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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1979-12-03 BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK DECEMBER 3, 1979 TABLE OF CONTENTS MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, ITHACA) NEW YORK - DECEMBER 3 , 1979 Page APPEAL NO. 11- 2- 79 Alpha Epsilon Pi 2 140 Thurston Avenue APPEAL NO. 11-2- 79 Executive Session 6 APPEAL NO. 12-1- 79 Bool' s Flower Shop 7 209 N. Aurora Street ,j APPEAL NO. 12-1-79 Executive Session 9 ;I i !! APPEAL NO. 12-2-79 Fanny Farmer' s Candy 10 109 E. State Street APPEAL NO. 12- 2-79 Executive Session 12 I ' jAPPEAL NO. 1287 Ellymaria Hartmanis 13 jl 108 Elston Place APPEAL NO. 1287 Executive Session 15 CERTIFICATION OF RECORDING SECRETARY 16 I II I i �I I I� �! BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK DECEMBER 3 1979 ;' CHAIRMAN WILCOX: I ' ll call to order the meeting of the Ithaca ( Board of Zoning Appeals . The Board of Zoning Appeals operates under the charter of the City of Ithaca, New York and under its I zoning ordinances. Members of the Board Present are : Professor Alfred Aman Mr. Morris Angell Ms . Natalie DeCombray Dr. Martin Greenberg Mr . William Wilcox Mr. Thomas Hoard, Secy to the Boar and Building Commissioner Mrs . Barbara Ruane , Recdy Secy ABSENT: Mr. Joseph Gainey, Jr. �' Although this Board does not operate under strict rules of evidenc , we do accept testimony as if we were operating the same . We ask i P �` P g Ithe people who are speaking in favor or against any application ito please keep your remarks brief and to the point. Normally , what we will do is hear the people that would like to speak in 'I �Ifavor of an application first and when that is finished we will Illisten to the people who would like to speak in opposition. The I ! Board will go into an executive session after we have heard the ' testimony in public and will arrive at decisions in executive session and then we do go back into public session when we are 1� done, So anyone who is interested in waiting around while we I Ideli,berate, you may do so. Normally we take maybe an hour and a half to do it, tonight might be a little longer because we have Isome other things. When you are going to speak on a case would i ! you please come forward to this microphone here, state your name and addressbecause we do have a recording device for the record. ,Are there any questions from anyone? r (none) We have just ( exactly a quorum tonight - four members, myself and three people I out here. So it will require affirmative vote from all four to pass anything. Now- we normally bring that up in case somebody thinks maybe the case is a little shaky and they would like to wait until the next meeting but it will require four votes to I - 2 - ,Ito either pass or reject - to pass an application. We are now I� beady for the first case. ( SECRETARY HOARD: The first case Mr. Chairman is appeal no. 11- 2- 79 : Appeal of three (3) fraternities ; namely, Phi Kappa Sigma located at 5 Ridgewood Road, Phi Delta Theta, located at 2 Ridgewood Road, and Alpha Epsilon Pi , located at 140 Thurston Avenue for a sign variance under Section 34. 5 of the Sign Ordinance to permit retention of the existing signs at the above listed locations . These properties are now located in an R-U (.residential) use district in which such signs are not permitted. CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Okay, is there someone here for this case? Woul you like to come forward please? DAVID HALPERN: My name is David Halpern and I am president of the I ( Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity at 140 Thurston Avenue. Before I say in regards to Alpha. House , I would like to note that the other two fraternities involved are no longer involved in this case - they were given an alternative variance under another category of the - i under some ordinance. They are no longer a part of the variance we are asking for, As for our variance, we believe that our sign, I1which is in excess of the minimum amount allowed in that area - is a necessity to our house we believe it is in keeping with the modern house that we have, The sign is - it' s not really distrac- ting to anybody, There have been no objections to the sign - I 've contacted our neighbors - most of them approve of the sign and in , addition there are a number of other fraternities involved indi- rectly which have signs as large as ours or some even larger whi h were not cited and if we are and they are not, we just don' t think it is fair and we just think that we should be allowed to have our sign, it' s a symbol of our fraternity it 's not hurting anybody ( else and it is definitely helping us . SECRETARY BOARD: Okay, I ' d better explain whatfs happened with the other two fraternities. In looking back over the Ordinance , this particular fraternity has a sign that' s 821-, square feet. In look- ing back over the Ordinance, my interpretation is that Section 34 . !')- 85, Signs or Bulletin Boards customarily incident to places of worship, libraries , museums , social clubs or societies which signs dor bulletin boards shall not exceed 25 square feet and shall be I� i 3 - located on the premises of such institutions are permitted so that - I' , with that interpretation the other two which had less than twenty- jjfive - had signs of less than twenty-five square feet would be per i jmitted under the Sign Ordinance but this one , since it is much ljlarger, would not. Now there is also a larger question here - the I� Planning Board has met twice or three times on this? MR. HALPERN: Twice. SECRETARY HOARD: Twice before and, after the first meeting they had promised the appellants that they would get an opinion from , the City Attorney as to whether all fraternities should be subject Ito th-e Sign Ordinance. The question here being that some frater- nities are Cornell owned or the buildings are Cornell owned and Cornell has got kind of an exemption from zoning as long as what they are doing is in keeping with the mission which is to educate people , Initially we were just concerning ourselves with the sign J� that were on fraternities that were not owned by the University, jiassuming that the signs that were on the premises of fraternities (that were owned by Cornell were exempt. That ' s the way it was f I , presented at the first Planning Board meeting. Since then there was a breakdown in communisations and the City Attorney did not get the word that they wanted an interpretation on this or an opinion from him so last week at the Planning Board meeting they heard the case again and discussed the case again and we did not , have an opinion from the City Attorney, So the Planning Board has t asked the Board of Zoning Appeals to hold over this case pending an opinion from the City Attorney, at which time - if this Board holds ,over its hearing then the Planning Board will have an opportunity Ito look at both the City Attorney' s opinion and reconsider or con- I sider the question of the signs that are being appealed. So that ' s kind of the way it stands . This Board is not bound to go with the recommendation of the Planning Board. If it wishes to, it can go ahead and either grant or deny a variance or take other action as I lit sees fit. �, HAIRMAN WILCOX: Okay, well we can continue to hear testimony I li think. '�R. HALPERN: If there are any questions please feel free to ask I I 4 - them. ( CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Okay, hold it for just a second. What are the exact dimensions of this sign? SECRETARY HOARD: This one was estimated by the sign inspector to have 822 square feet. It' s 516" wide . What it is , they are six large panes of glass well there is a glass door too in the front of the building, and the letters are painted on and they are a large decal or something in the upper three panes . This slide is , pretty small but it will give you an idea. CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Okay, thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this application? Is there anyone here who would like to speak in opposition? SECRETARY HOARD: There is a little disagreement on staff. Jon Meigs of the Planning Staff feels that all the fraternities should The limited to five square feet since that � s one limit in the resi- dential zone in which they are located. I disagree, I feel that they are social organizations and would be permitted to have up to twenty-fi.ve square feet. CHAIRMAN V LCOX: Okay, well they do have the problem of deliverie into the houses , What about for social functions , too , I suppose? MR. ANGELL: Well , Tom, is it within our jurisdiction to make a recommendation that it has to have a uniform size for all of them? SECRETARYHOARD; Well , that is not really the providence of this Board � th.W s the Planning Board to develop the guidelines for signs in the City and then Common Council to approve it . MR, ANGELL: Well in that case, I 'd make a resolution that we hold over until th-ey have made a guideline. CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Okay, we can do that in the executive meeting. you are not planning on staying around and waiting are you? (ques- tion addressed to Mr. Halpern) T presume you - study time . . . 'MR. HALPERN,* If you are going to make a final decision on this , today,, yes, we wall wait , I CHAIRMAN WiLCQX: Oh_, you would wait? Okay, we don' t want to cut !! into your studying time or anything. �IMR. HALPERN: We are willing to stay here until morning. i I 'i f II i I - S - �I ;; CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Well, we usually don't reach that determination 'i (juntil we get into the executive session so - I 'm not trying to 'i '' draw it out on you but we that ' s the way we operate. i MR. HALPERN: Are there any questions you would like to ask of us? CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Well , if you've got several things that you would like to mention, maybe that shows the particular value of '1the sign - in here it says deliveries and I see that as being a bonafide reason. Maybe if you have two or three other pertinent points of what a sign does besides the obvious . SECRETARY HOARD Could you come up to the microphone? CHAIRMAN WILCOX Yes , could you just state your name again Dave? MR. HALPERN: My name is David Halpern, The one other major thin about our sign is that due to our location on campus it is very ! difficult for prospective brothers of the house to find our house. I ! The sign, despite its size , is still not very accessible , except I� if you are coming up from further off campus . In other words , our sign is more or less important in prospective brothers finding our houae to take a look at us, If it were any smaller they might ver well pass us by. As I said, coarsing from campus , the sign is totally blocked off,. CHAIRMAN WTLCOX: Okay, anybody else have any questions by the Board? PROFESSOR Aman: You aren' t proposing that it be larger? MR, HALPERN: No. !CHAIRMAN WILCOX; Anybody else? C.no one} Okay, thanks . There is no other testimony? Any other discussion? We' ll go on to the next case, I� i �I i ( - 6 - ( j BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS j; CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK !; COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS 'I DECEMBER 33, 1979 i( EXECUTIVE SESSION i APPEAL NO. 11-2-79 i I' MS. DE COMBRAY: I move that the Board recognize the Planning Board' s recommendation that we defer action on this appeal so that the i Ordinance may be clarified. MR. ANGELL; I second the motion. VOTE: 5 Yes ; 0 No ; 1 Absent. ( Action deferred until 1/7/80 meeting. ( I i i 7 _ a BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK !i DECEMBER 3, 1979 SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 12-1-79 : Appeal of Bool ' s Flower Shop for a sign variance under Sections 34. 4B and 34 . 3 of the Sign Ordinance to permit the re- tention of the existing sign at 209 North Aurora Street, in a B-2b (business) use it district. The sign has been designated a historic sign by the Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Commission. CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Okay, is there someone here representing this appeal? i ! MR. LOUNSBURY: I am Royden Lounsbur y, I am the owner of Bool ' s Flower Shop, We have a neon sign reading "flowers" which extends lover the sidewalk in front of Bool ' s Flower shop at 209 N. Aurora Street and it does not conform to the provisions of the Sign Ordi- nance of the City of Ithaca. The City Sign Ordinance requires a special permit to be able to keep this sign in operation and it is my desire to do so, If the sign has been in use since 1937 and it has been adjudged historic by the Landmarks Commission and last we( k j� was given a favorable reaction from the Planning Board. I think ! it adds a significant amount of color and perhaps charm to our area of the business section and I think it needs it, I CHAIRMAN WILCOX: 1937 was a very good year. ! MR. LOUNSBURY: Oh-, I have two letters from my neighbors who I had Ito notify, CHAIRMAN WILCOX; If we could have those we will put those in the record, IMR, LOUNSBURY,; And I had - they were favorable and I had no adver e reaction, CHAIRMAN WILCOX: I ' ll read these into the record. ! "Royden H, Lounshury lBool ' s Flower Shop i !'Regarding your notice of the City hearings to consider a special i I sign permit, I am fully in support of your desire to retain the �Isign. Please feel free to use this note as evidence of my feeling . i i 8 - "With a little touch-up painting, the sign will look quite fine where it is ! " �iBest regards , /s/ Richard Mellen Licensed Real Estate Broker 1112 Parker Street lIthaca, New York" +I 1 "Mr. Royden H. Lounsbery Bool ' s Flower Shop I 209 N. Aurora Street Ithaca, New York IDear Mr. Lounsbery: "In reference to your letter of Nov. 14th addressed to me it should have been addressed to Estate of Elizabeth H. Charron. j "I have no objection to your neon sign reading "Flowers" which extends over the street. "We do not go out nights and would be unable to attend the Plannin j and Development meeting Nov. 27th at 7 : 30 PM or Board of Zoning IlAppeals Dec. 3 at 7 : 30 PM. II "You can take this letter to these meetings which expresses how I feel about the sign. " "Yours truly ,I /s/ George A. CHarron, Executor i1108 Parker Street �lIthaca, New York 14850" .i �ICHAIRMAN WILCOX Any other questions by the Board? Anything else lyou would like to say? Okay, thank you. Anyone else who would li e to speak in support of this application? (none) Is there anyone to speak in opposition? (none) Any other discussion? (none) I We' ll go to the next case please , i I I i `I +I i� i. is II i f� I - 9 - ji BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK i DECEMBER 3, 1979 I i EXECUTIVE SESSION APPEAL NO. 12-1-79 : MS. DE COMBRAY: I move that the Board grant the variance requested in appeal number 12-1-79. i PROFESSOR AMAN: I second the motion. FINDINGS OF FACT: 1) This sign has been designated a historic sign by the Landmarks Preservation Com- mission. 2) This sign has been in existence since 1937 . 3) This sign would not adversely affect the character of the commercial neighborhood VOTE: 4 Yes ; 0 No ; 1 Abstention; 1 Absent. Sign variance request granted. I 1 I - 10 - i� BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS (� COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK I DECEMBER 3, 1979 iSECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal no. 12-2-79 : Appeal of Fanny Farmer' s Candy for a sign variance under Sections 34. 5, 34. 6 , 34. 9 and 34 . 3 to permit reten- tion of the existing signs at 109 East State Street in a B-3 (business) use district. The signage has been granted historic designation by the Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Com- mission. CHAIRMAN WILCOX; Okay, is there someone here to present this case Colne forward please? i MR. SOVQCOO, L: I'm Roger B. Sovocool of 111 White Park Road and I 'm the owner .of the Colonial Building, Fanny Farmer called me an asked if I would appear on their behalf tonight since their repre- sentative couldn' t be here today. This sign has been on the Fanny Farmer store , I believe, for over forty C40) years . It' s in Carrara glass, it ' s: a facsimile of the Fanny Farmer logo sign - fit ' s fastened right to the building and constitutes part of the building, It' s black and white the white extends around the res of the building in Carrara glass and carries the theme of the Fanny, Farmer candy boxes , wrappers black and white , into the store . The I think the sign is attractive, I 've heard and Fanny Farmer i says that they have heard no objections to the sign. If the sign was to be removed it would probably we would have to really re- place the whole front of the store, at least the whole upper part ! of the store, It is a large sign, it ' s 84 square feet, I believe it ' s 10 x 8 and, as I say, the sign itself is built right in to the very front of the store building, In fact, probably if the store - due to accident , or otherwise if the sign was destroyed I'm sure that Fanny Farmer could never replace it because I under- stand this Carrara glass is very expensive and only Pittsburg Glass sells it now and I doubt if they could even duplicate the sign. They claim that on their stores today they don' t even try to duplicate this type of sign so I think the sign is unique and I think it is attractive. I 'd be glad to answer any questions . 1 - 11 - li jfCHAIRMAN WILCOX: Any questions from the Board? DR. MARTIN: Just curious about what kind of glass and how do you spell it? �fMR. SOVOCOOL: Yes , I believe - I 'm not sure of the spelling myself but I think its called carrara and its C-A-R-R-A-R-A glass - it' s put out now by Pittsburg Glass - it' s not a clear glass , it ' s like a milk glass and black it' s black all the way through the glass. I 'm not quite sure how it' s made. But it is very - you see it on a number of those stores - on the fronts and unless it breaks away it is almost impossible to replace it today. CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Anything else? Is there anyone else here who wo ld like to speak in favor of the application? (none) Anyone in opposition? (none) Any other discussion? (none) May we have f the next case? I i i i I e i i i 12 BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK DECEMBER 3 , 1979 EXECUTIVE SESSION APPEAL No. 12-2-79 Ms. DeCombray: I move that the Board grant the sign variance requested in appeal 12-2-79 . PROFESSOR AMAN: I second the motion. FINDINGS OF FACT; 1) Has been designated as a historic sign by the Landmarks Preservation Commissiom. 2) Sign has been in existence for forty (40) years , 3) This sign would not adversely affect the character of the commercial neigh- borhood. VOTE: 4 Yes ; 0 No; 1 Abstention; 1 Absent. Sign variance request granted. i I I - 13 - �j I� BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1 CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK DECEMBER 3, 1979 SECRETARY HOARD; The next case is appeal number 1287 : Appeal of Ellymaria Hartmanis for for an area variance under Section 30. 25 , Columns 7 , 11 , 13 and 14 to permit construction of a one-bedroom dwelling unit over an existing garage at 108 Elston Place. The property is located in an R-3a Cresidential) use district, has no frontage on a City street, and does not have the re- quired front yard depth. CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Is there someone here for this case? Will you come forward please? IMRS. HARTMANIS: I 'm Elly Hartmanis , owner of the property at 108 Elston Place. This is a free standing garage and we would like to add a studio apartment to it as was described by Mr. Wilcox. We � thinkthe location is unique because we overlook the gorge and it will be very pretty to be living there. There is a lot of land around it r we are not impinging on anybody because it ' s a sort of i a dead end a private dead end street. The square footage of the proposed building is to be about 600. The construction would be a rustic, sort of a studio type rustic interior. The outside would be built to go well with the present structure which I have reno- vated extensively - owned for four years . CHAIRMAN WILCOX; ThaV s the red building, that garage? MRS. HAR.TMANIS: Yes, �ICHAIRMAN WILCOX; You can see that from the street, I think - bare Y. IMRS. HARTMANIS: Right. You can see it during the winter more so than during the summer, I have had favorable comments from my neighbors. I have talked with- Mr. Scoones who would be most di- rectly involved because he is my only across the street neighbor I and he has voiced no objections to this . The other two people involved would be - possibly involved - would be Dr. Kingsley on the corner of State and Elston and Stu Stein who owns a boarding house or rooming house on the corner of State and Elston - both of these entrances are from State Street. I don' t know what to add a iI f 14 - this particular moment but - oh, yes , we have had a favorable l ruling from the Planning Board and I would be very happy if you j could also move favorably on it because I 'm looking forward with some excitement to building this if it were approved. II CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Okay, is there any correspondence? SECRETARY HOARD: No correspondence from neighbors , no . CHAIRMAN WILCOX: Any questions from the Board? Everybody has a diagram? No questions? Okay, thank you. MRS. HARTMANIS: Thank you. ICHAIRMAN WILCOX: Is there anyone else who would like to speak in I favor of the application? Is there anyone here in opposition to the application? Is there any other discussion about this? Alright, that' s the end of the public hearing, the Board will now go into ( executive session and, I repeat , we will go into public session again when we are finished. I ( I t L i - 15 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK i• i DECEMBER 3, 1979 i EXECUTIVE SESSION APPEAL NO. 1287 : CHAIRMAN WILCOX: I move that the Board grant the area variance requested in appeal number 1287 . DR. GREENBERG: I second the motion. FINDINGS OF FACT: 1) There is adequate off-street parking I available on the premises . i 2) The property is on a private street , se back substantially from the nearest II public street. 3) The addition of a small one-bedroom studio apartment should not have a significant effect on the neighborhood. 4) No complaints have been received from the neighbors . 5) This is a relatively isolated location. VOTE: 5 Yes ; 0 No; 1 Absent . Area variance granted. i i I 16 - ii !i �I II , BARBARA RUANE, DO CERTIFY that I took the minutes of the Board ,, of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca., in the matters of Appeals � ! numbered 11-2-79, 12-1-79 , 12- 2-79 and 1287 on December 3, 1979 at li 1iCity Hall , City of Ithaca, New York; that I have transcribed same , land the foregoing is a true copy of the transcript of the minutes of the meeting and the Executive Session of the Board of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca and the whole thereof to the best of my lability. U / Barbara C. Ru ne 1 Recording Secretary i)ii Sworn to before me this �I 1114 day o£ 1979 o ary —Puffilic JEAN J. HANKINSC ARY.PUBLIC, STATE OF 'IEa'f< PJo. �--iE.'�300 QUALIF"D ii4 T' :.:IN5 C01Y I ! I l Ii