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Home My WebLink AboutMN-BZA-1983-10-03 i i` BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK OCTOBER 3, 1983 TABLE OF CONTENTS, !i APPEAL NO. 10-1- 83 Donald & Carolyn McPherson 2 730 Willow Avenue ion of the Board , APPEAL NO. 10-1-83 Act5 ! APPEAL NO. 1522 Gordon C. & Laura W. Myer 6 i 310 Ithaca Road ' ` APPEAL NO. 1522 Action of the Board 8 ii I� ',' APPEAL NO. 1523 Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services 9 301 South Geneva Street :'APPEAL NO. 1523 Action of the Board 16 !!APPEAL N0. 1524 John H. Weiss 17 605 Hudson Street !APPEAL N0. 1524 Action of the Board 21 11,APPEAL NO. 1525 Orson R. Ledger NO ONE SHOWED 317-319 W. Seneca Street i 22 ( CERTIFICATE OF RECORDING SECRETARY 1 i; E. �I lI 1 'i ii I ;I I i i i I I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK OCTOBER 3 , 1983 SECRETARY HOARD: I ' d like to call to order the October 1983 meeting of the Ithaca Board of Zoning Appeals . First I ' d like to ' introduce the members of the Board : Bette Bagnardi Jean Cookingham Bea Brownell ILI Michael Tomlan Thomas D. Hoard, Building Commissioner & Secretary to the Board Barbara Ruane , Recording Secretary i ABSENT: Charles Weaver Margaret Haine The Board will have to elect an acting chair for this meeting. There are only four members present tonight and that means that any appellant would have to gain all four votes in order to get the variance requested. You do have the right to ask for postponement until there are five or six members present . The first order of I business is to take nominations for an acting chair for this a� meeting. MS. BAGNARDI : I nominate Michael Tomlan. MR. TOMLAN: I ' ll nominate Bette Bagnardi. SECRETARY HOARD: Do I hear a second to Mr. Tomlan' s nomination? MS. COOKINGHAM: I second it . SECRETARY HOARD: Do I hear a second to Mrs . Bagnardi ' s nomination? MS . BROWNELL: Yes , I second it . SECRETARY HOARD: Would anyone like to move for a unanimous vote? , MS. BAGNARDI : I move for a unanimous vote selecting Michael Tomlan. i l MS. BROWNELL: I vote for Michael . UNANIMOUS VOTE FOR MICHAEL TOMLAN AS ACTING CHAIRMAN ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Having been elected the acting chairman for this meeting, to you out there more specifically, the Board operates under the provisions of the Ithaca City Charter, the 'i Ithaca Zoning Ordinance and the Ithaca Sign Ordinance . The - �i ii again, you understand that there are four members present - thattp be granted a variance you will need approval by all four members 2 - that is , it is necessary that you receive four affirmative votes and we only have four people here so you may withdraw if you want to. As a general rule we call the cases in order and we ask first that those wishing for the variance to be granted speak first, make their case as succinctly as possible and respond to questions, I �j from members of the Board. We will then ask for anyone in the audience who wishes to speak in support of the proposed variance request and ask again, the other side - against the proposed vari-, ance request. We do not adhere to the strict rules of evidence :i but we consider this a quasi-judicial proceeding and we base our decisions on the record. Therefore we do keep a record of what i ;j goes on at these proceedings and we ask that you come forward and ! make your reports and your statements up here at the microphones . '; j We have a tape recorder which should pick this up and we go on from that. If we can have the first case? SECRETARY HOARD: The first case is appeal number 10-1-83 I The Appeal of Donald and Carolyn McPherson; for a sign variance under Section 34 . 8 (minimum sign setback requirements for free standing signs) to permit the erection of a freestanding sign between the street and thel property line at 730 Willow Avenue (McPher- son Sailing Products and Ski Center) . The 'j Sign Ordinance requires a ten foot setback for freestanding signs in the M-1 (Marine) zone in which the property is located. MR. MCPHERSON: My name is Don McPherson, I 'm the property owner and also the owner of McPherson Sailing Products . I am requesting. i j a variance so that we can put a sign up that we feel is more appro- 1 priate for the location and the area and would be set back ten feet from the edge of the road. If we were to set back from the property line as requested, then it would necessitate that we go jto a very high sign in order to become visible if somebody else were to build just to the south of our property or if the lot were' left go to brush and trees and stuff to the south of 730 Willow Avenue . The sign that we hope to erect - I think you all received'; 11 copies of the sketches and drawings that - did you all receive 'i those? (affirmative from Board members) What we would like to doi is put a small planter out and then erect a relatively low sign out of the planter, one that would be only about 750 of the normal!!I - 3 - sign size allowed and light that from within the planter, rather than go to the permitted sign which would have to be set back next to the building and I think that if you have the sketch that show the sign and the highway and the building it would give you an iidea of where it would be located. The sign that we propose is rather a simple type of sign - it would be on a rough sawn cedar siding and would be lit from down below. Does anybody have any i questions? ACTION CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Have you been before the Board of Public '' Works already? MR. MCPHERSON: Yes we received unanimous support from that group.; And Thys VanCort spoke and was pretty much in favor of what we i were trying to do rather than really enforce that we do the legal j I jj required sign. The legal sign that we could do would be a relative- ly tall sign that would be set back next to the building - that shows on the drawing . It is not really in keeping with the area and what we have tried to do and we are at the end of the street - we are right at the T in front of the city golf course so there isl no other property owner or anything behind us or to the north of ii us, other than the city golf course . i` ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: The location is as the railroad ties i! have already been laid out that 's basically where you are thinking of? I MR. MCPHERSON: Yes. If you have looked at the area, there is a group of railroad ties set there that are just sitting on the ground that is basically the location that we would like to erect the sign out of. Those would be permanently or more permanently i• attached to the ground and then the sign would come up out of there on three rather small pilings and it would be a wooden sign I erected from that area of the planter. MS. BROWNELL: One of the things that you don' t show on your design. is where exactly - and well not where, you show gravel parking Iarea but how are the cars going to be parked in this area? Is there iia danger of them backing into this sign? ' MR. MCPHERSON: No not really, particularly, I think with the loca+ lition of the sign where it is , most of the parking would take place ' i i - 4 - to the west of the sign. If you want to see - I ' ll show you . . . MS. BROWNELL: Okay - this sketch that we have here - if you could just indicate on there where it - would you be parking nose in toward the bottom of the page? .i MR. MCPHERSON: most of the parking would be in this area here. . . ' MS . BROWNELL : NOse in? j MR. MCPHERSON: Right. Some of the parking would be in this area along here . . . i j MS . BROWNELL: Towards the building? MR. MCPHERSON: Towards the building . There is a planter and eve-ry- thing around the corner of the building right now. MS. BROWNELL: Yes , I saw that . MR. MCPHERSON: We obtained permission from the property owner to ', the south to mow part of his lot . It was pretty well overgrown j; and he gave us permission to clean up some of that area. But if that were let go , it would really block our visual access . ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Any questions from the Board? 0 MR. MCPHERSON: I have a sketch - I think that you received it - what the sign would look like and how it would be lit from under- neath. If this weren' t sort of an unusual situation with the way ; I the road and everything is there - this would be a normally accep- table sign, I 'm pretty sure, in most situation with in the city. i It is rather an unusual street and road setback and situation the#e because the city was putting a road in their own property and didn' t have to grant right-of-ways or anything, they just put the road there. i MS. BROWNELL; The reason that you wish to place this sign, for j instance, either it is 718" from the property line out into the right-of-way, okay? The reason for even not moving it over 7 ' 8" e would be that it is not visible because of the brush. in the lot? MR. MCPHERSON: Well , if somebody were to put a building within five feet of their property line and if or if they were to let thoir property grow wild, it would become far less visible the further back it is from the edge of the road. ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Any other questions from members of the 's i Board? (none) Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard in favor of the variance? Is there anyone else out there who wishes to speak against the variance? We ' ll here the next appeal . i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK OCTOBER 3, 1983 i ACTION OF THE BOARD APPEAL NO. 10-1-83: I The Board considered the appeal of Donald and Carolyn McPherson i for a sign variance to permit the erection of a freestanding sign ! between the street and the property line at 730 Willow Avenue. j The decision of the Board was as follows : i ii MS. BROWNELL: I move that the Board grant the sign variance �i requested in appeal number 10-1-83 . MS. BAGNARDI : I second the motion. i FINDINGS OF PACT: i 1) A precedent for signs in the right-of-way has been set for �i other businesses . j 2) It is an attractive sign and has been well thought out. 3) It will enhance the property. 4) The sign is also only 75% of the size allowed by the Ordinance;. VOTE: 4 Yes 0 No; 2 Absent i Granted i ii 'i { ,i f i j - 6 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK OCTOBER 3 , 1983 SECRETARY HOARD: The next appeal is appeal number 1522 : Appeal of Gordon C. and Laura W. Myer for an area variance under Section 30 . 25 , Columns 11 and 12 , (Minimum re- quirements for front and side yard setbacks) to permit the construction of l a small addition to the side of the single family house at 310 Ithaca Road. The property is located in an R-lb (residential) use district where the existing use is permitted; however the :. appellant must obtain a variance for the listed deficiencies before a building permit can be issued for the proposed addition. i MRS. MYER: My name is Laura Myer, and I am one of the owners at I 310 Ithaca Road. My husband is off coaching the girls tennis team this evening, and we are requesting a variance so that we card ii add a 9 x 112' bathroom on the main floor of the east side of our house. Our house at present does not have a bathroom facility] .i on the main floor. It is a two-story house and my husband had a i• severe ankle injury - he broke it this summer - and we realized i how important it was to have a bathroom on the main facility so for this reason and the fact that as he says - we are not getting any younger - to climb the fourteen stairs either up or 'E down to use the bathroom facility we 'd like to have a variance . ' Now according to the zoning code , at present our property lacks i the adequate yardage in the front and on the east side of the i building. However, the way our house is located, the proposed addition would just come back 112 feet off what we call our music ; E room so we are not adding anything to the east side as far as coming any closer to the neighbors on the east side , We immedi- ately checked with Art Cicch.etti and his wife and, of course , they have no objection. whatsoever or misgivings about our making this t addition. We also wrote to all the neighbors within the adequate 200 feet and received very positive feed back. That basically is our request to the Zoning Board. ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN; Any questions from members of the Board? Could you address just a little bit - say something about the i - 7 - interior arrangement of the rooms - you mentioned there is a music i room immediately in front . . . MRS. MYERS: Right . . . that sort of . . . ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: But the rest of the plan isn't really indicated by the outline . . . MRS. MYERS: Right - okay - so here is the house as it stands 'I ii and this little addition here is what we call our music room - i what we plan to do is just - and this is an added back porch that ?i we use sort of as a family room, weather permitting - we have a wood stove out there , so forth and so on, and so what this little ! addition — will just come off the music room here and so you can see - it just doesn' t change the outline of the house at all . Cicchetti ' s - neighbors are over here. With the entrance either coming off - well the music room probably would be changed - we can either have the entrance through the music room here - which will not be considered the music room at that time or more than I likely a little entrance right off the lobby what we call the back porch here - our sun porch. MS. BROWNELL ; What is this room here? The wall that is right next to -- what part of the house is this wall that is right next to the bathroom? MRS. MYERS; That is our living room. We would not have the door ' into our living room it would either come around this way or right off here MRS. BAGNARDI ; And where is the kitchen? MRS. MYERS: Oh, the kitchen is way on this side . The kitchen is right over here in this area, So, here is the kitchen, this area 'i here , this little part here is our living room. This is that little music room type of thing - just a combination study a catchall . . . and this will come right off the back here ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN; Is there anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this appeal? Is there anyone else who would like to speak in opposition? SECRETARY HOARD: We have a letter from Charlotte and Edgar Gastei,ger of 304 Ithaca Road., "We the undersigned have no objec- tion to the proposed addition of a bathroom to the residence of i; - 8 - ! Gordon and Laura Myer of 310 Ithaca Road. In our opinion this , addition in no way will adversely affect the area in which we live ' , while still affording the owners a much needed facility in their home. " Signed: Charlotte and Edgar Gasteiger I ii BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK OCTOBER 3 , 1983 ACTION OF THE BOARD 11APFEAL NO . 1522 : , The Board considered the appeal of Gordon C. & Laura W. Myer for an area variance to permit the construction of a small addition to , the side of the single family house at 310 Ithaca Road . for the pur Epose of adding a bathroom to the first floor of this property. The, ' decision of the Board was as follows : 'IMS. BAGNARDI : I move that the Board grant the area variance re- quested in appeal number 1522 . ii,MS. BROWNELL : I second the motion. ' FINDINGS OF FACT: j 1) The use would not affect the character of the neighborhood. 'I 2) The side and front yard deficiencies are deficiencies that i would be difficult to overcome . ! 3) The proposed addition does increase the value of the property. ', ;VOTE: 4 Yes; 0 No ; 2 Absent Granted i! I I lj li �i I i. I' i� I Ir 9 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS OCTOBER 3, 1983 i ;; SECRETARY HOARD: The next appeal is appeal number 1523: i Appeal of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services , Inc . for a use variance under Section 30 . 25 , Column 2 (permitted primary uses) , and Section 30 . 49 (extension or enlargement of non-conforming use) , to permit two additional bedrooms in the apartment scheme for 301 South Geneva Street (former Henry St . John School) , The appellant received a variance for the proposed conversion of the school to apartments, offices , and community use areas (Appeal #1491) ; however under Section 30. 49 the appellant must obtain a variance for the ! increase in this use, as the property is located in a P-1 (Public) use district , in which non-insti tutional housing is not a permitted use. e MR. BROUWER- My name is Steve Brouwer, Neighborhood Housing Ser- , vices . Our appeal for the St. John building really, I guess , it ,,comes because when we came before you before , our schematic plans ';had not been translated into final working drawings of the build- 'ling and we had merely based our apartment sizes on our first idea ";of what would be feasible given with window placements in the build! - ` ing, first and second floor, where we could put - where there were ;!;'available windows already in the facade of the building - how many !`rooms would be available for bedrooms and feasible living room :;layouts , etc. for the apartments and as we drew up our final plans we found that there was a viable way for adding a couple of bed- rooms - changing two , two-bedroom apartments into two , three-bed- ;;room apartments and - so thereby increasing the bedrooms by two in the overall scheme. I think - I am not meaning to presume what j ,,;this Board would „ now that I think if we had made submitted !,that plan to begin with, no one would have found much fault with w� it even if it is a very small increase in the use of the building, that there is 30 ,000 square feet of space in the building and we ;!are merely transferring space to a slightly different use within s�the apartments . This doesn' t affect the parking requirements nor , the lot size requirements which are ample for the building, The - i'I guess I also might point out that the apartments themselves - each o£ the apartments are quite large by Ithaca standards - in chang--' ng a two bedroom apartment of 1, 200 square feet, to a three f i !I - 10 ', bedroom apartment with 1 ,200 square feet, we are not cramping the i ' living quarters for anybody who might live in the building - we are still providing very ample space for living space, bedroom space, lots of storage space within each apartment and I guess we ,, feel that it will not change the character of the development of ;! the building - it will still be a positive influence on the neigh- ! borhood. We are looking for small families and some single in- dividuals to be able to live in the building. We see that the ; other uses - the use of the gym - is a community use (unintell . )' '' of space for non-profit in the gym will be exactly as we laid out '. '! in the beginning. So I believe we are well within the spirit of i ; what I ask for - of this change — that we are not bringing forth any sizeable change at all in our original intention for how the building would be used and how it would affect the neighborhood. ElI guess I ' ll leave it at that and I ' ll answer any questions if I lcan, 'MS . BAGNARDI : The prime preason you are changing the apartments from two to three bedrooms is because of schematic plans , am I lcorrect? That you didn' t utilize all the property - the space to ! adequately suit your needs , is that what happened? MR. BROUWER; Yes we had about 1,200 square feet of space was actual apartment living space in the original schematic plan that i ,. we drew and that is still the case 1 ,200 square feet . I think ! that in our schematic we neglected to - that we could have made , better use of existing windows in the building , be able to have ; two more bedrooms make these two apartments one bedroom larger „ ! each and in drawing the final plans we discovered that - we just 1felt that that is making the best use of this space in the build- ling given that they are still very spacious and roomy and well i ; lit apartments that we should go ahead and do that. '!MS. BAGNARDI ; And there is indeed a need for three bedroom apart- '! `ments? i ;:'MR. BROUWER; There is a very strong need for both- two and three '!bedroom apartments and we found that the three bedrooms particular ly have been hard to find for small families with two children - are '<< the bedrooms , by the way, the bedrooms /less than 120 square feet that we are adding so they are one person bedrooms and not two ;; person bedrooms . We are talking about two more people being able ! . to occupy space in the building. 'IMS . BROWNELL: I ' d like to ask you a question about this . Do you have a copy of this? �'MR. BROUWER: Yes. AS . BROWNELL: On the top , second floor it says - I don' t have the , amount of bedrooms filled in on the two bottom, left and bottom i , right . . . do you have it on yours? ! MR. BROUWER: I have them pencilled in on mine and I guess that . . . What should show three bedroom. . . MS. BROWNELL: So three bedroom on the left and a three-bedroom on i the right? 1MR. BROUWER; That i.s right, AS. BROWNELL; So all 1 , 200 square feet apartments are three bedroom? MR. BROUWER: That is right. i MS. BROWNELL: Okay. And you had these - which- are the two that we' !; are talking about? `iMR. BROUWER; Those two corner apartments on the second floor, which IIwere formerly two bedroom apartments . !MS. BROWNELL ; You had 1 ,200 square feet for two bedroom apartments !- is that the way the schematic showed? MR. BROUWER; It would I think just about 1 ,200 square feet, yes i� because it is the same overall square feet on the floor , I don't !;have the old one with me. MS. BROWNELL: I was just curious because all the other three bed- rooms are 1 , 200 square feet although (unintelligible) IAR. BROUWER: Well it actually - the difference lay somewhere in 'the middle of those two outside apartments. Therets windows over tithe front door which we didntt realize they are smaller but : th-ey are not the gigantic windows of the classroom windows but they', ,are very ample for bedroom windows, By changing the two apartments':. lin the middle slightly we were able to gain. . . i 12 - MS. BROWNELL: More room on the end . :!MR. BROUWER: More room on the outside . . . '.ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: I 'm glad you were able to clarify that . " In fact, I had the same rather specific question when you sat here jland (unintelligible) present before - exactly where the problem was - I think that helped a considerable amount . We don't seem to ,;have had, at that point kept copies of those plans . We should 1probably do so in the future. Any other questions of the Board? Okay. MR. BROUWER: Was there a question from the audience? ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Well we will take that in time . Is there i !':anyone else who would like to be heard in favor - or ask questions j - are you in favor? jMS . BAKER: (unintelligible) ask several questions . ;,ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Come forward if you will and identify lyourself. AS. BAKER; Sure. I 'm Beverly Baker, I live at 320 S. Geneva St. ';directly across from the school . Several questions . The one thing J should mention right before we go into what I was going to ask ; you - are you changing th.e windows in any way, you are leaving out- side existing windows as they are in other words, you are not A aki.ng out or cha nging the windows as they are? MR. BROUWER: We are not adding any new windows to the building. !!,We are - actually we still have a design problem with trying to Ikeep the existing old steel windows that are in the building - so we are still considering whether we can make a storm window system i ,work with those windows or whether we will have to use a kind of ;!replacement window for the existing windows. 'IMS. BAKER: Okay. See the concern was when they did meet with the , neighborhood, one of the prime concerns of all in the neighborhood !is the density of useage of the building. And, in particular the numbers of children and if you can guarantee us that there is only lone person per bedroom - that is no problem but there is no guaran- i tee I am sure what you are dealing with is three bedroom apart- ments - you are dealing with four children, two adults - you may be 13 - ' dealing with seven and eight people in three bedrooms - that ' s iwhat you are going to get in that building - that' s what we , as a ! neighborhood are concerned about . We 've been very proud of the " school being there - the school has been no problem for us - for ' the fifty years I 've lived there but now we are changing the use of ' the building and the density of use of that building and the fact ; that our schedule for the neighborhood is reversed - you see the us „ school children are there through the day now all o£/in the neigh- ' borhood work- there is only two children in the whole block - they ,' just moved there so now what we are getting is children in the even- Jing for the people that come home and need quiet and what we are i ;; all concerned about and I , primarily because my windows face direc-I lltly on you know how many children are we going to get? There ( is no guarantee that you are going to have one child - you will ! have one child per bedroom. The three bed - and I think in that ',; public hearing you remember - that that was a major concern - they + ,,,were upset about the three bedroom apartments - not about the one ;bedroom apartments or the studios or even about the two - it was 41threebedroom apartments that were thelungup for the neighborhood nand now you are increasing that, which is a real bummer . 'lMR. BROUWER: Well if I can answer that quickly. We are talking 4j '!about small families in terms of the demand - we have lots of names' ,,on file of people looking for apartments who would like to find (something in the neighborhood and they are predominately three and '; four person families either with a single parent with two children. , , two parents and two children; one parent and three children - that ;(sort of make up. The other thing is , there are restrictions on ;how many people can use a bedroom. The building code requires that ; ja room be 120 square feet or larger for two people to use that bed- ' ;groom and that is why I was saying - these two added bedrooms are i jsmall rooms - less than 120 square feet - they would be one person bedrooms . The Building Department makes inspections to see and 4oes make reports on how many people are occupying the apartments . ;, 'hey are occupying too little space then we or anyone would be Forced to . . . - 14 - MS. BAKER: Can we really enforce that though? And there are a lot; i . of things in this world that are not enforced. Are you really go ging to be very careful when you rent that they should exceed the numbers of people allowed, they have to move out or will the build-': 'ging inspector when he comes to see that there is more than one '; person living in that bedroom, honest to God, make you get them out ; and put somebody else in there - will this really happen - this is ;, what we are asking and this is wonderful if you say only five peoplje jean be in this (unintelligible) that is terrific and that is ! wonderful - I don' t think we are going to object to that but that 's ;; what I am concerned about and I know the other neighbors are , as well . f EACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Fine MS. COOKINGHAM: Mr. Brouwer, it is my understanding that you are !' going to have a tenant selection committee. . . ! MR. BROUWER: That is right, ! MS. COOKINGHAM: Would you initially you would know that it is iokay, right? MR. BROUWER; That is right. MS. CQOKINGHAM: If the family increases where the problem comes UO . ' Would you - initiallyyouwould know that it is okay, right? ;SMR. BROUWER: That is right. If they increased in size (unintell. � then there might be a problem to have to ask somebody to leave or move on or something like that . ii MS. BAKER: Do you really have the right to do that? ! MR. BROUWER, Well we have the right to do that and we also can be ! forced to do that . . . '! M.S. BROWNELL Doesn' t your lease say something about it? ! MR. BROUWER: The lease generally says how many people there is a maximum number of people that occupy the apartment and, in fact usually where it says who is going to occupy the apartment, Mr. '; and Mrs . Smith and two children, so I don' t think. th.at will be too ! ' hard to do We are sensitive to the idea ,'IMS . BAKER: Then come over and clean up the lawn and mow it and clip the hedges because we have called all summer and nobody has I '; done a thing. You have already become terrifically undesirable neighbors - really. And we've called - my poor 82 year old mother . : keeps calling and you never do anything and in fifty years the lawn :, has always been mowed. Okay. Thank you. i MR. BROUWER: If I can answer that one. '! MS . BAKER: Come over and see the garbage that is on that lawn it ,, has not been picked up all summer - it has been mowed precisely i! ;; once and the guy did it with a hand mower and it looks like hell , pardon the phrase. . MR. BROUWER: Unfortunately we do not own the building yet . And sq i ' I have been trying to impress the . . . ! MS. BAKER: The City School stated that it your responsibility , to keep the school . .1MR. BROUWER: Well . . . . 'IMS. BAKER: We called the City School District and they are not jgoing to do - as they said - it is your responsibility to keep it cleaned and mowed and hedges trimmed. jNtR. BROUWER: T have tried to regulate (unintelligible) we have I : not closed yet and until then it will probably happen in about ' seven or eight days so . . . but we will try to deal . . . put pressure ' on them - on the school system to keep the lawn mowed and keep the `! trash off of it glass has been broken on the play ground and we !; did send a handyman over one day to pick up a lot of paper but ,: aside from that we have been trying to put pressure on the school district to mow and that sort of thing. I 've talked to Mrs . Arlene ;Baker about it on the phone, several times . The DeJohns , who live :!next to the school , have been concerned all summer about the play !i !;equipment. Teenagers hang out late at night - have drinking partie's land a lot of noise - police don't seem to be able to keep a lid on i' ,'that so we called on behalf of them, too. ;'ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Out of curiousity, how fast would you go to work on the building? ` MF;. BROUWER: We would go to work on the building immediately and ,the number one priority is to tear down the fairly dishelved rotting ,,huts at the back of the playground area which are the worst problem, ;i i 16 - (unintelligible) We' ll do that the first week that we own iit . MS. COOKINGHAM: What is holding up the transfer now Steve? MR. BROUWER: Well I don' t know where to lay the blame. The school `` lawyers are in Syracuse - I think. It has just been slow. It was : supposed to take place on the first of September and for some reason ' these things - you know. i ! ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Is there anyone else here who would like ! to speak in favor or ask questions? Is there anyone out there who , twould like to speak in opposition? BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK OCTOBER 3, 1983 ACTION OF THE BOARD APPEAL NO. 1,523: The Board considered the appeal of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Ser-j vices for a use variance to permit two additional bedrooms in the i apartment scheme for 301 South Geneva Street. The decision of the Board was as follows SMS. BROWNELL: I move that the Board grant the use variance requested in appeal number 1523 . MS. BAGNARDI : I second the motion. 'IFINDINGS OF FACT: ' 1) This increase is not going to impact the neighborhood adversely. '; 2) It will not change the outside visual structure of the building. 3) Three bedroom apartments area necessity and this will help solve the problem for families trying to find three bedroom apartments. ! VOTE: 4 Yes ; 0 No ; 2 Absent Granted i i - 17 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK OCTOBER 3, 1983 ' SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1524 : t Appeal of John H. Weiss for an area variance under ', j Section 30. 25 , Columns 11 and 12 (minimum require- ments for front and sideyard setbacks) and Section ; 30.49 (extension or enlargement of a nonconforming ', structure) to permit the addition of a deck to the single-family house at 605 Hudson Street. The property is located in an R-lb (residential) use district in which the existing use is permitted; however under Section 30. 49 the appellant must obtain an area variance for the existing deficien cies before a building permit can be issued for tha ii deck. MR. WEISS ; My name is John Weiss , owner of the property at 605 Hudson Street and I would just like to ask if you have the photo- graphs of the house as it is now. The Planning Board didn' t have ' t.hem and there were 5 x 8 photographs of the house so that you could ,; get some idea of what it would look like . There they are - good. :, SECRETARY HOARD: We don' t turn them over to the Planning Board be-a cause we don' t get them back.. ; N[R. WEISS: Okay. That we just to show what it would look like and ,: somewhat what it looks like now with the trees there and the fact that it is not visible here straight on from the street but be- the house at 603 is set back you could see it as you went up 1; the road. I guess I should deal with the easy part first and that ' '! is the front yard variance that Mx . Dieterich informed me that I should put in there and that doesn' t relate to our request but it ! is something that went on the letter to you, I gather. And that ' s i nothing much we can do about that - since the house is there and '! it has been there since 1908 so I guess that is what we are sup- i ,; posed to say that the house exists and is there as far as being close to the sidewalk on 605 Hudson Street. You should also, I ', guess - you have a copy of the letter that I sent around and then .; the sketch and a larger - sort of xerox sketch. - I 'm not a drafts- , man something that looks like this reduced which shows you the ; whole plan of the R not only our property but the adjacent property ,3 a.nd immediately adjacent property and then this one which is what : ;l 18 - ! we sent around to the neighbors and on the back it had also the design of the fence configuration. This is a deck to create an outdoor space for dining and relaxation and the same use that the ! house is used for on the northeast side of the house and it would be entered - that isn' t really - you can' t see from this diagram off the kitchen - that would be the back part is directly next to !; that deck at the back of the house is a kitchen and we would make ', a window into a door and then make the deck which would be elevated. !jt:o add or near the floor of the deck would be at or near the level , of the kitchen floor so that you would avoid falling down or fall- ling up or whatever - getting back and forth and we would have it 04 Ha.t that level and then we have a - the proposed fence is for ~' privacy and shelter from, the wind which is the north side and there Ej lis a xerox yes , you have a xerox of the fence style - although i ! the contractors are always full of suggestions and some of them ; say that they might have the upright posts for the fence set in i; there so you can see it _ on this diagram you can' t see any up- ,, rights and some of them suggest that (unintelligible) overlapping ii lboards , In any case that is certainly the general configuration of '� t.h-e wall and the lattice on top. Let' s see what else did I say in ' i ! h-ere, The area right now is not used for anything except for jorthysia and blackberry bushes to grow up in and we certainly , hope that it would enhance the value of the property to have the 'i ! deck there and the deficien cy that really brought us here was the ` ( side yard deficiency because we are too close to the property line ' lwhich is indicated on the drawing and there is a fence there now ! a.nd we would go no closer than our house already is - is already, Hof course, close to the property line and so that the deck would ,, parallel that to get the convenient space for the width of the '; deck, I guess that is all I have on that one . MS. BROWNELL : May I ask you why you need a fence if there is ;; already a fence what sort of a fence is it? , MR. WEISS : No, that is a chain link fence down below, That' s about is 4 ' high chain link fence along there and we would have what ' s '' pretty much like this drawing around it for the privacy and to keep t:he worst of the winds out of there . 19 - MS. BROWNELL: This is only a chain link fence along the driveway? r MR. WEISS: Yes . ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Would you comment just a moment about the :' construction of the deck, you say it is a deck but what kind - ; exactly - of subflooring or what kind of permanency is attached ; to the construction? MR. WEISS: Well we are happy to use pressure treated wood and i ! probably something like the tongue and groove so that it would be ( closed structure it would be a deck - at least there would be no ,; wide spaces for things to fall down below in the deck. So it would ' be a regular floor and I guess just pressure treated pine or what- ;lever the contractors say would work there R but it would be a deck ! floor that we could walk on and it would take that kind of weight las far as that goes but it is an open deck. MS. BROWNELL: No roof on top? �IMR. WEISS: It is the north side and you can see it would be a 11shaded area. In other words it is in the shade that ' s our problem ; .know - if we sit out in our yard we get blasted bythesun. I don' t' ; like to sit in the sun so that is certainly one thing - at least it J, that kind of situation - that is one reason for wanting the area. I '''MS. BAGNARDI : And access to the deck would be only from the kitchen and no stairs going IMR. WEISS : No there would be stairs - actually there should have (been stairs to the outside right over by the house that is not on Jany of the sketches . ;i SIMS. BROWNELL : No it isn' t. on any of the sketches. M. WEISS: There would be „MS. BAGNARDI : To the rear? MR. WEISS: Okay, there would be stairs to the rear down below - ; just to get access from the outside over to the deck and there ;!would be a railing along there. !MS. BROWNELL: Do you get in from the house at all? ;MR. WEISS: Yes . iMS. BROWNELL: Can you get onto the porch from the house is there: . going to be a door into the house? i if 20 - 'I MR. WEISS: Yes through the kitchen, there will be a window. . . MS. BROWNELL: Which way will that be this way or that way j (pointing to diagram) ? MR. WEISS: Let' s see , I should have marked it on here - yes it ; would go on - there is about where the window is , somebody else ; mentioned the fall - we had a fall in our family too - causing a i� dislocated shoulder so it will go from the kitchen outside, that' s ; ; right. !IMS. BROWNELL: Okay. i iMR. WEISS: I realize the usefulness of a what is it - when do you ;; get mechancal drawing - 8th grade? 9th grade? Boy, I was a wipe ,; out doing this - I was hours doing this . Pretty bad. ;ACTING CHAIRMAN TpMLAN: Any other questions from the Board? MS. BROWNELL: Did you check with your next door neighbor to see if this was alright with him? i .MR. WEISS: He is here. One next door neighbor is here and the ,lother one , Leo Georgiou at 601 has given verbal approval and then you have a letter from one other neighbor , I think. You have a .;letter therefrom Pogson. I have a copy if you don' t . Planning ;Board had it - I guess that confirms your idea that dMS. BROWNELL: They don't give us anything back. i,JSECRETARY HOARD: I ' ll read this one into the record: It is from ;,'Gregory G. Pogson, 105 Crescent Place and it is addressed to the ';Board of Planning & Development . "Gentlemen: In reference to 4iappeal number 1524 made by John H. Weiss for an area regulation variance allowing construction of a deck on the north side of his ;,property at 605 Hudson Street, I have no objection whatsoever to ;the propsoed project . In fact I heartily endorse the idea and urge' th.e Board of Planning and Development to recommend and the Board of Zoning Appeals to grant the requested area variance . " 4 iMR. WEISS: The Planning Board was real happy that he understand !,that they recommend and you get the final word, , ACTING CHAIRMAN TOMLAN: Thank you Mr . Weiss Any more questions? Js there anyone else who would like to speak in favor of granting `this variance? Anyone opposed? 21 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK OCTOBER 3 , 1983 ACTION OF THE BOARD APPEAL NO. 1524 : !; The Board considered the appeal of John H. Weiss for an area vari- ' fiance to permit the addition of a deck to the single-family house i ;fiat 605 Hudson Street. The property is located in an R-lb use dis trict in which the existing use is permitted. The decision of the ! Board was as follows: MS. COOKINGHAM: I move that the Board grant the area variance re- ' quested in appeal number 1524 . MS. BROWNELL: I second the motion. ( FINDINGS OF FACT: 1) The variance will not affect the character of the neighborhood.! i' 2) It will enhance the value of the property. 3) The renovation will not exacerbate the present area deficiencies . 1VOTE; 4 Yes; 0 No; 2 Absent Granted. d' i !� I ;i i I i i I J I i i i 'i IF 1 !i i i l 1 i i '61I i I - 22 - I I , BARBARA RUANE, DO CERTIFY THAT I took the minutes of the Board ', of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, New York, in the matters of ! Appeals numbered 10-1-83, 1522 , 1523, and 1524 on October 3, 1983 ;din the Common Council Chambers , City of Ithaca, 108 East Green it jStreet, Ithaca, New York; that I have transcribed same, and the If foregoing is a true copy of the transcript of the minutes of the meeting and the action taken of the Board of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, New York on the above date, and the whole thereof to ` the best of my ability. i 'I Barbara C . Rue Recording Sec etary i B 'i ,I i SWORN TO BEFORE ME THIS i ,i day of G am; 1983 Notary Public JEAN j. HANKINSON NOTARY PUBLIC, STATS Or NEW YORK No x;33800 QUALIFIED IN Tf INS COUNTYB, MY -.S!t ' E .: .,L .3 L":RCH 30,19--7-- i i� iI! 1 i �I j i 'i i