HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1974-04-01 i
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA, CITY HALL, ITHACA, NE-01
YORK, APRIL 1, 1974
-------------------------------------------------------------------
At a regular meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals, City of
Ithaca, held in Common Council Chambers, City Hall, Ithaca, New
York, on April 1, 1974:
PRESENT: PETER MARTIN: Chairman
C. MURRAY VAN MART OR
GREGORY KASPRZAK
ELVA HOLMAN
EDGAR GASTEIGER
`]DISON JUNES, Building Commissioner &
Secretary
DARLEEN LISK, Recording Secretary
ABSENT: JOHN BODING:
Chairman Martin opens meeting, listing members of Board Pres-
ent. This Board is operating under the provisions of the City
Charter of the City of Ithaca and of the provisions of the Zoning
Ordinances; the Board shall not be bound by strict rules of evi-
dence in the conduct of this hearing, but the determination shall
be founded upon sufficient legal evidence to sustain the same.
The Board requests that all participants identify themselves as to
name and address; and confine their discussions to the pertinent
facts of the case under consideration. Please avoid extraneous
ilmaterial which would have a delaying effect. I should announce
1that one of the members of the Board is absent this evening, the
grant of either a variance or an exception requires a vote of four
members of the Board and so if anybody who has an appeal here
tonight would like to defer the appeal until the next meeting of
i
the Board when hopefully you would have the full Board and not just
five of its members, you are free to do so.
Commissioner Jones lists what case No. 1042 is to be.
APPEAL NO. 1042: The Appeal of 4inthrop and Andrea retherbee for
an exception under Section 7, Column 13, at 402
Chestnut Street in an R-1 zone.
[dINTHROP WETHERBEE: My name is Winthrop Vetherbee and I live
at 402 Chestnut Street on west hill in
Ithaca. We have a garage on our property
i
I
I
! -Z-
it' s a two-story building and the secon
floor is a large unfinished room; what
we would like to do is to make a studio `
apartment out of this, we have got somel
plans, we know what we want to do, and
the reason why we are applying for an
exception to the Zoning Ordinance is
because the building is to close to the
property line of our neighbor, it is
about five feet away and I believe the
Zoning Ordinance requires ten feet. `rhe
have talked with the neighbor and he
Ins written me a letter spelling out the
conditions on which he would be willing
to let us put up this building, I have
written him a letter back agreeing to
i those conditions and that' s our appeal.
THE CHAIR: Are there any questions by the Board?
KASPRZAK: How close is the adjacent property to
your property?
WETHERBEE: The building in question is about five
feet from the line and it' s an old
garage but if you mean how close is the
neighbors structure, well between the
property line and the neighbors house
it is about 35' so there is a great
deal of open space.
. KASPRZAK: Your front and rear yards I presume are
fairly reasonable and there is no proble
with them.
WETHERBLE: That' s correct and as we have set up thele
I
apartment the access to it would be by
way of the center of cur property rather
than the side that abuts on the line,
f
I
-3-
that was the condition of our neighbors
willingness to go along with this.
THE CHAIR: Reads letter from neighbor, Robert 0.
Dingman and response from Mr. Wetherbee,
copies of the same are attached herewith.
MR. GASTEIGER: How long have you lived there?
Imo. WETHMBEE: 6 years.
MR. GASTEIGER: The changing of this door doesn' t mean
L
any stairway on the outside of the
building?
MR. WETHERBEE: There is a very small wooden porch, now
we live on the side of a hill and the
back of the garage is closer to the
ground than the front side, there is a
little tiny wooden porch out there now
which we are going to knock down and
remove along with the door and we are
going tomove over to the south side,
keep the door close enough to the end so
that there won' t be any elaborate stair-
way necessary, we can build a kind of
stairway right into the foundation when
we rebuild the foundation wall, in any
case that will be in the center of our
property.
W. GASTEIGER: But you will have to build some kind
of landing at or just above the foundation
level?
WETHERBEE: That' s right.
GASTEIGER: Is that a one step down onto that landing?
VETHERBEE: It might be more than that, it depends
just exactly where we drop down, we are
going to try to have a porch large enough
203 Hook Place
Ithaca, New York
March 26, 1974
Mr. Winthrop Wetherbee
402 Chestnut Street
Ithaca, New York
Dear Pete:
Mrs. Dingman and I would have no objection to conversion of the
upper floor of your garage into an apartment, so long as it meets
these criteria:
1. It does not materially expand the present size of
the building.
2. It does not have a door opening on the vest side
toward our property.
3. The land between our property and your building
is landscaped or planted to grass.
4. You provide sufficient on-site parking so that the
occupancy will not result in the regular garaging of
a car on Hook Place or Chestnut Street.
5. Other than lot line clearance, the occupancy meets
all other requirements for the zone.
We have discussed all of these conditions with you, and it is my
understanding that they will not cause you any hardship in the proposal
alteration of your garage. I recite them here only as a protection for
Any future owners of either property.
Sincerely, "
Robert 0. Dingman
Copy to Board of Zoning Appeals
2 Edison Jones, Bldg. Commissioner
28 .'.arch,, 1974
, r, Robert n. rin7nnn
203 .00k .1-►ce
Ithaca, N.Y. 14850
Dear Bobo
T'nanks very much for your letter of : arch 26th. I'mn
grateful tn you for F-inetlin-, out )r=cisely the conditions
on which our nroject world be acce-ntsble to you, nn s I are
abl to n -cure you that =e trill satisfy thesc cone itior.s.
1. `i'hc size of the ruildin- will regain -lust th-c sex E,
Tt c only external Ater-itions Trill be t're relocntinn o-0 Onor
^nd vintfo!rre n.-,C the rc.--uiln'.n,- of t,,e sout1i ar:' west
foundation unl1a.
2. Thr- woor will rc re:moved -from tr:e *.Teat side of the
1-uildin- and relocated on the ^rut%, side,
3. '.e will ensure tI nt on co.-'^l, tion o ` 81.1 or, t?-:e
nren t:ett•.ce►: the r-eet ti:-'ll o-, V c Lulld ln._ nnc your °,roperty
Is cleaned un rnd , !•;here neces^ar`y, renlnnted.
4. Tho one-�.ovr . r,r!,f,e i„ cent to tt�e V,,n--tor., masere
w _ice- will contain thr, a.^rt~gent will be •'nr the a^c o i tenants
of Vic ^nnr t-ent. In t,hc event treat to:o tri 1,-its, --ch i.:-.t':1
?pis/Y)er oi;,, c^r, r, n•,lv rent t17(. .,ncrt ent, Line tem ,,.ara<es
•`_��'� t. Ur Cc.. ('r1v,. tt '
. fij^e"1 toul,17 still r')l.).o-. 1-r 01
t':e U 101;0tructc..:I _,,, ':-i' .' os nue c:,ir r-o6 U %iCi [.'C' ; „lld
?-E it els it to tc-:a:,ta t L`-ea u,-re rc re 11 no tc ?^r:
on the street.
5. I }'''?vc Z''cr-- (?--lured I., r. r icnn Jones, Tt, 0,
Buil%)in - Co . 7}'!�-sinrcr, zrnt ^su -.ir; n, 1 ,nwe X1.7. nonins7
r, ^u Ire. `,,eta ^vc- t'- .-t ].o t-'_1.-,c CAL - ,ce, on ,�i�i.e'�, ,s
you '::no*,..:, ve :?rc a ,--fir:-^1 1 n' -`or -in n
' u':iYt c(,l74rn_' In ^U1' lt`r-Z',
i`� ?}� l tI"� zTi l.•..�- "o c t,_ res
`Li+,llr^ OT.']�icY'!” O `. i't�t ^.`_ '�' 1'`.,iC '. ' �' , i�. �te`Ul t ) ";'`U
' or 11'-1vIn to u;lc o C')1
nrrc i-cly.
Y^urs trc)l.r,
rbc°
-4-
so
4-so that people could put a barbecue out
there or something like that if they
wanted to; it might be 3, 4 , or 5 steps
but no more than that.
MR. VAN MARTER: Any question about the size of the unit?
MR. WETHERBEE: We have gone through that with Mr. Jones,
I believe the interior dimensions of
the garage are about 171 by 2C1 and
there is enough height.
MR. JONES: It will be a legal dwelling unit.
CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I take it you would have no objections
to any of those conditions being put
into the exception, that is to have
them be conditions?
MR. WETHERBEE: Not at all.
NIRS. HOLMAN: lould you review again for us the parkin
situation?
MR. WETHERBEE: The two-story garage has a steep roof
and right built onto it just a flat roof
and a wall is a small one-car garage.
A garage right underneath the apartment
and right next to it another garage
separated by a wall but they are two
separate things and that is a pretty
good sized parking area, large enough
so it is possible actually to parktwo
I
u or three c&rs right up at the edge of
it and still. ':je able to have access in
and out of the two garage units.
THE CHAIR: any other questions by the Board?
None.
Are there any other people who wish to `
speak on this case first in favor of?
None.
Any wishing to speak against?
` None.
i
XFCUTIV2 SESSION, BOARD OF ZONING SPP-.ALS, CITY OF ITHACA, APRIL
1, 1974
APPEAL NO. 1042:
NR. MARTIN: I move the decision of this case be
deferred because it is the Boards' view
that in an R-1 zone the kind of use
proposed could not be accomplished with-
out an exception because as the Board
reads permitted uses in an R-1 zone the
smaller additional dwelling unit permit-
ted must be within the same structure.
The Board requests that the secretary
submit this question to the City
Attorney for his advice prior to our
next meeting.
MR. KASPRZAK: I second that.
VOTE: YES -5 No - 0
0
I
-5-
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA, CITY HALL, ITHACA, NEW
YORK, APRIL 1, 1974
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Commissioner Jones lists what case No. 1043 is to be.
APPEAL NO. 1043: The Appeal of Ignacio Serrano for an exception
under Section 7, Columns 7 & 8, at 207 Williams
Street in an R-3 zone.
ROBERT STOLP: My name is Robert Stolp and I'm the
attorney for Ignacio Serrano who is
ti.. seeking an exception to the Zoning
Ordinance, Section 7, Column 7 for the
property he owns at 207 Williams Street.
I sent out the authorizations to the
people that own property within 200' of
Mr. Serrano and I got a 50% response on
them all in favor except for Cornell
University where I think it is mandated
for the Board of Trustees to approve
anything. I sort of have a sad tale to
tell you, Mr. Serrano in 1971 hired
De Furman to put a third apartment in
his building at 207 Williams Street.
De finished the apartment in the building
and then out in back proceeded to put
in an apartment out there and Mr.
Serrano wasn't aware of the fact that
he was in violation of any Zoning Ordi-
nance and I don' t think he even thought i
u he needed a building permit which was
up to the contractor to get. The first
time that Mr. Serrano had any indication
that he was in violation of any Zoning
Ordinance was when he applied for a
mortgage because he didn' t have sufficie t
funds to finish the garage out in back.
i
-6-
CHAIRMAN MARTIN: The apartment in question is in the
garage out in back?
MR. STOLP: No the apartment is in the house. So
he got an exception to put apartments
in the garage out in back only because
the bank told him he couldn't have the
mortgage unless he got the exception.
Both places were finished, he had the
exception on the garage, recently Mr.
Serrano was contemplating selling the
building and he requested the Building
Commissioner to inspect and that was
the first time that he was aware of the
fact that he was in violation of the
i Zoning Ordinance and this place had been
used for two years. Mr. Serrano is from
South America, he doesn't speak English;
when he knew he was in violation of the
Zoning Ordinance he took immediate steps
to get an exception to correct.-,,the
i
situation as he did the garage out in
back he just wasn't aware of the fact
that he needed an exception for the
third apartment in the building; At
this time I would like to offer into
evidence the letters of authorization
I received from 14 of the 28 property
owners within 200' of Mr. Serranos prop-
erty.
Enter exhibits 3 through 17, a copy of
the same is filed in the official Zoning
Board files.
There have been no structural changes
whatsoever in the building, inside they
-7-
relocated apartments but there has been
no outside change at all. I would like
to offer into evidence also pictures of
the building.
Enter exhibits 1 through 4, a copy of the
same is filed in the official Zoning
Board files.
MR. STOLP: Mr. Serrano in 1971 I think it was in
January that construction started on
the two buildings?
MR. SERRANO: Yes.
MR. STOLP: At that time did you hire Mr. Furman to
do the construction on both the apart-
ment and the barn?
MR. SERRANO: Yes.
MR. STOLP: You assumed, I suppose, that Mr. Furman
would get the building permit to do the
construction?
MR. SERRANO: Yes.
IMR. STOLP: Mr. Furman said he would?
MR. SERRANO: Yes.
W. MARTIAL: When was the exception requested and
obtained for the apartments in the barn?
STOLP: I believe it was before construction
ever started.
MARTIN: Did Furman apply for and get those?
STOLP: Yes he did. What happened was that Mr.
Serrano had the necessary funds to start
the apartment in the house, this is where
we don' t have the exception that we are
I asking for tonight, and hepaid Mr.
Furman, Mr. Furman never bothered to get
a building permit never bothered to tell
Mr. Serrano that he might be in violatioii
of any Zoning Ordinance which probably
wasn' t Mr. Furmans responsibility but
still being a contractor and dealing
with somebody that hardly speaks English
I can't see why he didn't bring it to
his attention. When Mr. Serrano went
to complete the barn which he did get a
exception for he went to the bank and
applied for a mortgate because he didn'
have the necessary funds to carry on the+
construction. The bank told him that hei
needed an exception and as soon as he
found out he did he hired an attorney,
I wasn't the attorney, and the attorney
presented his case to the Board of
Zoning Appeals and an exception was
granted. But the attorney wasn't aware
of the fact that an apartment had already
been built in the house without an
exception which was in violation of the
Zoning Ordinance.
Mr. Serrano I show you exhibit 4, 3, 29
and 1, do those fairly accurately re-
present the building at 207 Williams
Street, and does that fairly accurately
represent the apartment that you put
in there which you are now asking an
exception for?
1AR. SERRANO: Yes.
STOLP: I point out again there were no structural
changes outside the house, nothing was
added on.
MARTIN: What size , deficiency are we talking j
about?
-9-
MR. STOLP. Mr. Serranos lot is 3,300 square feet
and I think the old Zoning Ordinance
required anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500
per unit; If I am correct, and I think f
the new one requires 1,000 square feet I
per unit, or am I way off there I very
well could be.
MR. JONES: The existing Zoning regulations require
that there be 2,500 square feet per
dwelling unit so this building requires
7,500 feet of land, he has about 3,200
feet of land. The present Zoning calls
I
for 50' front yard on the street and
there is only 32' there.
MR. MARTIN: What was the nature of the exception
granted for the renovation of the barn?
MR. STOLP: He needed more parking, that' s what it
was according to the May 4, 1971 Ithaca
Journal.
, MR. JONES: As I recall that case there, the locatio
I
( of the barn or garage was for side yard
requirements and off-street parking.
MR. MARTIN: In totaling up the deficiency you are
not counting the units in the barn?
MR. STOLP: No.
MR. SERRANO: These are two separate properties, the
barn is behind 209 Williams Street and
the property in question now is 207
Williams Street.
STOLP: Our problem is that we have an apartment
that we spent $14,000 on not knowing
we were in violation of any Zoning Ordi-
nance and now we are asking you to let
us use the apartment.
I
i
-10-
NIR. VAN MARTER: The total number of units in the main
building as it now exist is a total of
three?
Mfg. STOLP: That' s correct.
MR. VAN MARTER: The barn is not on this property?
MR. STOLP: Evidently not, I wasn't aware of that
until just now.
MR. KASPRZAK: What is the parking situation at 207
Williams Street?
MR. STOLP. It' s terrible, there is hardly any �
parking at all but first of all people
that rent apartments like this rent the
because they are so close to Cornell
the people that rent these apartments
don't have cars to begin with. Second
of all we are within 500 feet of public
municipal parking on Dryden Road. `
MR. MARTIN: Can you tellme about the relationship
with the contractor, was it the contrac-
tors obligation to clear up the zoning
problem?
MR. STOLP: No I don' t believe it was, under these
circumstances it may have been. De
Furman has been a contractor in Ithaca
for a number of years, he is dealing
with someone from outside the country
who doesn't speak English he has no
idea what' s going on, he calls the
contractor and he tells the contractor
do such and such to the apartment. De
Furman came in and he put the apartment
in, he didn' t even bother to get a
building permit because he couldn' t get
a building permit because he would be
I
� -1.1-
in violation of the Zoning Ordinance.
NIR. MARTIN: Can you tell us what might have been
I
said in favor of this had it been re-
quested back before the work was done?
MR. STOLP: The building was there and there was
unused space in it, there is a need for
housing up there.
MR. MARTIN: But what distinguishes this property m
any of the other properties on this
street?
NSR. STOLP: I don' t know about the other properties
but I doubt very much whether all of
them comply with the Zoning Ordinance,
I imagine there must be other exceptions
up there. It' s not that we are taking
a house in Cayuga Heights and putting
four apartments in it and putting students
in it, it' s generally an apartment house
area. There are very few private homes
up there and the people that did write
back to me were all in favor. All I
can say is that Mr. Seranno whenever
made aware of any zoning violation has
always taken immediate steps to correct
it, the barn is a perfect example, when
he was aware of the fact that the thing
should not be done, he came down here
with his attorneyind made an attempt
to get an exception which you grarted
at that time; had he known before had,
I'm sere he wouldn' t have spent $14,000
to put the apartment in.
,AR. MARTIN: Does Mr. Serann'o own other properties?
i
-12-
MR. SERRANO: Just one other property than the ones
mentioned and that' s on Stewart Avenue.
MR, GASTEIGER: Has he made modifications in those
properties?
MR. SERRANO: Only when we did this apartment and
changed the barn.
MR. GASTEIGER: I would like to hear discussed the ques-
tion of parking and fire protection?
MR. STOLP: If I may, we have an exception on the
back property and I don' t believe there
is any problem with emergency vehicles
reaching the units which we are now
asking the exception for. I really don'
know what arguement I can make, all I
can say is there are a number of streets
up in that area that if someone happened
to park their car there at a particular I
time when there was a fire there would
be a problem.
MR. KASPRZAK: How many people live in the house?
MR SERRANO: Eight.
MR: KASPRZAK: How many people own cars?
MR. SERRANO: Not one.
MR. GASTIGER: Is there back access to the property?
MR. SERRANO: No.
JASON FAN E: My name is Jason Faneand I live in the
Dewitt Park Apartments on Cayuga Street
and I also own property at 211-213
Williams Street, on Eddy Street adjoin-
ing it and several buildings in the
immediate neighborhood and roughly
speaking on all sides of the subject
property and I have been engaged full
I
-13-
time in operating rental property
substantially in that area for the
last six years. I mention this by way
of establishing that I have got some
basis for having opinion about some
of the factual conditions in the neigh-
borhood. One of the questions that has
been raised by the Board deals with the
L
parking in the area. It' s an area of
surplus parking and I' ll show you the
evidence for this you've got some *ajor
parking lots in the area, you have got
the city lot which has been referred to
on Dryden Road which is rarely full,
adjoining that is the Sheldon Court lot
which is occassionally fullbit I'm told
by the manager he is unable to rent out
all of his spaces, there is another
parking lot of about 50 spaces about
a half block away from this property on
the other side of it at the bottom of
ailliams Street at Stewart Avenue which
fI've never seen full, about 50 feet
away from this building I've got a park-
ing
ing lot with about 14 spaces and I have
been unable to rent out more than 5,
I, myself, operate about 5 or 6 other
lots lets say within a two block radius
of this property and I have never been
able to rent out all of the spaces even
at rents as low as $3 a month which I
( feel is low enough that if somebody want d
a space they'd certainly want to pay $3
-14-
a month, that' s only two overnight
parking tickets in the course of a
month and everybody else I know who
has tried to rent out parking space in
this area has been unable to do so.
Not only are we unable to rent it out
but even if you say to somebody well
this builling we are not even going to
u rent out the space, the lots aren' t full.
So I think that this is an area where a
shortage of parking especially overnight
just does not exist. Now the next
question that you have raised here is
a question of the density of this
gentlemans property and how does it
compare with the density of other pro-
perties in the area. Unlike Mr. Jones
I don' t have access to all of the build-
ings in the area so you' ll have to go
along with me that the ones that I have
seen have been fairly representative:
I've seen buildings that somebody has
said I want to show you my beautiful
building, I want to sell you my building
or whatever, and I would say therefore
I have probably only been inside maybe
thirty or forty per cent of the building
lets say within a 500 foot radius of
this property. Now the 211 building
which is a lot approximately the same
size and has got five units. At the
bottom of the street Mr. Parks has a
building which has only slightly larger
Ii �
_15-
lot and it' s got six units, at the
intersection of Highland Place and
Williams Street there is a building
on a lot of approximately the same
size that' s got six units. Many other
buildings in the area of approximately
the same size have five, six, seven and
eight uni .s, so I think that if you
were to do a comparative unit density
survey you would find that Mr. 5erannos
property, even with the additional unit,
actually has a lower unit per square
foot of land density than the average
property by any reasonaLle measure of
what is going on in the neighborhood.
In fact the Common Council has recog-
nized the need for additional density
in the area because in the new Zoning
Ordinance which I understand has been
passed but has not yet taken effect
because it hasn't been published in the
paper they have changed the law to allow
that, this is starting at about 75 to
1.00 feet from Mr. Serranos property in
the B-2 zone, to allow six-stories of
buildinc height as compared with the
u
present law allowing four. Now whether
anybody will chmse to build a building
six stories or add additional floors to
the buildings they have only time will
tell but the fact that the Council passe
this change in the Zoning Ordinance, and
I consider this a very significant chang ,
-16-
means that they recognize the need for
additional rental property in this area.
I think the direction that Mr. Serrano
is going in is really in the direction
that Council is trying to permit and to
encourage at this time. Now you will
note here that the people that are
speaking nut are all competitors of his
and technically if you have got competi-
ors the competitors say well we don' t
want him to have that apartment, we are
worried he' s going to steel our customers.
Well the fact of the matter is none of
us are worried about it. Now let talk
about the nature of the unit that Mr.
Serrano installed, because of the nature
of the Zoning Ordinance we have had and
continue to have in the Collegetown and
East Hill area and this includes the new
Zoning Ordinance as well there tends to
be a shortage of units although I don' t
think there is a shortage of square
footage or bedrooms because if you can
only have two units and you have got a
large building you put in a ten-bedroom
apartment, a twelve and a thirteen or
whatever it comes out to use the available
space and consequently you have a shortage
of these small apartments, a young
married couple has great difficulty
findings small apartments: If you take
the same space in a building and you've
got one large apartment and the same
-17-
square footage you typically have more
persons living in the building than if
you took that one room you said well
this room is going to be a kitchen so
nobodys going to soeepthere perhaps you
have a hithroom that makes more space
nobody can live in; the point that I'm
making is that when you have more
�.s
apartments in a building you have more
units but you typically have fewer bodies
to
in the building and so,4the extent that
you are concerned about reducing densitYl
in the area I think that you should ap-
plaud what Mr. Serrano has done and so
therefore I enthusiastically support
the request of Mr. Serrano and I hope
that you will approve it.
MR. GASTEIGER: '.'lould Mr. Fane comment on fire Protection?
MR. FANS: We have in the Collegetown area a new
fire house on College Avenue which is
one to two minutes drive away- and you
are probably three or four minutes from
the downtown fire station, so what I'm
saying is that Ithaca does have an
excellent fire department that are
responsible and they do put the fires
out. It has been my observation that
most of the fires have been in buildings
with restaurants or bars and those which
have not have substantially been arsen
fires and I think the way to protect
yourself against arsen fires is give a
psychiatric interview to everybody
i
I
i
-18-
entering the city line or at least to
your tenants. Mr. Serranos apartment
1
is in the basement, it would seem to
me that any person living in the base-
ment could bet out they wouldn' t need
a fire escape, I don' t think there is
any fear of the stone foundation walls
-,Vnich we ,,ee in that picture there
u
burning.
ORSON LEDGER: My name is Orson Ledger and I reside at
209 First Street in the city and I too
am a landlord here and the reason why
they didn' t get as many replies percentage
wise is that I own four of the buildings
and only returned one letter so the
percentage of letters coming in was a
little bit greater than it may have
appeared. I own two buildings directly
across the street from Mr. Serranos, one
down the strat and one just around the
corner on Highland Place and according
to Cornell they're trying to spend I
believe fourteen million dollars or some -
thing like that trying to build more
housing for students so to me this is
a step in the right direction and as
u
Jason pointed out density in that area
is quite excessive, on my buildings up
there if they were to be redone today
in their present state I taould be in the
same situation as Yx. Serrano. Parking
I believe there are more than 50 spaces
on Iilliams Street and Stewart Avenue
C
i
-19-
and the lot is not anywhere near full
and the density parking situation is
crucial durin , the day but these people
do not want to rent a parking space,
they try to park where they can but for
the tenants it doesn' t pose much of a
situation because most of them don' t
have cars. I believe out of all the
u
tenants I have got in the four buildings
I think I've got three cars and this
represents 12 or 14 apartments so
parking reall;r isn' t a situation here.
As far as the fire trucks getting up
and down the hill if there is a car
parked there is still room for a fire
truck to go by even if there is a car
parked illegally on 'Villiams Street.
Mr. Serrano tries very hard to keep his
properties up I think he does a good
ob, I think he' s a good landlord, I
Lear many students praise Mr. Serrano
as being a landlord and I would like to
see his exception approved.
FRED ROLF-: I am Fred Tolle and I reside at 358
Bostwick Road and I own the house across
from :Jilliams Street ,,rhich is 125 High-
land ?lace and I can' t do much more
than second and third what Orson and
,ason have said. As far as parking
does, usually students ask you about
parking and are quite specific that
there is no parking available except
in the lots, they're concerned about thi
-20-
and once again the students that are
living in that area are living there
I
because they're walking to campus. As
far as the fires, I had my first fire
this past Ok.;tober and we had a truck
in there on Highland place which comes
off of Alliams, that' s the one-way
street, ILL a matter of maybe a minute
and a halfwith no problems whatsoever
I
�I we had no problem with the trucks in
there. On the density issue again I
j took over a house that was a rooming
1 house and was owned by a lady that
had been there roughly 4:0 years and
i
she had upwards of 18 or 19 people
living ir: that house and always had
so once again 8 people in a house that
size is really nothing. So I really
have nothing to add except that I have
nothing whatsoever against this.
THE- CHAIR: Is there anyone else wishing to speak
on this case, first of all speaking for
p 9
the appeal?
f�
None.
Is there anyone who wishes io speak
against this appeal?
None.
That -,,jill ;onclude our public hearing
then and we will now go into executive
session. I
IE;ECUTIVL SESSION, BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA, APRIL
1, 1974
e
APPEAL NO. 1043:
W. KASPRZAK: I make a motion we deny this exception.
MR. MARTIN: I second that.
FINDINGS OF FACT:
1) The burdens experienced by the
applicant, however unfortunate,
appear to have been self imposed;
there is no whowing of difficulties ,
or special conditions peculiar to
to this property which would have
justified granting the exception
before the unit was added and there-
fore the Board considers inappropriate
to grant the exception now. In
short, we do not find the require-
ments of the Ordinance for an excep-
tion have been met.
f
VOTE: YES - b NO - 0
i
I
i
C E R T I F I C A T I 0 N
I DARLEEN F. LISK, DO CTRTIFY that I took the minutes of the
Zoning Board of Appeals, City of Ithaca, in the matters of Appeals
NO. 1042, and 1043 on April 1, 1974 �:t City Hall, City of Ithaca,
New York; that I have transcribed the 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 Appeals, City of Ithaca,
on the abovechte, and the whole thereof, to the best of my ability.
ar een F. Usk
:senior S-_-enographer
Sworn to before me this
ay 1 of 19
T c.cwt t - Nis
NaEawiWo
�a SNR V
W To""co.Mr
Enos deli 3k N X
I