of the parking, I
wonder if the board has carefully looked at the required spaces
,. that Planned Parenthood does need because they need not only space ;
' for medical offices that they plan to be, but also for counseling
,; services , for laboratories , for retail-wholesale sales , for
: educational classrooms which they claim to have 3 ,000 in that one
';!year, as well as . . . . . and finally someone did mention the other
Tape 6 !areas of West State Street , particularly the city health club.
,;That place, as far as I know, does not have parking space and I
;wouldn't be surprised at the variance requesting to this board.
Those kinds of things I think need to be considered.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: It ' s my perception that we 've exhausted the
wisdom of the gathering here. At this time it ' s going to go
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under consideration of the board. Thank you all for your
;`, patience up to this point.
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*EXECUTIVE SESSION*
1CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Some of the documents assume that it had to be
separately identified and I believe that was an error.
3
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BETTE BAGNARDI : What about using all of this lawn area here? Is
', there any way that is prohibited?
�SECY HOARD: There is no green space except coming back from the
lstreet line .
i
BETTE BAGNARDI : So they could, indeed, pave all of this if they
'wanted to?
i
:;CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes . They can' t come forward. . . . . this meets the !
+irequirements for the number of numbered parking spaces .
i
BETTE BAGNARDI: How wide is that back one?
iSECY HOARD: 12 feet.
'`JEAN: Does it have to be 12 till there' s a lot deficiency?
'•, BETTE : Is it possible to approve , for instance the parking defic-
�Aency. . . . this is a one year lease , right?
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` CHAIRMAN WEAVER: The proposal was , yes .
;: BETTE: OK. The proposal was a one year lease. Can this be
' approved with a one year approval?
j (inaudible)
!'CHAIRMAN WEAVER: A granting of a variance can be conditional and
:;the question about the off-site parking proposed that the granting '
could be conditional upon the continued availability of the X
:number of off-site, off-street parking spaces . So we 're not
t>
El,limited to yes or no as applied for but we can say yes if. We
can condition our yes if that turns to be the judgment of the
`Iboard.
.: (inaudible)
''BETTE : They can get 19 . Is that right?
;!CHAIRMAN: There are 7 on-site
BEA: They need 19 , right?
'CHAIRMAN: Yes . The total requirement.
i
BEA: They have 7 and they need 19 and the 12 makes 19 .
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,CHAIRMAN: Yes .
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' PEGGY: But they already have . . . . . .they have a variance of 8.
i
:,MICHAEL: Then a balance of 4 we are looking for. Is it a balance ;
! of 4 we are looking for or is it supposed to be 8?
i% CHAIRMAN: Well, in talking about the minimums (inaudible) the
�`ibasis that the existing variance belongs to the property as it
;now stands . The proposal that they provide off-site, off-street
parking, the newly required spaces that result from the extension
if
.;are one of those now counted that will be lost because of the
1'need for emergency access to the accessory building. Then the
;;number of spaces required by the addition of 600 square feet of
4
;primary use space to the total enterprise and that would be 3 more.
1,:4 more. So, 3 more plus the one for the deletion of one of the
;!required ones is now. . . .
;i
!JEAN: You can go for the whole 12 though, as opposed to just the I
!4. If that ' s part of the proposal , right?
i
:CHAIRMAN: The question that we need to understand here is a
`'question of interpretation on what ' s happening. First of all , it
is required by its present variance to have X number of spaces .
'I don' t dare say now . . . . . The existing is 8 where 16 was required ',
;!back when they granted that first variance. Out of the 8 existing,;
they propose to eliminate one so that on-site they propose to
, provide 7 off-street parking spaces . They can't do that on the
basis of their original variance. They must maintain 8 . . . . how
;;many more do they need by adding 600 square feet of space. I
I
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;! believe one for each 200 square feet, so, three more spaces plus
the one that was lost comes to four. Are there any other
questions here? I' d be glad to hear a motion.
i
? I move that appeal number 1512 for an area variance be
;; approved . . . . as follows : 1 . There are practical difficul-
' ties in complying with the State health requirements making
; compliance impossible. 2 . The acception observes the spirit of
Sithe ordinance and it will not change the neighborhood and in fact
tithe use is permitted. 3. The applicant has made adequate provision
I
or it plans to make adequate provision for parking and I would
put the rider on there that in fact the requirements to lease the
1,� additional 4 spaces becomes part of the variance. And, in fact
; that it ' s only a year long lease that it might be annually
', reviewed till the lease was renegotiated. Perhaps for a longer
`' period of time. 4. The variance does not significantly increase
ijthe density in the area.
( CHAIRMAN: May I hear a second.
�I
II ? : Yes .
i
; CHAIRMAN: Motion is seconded. Discussion? I ' d like to make a
I I
:, friendly amendment to your first point . In the area of practical
;' difficulty there are and will be deficiencies in side-yard and
! rear-yard setbacks . This building and its neighbor buildings haver
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;:been in that position many years and allowing this . . .granting
.: this variance will not exacerbate those clearances which are
: more than allowed by ordiance. Do you want to accept that?
s
? : Second accepted.
; CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Is there any further discussion? Yes .
? : About the leases on renting the parking area. How often are
f; r
` those reviewed? If it ' s a one year lease who polices it after
that?
+ CHAIRMAN ?-JEAVER: It becomes a matter of filing appropriate lease
to continue the use of the facility.
i! ? : Part of the lease was the fact that the board would be notified:
!; if the lease was terminated.
ri
:,CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Yes . Any other discussion? Any other questionsT
s
;;Now in this case 1512 , a yes vote is to allow to grant the variance;.
'In case number 1512 , the board has voted 5 yes , one no . There are
several other cases to be heard so if you people. . . .
i
is
SECY HOARD : The next case is appeal 1514. . . . . . . . . (noise) the
;;construction of five apartments within the existing building at
'`227 Linden Avenue. The apartments would be an addition to the
';existing radio station WVBR-FM. The property is located an R3b
;:residential use district in which the proposed use for apartments
i
pis permitted. However, because of the existing non-conformity,
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the appelants must obtain an area variance . . . . . the deficiencies
:before a building permit can be issued for the apartments . This
.: appeal has been held over from August 1 , 1983 at the request of
: the accountants .
CHAIRZ,AN WEAVER: Mr. Downing, are you going to present the case
!' for the appelant? OK. Please identify yourselves .
';RALPH ROBBINS : My name is Ralph Robbins . I 'm president and
general manager of . . . . . . (noise) WVBR First of all, I understand
;;you folks have had a long night , a long night for all of us , I' ll
i
;; try to be as brief as possible and hopefully we can get all of the !
;! facts straight as we do so. Some of you may be familiar with
;; the proposal that we came here with a couple of years ago. The
;' proposal we have this time is a much more modest one. The basic j
;! problem that we have, that we are facing , is that the property at
,` 227 Linden Avenue , the very large building, WVBR has approximately !
1` 5 ,000 square feet of that . When we bought the building 11 years
, ago our intent was to rent the balance of the space to commercial
�o
; tenants to offset and defray the maintenance, etc . Unfortunately,
' despite the efforts of many realties in the area, this has not
I
;been the case and we now find ourselves in a situation where the
I
7building has become quite deteriorated. It was built in the late
1920 ' s of steel reinforced concrete, it was built into East Hill
,! and through the years moisture has seeped into various areas
causing the steel bars to rust , expand and thereby break away
i
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I
' surrounding concrete . This has caused a very dangerous situation
not only for the occupants not only of our building, but also
for our neighbors . The cost of such rehabilitation that ' s needed
to at least bring the building back into a safe condition is
extraordinary and prohibitive considering the amount of space that !
1we are using and the amount of space that needs to be renovated.
' We have found, through the help of architects and structural
engineers , that the only way, really, to maintain a building of i
" this proportion is to use it - to have it occupied by what would
i
!be stable and suitable use. We 've determined that the only way
�' to do that is to convert it to residential usage. This appeal
i+would put less demand on the neighborhood, on us in terms of
trying to maintain adequate revenues to support the existing
: structure. Bill Downing, who was an architect for the project,
I believe has distributed to you the basic diagrams of what we
: are proposing. We are proposing five apartments , a total of nine
(noise) . . . . I don' t have it in front of me so I couldn't tell you.
';The problem that we were facing was the parking, really. On the
;;other setbacks there isn't very much we can do . We are dealing
:!with structure that sets on a piece of property where' s there ' s
not much we can do . We are not anticipating tearing down the
;; structure. But , we do have a parking problem. Mr. Downing has
,; also given you a sheet of paper that does indicate the parking
! deficiencies , what we presently require , what we are presently
;' grandfather to , what we are proposing . Part of the problem exists
you' ll see on the left hand side of the sheet there are two
columns for the existing building. . . . some of the area of the
;;building as storage space, the other is not . . . . as storage space.i
You can see there is a difference in the amount of parking spaces
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1
'; needed for a building where where some area of square footage is
considered . . . . . . . . . The same is true for the new construction
;; proposals . Basically, what we are doing by changing the, or by
requesting a change to residential usage is we are decreasing
the amount of spaces we need in the area and we are also increasing
;:,' the actual number of spaces that we will be providing. The actual :
deficiency, if we were to use the actual figures in the upper
riC>ht hand corner, we ' ll be deficient 50'/x. We will be providing
15 parking spaces where we 're required to have 30 . Bill , would
,. you like to. . . . . .
NR. DOWNING: I would like to pass around this series of photo
, graphs so as to familiarize you with the character of the
- neighborhood and the present appearance of the building. Linden
;Avenue is essentially a residential street on which WVBR unfor-
tunately finds itself located in a very large . . . . . . building in
which they presently occupy about a quarter. The building is
'' deteriorating obviously the tenant of one quarter of the building is
'' unable to maintain the entire building in an appropriate way.
!' When I was asked to evaluate the situation I was probably as
;: distressed as you are when you take a look at the building because '
it is deteriorating and also it ' s not a very attractive neighbor-
:, hood and my approach is to try to see what we could do to provide
!! an adaptive use which would be a successful one and which would
',make this building a better neighbor. As you know, it has been
permitted to operate as a commercial facility . . . . . . space on
the ground floor. There has been a series of aborted efforts to
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try to . . . . . income in that manner. They have essentially been
. unsuccessful . That has allowed the building to continue to be
i
,, as . . . . . . as it is . Whereas , actually, it' s a pretty nice brick
': building and if it ' s fixed up in this way it could be a good
neighbor. So , my suggestion was to eliminate the parking that
;' presently approaches it , the sidewalks or at least that' s across
the sidewalk, all across the front of it and move all of the
"VBR parking inside the building and to put a proper sidewalk in
; and trees in front of the building and create . . . . . . . . VBR office
, space and private apartments . You may see that there appear to
,.be six areas etched in red. The one on the lower right hand
corner of the first floor is attached to the apartment above it
circular stairway. So that is only one apartment. So
there are, in effect, 3, on the second floor and 12 on the first
;! floor. The two front corners have a rather attractive outlook
on a nice residential street , they will make attractive apartments .'
`Moving the parking inside and planting the trees will make this a
:much more attractive neighbor. The second sheet of . . . . . . . gave
; you illustrates the existing building. Part of it is commercial ,
; it ' s not a very successful part , it hasn't brought much income,
.,part of it is garage , and the part that is unoccupied on the
:' second floor. The VBR facilities are all on the second floor.
BEA BROWNELL: Excuse me. On the first sheet , are those all
;;,parking spaces on the first floor?
i
MR. DOWNING: With the exception of the two front corners , yes .
' We propose to tear down all those partitions and bathrooms and
Tall the things that are in there that were commercial use and
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move all the parking inside.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Let me address that just a moment. As the
,: present usage there is a fairly wide area in front of the building;
that is not . . . . . . and there has now been a violation of the
sidewalk by someone parking over that sidewalk. What do you
; propose to do in this development that will discourage that .
MR. DOWNING: We propose to provide an in and an out driveway and
, to eliminate completely that over the curb type of parking, put
;'.planters in, a proper sidewalk and a walkway entrance, so that
there will be no way cars can be able to reach the area where
'. they are now parking.
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Will this require a curb cut approval by the
engineering department or in some way require that this project
i
,; that you're presently . . . . (noise)
MR. DOWNING: I 'm sure that any change that we use in the building ;
;will require a . . . . . . . consideration to be taken. However, the
,'building originally was a garage of some nature or other, or a
' laundry and so on, so there was a curb cut going in as there was
curb cut and overhead door going out, so it doesn't really change
;'what had previously been a possibility. There once was a gas
, station in the blank area between the two red areas . There was
a gas station with gasoline pumps at that location at one point
"by the pictures we have of the studios I would reckon this around
i.1950 ' s or late 40 ' s and there were two curb cuts there at that
point. .
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1
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: But , you would look with a friendly eye to the
restriction . . . . . . . to the in and out driveway.
'� MR. DOWNING: Yes .
' MR. TOMLAN: I would like to follow that up just a little if I
;; might . You mentioned planters on Linden Avenue . . . . . . at one
o ' clock just might find themselves down the street in a ditch.
;MR DOWNING: Why we need planters . . . . . and plant some trees in
; there. Non-removable , yes . Is there another question on archi- '
; tectural disposal?
`SMS . HAINES : I have a question, but it doesn' t deal directly on
" this particular proposal but it does on the building and on the
! neighborhood. Has anybody ever thought of making the entire
,' additional available space in that building into a parkin; facility,
;! (inaudible)
MR. ROBBINS : Yes we have. In the course of investigating we have
! come to the conclusion that it costs an extremely large amount of
''money. I think we . . . . . . . the totals for the parking garage in
;: College Town, that ' s what we 've based a lot of our investigation
;on. The cost would be extraordinary and the return would be
miniscule by comparison. I might add that what we are trying to
do with this proposal is reduce the amount of traffic , the hazards !
" in the area, etc. and I think a parking garage on Linden Avenue
.,would raise more objection than any other possible proposal we
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' f
' could come up with.
'-LIS . HAINES : I spent a year living on Linden Avenue. . . . . . (inaudiblEl,')
!'MR. DOWNING: Technically the problem is that in order to use the
' second floor for parking you'd have to put a lift in because
; there' s not enough room for a rack and that is an expensive. . . . .
:; BEA BROWNELL: Wouldn' t you also have to strengthen it for it?
1MR. DOWNING: It really wasn't designed for that purpose , even
= parking on the roof, the structure has deteriorated and I would
!;hesitate to put that kind of a load on it .
, CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Do I understand, speaking of the load, that this:.
;;proposal , in order to meet the building code requirements for
residence, that improvements in the structural capacity of the
,"building will be required?
i
! MR. D014NING: Not in the structural capacity. The building has
!' deteriorated and there are some structural problems with the
'' exposure of some of the enforcing bars . We have reports from
' the engineers that indicate that that is not an insurmountable
,;, problem, it ' s merely to restore what ' s already there.
CHAIRMAN DOWNING: So you propose to improve that deteriorating
condition?
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SMR. DOWNING:
Yes , we do .
11R. TOMLAN; Would you address the difference between the new
`construction on the upper right and new construction on the lower
,,end of that sheet?
' 4R. DOWNING: Qh, yes .
� MR. TOMAN: the storage space, I would assume,
:';M. DOWNING: If you don' t call storage space office space then
,we're only required to have, we think, subject to the observations
iof the board, 30 parking spaces , In any event we are, in that
,;,:case 34, we are 4 less than the existing parking requirements ,
That ' s a deficiency that is certainly less because they only have
, . .how many parking spaces have we now?
iSMR. ROBBINS : 13.
'iMR. DOWNING , 13. So , there 's 6 . . . .we are improving the parking
�deficiency by 6 in that case and by certainly more if you count
�Istorage . . . .
HMR. TOI,,MAN; OK. Their storage there is where on the first or
jsecond floor plan.
MR. DOWNING : . . . . . storage rooms and the rear two storage rooms
'ion the second floor and there are some storage rooms in other
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non-office space used which we deducted from the total . If you
. take . . . . . case situation, we have a. . . . we are improving the
i
situation by 15 parking spaces . I would like to point out that
, the staff at the Planning Department , the planning director,
reported to the Planning Commission in favorable attitude toward
this proposal and they recommended that it be approved as being a
better situation than is there now and one way in which this
. . . . . . about this building can finally be laid to rest.
i
!`MR. ROBBINS : The problem we are facing is that we have known
!'about structural, I can't think of a better work than disintegra-
;`tion of the building since late 1978 and since then we have been
� to 3 structural engineers , several contractors , and 2 architects
lto attempt to come up with a reasonable plan on what to do with
, this structure. We really feel trapped at this point . I daresay
' the situation really is critical. The structural engineers from
'Mr. Downing' s office came by and looked at just the front facade
-and said that something really has to be done. I don' t have a
;;picture of it with me but at one part of the building they
+actually have a 4 by 4 square foot section of concrete that just
',dropped from the sky. . . from the ceiling actually, and thank goodness
the space was not occupied by a commercial tenant at the time.
' We feel real urgency on this matter right now and we feel that
Mr. Downing' s office has come up with an extremely reasonable
:,proposal. One that we will be able to afford and one that I don't
think will impact the neighborhood too greatly. When we look at
; some of the other projects that have gone on in recent past , even
:!within the 200 foot area, it ' s been extraordinary and we under-
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i
stand the problem of density in the area and it 's a difficult
question to resolve. We also have a board of directors who
consult with us on such matters and Ray Schlather is here and
;he' s a member of the board. . . . .also very concerned about
' such matters as density in College Town. B of D, of course, had
: the same consideration. They advise us on community issues and
i
matters and felt they would not be able to recommend that such
a project be undertaken unless we had dealt with the density
i
: question adequately, and the only reason why Ray, in fact, says
lihe can support this proposal is that we are increasing the
,;,requirement and the deficiency. . . the deficiency and the require-
;'ment, yes , with this proposal .
;!RAYMOND SCHLATHER: I'm Raymond Schlather and I come to you not
! as an alderman but as a member of the Board of Directors of WVBR.
+ I 've been involved with VBR as probably their only non-radio
:;person for the past year and I succeed, I think Alva Holman was
°,,my predecessor. To some extent we have been acting as the
community liaisons for the WVBR for the community itself, This
;problem has been a real thorn from the side of not only the radio
guild but also the board of directors because we've been trying j
t
to figure out a way that is not only cost--effective but is also
':responsible to the community and the bottom line is that they've
,got a large albatross that they've got to deal with. The building,;
' as has been evident , has outlived its usefulness in terms of once
.'being a commercial structure which is now placed in what is
'' increasingly a residential area. So , in a sense, what we are
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i
offering here is a method to cut our losses or cut the community's
losses by fixing a lid on the amount of parking required by
maximizing the parking itself, which can be squeezed out of the i
building, and by doing all of this at the most reasonable cost
for the radio guild. The radio guild is , it comes under the
umbrella of Cornell University, it has absolutely no financial
support from Cornell University. It must make it on its own,
;, survive on its own, and in many respects it ' s a day-to-day
`` operation that has bills to pay, and in fact, all respects . It
'! has a payroll to meet to some extent and it must deal with these
problems on a day-to-day basis . This is probably the biggest
;:' problem. I think this is a responsible, relatively conservative
i
approach to solving a very large problem.
i
' CHAIRMAN 14EAVER: Do you have anything to add, Bill?
`'MR. DOWNING: I think not . . . . . if you have any questions , j
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Are there any questions from the board, . . . , ?
;; BEA BROWNELL, Could we just get the parking squared away? How
; many are they deficient after . . . . . . .
' MR. ROBBINS : Once again, would that be the judgment of the board
! whether or not to consider storage space as office space, I don' t
know, myself, what . . . .
i
MR. D014NING: If you take the worst case, the present building,
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i
though it may operate as a commercial enterprise, is nevertheless
46 parking places deficient . What we propose is to eliminate that "
commercial use from the ground floor and have only the offices
upstairs . To add five apartments and reduce the worst case
parking requirements to 33 we will be able to provide 15 so we
'i are then.,deficient 18 , even, I guess , grandfather again with this
; authorization to use the space as a commercial place and presentlyi
; part of it still is as a warehouse for bicycles . We have trucks
;', coming to deliver bicycles on a little residential street . I
;- felt , as someone interested in real estate development , that the
'way to handle this is in a general . . . . . rather than maximizing
the use as . . . . . proposed and to make it a better neighbor than
0.
' it is now.
;i CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Can we jump from the present situation regardless
� of use of the building to tell me how many parking spaces are now
available on site.
MR. ROBBINS : Currently there are 13 spaces . If, I believe we do
on those drawings , have a drawing of the existing structure to be. .
iMR. DOWNING: Personally, I think it would be a neat trick to get
13 spaces .
MR. ROBBINS : That was going to be my point that if you looked at
i
; the diagram you would be impossible , really, to fit 13 cars in
there.
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I
i
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: And the proposal will go from 13 questionable
to 15 positively. Are there any further questions from the board? i
Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard in support of this
,, application?
MICHAEL BROWN: My name is Michael Brown and this is my wife
,, Laura Malenkoff. We are homeowners at 123 Linden Avenue. We
;;would like to speak briefly in favor of the petition. Our feeling ;
's
p is that this is the best thing that ' s going to happen. lie were }
`; here last year in opposition to their proposal along with some {
neighbors two doors down from us , Julie and Warren Stiles , who
! spoke. . . one of your board members spoke in opposition. This time
' though we think they are doing a real good job and I would rather
see them get the variance and fix up the building than see it
; continue to deteriorate and possibly drag our home values down
,'with it . I would like to ask, though, that two restrictions be
'; placed on them. One, that they require— that you require them
to make sure that they put the planters in only at indirect
i
1entrance and exit driveways . Secondly, that they reconditon the
Y'
= exterior of the building, which as they say, is a mess at roughly
; the same time as they do the interior so they don't complete the
' interior and start renting it out and some year down the pike
; do the exterior.
i
;'LAURA MALENKOFF: I'm Laura Malenkoff. I'm a homeowner at 123
Linden. The parking problem is bad in College Town, but I don't
think this will make it substantially worse.
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s
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f
CHAIRMAN: Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to be
heard in support of this application? Is there anyone who wishes
to be heard in opposition to this?
'MS . HAINE: I have one comment to make . The parking in College
i! Town . . . . . become substantially worse. Cornell is putting in the
I
?new Geology building that has taken. . . . . . (inaudible) y
i
i
;! CHAIRMAN WEAVER: We 're probably all concerned about the future
. of Collegetown. The only comment I would make that doesn' t
i
;, directly agree with you is that the Common Council , which is the
legislative body of the city, in its wisdom, did . . . . . to release
; the requirements for off-street parking from the densest part of
i
' Collegetown for reasons that escape me. However, it seems to me
;; that the same body should address that problem which, I agree, is
;more severe than it was before the change in the zoning. I
,'assume, by their action, they had some claim that would make that
,,;well but it has yet to be accomplished. Are there any other
;;questions here within the board?
BEA BROWNELL: Now, they could, if they wanted to, make this all
;;open spaces , right?
i
i
SECY HOARD: Everything in the building requires a variance.
;'BEA BROWNELL: Everything in the building requires a variance.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Even the bicycle store required a variance.
The whole thing is so utterly in non-conformance that any
extension of activity into any space that has a use change or
an increase in the demand for requirement for parking or any other
element requires a variance. Maybe the present people are not
`, experienced but TATVBR is very experienced in coming before this
! board to say can we do this with the old building repeatedly and
+ the board, again I'm not anxious to dispose of this for our con-
ivenience, but there has not been a resolution that has completed
;; this proposal that ' s come to our attention before. The chair
';would entertain a motion.
i
? : I' d like to make a motion to approve the variance. I think
;the proposed changes will enhance the character of the neighbor-
!;hood. I think the appelant has shown us that he is very concerned "
i
about the parking problem and he certainly has made a proposal
dthat shows us that this concern is uppermost in his mind. . . . .he ' s
s,done the best he can by putting as many changes as he can in the
'',building, and thinking about what might be done to the building I
;;would say that this proposal might . . . . . . . I would like to, however , ;
:'restrict somewhat this approval so it does , in fact , conform to
;the plan that he has proposed. . . like the trees , and the sidewalk
. . . , apparently the curb . . . . . .Anyway, I would like to restrict
''the approval so that it does follow the proposed plan he has given
pus tonight , with the trees and the sidewalk for the in and out.
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136
I�
SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1515 :
i
Appeal of Marshall and Caryl Sidle for an
area variance under Section 30 . 25 , Columns j
11 and 13 (deficient front yard and side yard
` setback) , to permit the construction of a
j; deck at the rear of the single-family house
!� at 211 West Lincoln Street. The property isj
located in an R- 2b (residential) use district
i; in which the existing use is permitted; how- !
Gever the appellant must obtain an area vari-
ance for the listed deficiency before a build-
ing permit can be issued for the conversion. i
i
�j MR. SIDLE: I am Marshall Sidle and this is my wife Caryl. We
propose to replace our current back porch which although it is
quite strong, it is not very useful , with a 14 x 22 porch but it
does not meet the side yard requirement of 151 . There is 131 . 1
The house is a two-story, single family dwelling - if a variance i�s
issued it would be within the guidelines of Ordinance and not j
(unintelligible)
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Any questions from the Board?
MS. BAGNARDI : Do you have the sliding glass door already instal-
led in that back area . . . is there a sliding glass door there? j
MR. SIDLE : No.
I
MS. BAGNARDI: Is your house stucco?
I
(I MS. SIDLE: Yes , the bottom half is.
I
MS. BAGNARDI : Okay,
l
MS. SIDLE: We don' t have a sliding glass door on, until they put
the deck on. 1
MS. BAGNARDI : Okay, but what kind of window structure do you
have back there - do you have anything?
II MS. SIDLE: There is an existing window there - a glass - regular '
j
j 271-z x 16. . .
I
�! MR. TOMLAN: Access to the porch comes from what side - straight
1;
from the back here or - this way?
MR. SIDLE: There is a door there .
,g MR. TOMLAN: Okay, there is a door there . . . Okay, access to the I
I
j� deck is from the side or from the rear?
MR. SIDLE: There is a door right where your finger is from the
house to the back.. .
1,
MRS . SIDLE : There is a kitchen door right there. If you will
ipush your finger a little farther forward you would come into the
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kitchen.
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{� MR. TOMLAN: Okay.
!I MRS. SIDLE: And if you move it over to the right - a little morel
- that ' s right where the dining room window is .
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it MR. TOMLAN: I see.
MS. BROWNELL: Where will the steps be to the porch - to get off
and on?
i' MRS. SIDLE: Right there.
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MR. TOMLAN: From this side?
MR. SIDLE : No , down the side .
MR. TOMLAN: From this side?
MRS. SIDLE : Yes and there is a patio built where that square is . i
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MS. BROWNELL: From the driveway, you are talking about?
MRS. SIDLE: No, we don't have a driveway.
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` MR. TOMLAN: If it comes from the side that is it would be from
the
MRS. SIDLE : But there is no, we can' t go outside there this
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fence with no gate on that side. In other words , we come off
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the deck onto the patio into the backend of what was our garage
j - turn left . . .
MS. BROWNELL: Steps are going to be here?
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MRS. SIDLE: Yes .
I1 MS. BROWNELL: Here the steps will be .
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MRS. SIDLE : And if you turn left there and walk to the end of tho
patio you will go into the family room which is that funny little
thing sticking out what used to be the garage .
CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Any further questions? Alright thank you. Is
j� there anyone else who wishes to speak in support of this applica-
tion?
pplica-tion?
MR. FERRIS : My name is Leonard Ferris , I am almost 60 years old,
I was born in the house next door to where Mr. $ Mrs . Sidle live
now at 213 W. Lincoln Street. As a young lad, I used to visit
the people next door very close friends ofourfamily - I have i
been in that house many, many times ('unintelligible) I
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will attest to the fact that the existing rear porch is extremely
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i small . I see no reason why anyone would want to keep that small j
porch when they could have a 14 x 22 deck. The fact that the clo�e
proximity to the property line is not in the affected area where
a deck would be built. To me, I don' t feel that that would deter ;
�! from the Board granting the approval. I also feel that the fact
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�) that they have - this would not in any way change the nature of
the neighborhood. To my knowledge, I have heard no neighborhood
conversations regarding this that would be detrimental and I feel !
�I that even if they were to ask to put a roof over this house , I
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would still say that I would hope that this Board would approve i
this appeal that they are making and as an advocate of a man' s
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i� castle being his or as a man' s home being his castle in this
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case also, I think that the Board would be wrong in denying this i
appeal and I would like to see it be approved. Thank you.
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CHAIRMAN WEAVER: Thank you. Anyone else who wishes to speak in
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support of this application? . Anyone who wishes to speak in oppos---'
ition to this application?
MR. FERRIS: I neglected to give my address . It is 104 Short
Street.
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS
I COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS
CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK j
I SEPTEMBER 6, 1983
ACTION Op THE BOARD
The Board considered your appeal for an area variance to permit
I' the construction of a deck at the rear of the single-family house
at 211 West Lincoln Street. The decision of the Board was as
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follows ;
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MS. BAGNARDI : I move that the Board grant the area variance re- I
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quested in appeal number 1515 .
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MS, BROWNELL: I second the motion. I
II FINDINGS OF FACT:
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1) The proposed deck will not affect the character of the neigh-
borhood. I
2) The deck will not exacerbate the present none-conforming front 1
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II and side yard deficiencies .
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3) The proposal observes the spirit of the Ordinance.
VOTE: 5 Yes ; 1 No. Area variance granted. j
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I , DO CERTIFY that I transcribed
►j
II the minutes of the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing held on Septem
ber 6 , 1983 of Appeals numbered 1495 , 1507 , 1512 and 1514 , said
►
hearing held in the Common Council Chambers at City Hall , City of
Ithaca, New York; from recording tapes and notes provided by the
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Ithaca Building Department and that the foregoing is a true copy
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!j of the transcript of the minutes of the meeting on the above date, ]
and the whole thereof has been transcribed to the best of my
ability.
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C Sworn to before me this
day of 1983
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jI Notary Pu 1 ' c
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BARBARA C. RUANE
Notary Public, State of New York
II No. 4524437
Qualified in Tompkins County
Commission expires March 30, 19 0 T
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