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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1981-08-31 i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS 'i COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK i I� AUGUST 31 , 1981 TABLE OF CONTENTS IIAPPEAL NO. 1367 Beatrice N. Dennis 1 I; 1025 North Tioga Street APPEAL NO. 1367 Executive Session 17 i ;! APPEAL NO. 1379 HOMES HELD OVER 18 523 South Albany St. !i i APPEAL NO. 1382 Richard J. Genest 18 227-231 Linden Avenue (WVBR Bldg) �I ; APPEAL NO. 1382 Executive Session 23 APPEAL NO. 1384 Clayton Vickers. 24 j� 326 Center Street I' APPEAL NO. 1384 Executive Session 25 !! APPEAL NO. 1385 Hovanec Builders 26 202-204 East Falls St & rear of 210 , 214 , 218 , 220 222 j East Falls St, !; APPEAL NO. 1385 Executive Session 41 �I !! APPEAL NO. 1387 WSKG-TV-FM 42 815 South Aurora Street ! APPEAL NO. 1387 Executive Session 49 ij APPEAL NO. 1388 Betty F . Philip 50 l 611 Utica Street ` APPEAL NO. 1388 Executive Session 60 APPEAL N0. 1389 Marc & Virginia Albanese 61 i 428 South Geneva Street APPEAL NO. 1389 Executive Session 62 i. l j1APPEAL NO. 1390 Iry Lewis , Inc. 63 ;i 303 West Lincoln Street i! APPEAL NO. 1390 Executive Session 68 ,APPEAL NO. 1391 Ti,oga & Buffalo Building Corp. 69 200 East Buffalo Street APPEAL NO. 1391 Executive Session 76 ;;APPEAL NO. 1392 HOMES 77 311 West Buffalo Street i'� jJABLE OF CONTENTS - AUGUST 31 , 1981 continued ;,, APPEAL NO. 1392 HOMES Executive Session 80 1APPEAL NO. 1393 C. J. Anagnost 81 I' 108 College Avenue i; IIAPPEAL NO. 1393 Executive Session 87 i ' APPEAL NO. 1394 Franklin & Janet Henry 88 202 West Yates Street i ( APPEAL NO. 1394 Executive Session 90 i I APPEAL NO. 1395 Carol Lin 91 126 College Avenue APPEAL NO. 1395 Executive Session 99 c ! CERTIFICATION OF RECORDING SECRETARY 100 i �I l i I! I �I ; I I I ;i I I ! p i! I ! �I l ; �I , I.. I; I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS w` COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS i! CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31, 1981 i, CHAIRMAN AMAN: I 'd like to call to order the September Board of jZoning Appeals meeting . This is the Ithaca Board of Zoning �lAppeals , we operate under the Ithaca Zoning Ordinance and the Ithaca Sign Ordinance. This evening we have five of the six mem- 1bers of our Board present, we expect that the sixth member will probably be here as well . Present : Peter Walsh !, Morris Angell Peggy Haine Charles Weaver Fred Aman, Chairman Thomas Hoard, Secy to the Boar & Building Commissioner Barbara Ruane , Recording Secy I� I Absent : William Wilcox I ( For those of you who are not familiar with our procedures , this is 11 the way we will run the meeting. We will call the cases up in q lorder on the agenda that we have for this months cases . We will l, ask that the person who is seeking the variance or special permit or '! whatever it is that they are seeking, come forward first and tell us what it is that they want and the reasons why they feel they are i entitled to that particular variance. There may or may not be ilquestions for that person from the Board. When the Board is ( finished and when you have finished the presentation and when the (! Board is finished with its questions I' ll then ask whether there I j' is anyone in the audience who wishes to come forward and speak on ff! Il behalf of that variance request, in other words , in support of it . After I 've heard everyone who wants to speak in support of it , the ( I ' ll ask whether or not there is anyone who wishes to speak in op- position and we' ll take all the opposition all at once. We want I ito make sure that everyone has their full say and that you have an opportunity to tell us what you feel are important and relevant I� facts for our consideration. I do hope that you try to be as suc- cinct as possible we have a very long docket tonight _ I think 14 or 15 cases and as we hear the case if members in the opposi tion or for , hear things that they also believe in, you might avoid i ( repeating them or simply tell us that you are in accord with the i I i ,o ii '! views of so and so who has already spoken and if you have anything I' i; new to add, then add whatever new you have but we do hope you mak ,i your case succinctly so we can move the hearing along. After we have heard all of the cases , the Board will then deliberate in li executive session and decide those cases , depending on the hour. 11 Presumably we will be deciding them tonight. We then come back I! into session and announce those decisions for any of you who care i' to wait. It may be a long wait tonight but if you don't care to wait you can get the results - you will be notified by mail if you are a petitioner - or in any event you can get the results by call I ing Mr. Hoard' s office. We do not work under strict rules of !! evidence here but we do treat this as a quasi-judicial proceedings I� �I which is to say that we base our decisions on the evidence that Iwe hear and we take in. We establihs a record here - Mrs . Ruane his a tape recorder here she takes down a verbatim transcript in fact. Now, therefore , when you come forward, if you would come forward here to the podium and make your case here , we ' ll be sure to pick up everything that you have to say - we' ll get on tape. State you name and address to begin with and then tell us what it is that you want us to know. Sometimes in cases like these, you'll hear some- thing that you disagree with or you will want to make a correction and --invariably some one in the back row will pop up and say some- thing which I can barely hear but it won't get on the record so if �iyou do have something that you want to say - rather than get into a conversation between the chairman or the: Board and someone in th back rows or something - please come forward and state it here so Iwe can be sure that we have it all down in one place , okay? Alright so with that by way of background, Mr. Commissioner if you would call the first case . �I �I i� ii it i jl i' ii j'. I� BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31 , 1981 1 SECRETARY HOARD: The first case Mr . Chairman is appeal number 1367 : Appeal of Beatrice N. Dennis for an interpretatio of the B-4 use designation or a use variance under Section 30. 25 , Column 2 to permit the continued use of the property at 1025 North Tioga Street for j� offices for a contractor's business . The propert is located in an R-2b (residential) use district in which business offices are not permitted. An in- surance office was housed in the building under a use variance granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals , but when the contracting firm moved in, in place of the insurance office, the Building Commissioner ruled that the new use did not fall in the same category and issued a cease and desist order. MR. RIVERBY: My name is Lawrence Riverby, I 'm an attorney in Tru- I� mansburg, New York and I 'm appearing on behalf of Mrs . Dennis who is the owner of the property in question. This is the second time , I believe , that we have been to the Board on this issue , I think I the Board is quite familiar with the issue , I dare say. The last time we were here the matter was postponed and I think we 've been con- sidering this question now since June at least. So I don' t want ii to go at length too much but I do want to say in summary what this is about. This is a property that was ruled, in an order on April 122nd, to be used illegally becausesupposedly there was a contracts g !i office - a contracting shop located in the property and we have I contended that the shop is not a shop - that the property is being i used by builders as a professional office - that there is no con- tracting work, mechanical work being done on the premises and therefore it would qualify as a professional office. We did prese t testimony at the Planning Board to that effect and we do have people here who can testify again to that effect at the present time . I I do want to also reiterate , if the Board needs a reminder, which I doubt that it does, that this property has been commercial for I! the last one hundred years - that we have been before the Board on I j� this property five or six times in the last ten years that com- mercial use has been allowed all the way through - that residentia 1 use has been denied, so consequently any denial of the present use his almost contradictory to what is possible - or let ' s say, we are !� APPEAL NO. 1367 page 2 !! caught between a rock and a hard place on that one. I do have (i income statements which I would submit , if I can get my paper stea y !i here - to the Board on the current expenses . Now this statement indicates , with the office rented for 1980 , that the income per month is $688. 75 . The expenses are $507 . 00 which is a small profit but the repairs on the building during 1980 are listed as $4 ,200 . �Capproximately. If the property in question was made into three residential units rather than two , the office in other words , was converted into an apartment, the expense on that would be at least $10 , 000 . , as Mrs . Dennis informs me , and consequently there would i be a greater hardship in her proceeding in that direction, not to , mention again the fact that this has been denied because of density in the area. As I pointed out to the Planning Board in great deta 1 , the premises are used as a coordination place for a contracting business , in other words , the foremen meet there in the morning - �Ithis is an office, by the way with sixteen people on the payroll . Five foremen gather there in the morning and they get their a si n ments for the day and then leave. Then you have a couple of part ( time people there who do bookkeeping and accounting and telephonin during the day. And that is the extent of the traffic there is , no in and out commercial public use , When you had the insurance office you had people coming in to buy insurance - you don' t have Ithat here . Consequently the effect on the neighborhood is negli- Igible and as I say, it is entirely conceivable if you want or cer- tainly with precedent in the law books that this is a professional office since it is not a scene in which there is contracting going on. One further note, there was a petition presented at the time I' jlthat we were here at the Planning Board 7 two of the parties that signed that petition � well three if you include a husband and wif as two, have presented another statement indicating that they have no objection at this time to the construction office remaining there and that they misunderstood the petition when it was first ! given to them and that is why they signed it. These are statement signed by Mrs . Ethel Weidmyer and Donald and Mary Smith which I would also add into the record here. I think, as I say, without it APPEAL NO. 1367 page 3 !i i, repeating this statement - this situation which we are all quite i j familiar with - I would ask some of the people who are here to make statements in support of this matter . I would also want to i !� point out one final thing and that is that I understand I am not } a resident of the area but I am told now that the restaurant in j' the area is closed and on vacation and consequently the traffic in I j' the area is at a standstill . There is apparently very, very littl annoying traffic at the present time. I think that there is some i' vehemence in the neighborhood about what happens to this neighbor- hood and why people are there, creating noise , etc. but apparently ii it is not a matter for Mrs . Dennis ' s property that creates this an i a lot of the hostility or concern at least that has been expressed appears to be because of the restaurant that is in the area. As I i �1 say, this particular property has been commercial for a great deal I of time and now that the restaurant is closed perhaps people can I� see that it is not Mrs . Dennis 's property that is creating the prob- lem. ro - lem. We do have some people here perhaps we could start with Mr . j Hovanec who is the owner of the construction office which is pre- sently renting the facility. MR. HO'VANEC: I think Mr. Riverby covered most of the problems . I 'm Mike Hovanec, by the way, of Hovanec Builders and Developers Corp. I resent a little bit that we are not noted as being a professional office. We do have , as Mr. Riverby pointed out , a number of pro- fessional people on the premises and we recently have hired a full ii time architect - we have a full time estimator, a bookkeeper, an office manager, and some parttime help that works at the office. It seems to me, after really looking at the whole thing, as kind of like you can't pick on big brother, so pick on little brother. IiIt seems to me that the whole issue here is the City of Ithaca ,I trucks park in front of the restaurant and, as Mr. Riverby pointed out , there doesn' t seem to be that kind of traffic there at this j point because the restaurant is closed and I feel personally the f i decision on this matter is going to be based on that - that the I I jI Fall Creek Civic Association or whatever - will be fed a little I I ii I I ; APPEAL NO. 1367 page 4 ;; bait by cutting off Mrs. Dennis 's source of income , thereby maybe r �Igiving them enough to go on and not really attacking the situation I H which is the city trucks . We don' t feel that we have any problem with the neighbors - we like the neighbors there - we haven't had any problems whatsoever personally or we haven' t had any accidents i in the neighborhood - we haven' t had anything of that sort . In ( fact, trucks are always brought up as an issue - we have three trucks registered in our name and I think most families today it have at least two vehicles . In fact one of the persons that II happens to be living on that street has , I believe , a jeep or two jeeps , which is considered one of the most dangerous vehicles on the road. So as far as being a professional office we are I' li definitely professional and we don't feel we 've made any more traf ic. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Can you compare your operations with the operation of the preceeding occupant? MR. HOVANEC: Which was an insurance agency. ,I �I CHAIRMAN AMAN: Right - in other words., in terms of the number of people the premises , in terms of the number of cars or number P on j of people coming and going - can you make a comparison? Is there �I more or less or about the same? I� MR. HOV'ANEC : It is difficult for me to make a comparison with an 'I insurance agency, Mr. Banfield is here I thank he is going to mak ii a statement on this , maybe he can tell you how many vehicles or ho . many people walk into his office every day. The number of people I' who walk into our office every day is probably, including help, no li more than ten - so I would say ten vehicles in the morning, mainly. Through the day its hard to say exactly how many people - it depen s I, j1 on the day or the clients who come in. We are not a high walk-in i I j business by any means . Most of our clients , if they come in, they �I spend some time or we meet at their homes so probably on the aver- age of maybe one client every three days I would say as walk-in i, business . So compared to an insurance agency, 1 don't know what I� Mr. Todd did as a walk-in business, but I imagine he had people jcoming in every hour, I would assume . CHAIRMAN AMAN: My concern is if, in fact, it is a professional l f! i �i APPEAL NO . 1367 page 5 I i? office, is it a professional office which increases - which - the use of the area which upgrades it in a sense , in terms of the ii amount of activity that the professional office does or is it a I! 11 professional office whose useage is similar to the professional office that was in there before? That' s what I am trying to get at. i' MR. RIVERBY: You mean if there is more traffic now? I i! CHAIRMAN AMAN: More traffic, more people on the premises , more 'i activity, more commercial activity than the preceeding occupants �! generated. i MR. HOVANEC : I don' t know how we can compare this . I guess the oily way you can compare it is by walk-in trade and certainly we have i less walk-in trade than they do as far as comparing professional j� offices - I don't think we are in a lower category because we are a construction business by any means . i �ICHAIRMAN AMAN: No , I 'm not suggesting that at all - I 'm coming at it from an entirely different way I 'm . . . MR. HOVANEC: But as far as walk-in trade it certainly is not more and probably less . . . CHAIRMAN AMAN: As I recall one of the issues - in previous cases was what is the nature of the commercial activity that is going to !i � be in the building - how much traffic is it going to generate how many people are going to be going in and out? Those are our j concerns . MR. HOVANEC: I think certainly it would be less, I couldn' t imagine it being bigger - we would, as a business , would have to move to a larger location if it were going to be more. We wouldn' t be able to house it there or something. MR. WALSH: Mr. Hovanec , I think you mentioned you have an archi- tect and an estimator and a bookkeeper on the premises? MR. HOVANEC: Yes, MR, WALSH: Any others? MR. HOVANEC: We have an office manager who is full time. The , bookkeeper is part time , by the way. So as fax as two full time personnel on the property there is a full time estimator, which is i! �i i; �I li is I APPEAL NO. 1367 page 6 I in and out , not definitely there all the time , a full time archi- tect and a full time office manager . !I MR. WALSH: How many parking spaces do you have associated with ' 1 the premises? MR. HOVANEC: Basically it is street parking. We don't house any I vehicles over night though so it is during the day parking only. .I There are two spots that we can use during the day in the driveway - we haven't used them because tenants use them for parking at night so we don' t like to disturb them. MR. WALSH: You indicated I think, on your application, that there is a storage garage associated with this use . Where is that physi- cally, on the premises and what is in it? MR. HOVANEC: It' s south of the office and what we keep in it is mainly quick needed items maybe small tools such as that because we do have a large storage facility on Danby Road which we keep any major items -- we park our dump truck there , any kind of large equipment or - which we don' t have much of, but any kind of mater- ials and that kind of thing is stored there at Danby Road. MR. WALSH; Any flammables at all? jMR, HOVANEC; None whatsoever. MR. WALSH: Any materials as such in the nature of larger items such as wood, plyboard, things of that nature? MR. HOVANEC : Occasionally some things are dropped off there which are later transferred to the Danby Road site or transferred to another job but none that are stored thereon a continual basis . 'MR. WALSH: Would it be fair to say that you are not making it the storage area for your operation? MR. HOVANEC ; Oh, definitely, Tt !s way too small there is no way it could be - probably no more well maybe it' s slightly more equipment than the common home owner would have no lawn mowers , I nothing that takes gas we take that back - we do have a compress r I that takes gas r that occasionally is stored there but generally that 's at the Danby Road property also. Only on a temporary basis 'I is it stored there . MR. RIVERBY: Excuse me , there is also no electricity in the �j ,I l i:IAPPEAL N0. 1367 page 7 ii garage - at least there was none at the time . Are there any other 'I questions from Mr. Hovanec? Is Carol Husted here? She is a resi- 'Ident of the area. IMS . HUSTED: I am Carol Husted, 625 Utica Street on the corner of li �lUtica and Lincoln. I have lived in the area for eleven years - Ilia a newcomer by that much to Ithaca. I lived at 206 E . Lincoln Street for two years and now - from there I moved to my present site . I have been in the area long enough to see that that area between th restaurant and the appliance store has always been busy and I have watched the area since this has all come up about the builders having an office in there and have seen no relevantly big increase in traffic. The big increase is just the city trucks , etc. that are always parked there and they have always caused the traffic jams in the morning and create quite a stir in the morning. But the few .I stops that these fellows make - they are relatively short in time i Il and they create nothing more than just a quick stop. I have seen i Ino excessive traffic buildup from them. When the Insurance Company ywas in there - there were cars and people coming and going at all { times so I would say in relationship to the question you asked ( previously, I have seen that they have fewer stopping than the In- lsurance Company ever thought of, because I have seen the - when the hnsurance Company was in there, there were cars out there that the had to get photographs of, they might have two or three cars i i waiting to have photographs taken of for their Insurance claims , etc. Whereas they have not - the brothers dontt seem to have that much traffic , only, in the first couple of hours in the morning which i always a very busy traffic time in that area any way. MR. WALSH: Have you noticed the Hovanec use to have generated any objectionable noises or odors? MS. HUSTED: I, have more objection to the city trucks that park below my window with their trucks running and the exhaust films ii filling my house! No. i iMAR. WALSH: So your answer i5 no then? MS. HUSTED: No . Ii MR. ANGELL : How many employees did Mr. Todd have - do you recall? i l l !' APPEAL NO. 1367 page 8 I i! MS. HUSTED: Well the few times I was in the office I only saw Mr. Todd himself and a secretary. Whether he had any other employees I jI have no idea. Can I offer anything further - any more questions . CHAIRMAN AMAN: No questions , thank you very much Ms . Husted. I; �I MR. RIVERBY: We have another statement from Dr. Mary Arlin who is also a resident of the area and has observed, at length, I believe , the traffic situation. DR. ARLIN: I 'm Mary Arlin, 623 Utica Street. I '.ve been a resi- dent of the area for five years. I 'd like to substantiate the remarks which Carol Husted has just made in that the traffic and the congestion and the noise on Lincoln Street , Utica Street and I Tioga Street is generated by two businesses . The appliance store I land the restaurant. 90% of the noise is generated by the City of Ithaca trucks and the New York Telephone trucks who come to the restaurant in the morning, leave their motors running, put their two-way radios on full blast and seem to thrive on waking up the neighborhood. The traffic which is being - there is no traffic being generated by the current concern which is the Hovanec Builders . I use the Ithaca city buses , the city bus stop is right in front of the builders - I 've had many occasions to witness the traffic and the coming and going at that business . There is less traffic being generated with the builders than there ever was with the Insurance iCompany. On two occasions I have gone over on the corner and I' waited in the morning to see the frequency of traffic and the length of stops which were being made, On the occasions when I was there the longest stop was five minutes . The parking was on Tioga Street , it was in no way creating congestion in the neighborhood. The men were quiet and respectful.,, I see no problem with allowing them to continue to use that business . CHAIRMAN AMAN; Questions? Thank you Ms. Arlin. '! MR. RIVERBY: I 'd like to just make one final statement here . This order was based upon the distinction between a B-1-3 use and a B=4 or 5 use. The B-1-3 use is a business or professional offic . 'i ( Presumably that! s what the variance for an Insurance office was 'i ii ii II APPEAL N0. 1367 page 9 il allowed under before. And a distinction was made in the April 22 I! order saying that this was a B-4 sub-category 5 use, which is a i� I printing, heating, welding, air conditioning, plumbing, or similar shop. I think the Board should take cognizance of the fact that i this property is not being used in that manner, .that professional d office is not defined in the building code, as far as I have been i able to determine , that if this is not a professional office , it certainly would be a business office and that it certainly would not The a plumbing, printing or a similar type shop with that activity. ISo that Ithink that the distinction that was made did not really stake into account what is being done here but was made on the basi of the fact that Hovanec Builders is called Hovanec Builders and IIthat the possibility that there was a contracting business going ; lin there , when it first came in this past spring, was perhaps ( worrisome to some people and now that they have been there for several months and it has been clear that they have not cut wood or done other things of that order, in the area, I think we ought I Ito consider that they are not affecting the neighborhood adversely. Thank you. CHAIRMAN AMAN; Thank you. I take it everyone who wishes to suppo t Ithe request has spoken? Is there anyone here who wishes to speak in opposition to the variance request? SMR. GAINEY: My name is Joe Gainey and T live at 308 E. Lincoln Street and I 'm the fellow that drives the red jeep. I haven't had an accident with it yet so we ' ll clear that issue up. I 've lived in the Fall Creek neighborhood for thirty years and I 've watched Mrs . Denis and the different businesses that she 's had there - an , she ' s had a lot of businesses - she's had a dry cleaning agency, a I' grocerystore, an insurance company, a doctor's office, but never , construction business . If this is such a small construction business , i III 'm curious to find out why they are trying to expand already one f (block to the north into an area that is twice the size of the build- ling they are in now it also has a lot of lot area which could be ;used for storage, And as you will find out later there is a lot of it I l. '4 APPEAL N0. 1367 page 10 opposition to that also . Yes we have a problem with the diner an it we've attacked the problem with the diner with two different admin- istrations, Mr. Conley and Mr. Bordoni , and two different Building j' Superintendents that run the Board of Public Works and we've got little , if any where. The trucks do create a problem and the thin that we are looking for as a neighborhood is to retain the value o our homes also . Mrs. Dennis has made the statement that she needs the income to protect her property - I 've talked with certain real estate people and right now the value of our property may not have it gone down, but it hasn't gone up with the rest of the properties i 1 the neighborhood because of the problems that we have with the com it mercial businesses . The two ladies that spoke , at 623 Utica and i 625 Utica, have no view of the existing building. If you Board I members take a ride down by there come down Utica Street , there is no way that you can even see what is going on up there unless f you do , in fact , walk up the street so I state that they are not directly affected like the rest of the people that have signed this petition. We are in no way against Mr. Hovanec or his busi- ness , it 's just the idea that we, in 1977 , had the zoning laws i changed to protect the neighborhood, and we'd like to have the zoning laws continue to do that , About a year and one-half ago, i this same outfit - not the construction business 7 but the Insur- ance business was in here looking for a variance, and it was grant ,-d with the idea by this Board that it would have no undue affect on Ithe neighborhood. And now we are back in the same situation where we are having affect on the neighborhood because at the time we hail an Insurance Company across the street from me and a diner and the i allowed the Insurance Company to move down to the corner and now i another business has moved in so instead of two businesses we now ' have three businesses. And as you can see, if you ride by there, the traffic has increased. Mrs . Dennis has two apartments and a business and she has two off-street parking spots , which if I read lthe zoning laws correctly are taken care of by the tenants that I' leaves no off-street parking for the existing business. They do I� I, i• it i APPEAL N0. 1367 page 11 i ! meet in the morning and there is any wheres from five to eight ' vehicles . During the day there is little if any traffic that is i generated by this construction company other than the two brothers I I coming and going and anybody that does visit them for an opinion on a building. They do come back at night on occasion so it ' s not i Just a day time activity. Earlier we were comparing an Insurance Company to a Construction business . The Insurance Company was housed across the street from me for four years and at the most I+ they had three employees and before they moved it was cut down to two employees, his daughter who was a secretary who was there maybe five or six hours a day and the gentleman who owned the business who was there maybe eight hours a day. That ' s not quite a compari- son as what we are comparing to the Construction Company who has a II bookkeeper, an office manager, an architect and two owners who come �i and go. To that' s five people who are using the business on a !, regular basis throughout the day. Then you add in the five foremen that visit in the morning and sometimes stop back at night. To m there is no comparison at all there . The Insurance Company - I r I, never saw more than two clients at any one time visiting the Insu - it ance Company, maximum three. So again you have no comparison, 0 f- street parking in the area is a problem. We have a wash- 'n-shop who provides their own parking and they are pretty strict about IIthe cars that are allowed to stay in there. They don't allow the diners there so the diner people have to park on the street . The I diner has two spots which are taken up by himself and his employees . i ii There is another business across from us called Neferis Associate he has no off-street parking. We have a wash- 'n-shop down on ji the corner who also , again, has no off-street parking so you can see that with the number of businesses that are in the area there I �! is really no need or no space available for any ,more businesses t be able to take up parking spaces . We have had numerous accident 'j in that block which probably most of them can be attributed to the i diner but again every time you add another business down there that { little area expands and what used to be a half-way decent neigh- borhood seven or eight years ago - we 've gone from a laundry, E I! i li ii �i APPEAL NO. 1367 page 12 i l a wash- 'n-shop and a diner and an insurance company, now we 've got i' laundromat, Neferis Advertising Agency, a diner, now we 've got a I j construction company and also a wash- 'n-shop so you can see that ii business is expanding down there. Hopefully we could do something i !I so we could work something out. I know a lot of the neighbors and myself would like to see another resident put in the corner build- ing. I know it' s expensive, $10 , 000 . is a lot of money but I do think it could be done a little bit cheaper . MR. WEAVER: Question. Do I understand you to suggest by that las j; statement that you would be in .favor of a multiple residence being I; �) created there? I MR. GAINEY: Yes sir. ,rust have the people that are living there it coming home at night. ii CHAIRMAN AMAN: Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition to Ij the request? Yes sir. MR. BANFIELD: My name is Dave Banfield and I live at 312 E . Fall �I Street. I 'm here to speak in opposition. I would like to point I out - if you would refer to the zoning map - that the area in question is R-2b. As Mr. Gainey pointed out, we very strongly supported and feel that we were responsible at the time for getting p that area zoned R-2b or rezoned R-2b, The existing Insurance Of- fice was granted a variance under B-1 which, according to your book means business or professional office. The question that the ,i Building Commissioner raises , is the Contractor a permitted use? Contractor being permitted under B74 and not B-1 . I point out th t the concerns of the neighborhood are in fact that if granted a B- , I i B-4 permits the operation of a gas station, storage of motor vehi I cles, motor vehicle sales and servicerintin p g, eating, welding, air conditioning, plumbing or a similar shop . Or, and lastly, a iitransfer station for recycleable materials. What we are concerne about is if this i.s granted and the history of the building is wh t I� i goes in there next. There is no off-street parking available as I' Mr. Gainey pointed out , The garage that was referred to is full f storage materials. Tonight when I came home from work they were !i APPEAL NO. 1367 page 13 i i unloading lumber with two pick-up trucks in the driveway - insula �i ji tion into the garage. It 's history - every year we are back here - i every year the neighbors are protesting the use of that building for anything other than residential . Why are we back here? Ob- viously commercial occupancy in that area is not going to survive . There is the storage of supplies - the decline of real estate values , the increase to already existing on-street parking problems . It has been converted from a dwelling to a two-family dwelling with commercial occupancy, Under Section 30 , 58 , the Board has the power to grant a variance under the following reasons, To reach a de- cision or determination of practical difficulties or unnecessary hardship. A) special conditions or unique circumstances applying I i, to the land or buildings in the neighborhood which prevent such land or buildings from yielding a reasonable return if used for a i permitted purpose . The permitted purpose currently is R-2b. B) Reasonable use of the land or building and C) That granting such I variance will be in harmony of the general purposes and intent an i 1' will not be injurious to the neighborhood or detrimental to the �j public welfare. What is special or unique about this building? We , in the neighborhood, do not feel that there is anything special or unique about it, It is a, non-conforming use and it has been ,i there since April . We have fought long and hard. Three times the neighbors have come up here only to find out that the people apply- ing for the variance had asked to be postponed. Three times we came up here and we were inconvenienced and were never told that i had been postponed. Historically variances have been granted and in each case the occupant has left to move to a more commercial environment. The neighbors and not just the neighbors in the im- mediate vicinity have continuously fought every attempt to allow any use other than residential of this property. Cannot a reason- 11 able return be granted for residential or be gained by residential i occupancy? Certainly we in the City, should not be allowing commer- cial occupancy in an R,2b residential neighborhood are when we a � x developing and encouraging in other areas of the city, industrial �� development. Harmony with the general purpose of the neighborhoo i �j APPEAL N0. 1367 page 14 hardly. I did a survey in April 1981 and over 800 of the neigh- bors wanted the neighborhood to remain residential . Injurious? i �! What about the people who have lived there thirty--eight years and are afraid to come here tonight? We talked to two residents in the neighborhood who Mr. Gainey said were down the street and around the corner. The neighbors are afraid to come out here and ( speak. You can go to the neighbors, both sides , and ask them what l °1 they want to do and they will say yes , depending on who they are talking to . I think it is important to take into consideration the physical and monetary values of the people that live there. Detri - mental to the public welfare - look at the intersection and see h w impossible it is to see around the corners. There is a street light there- it is a major thoroughfare. There is a school in the neighborhood, there is a church in the neighborhood and there is i �i laundrGmat, a restaurant , an advertising agency and a washer and dryer retail sales store. The only bus stop in the north end of town is right in front of the building. Mr. Hovanec is a small contractor and he has visited the neighbors and has made every attempt to persuade them that he would not be a hindrance but he and his employees are there early in the morning and it further spreads the encroachment of the neighborhood parking. There is door slamming, loud conversation, all which are detrimental to th neighborhood peace. In addition, the parking problem continues in late afternoon and in the evening hours. Even the last tenant lthe Insurance office - the Insurance Agent - wasn't there twelve to fourteen hours a day. In the future, if we grant this variance , l we have established a B-4 . Do we next have to come up and fight against Giordano or McGuire Bennett we are concerned about the e things because we live in the neighborhood. We are concerned abo t the granting of the variance in the terms of a shop, Does the co - jstant whine of table saws, hammers and the sound of lumber being �I dropped - the repair and maintenance of equipment - do we have to it worry about that? Mr. Hovanec's operation is small but it is i Iigrowing, Three months ago when we came up here prepared there wa !i I iy ii i APPEAL N0. 1367 page 15 i'. no storage of equipment in the garage and now there is . What happens in the future? Can we stipulate conditions or do we wait ii !; until we have to come back here and complain about those conditi ns and then be postponed and put up with the use as it is for three 'i to four months before we can come in and speak our piece? The Zoning Board is to grant exceptions and variations but it is also to protect those of us who chose a once quiet neighborhood and wart it to remain just that a quiet neighborhood. T had some other �i questions that T 1 point out that this thing was brought up April 22nd and it has been postponed three times . It would appear that Mr. Hovanec' s operation is only in the morning, That is not true They are in and out all day long and they are there in the after- noon and in the evening. We are aware that the restaurant create the problem - we are aware that that is the majority of our problem but to add to that problem is what we want to prevent . When that restaurant was put in there I lived in the neighborhood i It was operated as an owner, ma and pa restaurant . The owner lived in half the house and ran a little lunch counter. Since then it has now gone in to a large full scale operation, the owner doesn't live in the neighborhood and besides that there is another variance the other side of it, creating another office space. We are con- cerned that what happens with Mr . Hovanec with this variance - j does he then takeover two-thirds of the house or does he take over the whole house later on, It happened in the restaurant and it could happen here n pp And the only way we in the neighborhood have to prevent it is to come and speak out at this time, The Insur= ance office that was spoken to, as Mr. Gainey pointed out, did have I I two people there . Mr. Hovanec has admitted to three full time people . Mr. Todd and his daughter, when they drove, they came I� together and if they, didn't , Mr. Todd walked. He speaks in term of a professional office? I don't know of any doctors or lawyers II or accountants or architects who have garages that they store their drafting boards in or the terms relatingthe ' to their business . They have filing cabinets but already he has expanded beyond y outside t e APPEAL NO. 1367 page 16 I Office . Are we trying to include a contractor under the definiti n i of professional such as a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant? We are very much aware of Mr. Hovanec' s operation we have watched it since April . If we felt , as subscribed by Mrs . Dennis ' s attor- ney, that this was something that we could live with we wouldn' t be here tonight we wouldn' t have been here last month or the pri r i j� month before that. The two people who spoke again to refer to the „ problem by the city vehicles and the telephone and they refer to j� the problem in the morning. Mr. Hovanec himself, through his �i attorney, admitted that was when they are there in the morning that is when his foremen come in and his foremen and Mr. Hovanec i� and his partners - so you see they are already compounding the f� problem. I live a block away from that and the cars are parked in front of my house. We are aware of the problems that are there but V; we don' t want it to spread. It is a residential neighborhood and we want to keep it that way. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you Mr. Banfield, Any questions? (none) Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? (no one) Hearing j nothing further we will call the next case. I' I i i I' I I( i i fI BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS j COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS �i CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31, 1981 i �! EXECUTIVE SESSION i' ,I APPEAL NO. 1367 The Board considered the appeal of Beatrice N. Dennis for an interpretation of the B-4 use designation or a use variance under Section 30 . 25, Column 2 , to permit the continued use of the property at 1025 North Tioga Street for offices for a contractor' s business . The property is located in an R-2b (residential) use district in which business offices are not permitted. An insurance office was housed in the building under a use variance granted by the Board I ` of Zoning Appeals , but when the contracting firm moved in, in place jof the Insurance Office, the Building Commissioner ruled that the new use did not fall in the same use category and issued a cease and desist order. MR. WALSH: I move that the use to which the premises are pre- sently devoted - con y v contractor" s offices only is i not a use inconsistent with that previously per- �i mitted by variance, i.e, , as an insurance office . To the extent the use sought to be made is only i i as an office, no variance is necessary. However to the extent that there is any storage of tools or materials on the premises , the use sought would be in the nature of a shop, hence prohibited by the Ordinance. CHAIRMAN AMAN: I second the motion. VOTE: 5 Yes ; 0 No ; 1 Absent Granted I if I f i� ii - 18 - i SECRETARY HOARD: The next appeal is appeal number 1379 : I Appeal of Housing Opportunities Management $ Essential Services (H.O.M.E. S. ) for an ! area variance under Section 30 . 26 to permit jI the occupancy of the property at 523 South Albany Street by a Group Care Residence for Ii ten residents . The property is located in j an R-2b use district in which a group care residence is permitted under special condi- tions specified by the Zoning Ordinance. The property is deficient in the minimum off-street parking, and is also deficient in minimum side yard setbacks and minimum lot size required to �i meet the special conditions for the proposed i variance. This appeal was heard by the Board j� on July 6, 1981 , when variances were granted j for off-street parking and minimum side yard requirements , but the requested variance for the minimum lot size was denied, in effect limiting occupancy to seven residents , rather than the ten residents proposed. The appel- lant has resubmitted the appeal to request j clarification of the Board' s decision. I' This one has been held over at the request of the appellants . So the next appeal then is appeal number 1382 : I' Appeal of Richard J. Genest for a special per- mit under Section 30 , 26 to permit the use of a portion of the property at 227231 Linden �j Avenue (WVBR Building) for a neighborhood health store. The property is located in an R-3b use district in which a neighborhood com- mercial facility may be permitted under a spe- cial permit from the Board of Zoning Appeals . i MR. GENEST; My name is Richard Genest and I live at 117 Hudson �j Street. I 'd like to open a little grocery store on Linden Avenue I! in the building where WVBR is , It' s zoned for I read the zonin code and it specifically stated that it is a small business such i i I as small neighborhood groceries would be allowed, I guess , with I' it a special permit . I ' d like to sell a combination of health food i! items and some gourmet items such as coffee beans . I think that I almost all the traffic would be foot traffic so it wouldn't in- crease the automobile traffic on that street. The first floor of that building has been lying vacant for several years and it i �I a commercial building . �I CHAIRMAN AMAN; Mr. Genest , have you taken steps pursuant to the (i code to notify the residents to obtain their agreement or dis i! j agreement or whatever, with this special permit procedures re- quire. . . I i MR. GENEST: Right - we looked up the neighboring property owners i, !I II - 19 - i I; I sent them two letters as a matter of fact because last month I ii itcouldn't be here so I had to send them another letter, Tom told Ij me to . And I got responses from only seven out of the thirty !' people I mailed to and five were in favor and two were against ,I itand I have these responses here. The two negative ones didn' t I I really give any reasons , they just sort of stated the negative j feeling. I was one of the people that started the Apple Blossom Cafe on Stewart Avenue and we had to come to this Board to do that i " and - we sort of - that has been going for a year and one-half and successfully so. It is a different model of - you know - Collegetown is developing and there seems to be two different it kinds of business people there. There is the big corporate !' entrepreneurs who are basically out for money. Then there is the small business people that I think the city should encourage l { - who are -- you know want to make a living but want to provide service and who are interested in aesthetics and neighborhood i development, The Apple Blossom we have had a successful record i1 there - a year and a half of actually upgrading the neighborhood !' and providing sort of a eyes on the Chapter House and toning down i I� some of the loudness and some of the violence that the Chapter i House has done. But that 's the kind of perspective that I would I tend to want to bring to Linden Avenue also which is also sort of like a raucous student ghetto right now, So I would tend to want to make this a small grocery that was aesthetic and kind of inter j esting, We would also serve the people who work upstairs T ,I guess there is around twenty employees at WVBR and they would be happy to be able to get coffee and maybe sandwiches downstairs . i The place that they want to rent to us is very small it is only 20 x 22 feet which is really not much more than almost a stand i or a kiosk but I feel that the rent is small enough that I could i make a living for and maybe a couple of fellow workers . CHAIRMAN AMAN: Is this the same building with the bicycle shop in it? MR, GENEST: I think the Bike Rack now rents that same space for i �i storage only, yes . And there is an office behind this space . . . i' 1 it - 20 - i CHAIRMAN AMAN: The space that you want? ii i MR. GENEST: The space that I want , yes . I guess that I am willing j� to pay more rent and they want to rent it to me . So I did notify the neighboring owners twice and they have had an opportunity - i I dont' know if there is anybody here today who wants to speak ii for or against. And I also brought some polaroid pictures of the building which is sort of shabby looking as is the neighborhood ii l and as I said I would paint it and spruce it up and it would have a nice attractive window which is now boarded up so I ' ll pass these around. And also there is a picture of the view from acros the street which shows what some of the student housing looks lik . I I was going to bring you some cookies from the Apple Blossom but I� I' I figured that might look a little too close to bribery. I 've been operating you know - I know Collegetown fairly well now after two years operating there and I know a lot of the students and its just working out very well . CHAIRMAN AMAN; What kind of hours are you anticipating? MR. GENEST: Probably early morning and late night so we would be beyond what the other businesses have . To me College Avenue is degrading - is continuing to be degraded by some of the businesses that are going in there . And not enough imagination not enough aesthetics - not enough. creativity. So I 'm sort of thinking in I terms of a little grocery store as a work of art , if I may say that. If you've read the recent Grapevine review on the Apple Blossom, it sort of goes along that line . There are people from over a hundred countries living in Collegetown r it ' s a very cosmopolitan neighborhood - so I 'm thinking in terms of things that are more interes.tin than the usual - you know keep the money I g Y P and run type of business , CHAIRMAN AMAN: It ' s not a 7 to 11 type business? MR. GENEST: Not quite . CHAIRMAN AMAN; Any questions from the Board? Thank you Mr. Genest. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak on behalf of the requeste variance? (no one) Is there anyone here who opposes it? I MR. STILES: My name is Lawrence Stiles, my wife and I live at 119 Linden Avenue . Linden Avenue is approximately a block long and we i I� l I - 21 - l didn' t receive any notification of the change . It' s an area II that is very mixed. When we moved into it two and one-half years i ago we realized that there were a lot of students living there an a lot of rental property and that they were also groups of famili s living there in single property homes and that we 've been here to lthe Board because we feel that that makes an important mix for that community. We want to stay in the community and want to maintain the quality there. I 'm not sure that despite its appear ,E ance that it can really be qualified as a raucous ghetto . On our corner of the street we think we have some attractive properties . I� That it is important - we feel - especially - to follow the zoning j - we believe in it and when we bought a house there we felt that it there was a type of guarantee that the zoning would be followed. We feel particularly that a restaurant that is going to get night I� traffic is going to increase an already congested area - that I people will be coming and spreading over from College Avenue and possibly staying around in the area where it ' s very quiet now - G relatively at night. Approximately 11 : 30 it quiets down. We maybe hear noise drifting over from College Avenue but we still have a lot of silver maples that baffle and that it 's really a very live- I able area and we feel if that street has a lot of people loitering is color word but around a late night restaurant it 's going to ibegin breaking down this very tentative area that is trying to I stabilize itself. I would hope that zoning would be followed. MR. WALSH: Mr. Stiles, can you tell us has the storage facility that was put in by this. Board in the VBR facility has it created any traffic or difficulties for the neighborhood? MR. STILES : I haven't noticed that. i MR. WALSH: Thank you. I� CHAIRMAN AMAN: Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? I MS. MONDY: I am Nell Mondy from 130 College Avenue. I bought my ii home in 1953 with the understanding that I could live in a resi- dential section of the city. Things have changed in my neighbor f hood, I therefore would like to emphasize some of the points made by the last speaker, Thank you. !( CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you. Anyone else wishing to. speak in I, f; 22 - �i ii opposition? I think we have a letter that should be read into the ji record. It !; SECRETARY HOARD: This letter is addressed to Zoning Board of Ap- peals. It ' s from Ben B. Boynton. "Peace to you: A Mr. Genert (?) sent a note about his wish to open a grain store and distribute farm produce from the space in the WVBR building, 227 Linden Ave. Parking on Linden Avenue is a major problem with double parking making the road impossible to use. The use of the WVBR building I for food and grain distribution would increase this problem great i ly. The problem of truck parking for deliveries would also slow or block the flow of traffic. When the building was purchased many years ago the problems of zoning were clear. The present �j owners should have had full knowledge of the zoning problems they I faced. Until the entire area is made into commercial use I do not favor giving small changes of to any property. If a variance is given for this property I would also ask for the same changes i other properties throughout the City of Ithaca which could also be used for "light commercial user'. Sincerely, /s/ Ben V. Boynton, Sr. " CHAIRMAN AMAN: Hearing nothing further we will call the next I case. I I� i I i I 1 i i i I ! i� 'i IE - 23 - i j BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS j COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS j CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31, 1981 EXECUTIVE SESSION APPEAL NO. 1382 I` i The Board considered the request for a special permit to permit the use of a portion of the property at 227-231 Linden Avenue s' I (WVBR building) for a neighborhood health store . The decision j df the Board was as follows : CHAIRMAN AMAN: I move that the Board deny the special permit a li request in appeal number 1382 . r MR. WEAVER: I second the motion. l VOTE : 5 Yes ; 0 No; 1 Absent Denied ` FINDINGS OF FACT: 1) Requirements for a special permit were not met in that the i� majority of those contacted did not respond. i! 2) The proposed use would establish a retail business in a residential neighborhood the hours of which would be from !� early morning until late at night. This would adversely I� affect the character of the neighborhood. i; 3) Linden Avenue is a narrow street on which there is a great deal of vehicular, as well as foot, traffic. The addition of a �I ii retail business in this area would significantly add to this 'i already extremely congested area. .i i Li �I I u i 'I l ii I� I I �I ii it ii - 24 - i ii BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31, 1981 ii SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1384 : Appeal of Clayton Vickers for an area variance under Section 30 . 25 , Columns 7 and 13 to permit li the construction of a one-story addition to the rear of the house at 326 Center Street for a j dining room and bedroom. The property, which i !' located in an R-2b use district , is deficient II in minimum required lot width and in one side �i yard setback. i MR. VICKERS: I 'm Clayton Vickers, 326 Center Street, Ithaca, !I New York. I just want to build a bedorom, kitchen and bathroom ii downstairs - two rooms added to my apartment (unintell) home. li Just couldn't (unintelligible) have to go upstairs to another shower r. we would be all on one floor. CHAIRMAN AMAN; The additions that You propose do they, in any way infringe upon the side yard setback or the minimum width re- quirement or do they go toward the back? �! MR. VICKERS: They go straight toward the back. There is plenty j of room on the east side of the neighbors and they have no com- plaint at all . CHAIRMAN AMAN: Okay, so as far as the side yard set back is con- cerned., lot width will be the same when you are done, essentially, as it is: now? i MR, VICKERS: Right. MR, WALSH Mr. Vickers , the area that you propose to build this is precisely th.e same as the existing porch there? 'i MR, VICKERS : Yes, that' s right. I� MR. WALSH; So there will be no increase in the actual coverage? MR. 'PICKERS: No increase. �I CHAIRMAN AMAN; Any further questions? (none) Thank you Mr. Vickers . Anyone here wishing to speak on behalf of the variance request? (no one) Is th.ere anyone here who opposes it? ! SECRETARYHOARD: I have a letter here from Anita W. Reed, owner 'i of property at 320 Center Street, supporting this appeal , CHAIRMAN AMAN: Hearing nothing further then we 'll call the next I case. I i' ii - 25 - ii BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS i CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK ii AUGUST 31, 1981 �i EXECUTIVE SESSION '! APPEAL NO. 1384 : I `! The Board considered the appeal for an area variance to permit the! construction of a one--story addition to the rear of the house at I ,i ii 326 Center Street for a dining room and bedroom. The property, i I which is located in an R2b use district, is deficient in minimum required lot width and one side yard setback, The decision of the I� Board was as follows : ! MR. WEAVER: I move that the Board grant the area variance request in appeal 1384 . i I CHAIRMAN AMAN: I second the motion. 1 VOTE: 5 Yes ; 0 No ; 1 Absent Granted !! FINDINGS OF FACT: j 1) The proposed construction would not increase the lot coverage. I 2) There would not be a change in the use, 3) There would not be a change in the density of the area. �I 4) There was no opposition from the neighborhood. i e I I! I I I' t I I i i i i' i' 26 - j BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS j CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK .i AUGUST 31 , 1981 i SECRETARY HOARD: This is a new appeal , appeal number 1385 : i Appeal of Hovanec Builders for a use variance under Section 30 . 25 , Column 2 to permit use of the property at 202-204 East Falls Street and the parcel behind 210 , 214 , 218 , 220 and 222 East Falls Street , for a contractors of- fice, parking and equipment and materials j storage . The parcel at 202-204 East Falls Street is located in a B-2a use district in which a business office, but not a contractor ' s shop, is a permitted use ; the other parcel is located in an R-2b use district , in which com- mercial uses are not permitted. This appeal li was held over by the Planning and Development Board at its July 28 , 1981 meeting . i MR. HOVANEC: I 'm Mike Hovanec of Hovanec Builders , again. Basic- ally it has been said in the past, I guess , at the Planning Board meetings , we are requesting a B-4 variance to not expand our business , per se , but to consolidate our business . It' s a real hardship working having a shop out of town and a storage area i P g g p g i I which is five miles: away from the office area. We feel that it is a hardship case really because the bulk of our work is in the Cayuga Heights area, Cornell University and that direction and i having a retail business in Solar as well - it '-s a perfect location for us , Many other locations have been brought to our attention on the back streets in the industrial areas of Ithaca which we are planning to but that 's even a problem to locate because we i are not big enough to locate in those areas and we don' t feel that it is going to hinder the area at all , visually, but actually help the area. We have submitted a plan drawn by a designer that really shows that it would enhance the area - that would fit in i with the area around and, of course, when we presented that plan, I there was opposition that said that it looks too much like a park and we are going to have loiterers there. It could seem to ifle 1 that the attack. isn' t the fact that they don't- it would seem to �i me that they don't want anything there , let' s put it that way. W !i don' t feel that there i'a any argument whatsoever that it would have I an impact on traffic, that was pointed out at the last discussion I i i li i - 27 - Ij here dealing with our case or an impact on the visual aspects of it and we are even willing to deal with the neighbors if they don't something behind their houses on that lot, we are perfectly will- i! ing to negotiate so they can buy that lot back and we can locate i on one area - one small portion of it which is the gas station area. So we expect a lot of opposition to this but we are requesting a B-4 variance so that we can operate our business at this location. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Presently it ' s vacant? �} MR. HOVANEC: It has been vacant for a number of years as I under- stand and it is not going to be long before it ' s deteriorated to i the point that it is almost unfixable, i MS. HAINE: The parcel you are talking about as being vacant is there a structure on that or is it just land? MR. HOVANEC : There is actually two parcels that we are proposing 1 to buy one of them has an old gas station which is vacant pre- sently and has been for a number of years , The other parcel is �I located behind five other houses , I believe, and I think the neighbors are concerned that big buildings are going to be put up I} and that sort of thing . I would like to point out that the way that property is zoned a five story hotel could be put on that f without a zoning variance. And we have no intentions whatsoever I� to put a five story building on that property. But mainly a dis- guised attractive fenced,in area. In fact , we arenFt even plannin to use that particular area in back of the house . One other issue IIthat was brought up was that fact that there was a lot of other people interested in this property to make it old age housing but after really questioning, we found that there wasn't anybody else interested in this it was apparently a fabrication that there was no other developer interested in this property to make it old ! age housing and we talked to Paul Grinnell of the YMCA and YMCA owns the property - and they haven't had an other y offers such as ours for the property. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Do you know if there has been any interest in the property at all by someone who would use it in the manner in which it is presently zoned for? i l i. ii 28 - i) MR. HOVANEC: No - I know of one proposal which was a plumbing sho i that they couldn' t reach terms financially so they didn' t pursue i it any further. I don' t know of any further proposals they have had. ji CHAIRMAN AMAN: Our perspective on the Board when someone asks for I j a variance is to focus on the property itself and to ask - the i first basic question is whether or not that property would earn - it' s conceivable that it could earn a reasonable return if it were used in the manner which would be in accord with the zoning as it II presently exists because we don' t - this Board can't change the zoning in the area. We can grant a use variance if there is economic hardship on the property. MR. HOVANEC: Well I would - it is no secret what we are paying for I! it - $64 , 500 is the cost that we could negotiate with - the lowest cost. If somebody was going to put housing on that they would j have to pay that amount for that property, tear down the building , pull out the tanks that are there, invest probably at least $100 , 000 in the property before even starting to build and that doesn't include the P & C lot which I believe they are asking somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 ,000 for that which would also have to be ripped down before they would even have a site that would be suit- ! able for building on. So , to me it ' s caught between a rock and a I hard place - either it 's developed this way or it' s just going to rot and be a sore spot on the city and I think it ' s off the tax rolls the way the (unintelligible) . I MR. WEAVER: The sketch doesn' t indicate (unintelligible) the space between the rear lot and the existing dwellings through there - is about how much? How much distance between the lot line and the rear of those dwellings? !� MR. HOVANEC: I couldn't - you mean between the houses? I mean it I �I borders the lot lines of those houses but as far as the houses are concerned themselves , I don' t know the distance myself between the li houses and the property we propose buying. MR. WEAVER: I 'll try to get the information another way then. i y What is the distance between your proposed south lot line and the I street? l '! MR. HOVANEC: Okay. We have two parcels we are going to buy so I ii it - 29 - ii which parcel - the one behind the houses? MR. WEAVER: The one behind the houses . MR. HOVANEC: I couldn't tell you to be honest . There are two right-of-ways that go in between two houses , as you will note there . I would say probably 150 feet between the road and where- any ever/would begin. I didn' t present that map, I don' t know if that ' s an accurate map of the tax map or not. E MR. WALSH: Mr. Hovanec is this basically an alternative to the firs- appeal you presented this evening? I see one that is dated in May, ii I� the other is dated July. Both refer to business offices - one has i �I the possibility of sales space for solar rooms and things of that I) order, storage and like . Can you contrast - what is the relation between the two? jMR. HOVANEC: I guess they are coincidental really. We like that i area - we had opportunity to go into an office in that area and i I� we (unintelligible) that opportunity. We had the YMCA lot in mind probably up to a year ago. We didn't really approach the ` YMCA until April or May or so on that - proposing to buy it. I� MR. WALSH: Am I correct then that if you were granted both vari- ances you would in fact occupy both parcels of property? MR. HOVANEC : No we wouldn�t, We probably would occupy them both �I for a time. The purpose of buying the property is to consolidate our business, really. (� MR. WALSH: And you would consolidate on this East Fall Street property if you (unintelligible) it, Would this be a consolida- i ti,on of all your business operations? MR. HOVANEC: Yes it would I� MR. WALSH: So all your storage, all your fabricating, everything that was done not on site, would be done at this premises? I� MR. HOVANEC: It would, I might point out that we don't have much i of a fabricating facility, we don't do hardly any fabricating at �I our area on Danby Road, in fact , we lease most of that area out I� to a cabinet shop so most of that is storage we don't fabricate et materials , we usually sub-contxact out to a capable cabin/company so our aim is not to pursue a cabinet making business or fabrica- tion business in a shop because most everything is done on site, iIi �I I - 30 - any construction, or sub-contracted out. So any fabrication that would be done there is very minor - it would be on an occasional basis - maybe a table saw there to rip up materials for a certain i! job , it wouldn't be a production line fabrication situation. And we feel it would certainly be less noise than a gas station which occupied that previously. CHAIRMAN AMAN: What 's on the land that is zoned residential? f MR. HOVANEC: That 's a vacant lot at this point. And I might add too, that there recently was an interceptor ditch put in to help the Fall Creek area with their flooding so we are limited to what we can put on that property anyway and we understand that - in buying it - that we can't put up a large building up to build ove this interceptor ditch. We are aware of that and we don' t have i mind to put any large buildings on that piece of property. We do feel that we need the whole thing zoned B-4 though so that we have the option to do something with it , although we would have to come back anyway for anything that we are going to do since it �j is under a variance situation. So anything would have to be ap- proved by the Board that we did anyway, whether it was expansion 11 of the building or building a new building. MR. ANGELL: Maybe you could explain to me which on this thing (.pointing to the map) are all three of these parcels, is that it or just these two? (discussion between Mr. Angell and Mr. I) Hovanec which wasn't picked up by the tape recorder) i ii MR. HOVANEC: We had a site plan that we had that we had drawn up and apparently the Planning Board doesn't pass things along or . . SECRETARY HOARD: Apparently not we didn't get it. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any further questions from the Board? MR. ANGELL: Well , as I understand now, from what you just said i �I you want a variance , the variance to include permission to erect buildings at a future date, if you so desire , is that right? MR. HOVANEC: Yes we would. If it' s a variance we would have to III get approval anyway to make sure it is within reason or within i bounds . I! MR, ANGELL But at this time you are not on the variance that you i' i I! 31 are asking for now - you are or aren' t asking for (unintelligible) even though you have it here tonight? r i !' MR. HOVANEC: No, we are not asking for any buildings at this tim i (I MR. ANGELL: Then we can strike that out of this . . . 'i 11 CHAIRMAN AMAN: You are, in effect, asking us to rezone a small I area to B-4 so that within that B-4 area you could construct what i fever might be appropriate for a B-4 zone subject to our approval? MR. HOVANEC: For the price of the property, it would be nice to i have some kind of ability to do what we have to do to run our i business on a scale that we have to. Naturally we would have to follow the zoning laws - fall within zoning laws and regulations I but, yes we would like to have the option to be able to build a ��I f building, if we so desire, either on - either expand the building that is there or to erect another small building on the back lot if things work in that direction - if the neighbors didn' t want i' to buy that property back, then we would probably want to expand i i that way. j I CHAIRMAN AMAN: Again speaking only for myself, this Board doesn' t 'j usually approach cases in that manner. Our focus , our power is limited. Our power is to look at a particular piece of property and someone will come in and say, I can't use that property in the way in which I can earn a reasonable return unless you let me use 11 it in a way which the zoning code doesn't explicitly allow. MR, HOVANEC; Is that . . . i CHAIRMAN AMAN: Focusing only on a piece of property, saying that l that property is absolutely useless unless we make a variation and grant a variance. So it ' s a lot more complicated when someone is coming in and proposing that possibly he may have some plans or they may put a building on ideally —maybe Common Council could zone a portion of the neighborhood B-4 and then wait to see what ( would happen over the next few years - that is their role but I that is not our role . !SMR. HOVANEC ; Well , as far as a building goes , we would definitely shave to expand yes, We don't have any, proposed plans to expand �I �lat this point because we figured we would take one step at a time I. I' i; l - 32 - I - we don' t have to expand at this point with the property that we i have there but we would definitely have to expand in the future - I that ' s why we want to buy that amount of land so that we could have the option to expand in the future - so we have no reason or j' really want to expand at this point but we would like to have e- it nough property so we could expand in the future , knowing that our hands are not tied in some way definitely we would know that we I are going to have contingencies that we would have to come to the Board and get approval on our plans but we wouldn' t like to have a definite flat no you can buy it if you use it for this but only this forever. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Okay. j; MR. ANGELL: How wide are those rights-of-way into that property? I MR. HOVANEC: We didn' t have a surveyor look at it so I couldn' t say definitely. They are wide enough for a large vehicle to pass through - a full size car - let's put it that way, Probably not large enough for a cement truck or something like that at least l the way the trees are on the property -- but I don' t know where the I, boundaries are - looking at it from a survey standpoint. But the proably are fifteen feet wide - just looking at them. MR. ANGELL: And that 's the only entry into that lot? i MR. HOVANEC: No there is also an entry from the other lot which we propose to buy - which is next to the gas station you' ll see another area where they border -_ so there would be an entry off call Street unto the first parcel and then it could be entered on f 'i the other parcel, That is fine too , we don't have to use those right-of-ways - we probably would not use those right-of-ways . CHAIRMAN AMAN; Thank you Mr. Hovanec. Anyone here wishing to i I speak in support of the requested variance? (no one) Anyone here who wishes to speak in opposition to this variance? IlI MS. BRAUN-REINJJZ ; My name is Janet Braun Reinitz , T live at 222 I E, Falls Street, the last house behind which. one of these parcels 1 of land runs , that is the parcel they are considering ends behind !` my house, My lot is 30 feet wide and 40 feet .deep from the back of my lot to Fall Creek it varies between 38 feet and about 48 �i I i! i - 33 - i ii feet. I am very upset with the notion that there may be a build- ing, there may not be a building, I don't know how high, I don' t know how low - they say someone could put up a five story hotel - i they could put up a five story storage building - it 's extremely i( unclear whether in this very narrow piece of land I am going to have some very tall building - whatever kind of building they may choose to put up . I would like to point out also that the notion that we who live in front of that strip, can after this purchase, then turn around and purchase the small piece behind each property , back. Is it means that they are setting the price - and if we don' t like it , tough luck. Now T don't know whether economic hard- ship is something one discusses in front of the Board of Zoning Appeals but I bought this: house in October expecting that I would continue to live in a residential neighborhood - not that I was going to have some building in really what is my back yard. I have a very small piece of property and anything that is going to go in that narrow strip is really going to be a hardship on what my house is worth. I 'd like to say one more thing - at the Plan- ning Board meeting last week, the gentleman said - volunteered jthe information that they own land in Danby on which they could I put this whole thing they preferred to be in town but they li already have property. I don't have any other property all I I� have is my house . Thank you. I CHAIRMAN AMAN; Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? Yes sir. I MR. HOFFMAN. My name is Dan Hoffman, 1 live at 607 N. Tioga Street. I am the secretary of the pall Creek. Assn. and I was asked by the i �I Association to make A statement at tonight's meeting. At the August 10th. Imeeting of the Fall Creek Civic Association, represen tatives from Hovanec Builders made a presentation about the Com- 1 pany' s request for a z0ning variance, for use of the property at 202-204 .E. Fall Street and the parcel behind 210-222 E. pall Street. Following the presentation an extensive discussion among the members of the Association, the following resolution was passel: "It is th-e sense of the 'Fall Creek Civic Association that the - 34 - i is Association prefers that all three parcels associated with the it former P & C and the former gas station - that ' s the two parcels l under discussion tonight - and the lot where the old P & C sits - ii be used in a residential manner with no more than sixteen family occupied units and structures no more than two stories high. To the degree to which the Hovanec Builder proposal is not in con- formity with this use, the Civic Association looks on this pro- posal with disfavor. This resolution should not be viewed as a total rejection of the Hovanec Builders proposal osal until Fall Creek fl Civic Association receives and evaluates more information from the i fi City Planning Department about the possibility of constructing re- tirement housing on the site. " This resolution was passed with nineteen in favor, four opposed and six abstaining. And some of �( the concerns voiced during the discussion included fear that the business would generate additional traffic in the neighborhood, I particular concern with the possibility of more truck traffic and I I its affect on safety of children in the neighborhood, Some people (I ( present worried that a construction office would lower residential I property values in the area. Some feared that with two other non- conforming construction offices already located in this area that ff another might establish. a clear pattern that could lead to a f� relaxation of th-e zoning designation, And it was pointed out that although Hovanec Builders might be a responsible occupant of I the site, a successor who would have the use of the same variance might be less sensitive to neighborhood concern, A great deal of interest was expressed at this meeting in the possibility of creating housing for elderly on the former P & C site and possibly on the gas station site with a limited number of units - the people present made it clear they were not interested in a high rise but in a small number of units that ideally would be purchased by the it people living in them. There was concern that use of the former gas station pro rty which directly adjoining the old P $ C lot i might hinder or conflict with such a re-use of the P & C property i which is not in the words of some people present - the bigger �I eyesore - on that corner. It was mentioned that the prospect of i I I 35 - ed the developer being interest/ in purchasing this property was a ii fabrication - I think that might be a little strong. It is my s !; understanding that there is an out of town developer, I believe from Binghamton, who has expressed interest and has met with some !! city officials to find out what arrangements and what agreements ;I would have to be made in order for them to consider development. with private funds of that site . I am sure that there are a lot E' of problems that would be involved with constructing housing on i� that site - I know it is in a flood plain but there was a great j deal of interest among the Civic Association in the possibility of using the site for residential rather than for commercial uses . �I And as the vote on the resolution reflects some people present i were in favor but the large majority were opposed to the proposal . I would just like to also say that the Civic Association took no stand at all on the use of the building on Lincoln Street by Hovanec Builders. There was an impression made perhaps that the I� Civic Association was opposed to that. That did not come up on {i our agenda. It has not been discussed by the Association. Thank I. you. I CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposi- tion? I MS. O'NEIL: My name is Esther O'Neil and my home is at 214 E. l Falls and I just wanted to say that T am scared silly about some I �I unknown size and shape of building coming up in back of my house. We already have a tremendous amount of traffic on the street as well as bicycles and children skating and everything else under I the sun -- runners on the sidewalk -- so that to have something i i more come up in back_ is really quite frightening because these �I driveways are so narrow if this is my house - there is a driveway here and the other one is here 11 have a right of way over both Ii II driveways but they are very narrow - I can't tell you exactly whether it is eight feet or whether it is seven but it is a narrow, I narrow drive . I had another thought - when we had the big flood 78 - and they put the drainage the big pipes like that with the holes in them to take up the surface water that came from the !I i - 36 - !; Fall Creek, I understood that you weren' t supposed to build over i that piping so that if you couldn' t build over that piping - if I ;; something was built it would throw it closer to the houses - the ' space had been cleared back there for about twenty years - I think i! ; there hasn' t been buildings and at the time that there were build- ings there it was tremendously unpleasant so I would like to see Ila different type of use . I have nothing against the Hovanec boys - they are nice boys - I worked with their mother at the hospital t and they are awfully nice people but this particular thing - I lcould not feel happy about it . CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you Ms. O'Neil . Anyone else wishing to j, speak in opposition to this appeal? ! MS. PRICE: I am Elsie Price and I live at 220 E. Falls Street. ' (unintelligible) and expect water to come in there thirty years I or twenty years or, you know, they claim that it is fixed now but iwe never know because I had lived there thirty years before I had !! water in my cellar so I think that is what discouraged the Y from building. So I offered like I said - that' s a personal thing I i mean - what little bit I sold it to them for - but I offered to bu ! it back but the price that they were going to charge me to buy it i lback - it wasn' t fair so we just left it go and, like I said, I 'm not against this here company - I don' t really know them but I '( don' t believe that we should have something there we don't know about - there is only two driveways small driveways - to the Aright-of-way. Now there is no way to come in off from York Street or from Fall down in front of the P & C I don' t know what that j, street is - whether it is still Tioga or whether it is York. From ! the gas station the P & C owns just to the edge of our two lots , ,lso there is no driveway and no way to drive into those back yards . ( There is only the two right-of-way driveways between these homes . Now if we build something there that they are going to drive in an I! Hout night and these families have owned those homes for thirty - ii ! forty years - longer than I 've lived there - and I just don't thin ;! that it's right . jCHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposi- ( tion? I! - 37 - i IMR. LORETTI : I am Valentino Loretti and I live at 210 E . Fall !'!Street. I have lived there fifty-one years and I intend to live 11there the rest of my life in peaceful . We don't want any more �I ;[traffic than what is there now. iMR. BANFIELD: For the benefit - I have a letter from Mr. Loretti ' s [ son that I believe you may have a copy of. It is addressed to the i mayor with a copy to the President of the Civic Association and a "I am writing to you on behalf of my mother and �icopy to myself. father who reside at 210 E. Falls Street, concerning the bid by ii !Hovanec Builders and Developers to construct ". . . offices , a shop, salesroom and storage area . . . " on the adjacent property. Be ad- 1 Ivised that our family is totally opposed to the construction of suc ala facility for the following reasons : Falls Street already carries 11 Hmore traffic than its width can handle by today' s standards . Any additional traffic (especially of the construction equipment type) Ijwould only compound an already unacceptable situation. The area 4s highly residential , housing many senior citizens who should not I be subjected to unwarranted noise or activity particularly when I! Iithe residents one block away have petitioned to remove the developer from their current location on Tioga Street. The proximity of the proposed structure to my parents home will provide a crowding effect I that will after fifty-.one years of residency be hard for them to cope with.. My many years of experience with artists renderings of [ proposed structures has not made me a believer in "paper-moon" con- Lepts. What looks good on paper need not prove to be beneficial in liactuality. For some reason things never look like the rendering. `Therefore, we are not impressed with Hovanec 's design. Also of con jicern is the provision of benches for public use. I have learned I,from long experience that public areas are used more by unconcerned 'youth than by the senior citizens , thereby creating unwanted gather- ling places . I hope that you will give our views serious considera- tion in the final analysis of the developer's proposal . Thank you 1 for your kind attention. Sincerely, /s/ Frank V. Loretti" ,ICHAIRMAN AMAN; Thank you very much. Any other opposition? SMR. ROGERS: My name is Peter Rogers, I live at 806 N. Tioga Street. I [Can everybody hear alright? I did not intend to speak or say I Ii l - 38 - �I i '; anything tonight but after listening to the comments I felt com- pelled to say something. I 'm from the other end of town and I 've is ! been here before on other zoning board hearings . I just wanted to I ,, make it clear that there are other people in Fall Creek that are i ;! interested in the Fall Creek area in general as well as the prob- Mem that faces the people on Fall Street so I want to say that I Ilam in support of them - complete support. Next I would like to sa , i jas Mr. Banfield stated previously that there is criteria for grant r I; Bing a variance. I. do believe that people that speak in favor of ' variances or against them - this should be weighed. But the Board that are chosen they are chosen on their ability - their knowledge - I think that it is very easy to make some of the decisions without I considering opposition or people who are in favor of the variances ! I have seen cases where people have brought petitions with several i names and they have been ignored and I don't think that' s always 1necessary. This particular case in question - the plans seem to " be very vague at this point - I don't see how a variance could be II 11 granted at this point from what I have heard tonight. Very vague the plans and I understand, before a variance should be granted that the plans should be fairly consistent and understandable. Th bother thing that was mentioned briefly tonight - businessmen are very ambitious and they are very aggressive, Home owners are very !l shy - very difficult for them to speak it is very difficult for I them to get out. When just a handful of home owners come before ! the Board and speak and are very nervous such as I am, I think this should have some bearing. I 've set on several of these and I saw Byrne Dairy when they came in with their half million dollar pay- roll and I 've seen things like that - home owners do not - as a rule ,, I get out. When I moved into Fall Creek 14 years ago there were things going on that I wasn't aware of I didn't pay that much attention to. There is not really enough advertising on these ite s . I�Certainly the variances that were granted for the gas station and !I the P & C building, if in fact there were variances granted I �idon' t know but the people that had anything to do with that if 'ithey could look at the area today they would have said, we made a f ii i i 39 - .;mistake and I think - I do think that that area could be very well ;put to a much better use than is proposed. Thank you very much. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you sir. Anyone else wishing to speak in ;opposition for this proposed request? I� IMR. BANFIELD: I 'm Dave Banfield, I live at 312 E. Fall Street. I jfeel like the public defender up here. I would like to call to your attention the rendering of the floor plan of Hovanec Designs Hovanec Contractors , Builders . If:�' you can see this - it points l lout - it appears to go behind the property just a little . In fact fit goes behind five properties . We have here tonight and you have lheard four of the property owners here. The fifth property owner I is Dr. Brown who, because of his health, is unable to make it tonight. His wife is working. He suffered a stroke and couldn' t come . We are concerned and we do realize that you see petitions i all the time but we felt that this was an important enough issue so we brought all the property owners here to see it. I also want Ilto point out a picture of the drawing which in no way shows Mr. lLoretti ' s house . I think Mr. Loretti ' s concerns are valid because ,lit shows a solar heating unit which extends already beyond the i lexisting gas station building. If you look at that in proportion Ito where his house is, that covers up his one remaining window to I, view to the west, Then beyond that and outward are trees and benches which would further obstruct his front porch. I .wrote a letter to the Planning Board which met last week. Did you receive '�that correspondence? CHAIRMAN AMAN; Not that I know of. Did you have any points in that letter that have not already been raised? This has been quite la thorough rendition, I think, thus far. i ,MR. BANFIELD: Okay. There are some things that I would like to jbring out that have not been raised and that is to remind you that 4his area in question is on a major walkway between the high school Boynton Middle School and Fall Creek School and there are a number i hof children in that area that walk that path and they walk that Jath to school at the same hours that the operation of the contrac- 4ors would be going on n the coming and going of the foremen and l� i' j II 40 - !; coming and going of the equipment. It was mentioned about elderly i! i !; housing. The Fall Creek Civic Association has a committee who is !i ! working very hard with the Planning Department trying to encourage land to raise money so that we can subsidize or hopefully get some r i� sort of help in developing some elderly housing in that area. The spoke to the point about the Y not being interested - or not being ! contacted. The property that we are talking about the housing is i the P $ C and not the Y property behind the houses . I am going to ! skip a lot of these notes because they have been covered. We are {ilconcerned about if use of the lot behind the houses is for storage !1 Y lof equipment and/or materials - there is the unloading and the ! loading and the trucks going in and out - the accumulation of j� trash and debris that is consistent with the contracting office. ! The value of the houses would be affected because of - if you want � a house or houses on Fall Street you would be much better off with ! back yards - much more valuable with back yards as opposed to ! having a large fence that could be either chain or plank fence that you would look out to instead of having a grass lawn that goes back to the creek. And the other point that I wanted to brin Mout which is a serious concern not only to us who live in the 200 ! block. In 1977 all the houses in the 200 block and up to 316 E. � Fall Street suffered a severe flooding problem in our basements land we spent weeks pumping them out. In 1978 they put in a sub, 1drainage tile system which runs down through that back yard. It 's ! a porous pipe and cannot stand a lot of weight . The constant I 1driving of vehicles over it could - T don't know - cause that to crack or to rupture and thereby defeat the whole purpose. In that ! point it would not only affect the houses in the 200 block but = also in the 200 block of E. ,Fall Street and we certain! don't � Y want to go through that again. And that is all the points that I ( want to bring up. Does anybody have any questions? !ICHAIRMAN AMAN; No questions, thank you Mr. . Banfleld. Any other �,lpersons wishing to speak in opposition? Alright , hearing nothing further we will call the next case. IIi l !I �I ,I ,I fi j - 41 - i; I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK i. V AUGUST 31 , 1981 EXECUTIVE SESSION { APPEAL NO. 1385 : ;! The Board considered the request for a use variance to permit use Iof the property at 202-204 East Falls Street and the parcel behind 210 , 2145, 218 , 220 and 222 East Falls Street, for a contractors i loffice, parking and equipment and materials storage . The decision lof the Board was as follows : MR. WALSH: I move that the Board deny the use variance �! requested in appeal number 1385 , MS . HAINE: I second the motion. VOTE : 5 Yes ; 0 No ; 1 Absent Denied FINDINGS OF FACT: f 1) No evidence was presented of an economic hardship with the �! property which would support a grant of a use variance. 2) The use proposed has a contractors yard, shop and retail facility - is completely incompatible with- the residential neighborhood by reason of the noise, trash and visual impact that such a use would necessarily have. it I I ,i II; i (i i ii' - 42 - , �i it i� i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS i CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK I AUGUST 31 , 1981 j SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1387 : Appeal of WSKG-TV-FM for a special permit under Section 30 . 26-C-4 (requirements for special permit for a radio tower) to permit the addition of television and FM radio translators to the existing radio tower at 815 South Aurora Street. The property is I, located in an R-3b use district in which such towers may be permitted under a special permi ii from the Board of Zoning Appeals . ,i ii ! MR. OWENS I 'm Bob Owens , operations manager of WSKG Binghamton, located at 3311 E. Main Street, Endwell , New York. We are looking WSKG Public Television & Radio would like to locate a TV and FM translator located at 815 S. Aurora Street on a tower which it 11 is owned by the Southside Fuel Company. Basically these trans �f lators are mini--transmitters that rebroadcast the signals of WSKG !i Public Television and Radio. What it will produce for this com- �i 11 munity is for the first time a radio and television station - a Il Public radio and television station will be receivable without the need of cable or developing need of extensive expensive equipment for receiving. Currently the radio station and, as a particular, i unless you have cable in your home, is only received that way or if you have a car radio with FM you cannot receive our station directly from the Binghamton location. So we'd like to be able to li locate these translators on this tower and able to serve the City li of Ithaca with programming for both radio and television which, P at the resent time cannot be received. � i MR. WALSH; Mr. Owens , how many units would this add to the exist { ing tower? I! MR. OWENS : It would be one receiving antenna and three other antennas which would be used for transmission - one would be for I! television and the other two would be for the radio signal , i i MR. WALSH: Would any of these add any height to the existing tower? ! MR. OWENS: No it would not add to the height of the tower. i' ii MR. ANGELL: That is th.e height of the antenna that you intend ii ii putting on? i if MR. OWENS: Why don' t I have the Director of our Engineering speak II 1 II - 43 - (i to that? iIMR. WHITE: My name is Gibson White, Director of Engineering, WSKG . The FM antennas will not add - are not more than about three inche lin height. Their length is about ten feet and the other one is I j� roughly five feet long. The receive antennas are roughly twenty- I Itwo inches in height for the FM and about four inches in height fo jthe television. The television transmit antenna is roughly twenty feet long - about the same height as the existing antennas 11on the tower. MR. WALSH: Have any approvals required by the FCC already been received from that agency? MR. WHITE: Not at this time. We are waiting to see if we can put �! them in first. i MR. WALSH: So it' s a question of local approval first and then FCC approval? jIMR. WHITE : Yes . ' MR. WALSH: Does the FCC or any other body to which regulations are subject, prescribe maximum levels electro magnetic radiation? � MR. WHITE : They have regulations as to the output of the trans I emitters east of the Mississippi . The FM is one watt output from i the transmitter and television, as we propose it right now, would ;! be 100 watts peak. I: MR. WALSH: That' s an effective radiated power? f iMR. WHITE: Effective radiated power for FM directly over Ithaca i land towards Cayuga Lake is roughly4 . 75 watts and the antenna which would be aimed towards Elmira down Elmira Road -- is roughly 19 . 2 watts . �! MR. WALSH: I 'm concerned about possibilities of the effects elec tromagnetic radiation such. as were cited in the case involving a worker who, I believe, adjusted antenna on the Empire State Build I I! it ing. I' ,! MR. WHITE : H e adjusted the microwave antenna systems for RCA. 1; MR, WALSH: Yes , Would you compare the installation that you are I ' anticipating to those that he worked on? l; IMR. WHITE: By no means. Ours is entirely different. i I !I I! iI 44 - ! MR. WALSH: How do they compare, what are the differences? j M.K. WHITE: The microwave systems that he was dealing with are in ! excess of 30 watts output and the output of the dish-type antenna I that he was working with is upward to 10 ,000 watts which he stood I in front of. The outputs of the antennas that we propose for tele- I' vision is roughly - its an omni directional pattern for one, it i goes in all directions at the same time with a total effective i radiated power of somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 to 600 watts . The TV set you sit in front of at home will give you more radia- tion than that transmitter -- that ' s peak power also . The average �Ipower is 7 tenths less than that. Or seven-tenths of that value. !l MR. WALSH: Would your signals from these have any impact on any j other existing methods of communicating in the area? MR. WHITE : In this particular area, no . MR. ANGELL: Have you looked into any alternative sites for your Rower? ,i IMR. WHITE: We have looked into , I have looked into other sites - !+ however most of the other sites are too far up on the hill to ' effectively with the power limitations that we are required to ! maintain to effectively put a decent pattern a decent signal I! i.nto the City of Ithaca it ' s virtually impossible. iMR. ANGELL: Well it1s my understanding that the southside tower you will cover mainly the City of Ithaca and the City of Ithaca Ibis pretty much covered by cable TV and which also broadcasts you ,! station and it wouldn't hit the outlying areas - some of them who Dare not covered by TV which you could effectively, cover by moving I ! down to a site by National Cash, as I understand it , Have you hooked into that at all as the site of WRLX-FM translators are? i MR. OWENS: I think you are looking at two different things . Num- ber one you are talking about a group of people that are in distant 11 areas that can't receive signals . There is no way you can put a ! tower up with that low powered cover a very wide range of people that are sparsely populated. The other side of the issue is this , i that insofar as. cable i.s concerned with television, yes we realize !that we are on cable for TV here. We also realize that there is a i .i i I� I' - 45 i li percentage of the people here that do not have cable television the other side of it is for radio . Cable does absolutely nothing , for anyone that has an FM radio in their car. It also does nothing i !; for portable radios and again for television. If you have a port- ! able television and you want to take it into the back yard or out ljonto the patio - you have to have a cable or, in this particular !i case, this would release that you would not need that . I lMR. ANGELL: Can you tell me how many people don' t have cable I ;! television in this area? ii jMR. OWENS: There is no specific data available that I am aware l of. We have been informed that there is roughly around 90 to 95% I ! have cable within the city limits, for television. lMR. ANGELL: And it 's your contention that there is no danger 1Ifrom radiation from the combined affects of how many things are on jthis tower at this particular time? I don't know how many IIMR. WHITE: The only things that operate full time on that tower li i fare the WNOZ translators now and they have the same output Power as we would -- one watt, The other transmitting equipment is , at , the most, intermittent strictly to call the popel when needed j and they have an average on rate of roughly 5% . i SMR. ANGELL: .And the TV transmitter is 100 watts? I lIMR. WHITE: Yes sir. The TV transmitter also would provide for i this community something you do not have right now - we are pro-- posing to put this translator in with what is called an IPA I ' Independent program authority which means a translator can be illocally operated as a transmitter than the low power transmitter ! within the area too so that an example would be our 10: 00 o 'clock i news show - if they, at a specific point within the news show Ithere was a cut away point there was a studio here and you could i, factually do your own local news for say five or ten minutes and then at the end of that you could go back- to our news cast . It ! would actually have an origination point here in the City of `! Ithaca - it could actually be your own station for certain periods i of the day. ! MR. WALSH Mr. White, do you have any figures as to what your lis I!, tening market is in Ithaca? - 46 - �i !j MR. OWENS: According to a rating of about a year ago , of those it ;: people that watch public television it is somewhere in the area of 11 ;; about 270 of those that watch WSKG. The other public television ?; station that is on cable is about the same percentage - Syracuse IIStation is the one that they compared against. SMR. ANGELL: Getting back to the radiation thing. You have no on kiidea what affect it would have/people in that area? I MR. WHITE: There really has not been any studies that I know of i ; right now as far as radiation - we have similar translators in i Iother areas and it has no affect on anyone there. MR. ANGELL: How do you know that? k jiMR. WHITE: Well , some of the translators sliced up in the Stanford, ,j New York area have been on the air for fifteen years and there are ( other translators that have been on all over the country that have H I� - no one has reported any serious problems - that' s all the infor- Ij mation . . . Ii MR. ANGELL: Well , they are worried enough in Syracuse that they I, have held up erecting any other towers in an area. ! MR. WHITE : You are speaking of the - primarily of the large tele- vision towers in thatparticular area. That's roughly a million watts of power out of the tower, That is an entirely different matter yes there there is a - that much power - there is . I; There would be a problem - a health problem, jMR. ANGELL: But you don't know whether there would be from this or note You are saying there definitely would be a health problem .I ! with that but not with this A you don't know? IMR. WHITE : With a very large amount of power there is what is i called RF burn radiation that has been known to cause some 1; health problems and this low of power , that' s a hundred watts Flout of the transmitter. If you stood right at the end of the coax and looked right in it you could probably damage your eyes - how- ! ever the odds of anybody doing that are extremely low an the output ! of the antenna again - that' s 100 watts in a 360 degree pattern - I, Fit ' s very difficult for anybody to get any sort of RF radiation ( problem in that particular manner . it i' 47 - ' CHAIRMAN AMAN: Do you have any idea how much radiation comes off jof a normal color TV set? I!. HMR. WHITE : They measured it with - if you sit within six feet - i ; you, over a period of years, could do serious damage to your eyes . +! It produces mainly X-ray radiation. That' s why they recommend you Ii `isit 10' back behind your set. �i 11MR. ANGELL: You don' t agree then that an alternate site would I! ;; benefit this community more than the one you have chosen? is 11MR. WHITE: Yes that is my belief. SMR. ANGELL: You think this is the best possible site? IMR. WHITE : For this particular community. We are primarily inter liiested in the City of Ithaca. i MR. ANGELL: You don't care about the outlying areas then, is that ! it? I !MR. WHITE : I don't think that' s the case, just that I think the ;majority of our members are within the City of Ithaca. IMR. OWENS: I think one of the things that has to be said here too is that once you get outside the City of Ithaca most of it has ! gone up on elevated areas and they currently - many of those peopl can already receive us directly off air. They do not have the ;`problems that the people here in the City of Ithaca would have and that is if you put an antenna on top of your house right now you ,would get very little in the way of a picture right now. SMR. ANGELL: Well T think there is a potentially hazardous situati n could be developed here even though you say it is low wattage - but i you don't know what it will do . I MR. WHITE: No I do not I personally do not, i IMR, WEAVER; Maybe you can help me on the RF potential of a TV transmitter - in a car or truck, How would that radiation compare with the transmitters? SMR. WHITE : 'Very good I didn't think of that. CB radio has an I! !output of 4 watts into an antenna that is usually mounted directly !over your head or right off to the side of you which has a gain of i I i about a factor of four to give you a relative output of twelve watts ilwhich is usually right about there and has no real ill effects on ii 48 - anybody except the Police. (: CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any further questions? Thank you gentlemen. Any- one here wishing to speak on behalf of the proposal? ii MR. KNAPP: My name is Anthony Knapp, I live on Iradell Road - I 'm ii ja subscriber to WSKC - I get television cable and I watch the jlstation over the cable. This proposal will not affect the avail- �I ability of the station to me nor will it affect whether I subscrib I I to the cable but I do urge that the Board approve this proposal ! think it is a very valuable addition to the Ithaca community to I enable those five to ten percent who do not subscribe to the cable ii to get educational TV. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Anyone else wishing to speak on behalf of the Il variance request? Anyone wishing to speak in opposition? Hearing nothing further , we will call the next case . I! it I i1 it i! i �I l j I� I f l I' I� II1 I I iI II i I i ffi II ii I' �i l i; t: i�. - 49 - �i i' BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS r� CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31 , 1981 EXECUTIVE SESSION i APPEAL NO. 1387: ii !! The Board considered the appeal of WSKG-TV-FM for a special permit to permit the addition of television and FM radio translators to i Ithe existing radio tower at 815 South Aurora Street. The decision �! of the Board was as follows : k SMR. WEAVER: I move that the Board grant the variance Te- quested in appeal number 1387 . 'IMS. HAINE : I second the motion. i !' VOTE : 4 Yes ; 1 No ; 1 Absent Granted ii FINDINGS OF FACT; 11) This does not increase the height or appreciably increase the ii i mass of the installation. I, 2) The proposed translators would permit reception of public broadcasting of radio and TV to the small but significant num- I ber of Ithaca City residents not connected with cable , 1 i 1J1 I! f'. i ij i i ! is Ii I' Ii I! i Ii Ij ii 7 �I ii !j �I iI li �I l ii i i I� i - 50 - i� ii BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS 'i COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31 , 1981 SECY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1388 : Appeal of Betty F. Philip for a use variance under Section 30 . 25 , Column 2 and an area variance under Section 30 . 25 , Columns 6 , 7 , 1 ) , 11 , 12 , 13 and 14 to permit the conversion of an existing garage at the rear of the l property at 611 Utica Street to a third dwelling unit. The property is located in a R-2b use district in which only one or II two family dwellings are permitted. As pro- posed, the property would have deficient lot area and width, the maximum permitted lot I coverage is already exceeded, and the minimum j setbacks for front , side and rear yards I would not be met . MR. ADAMS: My name is Armand Adams , I 'm attorney for Betty Philip and her son Joseph Philips who are making the application for the i' variance that we have here tonight. I would want to point out I, jthat these people are the third and fourth generations who have j lived in this particular house in the Fall Creek area and they are anxious that the residential character of the community be main- tained. There is a problem, however, that it is as you have known j by some of the groups tonight it is sort of becoming somewhat I; commercialized and there are many non-conforming uses of the area itself. I would point out that of the twenty-five people who II live within the 2001 radius have received notice of this meeting li tonight - seven of the houses are occupied entirely by students - not housing units themselves , There is one nursery, one wash appliance store that you heard mentioned here tonight the number I 7 ' s fire station, Tabernacle Baptist Church and a radronics loca- tion, but the important part here is that if this variance is not !� allowed, it will almost result in this area - in order to be econo- mically sound - having to be used for student housing - which is i i one of the things that the Philips themselves do not want to have I as T say they are the fourth generation that have been at this .i i! particular place and the house has been there for over 100 years . I The house at the present time occupies the front portion of the ii area and is used and utilized for a two-family dwelling but un- fortunately - and it doesn' t accommodate three or four apartments u i ii - I in each of the apartments so it is not a - cannot be used for larg families and they are mostly just individual people living in the �j two apartments in the house itself. At the rear of this particula ii 1building extending almost the full width of the lot itself is a ti it III building that has been there - again - for one hundred years . I 'v li I known it myself for over fifty years and it has been occupied firs i! as a stable , later as a garage , then it became a little glass shop I ii which is the predecessor of the frame shop that is down on Buffalo 'i Street now - and that was the frame shop itself then it was a i retail craft store then it became a three car garage , later it was a storage place for furniture and for the last four years it �( has been vacant and one of the reasons it has been vacant is that I it is too hard to maintain and stewardize it and it has been very I II important -- from a fire angle - that it be built up and protected. Ii Mrs . Philip has had to close the doors- and the windows in the back ii i4 and baracade them because children in the neighborhood decide its a nice place to light their matches and start fires and this is i! (i one we want to avoid, It is true that this lot is too small by a very small portion of acreage to meet the requirements of the ii I three unit apartment. You need 4 ,000 square feet and instead the i! lot is 3 ,795 feet so we are 205 feet short on that particular part . i j I would point out that I turned over the Planning Board last week a map of the whole area I don't know whether this got into this i file or not but it was the map of all the buildings and the loca- tions for the whole block for a lot more than the 200 feet area 11 that we have here and this is one of the largest lots in the whole !i block, It is more typical of the fall creek area than others and j is what is described as a two chains and width or half a block in width and a half a chain of 33 feet in width and that is the largest lot in that whole block and it can easily be occupied by i! these three places . Now Mrs, Philip herself has been widowed for I seven or eight years , she unfortunately has had a minor accident i herself and is disabled now- but her son who is here and can speak �! for himself has been the caretaker for this property since his father and her husband died and he has the responsibility of the is I, i !j - S2 - l j walks, the driveway, the lawn the heating, the plumbing and particularly the flood control because this has been a problem since the last flood and you have to have fast help and he has - someone has to be available there within a very short time to pass I! on the - maintain the pumps for the protection of the water. If I you don't have that map I would like to have the opportunity of I ! producing another one I had the two copies that we gave to the Planning Board but let me point out that all the areas in the .i jI neighborhood - one of them is now - 61S - is now a three apart- ment house , 613 has a house in the rear, 610 has a house in the { rear, 6022 is a child nursery and, of course , on is the Tabernacle i s Baptist church and the appliance shop of Farrell 's Appliance. If i this allowance - if this variance is not allowed, it will mean that financially she' ll have to rent this property, either to I I students or make some other operation. She could convert this to a three car garage, but if she did she loses the three places i �i that are now off-street parking for the apartments that are there. The three off-street parking lot areas that are macadamized and paved and fenced and they are available for the three units that would be there. But if this, were again converted to a garage at I considerable expense, it would the part that is now the parking area would be the driveways to those garages themselves . Now Mr . Philip has pointed out in the plan that was submitted that there I i, would be no expansion whatsoever in the outside of the building . 1; He will do what i.s necessary to convert the building to one bed- room and bath, a living room and a kitchen area and the occupancy I ii of the building itself will then have the size of 31 '4" x 16 ' 101-2" no enlargement whatsoever except that it would be remodeled on i i i the inside, windows changed somewhat ; entrance changed and made I more attractive, T point out that Bill Philip has , in the course of the last year, in attending his mother's property, been able t ! keep it in good repair, it ha.s been painted and all those things �i that she cannot do herself, Now I realize that personal hardship is not an element that enters into the picture and that any variance goes with the land itself and I would point out that this I 53 - I is an ideal use for this particular property - that it is not i going to be different from the neighborhood because the neighborhood now has much more crowded conditions than this would be with this 'j as a new apartment unit - it would not be used for students as most of the others in the area and so I think it would very de- finitely be a hardship if they were not allowed to economically utilize the area that is there , protect it safely from further danger of fire , from the neighborhood and actually the nearest building to this building is No. 7 's fire station itself that is there but they would certainly be in favor of keeping it as fire j proofed as possible . That is one of the things that would be part of the construction as presented here. Among other things , in j j� addition to the proof of mailing that I also submitted to the Planning Board, I don't know whether you got a copy of that or not , was a letter we received from one of the neighbors - a Mary Gentile which I 'll submit for the record if you don' t already have one. I think that I 'll ask Mrs . Philip to if she can - come up and tell us what the plans are and why it is important for her to have it, jMRS. PHILIP ; My name is Betty Philip and I lave at 611 Utica i Street and this is my son Joe - he is the one that wants to live in what was originally my dad' s shop inthe rear of my house. In 1978 when we did have the flood waters I had a permanent pump in { my basement which I immediately put to use. No. 7 's fire station was good enough. to lend me two more and the boys there came and put them up for me but I lost my furnace anyway with the three pumps, I had to pay $2 ,000 , to have another new furnace installed I because of that 1978 flood. I do need my son to oversee the prop- �I erty now, I need him thereto help me with things I can't do anymore like painting and plumbing and things that I can't do . I I he were there to do the for me it would save me an awful lot . And money-wise , I don't want to rent to suudents I really don't, I realize that I could make more money if I do but that is not the �f �I point. We have a nice neighborhood and I would like to keep it �i that way. Also , my son is willing to put up whatever is necessary i; �I 54 - I ;i '! for safety codes , like fire retardant ceilings and walls , if that ' s what they require , he is perfectly willing to do that. Jo i did you want to say anything? MR. PHILIP: I ' d like to add one point - I 'm Joe Philip - it seem {1 f� to me - the time that I went to the Planning Board and I 'm here i, i in front of the Zoning Board, that only my mother and two other people live in that house by ourself and I don' t know, it seems ii like - the way I understand it - that a lot of people can live in j` one area and that doesn' t matter - that's not what the zoning really is - it amounts to - I don't know if you know what I am saying or not - but like for density or something? Like each house is different - maybe fifteen or twenty people in one house f or something? There is just three in that big house - that ' s all . MR. ADAMS: Joe, tell them how you propose to - what changes you will make. MR. PHILIP Okay. There won't be any exterior changes - just interior. f I� MRS. PHILIP ; Painting that 's all - the exterior. Inside he wants to put n bedroom for himself, a small kitchen, bath and a living I� room. That is all . I CHAIRMAN AMAN: And what is it presently used for - it ' s not . . . MRS. PHILIP : It is not being used now, it was my father' s frame shop, MR, ADAMS: I point out that the lot variance that are requested for the non- use, had been there, again, for one hundred years , This is three feet from the back. -, number 7 ' s fire station and (� beside but the total use of the area - i i it is the largest lot in the area. I would like to - sorry but I thought these maps would come as part of the record because they Iwere7 at the other hearing but I will see that you get some more . it CHAIRMAN AMAN; The difficulty is not so much that but it' s as �I you pointed out - the fact that hardship runs with property and our - you are asking for a use variance then you are asking for a very standard that we have to apply is a very rigid, tough standar so the question becomes , well , is this property economically viable it I i! 55 - i'. given the zoning that presently exists . I MR. ADAMS: We are asking for a use variance . . . jl CHAIRMAN AMAN: It ' s not to deny the personal circumstances at I all but it is just what is relevent to this kind of a decision - i i j we have to look to the property. Properties change hands - once a variance is granted it runs with the land and whoever lives there years down the road . . . MR. PHILIP: Yes that ' s�i talking in the future - you don' t know what 's going to happen. I i MR. ADAMS : I would point this out but on the other hand, each of these apartments that is there now only had one bedroom or they I are not useable for two or three people and that' s just i� part of the hardship that you don' t get any tremendous amount. Now i if you did have three or four students you wouldn't care whether jl they had in the living room or bedrooms or where they I are but to make it a residential area, there is one bedroom in !j the apartment and when Joe was a little boy it was alright for hi I to live there but now that he is grooved up and about to be married , he needs a place of his own but the point is that it does go with the land but the land should - it is a hardship not to have the land used for its maximum use and if you were to even use these f as garages , you lose the off-street parking which would be a detriment to the neighborhood. The main thing is the hardship of I their own: that would pass on to the other person This lot I i should not be used for just the limited use of the two small apartments and a building in the back that serves no useful purpose and is a danger. That is the hardship that should pass on to �! someone else as well , Economically II CHAIRMAN AM=A,N: As it presently exists ' you feel that is is not I economically . . t MR. ADAMS ; No , you would have to tear the house down and build a different house there to make it accommodating because it does nol , it Mrs . Philip can speak to that as to the arrangement of the room, j but it does not it isn1t conducive to a large expensive rental i i; that some of the others would be and I think that the - some of �I ii - 56 - I i the people here from the can also testify - that it is not a crowded condition on this lot - as you will see on the �I maps that are with the sketches - there is plenty of room. Now if here is the - I don't know whether this is the same one or not but ii j this is the map that is similar to one I am referring to except i i the other one had marked in yellow all of the variances - the lot i next door at 613 - there is an apartment in the building at the ii rear . The other lot that had that student housing marked out - I �j can indicate - I did indicate where they are but you can see these are the largest lots - for the full half block - they are there - �i the largest lots in the whole area and they are not the only ones �I that are crowded so it is fitting into the area but what you . . . I CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you sir. Is there anyone out there who i j wishes to speak on behalf of the variance - who would like to j support it, I 'd like to hear all of those people first. �i MS. STILLtiVELL: My name is Helen Stillwell , 617 Utica Street - I 'm a neighbor and I can look out my kitchen window and look at this garage and I wish. that it could be made into an apartment - it ! would be much more attractive and I am sure that it would be very it helpful to Mrs . Phil! to have her son nearby. i; P P Y• I j CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you ma'am. Anyone else wishing to speak on �I behalf of the proposed variance? I MS. HUSTED: My name is Carol Husted, I live at 625 Utica Street just a few houses away. I feel that I would like to see the I; i apartment made in back because there are far too many of these jj houses that are not being utilized to their fullest potential and jare being turned over to students and totally demolished and we'd �I hate to see our neighborhood have that happen to it so I really would like to see the family situation stay there and have the i property kept up the way it has been. CHAIRMAN AMAN Anyone else who wishes to speak in support of the I petition? Anyone here wishing to speak in opposition to the I petition? i MS. LA R©CK; My name is Elaine LaRock and I live at 1008 N. Tioga i Street. First I would like to say that I am very happy for Mrs . is ii I� .i ij 57 - il i IlPhilip that she does have a son that can help her out. Unfortun- ately not everybody is that lucky. It was stated by Mr. Adams I !, that a lot of other houses in the area do have apartments in back �i jlor on top or bottom - duplexes and they want to add another one and it was also stated that there is not enough feet in any of the lhousing in that area already for I believe one family dwelling and i; here they want to add another one . It is just forty feet from in Ijback of my house and I already feel that people are sort of en- I� ( croaching into my back yard. I already have a nursery in my back ; yard - I have people ' s kids in my back yard - and now I ' ll have I ; another family in my back yard. It 's nice that it is a family i ; situation but also you have to look into the future, ten or fiftee li years from now - if Mr. Philip decides to move away or, I hate to ! say this , If Mrs . Philip passes away, what would heppen then would it go to students , would it go to another family, it is I only being one bedroom it could not possibly be a very large �i �Ifamly. There is also an apartment upstairs in Mrs . Philip ' s house I was wondering why perhaps her son could not move up there? {I IThere are various ways , I believe, this could be situated to have I , her son with her which I believe as she said, she does need for j, her with Mood like well we 've all had problems with and heavy snow storms and painting and up keep. But I think there miglit The another way. Does anybody have a question to what I 've brought 1 up? !i ' CHAI'RMAN AMAN; Thank you, Ms . LaR.ock. Anyone else wishing to i 11speak in opposition of the proposal? Mr. Rogers. IMR. ROGERS: I am Peter Rogers of 806 N. Tioga Street. It is usually the procedure after the plaintiff states their case to ask some questions so may I ask some questions? !! CHAIRMAN AMAN; you are welcome to . � A ' MR ROGERS; What is the dimensions of the lot Mr. Adams? � . j MR. ADAMS; 33 x 132 I believe. , MR. ROGERS: And there - is it a two unit house on the front? i IMR. ADAMS ! Two unit house in the front. . . 1i MR. ROGERS: That 's 33 and there will be one unit in the rear? Ii ii �I j is 58 - I! 'I !!i MR. ADAMS: One unit in the rear. �IMR. ROGERS : I want to complement you on your very convincing case i and Mrs . Philip you have a very nice piece of property there, I dr ve 1by there the other day. Have all the Board members viewed the I property, have they seen it for themselves? Are there any - would each of the Board members who have seen the property please raise i I1 your. . . ; CHAIRMAN AMAN: Mr. Rogers, do you have any - will you please , make your statement - we have fifteen cases tonight - I want to hear everyone ' s arguments and we want the record to be complete. . . f ! MR. ROGERS: I promise I will only take a minute . ; CHAIRMAN AMAN: I would appreciate it if you will make your case I sand we will move on. , MR. ROGERS : Has the Board - I want to know if the Board has done Itheir homework, is all . i I� MR. WALSH: Mr. Rogers , the function of this proceeding is to have i persons who have information to appear before the Board and give �Ithem an opportunity to present it, To the extent we have a state- ment of an authoritative nature present a fact or an opinion as j to the proposed use of what exists there now present it but for jMR. ROGERS: Why is that question so far out of line? ` MR. WALSH: I am not suggesting it is out of line, it is just that 1we are trying to make an affirmative . . IMR. ROGERS : Alright , I apologize but I don't agree with those l� rules . IMR. WALSH; And the Board' s not on the record. E MR. ROGERS: I drove by and I looked at the property and I cannot I( understand why anyone would want to put an apartment back there except to make money, It appears as though the building in ques, tion is on the back side of the lot and the southside of the lot. Ij There is parking space back there - the contention that because ±! there is all student housing in the neighborhood and this would be student housing, I take that somewhat as a threat and I don' t think that logic should be used. Consider every garage - I have `1 a garage twice that size and I wouldn't think of converting it is I i I - 59 - i'. into residential . Consider every garage in the fall creek area converted to residential and the density would just be unbearable. ii Right now the odd/even parking most of the streets in the later ii house there is corner to corner parking. I just wanted to point g g out that a variance ranted for something of this nature would be I .; setting a serious precedent and I think it would be very much out ;, of line. Thank you. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition to the proposal? �IMS. LA ROCK My name is Eleanor LaRock and I live at 1008 North ! Tioga Street, which land is just 40 feet from me. I have had i problems with the building it is right next to the line - the HIkids go in there, they have matches - they have loud music, all ; sorts of things - this would be just right next door and the man lady, I 'm so happy after twenty-five years , the house next idoor has been bought by someone they are trying to fix it up and �1when I spoke to her they had to work so they couldn't come but Ishe said it was getting to be a quieter neighborhood and they can i� control who lives ups tairs in their house but she was new - didn' t �Irealize that this building was directly back of her garage and it i , was going to be converted and I didn't have a chance to ask her opinion as to what they thought because he was away. I , CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you ma'am, Anyone else who wishes to speak �' ;lin opposition to the proposed variance? Hearing nothing further ,jwe will call the next case. �I 1 i I� 1� I .i I - 60 - f i! BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS {i COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS �! CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK i I; AUGUST 31, 1981 EXECUTIVE SESSION it I� APPEAL NO. 1388 : The Board considered the appeal of Betty F. Philip for a use vari- li ance to permit the conversion of an existing garage at the rear �! of the property at 611 Utica Street to a third dwelling unit . The I� decision -of the Board was as follows ; I i! CHAIRMAN AMAN: I move that the Board deny the variance I requested in appeal number 1388 . i MR. WEAVER; I second th.e motion. 1' VOTE; 5 Yes ; 0 No; 1 Absent Denied FINDINGS OF FACT: 1) The burden of proof necessary to establish economic hardship �I was not met in this case. I; 2) The location of the garage which the petitioner proposes to convert to an apartment is inappropriate for an additional (I 'I dwelling unit given its closeness to the lot line . The con- version would change the classification of this structure from an "accessory" structure to a primary or main building , which requires a much greater rear yard setback. i �I i i' I i fi l �i li is i ii 61 - I I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS { COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31 , 1981 SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1389 : �l Appeal of Marc & Virginia Albanese for an i area variance under Section 30 . 25, Column 13 to permit conversion of the one-family dwell- ing at 428 South Geneva Street to a two- family dwelling. The property is located in an R-2b (residential) use district in which two-family dwellings are permitted; however the property is deficient in one required sid yard setback. MR. ALBANESE: My name is Marc Albanese and I live at 428 S . Geneva Street. As was explained in the description of the appeal , we I) purchased the house on Geneva Street back in February and before we purchased it we looked into the zoning requirements for that house so that for any future use we could proceed within the guide - lines the city has set up . I went to the city and submitted a floor plan for this apartment and when we did we got into the area of this variance - this is how this has come to be. The reason why I cannot comply with this variance is because the house size and the lot size in their proportions as they exist today were there long before the introduction of the city codes so trying to change that would - well it is just impossible really unless I demolished the house and rebuilt it or purchased my neighbors driveway which I he is really against. I have a small plan for you if it is neces- sary for this particular consideration. It is going to be a two bedroom apartment, five rooms total n I believe all the other re- quirements - parking, size and use are all within the regulations now except this side lot. ! MR. WALSH: Mr. Albanese , how much of a deficiency are you talking � n on the side lot? MR. ALBANESE: Okay, it was explained to me that I needed ten feet � on one side and five on the other which is the absolute minimum. I am deficient thirty-nine and 3/4" on the south side lot . We I are talking three feet. CHATRMAN AMAN: This is new construction this is not just an I Ilinterior change r there is new construction? IMR. ALBANESE : No, it 's all interior - we are just renovating the i I' i li �1 j - 62 - ii the upstairs, and the permits won' t allow it until we receive the l j variance stating that it was alright. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any questions? Thank you Mr. Albanese. Anyone i wishing to speak on behalf of the requested variance? (no one) I Is there anyone here who opposes it? (no one) Okay, we' ll call j the next case. i j BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31 , 1981 EXECUTIVE SE'SS'ION �I APPEAL NO. 1389: l The Board considered the appeal of Marc & Virginia Albanese for a area variance under Section 30 . 25, Column 13, to permit conversio H 11 of the one-family dwelling at 428 South Geneva Street to a two- I family dwelling. The decision of the Board was as follows ; �i MR. WEAVER: I move that the Board approve the area vari- ance requested in appeal number 1389 . j Ij CHAIRMAN AMAN: I second the motion. i' VOTE : 5 Yes ; 0 No; 1 Absent Granted FINDINGS OF FACT; 1) The changes proposed by the petitioner in this case are II interior only and would not exacerbate the area deficiencies I' I that presently exist. 2) Practical difficulties have been shown with regard to the i� correction of these difficulties . I� i a I a i _ I I I !I ii I i+ !i j 63 - li BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK II AUGUST 31 , 1981 l SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1390 : i Ii Appeal of Iry Lewis , Inc. for a use variance under Section 30. 25 , Column 2 and an area �I variance under Section 30. 25 , Column 10 , to I! permit the use of the property at 303 West �i Lincoln Street for an office equipment sales and servicing business . The property is located in an R-2b use district where such businesses are not a permitted use, and the �I maximum permitted lot coverage would be ex- ceeded, The property has been used until �i recently for lightmanufacturing , and had "grandfather" rights for such use , but the proposed new use would not fall under the same category. MR. LEWIS: My name is Stuart Lewis, I am president of Iry Lewis , Ij Inc. , the owner of the building in question. This building is - was built in 1955 - was presently owned by Loveless $ Zizzig and used as a woodworking shop when it was built. It was purchased i; jl by our company in 1967 for use as a receiving area for merchandise I we are in the retail business. And along came a fried, Tom Mahone ;I !I of BOCES and they were in need of a shop for the BOCES complex 'i which was being built on Warren Road so we leased it to them on a temporary basis which turned out to be about three or four years . At that point a variance was not necessary inasmuch as the use was jsimilar to the original use of Loveless $ Zizzig. In 1972 we sought and received a variance for the use of electric repair shop, fBill Norton of Norton Electric at that time, sought a use for that shop and in 1973 a variance was sought and was given and the use for Austen Water Products in the same building. In 1974 a vari- ance was sought and approval was given for Madison Electric , Elec- trical Contractor , and in July 1976 the last tenant , Precision Filters was not needed for a variance because it was a similar use . �j Now that Precision Filters , as you know, has grown and they are moving to Cherry Street project, I sought to change the need for the building into a - what I would commonly call a better quality �i type of tenant. The building should T present these pictures to i the Board or to you Mr. Chairman? i - 64 It ii CHAIRMAN AMAN: I ' ll look at them first and pass them on. Ij '! MR. LEWIS: You know, if you have seen the building , it ' s a rec- H tangular masonry building which fronts right on route 13 - quite Iia bit of traffic goes by although it is not on the actual highway � - it sets back off it - off the Dey Street exit and there has i Ijalways been quite a bit of interest in the building for somebody li who would like to use the building - it does face on 13. I have talked with several people about it and the type of use that they ( would like to use the building for now - is a Company known as Eastern Products. Eastern Products is a company that has six offices in New York State - most of them in medium size and small if communities like Auburn, Elmira and their business is that they sell photo copy equipment to both large companies similar to the NCR, Morse Chain, Cornell University and Ithaca College as well as I small companies like ourselves and the banks and what have you. i They don' t sell the photo copy equipment directly on the premises In the photo copy equipment is sold off the premises in these var- ious, areas. I do have the proposed local manager here this even- i` ing, Steve Menke, who can answer any questions that the Board might ask of him. If we are given the variance , the building would be beautified I think it is in need of it at this point. lIt would be painted and the facing portion of it , we envision i4putting some kind of a softer material to it to enhance the looks '11of it and also to improve the neighborhood. The interior, of i( ; course, also would be renovated and I did visit one of the offices. . � in Elmira and found it to be quite nice . The variance , if given, r ( would be of actually a lesser use , I think it's going from a B-4 I which is what Precision Filter was into a B-2 . The comparative fuse of this company compared to the last tenant would be a lesser type of traffic intensity. There would be approximately three people in and out of the building as I said, nobody actually ( directly goes in to buy a piece of photo equipment . The proposed customer is brought down there by Steve Menke or one of his asso- Iciates. Not related to the case at all but just as an added r i ;, point , frankly I think that a facilities type would be nicely i �I i 65 - ; needed in Ithaca simply because, from my own experience as a business man - I know there are several hundred or even probably I' thousands of photo pieces in Ithaca and I think they are all sold .i ; from out of town and I just sort of think it would be a nice thing I '! to have this company at least in Ithaca so that maybe the community r ( could see some kind of benefit - sales tax involved. As I said, I; jit is not related, but I though I 'd mention it because I think it �Idoes bring a nice need to the community. My immediate concern of I the neighborhood is my neighbor to the east, Mr. Joseph Longo, who I have talked to about it, told him all about what we are ! going to do there, if we are given the variance and I asked him Ito plan the - at the Planning Board meeting he was here and I also received a call from Mr. Bob Ward on August 11th from the ( Fall Creek Civic Association saying that they brought that up i and they, I guess , basically, approved the idea at their meeting. The reason that we ask for the variance is because of the fact of the hardship of the building is simply that it cannot be used for residential building. Itis a one-story, rectangular building and it only can, basically, be used in its present state for a commercial building . That ' s basically why we are asking for a use variance. As far as the area regulations , the present build, i ling on the property does exceed the area regulations by, I believe i2% and the hardship there would be, of course , we would have to destroy part of the building in order to make it modified to achieve the less 20 . Other than that, I guess I 've covered every- thing, I know it is late and I have talked a little quickly - if you have any, questions , I 'd be glad to entertain them, MR. WALSH.: This is a concrete block building now?. MR, LEWTS; Yes sir . MR. WALSH: And it 's an open floor plan? I MR, LEWIS; In its present state? MR. WALSH; 'des, , MR, LEWIS: No, it 's partitioned off now presently, with three ' 1offices inside the building and one large area where some light 11 assembly was done by Precision Filters , the former tenant. MR. WALSH: Is it entirely clear that that building in its present �j 66 ii state could not be used for residential purposes? f MR. LEWIS: In its present state it could not be used for resi- dential purposes , that is correct. �( MR. WALSH: Okay, is there any indication what the cost of convert j ing it to residential use would be? MR. LEWIS: Well I 'm not a developer , I wouldn't dare take a chanc in telling what I thought it would take , the building does measure 2, 400 square feet in size - if we used a common factor, I don't know what it is? 30 or 40 dollars a square foot to build? I i+ don' t know, I 'm not a builder. I would - as - using business ! judgement , assuming there was no problem there at all with vari- ances '. I wouldn't attempt to build into a housing unit only be- cause of the fact that it does face 13 and it 's such a high intensity traffic . That particular block is an odd block, its odd shape because the next building to it on the right is Cayuga Electric which was a former Rocker Rug Cleaning and that particu- lar street used to lead right on down to the Johnson Board yard f before 13 came through and then they built like a little hilly area down to that so it ' s really the only block that sort of faces ( directly on to route 13 whereas the next block over on Lincoln jStreet off to the east is sheltered by houses on both. sides of it . IMR. WALSH: Is it your opinion that basically that even were you Ito make the expenditure required to convert it to residential use that because of its location it would not be suitable for that purpose? I� MR, LEWIS; I believe that it would not be suitable for that location. CHAIRMAN AMAN; Any further questions? i MS. HAINE: How much traffic do you think that would generate that kind of a business? i� MR, LEWIS ; H_ow, much traffic? I� MS. HAINE: Yes , [MR. LEWIS; Steve, you may want to answer that question, Steve would be the manager I think you could probably answer that better than I could. ;I �t i I! 67 - I l SMR. MENKE : My name is Steve Menke , I live at 90 Yellow Barn Road i in Freeville and to answer your question, we are primarily an out- is ;' side sales company, where we go directly to our accounts , call on ' them at their place of business . At that point , when we do want i , to show equipment, there is one of two ways of showing the equip- One is to bring the account into our office and show them i! Iiseveral different pieces of equipment. The majority of the time ri what we do is we recommend a piece of equipment and bring it to !, our account and let them try it for several days . i! ;IMS . HAINE : So you would be bringing equipment into and out of the location? IMR. MENKE: Into and out of the location, yes we would. l'ICHAIRMAN AMAN: Any further questions? Thank you sir. Anyone (' wishing to speak on behalf of the requested variance? (no one) , Is there anyone here who wishes to speak in opposition? (no one) Al iright, hearing nothing further we will go on to the next case . � I' I� i `i i i I{ I, i i� I i li I) it ; �I ii I I' I I I �f ii i ; i 68 - i I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS i CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK i' j AUGUST 31 , 1981 ii EXECUTIVE SESSION �I JAPPEAL NO. 1390 : ' The Board considered the appeal of Iry Lewis , Inc . for a use vari- Ii ! ance and an area variance to permit the use of the property at 303 I ( West Lincoln Street for an office equipment sales and servicing 4usiness . The decision of the Board was as follows : I 1IMs . Haine: I move that the Board grant the use varianc �I requested in appeal number 1390. IlChairman Aman: I second the motion. VOTE: 5 Yes ; 0 No ; 1 Absent Granted Ci 1: FINDINGS OF FACT: L jl) The property in question is not now a residence and has been I I used as one form of a business or another since its construc- tion in 1955 . 2) It would be economically infeasible to convert this structure ii to a residential use. Ii 3) Given the location of this structure, particularly since it i. Efronts on Route 13, this particular area is not conducive to I i; a residential dwelling. 'i 4) The use proposed, to use this building to house retail copy i equipment , is not incompatible with other uses in the neigh- I� borhood. �i �i i l it I ii I� I' i I i i i I! - 69 - �i j BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK i' j� AUGUST 31 , 1981 it JISECRETARY HOARD: The next appeal is appeal number 1391 : I Appeal of Tioga and Buffalo Building Corpor ation for an area variance under Section 30 25, Columns 11 and 14 to permit the constru - tion of a five-story office building at 200 East Buffalo Street. The property is locate in a B-lb (business) use district, and if the building is constructed, the property w ll be deficient in minimum required front and rear setbacks . A similar variance request was granted by the Board in October 1979 ; t at variance expired when a building permit was not obtained within the subsequent twelve month period. ' MR. O'BRIEN; My name is Robert O'Brien, I 'm with O'Brien $ Taube j! Associates , we are the architects for the project. As you pointed out ,, we are back here asking for essentially reestablishment of ithe variance that we received two years ago. Due to difficulty �i in putting together the financing for the project we were unable to begin construction during the one-year time that the variance �fwas in effect. There are, however, two changes to the last appeal i �Ithat I would like to point out to you. They are the result pri- � marily of trying to secure more square footage and this is directly fh related to the financing. Essentially, what we are doing - or are i Ilproposing to do is to move the west facade two feet further to ii �ithe west and to square off the north facade here above the second floor. This would be acantilevered base so that the face of the i building would be flush all the way out to here (_pointing to model of building) . This gains for us approximately loo increase in square footage and this has met the requirements of Citizens Savings Bank for the reasonable square footage that they want to se in order to finance the project, i CHAIRMAN AMAN; As I recall , you were initially trying to use a jfoundation that was already there? i j MR. O' BRIEN; Yes , the building essentially constitutes the same mass as the old YMCA building and that configuration is built on t p F 11of the existing foundation. This primarily is due to the unusual i' !` nature of the foundation of the YMCA building - it goes very deep i! 70 - '; into the ground because the old gymnasium and swimming pool were belowrade. To take out those foundations and g put in new founda- I tions would, we feel , endanger the adjacent buildings due to ,! undermining and would be prohibitively extensive for the project. IThe existing - well I have a - this shows the grey outline is the l existing building and it also shows the set back requirements on the site. The area highlighted in yellow shows the proposed chang s �Ithat we would like to make and apply at this time . As you can see the YMCA perimeter exceeded on the north side and on the south sid , the required set back and this was the area variance that we re- quested the last time. We would now like to flush up the north elevation above the second floor and on the west elevation, essen- tially extend what we represent here five feet further to the west i i� bringing it out to the required set back point that had been further set back than was required. CHAIRMAN AMAN: That five feet extension, does that come up against any of those buildings? MR. O'BRTEN: By way of orientation this is the post office I I (Pointing to the chart) , property owned by Weatherby, Savings & Loan, Telephone Company - this is Tioga and this is Buffalo . This (pointing) would essentially just move five feet further toward I� (, the street bringing it out to the set back. This (pointing) this I; line right here - just square up flush. It doesn't look like a very big move but it gains a 10% increase in leaseable square footage makes the project fly. It ' s that critical and the current financing situation is very hard to put together - a private I office building project. The project would be primarily tenant owned - the people going in it will be participants in the owner- ship. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any questions? MR. OIBRIEN: George Gesslein is here from Citizens to answer any questions you might have regarding the financing, if anyone has a question along those lines . CHAIRMAN AMAN; Tell me how close do you come to that building there that is facing me - when you add that second . . . ii i - 71 - liis ii MR. O'BRIEN: This one here? (pointing) CHAIRMAN AMAN: Yes . MR. O'BRIEN: This is Weatherby' s property and you can see it is li just squaring off this line here. At ground point there is no �; difference for the first two stories in fact there is no differ- ii ence (unintelligible) from those right now. Then comes out five feet closer to it . CHAIRMAN AMAN: And how close does that put the building to that MR. O'BRIEN: I believe it is twelve feet. i MR. WALSH: You don't have any parking problem here because of the presence of the ramp , is that correct? MR. O'BRIEN: This is zoned for no required onsite parking. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Do you have any questions? MR. GESSLEIN: George Gesslein, Citizens Savings Bank. We are providing the financing for the building . We requested that O'Brien $ Taube take a good close look at the building and come up with sufficient additional square footage of leaseable space to make the project economically viable because of high construction costs , high interest rates and a relatively small building com- pared to the normal cost of putting elevators and this sort of thing you can' t amortize it over very many square feet so by i adding 10% , 2 ,700 square feet , of leaseable space without causing �' any additional costs for elevators and this sort of thing, they went the additional step that made the project feasible and the only condition under which we would finance it .. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Okay, thank you gentlemen. Anyone here wishing to speak in favor of the proposed variance? (_no one) Is there anyone here who wishes to speak in opposition? IMR. WEATHERBY: I 'm Dave Weatherby, the owner of the anti ue build i ing to the north of the lot that will be occupied by the new build - ing. I 'm not against the idea of a new building there, it would Abe nice to get rid of the weed patch and have something construc- t tive. For those members of the Board who were not here at the i. ! time that the change was made in 1979, you will require that it di I !I i - 72 - I eliminate the off-street parking requirement . It opened up the iI ' amount of occupied space of the property by reducing the open space from 50% to 100 . It changed the maximum story to be con- structed on the lot from four stories to six stories . It changed the set back requirements, the side yards were ten and fifteen feet and they were changed to five and five. The rear yard was 1 changed from 150 of the depth to 10% of the depth. That was done the end of April 1979 approximately sixteen months ago . The prim rates at that time and up to October of 79 was about 11-3/4% . Today it is 20 to 20%% . I 've seen the city try to cooperate with I� the builders and bend to make it a viable building in that parti- cular lot . I 'm concerned with the overhang, as you can well unde - stand, on the north side. The overhang would come to the lot lin which would be very close to ten feet from the building because i there is a ten foot right-of-way between the YMCA and the building . I think the engineers need to take a better look at the foundation and the fact that I see it every day. The area of the rear , which is the jog where the gymnasium was , has heaved about a foot - approximately a foot . I question the validity of being able to f use that particular foundation which is indicated in your model . i You probably will have to excavate and put in a new foundation in that particular area. I 've pointed that out to Ray DiPasquale I! about a year ago and apparently it didn't get put into the com- puter, The measurement from the center of the existing foundation wall to the front to the lot line is now very close to the 10% requirements i.t is 616 - that ' s how far the building is at this point in time from the foundation to the edge of the lot line . Now that 616" would be consumed with. the overhang. What does that mean? It means that there is additional restriction of the light, air circulation, safety of tenants in the building because of a 'I narrow alley, probably a fire safety situation to get hook and 'l ladder back into that five foot structure for evacuation. There 11 would be no way to get a hook and ladder or a wide service truck in there. At present we have had - if you have noticed on the building, there is a nice bay window which became exposed after i ii ii i� - 73 - the Y fire - that ' s been hit several times by delivery trucks i going into the Acrographics - I think - narrowing the building right now would probably eliminate the ability to get a large ;i j delivery truck back to Acrographics . So I 'm not against the building - I 'm against offering the - getting a variance at this particular time to accommodate even further what should have been done over a year ago . Now, if the interest rates have changed one way or the other or if the plans get moved around a little bit differently and they find they are going to have to excavate and put up another wall , the price goes up , the economics don' t work out - even the added 10% in upstairs rent may not overcome i the construction costs and the financing there. All in all the building should go up , but I don't want to see it incringe on the back yard area between the antique building which has been i there since 1840 ' s to a new modern building that doesn' t blend in particularly well with the antique - the historical architec- ture of the street. I ' ll pass some pictures around which will (� give you an idea of the building and the Y building as it was just j after the fire and you can see what restriction there is as far as the amount of space that would be available. Case closed. MR. O'BRIEN: Could I just address one thing that I think may be misinterpreted? CHAIRMAN AMAN: Yes if we 've finished with the opposition. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in opposition? (no one) Mit. O'BRIEN: I ' ll be very brief. I just want to reiterate because I think it may not have been understood. We are not constricting I� the alley at all from what we proposed in the past . The extension I on the north side only begins after the second story r, the third story is the first extension. There will be a twos-story clear. . . CHAIRMAN AMAN; How high is that? MR. O'BRIEN: About twenty feet . Twenty feet to the bottom of this extension that has no affect at a11 . CHAIRMAN AMAN; The part that would come across the antique build- i' ing what ii MR. O'BRIEN: That would be here (pointing to model) . i 74 - i' CHAIRMAN AMAN: Does that affect any of the windows or any . . . I MR. O'BRIEN: It begins about the eave line of the antique store . 1" i .� MR. WEATHERBY: It would restrict the light, the air - it is a- nother mass there . ii ' CHAIRMAN AMAN: It would restrict the light and air to the lower I bay window. i' MR. WEATHERBY: Yes . It 's a larger mass than the YMCA structure ii on that particular side. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any further questions from the Board? If there are no further questions then we will call the next case. I Ii I ii l it =i it I, �j I i ►i i i' ii j - 75 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK i is AUGUST 31 , 1981 {i EXECUTIVE SESSION `j APPEAL NO. 1391 : l The Board considered the appeal of Tioga and Buffalo Building Corporation for an area variance to permit the construction of a i five-story office building at 200 East Buffalo Street . The decision of the Board was as follows : { CHAIRMAN AMAN: I move that the Board grant the area vari- ance requested in appeal number 1391 . MR, WALSH: I second the motion. it I VOTE: 4 Yes ; 0 No ; 1 Abstention, 1 Absent { Granted i FINDINGS OF FACT: I( 1) This Board granted an earlier variance request in October 197 . E That variance request sought to utilize the foundation of the former YMCA and this Board granted the area variances necessary to build this new structure on that old foundation. 2) The proposed changes in the plans submitted to the Board in it this case do not seriously alter the original proposal . 3) That portion of the building which runs along the north prop- erty line and which had been set back fully five feet from the property line would now .extend to the property line beginning at �I the third floor; thus the portion immediately abutting the line would begin at the eave level of the adjacent structure and would I' not have the same effect of restricting light and air as if built from the ground up at the property line , I 4) With regard to the western wall , the developers propose to { extend it five feet further west than the variance originally i granted would have permitted. However, the newly proposed line o { the wall still leaves the required five feet set back and thus is not any further imposition, I' 5) The overall mass of the structure is not appreciably changed either from the YMCA building formerly on the site or from the I{ i i 76 - �4 i' Executive Session - Appeal No. 1391 - continued design originally proposed to and approved by this Board in October 1979 . I! I� i i i i i I 4� �i i {i II fj II t i ii i I` ii ii !I i i 'i I l i� I N! i' ii f�s i' 71 - i; I BOARD- OF ZONING APPEALS i; COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS is CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31 , 1981 'i SECRETARY HOARD: The next case is appeal number 1392 : Appeal of John Rancich and Housing Oppor- tunities and Essential Services (H.O.M.E. S ) for area variances under Section 30. 25 , Columns 4 and 11 and Section 30 . 26 to '! permit the occupancy of the property at 31 li West Buffalo Street by a Group Care Resi- dence for six residents . The property is located in an R-2b (residential) use dis- trict in which a group care residence is permitted under special conditions speci- fied by the Zoning Ordinance. The property is deficient in the minimum required front yard setback and off-street parking, and ii does not meet the special condition require- ments for minimum lot width, and minimum setback for both side yards. �I MR. MACK: I 'm Ron Mack, I live at 115 Eddy Street and I 'm here I to request a variance for the property at 311 W. Buffalo Street . i+ Currently that property houses Evergreen, which is a kind of informal half-way house and we are seeking to affiliate with HOMES and become a licensed supportive living community residence ii I; and that affiliation changes us from an informal living arrange- ment to one which required that we come here and ask for a vari- ance . I am a Psychologist, I teach at Cornell , my area is clinic 1 (I psychology and for several years as part of my teaching I 've plac d 11 students in psychiatric facilities , other agencies , institutions where they can work with immensely disabled., We had several stu dents out at Willard Psychiatric Center on the Tompkins County i unit working there and they would continually come tome and say i after a successful course of treatment at Willard, Tompkins Count residents come back to Tompkins County then end up back at Willard, the reason being - there seems to be no transitional supportive �i facility where they could live , stay while they found a place to live and where they could find employment . We decided to set up i! our own informal halfway house , since there wasn't one in Ithaca and we did so with- the cooperation of Willard Psychiatric Center. i I We called the place Evergreen: for reasons that were unclear to u ii then and nowi:n 1981 are totally obscure but we've been a very i, ii successful operation. Our first residence was in Brooktondale i 78 - �i which was a very ideal , nice comfortable place to live but most i. !j of our clients worked at Challenge Industries and take part in the programming at Meadowhouse and it was virtually impossible for them to get from Brooktondale to where they were and where i j they were taking their programming because there was no public transportation. In 1976 we moved to 311 W. Buffalo Street . It turned out to be an ideal location. Our location, our clients i could easily walk to Challenge Industries , they could easily wall to Meadow House and our student staff members could easily hitch up the hill _ up Buffalo Street to Cornell . We have been a totally independent , barely self sufficient informal arrangement (i since 1975 . About two years ago , HOMES started to come into being as a way of providing some kind of overall structure for c m- munity residences: in Tompkins County and we saw that it would i be of great benefit to us to be able to affiliate with HOMES - t I; become a certified supportive living facility as opposed to the �I kind of informal structure we had been in the past . There are several advantages to us affiliating with HOMES - one it provide j us with an administrative strucutre which we have never really had before, it also provides us with. funds to allow us to upgrad (� and improve the property at 311 W, Buffalo Street. The variance we seek are for side lot width and off-street parking, I would like to make clear that we intend to use the property in no way any differently than it has been used in the past, itis not a use change there is going to be. no increase in the population I in the number of people at that particular property there is really going to be no change in 311 W, Buffalo Street , except li to improve th-e property and to have Evergreen have a different administrative structure. We feel that at 311 W. Buffalo Street I j we have been good neighbors .. We have been there since 1976 and I feel we 've been there successfully, One of the criteria in j the mental health field for a successful program is that the people who go through it pass the test of indistinguishability r f� Ij that is , does this person when in the normal environment seem to appear normal? Well , Evergreen has passed the test of indis- tinguishability - we 've been there since 1976 and no one knows j'i if I, 79 - 'i we are there . There have been no complaints from neighbors , there Ijhave been no objections to our student staff or to our client popu- lation. We have been welcomed by both Central School - across the ; street and by Immaculate Conception - also across the street next i door - there have been no problems whatsoever. I would like to II add that regarding off-street parking, there is one on-site parkin j space and we currently have a contract for leasing two additional I� parking spaces from the Gulf Station on Seneca Street which is I �i right across from our back door. We are trying to meet the criteria I 1{j for off-street parking spaces we haven't yet - we are working on �i a variance in that regard. I would like to point out that in the C� f years that we 've been on this property, we have never had more than two cars there and we anticipate no change whatsoever. As I say, the capacity of the house stays the same. For years we 've averaged around ten occupants, six clients - four staff and our I i agreement with HOMES and with the State is that they will stay the same. That ' s it. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Staff don' t reside there? it MR. MACK: Staff do reside there, That makes CHAIRMAN AMAN: A total of ten? I MR. MACK: A total of ten six clients, four staff. Maybe this I would best be directed to Ken, i iE MR. LENHARDT; I 'm Ken Lenhardt , I 'm on the staff of HOMES , and in discussing this matter with. Mr, Hoard, it was our impression that the stipulations and the special conditions have to do with. the residents of the house rather than the staff of the house, I believe that is still true , CHAIRMAN AMAN; I misunderstood, you were talking about six and i� then a total of ten, 11MR. LENHARDT: Yes , these would be lave-in staff but they still li I, would be nonetheless, staff, l CHAIRMAN AMAN: Anyone here who wishes to speak on behalf of the variance? proposed (no one)- Is there anyone here who wishes to I, speak in opposition? (no one) Okay, hearing nothing further we will call the next case:. I ftp �i 80 - �S j �a BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK I! AUGUST 31 , 1981 � EXECUTIVE SESSION I s APPEAL NO. 1392 : The Board considered the appeal of H.O.M.E.S. for area variances IO to permit the occupancy of the property at 311 West Buffalo Street i by a Group Care Residence for six residents . The decision of the , Board was as follows : i s ' MS. HAINE: I move that the Board approve the area I variance requested in appeal number 1392 . IMR, WALSH; I second the motion. VOTE : 5 Yes ; 0 No ; 1 Absent Granted FINDINGS OF FACT: I� � 1) There were no neighborhood objections. 2) Doesn't substantially change the current useage. 3) The proposal does meet the area requirements for the number of residents . 4) The showing was that the off-street parking which would be ii {�{ required by the Ordinance is unlikely to be required by the it staff and residents . In any case they have secured two parking places by contract, I� �y i i i4 I �i a �I Ef Ij �i l I is - 81 - I �I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS (, CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31 , 1981 ! SECRETARY HOARD: The next appeal is appeal number 1393 : I! Appeal of C. J. Anagnost for an area variance under Section 30 . 25 , Column 6 �! to permit occupancy of the single-family house at 108 College Avenue by five i unrelated individuals . Occupancy by it five unrelated persons would constitute a change in use to a multiple dwelling , a permitted use in the R-3b (residential) use district in which the property is located. The property is deficient in i' minimum required lot size for a multiple Itj dwelling , therefore an area variance is it required. I1MR. ANAGNOST: My name is Chris Anagnost, my address is 304 College ii Avenue and I 'm here on behalf of Guy Torbert who is the current owner of the house at 108 College Avenue and I am making the appeal for him. 108 College Avenue is located in an R-3b zone - the re- quest - it ' s currently a single family dwelling . The owner lives I ! there alone and under the present zoning a single family dwelling {Twill allow three unrelated occupants to live in this house . Our I , request is that the Board approve a variance to allow a total of i five unrelated people to occupy it. This house meets all the re- i !iquirements as far as set back, off-street parking, side yards - lthe deficiency is a 25 square foot deficiency in the lot size . Th Pot is 50 x 79 . 5 feet makes a total of 3,975 square feet and 11required in this zone to convert from a single family to a multiple i fis 4 , 000 square feet. It has the necessary off-street parking and meets all the requirements . Bedroom sizes are sufficient for occupancy by five people . So , on that basis , since the deficiency its not in use but in area and since itis about . 60 of the lot size I am requesting that you grant a variance to allow the change in i use. Any questions? ii`j MS. HAINE: I have a question. Will Mr. Torbert continue to live ! there? Ii MR. ANAGNOST: No, he has advertised the house for sale and from �ithese advertisements the people that are interested in it are i jinterested in it if they can use it for this use as a rental prope ty i� i I li i� 82 - ;!APPEAL NO. 1393 page 2 ; and he intends to go into an apartment. CHAIRMAN AMAN: What is the housing on either side, are they both I multiple dwellings? SMR. ANAGNOST: Well , College Avenue, of course , runs into Mitchell ii 'land so in a relatively short distance you have single family houses 11on Mitchell Street. The house on the north side is a three unit, i 11the house on the other side is a group house - it 's a single family iI iloccupied by a group of five or six unrelated people. And under the i. old zoning, in a one family dwelling , you could have five unrelated i so the house on the south side falls under that qualification. And then, of course , farther up College Avenue I don' t think there are any houses that aren't multiple dwellings . It ' s going down toward Mitchell and State that you have residential occupancy. Except for IIMs . Mondy. I 'd say there are two owner occupied houses going up - Inot within 200 ' - going up College Avenue. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Okay, any further questions from the Board? Thank you Mr. Anagnost. Anyone here who wishes to speak on behalf of the i requested variance? (no one) Is there anyone here who wishes to 1�speak in opposition? MR. STILES: My name is Lawrence Stiles and I live at 119 Linden I Avenue. Linden Avenue is somewhat the same structure that College Avenue is in that the houses down toward Mitchell at each - kind Ii hof - side of the street are still single family and that we are really making an effort to live in there and we would like to try i to maintain the private home mix with the college students . We I 'realize that that's a factor and that when we moved there that my (wife and I felt that that was a compatible mix and that if the zoni g were followed that it could really make a viable place for us to , live. I think really what I am arguing for is the maintenance of ,4 !zoning in that area. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Of course here the use is a multiple dwelling - is jallowed under the zoning , . , we are not talking about a use varianc I ias we were in the other case. I R. STILES: Okay, then if I make- let me ask you, as an advocate ! if I say the argument to maintain the zoning or just to have the �I I. I 83 - 'IAPPEAL N0. 1393 page 3 l three unrelated people as a maximum rather than to allow some vari dation - would be to , in effect, change the spirit of the zoning. Am I . . . ? ( CHAIRMAN AMAN: Well , all I 'm saying is that the use here is allowEd j� and what we focus on is this 25 square feet deficiency. Is that lend of itself so serious as to justify denial of the area variance 11request? That ' s our issue. it !SMR. STILES : If I make an argument and then if I am not seeing it, jithen you can tell me . . I ' ll . . . '( CHAIRMAN AMAN: I 'm not trying to argue with you, I 'm just - you I are talking about not changing the zoning but I just want to - my i j only point is that the use is allowed . . . and we are talking about ) i an area variance. MR. STILES : Standing up and trying to make a presentation, I thin ; sometimes it' s hard to see the reasoning that I - I am having a I little trouble with nerves the - why I would not like to have ';( five unrelated people here is because I think it ' s going to create I i Ian atmosphere where - people can feel they can sell their single family homes and that there will be some way then - for a high i price - and that the people who then want to buy feel that they ca I , because the Board then will say that they will find some reason �ito let them override it , Rather than to try to keep these few remaining houses private owner. I apologize if the argument isn' t exactly. . . CHAIRMAN AMAN: No - I understand what you are saying. Thank you i Mr. Stiles . Is there anyone else here who wishes to speak in opposition to the proposed request? i MRS. GERKIN: As a homeowner, I am also very nervous . My name is liKay Gerkin, I live at 116 Mitchell which is the corner of College ( Avenue and Mitchell , two houses from Mr. Torberts . We have lived (' there for fourteen years - we moved into the neighborhood back when 'i East Hill School was going it was a very nice mix of single family !I homes and students . I have no objection I wish to make it very clear - to student housing. But I do in the first place I would ' like to ask, I don't q uite understand the need for this variance . . t t t i �I l� i 84 - ; APPEAL NO. 1393 page 4 i! i IlAre we talking about parking or are we merely talking about twenty l ' five square foot of footage. f 1CHAIRMAN AMAN: As I understand the facts of the case the only de- i Ificiency is that the lot size - the lot is twenty-five square feet I Ismaller . . . than we require . . . MRS. GERKIN: But I also understand that we are talking about five (people now and there is no room for five cars so has anybody looked Minto this? i JMR. ANGELL: It doesn' t require parking for five cars . i ( MRS. GERKIN: Well if we are having five people and we have 150 ,students down in Schuyler House, we have 350 in Sheldon Court , we i ;fare going to have another 150 in Cascadilla Hall and this area is I a great many people are asking that more people be housed in this area. It 's not that we dislike people , but it is getting very i � squeezy and T have a statement from a gentleman who lives at 115 Mitchell Street which is the corner of Brandon and Mitchell - direc- fitly across from College Avenue - Mr. Henry Goode. "I am Henry Goode, 1115 ood , 1115 Mitchell Street, four to five doors from the property in ques- tion. I 've lived and owned the house for over twenty-five years . I I've watched the area along College Avenue deteriorate rapidly iIduring this time. Primarily because of the change from single ifamily dwellings to student occupied absentee landlord dwellings . Our only protection from further deterioration of the area is the I enforcement of current zoning. I hope very much that a variance ii will not be allowed. " And I would just like to add to this that a i great deal of thought be put there is going to be a tremendous lchange in the area of Collegetown with the proposed plans , all of i hich are not really developed yet or even thoughtout - all of the ,problems, I' would just like to ask that you think about this . CHAIRMAN AMAN: Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? Yes sir. 1k, R. HANNA: I am Tom Hanna, I live at 210 Eddy Street and I 'm a I resident of the neighborhood and I 'm also president of the East Hil Civic Association. My comments relate a little bit to what we 've iheard from the neighbors who live a little closer by than I do it ii i� l 85 - �I 1APPEAL N0. 1393 page 5 � to the house in question. I ' d like to summarize that in discussions lwith those neighbors who are here and with other neighbors in the I� I —neighborhood today that there are really three things that - about 1� this particular request and other requests on College Avenue that concern us . So I ' ll state them here because we feel they apply i equally to other cases which you may have. The first is that by i ; the strict provisions - this is an area variance request and the i ; question is , is there reason enough to step aside from this parti- cular area deficiency in order to justify a new use and the feelin 1 of the neighbors that I 've talked with is that no we should stand , for the regulations as they are written in this particular case an � in other cases like them especially for the near future . The seco d does relate to the fact that this is one of our single family home and we would like to keep as many of those as we can. Now on this i point I understand that there has been some difficulties - this �I particular house has been advertised as a single family home. I understand that it would be possible to have this home as a single ( family home with another unit it is and with some work, bring it into compliance without it ever having to come to this group , shou d ;lit be sold in that fasion, And this would be something that we �iwould like very much to see. We 've had some success in recent tim s . for example, at 204 Eddy Street - no 206 Eddy Street - in seeing a house - it was picked up by an absentee landlord who recognized ( that there was no way of providing parking and could only provide ( housing for three unrelated individuals and in one year we were able to get that house sold to a family, We are very pleased that ( that happened - it ' s one of the things that in our neighborhood we E 1try to do. I must admit that in this particular case we didn' t kn w that there was trouble in getting this house sold to a single family and we would like very much to have the time to be able to see wha we could do in that respect. The third thing is and I think this is a point that Mrs . Gerkin was trying to make and I 'd like to make i ljin my own way, We are in a period of time when we've been promise we've been enticed to believe that Collegetown development over 'i i' I� - 86 - ,1APPEAL NO. 1393 page 6 I I1the next five years is going to create the possibility for a signi- Ificant influx of families into the neighborhood through development �i nand this particular house - what we are looking at is one of those I !anchor homes that makes it easier for families of the future to com Minto a much more dense Collegetown with many more students and , we �Ihope, many more families . We find on' all requests , whether for a I Iuse variance or for deficiencies in parking or for even so small a thing as a few square feet that we are really looking very much for i (ward to sticking strictly with the zoning so that we've got an ilopportunity to keep the exciting links that we've got in Collegetow . IAnd to keep families in homes and to help find families for the homes !that are there. And I guess those three elements , the fact - the sense of wanting to preserve the families that are there now and !thinking about the very dramatic development that we are looking t lin the near future , we are really anxious that in all such cases this Board play a little strict with the rules with us so that we can get our development and make an exciting neighborhood. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposi- tion? Do you want a brief rebuttal? MR. ANAGNOST: I just want to add one thing . Linden Avenue - Mr. Stiles lives in the house on Mitchell Street and Mrs . Gerkins live , are in a different zone. The zone does change from R-3 to R-2 . The situation on the end of Linden Avenue is a little bit differen than on the end of College Avenue . �I I I I i li i I! ii ii f' i I I - 87 - 11APPEAL NO. 1393 page 7 j ?j BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK I AUGUST 31 , 1981 i !I i EXECUTIVE SESSION !APPEAL NO. 1393 i ;i !The Board considered the appeal of C. J. Anagnost for an area vari- jlance under Section 30 . 25 , Column 6 to permit occupancy of the sing e i family house at 108 College Avenue by five unrelated individuals . Occupancy by five unrelated persons would constitute a change in use to a multiple dwelling, a permitted use in the R-3b (residential) jluse district in which the property is located. The property is O' deficient in minimum required lot size for a multiple dwelling, !; therefore an area variance is required. �JMR. WALSH: I move that the Board deny the area variance re- it !i quested in appeal number 1393. ii MS. HAINE : I second the motion. !VOTE : 5 Yes ; 0 No ; 1 Absent Denied FINDINGS OF FACT: 1) College Avenue is a principal thoroughfare of the City of I! Ij Ithaca, a main gateway to Cornell University, heavily traveled �i at all times , particularly in the morning and the evening. Th t !I area on College Avenue and its immediate environs is heavily i �= populated by students, many of them living in multiple dwellin s . j As a consequence the area is probably considered to be densely inhabited. This manifests itself in extremely high demand for j on-street parking on College Avenue and adjacent streets . The la lot size requirements established by the Zoning Ordinance for i i� multiple residences were expressly designed to address and !i minimize the impact of crowding. Thus those standards should I� be treated as minimal acceptable levels and any deviation from them should be closely examined. On the facts of this case I� no compelling reasons has been shown to bend the standard set by the Ordinance particularly where the neighborhood residents �I ! indicated concerted opposition to the proposed change based upon anticipated increases in traffic and noise. �I 88 - is BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS 'I CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31 , 1981 i SECRETARY HOARD: The next case , Mr. Chairman, is appeal number 11 111394 : Appeal of Franklin and Janet Henry for an area j; variance under Section 30.49 and Section 30 . 25 , columns 10, 11 , 12 , 13 and 15 to permit the construction of a car port covering most of the rear yard at 202 West Yates Street . The property ` is located in an R-2b use district, and the maxi- mum ax - mum permitted lot coverage is exceeded, and the property is deficient in minimum required front yards , side yard, and rear yard. I IMRS. HENRY My name is Janet Henry and I live at 202 West Yates ' Street , and my husband and I are seeking a variance to the area �Iregulations in that we are proposing to put in a full bath in the i ( area that is presently covered by a porch; to tear down an existing 1 garage that is in pretty bad condition right now and it 's leaning 1 � at about a 30 degree angle. There are holes in it and it is just 1, in pretty bad shape and we propose to tear that down and to replac illI! it with a carport. The problem is the lot size , It is a very small 'i lot and it is also an odd shaped lot, There isn't too much that w could do in making any, renovations at all that would fall within the code and I would like to see a variance issued to us so that we ca Il make these changes and I think that it would enhance the value of I our property and also enhance the property of the other neighbors in our area. CHAIRMAN AMAN: The carport , will that go essentially the same place where the garage is now? MRS . HENRY: The carport would extend from the house - I have a picture - the perspective isn' t exactly as it should be , I can show Ilyou where it is I ' ll show you what we are proposing. CHAIRMAN AMAN: As far as the bath is concerned, will you utilize this same area? MRS. HENRY: That same area. We would come out about a foot more (pointing to picture of back porch attached to the house) . CHAIRMAN AMAN: And you would attach the carport to that? MRS. HENRY: Yes and the carport would extend from the roof line ! . . . , (conversation took place between Mr. Walsh and Mrs , Henry e !! which wasn't picked up by the recorder) ,i ii i i - 89 - j 'i ; CHAIRMAN AMAN: What kind of deficiencies are we talking about ;; here - as to how many feet or i ; MRS. HENRY: Rear yard and side yard, I believe . I think we need f ( about five feet but the garage that is presently there is taking i ! up that area so we wouldn' t be encroaching any more than we are at present. '( CHAIRMAN AMAN: So that' s what I am getting at - whether or not you I 11MRS. HENRY: No , we wouldn' t be encroaching any more than we are if , at present. �I , CHAIRMAN AMAN: You are not making it any better, but you aren' t !, making it . . . . ! MRS . HENRY: Any worse, right . i (Discussion took place between Mr. Walsh and Mrs. Henry which i ; wasn' t picked up on the recorder. ) i1CHAIRMAN AMAN; Any further questions.? (none) Thank you very I !; much. Anyone here wishing to speak on behalf of the requested variance? MR. ANDERSON: My name is Robert L, Anderson, I live at 110 Auburn Street T live three houses from the Henrys, I am 100% in favor of this variance . To my mind the property should be improved and i they have lived there approximately ten years . I am very much in favor of it and would vote for it, Thank you. .I CHAIRMAN AMAN; Thank you Mr. Anderson, Anyone else wishing to i speak- on behalf of the requested variance? (no one) Is there anyone here who opposes it? (no one) Alright, hearing nothing ' further I think. we are on the last case , w i i it I i I ,i �i I� ij j - 90 - i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS II COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31, 1981 i' !I EXECUTIVE SESSION ii , APPEAL NO. 1394 : !' The Board considered the appeal of Franklin and Janet Henry for � an area variance to permit the construction of a carport covering i �1most of the rear yard at 202 West Yates Street. The decision of the Board was as follows : 11CHAIRMAN AMAN: I move that the Board grant the area variance , i requested in appeal number 1394 . i MR. WALSH: I second the motion. VOTE : 5 yes ; 0 No; 1 Absent Granted I FINDINGS OF FACT : I I� 1) The proposed changes will not substantially exacerbate the !! area deficiencies that presently exist, i � 2) These proposed changes will substantially improve the j petitionerts property. if � 3) Given the small and odd shape of the petitioner 's lot, practi- cal difficulties have been shown, 1 I� I� �i i 1 i I� I i� II 1 II Ii t it it i i i, jj i 'f I 91 - I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK i; AUGUST 31, 1981 i� SECRETARY HOARD: The last appeal , appeal number 1395 : I� Appeal of Carol Lin for an area variance under Section 30 . 25 , Columns 4 and 6 to permit the ji occupancy of the single family house at 126 i College Avenue by six or seven unrelated indi- viduals . Occupancy by six or seven unrelated individuals would constitute a change in use to a multiple dwelling, a permitted use in the R-3b (residential) use district in which the property is located. The property is deficient in required off-street parking and minimum lot size; therefore an area variance is required for the conversion. MS. LIN: My name is Carol Lin, I live in 126 College Avenue. The I' house is a few feet from 108 College Avenue - just presented befor . And the house is zoned for R-3b . I have to declare first of all - there is a misunderstanding in the newspaper I saw last time . I did not apply for six or seven unrelated people in the same house � I did not apply for that. What I am asking for is five unrelated people of one family with three unrelated people. The house has been occupied by six students for at least two years from the ex- owner who is a student in Cornell Law School and there is no trouble or noise that has occurred. After I bought this house - early August - I realized that there was no variance for it even it worked alright in such a way so that I applied for a zoning IIvariance ., in order to change this property from single family to a multiple dwelling for five unrelated people or one family with three unrelated people , The zoning requires two parking spaces in order for me to do so. Since the house is very close to the campu most of the single students walk to school ,. we don't have cars . Second it has a long driveway you can park. one to two cars n itis a kind of set back. off street parking spaces . And there are I 1plenty of free parkings around this property. The variance will i not have many any effect on this area - I mean, it seems to me I this area will remain the same as it was before. Even Quieter be- i cause this house is for female students only. We do not like to I ` we do not make too much noise and for safety sake, we would rath r !I i` I Ij 1 - 92 - - we would prefer living in Collegetown rather than north campus i ! which (unintelligible) the north or Schuyler House which is i !sway down the hill . And also most of the houses in Collegetown are i; multiple family dwellings - I assume that one of the reasons by ( which they were granted a variance was based on the necessity and iconvenien u-- of the hard working students . I honestly do not try t ; squeeze money from my school mates nor do I wish to see which room �Iin my house and the house was constructed at least sixty years ago !'I and it is thirty square feet shorter than the lot - than the re- quired lot space. There is no way I can change the size of the i house so I apply for that variance too. I know it is difficult to imagine granting a variance to a house like this today because if I' you walk by Collegetown property you will see many people walking around there but at the beginning of the semester and the family I and parents come from all over the United States and all over the world but most of the time Collegetown - the appearance of the Collegetown is many busy students they are quiet at night and vivid during the day so I am here to apply for the variance of the house. Thank you. Any questions? �i CHAIRMAN AMAN: You are limiting occupancy— you are saying five 1 unrelated people and you are saying that you have two parking I spaces? The driveway would accommodate two cars? i MS. LIN: Yes . It is a long driveway. You can park one car in front of the other. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any questions? (none) Thank you Ms . Lin, Anyone here wishing to speak for the proposed variance? (no one) Anyone wishing to speak against it? I I{ MS . MONDY: My name is Nell Mondy, I live at 130 College Avenue I� which is next door. I believe that some of the statistics that I have been proposed tonight are not correct but we can look into i { those This has been a single family, dwelling for a long time I 've lived there since 1953 when I bought my home and I have i watched each family as they come and go. In this case the drive- way will take one car unless the car extends the - the second car extends over the sidewalk and this was the case most of yesterday, i I f I Ii ii I! - 93 - i, extending over the sidewalk. There is one parking place . The ' driveway is next to my hedge and anyone who would like to come and H see what has happened to my hedge with the cars banging it is wel- i' come to do so. When I bought the house I bought it with my mother fl we planted flowers , we tried to have a decent place in which to live. I wanted to be near my work at Cornell University, I still lwant to be near my work so I can get home in the evening - work at ;s ;, the office and come home to a peaceful place. With many students ii ;; who claim that they will be quiet - I welcome anyone who would like i to come up and listen. In addition to having the population density ; increase, we seem to have to have a pet density increase. Just yesterday the dog from next door, young lady, was in my yard unat ; tended. I cannot have flowers , I cannot have a place that would Took - what T would think would be decent for the City of Ithaca - with all the pets running through my yard damaging my property. The students seem to think that there is nothing wrong with throw- (ling their garbage in my yard which I clean out almost every day. I 'd like to bring to your attention that College Avenue is perhaps the main thoroughfare to the campus . I recently had friends visit Mme from Chicago Medical Schools and Boston Medical Schools - I was I ijashamed. They could see that I am living in a dump and it is a (i home that I bought with the intention of having it as a home . I ! like my home , I like the arrangement of the house - I hate to part i �1with it but I shall be forced to - I cannot tolerate this much w longer, I 've had to call the police over and over again because people have parked in my driveway. There is not enough parking space around and I believe she said that there is only one car I �Ibut the fiance has parked in front of my house for weeks and then ( she has one in her driveway. I asked him to move the other night i land he became very annoyed. There are other cars now I don' t I know all the source and I won' t claim all this , but there are �imany cars that seem; to come and go to these houses . But they always seem to find a nice place in front of my house and very ii often extending in my driveway so that when I come home tired, I is ;' cannot get into any driveway - I have to go somewhere else - call 1 li i 94 - call the police - have the car towed away and it takes sometimes an hour or so to get the police out there . Sometimes , after I have gone to bed and I get up - here is a car across and I am i ii hoping it will be moved the next morning before I have to go to work. Sometimes it is not - means I am late getting to Cornell - I then have no parking - I can' t find a parking place up there , I, even though I have a parking sticker - when I am delayed. I 'm jus pointing out some hardships and I think we need to be aware that !� these hardships have been going on. Unfortunately I cannot go along with the idea of the size of the house. I 've known the house very well because I 've visited my neighbors who were there ; many years. It' s a house with just a few it has a living room, i a dining room, a small den off just a little room added on to the i; dining room and a kitchen with just a little breakfast nook and i three bedrooms upstairs . The basement has a very low ceiling - it li has one bathroom - when Mrs . ? put in when she wanted to have it I ii there . But the yard is very crowded and if you walk up the stree ii in the last day or two and see the garbage that ' s in the yard and I� also on the walk and the garbage pickup is not until tomorrow nigh l I think you can see what I am talking about . I 'm sorry I seem ii to be emotional about this but I think you would be too. My H mother lived there with me - we tried to have a decent place - I is jstill try to have a decent place - I get out - I plant my roses - � yesterday I was out watering my roses and my plants and here was this stray dog running all over my place and when I called it to the attention of the young lady who just spoke , she was very it angry and told me I had no right and I said to her - there is the i 4 leash law - the dog should be kept on a leash and she was very upset about this whole situation. I 'm not here to argue except saying facts. Now until this I had nothing against her but I am ! opposed to the system - there is something wrong when people try 11 to have a decent place try to have flowers - try to have a hedge i li and have it all battered down by pets of all these many individual ;, who are moving into our area. Now if people move in and take prid ! we could have several people but when we have people who are there I! I II 95 - I; ' only to make money off of their houses - they care nothing about their neighbor - they care nothing about doing anything to improve ,,! the situation of this city - something should be done . It is a i Ihardship on me - it has been a hardship for several years and I �Ijust ask that we get some help in this situation. Thank you. IjCHAIRMAN AMAN: Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? �IMR. KILLEEN: My name is Shane Killeen, I live at 111 Orchard I IlPlace . Orchard Place is right off Blair Street - Blair Street is I I 11immediately behind this property. I speak of Blair Street because r. I 'm also speaking this evening on behalf of two of my neighbors , !Philip Holmes family , Woody Kelly family they are at Orchard !Place and Blair Street likewise right adjacent to the rear of this i jproperty as it abuts on Blair Street properties . We are also in I Itimately familiar with every gesture of development or change - any new person that moves in on College Avenue - we immediately i ! feel the repercussion on Blair Street in terms of automobiles . !There are no meters on Blair Street and it catches all the residue i ithat constantly is generated. There has been a lot of argument on 4 !this particular case - some of the statements made about other Collegetown requests this evening all have bearing I think, so in lithe interest of time I will just basically make two points. I think we have , very honestly, an economic hardship situation here . believe the general public is being asked to bear an undue i I�economic hardship in the interests of the specific petitioner from i! 1126 who hasn't raised an economic hardship argument but there is a j'change in the use of the building and the impact of that , which will w' have some ramification upon the general tax base in the neighborhood I' 'land certainly specifically on how Nell Mondy views the use of her 1property which is 'immediately next door , We did hear Mrs . Gerkin !t lk about herpropertyconcerns and that is two or three doors � a �' 11down not far away. The other point is that I really think we I� 11have a situation occurring here of the Board of Zoning Appeals being I asked very precisely, very technical questions r totally within its t Ijpurview but being asked to redefine an already very constrained zon- ! ing enforcement code in Collegetown. Mr. Stiles made similar pointE; . I ii I! I. i! 96 - '' This code is so strung out, the pressure on rupture is so great I' ,; that we can talk about a few feet of area variance but the area , stays with the property. We make one subtle change - the ramifi- cation of it is extremely far reaching. I 'm not going to quote Iianything biblical to you but many of you have heard - perhaps even �Iseen - the recent American Cities Corporation commissioned by the j I; City of Ithaca and Cornell University - of the analysis of College 11 itown development potential . A few words : page 66 - they are , talking about the development objectives under the heading of i ( People Living in Collegetown. As many as 1 ,000 additional residents Ii I could be living in Collegetown over the next seven years . As revi talization efforts gain momentum, Collegetown could attract even I �! more residents. We are talking about - I 'm not even quite certain ; the number of residents or occupants - whatever the terminology lis A potentially possible at 126 College Avenue, This is a prece- dent setting variance that I think. the Board of Zoning Appeals. is ; being called upon to render, I think it will exacerbate other i (; variance requests and one will argue that it was used this way ! last year or it was so argued on behalf of a person up the street , so why isn' t it suitable for me? I think. it ' s running counter to the somewhat balanced and delicate planning mechanism that is at iwork through this study - there is a second phase of this study - i jthere is collaboration between the city and a variety of parties , trying to create a balanced sort of living environment there . 1 jHelter-skelter that can be thrown out of whack by these variances , I IICHAIRMAN AMAN: I'm just curious - when was the area zoned multipl dwelling? When was the area zoned . . . I ( MR. KILLEEN: I would defer to Mr. Hoard. 11SECRETAR'Y HOARD: It ' s been multiple for a long time. iMR, KILLEEN: This building? or the area? SECRETARY' HOARD: The area. CHAIRMAN AMAN: It 's been multiple for some time, I I SMR, KILLEEN; I Would think as late - - 77? Whenever the zoning city-wide implementation occurred - 77? SECRETARY HOARD: Well it was previous to that there were a lot liof multiple dwellings. I' �i 97 - i 11MR. KILLEEN: The region but this specific building? i' .' SECRETARY HOARD: Yes . ii MR. KILLEEN:Has always been zoned multiple use or its within a �imultiple use - it 's been used as a single family dwelling - though I ; its been in a multiple use area. SECRETARY HOARD: Right, 1CHAIRMAN AMAN: I 'm just curious - I hear what you are saying and i I hear . . . �I IMR. KILLEEN: We can excelerate the tide is all that is being said 1 I would ask you to bear these two arguments in mind in considering honoring this . I would ask that you refuse it and I would ask �� further - if you are unable to refuse it, if you really feel you must be compelled to honor this - in some way limit as you can - land I don't know these technicalities - but can you limit the ' application of the variance in time and its applicability while th ': much larger zoning , and there has to be - Z am sure - a new zonin ! fabrication for this entire neighborhood just because of the thirt IJor forty million dollars that ' s constantly talked about that 's goi g i Ito impact that area. Growth- spill is a constantly used phrase in , � hexe and we 've had a representative from across Mitchell , Mr. Good Inhere this evening and he is concerned about the properties on �IBrandon 'lace. This is what we - I think, honestly that you shoul defer the zoning back to the city council and not be called upon t ! do what really, seems tome you are being asked to do. Thank you. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you sir. Anyone else wishing to speak in i ;opposition? IMR. HANNA: Basically it 's the same message, And so I won't repeat I�the points earlier. My name is Tom Hanna and I 'm from 210 Eddy i Street, and I 'm president of the East Hill Civic Association. So I won't repeat my own earlier points I would like to say though that it occurs to me that R-3 allows for a mix of uses and if the preservation of that mix of uses which is so desperately of concern to us , I did not say earlier and I will say, now, that the impact �lof changing single family dwellings out into multiple use dwellings Hi.n our R-3 area is a form of block--busting for us and if I wasn't !! i! �I ii 98 - i! �lexplicit about that before I wish to be now. I am very concerned about property owners feeling that they have to escape the area, I ,; either with a pretty good profit for their current single family Phomes in an R-3 zone or with, in fact, losses which might occur if i this trips along and becomes a landslide kind of effect . CHAIRMAN AMAN: Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? Ms . ; Lin a brief rebuttal? i I MS. LIN: I 'm sorry I have to come here again because I was so - i ` when I heard what my neighbor said some trouble - I don' t like to lget into personal like the passing of water and pouring the water i? on my two year old little cocker spaniel and I surely was mad and '; besides I don't like to deal in trifles anyway and the area in { Collegetown is zoned for R-3b and there are people who like to I keep single family because they need to be quiet or they like to live with their own family but there is a need for the other peopl oto have multiple families because they are singles and when they are ( students they have the kind of need to change the house really into multiple family so T just wanted to say that , IICHAIRMAN AMAN: I think we have the case well in hand Ms . Mondy, I I hate to cut you off but it"s almost . . Hearing nothing ! further we will go into executive session we may emerge at dawn oor something of that sort but we' ll . . . i 4 I i I I I i i I I I i, it - 99 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK AUGUST 31 , 1981 I: EXECUTIVE SESSION ,! APPEAL NO. 1395 : I� The Board considered the appeal of Carol Lin for an area variance �I �F to permit the occupancy of the single family house at 126 College I� !' Avenue by six or seven unrelated individuals . The decision of the ( Board was as follows : 11MR. WALSH: I move that the Board deny the area variance i requested in appeal number 1395 . fl IjMS. HAINE: I second the motion. i1VOTE: 5 Yes ; 0 No; 1 Absent Denied FINDINGS OF FACT: ill) College Avenue is a principal thoroughfare of the City of Ithaca, a main gateway to Cornell University, heavily traveled i, j at all times , particularly in the morning and the evening . i The area on College Avenue and its immediate environs is heaviLy j populated by students, many of them living in multiple dwellinors . sl As a consequence the area is probably considered to be densely w inhabited. This manifests itself in extremely high demand for j on-street parking on College Avenue and adjacent streets . The lot size requirements established bythe Zoning Ordinance for l multiple residences were expressly designed to address and ; jf minimize the impact of crowding. Thus those standards should f be treated as minimal acceptable levels and any deviation from I' them should be closely examined. On the facts of this case no compelling reason has been shown to bend the standard set by the Ordinance particularly where the neighborhood residents if �! indicated concerted opposition to the proposed change based u Ij upon anticipated increases in traffic and noise . 2) The Board also finds that there is a substantial question on this record as to the existence of off-street parking for the unit, taken in combination with neighborhood concerns about neighborhood density the Board finds that a denial is required i� i i! ,I - 100 - 1; I I , BARBARA RUANE, DO CERTIFY that I took the minutes of the Board I �I lof Zoning Appeals, City of Ithaca, New York, in the matters of '; Appeals numbered 1367 , 1379 , 1382 , 1384 , 1385, 1387 , 1388 , 1389, it 13903, 13919 13923, 1393, 1394 and 1395 on August 31, 1981 at City i ( Hall , City of Ithaca, New York; that I have transcribed same , and j the foregoing is a true copy of the transcript of the minutes of the meeting and the executive session of the Board of Zoning Appea s it !! City of Ithaca, on the above date , and the whole thereof to the i i1best of my ability. I is �I I � it Barbara C. Ruane If Recording Secretary j Ili �jSworn to before me this l :I I !I J �-2 day of 1981 I I I Notary Public JEAN J. HANKINSON I NOTARY PURL'::, S-i ATE OF NEW YOR-. I' NO. 55-L;q�30-) QUALIFIED IN T_MAKiNS COUNTYsf i MY COMMISSION EX!'-IWMVW,' JO,19_3 l it it Ij i I I �I i l A II I' i �I Ij II I{III Ii II I.. i