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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1977-08-01 II I: i i TABLE OF CONTENTS i� I } j MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, ITHACA, I '$ NEW YORK August 1, 1977. j Pie li APPEAL NO. 1166 Cornell Radio Guild 2 i1 227-229 Linden Avenue APPEAL NO. 1166 Executive Session 8a 1 !, APPEAL NO. 1167 Domino 's Pizza 8 I 402 S. Cayuga Street j APPEAL NO. 1167 Executive Session 23 I� �I APPEAL NO. 1168 John & Mary Gutenberger 24 ii 212- 21211 Delaware Avenue ip APPEAL NO. 1168 Executive Session 58 ii i; j� APPEAL NO. 1169 Bill Avramis 61 li 117-119 Eddy Street APPEAL NO. 1169 Executive Session 78 I� `I APPEAL NO. 8-1- 77 Pudgie' s Pizza Sign 79 I, 211 Elmira Road if APPEAL NO. 8-1- 77 Executive Session 84 it f Certification of Recording Secretary 85 I; li it �i i, I; t' I I E I o 1; ii I i ii it ;i I� l 'i II 'I i+ i i I s ii 13 f� is is ii If BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA CITY HALL, ITHACA, NEW YORK 14850 AUGUST 1, 1977 i; A regular meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, was held in Common Council Chambers, City Hall , Ithaca, ew York on August 1 , 1977. PRESENT: Peter Martin, Chairman Judith Maxwell C. Murray VanMarter Gregory Kasprzak f Martin Greenberg Edgar Gasteiger Thomas Hoard, Building Commissioner $ Secretary it Barbara Ruane, Recording Secretary �� hairman Martin opened the meeting listing members of the Board �} resent. The Board of Zoning Appeals operates under the Ithaca �ity Charter and the Ithaca Zoning and Sign Ordinances . Full mem- �ership of the Board is present this evening. The Board' s procedure, �or those of you who have not been part of it before, is quite I, Dimple. We take the cases that we hear testimony on, up in order - '�he order that the applications have been filed. We hear the appel-j ant present additional information in support of the application irst, then we hear any others present who would like to give testi- r ony or present evidence in support of the application, then we ear those who wish to speak in opposition. After we have heard testimony on evidence on all of the cases we go into executive ession to deliberate and then reconvene to announce the results . �e do not operate by strict rules of evidence, we do ask that all hose who speak come to the front of the room, identify themself �irst clearly by name and address and then limit their remarks to i� -he issues that are before the Board and not go into extraneous ;atters . Two of the cases that are before us tonight arecases that . Frere on our docket last month and on which we rendered decisions �ast month. They, therefore, come back in the nature of requests I or reconsideration of decisions the Board has already made. In that Posture the Board might, under its procedure, decide not to reconsidler, iut in the event - as is custom, to invite those who are seeking I, f !f i� ,i 2 e Ii ;;reconsideration - present new evidence, change of circumstance, I !;something that would lead the Board to come out differently than it! did, in this case, only a month before. The Board's presumption is I; Hthat parties had all opportunities to present relevant material and' jjthat its decision was an appropriate one. Having said all that, why s Iidon' t we turn to the cases . Mr. Secretary, what is the first case? ( Secretary Hoard announced the first case to be heard: d! ;APPEAL NO. 8-1-77 : The appeal of Pudgie's Pizza Restaurant 1! (Knapps Car Wash, Inc. ) for an exception to Section 7-A1 of the Sign Ordinance of the City of Ithaca to install a 65 square foot sign at 211 Elmira Road. ;! The Sign Ordinance permits a maximum {I of 50 square feet for a free standing i� sign. The property is located in a !� B-5 (business) use district . i �Is there anyone here to speak for that Appeal? CHAIRMAN MARTIN: We may pass over it then and if someone comes by �4 the end of the meeting we' ll take it up. iSecretary Hoard announced the next case to be heard: APPEAL NO. 1166 : The appeal of the Cornell Radio Guild, ` II Inc. and Midweek Observer for a use Ivariance under Section 30. 25 , Columns 2 and 4 of the Zoning Ordinance to permit occupancy of a portion of the fi building at 227-229 Linden Avenue to Creative Marketing and Development !� Corp. for its business office and light printing establishment. The building is located in an R-3b (Residential) I� use district. l�HAIRMAN MARTIN: Is there someone here? Yes , would you come fgrwatd lease? I OWARD SCHECHTER: My name is Howard Schechter and I represent i. �reative Marketing Development Corp. I HAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, and you reside? SCHECHTER: 503 Etna Road, Ithaca, New York. �HAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. OWARD SCHECHTER: Basically what we would like to say is that, as I we stated in our appeal , we feel we are compatible with the people �In the building and the neighborhood. There is not going to be much i � f any increase in any traffic or any problems, as stated in the i Ippeal , and presently we don' t foresee any problems involved in our it it - - ;, 3 6; t� occupying that building, or that section of the building. I am, !j you know, fairly open to questions basically. s{ i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Could you describe the sort of traffic that you 'i would expect in a typical business day, this proposed venture to j` ;S draw? tI !l MR. SCHECHTER: Probably very little since there will be a salesma* or two salesmen out in the field covering most of the commercial ! lclients . There will be very few people coming into the office - jlcommercial clients coming into the office. Those that will be ii j coming in will basically be from the collegetown area and, of course, we are working with the Midweek Observer and WVBR so that j !l they are right next door to us and upstairs and all the collegetow' i' �jmerchants are easily within walking distance of our establishment. , 1! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, and the staff who will be there at one j !' time are how many in number? You say the company is managed by three former former Cornell University students. Alright you've got i three managers, who? I i MR. SCHECHTER: The three managers will be acting as the three 14 employees. We will have it divided up that -ither one or two peop}e Ifjwill be manning the operation within and there will be one salesman, � possI ibly two salesmen and one person working within depending upon . ! the volume of business that we generate. 1 ;! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: And does the lease provide for parking for the f ' '; employees managers? i� liMR. SCHECHTER: As explained in, I think I had included a sheet, the lease does include one parking spot which will be - which the Midweek is giving up to us as a pro-rata share of our lease agree- - ment and we will be renting another spot in the lot down the block or two spots depending upon how conditions warrant., Right now its : Bone - it' s two spots total. There will only be - since we all i� reside together - there will only be at the maximum one or two cars there that we will have. Probably only one and one will be used by the salesman. j� MR. GASTEIGER: Does this mean that the Midweek Observer will be �s I! �j i ;i ?+ - 4 - 'j reducing its activity - will not need that parking spot? I� MR. SCHECHTER: Well , I don't know about reducing their activity. !i i` They won' t be needing that spot though. i I MR. GASTEIGER: Are they not using it now? 1 MR. SCHECHTER: I really have no idea. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: The Midweek Observer is a successor in the lease ii to the Sunday something or other, right? MR. SCHECHTER: The Sunday Port or the Ithaca Post . h CHAIRMAN MARTIN: The time we granted the variance for the main s lease it was for the Sunday Post. Have operations shrunk in the! guise now of the Midweek Observer so that there is now space for aI I j sublet and for a sublet of a parking space, is that how we are 1� where we are today? I MR. SCHECHTER: That ' s where we are today. It seems that they sub+ !i I' stantially, well I don' t know about changing the operations , I 'm I� not familiar with it at this point. That basically there was a I name change and some change in operations and that they have not I seen the need for this space that they are sub-letting, subsequently i! the parking space goes along with it. �E CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Further questions from members of the Board? i MR. VAN MARTER: I have one question. Is this a new tenancy? � MR. SCHECHTER: Yes . We will be a new tenant - a sub-tenant in thO building. i MR. VAN MARTER: And you are occupying space, part of which was ( formerly occupied by whom? IMR. SCHECHTER: By the Midweek Observer. They had rented the spaco from VBR and we are sub-leasing it from the Midweek Observer. MR. VAN MARTER: Are you representing the owner in this case or f the . . . j MR. SCHECHTER: I'm representing Creative Marketing and Development Corp. , the new tenant to be occupying the building. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, is there someone here who is representi4g i the owner of the building? Yes. i DAVID GOLDSMITH: My name is David Goldsmith and I reside at 414 i !I j 1 it 5 ilEddy Street and I 'm a representative of the Radio Guild (Cornell) . CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Mr. Goldsmith, perhaps you have other remarks yoil ;i wish to make but you could help us if you would give us a sense of'; t how this operation will fit into the total building and what else is going on there. MR. GOLDSMITH: Okay, presently in the building there is a radio 1 { station WVBR and a newspaper, the Midweek Observer, separate corpoira- �I tions . This firm will be an advertising agency and will be bringil I � both of us clients and advertising and they will also be doing 11 1 printing which is something we require a fair amount of during they i year and also Midweek Observer has a great need for the work that they can do. It will allow the Midweek Observer to do a lot of their photo work and setting of type and things like that on pre- mises that they aren't able to do now. S CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Will they print the Midweek Observer. MR. GOLDSMITH: No. They will be preparing the negatives and help ing to prepare the copy . . . i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Wi-1 this rent up the downstairs part of the building that VBR does not use? MR. GOLDSMITH: No. What they are doing is they are sub-letting a part of the space that the Midweek Observer already has now. The j Midweek Observer has consolidated their operations and essentially since they went from a Sunday paper on a basically student run, to: a professional newspaper and they have consolidated their staff so i it is a lot smaller and they've found that they needed less space. 1 CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Question? MR. GASTEIGER: Will there be an increase in the total numbers of i people in the building, a total number of need for parking? MR. GOLDSMITH: There ' ll be an increase in the number of people inj ithe building. I don' t see any increase in the need for parking since I believe the Midweek Observer has rented an additional spacb i i down the street also, so their space - what they are basically doing I is giving a space closer to the building for Creative Marketing an Development while at the same time picking up a space down the street that they can use, so I don't see as how it ' ll change the n , a {i - 6 - i ;' parking situation. SMR. KASPRZAK: You keep referring down the street. What does that ljmean? HMR. GOLDSMITH: There is a lot owned by a landlord on the street about Ila block down and it' s just a parking lot where he rents spaces out ;? for people. 6 ! MR. KASPRZAK: And what would be the hours of operation of this Anew addition to the . . . IIMR. GOLDSMITH: The new addition I would assume would have normal i ,! business hours . I imagine they will probably be there at night, 6 ' too, as any young company would be, getting started - when they have '1work to do. But the traffic would be mostly in the daytime and cer,- lItainly not at night. �IMR. GASTEIGER: Could you comment further on this traffic? It ' s i true that you have three managers who would be doing most of the work. Won' t theses be done here and strudents dropping by, people dropping materials off and picking it up? MR. SCHECHTER: Well most of the pick up and deliveries, as I stated, will be done by the sales representative . As far as any � I student traffic from Cornell University campus , we are reasonably close to the campus, in walking distance, no more than five minutes! iIfrom the center of campus and its fairly close for students to come) and pick up any kind of work like that. Mainly we are not directing call of our activities to the student population. We are right nowt presently directing our activities toward the Midweek Observer doing i ,1a lot of their work, working with WVBR and some commercial clients j land the University in general , the dining area facilities and it will all be done by the salesmen or the sales representative that ' will be doing the pick up and delivery. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Further questions? Do you have anything further?i ; SMR. GOLDSMITH: I think I have basically answered your questions. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Now is there any - Murray? MR. VAN MARTER: This is a use variance? 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: This, I gather, is a use variance for a build o� in g i i! I � f s - 7 - ii i I !`that exists as a non-conforming use. i 11MR. VAN MARTER: They going to attempt to show any hardship? i NHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are you or are either of you prepared to give i ps argumentation in addition to that provided by the application ! that this building cannot be used for uses permitted in an R-3 (j zone? i , MR. GOLDSMITH: It would be very costly to convert this building into da residential use. It has been found very economically unfeasible. ( HIt is a very old was a laundromat, it was a garage, it ' s been man things - it 's been burned out many, many years ago. And it 's been i a fairly difficult building to rent space out in, considering its ! condition it' s shape and the limited amount of parking, so to find I a client that requires relatively little parking is in essence what fwe are looking for. I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Of course this is not the first time this propert has been before this Board and it has in the past been reviewing tenants and proposed uses in the past, having found that there was sufficient hardship to warrant some use variance. Are there others! here who would like to speak on this case, first others who would jlike to speak in support of the requested variance? Yes . i i STEVE ZIZZI : My name is Steve Zizzi and I live at 503 Etna Road and I just have a couple of points just to clarify some of the j !questions that have been asked and one is that about the sales forc�. We arepresently negotiating sales agreements with Midweek Observer i hich consists of six or seven man sales force where they will also be selling our work. So we have, in addition to the single salesma# with ourselves, or two salesmen, possibly we will have a team of seven other salesmen which will be adequate to serve the community, ; Iwe feel. And also as far as the building being I 'CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright now in terms of the Board's concern about ! the number of people that it will add, using that building which f ou've just told us does not really change things because people in the employ of Midweek Observer will be, as you tell us now, also erhaps serving you. R. ZIZZI : Yes, but as far as the traffic, you know, that 's more of E I i! 8 is guarantee that there would be no increase in traffic due to I j iclientele, customer walk-in, as far as that type of thing, and ;sparking. And also on the building being used in the R-3 manner, I H �Iguess? The building which or the part of the building which we wil k �!be occupying is presently 15 to 20 ' underground, with no windows ani. '11no other provisions for residency and that sort, so I would feel 6 f 11that it ' s , you know, impossible to have a residential tenant there, !as far as conducting a normal residence. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Questions from members of the Board? Thank you. ' IAre there others who would like to speak on this case - first othero 1who would like to speak in support of the requested variance? Is l there anyone here who would like to speak in opposition to the re- quested variance? Seeing none, we will then move on to the next .s case. i SECRETARY HOARD announced the next case to be heard; + i 1APPEAL NO. 1167 : Appeal of Domino ' s Pizza for a use variance under Section 30. 259 Column 2 of the Zoning Ordinance to operate a pizza take-out and delivery business at 402 South Cayuga Street. The property !� is located in an R-3b (Residential) use district. i �RAYMOND FREELAND: L'm Raymond Freeland representing Dominoes Pizza Basically the use of the building - the building that we want is a I commercial built building, built for, originally, a garage. We want o put in our pizza take--out business on the top floor. It is a tw ' - �Story building with both stories on ground level . I have pictures I'£ the building here I 'd like to present to the Board. �HAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, are those pictures we can keep? Can they ecome part of the record of the case? i �IR. PREELAND: Yes . Showing some of the condition of the building IInd the � grounds and also you will see ample parking on the lower ' level and on the upper level so there should be no problem with they arking. f PAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, now g you have already told us of the ambi-� uity about ground floor on this. Which it ' s the top one that ou' ll be using the one that is . . .. that fronts on Cayuga? j + J ,� I }I I I - 1 8a BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS j CITY OF ITHACA s AUGUST 1 , 1977 I ii EXECUTIVE SESSION I i I 1APPEAL NO. 1166 : 'i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I move that the requested use variance be granted. JUDITH MAXWELL: I second the motion. � '! FINDINGS OF FACT: 1. As the Board has determined in earlier �! appeals concerning this property, 227- I l !i 229 Linden Avenue, it is a structure that ! s is not, according to evidence heard in thils and earlier hearings, suitable for resi- j dential use. i 2. The proposed use will not, according to ! !� testimony heard at the hearing, have serious adverse impact on the residential neighborhood. It was stated that the Presses involved will not generate signi- ficant noise and that very little auto I� traffic will be drawn to the building, f i I i i VOTE: YES 6 ; NO 0 fl II' Use Variance Granted. i fl 1 i I I I � I 9 !I i i r I` I �I i I' 9 - 1 !'MR. FREELAND: Right. That would be where the Pizza shop is. liCHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. r !iMR. FREELAND: That would be the customer' s entrance but we could i! fuse the parking for our employees as we need it it would be very ! little but we could use the ground level parking in a lot in back. 1CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, now to grant a use variance the Board must first of all find that the nature of the property is such that 'lit cannot be used as the ordinance would require which is as a (residence and we would also have to find that this doesn' t impose seriouse inconvenience on the neighborhood, that it 's impact on the! 1 neighborhood, in other words that it doesn't run afoul of the general intent of the zoning ordinance. Can you address yourself briefly to both points. MR. FREELAND: Okay. Well first ofall I think the pictures that I have shown you are self explanatory on a residential - for a reside nt. It ' s a garage and to make it over into a resident would be impracti- cal to say the least. You have no the bottom floor would have not i outside windows except for the front door, so that' s you couldn't! !possibly have a residential dwelling in there. What was the other one now? i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Well the other one takes us into a consideration bf i the - sort of traffic, the other affects on the neighborhood likely to be caused by having this as a tenant in that building. I MR. FREELAND: We 've had no opposition, our traffic is limited, we I have very our business is limited on the pick-up customers we have. We do less than maybe 10 - 15% as customers come and pick up! I f!a pizza. Most of our delivery is or most of our business is delivery E � Iwe have no seating, we sell no alcohol . . . CHAIRMAN MARTIN: You do 10 to 15% now where you are on Taughannocki. Now you might well increase that . . . i �IMR. FREELAND: No less . II ( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: You would do less you think off the street? i I iMR. FREELAND: Right. The reason for us getting this - requesting j i lfthis location is because of its central location in town where .our I !! f I II I '� i tfY i 10 'I i' ;; business is now. We would be saving miles driven. We would save ! I 1gas and labor on distance that we drive. 1CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright . Can you tell us how many of your vehicle ` then will be carrying the pizza off, at what frequency, at what hours l!MR. FREELAND: Okay. We are open from 4 :30 'til 1 : 30 on Sunday � ( through Fridays . Friday and Saturday we are open 'til 2 : 00. We I hare not open in the day you know, we are not open at all during he ii !! day. The frequency . . . I ` CHAIRMAN MARTIN: How many vehicles do you have that would be running 11around? I iMR. FREELAND: Let me get another gentlemen up here that is more �jfamiliar. Bruce . . . Bruce Stark is the owner of the two stores i ' �1 lIthaca now and he knows exactly on the amount of vehicles that Is , 11deliver. I iBRUCE STARK: I 'm Bruce Stark and I live at Lansing North in Ithaca. �6 EIAs to the number of vehicles that we have . . . we currently are `I ' running five vehicles out of our downtown store. . I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: And would you expect the same number here or. . . MR. STARK: I would expect the same number. There is a possibilit that we might even reduce it to four vehicles because of a better location for our type of business . As to the frequency that' s j i ( pretty hard to say exactly how frequently the vehicles are in and out. They are on the move a good part of the time but there are j ` times when we have very little movement and vehicles are just sitting r ` there and there are other times when there are constantly orders ` coming in and out. I i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. Tell us about the times when the orders] are coming in and out I mean, how often is the truck coming back i how many pizzas does it take away and you know, how long is it i gone - as it delivers them and then . . . i MR. STARK: Well, each time a driver leaves with a pizza, whether its one or six he is probably going to be ! P Y g g gone twenty�minutes to one- ! half hour. i Ej i s; � I - I I h CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright - do you combine orders? or do you just ! !! take away with one order? Do you go off . . . liMR. STARK: We combine orders depending on where each one is goin . •I w !! In other words we don' t send one pizza to Ithaca College and then i ;l send another pizza two minutes later. I, E CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay. So that on an averagethen the trucks would I i Ilbe going off on a sort of a twenty minute to thirty minute cycle ' I when things are humming. In other words. . . �IMR. STARK: Right, when we are busy. �i ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: And in the course of a good evening, when is the ! E 1Ipeak? Are they really busy around 11 and 12 and 1 and 1 : 15? MR. STARK: Well our heaviest business probably comes in the early t, � !! evening at dinner time for most people at 6, 6 to 7 , somewhere in Il1there and then we do a fairly heavy business between like 10 and 1 i land then after 12 o 'clock, generally speaking, it slows all the way E11down to closing time. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: How many employees will be just staying, not ridging trucks but making pizzas an I g p d doing whatever else you do in the home I base? I! MR. STARK: One to four. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: And tell us about the amount of off-street parking i for the trucks and the employees. � lMR. STARK: Well , we consider that we can park six to eight vehiclejs on our level on the S. Cayuga Street or the level facing South i ! Cayuga Street since we won't have morethan five of our own, I 'd say lit leaves three or four as necessary employees . Now, I 'm talking' bout parking for the vehicles - that means the vehicles have to be moving in and out - okay but an employee can come in and park his car in a corner and leave it there while he is working so that ' s onlly i difficult for . . . . We can park extra vehicles when you are talking about somebody parking to work there for the night. i ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. Questions? I c lMR, GASTEIGER: Will you be renting the whole building, downstairs j�and up? IE ' I' I 'i E� I `i Is 12 - MR. STARK: No we won' t. I' EMR. GASTEIGER: What will be going on downstairs? �'MR. STARK: Well there is presently Lee 's Garage in there. I don't inexactly know how long it has been there, sometime I understand, and 11that, as far as I know will be staying the same. 4 ,i IiMR. GASTEIGER: So you will not have access to parking on the lower, level? ,, 1 i;MR. STARK: That' s questionable I think. �f MR. FREELAND: Yes, we will. I� I�MR. STARK: I don't really know. MR. FREELAND: In the back half of the lower level we would be able i) !Ito park. I SMR. STARK: There' s a considerable amount of space on the lower level other than just, Imean ground space in other words. MR. FREELAND: There ' s a photograph of the lower level and you see i !the parking area. We would be able to put six vehicles there if �i Ilwe wanted to. This will be in the contract with - the lease that I �iwe sign with owners . ! �IMR. GASTEIGER: Is a representative of the owner here or are they s authorized to speak? I !CHAIRMAN MARTIN: They are authorized. Are there further questions . IMR. GASTEIGER: Well , I 'd like to hear a little bit more on the oth r !i part of the business. 15% is drop-in trade? MR. STARK: Right. Most people that come by and pick up pizzas cal plus in advance and they come down, they walk in and they pick up the! Ipizza, pay for it and leave . There is no seating on the premises. IThe people cannot stay there and eat a pizza. �R. GASTEIGER: But will they not be stopping in the street and con* �gesting traffic? !1 i R. FREELAND: No. The parking area above is going to be open to II i jthe customers . I R. GASTEIGER: It isn't clear to me how - you have employees and I .you have five trucks and you only have eight spaces IR. FREELAND: The employees will be down below with their cars . E; i i ,j �4 ii +9 i - 13 - 'i MR. STARK: When I consider parking spaces I 'm talking about parking i, spaces for our vehicles and the employee' s vehicles . Now if you j i 1 !; talked about the space directly in front of the building, there is �4 I `! five more spots right there where customers can stop and go again. !What' s the kind of places that we wouldn' t want somebody to be !! parked there for a long period of time but for people stopping in ;, there wouldn' t be any problem. MR. GASTEIGER: But you expect this trade to increase, I would thin! as you become more central. ,s MR. STARK: The pick-up business no. 1' MR. FREELAND: No, we expect it to decrease because it 's in a resit sdential neighborhood. If we were on 13 on Route 13 then we would Pook for an increase. The reason for us moving isn't to pick up ` walk- in trade, it' s to central our drivers so they have less dis, itance to drive. Every time we deliver a pizza it costs us so much ' ;jevery mile. If we cut down a half a mile, multiply it through the ; years then we can invest this in a location. 1 CHAIRMAN MARTIN: You tell us how the exterior of the building wily !hook when occupied by your pizza store? MR. FREELAND: Well , first of all we are going to certainly clean it iup, We are going to put glass back where the glass is due.. Probably i �lbrick up the one door that has a big piece of plywood over it, I 1JPrgbably paint the building. j �! CHAI'RMAN MARTIN: What color? i ;, MR, FREELAND: Probably - I don' t know - white - what color would j I E; you like? i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Not bright orange and red. MR. FREELAND: White something that looks nice, improve the grou4ds i you know, get the oil stains off. You know, it has to be appealini for food it can' t be look like a gas station. j I i' MR. GASTEIGER: Flashing dominos? CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there further questions from members of the ! Board? VAN MARTER: There' s no application for signing? IICHAIRMAN MARTIN: You are not seeking a sign variance so that you I� � - 14 - �i i� will comply with the sign ordinance in terms of size and location i {jof signs? I IMR. FREELAND: Right . I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I see no further questions? Thank you. Is there: anyone else here who would like to speak on this case - others who ; is ,would like to speak in support of the requested variance? .I 1HUGH BARLOW: My name is Hugh Barlow, I represent AES. I am the ( present party who is in the building now. We need more room and ithis is why we want to move out. On parking in the building, we 've; i, Thad up to twelve cars in the park there at one time without any 1problems. Also, we've also had ample parking where we've never had! Many problem with the neighbors that sneak in every once and awhile. 1 1 So I 'm sure parking isn't going to be a problem with the building. I ,think Dominos will be - I know the men personally and they run a I �Inice neat operation where they are and I 'm sure when they go into �Ithat building its going to be a nice building for the neighborhood I1 and I 'm sure the people in the neighborhood will be satisfied with it . I know myself I 've hadproblemsgetting the building keeping! II lthe building cleaned up and in our type of business - it' s not a clean business - and I know to even get the landlord to do anything; i 10 the building has been tough. These men are willing to clean up i he building and put small signs in and I 'm sure the neighborhood will be well pleased with them. HAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Are there questions from members of the oard? Is there anyone else who would like to speak in support of i 1�he requested variance for Domino ' s Pizza? i 1PRANK VANDERBURGH: My name is Frank Vanderburgh, I live at 501 S. 1 ;�ayuga Street directly across from the AES, or across from 402 , in i i�ther words . As far as I am concerned, if there is any noise or anyl- ,; i �hing like that is going to be on I would be against it but I under* Mand that there is not going to be that much noise because the cars; re going to be going out and delivering. And providing they keep a $lean place and no rowdiness, I 'm perfectly satisfied the way it is . HAIRMAN MARTIN: Yes . Thank you. Is there anyone who would like tb it �! I !! speak in favor of the requested variance? Is there anyone who would i !dike to speak in opposition to it? i! iIKAY BREEN: I 'm Kay Breen, South Hill Terrace and I think I speak for ; the second row that we are very much against it. Living on South; IlHill Terrace, it' s very narrow and he 's talking about central loca-i �Ition, I think I 'd like to know central location to where? and I ' think the answer would be Ithaca College. Right? r i IiMR. FREELAND: In our delivery area it would be . . . j Is l f" I IIMS, BREEN: Well , I think I counted your truck going by our house -I i! lone truck last week - I kept track and I think it was about ten times !!going and coming from Ithaca College and our street is very narrow - I,we have parking problems as it is and I think that most of our neig�- =bors are elderly and we do not need anymore noise, nor any more ! businesses up in our area. +1MR. GASTEIGER: But would this be worse than AES that is there now?I MS. BREEN: We are not even aware of AES right now, but then we are!, i going to go into a 1 : 30, 2 : 00 o 'clock and I think we are going to I have noise. I don't see how any boy could load pizzas and not make i `noise. I 'm sorry but it doesn't make sense to me. So we are going! II 1 �Ito have noise that will be coming up we are up on the block right I! �labove S. Cayuga Street but I really do feel very strongly that it i$ agoing to create a noise hazard as well as traffic. ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. Are there questions? You will have op- i �Ortunity to respond after we have heard those who wish to speak. i kR. GASTEIGER: Wouldn' t this be an improvement in terms of the appearance of the neighborhood, if this building were . . . S. BREEN: No - I don't think the building is that bad. I do use { ee 's Garage for my own automobile and I don't think it 's been tool, i ad down there at least I haven't been aware of it. !! j HAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Someone else who would like to speak �n pposition? Yes. TUART APPELBAUM: I'm Stuart Appelbaum and we just bought a house Ian Hillview Place at the end of the right-of-way, right above South ; ayuga Street and obviously we haven't lived in the neighborhood soi (� c I I i� I! - 16 - !we don't know it well but my impression is that it is a residential !i jarea - there are no night time businesses in that area and our con-! 11cern is that if you put in a Take-Out Pizza Place that is open untih i 111 : 00 or 2 : 00 in the morning it could set a precedent and change they ;whole character of the neighborhood and create a place where there 1 jJs night time traffic there. Also, we park with difficulty on the �Iright-o£-way we live on we have to park on the street, either I� Cayuga or the one parallel to it and if there is a lot of traffic �idown at that - at the Pizza Place we may have to vie with transient! people coming for pizza, for overnight parking. I think it will .6 increase traffic and just could set a precedent that could change 1 1Ithe character of that neighborhood from primarily residential to commercial. The electric place that is in there now, it' s not a j (beautiful building but it closes up on weekends and it' s closed at j I �i5 : 00 and it certainly doesn' t increase traffic in the area. That ilarea of South Cayuga Street really is primarily residential and it' $ �Iquite quiet and I would be concerned that it could change if this went through. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Any questions? Thank you. Who else would like { Ito speak? Yes . i RICHARD BORONKAY: Good evening. I 'm Dick Boronkay, I 'm one of the'! !alderman from that ward. I 've been getting phone calls for the last 13, 4 days concerning this Domino ' s Pizzas. Gentlemen, you have a every fine product but . . . what I understand is that Lee ' s Garage is ,going to stay underneath, is that what the gentleman said earlier? (CHAIRMAN MARTIN: That' s what he said. �R. BORONKAY: So, therefore, they are not trying to make it comply; ; with the R-3 residential zone. It will be a business one way or th� f � !other. ii CHAIRMAN MARTIN: That' s right. That' s why they are seeking a I variance. R. BORONKAY: Pine. Then with this other calculations I figure l that between - one truck is going to come and leave every between ] !12. and 22 minutes and that ' s what the neighbors are complaining i t4 + - 17 - i' jworried about now. That they are going to have truck traffic in anid flout, in and out, all day from 4 : 00 until 2 : 00 o'clock in the morning - I 12 : 30 maybe if it is a long night, by the time you clean up and ever - IIthing else. Also, the odor may be penetrating into the neighborhoold it 'because you are going to have to have exhaust fans and nothing smells ( better than a pizza on a hot day. Okay, this is something else thait j ! they have brought up to me and asked me to relate to you folks here!, �!so I 've had about 5, 6, 7 calls in the last two days concerning this matter all of them being opposed. Also, I 've had people call from Turner Place, South Hill Terrace, wondering if they intend to send ( their trucks up Cayuga Street, over South Hill Terrace, up Turner I ;land go to Ithaca College that way. This is a completely and abso- IIlutely residential zone, narrow streets , cars parking on the streetls , i �1kids playing on a hot afternoon like this at 6 : 00 o 'clock at night and they wonder if that is what they are going to do? Thank you. i �CHATRMAN MARTIN: What are your views on the matter? I mean you were + primarily relaying phone calls that you had gotten? iMR. BORONKAY: My own personal feeling is I'd love to have them downtown but I like to keep residential zones residential . We 've ! gone through the whole zoning map in the last three times in the ! last six years I think, and we are trying to conserve our neighbor-! hoods and this is the first incidence that I know of - this is a neighborhood and we are trying to conserve it. They have had Lee' si Garage there, they've had all kind of mechanical - carpeting facili� ( ties there for the last twenty - twenty-five years, which I have nod qualms about because mostly they are done at 6 : 00 o ' clock at night,!, I qday in and day out. Saturdays and Sundays they don' t work and things like that. They are completely happy with what is there now9 0 but they are afraid of the truck traffic or the possible truck traffic or car traffic that may come in once every two minutes. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Any questions? Thank you. Anyone else who wouldl ! like to speak on this case in opposition? Yes . �iORSON LEDGER: I 'm Orson Ledger, I live at 608 S. Albany Street, I ii i I I I r - 18 !i ;! have some property in that immediate area. I 'm not here to try to , i 'Icut off somebody' s blood line for making a living, I 've been in thus i 11same position myself many times and my average hasn't been too good J 11but I 'm opposed to this Pizza shop going in over there. I buy many I I j 111Domino Pizzas which are delivered to my house and I think they are . E !1pretty good pizzas but this has nothing to do with the area of whe e iI I, they are going . I think there is too much traffic with the delivei y I of the pizza, I think there is going to be too much odor as Dick i Boronkay brought up and I think there is going to be too much 1 a traffic on the pizza delivery part of the thing, for that locations i There are areas which are separated with more strictly business , ! maybe not that immediate area but not too far from it that I under' stand are available, which they could get spots , they may have to 10 ian extra mile or some such a matter but if its going to interrupt isomebody' s sleep and peace of mind in the middle of the night I i �Ithink that extra hour could be - or the extra mile could be well Ispent . That' s my feelings on the subject. Thank you. ' CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there others who have not spoken, who would �f like to? � I �` ELVA HOLMAN: Elva Holman 141 Pearsall Place. Like m colleague, [ I� � Y g Il Mr. Boronkay, I too have had telephone calls from the neighborhood ` expressing their dissatisfaction with this use. It seems to me ve�y Iclear that a nine to five use , even though not residential, remain I 11far more compatible with the neighborhood than does one which woul i, extend until 2 : 00 on weekend mornings , particularly on Sunday morn ng. ' The other point I would like to make is that it is my understandin i 1� of zoning law that it is incumbent upon the owner of the property ! to demonstrate hardship in order to have the Board of Zoning Appeals grant a use variance. I have not heard that demonstrated tonight I �4nor in fact do I believe have we heard from the owner of the prope�ty IIkon his inability to rent to any other use and until that is clear o , �Ithen I really don't understand how the Board could grant the variance. (' CHAIRMAN MARTIN: All we have on the hardship is the statement mad' 11by the person speaking for the appellant who have been authorized f j I _ 19 _ I i ,, to speak for the owner by a signed sheet that we have, i i! MRS. HOLMAN: But that has not yet been entered into the record, ! , is that correct because I didn' t think I heard it? 'ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: All it was was a reference to the photographs an ' from the appearance of the building it appeared obvious that it wal 'f !! a commercial building and not appropriate for use as a residential llbuilding. j ii MRS. HOLMAN: If that is the case then I would hope that the Board ` I !! would not look upon this particular use with favor but rather ask i ! the appellant to seek one which would confine itself to daytime hors. IMIMI APPELBAUM: My name is Mimi Appelbaum and I am a co-buyer of he I ' ! property at 107 Hillview Place. My husband is Stuart Appelbaum. i JI 'd like to just kind of reaffirm what he has said - I am against �lthe idea of Domino ' s moving into the neighborhood. Not only for a 1 i� the reasons stated but also I think AES as it stands now is a fairly e innocuous structure. I think that the introduction of a commercia ! structure like Domino' s would be a detriment to the neighborhood I land the traffic really concerns me. Not only the traffic and the i! !noise but the fumes and all the things that go with increased traf�ic i and I just wanted to kind of stand up and be counted as another i' aIcitizen in the neighborhood. jICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. Are there others who haven't spoken wha would like to in this case? The Board has received although I will! '!not take the time to read in full , two letters also stating opposi- i 'tion to this requested variance. The letters will in full comprise; part of the record of the case. One is from Mr. & Mrs. William Foxyi. I !II find it hard to tell from the letter oh 212 W. Spencer Street! 11 and the other from Barbara S. Farrell , 213 W. Spencer Street both I I !! letters discuss the parking problem and the problem of traffic and (conclude that it would be undesirable to have a business there. No,w, lis there a response briefly from the appellant to the points that have been made by those speaking in opposition? Questions from the! ;,Board did focus on the matter of traffic and the frequency and inco� 'lvenience of trucks going in and out. The Board did not ask about i �i I } - zo - ii s' jodor. Anything new you have to say on either count would be help- ful. I{ MR. FREELAND: We have several pizza places , not only in Ithaca but 11in - Domino' s is a chain and they have no problem with odor. The ivent from the oven goes up on the roof and is blown down on the I ! roof and by the time it is dissipated in the air there is just s ,! really not a problem. ,I , J �ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Not a problem you mean you would walk by and 11you wouldn't even know it was a pizza place? �MR. FREELAND: You wouldn' t even know it not by the smell. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. I MR. FREELAND: As far as traffic goes , the traffic is there. We i have the traffic. We are going to deliver our pizzas . The advan- � I Mage is this building is instead of us going in one direction all the time, we are always going up that street, we 'll be going in ii � ! three different directions . We are in a central location and in- stead of vehicles going up and branching out, they will be able to ; leave the store and go in three opposite directions , which is actu- I ! ally less traffic city-wide then we would have then we have now. � I � So the people that don' t like the traffic - the vehicle going by j their house, there is just nothing we can do - the vehicle is going Ito go by the house. Somebody' s house and their street is a route to Ithaca College and it happens to be one of the major routes that we use. There is no way that we can't use it. So they are actually going to have less traffic by having us there then not having us , there. Certainly no more. MR. STARK: I 'd just like to point out on the traffic thing. There) E Jis not going to be any increased traffic. We are not going to in- ! (crease our business at Ithaca College by virtue of the fact that we fare moving to South Cayuga Street and, in that we do use that we Ido use South Hill Terrace now, it won't be used any more frequentl iIthan it has been in the past and I have reason to believe it 'll be ; jiused less because we can easily go down South Cayuga Street now to I (Clinton Street and Clinton Street up to S. Aurora Street and bypass, fa f i 6 I ; i 21 - (� 9 ;fall of those side streets . i ° CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Questions? j i� 11IMR. GASTEIGER: Is Spencer one way and how about South Hill Terrace? !' MR. FREELAND: Yes it is . South Hill Terrace is a two way street. ' i 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Why would it be easier for you to use Clinton anc up Aurora . . . ! 11 � ,1MR. STARK: Not necessarily easier but I don' t tell my drivers jus exactly which streets to take when they are going from point A to point B but as far as the amount of traffic increasing, it ' s just i not possible. We are not going to have any more trucks going up 1� I South Hill. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: You were suggesting it was going to go down by 1 = virtue of the move and I had a little trouble seeing that . 11MR. STARK: Well, it' s a better street to use. You know, I agree I with people it' s a better street - yes, there are a lot of cars I parked on the street, it is a narrow street and I would like not to use it if possible. By virtue of the fact that we are going to bel i1 '! saving so much. distance anyway by moving to this location we can ( easily go down to Clinton Street and back to Aurora without incon- 1 veniencing us. i I CHAIRMAN MARTEN: Are there further questions from members of the Board? I ! MRS FREELAND: There was one other matter brought up on the noise. ' l , There is no noise - it ' s a brick building, our orders come in by ( phone, it ' s not a hangout type pizza place - we have no seating, wet are not allowed to drink. i i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: In reference to the noises I understand that it ' has to do with the coming and going of the trucks, not to anything that would eminate from the inside of the building. MR. STARK: We don' t run Mack trucks. We run cars just like every-1 I jbody else in Ithaca drives and they have mufflers, as required by I !flaw just like anybody else 's car. There was also a point made aboult 1parking and I maintain that our parking will be off the street . We II !`don't intend to compete with otherpeople for street parking becausje I �ithat's not compatible for us. If we have to compete for a parking ) i, j !1 i 22 - 1place that means we can' t depend on it. �'MR. GASTEIGER: Do you not handle gas cylinders - don' t these make ; j� noise in handling? for your oven? 11MR, STARK: Gas cylinders? A CHAIRMAN MARTIN: How do you keep the pizzas hot in the truck? MR. FREELAND : Okay, right. He is talking about the propane things. (They are changed about once every two weeks and no, there would bei Ino noise. Nothing. I mean you are talking about noise other than breathing it' s just not that loud. The business is a quiet busi mess and if you are ever at one of our stores, especially as it gets later, it ' s dead. People don' t come out and pick up pizzas then, i we deliver them, and it ' s very quiet. Actually we are working on electric vehicles which will even be better, if we ever get them inl. ! FRANK VANDERBURGH: As far as noise, if there is any more noise that ithose cars going up to the Chain works in the morning, motorcycles and cars starting down below the bridge and going about 60 miles an hour up that hill, if there is any more noise than that, I doniti. know what it is. And as far as theirs is , well, after 5 : 00 o 'clock, = after the Chain works lets out, there is very little traffic either; i way r one way or the other - on that street, except people going home, which is naturally, but in the morning, them cars that go up Ithat hill, they make more noise they'll wake you up, I ' ll tell yo that. I've lived there for twenty-five years now so I know. When they made that a one-way street Spencer Street, a one-way street - which it wasn' t when I moved there there wasn't all that noise. Well, I've sat there at times and counted cars and would count ( thirteen cars in five minutes going by the place. Now I count jthirteen cars in one-half a minute, pretty near, the way it is now.,, �ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Does the Board have any more question$? �I think not, thank you. I believe we 've heard everyone on this i icase. Have I missed anyone who has something to add to the record on this appeal? We' ll move on then to the next case. `I • i I I� ii 23 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS is CITY OF ITHACA j AUGUST 1, 1977 `I w �i 1! � 1 EXECUTIVE SESSION !i APPEAL NO. 1167 : HDR. GREENBERG: I move that the requested use variance be denied. !, MR. KASPRZAK: I second the motion. hFINDINGS OF FACT: 1. That the immediate area which is residen- tial will have increased traffic, that `f i streets adjacent to this which are narrow ! and which are hazardous to negotiate will ± a !j also have increased traffic, and the fact ,i that this traffic will be generated during li late evening hours and on the weekends is ! i sufficient to make the Board feel that they do not want to grant this variance. `! 2. Because of this traffic, the proposed use ; i �f I is less compatible with the residential I i neighborhood than the existing use. ! 3. The traffic is more objectionable both in '' I' i� terms of volume and hours. , VOTE: YES 6 ; NO 0 i i� Use variance denied. 4� I` i I i I f I� i I� ! i ii 24 - '; SECRETARY HOARD announced the next case to be heard: 1 i ;'APPEAL NO. 1168 : Appeal of John C. & Mary E. Gutenberger for a ! use variance of Section 30. 25, Column 2 to permit occupation of the premises at 212 Dela-i ware Avenue, a two-family dwelling, by up to nine (9) unrelated persons . The property is located in an R-lb use district ; a maximum of four (4) unrelated persons are permitted in aj two-family dwelling in an R-lb (residential) use district. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: As I indicated at the outset, this is one of the ! I� ' cases back a second time so I trust you will limit your remarks to Anew matters , trusting the Board' s memory of the prior hearing on the details that were brought before it then. JOHN GUTENBERGER: My name is John Gutenberger, I am here on behal lof myself and my wife Mary. If I could take 30 seconds just to br�ng I the Board back up to date - exactly where we stood the last time, i II did request a variance. The variance was denied. The letter which I received, the denial , indicated the primary reason for such denial was that this particular piece of property had not been on the market long enough and did not, therefore, warrant a hardship. ) Very briefly, to bring you up to date, the house that we have live in has held, and quite comfortably so, thirteen people in the past aAt that time, or during that time there have been nine cars which ! have been involved in the thirteen people that resided in this houe. iWe are completely surrounded by income property and I was asking fc,r � a variance because my house was unique, not only in a situation ( within the neighborhood, it was also unique in that the zoning or- 1dinance as drafted did not deal and does not deal with a duplex i inhouse. It deals with a two-family dwelling, not a duplex house. � My duplex house, as I have stated before and I won't go through it ! entirely again has it ' s own separate heat, its own separate elect i tricity, its own separate water, separate front entrances , separat$ ! rear entrances and is divided completely down the middle of the house by a fire retardant wall . I have had, as you are well aware to notify the property owners within 200 ' of my property of the red Ilquest of this variance within the 200 ' of that - my property, ther i it i I! - 25 - p are thirty-two property owners which I did have to notify. Out of 1 (; those thirty-two property owners, only three are non-income and I lithere are only five owner-occupied dwellings in the immediate area I (! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Could you give us figures on Delaware Avenue it- ! �iself rather than - I mean, because as you noted before, the line '' runs down the back of your property so automatically you' ll be picking up a whole slug of R-31s . MR. GUTENBERGER: That is another reason why I 'm asking for the 1appeal -- that the R-3 line is my back picket fence which is right I1off my back porch. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: But can you give us a breakdown? MR . GUTENBERGER: I have ' a list here of all the property owners , i �laddresses which I did have to notify and the owner' s address or 1addresses which I will supply. I might briefly . . . of all those jlthat you were asking, on those that lived on Delaware Avenue I s will give you the addresses of the property owners - Woodcrest I �iAVenue, Center St. , Highgate Rd. , E. State Street, Elmira, N.Y. , Ii Applegate Road, Coddington Road, DeWitt Mall , Eddy Street, E. Stato ( Street, Kendall Avenue, N. Aurora Street, Floral Avenue, S. Albany f I� Street, and Hornbrook Road. There are two which have recently sola. I Ii One which I am not sure who - to whom it has been sold. I under- . , stand it will be a family but I am not sure. The other which was I ( recently directly across from my house is also an E. State Street iaddress, not a Delaware Avenue address. One house when I spoke 11 i to you last month on Bryant Avenue which was owner occupied is no longer owner occupied, it has been rented for a year for a professdr who was going on sabbatic. So if you are asking strictly on Dela- ! ware Avenue, I think there is five out of the thirty-two . I submit that for your consideration. I do have a map also which I 'll get ! into in just a minute which may clarify or at least expand upon jthat. So that' s where we stand. We have advertised the house, myll I self personally, through my own personal contacts and we have had r� the house advertised by Century 21, Wilson Gallery of Homes, J. D. I I 1 i� ,I I I 26 13 11Gallagher Co. , Stage Realty and Hewitt Realty. Those five that I i jjust mentioned that I know for sure who have shown the house, ob 'Fviously with no response, since I am here speaking to you again to-! i �Jnight. As the house stands now the house the zoning would allow i I ;; that particular piece of property where a two family house to be i Hrented to two families. However, since the house is divided equally i ,ldown the middle and since the zoning ordinance does state that if 1. I ;the owner does not live in the property one dwelling unit may be 50% as large as the other dwelling unit. Since my house is a duplex 4 I I I divided equally down the middle, it, in effect , means that if I i do not live in the house or if a future buyer does not live in the i house, then one-half of the house must be boarded up and can not be put to any use. If I do rent only 500 of it I am left with renting 'only a kitchen and bathroom or a living room and a bedroom, neither l l lof which, obviously, you can do. I� IICHAIRMAN MARTIN: So as zoned at the moment the building could be I { (Isold, you are now trying to sell it, it could be sold to someone I Iwho wished to live in it and rent the other side out to a family. j IMR. GUTENBERGER: Correct . I II ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: It could not be sold to someone who wished to used ht as rental property and rent to two families , that could not be done. I i � MR. GUTENBERGER: No it could not. I also in the problem or in t�he ` situation - we have purchased a new house as of today, We are movi�ig l i out of the house tomorrow. The house will not be owner occupied. IILf I am not allowed to sell the house and if something should happen Ito my wife and myself, of course the house will be left to my childi ren. They are young. They would obviously go to a guardian. They; would not reside, therefore the children could not even, or the estla.te could not even sell the house because it would be non-owner occupie� . CIf for any reason I should become an invalid, should have to moves if I got transferred, if I lost my job whatever would happen, Isince that house could only - one-half of that house can only be 50!1% rented, then in effect that part will have to be boarded up, closed I I ;i i. - 27 - 1 ;up. I might mention that I have been before the Planning Board I Htwice and twice - both instances unanimously recommended that the! ;-variance be granted because it is indeed in favor and in keeping E! j, with the residential area. And, if in fact you were going to aslq 1; a question, now I 've lost my train of thought. jCHAIRMAN MARTIN: I 'm sorry I was going to ask whether there is 11anything new? Obviously a month has gone by so that you were able ! 1Ito come back to us and give us more evidence than you had before, I liin support of your contention that the property is not saleable at ;I �Ithe price you want for the use allowed under the zoning ordinance. I I+ lAre you asking for the same size variance or are you asking for a smaller one? I noted before that you were asking for something s• 11that would really only be permitted in an R-3 zone. That is to say wl you were asking for something more substantial than even an R-2 i i jewould permit. An R- 2 would permit that both sides could be rented ; i !Ito families, The property could be owned by an absentee but both I � Ijsides rented to families but - would that satisfy you that much , of a variance? Or are you asking for something larger? MR. GUTENBERGER: You've asked me two questions . You've asked me } for new information, which I have now because of the extra month Hand putting it on the open market with five realtors who have shown lithe house. So I can provide you with that information of the response 1to that. Your second question what exactly am I asking I am flasking the exact same thing that I was asking before. ++ CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay - so there is no change on the second point ) I� ; (so the new information is on the saleability of the property. I (!MR. GUTENBERGER: Since that is what the denial of the recommendati'On Iwas, was on the sale of the property, yes. I do have, which I ' ll to make sure that we understand each other - those are the two those are the variances which I was requesting. If you will keep i� fimind as I said before that m � � y primary concern was to sell it to someone who would owner occupy it. As it stands right now I do not' i1have that option. The new information is, as I mentioned, Century 21, ! it ! ,I it I I - 28 - ,y 'I l= l ('Wilson Gallery of Homes, J. D. Gallagher, Stage REalty and Hewitt JRealty have all shown the house. It has been advertised in the opaper extensively since I appeared before you last. I will submit + those at this time. Those are all the ads that appeared. The Real! !Estate people felt, and I concurred, that this house should be ad- I' � t vertised completely honestly and that people should know exactly rwhat, in fact, they could do with that particular piece of property IE lif and when they bought it. As it stands now it can only be boughtl for it can only be purchased by a family who will live in it, rent lithe other side if no more than two unrelated people or another j i� family. We have thus advertised it which you will notice on the I lads - that we have advertised it exactly in that way. It must be I owner occupied and the other side must be rented to a family, With 11the five various Real Estate people working on this, with all the I i 11ads that you have before you, with the honesty in the ad, the numbel 11of responses has been none. Absolutely zero. I did endeavor to If 1come up with some figures to indicate to you what the average amount of time an income piece of property stays on the market in the Ithaca `area, and primarily in my area. Since the concern the last time was ,the length of time that it had been on the market, or lack of lengt� Hof time. My first chore was to talk with the people that I knew !who had recently purchased property on Delaware Avenue , Bryant Averse I� hand Linden Avenue. Those that I have talked to or could talk to I i the amount of time that the particular pieces of property were on tike market was zero . Those houses were bought before they were put on i the market. The houses were known to be for sale or people had sai� lif you ever do sell the house please let me know, I would be inter- Tested to buy the house _ so the ones that I could contact and ]the iones that I knew of that had changed hands had all sold before theyt were on the market they did not appear in the paper, they were not a ion open listing, they were not on multiple listing, That 's a hard I I l�figure to give you - zero - and it ' s a very hard thing to substan- �itiate other than to bring everyone down here who had bought property ;within the last few months . P !i i Rj - 29 - # CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Those are sales of income property, not sales ofd '01homes to be occupied by the buyer. i,l MR. GUTENBERGER: Those areincome properties . I went one step . i 11further and asked the real estate people on multiple listing, if i �Ithey could give me a listing of all the homes that had sold, not i ! only in my immediate area but in East Hill area and expand that a , little bit past Bryant, Delaware, Linden. Of all the pieces of j ' property that had sold since January that were on the market, and li if they were income or non-income and how long they were on the j j 11market. I have this list which T will give to you. Since January iI lof this year there has been one, two, three, four, five, six housqIs , sold on College Avenue, Fairmount , Mitchell , two on Orchard Place , j II Hone on Oxford which had hit the market, one of which I know is income - it was not listed that way but I do know of student bed- ! rooms in that house that sold for $80, 000. One house I do know I10f, in fact my wife and I had looked at it when it first came on the �lmarket, was in bad need of repair, had retaining wall falling in, 'i etc. etc. any way the gist of all of these figures of the propertiels ((which can be substantiated, which I got from the real estate peoplei% ,`which had been on the market since January multiple listing - i �lthe average number of days on the market is 46 days . That includes] +! this one particular piece of property which is in such bad need of 1 -repair that was on the market for 94 days. If you eliminate this one particular piece of property it brings it down to an average � of 36 days . s !!' I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Number of days on multiple listing or number of days since . . . i MR. GUTENBERGER: On the market . I asked them when it went on the market, when it came off the market, preferred price, selling price, number of days on the market and the type. I might mention that I these, the largest is five bedroom, mine is nine; the largestis a i !two-story, mine is a four-story mine is income and other than this) i ��one which I know has two rooming houses . So if we are looking for jlaverages in the area, my immediate area, for the type of house g i� i' 30 - ; similar to mine as far as income but not a duplex, is zero. In a i ' larger area, income and non-income on multiple listing, the averago is 36 days without the one particular piece of property and 45 Idays with the other particular piece of property. I might mention ; ! I am well over both of those figures already. I did bring the zoning map which I am sure you are all aware of. I will leave it. This particular copy I would like, if possible, to have back because I s have it colored in for my own information.. ; CHAIRMAN MARTIN: We all have copies , of course, of the zoning map !. too. So unless there is something peculiar about that one . . . MR. GUTENBERGER: Okay. Well, I have noted on this particular one , ! the location of my house to show you that the R-3 goes directly ber ! hind my back yard and one house up from it. You did ask at the last i ! meeting, or one of the members mentioned and, Commissioner I think i I you brought the pictures which I submitted last time - one Board I member asked me that the pictures were not entirely representative ; of the whole area and did not give a clear picture of the whole area. ( What I have done is taken another zoning map identical to this one ' ljand you can - I 'll pass this around but you can see I 've noted my �jparticular piece of property which is in yellow and I 've drawn a green arrow to it. I have outlined it in red of all the income i ! properties that are in my area. I have stopped, obviously with i ! College Avenue and Dryden Road because the red obviously get I! ! much larger. But what you see in red is the immediate neighborhood I! of all income pieces of property and the small yellow dot in the !! middle is me. Hopefully that and the pictures would give you a !; much clearer indication of the amount of 3 , 4 and 5 story homes I !14 ,! surrounded by. It is entirely all income property. I submit that ; ilfor your consideration. One of the difficulties that I have had 1� and the real estate people have had in enticing two families - in ! ! fact we could sell this house to a family who would then in turn j I 11rent the other side to a family again as the character of the ineighborhood as I pointed out the Planning Board has recommended i' twice that my request is in keeping with the character of the i i 31 - ! , neighborhood. A good share of the houses which are pictured have �leither no parking, they have parking on the lawns or they have, ini ! fact, black-topped the lawns and put parking in. We have two cases) I � hof people parking their cars on lawns adjacent to us and driving their cars across our lawn to get back onto the street. Obviously !, this is not very conducive to having children playing in your front 'llawn with cars driving through your own front lawn. I guess in conclusion I am now faced with a zoning law which does not, and !Jobviously changes should be made, but does not deal with a duplex shouse. It deals only with a two-family dwelling. It is interesting !i ! to note that in an R-1 area in a single family house that you could Hin fact move out and rent that. You could go on sabbatic and rent ' that house as long as it is a single family dwelling. A two-family i!dwelling you can not, and especially in my case since it is a dupleix, t iiI would have to board up one-half as I mentioned before and this ! certainly is not conducive to the neighborhood. So I have asked, ' lin conclusion, that since we do have nine bedrooms in the house thait ' I be allowed to sell the property with a variance that would allow i Isomeone else to put nine people, which is one per bedroom, which is; �Jour less people than now reside - we do have a two car garage, we Hhave a back yard which could be used for parking if the new owner also desired. There is a patio in the back yard also and, of course, k�the long driveway. I am concerned about the neighborhood, in fact i jIthat ' s one of the reasons why I 've asked for as few people to be j 11allowed in there as I have asked for. I guess the bottom line - what ! i 11we really need is that under the current situations the law requires i! :that I live in this house. It' s prohibiting me from selling it be-' 'cause no one, as the ads will attest to, as the five real estate i i jpeople will attest to, no one is interested in moving into this area +land renting the other side of that house to a family or no more thap !two unrelated people. So the law is forcing me to stay there. I s 'think, quite realistically that if T had a variance that would alloy i;non-owner occupied with a family on one side and four or five unre-' i Mated people on the other side then, in fact, I think I could find I: i! i P I i1 32 - !i !; some buyers , in fact I 've had some interest in people buying it un+ er ii (; those conditions . I� ; CHAIRMAN MARTIN: What about a variance that would allow families qn l jboth sides , recognizing the peculiar character of this property vii- , a-viz the others on both sides of Delaware, but also recognize the I jessentially family character of the R-1 zone that applies to the I i' property and said alright, it may be owned by an absentee but rentod ! Zito families on both sides . ; MR. GUTENBERGER: I can only speak from the experience that I havehad 1jin trying to sell the house and those that have looked. I don' t ! think there would be much interest in family on both sides . It '; would be a very particular individual - so far I have not found that same individual or that type of an individual that would . . . �ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: And have you considered - explored selling the ik F (; sides of the building separately? i; 11MR. GUTENBERGER: No, I have not because it is a single family - ,I ! or it is a single roof with a fire wall up the middle. I don't ;; know how you would separate those who got to use the driveway - ;! would imagine the rear yard requirements would then be split in 1half and I don' t know legally how you would sell one half to one (" person and one-half to another. I would imagine that would require ,I a variance. +! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: It happens in this town so it is possible.. I �lMR. GUTENBERGER: I don' t know, but I imagine that would require a �I, variance too, but I'm not sure. ; CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Question? i'MR. GASTEIGER: Have you multiple listed this property? JIMR. GUTENBERGER: Yes. i 'MR. GASTEIGER: I haven't been able to find it under multiple listing. !i I� iiMR. GUTENBERGER: Multiple it ' s on open, excuse me. It 's on open!, IMR. GASTEIGER: Well to really make a grand effort to sell shouldn'it Pt be multiple listed? i !iMR. GUTENBERGER: We haveput it on open listing primarily because r. 1Iwe did have people who were interested in buying the house through , me, which I had mentioned to you before and if I do put it on ! f it i - 33 - i i multiple then that negates the fact or it negates me selling it my-1 wi ; self so we put it on open and advertised it that way and that is �1why I gave you the list of five real estate people who had been ;;interested in the house. Those are the five that I know of. 1MR. GASTEIGER: Are you still counting as a bedroom, the gameroom 'lin the basement? I1MR. GUTENBERGER: For my purposes , yes . `IMR. GASTEIGER: That has never been developed as a bedroom? :I MR. GUTENBERGER: Yes, there is a fold away bed down there right ;i 1now. "SMR. GASTEIGER: But no closets? i! 1IMR. GUTENBERGER: Yes there is a closet. Separate entrance. EICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Upstairs there are four bedrooms on both sides? I ' 1MR. GUTENBERGER: One, two, three, four on both sides, yes . CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Other questions from the Board? !i �1MR. VAN MARTER: Have you seen the Planning Board report John? MR. GUTENBERGER: I have not seen the recent one. I 11MR. VAN MARTER: I think you would like to read it. Recommendations �lof the staff is what they voted on. �IMR. GUTENBERGER: Alright - well I — just reading down through it - �MR, VAN MARTER: It doesn't relate to that which you have asked for MR.. GUTENBERGER: Well it does support the fact that one-,half be . alright it supports the fact that multiple use be placed on one set which I said that I could, I think indeed find buyers for. And' i �Ithat the other half of the house must be owner occupied. Am I readil- that Hing/correctly? I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Yes . R. GUTENBERGER: Okay so the only difference is that as it stands right now, if i - g t is non owner occupied, which it is as of th�s (afternoon, then I still cannot rent it. I cannot rent my side of m� shouse. 1. 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Having rented the other side of the house. 4 R. GUTENBERGER: Right. j�CHAIRMAN MARTIN: So what you are doing is looking for someone who i i i w t - 34 - ! ! ascan live in it and rent the other side. 11MR. GUTENBERGER: That ' s the only difference in the latest Planning Board recommendations, the only difference between that and what I have said is that they have suggested that one-half be owner occu ; pied and the other half be multiple. ii CHAIRMAN MARTIN: They would have you still looking for a buyer, ' since you don' t intend to be the owner occupant but a buyer who wolld be interested in living in one side and renting the other side to I+ some unrelated people rather than exclusively to family. I ' iiMR. GUTENBERGER: Right. So the only difference between that and ;what I think I could sell it would be - sell it for would be the `fact that it would be easier for me to sell it to someone who would I i; -be non-owner occupied. So we are not really that much different, j Alin disagreement. I }MR. VAN MARTER: Number 2. Of all those which had a zero length of ;time listed before sale was in every case a multiple dwelling? Is j I1 !that right? MR. GUTENBERGER: Yes sir. As are all the houses around me, with the exception of one. There is one house across the street which IS a i not. �MR. VAN MARTER: That wasn' t sold. 11MR. GUTENBERGER: That has not been on the market. !CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there further questions? Thank you. Are thele others who would like to speak in support of this request for a re-j i� consideration of the Board's determination of last month? Yes. 1 4JORSON LEDGER: I 'm Orson Ledger at 608 S. Albany Street. I 've got several houses in John' s back yard which I happen to be lucky enoug� Jto be in R-3 , I think our zoning laws are improved from what they i 'were done three years ago. I 'm in hopes that within the next three, �lyears we get them revised to get them to where they should be. I i {think property in John' s area should be at least allowed to rent to! !students. This seems to be where the higher dollar for resale valuo ;dor for the owner to rent his property and get the most dollars out j; 1of it. John just happened to be unsuccessful in being one house I !i � i Ii 35 - ; north on the street so I would like to see the Board either change the - well they can' t change the zone but . . . ; CHAIRMAN MARTIN: That' s his job. si 11MR. LEDGER: That' s - was his job - they goofed it. To change the ( variance so that he could in fact rent to at least three unrelated ; ' persons on each side of the house. Thank you. 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Anyone else who would like to speak in support of �jthe motion for reconsideration? ; WILLIAM LOWER: My name is Bill Lower. I live on Floral Avenue. II 'm not here to say that I think you should give him a variance bu� 11I 'm here to verify some of the things that have been said here prij marily the pieces of property in this area that have been for sale , in the last four or five years . I 've been quite interested and probably as interested or more so than most anybody in this parti- ! cular location. I have about nine pieces of property there withinla, II believe, a block and probably house nearly 150 students . I might d add that many of the pieces of property have been sold in the last, I three or four years I have been actively, you might say, bidding oll, them or trying to get in on buying them. A lot of them, or many o them, of which were sold without even going on the market. Some of, i! I which I got into a bidding situation where I had to bid and the price got very high. I am only saying that many of the pieces of jprop1 erty as Mr. Gutenberger said, sell very, very fast and Ild be glad sometime to go into more details with anybody that 's interesteld, 11how fast they do sell and as I started to say before, I 'm not here ) i ,, to say that Mr. Gutenberger should be given a variance, as a matter o, i ! of fact if he wasn' t given a variance it would probably help me berj d Ikcause if he is given a variance it will be competitive, otherwise ; there won't be very many people in the house and, you know, that �lhelps me. I'm kind of stuck for words , there was a couple of thingls iIthat I wanted to say that I haven't but I Mr.. Gutenberger I might; Iladd is not a friend - as a matter of fact the first time I was ever; lin his house was three or four months ago when he indicated to me that he might be selling his house. At that time I went through it ;land told him that I wouldn't at all be interested in it because I l i j - 36 - I , felt at that time the house could not be utilized properly. By 'looking it over I felt that the Building Department would not let i ;!you use only about half of the house so at that time I told him 'Invade him aware of that and as I started to say, I 'm not a friend of 11Mr. Gutenberger although I do own a lot of property around there an' ';I 'm not here to say that they should give him anything or shouldn't; 6` ,!give him anything. I 'm here to verify some of the things that he a � has said and I might add the first time I ever met him was when I 11bought a piece of property directly across the road, that houses i, ;about fifty students or more. He came to me one evening about 6 between 6 and 7 in the evening and I was running the jack hammer. i° 11He came to me very concerned, not for himself but other neighbors I I' who felt that it was a little late in the evening for me to be run_ fining the jack hammer. I might add that he was very gentleman-like ° about it and I think after that time he felt that my property was Ino - was desirable in the neighborhood, I guess. But anyway, he l�did indicate to me when I looked at his piece of property that his +main concern was not to sell it to somebody like me and I guess some °i flpeople consider me as a slum landlord inasmuch as I have quite a �Inumber of apartments and primarily in the college town area. In a i1nice way he advised me that he preferred to sell this to somebody a0d, ii of course, I don't think that was the proper thing for him to do butt I! `anyway, he said he would prefer to sell it to somebody that would ° i not put a lot of people in the house and he preferred to have some- , I body that would live in the house and, of course, I 'm not at all interested in living in the house but that ' s all I have to say. ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to Ilspeak in favor of the requested variance? Is anyone here who wished i to speak in opposition? �UOEL SAVISHINSKY: My name is Joel Savishinsky and I live at 222 Bryant Avenue and I am like the previous speaker who spoke to confikm Some of the facts that had been staed. I 'd like to question a number I f the assertions that were made, First of all about the saleability 11Ot the house to families who might be interested in living within tle i �I �j i it l 37 i fi ;' house and renting out the other half of it. A few months ago my 1Iwife and myself were particularly interested in buying a house in { j that neighborhood, specifically a duplex. We made inquiry into all, i the duplexes in the Delaware, Irving, Oxford, and Bryant Avenue I i! ilarea. Looked personally and through Realtors. We were informed i 1specifically about the house in question here, that the owner was i ' not interested in selling it at that point and we asked through th' �Irealtors to be informed if at any point the owner changed his mindl 'I ! about it that we would be informed because we would be interested iIn '; buying the house and that never occurred. Besides my wife and my- � i` 11self I know at least two other individuals or families who have been i ! specifically interested in purchasing duplexes in that neighborhood ,j !!with the intention of living in one-half of the duplex and renting ; , out the other half. I think a good point was raised by one of the '. i, i ''members of the Board who raised the issue of why the house was not Ilreally on multiple listing service - the idea, the response to that j�question that the owner preferred to have it on the open listing i because he had several parties who were interested in buying it di_i iIrectly through him seems to contradict his assertion that he can!tl �Ifind interested parties for the house, so that ' s the point that I !seems to me needs to be clarified, Secondly, one of the points is j it ;'that within the Delaware, Bryant, Oxford, Irving Place neighborhood!, !within approximately the last nine months I can count at least ten i s families that have bought houses in that area and I could rattle ofi�f ,'the names but it doesn't seem to be necessary. Which seems to con !firm the fact that it is very heavily a residential area with a loti i! ! ?of families, particularly a lot of young families who are interested `jin moving into that neighborhood and preserving the residential character of that neighborhood. I think the Board would be, in a j i sense, violating the spirit of the zoning law by granting a variancie lithat would take even one house out of the residential quality of i that particular neighborhood. Thirdly, moving in that many people r 1unrelated people into one house in the neighborhood, is clearly !going to increase the amount of traffic and parking in that neigh ii !jborhood. The problem of parking, traffic, and given the number of it ! 'l w i I� 38 - ;'children who can be seen almost any day of the year on Delaware i ,l Avenue and on surrounding streets, I think that creates or increasels � I 11the safety hazards of the current residents of the neighborhood by lgranting a variance and increasing the amount of traffic and parkin !Vocally. I think also there is perhaps something of a distortion 1iin the way in which Mr. Gutenberger has referred to income properties i ,jin thatneighborhood. There are income properties of various kinds �i jl,locally. There are a number of houses on Delaware , close up to ss ! Dryden Road which are divided into a lot of student rooms and if you �imove further down Delaware however, there are a lot of houses that dare primarily occupied by single families and they rent out one or two rooms to students . You could easily lump all of those together as "income properties" but I think that ' s distorting the use of they f o ' concept of an income property there because for the most part many I�of the houses on Delaware and the surrounding blocks are primarily j I M Ilifamily owned and family occupied houses with perhaps one or two students there. And so to use the notion of income in that sense jis, I think, lumping together a lot of houses that should be kept (f down a little or be distinct. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I have a question. You have spoken of yourself that and then you have spoken of a couple of other families/you know i `that would be interested you say in buying a duplex and reling (living on one side, renting the other. Let's be a little clearer about the kind of rental of the other side that you are interested in, and these otherpeople are interested in. This building, as it is zoned, as I understand the new zoning, would permit one side to ii The occupied by a family and if it is exclusively occupied by the j owner family, the other side can be rented to another family, or to litwo unrelated people.. Now those limitations on the rental of the Mother side would not make this an unattractive proposition to the ff jikind of buyer that you describe yourself as , or others? it JOEL SAVISHINSKY: In terms of my wife and myself and at least two other families or individuals I am thinking of, it wouldn' t create +zany particular difficulty in fact, at least speaking for myself, wel it i` �` t { - 39 {' would have been interested in buying a duplex, living in one-half 4 ;; and renting the other half to a family and that is true of at leash i! ;lone of the other people that I have in mind. {, CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay, are there other questions? !IDR. GREENBERG: Obviously your offer was not even entertained, is i that what you are saying? g? IIMR. SAVISHINSKY: No, what we were doing at the time was inquiring Pinto possibleproperties in the neighborhood that were either on tho (! market or might be coming on the market because we did want to pur-! ! chase a duplex and what we did was get the address of every single I duplex in the Delaware, Bryant, Irving, Oxford area and either made it 1:linquiries ourselves directly to the owners or through some real es-} tate agents we were working with, made inquiries as to whether the ' {' houses would be coming on the market soon or whether the owners ( might have an interest in selling the property and the house on ¢l Delaware that' s at issue here was one of the houses that we inquired i i i { about. We were told at the time that the owner was not interested ! 'I lin selling and we simply asked that if the owner changed his mind { that we be notified of that because it was the kind of house that we were interested in and we never received any word of that. ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, this information that the owner was not ! interested in selling was not information that you got directly {l lofrom the owner but from the real estate agent you were dealing wit . i , MR. SAVISHINSKY: That 's correct. � I IDR. GREENBERG: Was it one of those that were mentioned tonight? i �IMR. SAVISHINSKY: It was a person who works for - well , we used ' several realtors - I believe it was someone who worked for Tilley l ! Realty - Century 21 , who was - which wasn' t one of the Real Estate ] {! f *Agents he is listing. I1CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, are there other questions from members ! of the Board? Thank you. Are there others who would like to speakl j! f iin opposition to the requested variance? i i ( LINDA FINLAY: My name is Linda Finlay and I own 109-111 Delaware !!Avenue. This is a duplex very similar to the one that Mr. Gutenberiger Df` { owns. It' s a double house separated by the fire wall with a very j ,o 40 - i I ' small yard and I 've never had the slightest difficulty in renting jthe side that we do not live in to a family in fact, our difficulty ;! has been chosing which family to rent to and for very good rents . f; It ' s a very attractive property for families because it is so close, I +oto Cornell , it' s an easy, easy walk. So, I do want to say that ouy s� ; house is almost identical to the one described by Mr. Gutenberber i� and that we have never had the slightest difficulty renting it. ( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Could you compare the size in terms of number ofd iibedrooms to the house he describes? He speaks of nine bedrooms ori Ireally four on each side upstairs . j �SIMS. FINLAY: He ' s really talking of four on each side plus a cella' I j room? j ( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Right. ,IMS. FINLAY: We have four bedrooms on one side of the house - threl. ( plus a room which could be used as a bedroom in the cellar, a lifinished room but the building inspector says in our house that li ! that room is really a cellar room and it really shouldn't be used that way. I don' t know what it is like in his house so we have seven bedrooms as opposed to eight, really. Unless we want to count the ! other and then we have eight as opposed to nine. I 1CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, thank you. j ilMS, FINLAY: I just wanted to point that out. The other thing is j I i !Ithat we have had inquiries from Real EState Agents also from people i 11ooking for duplexes in that area and I have good reason to believei I that we could sell our house if we wanted to - we don't want to, we; I want to keep it, Secondly, I wanted to make the point as Joel did `earlier, that the very purpose of the zoning regulations is to !protect this kind of neighborhood. The zoning regulations are not ! necessary in a neighborhood where there is no possible encroach- �ment from a college town kind of area. And that street, and that j ! area is very important to us. I came to the neighborhood three i ! years ago and most of the families that have bought houses in the ; neighborhood in the last three or four years have been people who !!came there because we really particularly liked that neighborhood, I I� 4 I 41 - �� j ((iwe liked the mix of it , the convenience of it to downtown and to ;Cornell. Most of us have small children and the character of the lneighborhood is very important to us and we do not want it to become 'a Linden Avenue. In fact, the effort has been among us to recruit ! It ijmore .and more of our .friends who will-buy in that neighborhood to j I ,;;keep that kind of character. So it seems to me that this is ;; exactly the kind of neighborhood that the zoning law should protect I ;and that ' s what they were the kind of neighborhood they were l;devised to protect and, therefore, it' s very hard to understand whyj i � I �ithey would suddenly, why there would be a change and this variance !would be granted. I suppose that' s really all I have to say about ; , this except that Mr. Gutenberger is , I believe, our representative in that ward to the Council, and as such he is supposed to represent lour interests on Delaware Avenue and my interests are not being Ijrepresented. Thank you. !MR. GASTEIGER: Could we ask questions? IMS. FINLAY: Yes . E MR, KASPRZAK: Is your property in R-1? MS. FINLAY: Yes. i SMR. KASPRZAK: Thank you. MR. GASTEIGER: You bought three years ago? �IMS. FINLAY: Yes. !MR. GASTEIGER: Did you have difficulty finding a duplex? How long) I Idid you look? I MS. FINLAY: Well I was I was not looking particularly for a +duplex - I was looking to buy in that neighborhood. I particularly I wanted to buy there. That was the house that happened to be on thel jmarket. f1MR. GASTEIGER: Would you say which agency you bought through? j +IMS. FINLAY: I bought it from the owner, directly. Are there other; I , questions? CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I don' t see any, thank you. Is there anyone elsel ++;who would like to be heard on this case? Yes. If .E IISARAH PINES: My name is Sarah Pines . I moved into the neighborhood i : - 42 - I� ( less than a year ago because of the family nature of it. IICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Could you tell us where you moved - into it? That 1 , is what . . . ISARAH PINES: 101 Oxford. The house was a really, really expensive �� house and one of our fears when we bought it was that it would 1undergo the domino theory, namely we saw three or four houses on ;! Delaware Avenue that were student occupied and there was a lot of f 1dogs and a lot of cars and a lot of noise and we were really scared that each house that was bought again on Delaware Avenue would they encourage another house to go to students , I love students r. they ; tare wonderful — that' s what makes the quality of life in Ithaca so ' 4 rich, but when you have three, four, five, six, seven, eight ;' students together it creates a tremendous amount of unpleasantness , to say the least and I just would feel really cheated if a variance i ; was given in this case because it would just scare me that that hoose ii is going, then the next house will go, then the next house will go ! and we 've really been happy in that every house that ' s come on the !market, we've been able to recruit people, we 've actually gone out i . i !1to friends of ours and said : "Hey listen this is a house on the i ;;market - this is how we want the neighborhood to be, do you want to come. and I was recruited by one of these people a year ago, 13CHAIRMAN MARTIN: According to the testimony of the appellant in a i1sense Delaware Avenue has already gone,. You speak of it going one ! Iby one. He describes his house as being surrounded by essentially j ij j+ absentee rental properties . ( SARAH PINES: No that 's not my understanding. We were very careful of that when we bought the house because it was so god dam expensive. j ;;Excuse my language. And we were a little distraught when we found ''out that the first house on Delaware and Dryden was student occupied - j "the second house and the third house and I think it was possibly I' '';the fourth house. And then we discovered that the next houses on I; 11down - up until Mitchell there was an owner on one side and a li �irental family on the other. For an owner on one side and two or i three students on the other side and those houses were usually kept! i! i - 43 - I' t. in fairly good repair and they were clean outside because the i 1owners were always taking care of them. Since we moved in, three ;` houses have sold on Delaware - two families. Alison Lurie ' s house ; (i ; was sold and people from Australia bought the house next to Alice ii ( Lurie; the Saltzman' s sold their house to a family - I 'm sorry - ' four houses , and then the house next to the Saltzman' s was also ii '; bought by a family. And I bought the house on Oxford which is jabout it's about four or five houses from the house in question Hand then the Golds bought the house across the street from us and i ,; then a block away, Dr. Savishinsky bought a house and that' s a E� jlfamily and then across from them another family bought a student lihouse and this is really - much of this work is because of the ;; recruitment. The energy that we 've put in in trying to make this it ;!more of a family neighborhood. I 'm finished, thank you, !i (CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Are there questions from members of ii lithe Board? INR, GASTEIGER: How long have you been there? tt iIMS. PINES: Since July. kHAIRMAN MARTIN: July this year? INS. PINES: A year ago. i! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: July, a year ago. Thank you. Is there anyone el, e 1 who would like to be heard on this case? Yes. (;FLORENCE HOARD: Florence Hoard, 42 Cornell Street, I was a member; I �iof the Ad Hoc Committee on the rezoning of the residential area and; I am also president of the Bryant Park Civic Association and with the �4 lAd Hoc Committee we labored long and hard and tried to alert everyoAe H ! to the conditions that they would be living under. We had a meetin lat the Bryant Park Civic Association and we had the Planning Board +there with its maps and all its materials and we voted, after much ;discussion of what it would entail for everyone, we had a unanimous ; Hhote to support the zoning, It worries me that two months - that a ' ,I roperty can be on the market makes it seem that it cant be sold ' `ind there are many houses in my area that have been on the market fdr imuch longer time. They are still considered desirable and everyo4e 04 I �f 44 - i expects them to get a good price. They are just waiting for that } liproper person to come. Thank you. ;CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like ,Ito be heard in opposition to the requested variance? Anyone with 1something new to say? Yes. j i, iJANICE PALMER: My name is Janice Palmer. I live at 969 E. State '. l '!Street, I am a member of the Bryant Park Civic Association, I 'M a ;;part of Mr. Gutenberger 's constituency and, as an afterthought , I ,happen to be a realtor, and a member of the Ithaca Board of Realtors . 3; that In/some statistics have been thrown around which I think are dang- !ferous and not for somebody who is knowledgeable to correct. I think ( that it's time that maybe some things be ascertained. Number one, as a realtor, 'a sale is always determined by price and terms . It ! s ?1also determined by the condition and several other factors not the ;;least of which would be the lot size in accordance with the kind of i '!variance that is being requested. Now, as a realtor, I am going to 1borrow something that is some information that is available to al!1 'jBoard members and as a part of your constituency Mr. Gutenberger anid ti as a realtor, I am a little surprised that it 's not multiple listed', i frankly so that all members would have access to use the property �E 11and to show it to qualified buyers . And as a resident realtor in +theneighborhood it ' s a case that many times I have families who come �1 �jto me specifically to ask for properties in the neighborhood and slllunfortunately there aren' t that many of which are available at the i present time. Of course, price is always a determining factor, Nojw before me I have a statistical report that is dated for the thirtieth �; ; (Iweek of this year and it covers certain things that might interest E� this committee. Now in all single family listings, these are average ('market statistics. Sold now these are single family mind you �e ; the average market price I don't think is necessarily the committeel' s `'interest but I think that the number of days to get that sold is, IThat' s sixty-seven days. Now I ' ll also give you some background as! p!`far as what is the make up of the Ithaca Board of Realtors. At lash �jcount there was something like thirty-seven offices, of which mine pis done of them. Of that thirty-seven board members offices, I think ;i N' ii i 45 - i i ithere is something like one-hundred-fifty-seven licensed people who i� Fare qualified to merchandise a property. Now if we are going to jalso work with statistics , the number of active listings as far as ` I� what there are at the present time as far as those that have not quite have not sold yet, active listings the average time has !jbeen seventy-four days . Now these are on single family homes . Now �, if we take a statistic on, for instance, the number of bedrooms to : ; cover Mr. Gutenberger ' s situation, five plus bedrooms, there are lipresently fifty-five listings throughout the county on the Ithaca ; Board of Realtors multiple listing service. It might also interest , 1' this particular committee to know that the average price market i' fpprice, is $60,417. and average days on the market is ninety-two.. I' Now the number of active listings at the present time is five- iihundred-thirty-seven and the number of sold year to date is 'i igfour-hundred-thirteen. Now I don' t think I am telling anything out iI 1of school because I have paid for the information, I 'm not here ! representing the Ithaca Board of Realtors, I am simply a member of ; �Ithat Board, so I 'm not speaking for the thinking of the Board, but ! �iit ' s something that ' s - a piece of information that I have available Ito me and if I wanted to list a piece of property, it ' s a piece of information that I could use - it' s a tool. Now, if we talk about ! ii last year because after all I was just giving you some statistics 1 Ifor the first thirty weeks of this year. Let' s talk about "solds for last year. Last year under the Multiple Listing Service sign the average days on the market for a piece of property was 72 . 3. I Now God only knows how they arrived at the . 3 but there it is . I Those properties which didn' t sell and they expired after they trifid sa �Idiligentl , let ' s I� Y y, to get them sold, the average days on the market was 125. 3. Now as far as the distributional sales by month ,- 11the best selling months for last year, and that' s the only one I can use because it ' s the only full calendar ( Y year, out of .all the sales ; j that happened last year, 14% happened in July and 14% in August . I I Those were the peak months and I see that there is a prominent at- ': Itorney here present this evening and I suppose his office - he could �o I I l.i - 46 - '; verify that his office was busiest during July and August . Alright, i; !, now, year-to-date on sales for last year - multi-family homes _ thei !! average days on the market was sixty-eight. Now it rather appalls ' i `me that one of our elected officials should or should not happen toll '! use his office to ask for a rther important and significant variance ;. P g i. j! I think. Because I thought that the Civic Associations make very �joud and clear - this Common Council , to the different committees !; within Common Council, etc. as far as what our feelings were about ! dour neighborhoods about our cities and the way of life that we ;wanted. Now there are many different things which affect the sale ; is ! and a price and the value of a piece of property and why what are the emotional things that make us want to live in a particular 1 ; area and select it and commit ourselves to it. It rather disturbs ! me that there hasn' t been anything, as the violins were practically! ,playing this evening, that there wasn't anything indicated about a ! grandfather clause. Now as far as boarding up rooms and this kind ; �! of thing - it' s nonsense. Because , even if one moves out both sides i can still be rented to a family or two unrelated people on one side land a family on the other side because you are grandfathered in. I Well , I take issue with that and I 'd like to hear somebody respond ; ion that. It ' s also a case, that it occurs to me, that I lost my ' Itrain of thought. . . . CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Well I might fill the gap and give you a moment lto catch it - if I respond to that point asking for confirmation f from the Building Commission er, it would be my impression that the; grandfathering provision of the new amendments would not apply in this case because you'd be talking about a use at the time the lordinance took affect, which complied namely, owner/occupancy by a family rental of the other side to a family so that there is not use at the time the amendment took effect, it was contrary to the terms of the new ordinance. Nothing to grandfather, in other words;! So that there is no grandfathering that would apply. IMS. PALMER: Well, I apologize then because it would seem to me as I ( though we had covered that within the Ad Hoc Committee. There are s� I iI 47 - 'i !! certain other issues though I think that particularly when we ;! talk in terms of such a substantial variance . An R-1 which was jlsupposed to be the most restrictive zone an R-lb specifically - itl !, seems to me like we are taking a rather dangerous precedent as far ; as this opening up the door to precisely what we just - where we 'v Ibeen and where we worked long diligent hours , as you, Mr. Chairman,! ;, very well know the Committee worked, you were a part of that and ; ; you know that we struggled long and hard as far as getting a zonin� I11change made that would be fair and equitable with everyone. I say ; ;! fair and equitable because it' s a case that I have a single family ! I' ,; dwelling myself and I have - I live in it alone and I have no oppo - I ' � tunity to rent out any additional living unit that happens to be ! ! there either, except to one other unrelated person - and there is a, III ; separate unit there that would be certainly, I think, desirable for, ' one to occupy. So as far as this kind of a precendent being set as! i 4far as up to nine unrelated people or along this line, I certainly ! lhope the Committee will look long and hard at that and absolutely �Iturn it down. Thank you. �! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. Let me enjoin anyone who would like to i Ispeak to keep their remarks to something new, but if there is some-j IIthing new to be said, I certainly don' t want to prevent it . Yes . i MS. FINLAY: May I just speak from hereinstead of coming forward? III just wanted to say that I have really no objections to a variances ;which would permit Mr. Gutenberger to sell to someone who wanted to rent to two families. The opposition is to the change to an R-3, � I don't know what to call it but to a situation in which it would bibi IItreated as if the house were in R-3 zone, (CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, but as I think was clear from an exchange Eboth at this hearing and last, that 's not what ' s being requested � . i IMS. FINLAY: I know that but it is not my - I don't want to force him to live in the house forever or board it up or do any of those things . I g just do not want nine students on Linden Avenue to come Ito Delaware Avenue. ;CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, are thereothers who haven't spoken?I p en, Yes, 11DAVID CORNELIUS: My name is David Cornelius, I 'm chairman it of the 1i �4 j - 48 - i :! Fall Creek Civic Association and was also a member of the Ad Hoc i i' ;! Committee on the recent zoning amendments - changes. What I would ] ?i I ;] like to address myself to is the fact that if Mr. Gutenberger feel �f !ithat the best use of his property is for multiple family dwelling ! !' and his contention is the other properties in this area are also ;! geared to this type usage, then it seems to me it was his responsi 11bility as a representative from that area at the time we were having !1hearings to come out and make some recommendation to that fact that] 1 the felt that that area should be zoned as a multiple use. So that I, I ; everyone in that area would have the benefit if this is a fact, of , H selling to a buyer who is willing to pay a very high price to put lea large number of unrelated people in that property. So again I ' would just like to say that you know, I feel that since Mr. tauten- lberger as I recollect correctly, voted in favor of the new zoning ! ']the way it was proposed, with the map as proposed, that I do not felel that this Committee should grant a variance. Thank you. i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, I have also on this case a letter that 1`specifically asks that it be read at the hearing and I will comply with that request . It is a letter from Mr. Christo her J. Ana nostp g I, 1�1911 E. State Street : "Dear Mr. Martin: i1"Because of previous commitments I am unable to personally attend ;I P Y �lthis meeting tonight but I am sending you this letter to be read to' express my feelings in regard to the request for an appeal for Variance at 212- 21212, Delaware Avenue. "I served as a member of the Mayor ' s Ad Hoc Advisory Committee that ; I Corked arduously for seven months on a study of the rezoning of the ! pity of Ithaca's residential zones . The committee was formed of �� arious members of the community who spent countless hours, without ; compensation, in order to preserve the integrity of our present i jiving situations within the city limits and to control future changes 'n density. I was unable to attend the Planning Board meeting with { regard to the above appeal but I am disturbed to think that changes ; I� - 49 'I �Imay be granted in these zones after the long months of study and I1work that have taken place. I do not feel that any changes should ; ,� 1. 1Ibe made without reactivating and consulting the Ad Hoc Advisory '! Committee. I specifically remember questioning the R-1 designation H in that area along Delaware Avenue near Bryant since I recently pub I ;! chased a multiple dwelling across the street from the property in question. I remember too the reaction of the members of the Planning �IBoard and other members of the committee when I suggested that the ; `i 1R- 2 or R-3 zone be extended further down Delaware Avenue to include, i filmy property and another multiple dwelling across the street, and a�ter li y( some minor discussion it was decided that it would be in the best ! interests of the community to leave the R-1 zone intact. { "I am not against the idea of extending this zone, but feel that it ( should not be done without the Advisory Committee ' s further investl- i gation and advice. "I would respectfully request that the Zoning Board deny this appeal . I "Sincerely, 1I/s/ Christopher J. Anagnost !Christopher J. Anagnost" IICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there any others who we haven 't heard, who i IIwould like to be heard on this case? Yes. i. i JAMES ORCUTT: I 'm James Orcutt, I reside at 411 Mitchell Street. i i HI think basically the problem here is one simply of economics . We earlier mentioned it had been mentioned the number of houses for !sale in the Ithaca area and I think that the reason they are for sai.e is because of the relative saleability. Here we have a house that a ( family is condemned with as far as I 'm concerned. It ' s a huge housle, Iiia must cost a fortune to heat it - the man can't sell it because off lits relative uselessness at this point. The only way that the housji Iwould have any value is to be rezoned. I think anybody looking at la house in this da and a eY g through the energy crises and the energy crunch that we are all facing will continue to face would surely dis- regard a house of this size. I think also that it is very important i I !� I ('s i6 I 50 - 1 ! to look at the neighborhood. There is truly some very lovely housls to the south of this house but as you go north toward Dryden Road (; you will find many other income properties that are different than i ;; the ones to the south of this and I think that the problem here is ! 'I I '' that people are blaming students for the condition of their houses ;land I think basically that the conditions of the houses in the whore l llcollege town area are a reflection of their owners and I think tha� this is the problem. I personally am in favor of rezoning the i house. ` CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. I gather then that I missed some people! who were in support of the variance . Let me try to keep things orderly. Are there any others who would like to speak in oppositidn to it and then I will reinvite any who have been missed who would `I I Alike to speak in favor of the variance. Others in opposition to it - yes . i I i �IMARGARET JONES: My name is Margaret Jones and I live at 509 Casca-1 dilla Street. I would just like to say that I was a member of the , 1!Ad Hoc Committee that met morning and night and spent lots of timet (Iworking on the rezoning of our city and I 'd like to say that _ in support of residential areas and preserving the residential areas that I am against the variance. ,!' I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Are there any others who wish to speak ,din opposition? Did I miss anyone else who would like to speak in Ifavor of the requested variance? Yes. Would you come forward pleaise, I ' GEORGE HARPER: My name is George Harper, lifelong resident of I 1i Ithaca, life long resident of East Hill, which this is a part of, i 411 Dryden Road. I am in favor of allowing this variance. When I � hear people get up here, talking who are real estate people and Asa that we've , y got to turn it over to multiple listing, we can! t i ` sell our own house, we've slipped a long , long way. She advised t Iat we tura it over to multiple listing. She condemned him for not Iturning it over to multiple listing. II IICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Letts noget involved in a debate back and fort IIII t h, Could you continue with your testimony? Disregard whatever you heajr I� ilout there. � r I, I fr "i ' j - 51 - i !i MR. HARPER: I 've had a lot of dealings with selling and buying �i 11real estate in Ithaca. And multiple listing has never done anything 11for me. And I hope Mr. Gutenberger doesn't turn it over to multiple H Misting. The other thing, when you are talking about buying and jyselling houses , economics comes into it. Now let' s face it - the 1 ;; man cannot get as much money selling to two families as he can to i ,; students. Now, why should we all of a sudden be - we live off ! students how come all of a sudden we are discriminating against ;' students? They are human. Believe it or not they are human. The ! �jother thing of it is , I would like to know what consists of a ;! family? I don' t know. Thank you. I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, difficult though that question is , the ordinance defines it for us , for these purposes so I don' t think wo ; need go into it. I think we 've heard everyone except I would like i� to invite Mr. Gutenberger to respond to any of the points that hav� is �I 11been made in opposition that he thinks have not been adequately 1 i ; answered in the initial presentation. ;I MR. GUTENBERGER: I think that most of those that spoke had the same I. concerns that I do as far as the neighborhood. I will address myself itowards the end of why in fact I did not use my political clout and pass that that line be redrawn around my house. I will explain to , you why I tried to do it the honest way. The first gentleman that ; yspoke indicated that in fact he tried to sell m house - or buy m Y Y yf. }I'house or had a real estate person call my house and ask, in fact, 11f i �' I was going to sell it. I don't know what he is referring to uniesjs I Ilit is the phone call which I received approximately the first part !'of March at 8 : 00 in the morning when I was sound asleep from a real liestate person who said "Are you interested in selling your house?" j And I said "No, I don't think so at this time . " because in March wie I. i were not. She did ask that if in fact I was interested at some fut�re 11time, in selling the house, would I please contact her. I said yes !I would, hung up and went back to sleep. At that time when we de- cided to sell the house I , in fact, called this woman who had calle� IMme, if that is the same person you are referring to, and said that ' ! �iam responding to your phone call , I am now going to put my house onj i '' I i 52 !i i '! the market you indicated that you had a person who would like to buy the house. She said yes I did, unfortunately they have already i jibought a house and they are no longer interested. That is the only-, -,;contact that I have had from any outside purchaser or realtor before ;; the time that I put the house on the market. I am assuming sir, 1�lthat you are that individual. You in fact had bought a house beforle ; mine went on the market so I think the fact that you are saying that ` you tried to buy my house is quite irrelevant and, in fact, I think!. i Hit is very misleading. You also mentioned that you had looked and i i�scoured and tried to find duplex houses and could not find. any. I i suggest to you that if you have not read the ads that were in the paper on my house the last 2, months , obviously you have not scourejd too hard but in fact you had probably already bought the house befole I � that so I don' t think that is really germane . You did mention that i�you drove down Delaware Avenue and saw children on the street. This i alis very true on the far end of Delaware Avenue. On the end of Dela ware Avenue where I live we have the only children, so if you saw Ichildren, they were mine - they are the only ones. The houses that-, have been referred to by a few of the people have not been duplex ! houses. Again, the reason I am having the problems is the fact that ! my house is a duplex and that is why it is unique. Now you mentioned why not multiple and why were not other people informed? As I ex- 1pplained to you before we put it on open listing so it would still Ballow me the opportunity to sell it. I in fact did notify Stage Realty that they could put it on open market and did request, and -,i they did notify, from what they have told me, as many real estate i people in the area that, in fact, this house is on the market. I ,have taken Stage Realty at their face value and their good word thaj , j Iin fact, they have told the other real estate people that the house! its on the market. That list of the five realtors that have shown i �Ithe house obviously had to come from somebody. It did not come from! 1Ime, it came from Stage Realty and those are five reputable, and in s fact one of the people mentioned Gallery 121 that they even talked Ito and that is the one that is on the list. So people have been s ;!shown - its been offered to everybody as far as I know that Stage `I I i! ii Ei - 53 - ' Real Estate contacted everyone that in fact it was on the market. 11Mrs. Finlay at 101 Delaware Avenue - I would just like to point out. . 11MS. FINLAY: 111 Delaware. lMR. GUTENBERGER: 111 . I 'm sorry. Who lives at the far end of they 1street, I would like to point out that there are no four, five andl 11six story apartment houses around her end of the street. Now she mentioned that she had no trouble buying the house. Well, of course Ishe didn't, she didn't have the apartments around her that I have j j' around our end of Delaware Avenue which these pictures all attest t�o Viand I 'm sure that she is well aware of what 's on my end of the street, I She also mentioned that it was very easy to buy and very easy to sell, I ,lWell, of course it is because of the area they are families at thei jlend of the street. Obviously that' s why I 'm having the problem !i selling my house because there are no families on my end of the i 11street. She also mentioned that she bought the house and her house ; ! that she bought did not hit the market. She bought it from the ownjer. i I IThat ' s what I 've been trying to say is that this is the way the houses i I ! sell and I can' t sell it that way and I can't sell it from the ad. `The lady on Oxford, I 'm not sure is that the white house on the I ` corner? That 's the one that has the home occupation in it? You i 14have a sign out in front? Yes . You also mentioned that you enjoyeld I� , the area very much and that you had - and you mentioned, I think, lI lquite a few people have moved into the area - all those that you I mentioned, I think, quite a few people have moved into the area all those that you mentioned were single family homes . Yes there; �Iwere no income property, duplexes or . . . j�MS. PINES: No. i iIMR. GUTENBERGER: Again, my unique problem is that mine is a duplex. The single family houses are selling , Mrs. Hoard spoke and I wasn't inure Mrs . Hoard if you were speaking for the Bryant Park Civic AssoL Iciation or if you were speaking on behalf of i Y p �, yourself. You have j'always been very kind to me and asked me to come to the meetings i ,when the Bryant Park Civic Association did meet and discuss issues I , as we did on East State Street and many of the others , You did not ij j I 11 I 54 11invite me to any meeting to discuss my particular problem so I don t i` iknow if you had a meeting on this or if that was your own . . . j 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I understood her as speaking for herself. I' MR. GUTENBERGER: Okay. I 'm sorry, I did not . But the Bryant Parr Civic Association and the Fall Creek Civic Association both feel 11exactly the same way I do. I was in support of that zoning map I !i when we passed it as were the Associationsand in doing so, part of that ordinance is a procedure and a mechanism for variances which ! e! l� the law cannot be applied 100% to all pieces of property and I sup port that. And I would support it again. My problem is that my particular piece of property is the piece of property that does ne d I i that variance which was built into the zoning law. The Bryant Parr Civic Association and the Fall Creek Civic Association, in their l � �Iwisdom and their 100% unanimous support of that also supported the I fact that yes , there are cases which will not be covered and there-' ifore we support the fact that a variance can be granted. And that I ' is why I am here. Mrs . Palmer mentioned a lot of figures and I guess she accused me, or suggested, in fact, that I was giving false i 11figures . I tried to indicate to you, not Tompkins county figures , Inot yearly averages, but figures for Delaware Avenue, Bryant Park, l iI ' ii Linden Avenue, the immediate area which I think is - what is the ;c ; crux of this matter. Tompkins county, Mrs. Palmer, covers a large ; area - it covers farms, it covers all kinds of problems which I dor0 t jhave on Delaware Avenue so I think my figures which I have gotten from the realtors , which are not my figures , they are realtor' s i figures - for my area they are a lot more germane to the subject then what happens in the rest of Tompkins county. Mrs . Palmer I jmentioned that July is the best month to sell. I have advertised iit during July. (Comment from Mrs . Palmer from the audience) You � i said that 14% of the houses were sold in July and August and those are the two best months. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I hope you can trust the Board, John, to have re tained recollection of prior testimony and I would hope too that yolu I i!need not go down point by point of everything said in order to . . , SMR. GUTENBERGER: Okay. Well it ' s I 'm sorry - this particular I 0 I - I i; �Js very important to me and I okay. She did mention some prices `jof five bedroom homes . I suggest that my house is in that price !!range for a nine bedroom home. I am a little concerned about the 1 I'• ;letter that you read from Mr. Anagnost , since the list of property j i jowners that I gave you - the very first one is listed as Grace t! s ''Stevens who is no longer there - who just sold the house, and she ;sold it to Mr. Anagnost and it ' s the house directly across the ;street from me - who will not be living in the house, it is now a 11five apartment house, the trucks are there, the electricians are i ,'there - it' s going to be non-owner occupied apartment house. That lis Mrs. Steven's house directly across from the street from me whic just sold. I was quite surprised that he wrote and said that he war i�din favor of it since he just purchased the property. So in short, i iiI think from all that we 've heard, is that yes , single family house t are easy - easier to sell. My problem is I have a duplex, I have a' �jzoning variance or zoning restriction on it which makes it very ' difficult to sell . I 've advertised it and cannot sell it and my ``last and final point is , and I 'm sorry that it ' s been brought into (lit, that I 'm an Alderman, it' s too bad that in a city of this size i !that my belief for public duty and public service has to be thrown ,(back in my face - that, therefore, I am not allowed to request �I 1phat a private individual would request. I 'm a little upset by it Ito say the least - but, yes , I probably could have been a little i !dishonest about it when the zoning map came out and suggested to the (Planning Board or any other groups that were concerned, that that I" i !!property line missed my house by one house, and let ' s redraw it I, !around my house but I didn' t do that I did it the honest way and i Ifelt that a variance was the proper way, if and when I did sell the ; I i shouse. i i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Can I interject and then I don' t want to shut you off. It seems to me that that was not the suggestion made. 1�he suggestion made is that when a line has been improperly drawn, ilthe correct relief is through the City Council, that a portion of toe i town that should not be in a particular zone should not be rezoned I 1 l 56 - I +i i f ii property by property by variance. The law and the ordinance are clear on that. So that insofar as the problem is created by condi-I tions at the end of Delaware Avenue, is a problem that Council !Ishould have responded to in the past or should in the future and we 'I , would say that to anyone seeking a variance on those grounds . (! MR. GUTENBERGER: I 'm addressing now to the comments that were madd - I I '. j, you know to those that spoke and it was said twice that I was in the ` position you know, of a political person and therefore did not have the recourse of a private citizen. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. And a final point, I guess I don't want to leave, I want to have a clear understanding about the dimensions; i of the variance that you are seeking. At least one person speaking t in opposition said that the opposition was not to a variance of any stride, a variance that would permit non-owner occupancy but rental; to families on both sides would meetthe objections of at least that (Ione individual. I take it that' s not the ordinance you are seekin ! t or not the variance you are seeking, you are seeking a grander one I than that? IIMR. GUTENBERGER: From all indications of what I have had, it would; ' be easier for me to sell it, or I could sell it with non-owner 1 occupied family on one side and four or five unrelated on the lother side. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay, so you are not asking us to grant you a I variance - it wouldn't meet your needs to grant a variance that wound allow non-owner occupancy rental to families on both sides . ! MR. GUTENBERGER: On two families, the indications I 've had from ithose who have looked at it, they would not be interested in buying j it. . . 1' CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay, that' s not what you are asking for. Questions , �'MR. VAN MARTER: John heard something I didn' t hear and that was a �Icomparative sales -for single family houses in the neighborhood. I� What I heard was . . . MR. GUTENBERGER: No , that was county. The figures I had were five; r, i bedroom houses in Tompkins county $61,100. from what Mrs . Palmer said. t I 4� - 57 - iiMR. VAN MARTER: After the comment that was made in regard to critl�! 1! cizing the figures given for one family, what I heard was that those i ;; opposed said that the neighborhood was a viable area to support og ( family and that one family did live there, that bought recently, i intended to stay and would recruit and try to reenforce the neigh- i iborhood. Is that correct? 1CHAIRMAN MARTIN: That' s what I heard. 11MR. GUTENBERGER: For single family dwellings , yes , For family, i i; 11 period. I� 11MR. VAN MARTER: Then talk about the buildings. You heard something II didn' t hear. SDR. GREENBERG: Could I ask about one thing that ' s bothering me? E It was mentioned that among your listing here of multiple dwelling, jIthere are single family dwellings that have a student or two on the ( premises but you li$t them as multiple dwellings , is that a fair 1assertion on the part of the people who have spoke in opposition? !1MR. GUTENBERGER: I believe they are referring to the lower end of '; i '' Delaware Avenue which is all the way down here (pointing to ma ; Y CP g P) !! DR. GREENBERG: But not in the area you indicated with the red blo�k? MR. GUTENBERGER: No, the areas that I indicated in red were 11further than the 200' which I had to send the notices to but went further than Oxford Place and those are all apartments . There may„ 11in fact, in fact there are boarders at the far end of Delaware Avenue i 1but there are not apartment houses down there. I ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there further questions from members of the �fBoard? Thank you. 11MR. GUTENBERGER: Thank you sir. 3 �G i 1. i f i; it I ii �f I I 58 - i, s BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA AUGUST 1 , 1977 i j! EXECUTIVE SESSION jj APPEAL NO. 1168 j f CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I move that we reconsider case # 1168 in light i! of such new information as was furnished in j s; our hearing this month. jIMR. GASTEIGER: I second the motion. VOTE: YES 6; NO 0 i Motion carried. i! — — — — — — -- - — — — — — — — — — — — — — — i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I will move that the requested use variance in case 1168 , upon reconsideration, be denied 1 I liMS. MAXWELL: I second the motion. ' FINDINGS OF FACT : 1. A month ago the Board unanimously denied I, this variance. At the hearing this month ! i' the Board heard the following informations 'I which it considers new information, that i is information not presented to it at they �j prior hearing. i a. Testimony that the property had been j 'j on the market for another twenty (20) ' f I days and had been shown by at least i! li four additional real estate brokers . ! { b. A map which graphically portrayed the ! testimony of Mr. Gutenberger at the prior hearing; that properties near his were primarily multiple dwellings . 1 c. Testimony by a number of people livin� in the area on Delaware Avenue and Ox ii ford Place to the effect that the are4 ! is attractive to families . 1 ! f i I ' I 64 E !i ii 3i - 59 - !! i; ii d. Testimony by one property owner on l Delaware Avenue who owns a duplex 3f r reasonably similar to the property in i question which has been owner occupied j� and rented to a family indicating again that families are interested in i living in the area and interested in ! buying a duplex for a personal home orl i one side and rental of the other side ! to a family. e. Testimony by an individual who had been, !j I at an earlier point in the year, look-! ii ing for such a property in that neigh- ;' borhood, again tending to establish i I� that properties like that which is the: subject of this appeal , are attractive) to families. f. Testimony by a real estate broker in- dicating that the period of time this jproperty has been on the market should not be taken as evidence that it cannot I1 be sold at a reasonable price for a us'e consistent with the R-lb zoning. IE 2 . On the basis of all this new evidence the Board finds that the case has not been made that this property cannot be sold to and ! !j used by a family who would occupy one side I I� and rent out the other for a family, a use I` consistent with the R-lb zoning. !' I �- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 'PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE MOTION: SDR. GREENBERG: While the variance requested is denied, the i( amendment would grant a narrower variance which would permit one occupancy combination not r j permitted under R-1 , namely owner occupancy i! 'i ! i �I fl 60 - �E i iby a family on one side and rental to up to four (4) unrelated individuals on the other. 'IMR. VAN MARTER: I second the motion NOTE: YES 2 ; NO 3; ABSTAIN 1 . i I 11VOTE ON ORIGINAL MOTION: I YES 6; NO 0 IiUse Variance denied. it I i i i i j i I ! i C II I� 1j I i I i l i �i i i � I t I! {f I Ii I �i i! i; i. i' I li i it If - 61 - i IICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, I believe we are ready now to move on tc ' the next case . The next case is : SECRETARY HOARD: anounced the next case to be heard: ?i APPEAL No. 1169: Appeal of Bill Avramis for an area variance t8 II' extend existing porch 7% feet and enclose sam� I to create larger living areas on the first an !; second floors of premises at 117-119 Eddy Str et, in an R-3a use district. The area variance i for insufficient lot size and one deficient sideyard. � Mr. Wiggins is here representing Mr, Avramis . iCHAIRMAN MARTIN: Given the hour, I 'm led to remind everyone that again this is a case on which we have heard plenty of testimony anc which we rendered a decision last month so what we are interested n are new evidence, new testimony, new facts that bear on the Board' o 4 I decision of last month. ! I WALTER WIGGINS: Thank you Mr. Chairman. My name is Walter Wiggins!, it IIII am sensitive to the hour and I will try to limit those remarks . i The new evidence, Mr. Chairman, that we hope to present to you is i bit more comprehensive explanation of what the applicant-appellant i intends to accomplish by the variance. The first sheet on the plats i ( which I just submitted to you indicate the present posture of the j dwelling prior to the time the area, which is designated as enclosId �i 11porch, was removed some weeks or month ago. The second page is a j i . drawing of the proposed construction that would be accomplished ifj ,Ithe variance is granted. There is another set, Dr. Greenberg -okay. I I' The dotted line you see to the left of the drawing of that which ! ps to the left of that dotted line is the proposed new addition I' I �jwhat is accomplished is the increasing - what was an outdoor not ! Ian outdoor but an enclosed porch on the second floor that was V by i 120 ' and an open porch on the first floor of the same dimension increases to a room which becomes 15 x 201 as a living/dining areal 11for the first floor units and for the second floor units . The third 111sheet again is merely a drawing of the second floor as it would i appear after, and I guess the fourth sheet is the way it was before; ii and the last sheet is an elevation of the side of the dwelling which i ! would be changed by new construction if the variance is granted. At i o i ij 62 - 1 j I :: the top you will see there are two doors and a series of windows Mand at the bottom the intention is to make a small balcony on top I I i 1which would be the wall of the new living room and at the bottom jwould be sliding glass doors on the terrace. The plan is designed ; I' to do two things that are contained in your decision of 7/12 . One lis a sensitivity to your concern that the number of habitable rooms ( would be increased and we not only would welcome but our application !; intends to request no greater occupancy of the dwelling, merely ; I 11to permit a more sensible and hopefully more sensitive living areal for those people who live there . This building has been occupied I � as I understand it, by this number of people for a long period of ! time. Mr. Avramis acquired it in 1970 and the numbers of people I', w have remained substantially the same, I don't know how long before ; i that time those numbers were the same. If you look at that first I sheet you will see that the only living area which has been utilized over these many years is a little area that is designated as study ! I j� on the ground floor and then on page four you see that that study Iarea is non-existant on the second floor. It becomes nothing more; I than a hallway. So our hope is that you would see the reasonableness S and the wisdom of permitting this construction to make these living quarters accommodate the needs of the people who hive there in a much more understanding way. The second response I think I would ask the young man who drew this plan to briefly describe to you his' ( concerns in drawing the plan that are responsive to your first - tl e 'Ifirst paragraph of your decision whereas to why the existing areas cannot be improved and upgraded within the confines of the structurie. �lPerhaps sir if you would be kind enough this is Mr. Christodoulou i !who is a graduate assistant instructor at Cornell in the field of I !Architecture. jIMR. CHRISTODOULOU: Part of the reason for that living room/dining ►jiroom area is that it really zones the apartments much more meaning-1 i' !' fully in terms of separating the private areas, bedrooms one , two , P jthree and the living room area in such a way so that separation of !' the quiet areas and the more noisy areas like the living room, are { !,very distinct, and as you see, on the ground floor, there is an i l? � j i 63 - �E i Ej i� attempt to provide, not only better accommodation in terms of a !diving room with a fire place and other facilities , but in terms ofi ii 11a living room, dining room with a bench, I 'm looking now on the �i ;second page, with a bench between the kitchen and the living room/ ;dining room and then there is a distinct separation between that i land the one, two , three bedrooms and the same thing repeats on the ! second floor too. ` CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thnk you. IMR. GASTEIGER: Could we ask some questions? CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Yes . i , MR. GASTEIGER: On page 3 what is the space that has been boxed off':. - 11at the head of the stairs? iIMR. WIGGINS: Could you point to the area? JMR. CHRISTODOULOU: I understand it is the stair that goes further i up. i �MR. GASTEIGER: Does it go straight up? 11MR. CHRISTODOULOU: Yes , it does. !MR. WIGGINS : To the attic area? ' MR. CHRISTODOULOU: Yes to the attic area. ' MR, GASTEIGER: And how about then the space represented here behind 1 ;tor above the stairs? �ijMR. CHRISTODOULOU: That 's open to below. You see, the stair case lis open. I ;CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Yes . I have a question which doesn' t relate so i 1much to details of the plans and I think it probably goes to Mr. 11Avramis. First of all , your presentation is geared to our decision; lof last month and the Board understood last month that it was a I� 11representation that no occupancy increases were involved. What the : !Board was concerned about was an increase in the habitable space I[which could be converted into an increase in occupancy unless liclosely monitored and the Board was uncomfortable with the notion of i� }!attaching a condition that would require that kind of monitoring, '�So that having a general concern about density led the Board to deny I!the variance when it didn't think there was an adequate basis for ,i it. The day after that and this is the matter I would like part of 1 ` iE i 64 - i tithe record and to which I would like Mr. Avramis 's response. I 11received a call from someone who identified himself as a tenant in ` this building and part of that conversation led me to understand �i lythe following and I 'd like it related to these drawings. That the ! I' ,; apartment this tenant said he was in - that our decision placed him in a very difficult situation. That he had rented an apartment, { he and others, in anticipation of the proposed expansion. And tha� l' in anticipation of that expansion, the living room in their apart- ment had been turned into a bedroom. Consequently, they would, with s h the variance being denied, have no living room in their apartment. ; jNow, that ' s what I have some difficulty reconciling with the pre 1 Isentation of last month and with these drawings . So when the refer d ence is to before, I want to know when before right now or a year " ago or where is this living room that 's been turned into a bedroom , or didn' t it happen? i � MR. WIGGINS : Yes. Bill , please? f ! MR. AVRAMIS: This room used to be as a bedroom but we don' t use it las a bedroom, they use it as a study room right now. Yes, it 's on i page three. ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Page 3. The second floor after. The second floor i !, before and the second floor after both have a bedroom 12 x 9 or ; study. MR. AVRAMIS: Yes. ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. 'IMR. AVRAMIS: And this is the same thing, we haven' t changed it. + And it will be - I left it as a study room or whatever they can use ,• it or a dining room. = CHAIRMAN MARTIN: In past rentals before you contemplated this ex- ': I! jpansion did students use that as a bedroom or your tenants use Mithat as a bedroom or did the use it as living space? i, y g P 1MR. AVRAMIS: Both ways yes. Sometimes they used it as a bedroom, i sometimes as a study room whatever they want. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: And in your rentals for this next year you have, i ! no doubt, pointed out what you hope to have accomplished by the 4 � E� fall - that is namely new living areas to the rear and consequently, 1 e, I! � j r 65 - ,! people would have rented that anticipating using the study room as lthe bedroom? E i d MR. AVRAMIS: No sir. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: No? IMR. AVRAMIS: Yes. � ;; CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Yes. Alright, So that your tenants for the next i year have rented in anticipation of there being living space inste d Eof this study and that's what the tenant was referring to.. So that, I{ at least there will in some years be greater occupancy than there j 11were in some past years because that room need not be used as liv I for study space . . . y �! MR. AVRAMIS: Is the same people I have been renting to for three I years now and four people has been rented for four people and next ] E year will rent it for four people and I do have the lease for last �i year. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. Are there questions from members of the E Board? E i! MR. GASTEIGER: Is this rented to individuals? or a group? �iMR. AVRAMIS : No that' s a single party - a group, yes , f� CHAIRMAN MARTIN: So the occupancy will not be greater next fall than it was a year ago? IMR. AVRAMIS : Same thing, CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Same thing. SMR. AVRAMIS: Yes sir. ! � MR. GASTEIGER: What is your experience with occupancy? Our problem ! was that we didn't see any way to control it if this were allowed E i to go through. Have you been able to keep only four people in the ispace that you rent to a group? or do you find that you are_ rentinlg !!' to five or six? E iMR. AVRAMIS: No, that ' s not very good for my place to rent to so �Imany people. Each room got to have their own person, iMR, GASTEIGER: Well , it was pointed out that one of these bedrooms is an exceptionally large bedroom and would lend itself very well to two people occupying - the 16 x 12. E E i i i - 66 - is IMR. WIGGINS : I wonder if I could respond briefly to that. I thinly, 'land I understand the concern of the Board that when they be concerned iI 1 ;, about a lack of good faith and I 'd like to suggest that the appli- 1 !; cation is predecated on good faith and would welcome a condition that there be built in to each lease, if that ' s appropriate, a re- I ;astriction as to the number of persons who can occupy this space. , 11 Indeed, and to do otherwise would be a violation of the ordinance j I viand a violation of the variance and the variance could be withdrawn. ; There is no hesitancy in asking for that and accepting that condi- ! ii letion. I mean, I don' t think that we should presuppose that someone '; will use this extra space to violate the very variance that they have it ! requested here. f I MR. GASTEIGER: It' s a common occurrence, apparently, where there Bare rentals of this kind. f' �IMR. WIGGINS: I can understand that and I would just hope that you ; 11wouldn' t penalize everyone for the miscreant who makes misrepre- sentations to the Board, ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Let us simply understand the dimensions of that �I suggestion so that we don' t make it and let it drop. If we were to I� attach a condition what would be the number, because I think we ought � to talk in terms of numbers rather than some vague reference to a I, past period. What would be the number to which we would limit i , occupancy of these apartments so as to be sure that the variance i� �1would not increase the occupancy? 'IMR. WIGGINS : Again to avoid the possibility of not totally under- ' I i!!; standing Mr. Avramis , tell me and the Board please, the number of 1 I persons who presently occupy these spaces as defined in the leases ': awhich I will leave with the Board? �MR. AVRAMIS: First floor — three people; second floor – four If ('people. iCHAIRMAN MARTIN: First floor - three ; second floor - four. That ' sl j! on each side? i �iMR. AVRAMIS: Yes sir. 1 i iCHAIRMAN MARTIN: Right. I� MR. WIGGINS : And as I would understand that Mr. Chairman, that 's 3I 9 EI i �t i - 67 - ! a proper use of the facility at the present time. So that if we limit it to those numbers all we hope we will be doing is giving these people a nicer place to live without in any way increasing i+ the density of the area. That' s certainly the intention of the 's! ` application. il CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright and I want to again have it clear that li these occupancies or occupancies that are not newly up but they ha�re s; i been at that level for some period of time. Is that correct? �iMR. AVRAMIS: Yes . i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: That is. MR. WIGGINS : I can leave with you and put as part of the record j i; the leases for last year to satisfy you or hopefully, as to the �inumber of persons occupying that facility. Thank you. 1. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there further questions from members of the .! Board? Yes. 11MR. GASTEIGER: I guess I have to express some skepticism yet and $ 1� would appreciate it if you would comment on it. The last time we j 11met the expression was used that you were building a better mouse �I i� trap and this implies that you will be able to rent at a higher ra#e �lor be assured of being able to rent your property. The cost here of j1doing what you are doing looks quite large and I would like some f$el- ing for this mouse trap. I� IIMR. WIGGINS: I'm very happy to say that I was not a party to the use , of that phrase - it certainly is inappropriate. I assume that wha was intended to be said by whomever said it , was that if you build ! ! I a better product, you will, indeed, command a better price. I canlft quarrel with that and indeed that may well be the case, I dont think that 's relevant to the issues itis relevant in -the fact that you've asked it, I don't mean it that way, but if, indeed he build a better home or built a better place to live it would not i seem inappropriate that the rent might be higher and it might per- ! I haps attract a different kind of person that would be less offensi-Oe to the neighborhood, I don' t know.' i 11MR. GASTEIGER: Well , the other common way to solve the problem isl �3 { to put an additional person in, and it ' s relevant to that that I j! ,j i i 68 - I I I `; raise this because the neighbors are concerned about traffic, it 1densit and we have that responsibility to the citizens. Y� P Y i i! MR. WIGGINS: Surely. Let me say that, if indeed, if that were the; object here, Mr. Avramis , I think, without a variance could enclose ,! those existing porch areas and provide some extra space, and if it !� f jwere to be for sleeping it could be a sleeping space - that is not I Ais intention, and I hope the plans show you that and the new evi- ldence is that you didn' t have a plan before, that could not be mis= !understood with regard to its intention. Now you do and it should 'I The made a part of the variance, I would hope. If the variance is i granted the construction will be - go forward in accordance with this plan and not with some different plan or greater numbers of persons Ito occupy the premises. jCHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there further questions from members of the lBoard? Thank you. ii MR. WIGGINS: Thank you sir. I will leave the leases of the . . . I .CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there others present here this evening who wo� ld �I like to speak in support of the requested variance? Are there any i !who would like to speak in opposition? i SEAN KILLEEN: My name is Sean Killeen, 111 Orchard Place. Two ver Ilbrief points that I would make it appears to me that the petitio� i! las presented by Mr, Avramis , notice of which I received as a property f owner within 200 ' of the proposed property being under consideratio#. It seems that the petition is subsitively the same as the item thati as considered a number of weeks ago. Now, with all due respect fot the decision that was rendered at that point I guess would ask the 4 I oint of order as I 've heard things differently. . CHAIRMAN MARTIN: As I 've said several times this evening, already, ' this is a case that is back for the second time technically a re- quest to reconsider the decision of the Board a month ago. We in i g I uch circumstances - .I mean our procedure allows usto decide if we I mill consider reconsider a case. We presume that we have heard Mull testimony and have� decided rightly on it in an earlier hearing, I Ibut we do provide this opportunity for new information. You can 'i ii If ii IS - 69 - {i trust the Board to remember what it heard last month and so let me ! invite you to respond to what new things were said tonight. i i' MR. KILLEEN: That ' s precisely the point, I have heard nothing iti IIt terribly new this evening - I don't wish to burden the Board with i; it arguments that were presented last time pro and con. I have a I f° brief - primarily the issues seem to me still to be the same - thi ii ; building at 117. 119 which I am relatively close to, is not consis !' tent with present code. A variance is requested to take it even { further away from what is the standard that the City Council sought r to achieve in its recent legislation. We, on Orchard Place which s is approximately which is very close to this particular bit of property, indeed, very close - have an interest here that I won't elaborate upon because I know that you do recollect it. But what I am concerned about is, if this variance is granted, even with i ! conditions attached to it , do they ride with Mr. Avramis indeed, of I ,� do they go with the property and Mr. Harper as homeowners and owne I occupiers and more than a dozen small children on the street and a l jlof these arguments we are looking for some relative guarantee !i I besides just a condition on will that bedroom be filled in or not. , Ei (1We have somewhat of a common college town experience where we are 1ptrying to protect ourself from the serge that the college town student housing situation represents and this is what the situation still remains and new evidence doesn' t appear to have been presented I land I, with all of your - the matter that you all have to decide, ; the last particular line of the petition under no circumstances will I l !; the proposed change permit an increase in the occupancy or density ! of this area. I read area as the area I 'm in not specifically i j (, necessarily 117-19 and our concern is that there may indeed by some liforeseeable circumstances that will indeed altar the density. (J CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Well, I can answer one question that you've asked '; which is - what happens if a condition is laid down - it does go I' 11with the property and would pertain to whoever would become the owner I� 1of that property. Condition, is of course, no better than the !i I l! i i ii i 0 it I! I 70 - i i i (; enforcement that the condition allows . It might be a bit difficul f' to give continuous enforcement over a period of years to such con dition. And so the Board in many cases has been reluctant to try i Ito tailor a condition to trim down a proposed use. But the Board i lon other occasions has granted variances with conditions in the !i !! confidence that it would be enforced, and that the proposed use �j i I would be limited as representations have been made. MR. KILLEEN: With all due respect I don't think it is totally fai 11that the burden of monitoring should be placed upon the residentia4 i dwellers in that immediate area for the benefit of the commercial I I ! entrepreneur who is controlling the household. - Indeed that might ! I � be the upshot of whatever decision, particularly if a variance is I; 4 I�', given. Thank you. I! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there questions from members of the Board? V� I Is there anyone else who would like to be heard in opposition? Ye . ,I WOODY KELLY: I am Woody Kelly of 115 Orchard Place. At the last ; meeting I think that place was represented by Martha Tolles, whom I II 'm sure aptly represented herself. I 'm concerned as a new owner i ( with two children about two things which I think are the concern o4 i� this Board. One is the density of housing, the other is off street! i1parking. I would ask, with respect to density of housing that we , Ilook, or the Board look, not at occupant' say, simply last year or very recently at which point occupancy could have been maintained aft I �! a level consistent with the anticipated expansion, but look back i ! three or four or five years also, particularly since the property Chas been a rental property that long. Secondly, I would remind the, Board of the difficult of enforcement —not� Y t with the particular jowners now even if the restrictions that might be proposed on occu-i t � pancy, passed with the property, without in any sense making any I reference to the present owners whom I don't know - there is no i i guarantee, given the difficulty of monitoring, that all owners will! be as well intended as these claim to be, with respect to these r ! proposed post restrictions on people in the house, Finally, I !m !; obviously concerned with off street parking and traffic going thro ' h �lIg Ij I I - 71 - �� I I Orchard Place. Now there are a number of other legal problems abort 11the traffic which goes to that house, not in their easement through lithe Mack property but through Orchard Place, which are fairly well i; j1detailed in the abstract to my house which are not the concern of j i this Board which the other parties should probably talk with us i �jabout at some point, or we will certainly talk with them. But it 4 his quite clear that my daughter rides her big wheel down the middl �lof that street assuming it ' s essentially a private street with cars I� basically one per family. Maybe one or two families might have two cars. Obviously that is not true now with respect to the use of I that street. It may or may not be true in the future. It is not jfthe case that that house can guarantee off-street parking to its ! occupants 365 days a year. As a private road that street is closed ! at least one day a year and, in fact, in the winter time typically ; jit is only plowed two or three times a winter. There are many days when that street is closed and that parking lot is inaccessible. ! ijSo, for certain days of the year, the parking for that house, who- . � ever is in it present occupants past occupancy level , future j i joccupancy level, will be on-street parking. As far as I can tell j i there is nothing in the legal character of things that will change that. That 's really all I have to say. I would hope that these l�matters would be considered by the Board and that whatever is done, j ± that the very firm guarantees concerning both use and enforcement Hof use be maintained. ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to be heard on this case in opposition? Yes. i BILL LOWER: I would like to be heard for it, i i ,CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, I earlier invited people who were in support. I will again ask all those who wish to speak of one view,; speak together. Anyone else like to speak in opposition? !JEAN SPITZ : I am Jean Spitz of 112 Orchard Place. Ron Mack1s is Ilthe property, closest to Mr, Avramis 's - mine is the next closest. i jiThere were three points essentially that I want to make, The firs 1ais, Mr. Wiggins suggested that if Mr. Avramis wished to increase ;i I � ! j ii i! �I 72 - ii I the number of tenants he could have easily just enclosed the rear I; '! porch. This is not feasible in fact, because there are stair welds which run up through the rear porches in the first place . In the second place he would have to heat them. So this is not this is! I I !� unfortunately in my view - fluff - not fact. That was the first point I wanted to make, The second one is the design apparently I �I! is - according to the architect to the boy who designed them - was very pleasantly arranged so that the living quarters towards Eddy Street would be nice and quiet and the noisy areas , which are exactly the ones which back on to my property will be the ones ! where the Hi-fi ' s go and the other noise making - the parties and f the other noise making activities take place. This area these i Eddy Street houses do provide a great deal of noise and I am not i ! a bit happy about any possible rearrangement which will increase the noise level. In summer it reaches such a point that I cannot ! frequently sit out in my yard because of the blare of the hi-fi' s coming from these various directions . That was the second point. ' And the third point refers to the one Mr. Kelly made where he said � that there are several days of the year where it isn' t possible to i' i !; bring cars in. It is essentially impossible to bring cars in from ! I Ithe month of - from January to March and during that time all the i cars from Mr. Avramis ' s place, park on Eddy Street - I 'm sorry ! they don' t park on Eddy Street, unfortunately, they park on Blair I i � as do nearly all the residents of Orchard Place because the street ' E lof course being a private street, we have plowed but it' s not salted land since it runs down hill it becomes a sheet of glare ice through ! out those three winter months . We spend, the tenants spend a great deal of time shoving out the cars thatvisit us and students whose tires are not adequate to the conditions who get their cars just1 stuck in all sorts of abandoned positions in the middle of Orchard ! i Place for days at a time. Thank you. I1CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there others who would like to be heard on III this case? 11 !! RICHARD POLLENBERG: I 'm Richard Pollenberg, 101 Orchard Place. I {f li 73 - 1 ! just want to reiterate that all the people who live on Orchard i 1i Place, the owners of all the homes feel exactly the same way about!, this and I don' t think there is very much to add - we said what wel i had to say last time and I would just repeat or second what other j' people have said now. It does seem to me, without trying to be top I personal about it, that a case tends to be put in whatever terms j k' it seems best to put them and when certain things are said that �I 11 don't go over very well then other things are said. Last time it was explicitly stated that the parking area was to be increased toli 1 provide space for something like eight cars which is many more tha� use the area now. Now that argument is not being used because that i argument was apparently not very successful . And it would be nice if there could be a way of monitoring this effectively if such a j variance is to be granted but I just don't see how it can be done i without providing for twenty-four hour a day snooping and since - just don' t think that ' s feasible. But I simply wanted to make the! statement to get it on the record that the property owners on 1 Orchard Place all feel the same way about this. ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Is there anyone else who would like to speak in opposition? I missed someone who wished to speak in support. Youj have something new to say? BILL LOWER: I've been listening to many, many speeches here be£or in this meeting and other meetings it seems to me that people I� I Itend to discriminate against the students here and I think where I� people seem to indicate that students appear to be a nuisance in iI i1 I certain areas here, I think they should take into consideration that the students of Cornell University and of course Ithaca College i too, Cornell being one of the leading Universities , and I might I II add, having some of the greatest schools in the nation, they bring i I I! in one awful lot of financial help or aid to this community and without Cornell I think this would be a ghost town and to say that[ students . . . CHAIRMAN MARTIN: What can you tell us about this particular property I though? j j i` I - 74 - i i = BILL LOWER: Well I could tell you that this would be something that a !! would be comparable to properties that I own and as I started to say, today everybody is in a competitive field and we have to makel, our apartments more desirable for students and it seems here that j� this gentlemen is trying to make his apartment more suitable ap- Iparently without increasing the number of people that he is putting � in the house and if I could make all of the places that I own for 1l students more desirable I think that I would be doing something 11 that would be good for the community because people tend to feel ,E that the students are not an asset to the community. `; � y• I think then I! in another word, they' ll say that the housing for the students is �jsubstandard. If we are allowed to upgrade the housing without in creasing the density, it seems to me that it would be a good thing ; I for the University and also the town. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. 1 I! MR. KASPRZAK: Mr. Lower, sir - I would like to make one thing jstraight to you and to the gentleman who spoke before about us - the residents of this community being against the students we arq Inot against students , we are against the landlords who abuse the students and at the same time the community. . . I� I� MR. LOWER: It seems that everybody complains about, specifically 1'Istudents , I might add that probably taxpayers in the city that pay ; quite a lot of taxes - not me in particular but other property j owners that probably play their stereos quite loud, unfortunately I they are further away from houses and they may very well not be so i many of them in one house. 1CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. Is there anyone else who would like to � beheard on this case? Is there any point been made in opposition !' that has not adequately been responded to in the initial presenta- ' tion? MR. WIGGINS : If I could just have fifteen or twenty seconds? I 'Mrpromise not to take any more than that . I just want to say that I ':,- Mr. . Avramis is not insensitive to your concerns or the concerns of E1the neighborhood - he does not appear before you as a consistent �I s I I �i ' ii - 75 - I 3 s violator of the ordinances or the building codes and I think it !f would be unfair to him and any other citizen to presuppose that he t would violate the very law that he asks you to grant in favor of I what he feels is an upgrading and a betterment of the property that al he owns and the neighborhood in which it is located, I would ask ,E YOU to be sensitive to those people who do not violate the law and! come here and ask that they be treated in good faith as I 'm sure f ii I you will . R CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Can I ask for Mr. Avramis 's response to new fi 'i ; evidence that entered in opposition tonight at least as I recall `f { ;; the testimony of a month ago. The point was made in the appeal a month ago that there was more than ample off-street parking for th�s i apartment, indeed, that the amount of off-street parking was bein g f i expanded or would be in relation - you know, part of the project. i� ; MR. WIGGINS : Yes . i ( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Testimony presented in opposition this evening jwas to the effect that that off-street parking was unavailable - i 11unuseable during a significant portion of the winter. Is that tru4? I 1MR, WIGGINS: My understanding is that it is not true and Mr. Harpor, 1Iwho passed me on the way advises me that that street has never been closed. Am T . . . I am not knowledgeable about that, I 'm just °', relying upon that information. Mr. Avramis do you have any eviden4e to support that? MR, AVRAMIS: As far as I know I have the parking the students , iiIcan park there there are eight parking spaces , I� i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: You have the spaces there, the question is whethOr s they end up being used between January and March? i 1MR. AVRAMIS: Most of the people that live at the house they are '; I very close to Cornell University they don't use it because I know f sometime I go to the house and check - there are three or four cars Pnever check how many cars the people there have, but as far as I i know three or four cars are always there in the parking space. j CHAIRMAN MARTIN: And they can get in and out during the winter months? i; t I� j i i - 76 - �' i i �! MR. AVRAMIS: Yes . I� CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Despite the lack of repeated plowing on Orchard !4 Place it was testified? MR. AVRAMIS: Yes. The people that own the houses there they Ij ji never asked me, I never knew that we have to pay to remove the sno# i Dior anything I am just finding out a month ago that we have to I I give some money but if they approach me, I am very happy to give ; them some money to have somebody to clean it, or the driveway therT. I didn't know anything about it before. j l� CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. Questions? i �iMR. WIGGINS: If that 's a significant point about whether or not the road is open, I 'm - don' t have any evidence for that, aside from what I have just learned. I had no knowledge other than what I . . i !. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I simply wished to invite a response to points i that had been made in opposition about the utility of that off- I street parking which had been made a point of last month but not this . BARBARA SILL: May I respond to that? iCHAIRMAN MARTIN: I will permit one more person to speak on that �1point. Yes , you may respond, please. i BARBARA SILL: I'm Barbara Sill at 114 Orchard Place and T live on the corner. My boys got their muscles pushing cars out of Orchard Pla4e � in the winter time. People who didn't know enough to stay out. W$ ! put a horse up at the top saying "Danger - Ice" and still they comd ! barreling in and get stuck there at 2 - 3 A.M. My neighbors point ; , is that any of us who live there no better than to drive down 10rchard Place any day in winter because we never know when it is �igoing to snow, we never know when we are going to have ice. And so ! I don' t even park, even though m house is g Y on Blair & Orchard - I never park in my driveway in snowy weather, I have to park on Blair ( Street and I fight for a place with all the other students. It do 's I seem as if — when there are at least six parking spaces on my lot, counting Orchard Place and Blair, that I ought to be entitled to ode I 1parking place but sometimes I don 't get it and I have to park in my driveway and then I have to get six people to push my car backwards' i ;ton the ice. This is what we face. I� r - 77 - ! j ?� CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Is there anyone who has not had a i chance to speak on this case, I think we've canvassed everyone. Yos . I! i JUNE SCHNEIDER: I am June Schneider, 109 Orchard Place. I just j ;i want to tell you that that street is closed during the winter - i H many, many, many days I take my groceries and my grandchildren down by sled to the bottom of the hill. Very often I can' t even get out my door because the car that belongs to one of the student s ;( who lives in Mr. Avramis 's house is parked on my sidewalk - you 1 know, half way up my drive and is left there for days and days at a time because they can't get out. So it is true that our streets! i I� are closed many, many, many days during the winter. Sometimes weeks ! at a time. i j CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Alright, I believe we are ready now ; i� for the next case. i! it 111111 t i r 1 �j ii I 4 i I ! S i I; i' f II I� 4 is — 78 — li ! BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA i� AUGUST 1 , 1977 ii I EXECUTIVE SESSION 1� APPEAL NO. 1169 CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I move that we reconsider case # 1169 in light of such new information as was furnishe4 �f1 in our hearing this month. j MS. MAXWELL: I second the motion. VOTE: YES 6; NO 0 ! Motion carried. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ! I; CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I will move that the variance requested in I case 11693, upon reconsideration, be denied. j (� MS. MAXWELL: I second the motion. j `s } FINDINGS OF FACT: 1. The evidence presented at this hearing �! simply reaffirmed points made a month agoj I fi that it is the intent of the owner not to increase the occupancy of the building. I � 2. The Board in the face of the lack of any substantial new evidence reaffirms its earlier view that the showing has not �! I been made which would warrant an area i variance to permit the addition of a Living area without any sacrifice of bed- rooms. VOTE : YES 4 ; NO 2 Variance request denied. �j it I �I I! i i! ii ii i 79 - I i I I 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Let me go back to the case with which we i ' started. Is there anyone here representing Pudgies Pizza Restaurant? 6 ( Alright, the Board now goes into executive session to consider these case oh, excuse me, we do have someone representing Pudgie 's( i i! Pizza. i JOHN KNAPP : My name is John Knapp and to start with, I own the ca 1� wash at 209 Elmira Road. I 've owned it for ten years since it was I 11built. Approximately three years ago I purchased the old Henry' s I lHamburger property between the car wash and the Dairy Queen, and �Ihave held it pretty much as it was - vacant except for a donut sho ' �pfor a short period of time. Presently we have a Pudgie' s Pizza junder construction, a picture of which I will pass around. It will be an identical building to that. i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, is this it appears as though it' s something that you are not leaving with us . 1 I MR. KNAPP : If you want it, you may have it, otherwise I will take it back. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Do you have a zerox or some other copy of it we could keep? ;i MR. KNAPP: No you may keep that. I 'm sure they will okay that. j I, I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. Then that also represents the sign? lOMR. KNAPP. No. I have a drawing here of the new sign which bask-4 I they are using in all their establishments . On the location R lnow is the Old Henry' s Hamburger sign, which to the nearest that Ii (� am able to estimate, approximately 92 square feet on a base. The j new Pudgie 's sign will be approximately 64? , I 've applied for 65 i� ! square feet. The reason that I am applying for a variance for this II l� sign is basically - they are mass produced for Pudgies , They are (' basically a pressure laminate sign whereby sheets of sorts - the second sheet would be wording has been made to size and the third �isheet with color and so on and so forth, and they are ordered in i? ( large quantities and I have been told that to switch this would be i1quite a lengthy time and quite costly. !!E ji �s jF, .i '' I ii - 80 - !! ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Strangely that' s not the first time we've heard II that argument from a national concern and often they manage to come j! I up with smaller standard signs when confronted with the sign ordi-i i ij nance. That 's absolutely it with Pudgies? They don't have a smaller one? j I MR. KNAPP: As of yet they- have not. Obviously any sign could be i made, but they have not as yet. They have twenty some stores now, ! Auburn, Geneva, Elmira, Sayre, two in Binghamton and one under con i struction, and they all have this particular sign. I think our i f jchoice would be instead of changing the size , possibly to drop the , 4bottom sign off. They basically had said they might do that - I Ilbe inclined to do that before trying to change the whole sign. �iCHAIRMAN MARTIN: That would bring you in under fifty? IMR. KNAPP: I believe it would. It would bring it in at about fifty- three - no, they would have to use some more shaving, they would I have to do shaving on the face itself, j i ( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: You would still need a variance. Alright. I MR. KNAPP: But to change the lettering size, as I have been told, ; , it would be quite difficult. I 'm not sure of the size of the other i signs in the area.. I didn't research that point I know that the ; existing Henry's sign is very large and basically a very ugly sign,l i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, but that existing sign, ugly and larger ! than the ordinance would allowatthe moment, is the sign that is jnon-conforming one would have to come down by August of 1979. Now i ; only two years away. In all variances that T can recall that were ] 1granted to the sign ordinance when this non-conformity has been ani ; issue - that is, there is an existing sign, we put a time limit on, 11so if we were to grant some sort of variance it would allow you a I larger sign - would you be happy with one that ran only until August � of 179 and then it had to become 50? i � MR. KNAPP : Does basically this is quite new to me now does the; I "panel basically y feel quite optimistic that by Sept. 179 this is i ,Idefinitely what will be done? ji I' i i i' Y' I 81 - i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: That 's what the ordinance says and, unless the fI , ordinance were amended it would require that the existing sign j come down by that date so this you mentioned the existing sign! and its size and its ugliness as being facts that argue for it. j� MR. KNAPP : Yes, that would be acceptable. 'i s MR. VAN MARTER: It ' s in fact sixteen months, not two years. I I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Sixteen months . i i! MR. KNAPP: That would be an acceptable possibility to go back to j! them with and then. . . i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Well, without quibbling about the number of j I months, it' s short it 's not too terribly far off from now. Alright. . . I MR. KNAPP : Very well what it may possibly do is allow us to get! the sign up in time for opening and prepare for the change, that Ii �E don' t think we can meet otherwise. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, now there is another possible time limijt E i! that the Board might conceivably consider and so I mention it. i �+ Reference is made in the report we have from the Planning Board to! a proposal now being considered in a committee of Common Council i that the sign ordinance as it applies in this particular area be i i amended to allow somewhat larger signs and it is said here that if ;I that passes , it is not yet out of committee, your proposed sign I II would comply. Conceivably the Board might, under the circumstances, grant a variance that was good only for a few months , and if you �!( gambled on it and won why the new amendment would be in place by f�f then and you could keep your larger sign up and if you lost you I would have to bring it down and put up a 50 ' sign. Would that be b i� acceptale? i MR. KNAPP : Yes , j i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay. A compliance sign would be more expensive. Do you have any - would it have difficulty being seen by motorists! - I would they have trouble finding Pudgies with a 50 square foot signi up there? ; MR, KNAPP: I wouldn' t think so. I think my main concern is having t E I `i - 82 - a sign at the time of opening. My personal concern. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, so it ' s not so much cost as the ability , to have a sign by your opening? j MR. KNAPP: Yes . ( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Questions? IMR. GASTEIGER: What are the square feet on the one million sold? Do you know exactly what that is? 1 MR. KNAPP: I think that was twelve , as I remember from looking at 11the drawing. It' s a 12 surface. MR. VAN MARTER: In the range of twenty square feet. A little undor twenty square feet. f� CHAIRMAN MARTIN: If that 's so and if my subtraction is correct, j that brings it under fifty, right? I IMR. KNAPP: By eliminating that section, yes . i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: By eliminating that section. And that would allow you to use a standard sign a sign that you could have in place b l� opening and low and behold, if Council does amend the ordinance to allow somewhat more signage there , you could put on your one milli in �jsold, right? �JDR. GREENBERG: And change it to billions . CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Further questions? IMR. KNAPP : Would, on the other hand, for the length of time you a�e talking, whether it be a few months or what and if it were difficu t i ( for some reason, I don' t know the construction of that sign, would ; fit be possible to include that for a short period of time and then ' ! remove it? I don't know what their motivation is for having it, j ( other than some sort of advertising impact and I would rather, if �e ( could, have it for a short length of time and remove it then to i eliminate it to start with. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright, but it would not be unacceptable to operate without it? i MR. KNAPP: It would be better than no sign, yes. i� i IICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Better than no sign. 1I MR, KNAPP: Yes . !! i � I i i �j 83 - CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. i; j MR. KASPRZAK: Is the entire sign lit, both portions? MR. KNAPP: Yes. u i �= CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Further questions from members of the Board? Do �i 3 you have anything else? Is there anyone who would like to be heard on this case, anyone who wishes to be heard in favor of the re- i( quested variance from the sign ordinance? Anyone who would like t� speak in opposition to it? Alright , then that concludes this part of the public portion of our meeting, we will go into Executive I( j Session, deliberate on these cases and then reconvene to announce the results . We ask you to find some other place to sit, those ofj i you who want to stay and find out. i ! f �j t i i f i t ` f 1 i Ij i; ii i3 I j II! 6� 1 Ii Ik ! ii i{ i� it �i �i �k !f 'I !i 84 - i! — i I� I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA AUGUST 1 , 1977 ,i EXECUTIVE SESSION ji APPEAL 8-1-77 !� I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I will move that the decision in this case be deferred until the September meeting. At i; such time we will have a clearer view of whet6i a variance be required in the light of a i proposal to amend the sign ordinance which will come before City Council next Wednesday I i li MR. KASPRZAK: I second the motion. VOTE: YES 4; NO 2 �+ Motion carried. I � i i i3 I I � I I� I I� i i 1 i I I �I �I ! if I ! i I) Ii ! ! I Ij dl i! ji i! I� !; 85 ;j I , Barbara Ruane, Do Certify that I took the minutes of the Board 1 of Zoning Appeals, City of Ithaca, in the matters of Appeals I Numbered 1166, 1167 , 1168 , 1169 and 8-1- 77 , on August 1, 1977 at i1 j City Hall , City of Ithaca, New York; that I have transcribed same, ; } and the foregoing is a true copy of the transcript of the minutes of the meeting and the Executive Session of the Board of Zoning I Appeals , City of Ithaca, on the above date, and the whole thereof Ij to the best of my ability. Ij �I G' Barbara C. Ruane � Recording Secretary I t ! f i 4 I� 1 �I } I� Sworn to before me this 30 day of �U(,u✓� , 1977, Ao' I i I� I` N ary Public JOSEPH A. RUNDLE j Notary Public, State of New York No. 55-450?134 Qualified in Tompkins Count if Term Expires March 30, 19 I I� I' I� j +i 1 f� i