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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1980-11-03 I, i i TABLE OF CONTENTS j 'iMINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, ITHACA, i ,;NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 3, 1980 Page 'APPEAL NO. 10-1-80 Ithaca Diner Held Over 2 114 W. State Street I i APPEAL NO. 10-4-80 Jacob Geldwert Held Over 2 402 West Court St-. I APPEAL NO. 10-6-80 Dr. Robert Baker 2 408 N. Tioga Street 'APPEAL NO. 10-6-80 Executive Session 8 j �i !APPEAL NO. 11-1-80 Ithaca Cayuga Optical Held Over 9 134 East State Street 'APPEAL NO. 1324 Dale R. Sherwood and 9 Charles Tallman 122 Linden Avenue 1IAPPEAL NO. 1324 Executive SEssion 18 j I 11APPEAL NO. 1325 Janet Jonson Postponed 19 934 East Shore Drive 'APPEAL NO. 1326 Cliffoid Northrup & 19 Edward N. Austen i, 301-15 Third Street f� ;APPEAL NO. 1326 Executive Session 61 u 1� ' APPEAL NO. 1327 Don Robertson Postponed 63 I! 606 Cascadilla Street I ' i I !,APPEAL NO. 1328 Elizabeth $ C. Selvarajah Withdrawn 63 I 101 Edgecliff Street I; 'APPEAL NO. 1329 Jerry Hersh 63 402 N. Cayuga Street APPEAL NO. 1329 Executive Session 68 APPEAL NO. 1330 Lansing Research Corp. 69 I i 705 Willow Avenue 1'I APPEAL NO. 1330 Executive Session 71 i CERTIFICATION OF RECORDING SECRETARY 72 I` �I I (i I I �I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS I CSN COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK NOVEMBER 3, 1980 CHAIRMAN AMAN: I ' d like to call to order the November meeting of I� the Ithaca Board of Zoning Appeals . The Board, as you know, oper- Ates under the Ithaca City Charter, the Ithaca Zoning Ordinance an the Ithaca Sign Ordinance. Present this evening are all six members { of the Board: Mr. Morris Angell Ms . Natalie DeCombray Mr. William Wilcox Mr. Peter Walsh Mr. Joseph Gainey I' Mr. Alfred Aman, Chairman Mr. Thomas Hoard, Building Commissioner & Secretary to the Board i Mrs. Barbara Ruane, Recording Secretary I i For those of you who are not familiar with our procedures here I I will , very briefly, explain them to you. We take the cases up in Iorder, that is , according to the agenda that we have scheduled for I this evening. Those wishing to - those seeking a variance request I j are asked to come forward first and to succinctly tell us the fact i of their case and why they feel that the variance should be grante i to them. Members of the Board may then have questions and we will , of course , ask those questions and after we have had the presenta- tion by the person seeking the variance we then will ask whether o ; not there is anyone else in the audience who wishes to come forwar I and speak on behalf of the variance, Then we will ask whether or fnot there is anyone in the audience who wishes to come forward and i ; oppose the request. I do ask that everyone who wants to be heard land wants to be on record, come forward and speak at our podium, We do not operate by strict courtlike rules of evidence but we do base our decisions on the record that we develop here tonight and ee i ' have a tape recording of the testimony that is made up here and we cannot pick the tessmony up and also it is difficult for other Treasons if comments are made from the audience to someone at the l podium or visa, versa, so we ask that people come up in order and make their statements from the podium. Four of the six members or four of the six votes are required for any variance to be granted. I i i 2 " i�. i AFter we have heard all of the cases we go into executive session and deliberate and decide the cases . We don't necessarily have t i I' decide all the cases - we can take some under advisement - but i 'w usually we decide most , if not all , of the cases after we have done that we come back into public session and announce our de- cisions. That ' s a brief explanation of how our proceedings are run and with that I will call the first case, SECRETARY HOARD; The first appeal is appeal number 10-1-80 : �) Appeal of the Ithaca Diner for a variance junder Section 34 .4B to permit the retention of the existing sign at 114 W. State Street in a B-3 (business) use district. The exist- ing xi t-ing non-conforming sign projects more than eighteen (18) inches from the face of the building. This appeal has been held over by the Planning Board. The next 1 appeal is appeal number 10-4-80: I Appeal of Jacob Oeldwert for a variance under Sections 34. 4B and 34 . 5B to permit the retention of the existing non-conforming iI signs at 402 West Court Street (Jake ' s Red $ White) in a R-2b (residential) use dis- trict, The signs exceed in number and are the maximums for a residential zone. I and I understand this appeal has been postponed by the appellant. The next appeal is appeal number 10-6-80 : i Appeal of Dr. Robert Baker for a variance under Section 34. 4B to permit the retention of the existing sign at 408 N. Tioga Street in a R-3 (residential) use district. The sign projects greater than eighteen (18) i che< from the face of the building. Mr. Patterson are you presenting this case? If you would come up to the podium please? i CHAIRMAN AMAN: Mr. Patterson, while you are coming up, I failed i to make one other announcement and that is that the Appeal 1328 which is the appeal of Elizabeth & C. Selverajah and that pertain i to 101 Edgecliff Street property, has been withdrawn, So in the P event there is anyone here who is waiting for that case - that i i appeal has been withdrawn and will not go forward, is my understand- ing, ndersta d-ing, SECRETARY HOARD: While we are on that subject , the appeal for 93 i East Shore Drive has been postponed by the Planning Board and the Ii - 3 li i i i' appeal for 606 Cascadilla Street has been postponed by the Plannirg i i� Board, so if anyone is waiting for those two it will be next mont . E MR. PATTERSON: I am Russ Patterson and I am appearing for Doctor r Baker who is out of town on a conference . Gentlemen, I am appear, .I ing on behalf of Doctor Baker who is out of town, in regard to a variance on the sign in front of 408 N. Tioga. Dr. Baker request that he be allowed to keep both the signs where they are now. We 1 would like you to allow these signs on the same grounds that you allowed J. D. Gallagher signs to remain. Both signs have been th re for quite some time , I might add - probably six years. They occupy i Ithe smallest possible site and there is no other place we could put �k them. They create no hazard and they are not an eye-sore to the i neighborhood. Thank you. I MR. GAINEY: What size are they allowed Tom, in that area? j SECRETARY HOARD: Well that zone has been changed. It was a resi- dential zone and now its a new C,SU, The problem with the sign is that it is on a pole and it sticks out more than 18`1 from the face I of the building, If it had been mounted on the face of the build- Iing and only 18" it would have been alright but this is the problem that we had with- the Gallagher sign and a couple of other ones where just the fact that the way the way the Ordinance is written, the fact that it is on a pole and too close to the building, it I means that it has to be treated as a projecting sign. If it had been further away from the building it would have been alright . But ; further away from the building would be on the sidewalk, it' s a i 6 catch 22 situation and it ' s something that i,s being re-.examined in the language of the Ordinance. I MR. PATTERSON: I believe there are probably about three signs of the same caliber - ours might be possibly a little less than i IGallaghers. MR. GAINEY: I thought we were talking about Dr. Baker, right? i IMR. PATTERSON: Right , i IMR. GAINEY: This is the Patterson sign? iMR, PATTERSON: Well , Patterson Real Estate, ,Tim Gardner. . , SECRETARY HOARD: Dr, Baker''s property, i i I; - 4 - I MR. ANGELL: We are talking of the Baker sign? `. MR. PATTERSON: No, Baker doesn' t have any sign. He is in the Ij next building, 412 . SECRETARY HOARD: The property in question is owned by Dr. Baker and this is Dr. Baker's appeal but the sign is the Patterson Real I Estate sign. MR. PATTERSON: Which is , by the way, it is coming down tomorrow because I am moving next door - over Dr. Baker' s but Jim Gardner' sign and the post, we wish to have remain and the new tenants wan i I to put up a sign of some sort. MR. WALSH: Sir, do I understand that you have to get two signs , �I one for Patterson Real Estate now and one other for whom? I MR, PATTERSON: James Gardner. MR. WALSH- And which of those is to remain? MR. PATTERSON: Jim Gardner. MR. WALSH: And the one that is presently indicating Patterson f Real Estate is to be replaced by another one? i MR. PATTERSON: Yes the new tenant . I don' t know what size - i won' t be any larger than ours - probably smaller because it is a small computer outfit. MS. DE COMBRAY: Are you requesting a variance for this sign that is in thep icture? j MR. PATTERSON: Well the post and , . . i MS. DE COMBRAY: Just for the dimensions, not for what it says? MR. GAINEY: I don't feel that he should be here requesting a sign if he is going to take the sign down tomorrow. If he is going to move to another location. SECRETARY HOARD; While Dr. Baker is requesting the variance to have . . . MR. GAINEY: But you wouldn' t request a sign for somebody that you i know is not going to be there . We don't know who or what they are going to propose for the sign. If they are going to put the same sign up and just change the lettering, fine but we don't know that . i IThe new- tenant , we don't know what the new tenant is going to ask SECRETARY HOARD: But the variance is for that sign they could r - ii - 5 - place the sign under the variance without further delay but they wouldn' t be able to make one any larger - it would have to be the i same size with a different name on it . I' MR. WALSH: Is it impossible to situate the signs in such a way I j that they conform with the Ordinance? i SECRETARY HOARD: You see, the problem is that it is a pole sign i within 5' of the face of the building and for some peculiar reason they wrote the Ordinance in such a way that if a pole sign is within 5 ' of the face of a building it has to be treated under the regulations for a projecting sign and then it is limited to only 18". There is nothing wrong with the size of that sign - it' s ( just that it is mounted on a pole instead of being MR. WALSH: fin this case it is infeasible or impossible to mount either or both of those signs either on the face of the building in such a way, that they conform or to situate them more than 5 ' from the face of the building so they also conform? I MR. PATTERSON: Yes but that - I . don't see any sense to mount them 5 ' away from the building, they are back by the building, away fro i the sidewalk where they could do any damage to anybody now - they are probably 4 or 5 feet from the sidewalk, you move them up close to the sidewalk. , . . MR. WALSH: How close are the signs to the building itself? ( MR. PATTERSON: Probably 18 , 24 That ' s a front porch there. I MR. WALSH: And What is the actual distance between the building aid Ithe sidewalk? MR. PATTERSON, What is it Tom, 6 ' ? SECRETARY HOARD: About that, MR. PATTERSON: I 'd say, they are well back, at least half between the sidewalk and the building probably the post would be - probabl the front of the sign would be about half way between the building I and the sidewalk. The reason we put them there, we mounted them jin concrete , back away from anybody getting hurt from them - makes Isense to -me. ` would be more objectionable if the SECRETARY HOARD: I thank they ) y a were--: ,moved out. I i !i MR. PATTERSON: They are very neat looking now. As are Gallaghers I and Schemps , all of them along in there. MR. ANGELL: Gallaghers was a different proposition. Gallagher' s i'. I building was in a conformity that he couldn' t put the sign any i f! place else. Can this sign be mounted on the building other than flat I{ on the building and conform? SECRETARY HOARD: Part of it would have to be sawed off because it is more than 18". MR. GAINEY: Saw it off. Gallagher' s was right on the sidewalk. The building meets right to the sidewalk. There is no room between the building and the sidewalk. This is a completely different case. You've got six or eight feet between the sidewalk, i f MR. PATTERSON: Probably six feet. SECRETARY HOARD: But I don't think you want to move the sign out i near the sidewalk. II MR. ANGELL: No we are not saying that, can' t they mount it on the building - face flat on the building? SECRETARY HOARD: It would have to be a thinner sign. MR. ANGELL: What is the size of the - that sign as it is? It nays 4 x 4. MR. PATTERSON; How about it Tom? I 'd guess probably 30" - to tel you the truth. MR. WALSH: Is it your opinion that the sign could not be effectively mounted on the face of the building? MR. PATTERSON: It could, but it would deteriorate from the looks of the whole thing. This, to me , and I think Tom would probably agree, is the most proper place for the sign to be its in nobodies way nobody can get hurt with it - it can't be - you mount it on the building, near the steps - it could come down in a wind storm on somebodies head or something like that, This way nobody can get I� hurt, And it is very very neat. I MR. GAINEY: Let's get back to my original question - what are the allowed as far as the sign' s size and what is this sign' s size? I I don't see any wheres here. SECRETARY H©ARD: I don't know what the dimensions are on that I i I - 7 - I I! am sure its conforming as far as the dimensions - square footage cf the sign but the only problem is is that it is located too close I I to the building - that 's the only problem and they are going to I rewrite the Ordinance to cover this situation - that' s why I thin that if we delay - if we don' t act on it which is your right - it will be allowed later on anyway so . . . MS. DE COMBRAY; But in that, case it would be possible to have a1 Signs along that area mounted on poles near the sidewalk? SECRETARY HOARD; Well that ' s it 7 this is not near the sidewalk i this is back toward the building, MS. DE COMBRAY: But in other words , rather than put the signs a- gainst the building q all signs should theoretically be put on poles , like this one? CHAIRMAN AMAN: Where is the Gardner sign? MR, PATTERSON Undermeath mine . CHAIRMAN AMAN: Underneath? I MR. GAINEY: It is? CHAIRMAN AMAN, I didn't see it . ; MR. GAINEY: I didn!t see it either. MR. PATTERSON; Well I guess it blew down but it is right here (pointed to photo) it is a lot smaller sign than mine. f CHAIRMAN AMAN, But it is all part of the same pole? I MR, PATTERSON; Yes, CHAIRMAN AMAN Any further questions? Thank you Mr. Patterson, Anyone here wishing to speak for the proposed variance? (no one) Is there anyone here wishing to oppose the requested variance? (no one) We will move on to the next case, I I i i i I �I I i i _ 8 I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS j COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK NOVEMBER 3, 1980 EXECUTIVE SESSION Appeal No. 10-6-80: 'The Board considered the appeal of Dr . Robert Baker for a variance under Section 34 . 4B to permit the retention of the existing sign at 408 N. Tioga Street in a R-3 use district . The sign projects greater !than eighteen (18) inches from the face of the building. The Board' s (decision was as follows : MS. DE COMBRAY: I move that the Board deny the sign variance re- Iquested in appeal number 10-6-80. I !MR. WALSH: I second the motion. VOTE: 5 Yes ; 1 No Sign variance request denied. FINDING OF FACT: 1) No demonstration of practical difficulties that could not be corrected by compliance with the Ordinance was shown. i i i f i i i i I i I 1 9 - I j BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA NEW YORK .i NOVEMBER 3, 1980 i1SECRETARY HOARD: The next appeal is appeal number 11-1-80 : i! Appeal of Ithaca Cayuga Optical for a variance under Section 34 .6A to per it the retention of the existing signs a 134 East State Street in a B-3 use dis- trict. i - trict. The existing non-conforming signs exceed the size limitations and are in excess of number of signs per- mitted in that zone. Is there anyone here representing this case, Ithaca Cayuga Optical? (no one showed) . i �fhe next case then is appeal number 1324 : II Appeal of Dale R. Sherwood and Charles, L. Tallman for a use and area varianc under Section 30. 25 , Columns 2 and 11 to permit construction of an additional i dwelling unit at the rear of the exist- ing multiple dwelling at 122 Linden Avenue. The property is located in a R-2b use district in which a multiple dwelling is not a permitted use, and the property is deficient in front yard set back. i �R. WARD: My name is John Ward, I 'm an attorney here in Ithaca and i I represent the appellants Mr. Tallman and Mr. Sherwood on this atter. Very briefly, what we have at this location is a single amily dwelling which, a number of years ago, was granted an excep- tion to be a six unit rooming house . It qualifies under the grand- I father clause in the current zoning regulations . The one unique i feature of this which, if it weren' t for that variance that was grandfathered in, that would bring us here is that there is an 8 ' 'front yard. For the want of 2 ' and if it were a single family dwel - fing we would not need to be here this evening because it would i jqualify for a building permit . The reason that the front yard can of be enlarged is it would require the cutting off of 2 ' of a porch which is hardly economically feasible would destroy the character of the building which was built to look similar to all of the other buildings in that area and I think the Board is aware, at 'least the local newspapers have published an indication for a need for housing student housing primarily and here is an opportunity I i fl 10 - i t ,! for good student housing - a brand new building, not one that has I to be refurbished, not one that is going to have a ceiling that is going to - is lower than is required - but brand new, modern hous- �iing. What we are asking for is to add just one more unit to the ; property to make it, in essence, a duplex style location. As it lindicates in the papers that I have presented, the boundary line ! is the neighborhood boundary of this property between the current zoning and a zoning which would permit this type of construction without need to come before the Board of Zoning Appeals but for on front yard set back, Had that line been moved just one lot furthe south - again, we wouldn't have to be here. We are not asking this Board to approve an over-taxing or an over- use of the property, we submitted with our papers a generous application for parking. I think that realistically, parking could be condensed somewhat, owing Ito the use of many smaller cars today, we could probably get eight Ior nine legitimate parking places in this lot. We are not claimin that but we are claiming more than adequate parking. Since the owners have taken over this property they upgraded the property, they have painted it, in fact , over the summer, after they painted their location, neighboring properties were also painted, which added to the character of the neighborhood, it did not detract fro it. This is basically a rental neighborhood. TVs a neighborhood where students predominate . I would dare say that over 800 of the structures within 200 ' of this structure are student housing or , multiple family units. There are very few single family dwellings land those who move into the area are fully aware or, at least, should be fully aware of the characteristics of the neighborhood. Therefore I don' t feel that the request is taxing on any of the normal grounds which are brought before the Board of Zoning Appeal namely, inadequate parking , over-use of the lot. Basically what we are saying is , we've got a small front yard by two feet and the 'house otherwise would qualify. (CHAIRMAN AMAN: - You are changing the use though,I g g g technically you need a use variance as well as an area variance. MR. WARD: Yes, it is a use variance - what I am saying is that i i I I; �i - I I� !as a single family dwelling we are adding one more unit. If it weTe ;used as a single family dwelling we would still be here because the 13 ifront yard is only eight feet in depth - not ten. Side yard set !!back is sufficient , back yard is sufficient and there is ample par - li ling. We are not over-taxing the property - the size of the lot Ifor the square footage of building, we are not even coming close. MR. WALSH: Mr. Ward, is this property currently fully rented? MR. WARD: Yes it is. MR. WALSH: Is there an economic hardship in connection with the e present mode of operations? MR. WARD: It isn' t utilized to the same extent that other proper- ties in the neighborhood are . Other properties in the neighborhood can have substantially more students and do have substantially mor students considering the size of this structure and the size of th lot. So, in other words, the income that can be generated is less than neighboring units that are used for rental housing because it !was a single family dwelling and is used as a rooming house rather i than with multiple apartments, MR. WALSH: fis the income generated by the property in its present mode of operation less than adequate to amortize the cost of , . . MR. WALSH: It stretches it . I can' t give you accurate figures on , it but when you look at the size of the lot which is comparable to all of the other lots basicallyon Linden Avenue - the size of this structure is not as large as many and it cannot house physically a many students . And it doesn' t have the second unit which is what we are asking to put on, Many are duplexes or buildings that have been added on to over the years, This one never has there is a substantial area behind the house which. is currently occupied by a I ^ call it a garage - it's an open garage .. not quite a carport but ! there are no doors on it and that structure would be removed to I make use for parking, MR. GAINEY: You say there would be no problem with parking? MR. WALSH: No problem whatsoever. MR. GAINEY: Have you received any complaints from the neighbors about doing this? i i i! 12 !MR. WARD: Yes there were some aired at the Planning Board session. i= IIMR. GAINEY: - Just a couple? !MR. WARD: Well I see several people here tonight who were present s ;!there. Their comments primarily had to do with parking and we can stretch parking a long way. Except we don' t have to stretch it, we t (don' t have to cram cars in to more than comply with the Zoning Ordi- nance. The students that are in their now have very few cars. MR. GAINEY: Parking would be no problem right? �MR. WARD: Parkin would be absolutely no problem. There is no Parking Y !question that Linden Avenue is a narrow street - its a one-way street but this unit, if the addition were permitted, would not add I ,to any street congestion due to parking. Most students that live in this area live in this area primarily because they can get back Iand forth to collegetown - back and forth to classes without the use of an auto. If they have a car they can live further out where rents may be at a different level . R. GAINEY: You say its mostly apartments in this area too? (MR. WARD: Yes. i MS. DE COMBRARY: Is this entire area made of asphalt - is that all cement? R. WALSH: No, none of it is asphalt. S. DE COMBRAY: So this proposed parking area in the back . . . R. WARD: It's a graveled area right at this time. S. DE COMBRAY: It' s gravel? R. WARD: Yes it is. And the reason for putting the proposed addition in its location is to create a joint wall which in a time Df energy conservation makes it less expensive to heat the units ecause they all then have a common wall . Because of the terrain pping slightly, the actual first floor area of this addition would be comparable to the basement area of the existing structure �ut by use of a common wall you can eliminate an exterior wall on ,the addition plus partially enclosing an exterior wall on the other property without removing substantial window space. HAIRMAN AMAN: Are there any further questions? R. WILCOX: Are there any photographs? I 13 - I;MR, WARD: No we have not provided any. !IMS. DE COMBRAy: Would you have to cut down that tree to build this ;;addition? IMR. WARD: Yes . It' s a large tree - it' s very old and it would be questionable as to how much longer it would live naturally anyway. There were a number of branches that were on the ground when I was I there to view the property. It may eventually become a hazard not s only to this property but three or four surrounding properties due to its size. As you can tell from the picture the new building will barely be visible from the street. If you are looking from the driveway side you can see where the porch goes down the southerly side of the property and only at that point to the rear would you be able to see the addition, This is not going to change the (,street characteristic of the property at all , I� (!CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any further questions? Thank you Mr. Ward, MR. WARD: Thank you. i CHAIRMAN AMAN; Is there anyone here who wishes to speak on behalf lof the proposed variance? (_no one) Is there anyone here who swishes to speak against the requested variance? SMR, STILES: My name is Loren Stiles and we live in the house at 11 1119 Linden Avenue, Nine of the people who live on the street and who own their own homes and live in them have signed a petition i and I ' d like to read it to the Board, "We. strongly object to the I (proposal to add three additional living units to 122 Linden Avenue, Linden Avenue from Bool Street to Mitchell Street has six owner- 1occupied homes, giving this block a res ,dent ,al character, (One !of the owner-occupied homes i.s rented for a sabbatical year to I anotfier family) Several young children are among the occupants of (these homes, The city has already recognized the residential char- acter of this block by designating it as R-2b. This proposed change would violate the city' s own plan. We object to the proposal for Ithese reasons : 1) This is an R-2b zone where six families own and !occupy their own homes. Cooperative housing for unrelated indivi- duals is in violation. That there are such houses already here is !a fact, because they were established before current zoning. Ex- i i ii 14 •i ii ,� andin them however, seems to violate the intent of the !,p g present i ',zoning for this area. 2) Linden Avenue is a narrow one-way street which is already congested with student traffic and parking. Any ladditional vehicles will compound an already serious problem. 3) IThe students currently living at and adjacent to 122 Linden Avenue 'already disturb other residents with the noise of their parties an comings and goings, especially late at night . We do not wish to i ;see this problem compounded by the addition of more tenants . We believe that additional building at 122 Linden Avenue threatens the presidential character of the block bounded by Bool and Mitchell streets . We want to prevent any deterioration in the quality of i life on Linden Avenue . We all live on Linden Avenue and own our jown homes. We oppose any expansion of housing units at 122 Linden i Avenue. CSigned by nine families living in the area) And to very briefly summarize that what we are asking is that the city maintain i its own established zoning and not to make a variance on it . That Cthi.s is a street that does have a lot of student housing and yet �j the area in which we live R the sixe homes plus two additional ones on Mitchell that have much footage on Linden are one family and are !residential in character, It' s a closely knit group and finally, !that we do feel that there is a quality of life that' s established i at this end of our street and of the Bryant Tract and we want to try ! Ito keep it and not have further deterioration of the area. Thank you. MR. WARD: Mr. Chairman, is it permissible to respond to those comments? ! iCHAIRMAN AMAN: Let me see R is there anyone else wishing to speak jagainst the proposed variance? Yes sir. Mr. Ward, after everyone 1has spoken, a short rebuttal. IMR. LEEMING: My name is Joseph Leeming, I'm the president of the !Bryant Tract Civic Association which includes Linden Avenue . Mr. Ward, I ' d like to ask you - how many tenants are there in this buil ling now? II1MRt , WARD: Six, i R. LEEMING: And what you want to add is two units - a ground unit i? i and a second story unit? �i { MR. WARD: No. Three bedroom unit which would house three addi- �jtional individuals. ii MR. LEEMINC: So you would have nine tenants in the house? My understanding is that this being an R--2b zone, the house is grand- i `fathered - in a sense - or not in a sense -s it literally is - the jfact that they could rent rooms to students was covered - it was ,grandfathered by the zoning laws because it was done before the current Ordinance was passed. What I fail to understand is why ,the Board of Zoning Appeals would support the idea of letting them add additional units just because present rental units were grand- fathered. iCHAIRMAN AMAN: You understand, that we are hearing the case - Mr. I Ward has presented his proposal we are not supporting it or neces 11sarily pre-judging the case right now. We want to hear the whole case and then we will render our decision. IMR. LEEMINC: Fine. I would just like to make the point that it oesn' t seem logical to me to grandfather additions to a grandfather. 'What I really wanted to say is that I want to tell you what you lready know, I , as president of the Bryant Park Civic Association, am in favor of private neighborhoods . It so happens that when f y wife and I were looking for our first house we looked at a house in this area of Linden Street - the west end. Most of Linden Stree is rental. It' s - somebody called it the Pits - it ' s collegetown ental apartmea.its. That little onclave on the west end is not , in y opinion, what I fear - and I 'm not concerned about cars. Sure ars parked end to end along the street are not a good idea to rivate owners of houses but I 'm concerned about deterioration of eighhorhoods , which, in my experience can happen with a lot of 1 ittle things like garbage not being adequately wrapped when it is aken out to the street or it' s not taken out early enough or its Taken out later than it should be, I won' t mention not mowing lawns outh hill seems to have a monopoly on that but and granted they ainted the house and the other private owners painted their houses i ' wouldn't think that makes them any better than anyone else - they 116 I, fare good landlords - I won' t quarrel with that. I don't like the idea of landlords and tenants in a residential area - what I see is If more homes in the west end of Linden Street become student occu- I;pied or let' s say - tenant occupied - some of the houses around the I' corner on Mitchell Street may become tenant occupied or student oc- cupied - I know lots of people on Mitchell Street who would object (,very strongly that this is a farce, if you support the farce , fine. (As far as the need for student housing goes - I understand Cornell University plans to provide five hundred extra units in the east hill and collegetown section within the next couple of years. No I Tore immediate point comes to mind so I guess I 'll let it rest at that. Thank you. (CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you. Is there anyone else? Yes sir. R. CHANG: My name is Husung Chang and we have moved to Linden (Avenue since last may and I just like to say one sentence which is - I II don' t like to have zoning variation in that area. Loren has ex- plained in detail before -- so , thanks. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Is there anyone else wishing to speak against the (variance request? (no one) Mr. Ward if you could be brief would lappreciate it. I MR. WARD: As indicated by Mr. Stiles , there are six residential l�houses. There were approximately forty-one properties within the two hundred foot radius which had to be notified which makes a very I' flow percentage of private residences . I believe that their letter as submitted the one that Mr, Stiles read. I wish to note that several residents who signed this are not within the two hundred foot radius and not all are on Mitchell Street as indicated in the letter. I would submit to the Chairman a brief petition which not lonly - which would be on behalf of the appellants, including proper- !ties in the area including the property immediately adjacent to the IIrear of the property, indicating a favorable decision by this group. !And basically what we have i,s a lot that is the same size as the �I bulk of the lots in the area and it does not have the same potentia as the other lots. Also commenting on the proposal of keeping this I as a residential neighborhood. It's not a residential neighborhood i I; II _ - j 17 4in the sense of private family dwellings. People who have moved i, ;lin within the last year or two have to have observed what the iquality of the neighborhood was and should be prepared to accept Ilit as it is and we are not asking to over-tax the present situation. Thank you. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you Mr. Ward. SECRETARY HOARD: Mr. Ward, if I could ask you a couple of ques- tions. On this list you showed me - I notice that two of the signa- tures are the signatures of the appellants themselves - how many of the rest of these are actually residents of the area and how many are absentee owners? MR. WARD: I 'm not certain whether they I think the bulk of them are probably not residents but are absentee owners . But the appel- lants ., of course, have signed because they firmly believe in their own cause. SECRETARY HOARD: That was my only question. I i i I' I I I i I i I� I I' I. I! 18 - l BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK NOVEMBER 3, 1980 �i i EXECUTIVE SESSION I APPEAL NO. 1324 : The Board considered the appeal of Dale Sherwood and Charles Tall- man for a use and area variance under Section 30. 25 , Columns 2 and 11 to permit construction of an additional dwelling unit at the rear of the existing multiple dwelling at 122 Linden Avenue. The prope ty his located in an R-2b use district in which a multiple dwelling is not a permitted use , and the property is deficient in front yard set back. SMR. WALSH: I move that the Board deny the area and use variances requested in appeal number 1324. MR. WILCOX: I second the motion. VOTE: 6 Yes ; 0 No Request denied. FINDINGS OF FACT: 1) There was no showing of economic hardship which is required to qualify for a use variance. 2) The addition of another three persons on the premises would ad to neighborhood which already has a substantial population burden. 3) That additionally the variance would require departure from front yard requirement. 4) It would conclude that the addition of three unrelated persons would increase volume of traffic passing on an already narrow and congested street. fI i i i - 19 - I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS i CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK i H NOVEMBER 3, 1980 iSECRETARY HOARD: The next appeal is appeal number 1325 : Appeal of Janet Jonson for an area variance under Section 30. 25 , Columns 6, 73% 10, 11 and 13 and 30 . 49 to permit the addition of second story to the house at 934 East Shore Drive in an R-2b use district. The propert is deficient in minimum lot size, has no frontage on a public right-of-way, the maxi- mum lot coverage by buildings is exceeded, the front yard depth is insufficient , and one side yard is- deficient. The owner proposes to use the house as a one-family dwelling. This appeal has been postponed. If anyone is waiting for that one it will be heard next month. That will go back before the Planning Board. Appeal number 1326 : Appeal of Clifford Northrup and Edward N. Austen for a use variance and an area vari- ance under Section 30. 25 , Columns 2 and 13 to permit use of the property at 301-15 Third Street for an electrical contracting and wholesale business , and the storage of bulk goods. The property is located in a B-2a (business) use district in which con- tracting and warehousing businesses are not permitted uses , and the property is deficie t I in one side yard. MR. HINES: Thank you. My name is Robert Hines , I represent the applicants and before I proceed any further I have some photograph of the affected area and I ' ll circulate them among the members . The area to which we are directing our attention is the block boun ed by Hancock Street and Adams Street on the north and south and Second and Third Streets on the east and west in the north side of the City of Ithaca. For many years , really since the initial block division of the City, this block 47 had been vacant except for three homes two of which remain today. The third home eventually owned by a family by the name of Petito, sold this property in or about 1960 for development to persons who were going to operate the Victory and later the Great American SuperMarket , and on that block - that str c- ture which you see in the photographs before you was built. Since that time , 1960, it had been operated, until this year - continuouly as a SuperMarket and adjacent structures: operated for retail pur- poses. As recently as Monday, October 20th you've read in the new - papers that the Great American was closing that retail operation. ! i f 20 - ''The reasons for that and the reasons for the failure of other reta 4 i ,,efforts in that area can be outlined by another speaker who has more !I I jjexpertise than I in that area. However, many of you may remember !'Panosian' s Sleepwear facility in that structure and they closed and, �II have a letter from Steve Black the manager of that operation, in I which he stated that despite the anticipation of great success at `this retail location they learned after two years that the unit was, ,root going to succeed for a number of reasons , all related to the ;general failure of retail opportunities in that one block area and i Ivicinity. In any event, this appeal comes on before this Board be-; iI (cause Norton Electric which now operates an electrical store , a shop 1Ifacility adjacent to this facility on Third Street and Adams Street',, , Lishes to purchase this property and relocate its operation within this building. Now it appears that their operations will not con- I �sume the entire floor space of approximately 20 ,000 square feet and li ,!they will remain empty from Norton's direct use approximately 9,000 _ 110 , 000 square feet of space so that this application is made, not � I jonly to permit Norton Electric' s operation within this otherwise i ,,retail area but permit them to lease or rent to others which engage', lin similar non-retail activities - wholesale activities or storage I activities of the remainder of the space . Now the zoning at the (i Oresent time permits the use of this premise as retail. Now, for 11reasons that are best left to other persons who have more expertise) �Ithan I this area is not feasible for retail marketing any longer ,;and it is a hardship for the present owner, Dunco Realty, to continue i `lits effort to find retail tenants . This property has been on the i market for approximately five years and without success in finding Iia retail tenant or a retail purchaser, Now, as we pointed out before 'i I ' the Planning Board it certainly makes sense for anybody; Dunco Realty, !,Victory Markets or the prospective buyers , Norton Electric, to find' I. ;;retail outlets for this facility because your retail rental space ii 'goes for a great deal more than wholesale and the use by Norton ;Electric for its operation, although partially retail in their 10ectrical outlet facility, will be primarily of a low density, f $owever, non-retail use. Now I have - I 've lived in this community) f j � I G; 21 ,,all my life and I 'm sure I don' t need to point out to the members o�f ''this Board what the neighborhood there is like. At the time this ,particular store was built, back in 1960, Hancock Street was a pri- I I, unary thoroughfare for traffic passing from the north side through !to Meadow Street. Since that time Route 13 was constructed and I !think that substantially changed the character of the neighborhood (land I think you will find that it destroyed its value as a retail �farea. I have a ward map in front of me of the City of Ithaca and j j I have marked within a two block area those activities which could reasonably be classified as business , non-residential and possibly ,'commercial. I will give this information to the Board but I would (just like to read these operations :, Taynton Trucking, which is right ; own the street; Norton Electric, of course, which is our applicant ; I�ictory Market, which is going out of business ; Woody' s Paint Store I hich I understand has gone out of business - is that correct? I �went. by there the other day and they were having a close - out sale. j ,,Quick' s Garage, which is an electrical and auto repair shop; the j 1,lGymnasium, Begeacres , which is across the street; Giordano Construct ,tion; Hancock Building; a Dairy Products store; the New 'York State 1; !Electric & Gas sub-station; Mrs. Weber' s Ithaca Scrap Company; the ,Bowling Alley; Gus ' s Grocery; D & R Liquor; of course the P & C !!Food Store and Bolton' s Donuts which is immediately to its rear, ,11111 leave this information although it ' s not particularly unique - lit may be of some assistance to you, ,CHAIRMAN AMAN: Which building has been vacant for five years now? I HINES : The Victory Market building has not been vacant for five i 11years. It has been on the market for five years - by the owners in + an effort to find a purchaser because of the phasing out of this i Ijgrocery store operation. They have been unable until now to find a' I !buyer and even prior to the consumation of this particular trans- {action, the business was sufficiently bad that they closed their operation and that , of course, appeared as a news article in the Athaca Journal. 1CHAIRMAN AMAN: Had there been any attempts to get Common Council j!to rezone the area? ,MR. HINES; No. I 've only been involved in this for six weeks - no, i i! I 22 - I li ;there has been no effort. This , as you can tell from looking at the �izoning map, butts both a lower density residential area and, of i course , the Ithaca Scrap Yard, and Taynton Trucking and that parti-I ;i Ocular vicinity. We are a block and a half from route 13. It seeme ('( appropriate that this be the procedure because, in some respects , ii �1you can retain some control over the activity, We are not asking j i to restructure the building from the outside, it will be improved, i � I think, cosmetically and certain interior restruction will be nece�- sary. I believe our clients went through the building with Mr. Hoa�d lin an effort to try to find out if there were any substantial probl�ms (and didn' t learn of any that certainly couldn't be overcome. Cliff ,(and �orthrup , one of the proprietors of Norton Electric is here tonight �nd it may be better for him to describe the intended use since I a� ��ot in the business and I 'm not thoroughly familiar with what he I ntends to do. However, anticipating some of the things he might s#y, t is certainly obvious to the casual observer that, as opposed to he super market use or other retail uses that might be anticipated ! 41though not realistically, this will be a fairly low profile opera E�Cion. There is certainly going to be less traffic generated as a result of Norton Electric, less truck traffic and ingress and egres$ lind,, being local people and being local owners A not that the Victo�y I eople weren"t interested in the community but Norton and the Norto •ersonnel are local people - weassume , and I think you will find I from talking with them, that they will maintain this property in a �ondition which should he attractive and beneficial to the neighbors i ! ood. From all exterior appearances it will be an upgrading. From { 11 traffic and activity appearances it will be a lower density use �han presently made of the property, therefore I think the requeste ariance that is to permit wholesale uses of this property is not , my consistent with good planning , which was approved by the Plan- 1 ing Board three to two , but consistent with an appropriate use of the property for the neighborhood, The unlikelihood of finding a i commercial - a retail use for this property is apparent and it is a ardship and I think our one additional speaker will point to that act that it is , it is virtually impossible to find anybody to fill II � I 23 - I; that space consistent with present zoning - that 's a substantial and i ;expensive structure which can't be easily used for any other purpose I I ,,you can' t make this into housing - one mention was the YMCA - I sat; � ion the Board of the YMCA for a few years - I don' t think the YMCA i� j; igoing to move down there and I think that the only realistic and practical use that can be made of this , consistent with the needs of the neighborhood and the needs of the city is to permit a use such �,,as requested by Norton. Now I 'd like to ask Mr. Northrup to address zany comments you may have about what he intends to do with the prop; � I !lerty and that may be more germaine than any further comments by me. 'i j, hank you. I � ��R. NORTHRUP: Thank you. I am Cliff Northrup, President and co 11owner of Norton Electric, Inc. My partner, Ed Austen, who sits in I I ! +ithe back corner, may have something to say later on. To give you Ilan idea of what we intend to do with this building, I 've been asso Liated with Norton Electric for twenty-six years , either as appren- i �I !n !I ice electrician, superintendent and now owner of the company. Ed !Austen became my partner about a year and one-half ago. He was I ; ;associated with Cayuga Electric, a wholesale supply house located !,here in Ithaca. In the last three years Norton Electric has triple. j their business - we have outgrown our present location which now had ii .bout 2 ,400 square feet in it. We 've pursued locating a new place ! ilor the last year and one-half. This property came on the market, ire had a friend and a broker who knew about it - we went and talked' ��bout it and have reached a deal on it , if we can get the zoning lthat we need to relocate Norton Electric. We have two things in pind for the building, number 1 is putting Norton Electric in ther6 I I i+which will take about 4 ,000 square feet of this 20 ,000 square feet. ' i; ;The other thing we have going now is a new incorporated business I� ;;called EC Electric Supply. To define the two Norton Electric is j ;;electrical contractors . We do commercial , residential , industrial , ; 11large buildings. We have an office staff of four people and I am ,�now employing fifteen electricians. Our electricians can vary from! i, !!ten through 30 but again they are not associated with the company at I, pur premises as of now, they are into the field. EC Electric Supply tI i i i 24 - ii w"uld be a wholesale supply house such as Cayuga Electric or Ithaca; {Wholesale. This will occupy approximately 6, 000 square feet and tho ii reason we are pursuing this is that Mr. Austen has twenty-five year i I 'Of experience in this business and we find that we could put the twp i together and work very well for us. That' s what our intent of this ! Building is. As you can see we have an extra 10, 000 square feet th't !i Jje need to lease and we feel that being retail as it is now, we prefer of to have a restaurant or a bar room next door to us - we prefer to ave something in our line such as wholesale plumbing firm, any typ �f this type of business in there . This is what we are trying to d� i 4nd if there are any questions I would be glad to answer them. (CHAIRMAN AMAN: Will there be any retail operations at all? Norton, electric? is 'MR. NORTHRUP: Yes. Not Norton Electric EC Electric Supply would! $e that would be a retail-wholesale type of place. It would be all, lmall showroom with a storage of electrical supplies and a storage j rea. i SMR. WILCOX: Have you spoken with the Planning Board at all? MR. NORTHRUP: Oh yes , we 've been before them last Monday, yes . MR. WILCOX: And what are some of the plans that you've made to I�atisfy some of their requests? Aesthetics and . . . �R. NORTHRUP: Yes - that was brought before us by the people in tho !iLi rea, that they would like to have some input in the planting of !Shrubbery and the way the building was brought up as far as the !(unintell) is , we have met with a couple of the local people - we �� howed them our office , what we were doing, we talked to them as if� - ��W ll be glad to do whatever is necessary to make the property look' letter and with the reputation that Norton Electric has over the east fifty years , I think you have to take some trust in us . I canFt ay today to these people that I am going to shrub the whole area. !iI can' t say what color we ' ll paint the building or how we will make the face of it look. I know that we will upgrade the building in tie 1�ext couple of years . It will not deteriorate Norton Electric had i� ,never worked under this pretense. We have a reputation to keep and! ljve' ll keep it with the way our buildings look. 1 i ! ! i II 25 z i IMR. WALSH: Mr. Northrup, the Planning Board seems to have indicate i, 11some concern that the premises not be used for the storage of flam- I ,imables or other toxic items - is that grounded in any particular - what you have said or are there any plans one way or the other as tb Ithat? �' I MR. NORTHRUP: No, I think that came up in that petition that was signed by some twenty people. That was written that way. I read the petition and it did say storage of non-flammable - or flammablei substance - we have no - we just have no substance of that type - i� Ithere is nothing flammable about anything that we store. IMR. GAINEY: That operation would be about five times more safe tha the grocery store that was in there, as far as flammable materials . MR. WALSH: We are talking not only about storage of Norton' s mater- ials but an area some four times that which is leaseable to others .! I I just want you to inquire - not a blanket prohibition but is there any consideration one way or the other as to the type of business that would go in there beyond what' s already been mentioned? IMR. NORTHRUP: Yes I think the consideration is that Norton Electril I does not want to put something in next to them that would be detri- mental to Norton Electric. As far as inflammable substance I would (say no, I 'm not in favor of having it in there again it brings our insurance rate up, it is a detriment to us living next door to them, if this came up we wouldn' t lease to this type of operation. MR. ANGELL: Mr. Northrup, do you have any objection to the balance of the property if you find a tenant - that that be brought up for i a variance at that time? MR. NORTHRUP: I hate to say yes - I really do - I feel that we are making a big investment in this piece of property, again, I 've got to go back - we are moving into the building ourselves - I think it' s - I hate to use the word inconvenience to come back every time I we want to lease to somebody that it doesn' t come under the B-2 - i we really feel very strongly that we would like to have the whole property so we could either warehouse or retail or . . . IMR. ANGELL: I can think of other buildings in that area that are i operating on the same basis the Old Clock Works each time that i I� j 26 1 I he gets a new tenant, he comes in for a separate variance. 1MR. NORTHRUP: Well , that ' s - again, as I 've said - I ' d prefer not G 'to do this but again this is up to you people as a Board for this !decision. IjMR. ANGELL: Now there is a very large parking lot there. What do 11 you propose to do with that parking lot? 'MR. NORTHRUP : At this time we have no use I can' t say we have no! Huse for it - the parking lot is there, it is part of the land that we are buying. The amount of employees that we have - we park mayb (Isix or eight cars in there at this time Norton Electric. Now, ``� I jwhoever we brought in there somebody might need thirty parking places , I have no idea at this time. We have no idea of doing any 1'thing with it except maintaining it, keeping it up - keeping it I plowed and that type of thing at this time. IMR. WALSH: Mr. Northrup, just to return to the aspect of the ques-I I jtion I was after before , would you be willing to accept a variance jwhich was conditioned on a prohibition on - as the Planning Board i j!suggests - of outside storage or of other flammable items on the 'I premises? I SIR. NORTHRUP: Yes. SIR. WALSH: That would be an acceptable condition to you? �MR. NORTHRUP: Certainly. Outside storage no way, we don' t want that as Norton Electric either and certainly would . . . i IMS. DE COMBRAY: Have you made any attempt to rent any of these `spaces to retail businesses? `r1R. NORTHRUP: No we haven' t. We have made no attempt to rent any �jof it because we do not own the building as of this minute , so we Ididn' t feel that it was right for us to go out and solicit somebody jat this time. fl DIMS. DE COMBRAY; But you would have no objections to having retail i jlthere? r` I IMR. NORTHRUP: Not at all , no. If we could entice somebody in there i i� e certainly would, yes. J�S. DE COMBRAY: You said that possibly you might rent part of this' building to someone who might have up to thirty workers or a need jj ii f� I ;i 27 f 1 ��Jor thirty parking spaces? IIMR. NORTHRUP: That' s very possible, yes . One thing I would like �I 'to stress , I think it will make some impact on the neighbors - we I i ];run an 8 to 5 business and this is the type of businesses which wej it � 1hope to have come in there - from 8 to 5 - and the area is left in I !five days a week - actually our wholesale house would be open five ! f � Hand one-half days a week. j !CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any further questions? Mr. Hines . IMR. HINES: I ' d like to introduce Stewart Knowlton who would speak I every briefly with respect to the retail-commercial aspects of this liproperty. Directing your attention to some of the comments, cer- 1tainly the petitioner has no objection to renting the whole thing 1'for11 retail space. If the retail tenant can be found - I think theIty `reason we are asking for the exception for the variance for us or why they found us as a perspective buyer and why we think we are i agoing to have to find similar uses as retail - as tenants - is than i lit is practically impossible to find any retail tenants for that I ;particular facility - and that is really what Mr. Knowlton is goin� to direct his attention to. i MR. KNOWLTON: Mr. Chairman, members of the Board, if I may just 90I !back just a moment to why Ithaca and retail tenancy here is of par i jticular importance to me. We took over the East Hill Plaza some fi I ',seven years ago, at which time it was 320 occupied - so for the ;past seven years, retail tenancy in Ithaca, New York has been of a !!prime concern. When Cliff Northrup and Ed Austen asked my opinion ] 1of what they could do with this particular property, I started back �I fiat the beginning of when the property was built some twenty years 'f ago, two years before the coming of route 13 and, as was pointed i ! - ,tout earlier this evening, at that point this was a main route ! Hancock Street was, It had a very definite purpose in trafficing, ' e to -make it a retail function. When route 13 came into being it i , !!became very much a side street. Well , comparing it , if you will , 11with East Hill Plaza, we are now enjoying a traffic combined traffic between Ellis Hollow and ,Judd falls Road , in excess of 00, 000 cars a day. 10, 000 cars a day has meant that from the traf-I ii i� I 28 - I i! 1ficing standpoint, we are probably as desirable as most retail out- i filets that there are in the community. It has been a very long , ; arduous , slow procedure to fill up our facility. Tonight we are j ' full, I 'm happy to say that, but it has been a seven year endeavor. iThe fact that the Hancock Street property - the Great American property - that is presently owned by Dunco , who is an organizatio that I am quite familiar with and quite close to in many respects -j they never applied for a variance to permit the use of any portion sof this property for other than the retail use that it was put to. � I However, certainly the fact that they closed it has meant now that they can see no longer use for it. I would say that the - looking at the investment that they have , and also now the liability that they have in an empty building R to me probably indicates that the retail use the retail value of that particular property has eroded now, due to the trafficing change , in the traffic pattern change -{ � to a point of being a functional use of some use similar to what the Ed Austen and Cliff Northrup are referring. It 's not a deroga- tory kind of a situation, this erosion, it ' s perfectly natural and certainly there was a time when that whole area down there was en- compassed by single family houses . That has changed and so every r area eventually, with time, I think goes through a transitional { I jchange -- but this one particularly - because of the size of the r building. Now 20, 000 square foot building is a large building. I ! don't know if - however - many of you realize how big your homes are but probably for the most part around 1600 square feet so you are talking something realistically that is the size of about fifteen of your homes or something like that. Envision trying to lease thaI t to someone. When I hear the comments made here tonight and the 4 questions put to Mr. Northrup and to Mr. Hines, would they considerl leasing to retail as opposed to if you will wholesale. I 'm cerl- tain that they would, because the differential in income productions, economically, is double, So there is no question as to the value 1 f of the retail tenancy. MR. WALSH, I missed your profession. Are you a realtor or a . . . ? iMR. KNOVLTON; I am owner - I own East Hill Plaza, sir. iI I i� I j 29 - I!,MR. WALSH: And is your experience generally in marketing retail 'space? ' I 11MR. KNOWLTON: I would say yes - for thirty years now. i'MR. WALSH: Would you characterize the traffic patterns in that area I'' I in comparison to what you would consider essential to maintain retail I ,!space? You indicated you had approximately 10, 000 cars a day in the 'neighborhood of the East Hill Plaza - space per space - how does th,e !'traffic pattern area we are discussing compare with that? IiMR. KNOWLTON: I 'm only going - this is going to be conjecture - ju;st I ;pure simply guess probably a fifth - in other words if the total ''; Hancock Street, Adams , etc. traffic I don't imagine is over 2 ,000; cars a day. j MR. WALSH: Is it your opinion that that rate of traffic flow at I I 11that location is insufficient to maintain this space with retail? I I� 'IMR. KNOWLTON: Yes sir, it is . SIMS. DE COMBRAY: I ' d like to ask a question, first of all because I I`I''m having difficulty trying to understand why a blanket variance i i, should be given and I 'm also interested in the retail question, youl it 'know even the wholesale piece by piece, if it is going to be rented'. ;I ,'But with. regards to retail - how would you account for the success ,; 1!for instance, of the other stores on Hancock Street - just to mentiion llHancock Street because its listed on here? is the P & C and the 'ID & R Liquor Store because they are long standing shops there and' livery close to . . . IMR. KNOWLTON,, I would say - to characterize the A $ P as it origin;- 1 rally was - which, in fact, went out - if you will and then was takelo ;and enlarged substantially and totally renovated. That is a natura� i 'evolution but there is not now retail market enough in that locale j (hand we are dealing now with a very confined neighborhood locale - to I! support two such stores, So the Great American or Dunco, if you will i ilcould not afford to take a 20, 000 square foot store and enlarge it i jito say 25 or 28 , 000 square feet there were just not enough people tb Ido this with. jIMS. DE COMBRAY: I understand that, but it seems to me possible since i Ahere is although there is, as you say, very little traffic along j� . I f 30 i I' !Hancock Street , the P $ C seems to be doing a fair amount of busi i ness - that it would be even profitable to expand retail in that i Visite or as a possibility. In other words , by giving a blanket i !variance, I feel that it might inhibit growth of retail in that area. HMR. KNOWLTON: May I comment to that please? i !'MS. DE COMBRAY: It would be more in character of what I believe isi Il (unintell) . 'SMR. KNOWLTON: I don' t think anyone can appreciate the position tha1t ,!you are taking more than I. However, please realize this , that the! �i ;!difference you heard me say between retail and if you will , whole- sale along the line of Norton Electric , is the difference of twice iin production of dollars rental . I think that automatically would tell you that certainly Mr. Austen and Northrup are not in any way ;going to shut out any possibility of retail. But I am saying, and ,when they ask me , and when Mr. Hines asked if I would make comment ,; ;very honestly, I have no reason to say other than what I honestly !believe, by my experience in Ithaca, New York and I am saying that r think it is very remote . I think there are possibilities but I !!think that they are quite remote. We came by there tonight and ;there were ten cars in the parking lot with everything closed. IlMR. GAINEY, The store is closed, IMR, KNOWLTON: Pardon? Sir? ''MR. GAINEY: What affect does that have on what you are talking abort? IMR. KNOWLTON: Not a bit sir, except we . . . ;,MR. GAINEY: Well then let ' s get down to what .we are talking about.; i' IjMR. WALSH: Mr. Knowlton, in your opinion or - let' s see if I can ;!phrase this correctly - is it, in your opinion, impossible that a ,,use could be made of that facility that is a permitted use under the ;!Ordinance as it now stands? MR. KNOWLTON: Is it possible? I'MR. WALSH: Economically possible. IMR. KNOWLTON: My honest opinion? IMR. WALSH; Absolutely, that' s what I'm hoping to get . '1MR. KNOWLTON: As I stand here sir, I wouldn't want to bet a penny j, i �Ion it . My honest opinion. In other words r would not see that. � I i I i it I - 31 - I SMR. WALSH: For any other permitted use. MMR. KNOWLTON: Are you saying retail? I AMR. WALSH: No , I am not saying retail , I 'm saying is there any Fuse permitted under the Ordinance for that property of which you I�believe it could be made economical use? IMR. KNOWLTON: Under the B-2a? No sir , that I see . Thank you Mr. Chairman. `I CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you. No further questions . Is there anyone here who wishes to speak on behalf of the requested variance? (no one) Anyone here who wishes to oppose the requested variance? ( Yes sir. iIMR. YARROW; My name is Mike Yarrow and I live at 407 Hancock Street right across from the parking lot. And there are a number I lof us here tonight who are concerned about this variance and it's isnot that it' s a little misleading to say that we oppose it in total . What we hope that you will consider very cautiously is how itis spelled out because this property, which is a substantial j property, is surrounded on three sides by residential neighborhood - (� i by R--3 zoned neighborhoods . It ' s a - the Northside Community is a i ' exciting community because it' s in the process of renewal r there �, is a number of residents in that area who have put a lot of money i into their homes, There are a number of landlords in that area wh have taken abandoned houses and rehabed them thoroughly and there is substantial amount of federal public money that has come into that neighborhood. We are very excited about that neighborhood. We see it developing - we like it already we like the multiple !fuse - we like our friends and neighbors and we just urge you to think very carefully and very cautiously about a variance that could turn that whole thing around could lead to neighbors losin Ijfaith in the future of that neighborhood and lead to a tailspin rather than a climb upward. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Do you have any specific uses of the property in mind, that concern you? MR. YARROW: Yes , another member of our group will speak to that issue. I just wanted to urge you as you consider this issue , - 32 - 1 ! ithat it' s a huge area - to me it' s huge - almost a total square ; block, right in - not in the middle - but critical to a residential �larea, and we feel that you are our last chance to participate in the ,!decisions involved in that area which is crucial to the development i `of the whole area. This is it for us . As soon as the variance is ! !!granted - if it is blanket , we have no more say no more legal say, in the way that area is developed. And so we urge you to proceed j `!cautiously, to write into the guidelines - safeguards not paper l!safeguards we understand and for us this has been a very quick ', education on this whole matter for the residents of the area but ; hwe understand that sometimes there is a problem of enforcement of when ?there is a zoning use variance given and there are stipulations put! Mi into it as to you know this has to be done , that has to be donut 1! I !!there has to be a little landscaping do the trees materialize? ;l HDo the shrubs materialize? Does the painting )ob get done9 We H 11would like to propose that there be a development plan worked out ft ;' that the North Side Civic Association participate in that plan, I along with the Planning Commission and the prospective owners and ii 'developers. This is our concern and I just want to start this pre-! i ; sentation by urging you all to consider what you would want for l I !!your own areas - for your own neighborhoods and to give us at this ` ,jour last chance, a little ability to help participate in the de I' i!cisions that may greatly affect our neighborhood. Thank you. 'MR. ANGELL: You have no objection to the portion of the building ! that Norton wants to use for their own? ffIMR. YARROW: A member will read our position, okay? I think that I I lwould be best and then your questions , okay? jI iMR. ANGELL: Well another thing - have you spoken directly to Mr. Northrup about any of your proposals? IIMR. YARROW: Yes. We met with him, we've talked with him and our !; impression is that they do not -- that their funding is tight and that ljsome of the things that we think are very important - they' ll get !Ito in time and we want some safeguards in terms of some of those ' concerns that we have and we are afraid that if there is an economi-c E' i! problem that they have, if they have a problem leasing that some I i I !i 33 I iof these things may be put on the back burner and may - you know - i Ithe residents of the neighborhood hold Northrup and Austen in high 11;respect , Norton Electric has a good reputation in the neighborhood ';- ,I we just feel that we need to have some guarantees as much as you can give us, so that we can participate in this decision-making process . We have faith in those people , we think they are good people - the i {run a clean shop - we 've been through it , but you know, things happen. !MR. ANGELL: Well have you considered 7 is there anything that the neighborhood people can do to help Mr. Northrup - if he supplied plantings , and so on, could you go ahead and do the planting as a lineighborhood project? 1MR. YARROW: We would like to work with them to develop a plan and 1iwe would be glad to consider that kind of proposal , we are eager to {! i �Ihelp. If you don' t mind, can we have John Ferris.s read our sugges-l: i !tions that go into this? I�R. FERRISS: My name is John Ferriss , this past spring I purchased' a house at 201 Second Street from the Ithaca Neighborhood Housing ii lServices , a house that they had renovated. I 'd like to read a r ,statement of the Northside Civic Association on Norton Electric' s i1request for a use variance for the Old Hancock Street Great America# �property "This property is pivotal to the development of the North: i ;side residential community. The Northside neighborhood is a target! ,i `irehabilitation area in which millions of dollars of public and 1private money have been spent for rehabilitation of homes. Therefoje i !the proposal for a use variance from retail to warehousing on such 4 Marge property poses a potential threat to the development of the �1 � comm unity. We urge you to procede with caution. The recommendation pf the Board of Planning and Devleopment which calls for limitation r ion the variance is a step in the right direction; but it needs stre#i- i I Igthening. We support the variance only if it includes the following !,safeguards for the community; 1) That the developers be required to !formulate a site development plan with a time table in conjunction �!with the Northside Civic Association and the City' s planning staff. ', i Ithis plan should include; a) Landscaping, including a green buffer! i` etween the property and residential areas . b). Other uses of the I I II I III �j I - 34 - `i , parking lot. c) Development of the facade. d) A maintenance sched4le Ifor the building and grounds. That permission for the variance b �i , postponed for a month to allow time for this plan to be developed. ` 2. That the use variance be given specifically to Norton Electric , which has good reputation, and ends if they sell the property. That the owners of the property make every effort to utilize the space ! not occupied by Norton Electric and E.C. for retail or other con- i forming uses and that a minimum of one retail or other B-2 use be in the building. (This requirement was suggested by Mr. Frank Moo le , I , chairperson of the Ithaca Board of Planning and Development. ) 3) i That other non-conforming uses for the building be granted on a ca e by case basis , as is done with the Ithaca Calendar Clock building. I 4) That the variance not include the parking lot and that outside storage be specifically prohibited. 5) That the storage of inflam mable, polluting or offensive substances be prohibited* " Thank yo . i ( CHAIRMAN AMAN: What do you mean the variance not include the park (cling lot? IIMR. FERRISS: That - the parking lot not be included in it , for example - across the street there is a recycling center - that is A Poned B-4 and the variance would permit the same sort of establish-, ment - but perhaps in the parking lot for storage of materials . Ald I !what we are looking for is something that would prevent that sort ofthing that would detract from the appearance of the community. I CHAIRMAN AMAN: Outside storage? l IiMR. FERRISS: Outside storage of - yes, materials fences around stored material , yes. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any further questions? IMR. FERRISS: There was one about potential retail use that - one of the things that was most commonly mentioned by people in the I 1petition that was circulated was the lack of a laundramat in the ` :area that's an example of something that came to light very in- formally when we were circulating our petition. MR. GAINEY: I have a question-, this problem that the storage is I linflammable. There seems to be a great concern. I IMR. FERRISS: Oh, the concern is that we are not sure of what other Ilestablishments might lease part of the premises and Norton' s plan ,I i 35 - '!seemed to be good and the company has got a good reputation but in as they are looking for someone to lease part of it - part of either ''the parking lot or the building we don' t know what sort of companieljs i they might be pursuing - might want to apply for part of it and the; is ;community is looking for some way to put safeguards into the vari- 1 lance. I would reiterate that we support Norton' s application for a '!variance but we think that there ought to be certain safeguards �jwritten into it. `;CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak? I MR. SLATTERY: Mr. Chairman and members of the Board, my name is ,,Don Slattery, I 'm a first ward city alderman and I 've lived in that) particular area for thirty-two years and I 've seen the area change .; '! It has been a transitional area and its changed from residential to a combination of business and residential and as I read the legal '1notices tonight regarding this matter, the property is located in �IB- 2a business use district in which contracting and warehousing '; businesses are not permitted uses and the property is deficient in is ;lone side yard. I would hope that the Board, and I am sure they will , f; take into consideration the rsidential character and quality of that ]neighborhood. I think that there are very few parcels of property ] ljremaining in the city that are suitable for development further development into additional family homes . I thinll this is a huge j ;! piece of property - I 'm not sure what the measurements are but it ' S ,; almost a block square and I know Clifford Northrup and Edward Austen - they are very honorable people - I think the Norton Electric would ' ii jibe a very fine operation , a very clean operation I am concerned ; ii ; about the remaining property. What will happen to the parking lot ; (i ; for instance the parking lot is , I believe , larger than the par cel of land that the property sits on it is a tremendously large ; I parking lot. I recall deliberations of this Board when a variance # !' I believe , was sought for a gas station a U-fill tem and after a �; i long deliberation the U-fill 'em station was forced to relocate toi lithe rear property line because they wanted to protect the residen ` tial quality of that neighborhood. So I' would hope that in your j� jdeliberatipns this evening that you take into consideration the !( I i 36 I ;; fact that it does abut three residential areas - it is a B-2a ]business use district which does not permit warehousing and I would i ' hope that if a variance is granted that there are enough restrictiojns Wand conditions placed upon the variance to protect the residential 11,auality of the neighborhood. I must say that I also live in a R-21 11area that has a mixture of - as a matter of fact what happened to (,Jake' s Red & White Store variance - has he asked to reappear? I! SECRETARY HOARD: It was postponed. j �'MR. SLATTERY: The old Gas Works on Court Street was abandoned or I ! left vacant for a short period of time and it rapidly deteriorated.; �i All the windows in the building were broken out - I would hope that, this doesn' t happen in this particular area - I hope it doesn' t 11{1remain vacant very long because it soon deteriorates and I think remain in the best interest of the community that we do something with i 1� the property. I know that there are probably some hardships in ] trying to obtain retail operations in that huge piece of property. ; jiMr. Northrup will use all but 10, 000 square feet but 10,000 squarei �Ifeet is a very large the remaining portion so I hope, I don' t ( mean to repeat myself, but I do hope that you would give consider- i flation to the fact that because it is situated in a residential are , �Ithat the people down in that area are concerned, they are worried ,! about what will happen in the future - I think that it is appropri t ate in the deliberations of this Board that in your consideration Of it �! the variance that perhaps you attach enough restrictions and conte j1ditions on the variance that will allow the operation of the con- ji jtracting business but not allow a proliferation of the types of i �ibusiness, that would be detrimental to the neighborhood. Thank you. iMR. WALSH: Don? Several people this evening have mentioned the (; question of what appears to me to be concern about the appearances ] on the outside of the building, putting aside the questions of i ]' flammability or outside storage as such, having to do with the i facade, landscaping and things of that order and ask for guide lin�s l! or guarantees about the appearances . I haven' t heard very many 1i 1specifics of either a proposal of any nature or much less one thatl, r. f =might be reasonably expected that can be enforced. What kinds of i j i i' i. - `� 37 i ii iI ;, guidelines specifically are we talking about in terms of landscapi g, �1painting, upkeep , paving , plowing, whatever are the concerns? I 'm �i +Ihearing general concerns about appearances but nothing specific on ! } which we can attach some . . . MR. SLATTERY: I must confess that I have not seen any details of it . . . I MR. WALSH: I have the same problem. i ,MR. SLATTERY: And it' s difficult to say - well , they voiced this `concern to me on the telephone at length, and I explained to them that the city was unable to go in on private property to spend any I city money. However, being a Civic Association - Northside Civic Association, it does seem appropriate that they would join in, per pahs, with Mr. Northrup in attempting to upgrade the landscaping . Perhaps the city could become involved in the areas that are peri 11pherial to the property. I can understand that perhaps trees coul The planted, shrubbery, there is a great deal that could be done I haven' t seen any particular plans for the area. One thing that is encouraging, and I heard this indicated tonight - is that the opera- tion, as conditioned - would be a 9 to 5 operation. That is encoui- i aging because the operation, as it is now is a 24 hour 7, was a 24 i hour operation. So, in my estimation, anyway,, that was much more detrimental to the quality of residential life in the neighborhood than a 9 to 5 operation - so that is encouraging. Another thing - I don' t believe they will require that type of airport lighting that is currently there. I 'm not sure what they have plans for, but I recall a great deal of discussion that came about when Woody' s wanted to put an illuminated sign out in front of their building Iand I think it was denied - eventually it appeared - I don't know chow it appeared, but eventually people But the le were concerned P about the illumination. I don' t believe that electrical contracting firm would require that type of illumination certainly not if the are going to operate from 9 to S. So in that sense of the word, I think it would be a cleaner operation and much better for the neighr borhood. I am concerned that if it is a hardship for these people and they can't find appropriate retail tenants that , if the property i �I 38 - jis left dormant for any period of time that it will rapidly decline. iso I hope that they can do something with the property but I do hope you will consider - and I don' t know exactly what the restric" ! tions might be or the conditions might be on a variance. I hope it iris not a blanket variance - that it will be a conditional variance.] i ;!Thank you. ;] CHAIRMAN AMAN: Anyone else wishing to speak? Yes . i ,jMRS. YARROW: My name is Ruth Yarrow, I live at 407 Hancock Street., '! I 'd like to speak briefly to three points, the first is that as I I }Iwent around asking neighbors to consider our petition I found it `!very easy for people to sign this they were concerned also about ! what would happen to that property. A few old people who couldn' t : understand what I was saying - didn't feel comfortable in signing ! t it . One business did not feel comfortable, but otherwise it was i lextremely easy - people were ready and willing to sign, Without my, (saying anything - eleven separate people mentioned to me that they ; !would like to see a laundramat over there. It seems to me that with ala little effort some retail business like that might well find a 1very good place, I would like to point out to those of you that 1don't have the petition in your hand that there were sixty-nine l� people that signed and could have gotten more if we had had time. These people are right withing - with just a few exceptions - they i dare all within one - one and one-half blocks of the property so f � ( there are a lot of people in that area, there are a lot of concerned i� !people there. The second point I would like to speak to is the lard- 1lscaping I was on the Planning Board in Matouchen, New Jersey before 1we moved here a year ago -t there, in our Ordinance , we had some r ljprovisions of green buffers between residential and industrial zones ]and some, T believe, business zones . It seems to me that , the comm i jjplete lack of trees along the Hancock Street side of the Great i ;,American - former Great American property is a real neglect. I I, ! know-that Planning & Development plans-. to put two northwa.y maples ;lin there soon but I think we could do better than that. There are hired cedars along the Third Street side - but again, when you stand ; in the project and look out through their windows you see a huge ! I 39 - ! expanse of parking lot and I think more could be done certainly on i ; that side, also. Finally, I had a third point but it has escaped me. Maybe it will come back. {!MS. COOPER: My name is Shirley Cooper and I am the chairpoerson j of the Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Service which we 've been busily ; (working in for the last four years in the redevelopment of the '!north and the south side area. Our community and government rela- I i ; tions committee, enthusiastically supports the north side resident i; join their efforts to negotiate appropriate use plan for the old Great 4, ` American site. The Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Service , as you ; know, is a multi-million dollar reinvestment program in our down ('. town residential neighborhood. The city has invested a lot of mon0y is fjand a lot of time also helping us in this project. So we all have '. !, a very deep concern about any changes of zoning in the area. We have '! been successful in our project because we have brought both public ! ! ,, and private interests together in a working partnership. We encourl-- mage the northside residents we are encouraged that Northside resi- ,Idents are suggesting a similar cooperative effort with the potenti4l 1� developers of the Great American site . This property will have a !major impact on the surrounding R-3 neighborhood which we are just ! beginning to get involved in as far as the rehab of residential 11housing is concerned. It is of utmost importance for the quality Of i , life in the Northside that the use and development of this large Great American parcel be sensitively planned and controlled, In exchange for the privilege of more intensive commercial use in an i ; area not zoned to allow such use, it is only fair that the potential ;; purchasers of the Great American property should work out a specific I! i ,, use proposal We would be very much opposed to any- changes in any l ;! variance that isn't an improvement . There is nothing to be gained ';by ; simply changing the zoning if it is not an 'improvement in the area.' ;; Accordingly, we strongly recommend that the Board of Zoning Appeal$ ,1� defer action on this appeal for 30 days, during which. time neighbor_ j ; hood representatives, planning staff, and the appellants will meet ) to work out a specific proposal which will in the long run be '' beneficial to the entire community. We would be very much opposed it ii - 40 - pito any changes in any variance that isn't an improvement. There is ;nothing to be gained by simply changing the zoning if it is not an ! improvement in the area. Now I 've heard Mr. Hines mention all of the retail businesses in the area. Well what he neglected to mention acre all the houses in the area. The people are very much concerned witch their homes in that area as they are in any place else, and that thley lare beginning to become readily involved with our Ithaca Neighborh hood Association , they have been coming in and we 've been working I with them on a house to house basis to improve the area so it sort of stands to reason that if there is going to be improvement in- the 1housing stock in the area there should be also in the commercial use. Now I've spoken to a lot of people , particularly on the south side ( because of the fact that they don't live on the north side and asked I them what is their opinion of this area being used as Norton Electr' c propop ro oses'? Now none of them are directly o i posed to Mr. Northrup or ses? p � ,what he proposes to do but every one of them without exception ex- I (!pressed concern about what would happen to that great big parking lot. Anybody can who has been anywhere's near that end of the to lknows' that right now it is pretty much. of a blighting situation that i iII don' t think that it's asking too much to do a little further de- 1 velopment to the exterior as well as to the parking lot area. Any ,i I one who lives in the pro)ect across the street -, it must be a prett� dismal site to be looking at so, if you are going to change the var� ,ance, it has to be an improvement , not just as a change , as far as I I I (�e are concerned and you ask what could the residents• do to help Mr, Northrup. There is plenty that they could do to help Mr. Northrup. It has always been my opinion that that particular area was a very high crime area. There is plenty they could do. If the neighbors like you, they like the business the businessman - they will watch , is property for him and just like they will watch each other' s homes . But if there is a lot of animosity amongst them they could care less i hat happens to your property. There is plenty that we can both do I � o help each other and I think it is very important that he take into consideration the neighbors concerns about how the property I I ill look. i it 41 - i ! MR. ANGELL: Is there anything specifically that you can do to help jMr. Northrup in your position? i !;MS. COOPER: That' s what I said we can specifically help him as far Li ,,, as expressing our opinions on how we would like the property to lod,k how what kind of businesses we would like that to my way of thinking i� is helping him. We could help him in a number of ways like I said ij {before one hand helps the other one looks out for the other. We i 1,can't help him dollar wise if that is what you are referring to. MR. ANGELL: Well that is exactly what I am asking. 11 !IMS. COOPER: But we can help him public relation wise which is more i� 11important to me than the almighty dollar. ;SMS. CUMMINGS: My name is Susan Cummings and I live at 214 Fayette ; ,Street and I am the president of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Servide i ":and I had a lot of set things that I was going to say but there seems ito have been a question posed to Shirley, I think maybe needs some ; i� ;;answering. You are asking what can we do to help Norton Electric �I land Mr. Northrup. Now ITll give you some suggestions of some things 1i j fiwe can do but first of all let me suggest that aren' t we putting i lthis question backward? It should be what can Norton Electric do I; Ito merit the privilege of having a zoning variance accorded them? It is the responsibility of the appellant to prove that their use Of the property will in no way be detrimental to the neighborhood. Now lyou are dealing with a neighborhood where you say what can people do , dollar wise. The very reason Neighborhood Housing Service is in it I ,,that neighborhood is because its a poorrrrrr neighborhood, We've l�got a lot of people who cant even afford geraniums for their front' porches. We have the highest percentage of elderly in the city 142a of the city's elderly live in the city, 42% of the city's 'I 'elderly live in the city and that ' s not counting the folks who live) I iin any of the elderly housing projects. And those people are poor. i 'MR. GAINEY, Excuse me, excuse me. These figures you are throwing I ,are you talking this area or the whole city? jMS. CUMMINGS; I am talking the target area which is the city' s CD ;target area bounded by route 13 up Cayuga Street and down Fall ;Creek. .i IMR. GAINEY: Yes , but we are talking about an area right here that i li I i i� j - 42 i is within a 200 yards . I 'm not interested in the Fall Creek right ! know - that' s not involved in this . INS. CUMMINGS: I know this doesn' t go up to Fall Creek, as a matte> H of fact , this goes to Cascadilla Creek. Alright, we are talking labout an area represented by the northside Civic Association. What i ; Shirley suggested was that good will and cooperation can produce more than the small dollar amount that we could possibly contribut6 �lWe have been very successful in NHS because we have had partnership' relationships with local business community, the banking community ! and city government. We have had conversations on this topic with ! �Icity officials. There is some indication that there may well be ! landscaping possibilities that could be brought into this private � i ;;enterprise situation. Those possibilities are available in cooperry !'lative efforts with neighborhood residents . What I had wanted to jl. 11ask for most specially was a thirty day delay on this variance de- I cision. I would ask that a thirty day delay or rather that this ii faction be postponed for thirty days in which time a specific site I ' 'plan, to answer the questions of specificity be drawn up which woulld include shrubbery, where will shrubbery go, how much will it cost, ; ilwhere can it possibly come from, what in return can be granted for 4!shrubbery what sort of jobs are available in the neighborhood. i� =.1Alright what will the outside of the building look like what will ift lbe painted with, when will it be painted who will monitor that is i! ;!that possible to monitor these are things that I don' t think we cant H I !answer tonight. This is a new approach to granting a variance having iIthe residents civic organizations involved in it, I think it meritls I1thirty day delay set down a list of specific proposals determine juist it Iwha;t can be accomplished how it can be monitored how it can be im- 1plemented what resources the city can contribute what resources the; `'residents contribute and what resources private business is willing' � I ';to invest in this area. So accordingly I would ask you to delay for I 1'thirty days return this to Planning staff where a meeting would be j ;I �iset up between Planning staff the community residents and the de- I'velopers and then at the end of thirty days, there would be a specific 1plan for you to respond to a map which shows exactly what will happen f 1! i - 43 - exactly where landscaping will go and how it will be implemented 1you' ll have something specific to deal with instead of generalities which we have to deal with right now. ' MR. ANGELL: What happens if you put such financial obligations on Mr. Northrup or Norton Electric, what it is , that he can't possibly meet it and he can't buy the property. The property lies fallow and what happens then? IMS. CUMMINGS: I think what we are suggesting all of us have been ( suggesting is we would like to see the project work. We would not I like to create an unworkable situation. Now you are either creating i one that is unworkable that might be unworkable in the long run if you created a property which had a maintenance problem or something i like that crime that sort of thing I am suggesting that if you use the resources of the city' s planning staff that you would be able to work out and I am talking about being very realistic making economic sense making this plan work because that is part of making a businelss enterprise work we are not talking about establishing expensive re-1 Istrictions I think that all you are talking about in terms if you ire talking about extra expense that the neighbors are actually asking ! for they are talking about paint and they are talking about plantinIgs and T have suggested there may be resources available for this sort of landscaping effort but it is something which needs to be worked out it is not something you can deal with tonight and I don't think lany-one' s goal is to create a vacant unsaleable building I think this is seen as an opportunity a neat opportunity to make this project wo rk.. MR. ANGELL: Well then you are saying that there are financial reso r- ces that can be granted to Mr. Northrup? MS. CUMMINGS: As we know certain community development resourses are flexible dealt with the concept of tree planting if there are two trees scheduled to go in there it is entirely possible that there may well be able to deal with more extensive plantings in that `strip between the sidewalk and the street but there may be other possibility which would have to be examined to figure out if it can work it is a suggestion I think these are suggestions which merit I I ii 44 - kscrutiny before you go ahead and just say to someone you should i ( landscape your building that helps no one . �jMR. WALSH: Ms. Cummings, are you in a position tonight to speak for �j iyour organization in offering your planning services and/or whatever contributions can be made in moneyor plantings or in kind effort? I IiP g MS. CUMMINGS: Our organization is not the organization which has acts I, f; Neighborhood Housing Service is a private non-private corporation we , are not the group which spends CD money and capital improvements i that comes through the city' s planning department . I am in no posi- i tion to speak for the planning department I am in a position to say 1that of course Neighborhood Housing' s services would be interested ) lin attending the meetings and seeing if there is anything that we can 1Ido to work out the project but I am suggesting that planning the floks in the planning department have the money (ha ha) , �! MR. WALSH; We both heard Mr. Slattery this evening say that the '( city can' t spend its money on private property. Now, I am fully in agreement with you that there is a great deal of value in good 1 will between residents of an area and the business located there . � I ,! Like other legislative bodies here we can't legislate good will. lWe've got to talk about some fairly specific items and if the city ', doesn't have the money or the resources to put that kind of i ! (unintell) I want to have some kind of assurance before we attempt �� to say stop for thirty days that there will be some kind of plan, � I ' perhaps some feasible arrangement that could be worked out in ! thirty, days rather than hold up somebody who has got , what is to him at least, a sufficient plan at the moment - I am not suggesting i one gray or the other that it is , IMS', CUMMINGS ; There is same apparently there is according to the j1, director of the comm unity development division there is some money ( available in third year small city money which could actually be �i fused on private property but it would be have to be in return for ii some sort of cooperative effort which would benefit the neighborho6d �� which would have to be something which could be worked out and nego- , tiated we've talked a lot of things that Norton Electric could do ililfor the neighborhood their jobs- can be created do those jobs go I� t I' 45 I Ii within the neighborhood that sort thing. Now as I say that is not: i ! my field that is not my area I had conversations with staff this i afternoon on it. SMR. WALSH: So your basic premises is that you would like to see some plan worked out? MS. CUNNINGS: My basic premises is that I would like to see a ( specific site plan brought here for approval and you may indeed find out at the end of 30 days that it is not possible to get monq from outside sources and then you would have a site plan that has been put together with the minimal amount of money available and j I i you would know what indeed you are going to approve or not approve: I iI think there is nothing to be lost from it. Planning Board heard ', I i ,; that it would indeed be quite likely and quite possible to have a ,!�, ' I thirty day delay in the legal arrangement that the purchase contini i ljigency that was our understanding of it okay. ' MR. WALSH: Thank you. CHAIRMAN AMAN: Anyone else wish to speak? IMS. MARTIN: I am Beverly Martin and I live at 205 Second Street. I i I' I have had the privilege of living there ever since I was born since I was born at 205 Second Street. My father was born at 312 , First Street. We had been therefore the opportunity to watch our } neighborhood go through a number of phases. I agree with what ! everybody has: said and what Bob Hines has said in terms of all of the rerouting of the to the route 13 taking the traffic a good I; Ideal of the traffic away from Hancock Street as a neighborhood resident Idon't see that as necessarily a bad thing. I am kind of having two kinds of feelings in terms of what more we could have done as a city to bring traffic had we wanted to do that up Third �(! Street and yet I have concerns about bringing more traffic up there' I ljbecause of the high density of youngsters living in the area of the housing development but if you do come up route 13 headed towards j jPurity Ice Cream which also started out on First Street , you' ll ;;note that particularly in the evening its very difficult to make a ;cut into Third Street. It's not a well lighted its not well designed for the traffic even to move off route 13 . I don't know �I II �I ii - 46 ' whether if anybody' s looked at that I 've not particularly done it. l I I 'm glad its someone Mr. Slattery had the opportunity to speak to the lighted sign of the Woody' s Paint Store because I had the oppot- tunity of sitting on this BZA when we were concerned about that light at the Woody' s paint store Martin Senour sign. One of the things that we found that I 've observed over the time and I have j been had the opportunity of serving in that neighborhood as both a teacher, a principal of a school , essentially my association with that neighborhood has lasted over twenty years and now I oper-I I ate from a different perspective somewhat different perspective at the Board of Education. But one of the things that I 've had oppor- tunity to note first hand, Mrs. Marcham as president and co-president of the Central School PTA and a number of other people who have I'worked with the school is that there has been both a reticence and perhaps lack of knowledge of how- to fight city hall as it were on the part of the neighbors there. We have had the opportunity of i shaving a very multi ethnic multi. cultural neighborhood and we recalll the times when Gus' s grocery store was Rolva''s grocery store we ' recall the north- side house which is now located at the GIAC when ilt was, sponsored by the social service league located where Martin' s gymnastic center was where it was the home of the hungarian social club.. We know that that club northside was the area where we learned � to say ay paison - you know we learned to eat thick pizza. We know that that was the neighborhood in which the Italians came over and helped my father lay the stairs . We know that this was a very I iexciting neighborhood. I also know that I have grown because of my �Ijob and the many kinds of things that I am in to be somewhat apart from the neighborhood although I recognize everyone particularly I the children of the neighborhood but something very exciting has been ;i +going on in the past several years and that is the INHS. I have beon I lucky enough to have been a part of that at the beginning and am I fortunate enough from time to time to serve on sub-committees. One f the things that the NHS is attempting to do is to build this ommunity spirit the sense of neighborhood the kind of thing that t�e inden Avenue, Mitchell Street conclave of six families is talking V i f; 47 - 1 about. We are trying to get that to grow again and we want to con, i , sider the Northrup-Austen as part of our neighbors but we know tooj , that neighbors have to work together. We know that we cannot affoid I jor in a sense as Susan Cummings pointed out, many of these people I� ,! cannot afford to put out the geraniums and I 'm a great one for wanting Ito see that cosmetic kind, of a thing but we do know that the people i Ilin the area have always wanted to work at neighbors as being neighbors and for that reason those. people down there, including myself, I h4te li Iit when people say those people, I just did that, have not been thq kind of people that run out and say hey look that sign showed up anyway. Give a little. Let people live let people try to make a jliving so when the trucks were coming in after Stoles Garage moved 1Ito Snyders they moved into Cutia's produce let ' em give a little I I !we are always just giving a little and little by little we watch that 1lerosion of the neighborhood and the loss- of the Petitos and all of , �i 1these other people who have mentioned. That's the kind of a thing ' I, for past history but in terms of the future no one tonight has spoXen Ito Northrup and Austen being in a very unique position they are ( going to be neighbors to themselves . They are not only going to ;move into something they are going to vacate something. We haven' t 'leven addressed what they are going to vacate. Does that mean that ! i fTayntons now will have a larger facility for moving their trucks , the City of Ithaca for moving their trucks in and out shipping around j ! that little alley, way around route 13. We don't know that we haven't addressed that. All we have had a chance to do because we �i were taken so unaware , I didn''t realize Great American was leaving , until I drove over there one Sunday afternoon and it was closed. f ,do feel, that I have purchased items at the Great American I have jpurchased goods at Panosians I have purchased goods at WWoodys I have �loperated as best as possible including the D & R Liquor Store with ' Hall of those commercial ventures that are within the neighborhood. i I !I lido support what my other neighbors; and people who have spoken for- � i,mally. Now I do not have any specifics: but I would have concerns �Ilike snow plow ;ng in the wintertime. Is all of the snow going to 1' be pushed out to the road where the kids you know play king of the I� � i ! i t i - 48 !I I j I Imountains on top of the snow piles and come down into the road mak cling it more hazardous for the people. Are there going to be limit�d � I Ilamount of curb cuts. And again, as I pointed out I am concerned a Ito what will happen to the property that is going to be vacated. Ilam glad to hear that the Mr. Norton and Austen do not plan to have , any flammable materials as best they know on their own property be- i cause we have had some spectacular fires in that area. I believe that the property that Austen and Northrup have now was made vacant � by a fire that was there not too long ago and many of us remember t1he !spectacular fire of the A & P store. We do not want our youngsters i ,or any adults or any other citizenry in Ithaca to be unnecessarily ! '`exposed to any hazards therefore I support my neighbors and my friends lin requesting. a one month delay in making a judgment on this , we doI f 1not want to cause any unnecessary hardship on these good people how ever we have not been prevy to the information of Mr. Northrup and �r. Hope that that property was for sale we have not sat on the Board ! i of the 'LMCA to know- that the YMCA would not be considering that as ,I viable laternative for its new facility if it is to be a new faci i.t.y I io we don' t have that information that Mr. Hines does have. We ares sking for a month and we do hope that some good of it will come fob i �a11 of us . couple IrR. WILCOX; Mr. Chairman, I would like to have a / of questions ; Ir j*nswered if I can. First of all , why isn' t this planning taking If lace earlier in the process? I bring this up because we have some- ne from Council here tonight and I also want to ask you to tell usl ��f the appellants had the opportunity and had the communications w i! j ith the Building Department and with the Planning Department to xpect that they should come up with more details about their plans nd then I would like to find out from the appellant if a thirty da 4elay is going to be detrimental to their plans but the thing that ! his Citizen' s board may want to ask in executive session tonight is! a by isn' t there some mechanism in our city government either through ouncil or some other way to see to it that our Planning Department las the appellant come to this meeting with a detailed plan, Because i, don' t think it is our role to decide all these nuances about the !I I' !I I - 49 neighborhood. You are going to have a list a mile long I 'm afraid` i f of conditions, and I don' t think that ' s our job as a citizen board I so I would just like to get that on the record publicly. I think that either the Building Commissioner or the Planning Department s40ulc iin some way, respond and communicate much better to the citizens I who pay taxes in this town and it seems to be a big secret how you !I get a zoning variance in this town. I think most citizens don' t understand it and they should be told, they should be educated ands then when they come to this meeting they should have a detailed i plan because this is a big project and its one of the first and I think we should maybe nail this one while we have the chance to get the procedures correct. MR. HINES ; There' s a question I 'm not sure Bill that it is unique , The calendar clock situation was somewhat similar a large unused structure, although I think that may have been a little more closel nit neighborhood but directing my attention to your question about ! i he plan, we did present what we thought was a detailed plan. We ad proposed, and I left on the table, which is the same diagram at is stuck on the board back there drawings by Vic Bagnardi orton' s plan to use approximately half the space and try to seek ! I tenants for the other. I 've not got the permission of my client to eveal the perspective purchase price but it' s hundreds of thousand ) If dollars we are tlaking about here in terms of a purchase price -or this property. If the excess space isn't if there is no feas ' - ,1e economic use for the excess space it becomes a real burden to I urchase this property so they are not objecting to retail - what hey are saying, in our specific proposal , which we thought was pecific, we would like the opportunity to seek any tenant consiste t th uses similar to ours , Hopefully we might find retail tenants ut it doesn't seem realistic. We are the first buyers of this roperty in five years of seeking a use for it. We have a contractu 1 bligation arranged with the owners of the property, which expires don't get approval tonight. I don' t know whether we will get an tension, we don't control that, WILCOX; But wouldn't your client rather have amore comprehensi e I f 50 - i ! i! plan? One that has been worked out with the Planning Department? �fMR. HINES: Let me address myself to that. I Ii MR. WILCOX: Or the Neighborhood Housing Services - before you como I j! here and maybe get stuck? i' MR. HINES: I hope we are not going to get stuck because this isn' 11the first time I 've appeared before this particular board but I 've i , been doing this for twenty-two years. We thought we had a specifiq plan. The Planning staff reviewed this matter and never talked to ! � I ,! Cliff Northrup never talked with Ed Austen and never talked to me jiand rejected it. Why they rejected it I don' t know but when we got; Tito the Planning Board meeting last week, we learned as an aside i 1Ifrom the chairman that the Planning staff had recommended rejectio . !! We don't know why. And I said at that time when Mr. Yarrow presented !i jjthe petition, all the things on the petition are fine , we didn' t helve '' I �i jany strenuous objection who can possibly object to the things that f Beverly Martin addressed and Patricia Cummings and the rest, we ce4- tainly don' t want to run the neighborhood down, we don' t want it to jdeteriorate , but we think this use is an improvement over the Victry. i' ! It's an anomaly in the zoning law that we should be here . We thinl i liwe are improving - not extending a bad use but we are changing andi ,! improving. And by the way, there are a couple of people who wanted i jtheir names off the petition and there is a neighbor here who thinls i lit is a good idea and I 've got a letter from another neighbor so tYere ' isn't unanimity about a specific thing, I think all of us are liagreed that we want the neighborhood improved but in any event , wed get to the Planning Board, now there is a lot of discussion at the ' , Planning Board, That was a week ago. I don' t know that there was ' i f' any staff there that night, I think there was - somebody was sick but it doesn' t make any difference they certainly were aware that 11there was a meeting. Now they have had a whole week - this Planning staff that we pay a lot of money for and I used to sit on the Coun I cil and spend money and I used to sit on this Board. They have not (i j; approached Mr. Northrup, Mr. Austen, me or anybody else with respect 'ito this application to find out what plans they might impose. Now; �! we appreciate that the neighbors want an improved cosmetic appear- i i ance. We appreciate that there has to be cooperation and we want ;i. I - 51 - i� i' lIto cooperate - who cooperated this morning when someone stole Cliff Z Northrup' s truck? Those are the sorts of things - neighborhoods ,f ! grow as a unit or they decline as a unit - we think that it will ti '; grow with this kind of a use but , in any event , I agree, Bill , I I Idon' t want to come here tonight and get shot down because there aro ! some defects that we have in our plans, where I as an attorney II I failed, but I can tell you right now, no one from the City has askod �lus or contributed anything or sought our advice. Cliff and Mr. j Yarrow have talked together and I 've known Cliff for a long time io in another context besides this r he is an honorable person and an ! honest man and he is spending a lot of money on this thing and he ! wants this property improved and I don't think he is going to do anything inconsistent and any consistent logical restrictions you I impose will be welcome. 1 I CHAIRMAN AMAN: Mr. Hines, that is the point I want to get to. 11we've spent a good deal of time on this case here tonight and it 11seems to me one of the values that a hearing like this has is that I I there is neighborhood input and communication and it goes both way . i Based on the kinds of specifics you've heard from the neighborhood! �Itonight, could you comment on them as to whether . . . �JMR. HINES: Certainly and I appreciate it and my anxiety is only precipitated by the fact that I went through this last week. We I1have said -- I don' t have the list in front of me there is going j to be no outside storage, there is going to be no combustible 1� materials - we are going to select our tenants carefully, although! we are not excited about having a condition pressing at the sign- �+ in of the lease of their approval, we certainly aren' t going to g P � I) seek anybody we think would be objectionable . But in any event i that is the one thing we aren't too excited about. We are going to engage in some cosmetic activities . . . i II CHAIRMAN AMAN Can you specify what is going to be done` MR. HINES: Well it ' s got to be painted. Now, Mr. Northrup is i { the one who is spending the money, I don't know when he is going to do these things. The Victory Market put trees down there and they were destroyed. The fact of the matter is that they want to ii i Ii �� I Io I i 52 - , engage in activities which will make this more attractive - now that i � ofis very subjective - we are not the ones that originated the idea j - - you know these kind of things but it seems to me and I su - 1ff Y g g 1gested last week to Susan Cummings at the Board - there is a large . expanse of a parking lot - we aren't making any application or sug- 1 �jgestion that we are going to use the parking lot for any structure or use. It' s the building god knows what ' s going to happen to the parking lot other than we will try to keep it clean, keep Ijbroken bottles off it, try to keep vandals from racing back and forth and using it as a drag strip. And frankly, if this Victory Market is in the process of moving out - I don' t know R it would seem logical that they extend our time, but I haven't any control over that. Let' s assume they don't -- they move out and this is vacant - it won't take very long for this thing to become almost completely unmarketable. What you want from us right now, is a promise that we will do certain things. I don't think there is an problem in promising, generally, that we will do certain things . i ` don't think there is any problem specifically the people are here that have that capability. Right now they have committed a lot of money - if this thing goes through - to buying this and restoring lthe interior of it and restoring the exterior cosmetically. IMR. WILCOX: Could I ask you specifically, is there a problem with a thirty day delay? MR. HINES: Yes. Well there is a problem with us because we don' t have a contract. MR. WILCOX: You know, keeping in mind now that this is a new approach in a sense. I MR. GAINEY: You know, I find it hard to believe that thirty days is going to kill you. It's been on the market for five years and nobody' s been interested. MR. WILCOX: And your clients - now wait a minute . . . I MR. HINES: Let me just say this. I 'm not somehow or other it seems to me that what you've got to understand - we are contract ibuyers. The contingency in the contract is that we get permission to use this. Now Mr. McVey, the owner the representative from �I II I I I _ 53 _ i ; from Dunco Realty, can or can not extend this to us. Okay, Mr. i Gainey, I - logic would say that there isn' t another buyer sitting it !lin the back room waiting but what I am saying to you is that we arO i ; ready to go and everything is set to go and hopefully it can go . '' I don' t know - what my point is what is going to happen in thirty days? Where has the Planning staff been for the last two weeks? ( MR. WILCOX: Let me finish - could I put in something? i `JMR. HINES; You can finish anything you want to - you are the Boar., , ,II 'm just here to try to answer questions . MR. WILCOX: The question I tried to frame before I was interrupted. - „ I want to know specifically if thirty days delay will hurt you ands maybe you can cite reasons why . . . ( MR. HINES: I' ll answer the question, yes . i! l j! MR. WILCOX: The other thing is , have you looked at it in the , lighl I I +, that that thirty days gives you an opportunity to a) work with thel 11Planning Board, b) work with other agencies and 3) most important !Iwork with. the neighborhood. That may be the shortest thirty days I you every had. If you come up with a viable program that gives yo +{ input from the neighborhood and makes it a successful project . Fob (; example, you have already had some input about a laundramat. Maybe (! you never thought of it , maybe you did think of it but the point �! is the neighborhood is interested in your welfare, and you should be interested . . . so I'm asking the rhetorical question - or it ' s ' !lnot rhetorical , 'it ' s specific, if in that light, maybe a thirty dad ; delay is not that bad as long as you think that you are not going ; to be treated by a gestapo Planning Department , that they are going s ' to be reasonable people and try and help you, That ' s all I wanted ', to bring up. I° MR. HINES; Well , to answer your question, yes, it would be harmful n and detrimental to the project. Secondly, where has the Planning I' staff been for the past two weeks , where have the neighbors - we r i shave tried to communicate with the neighbors - we have had no input i from the professional staff of the city. Idon' t know why we are i 11 singled out for a unique case I don't know what 's - we hope we �I '! are doing something positive and helpful to the community. I it �I iI !I 54 I � MR. WALSH: Putting aside for a moment the question of a thirty :! day delay, or the possibility of it, can I ask you about certain I l� specific concerns which have been aired in terms of the exterior i �lappearance basically of the property. You may or may not be in a �Iposition to answer yes or no on any or all of them. Let me take them anyway. There was concern about the area of illumination, Ilcharacterized as airport in nature . Would there be any objection I I ;Ion the part of your clients , as far as you know, to eliminating thl ! I ! airport type overhead illumination of the parking area? �iMR. HINES: I doubt there would be any objection. It would be cheaper to get rid of it. ` MR. WALSH: Would there be any objection as far as you know to !, limiting access to the parking area by means of imposing certain j� specific points of egress and ingress by means of curb cuts? IMR. HINES: Probably not since we don' t dpeend on retail customers ! Ii There again, if you are going to ask - you are asking in one sense ! i. Iyou want retail customers and then you are going to restrict jaccess but since we don' t intend to and logically probably can'ti - it certainly is no objection to do that but you can't put a retail I! client down there and tell him he can' t get in and out. i! 11 MR. WALSH; I would hope not to but . . . I I MR, HINES: But there is no objection. ji MR. WALSH; Would there be any objection as far as you know to I either now or in the definitely foreseeable future , which is to sa some specific period, reducing the actual area of parking available i now? It seems one of the concerns of the people in the neighborhopd is that vast expanse of tarmack that exists now, accumulating, as �i you suggest , broken bottles and other things? if MR. HINES; No, I don' t know what alternate uses we suggest the I Planning Board if the Farmers Market wanted to go there or other i community activities but as far as blocking it off so that nobody' Ij could park there it certainly wouldn't be detrimental to Norton or its prospective tenants because they certainly aren't going to ! use one hundred and fifty spaces . is MR. WALSH: I was thinking ultimately that some of it might be torn i I( ( j - 55 - If I I�up and replaced by greenery or just lawn. SMR, HINES: Well , it ' s possible but I haven't any authority to com- I ,(mit them to any long term plan like that. I don't see any objection f� into blocking off certain areas sothey are not accessible to vehicul r traffic. MR. WALSH: With regard to the possibility of the planting of a i I i green belt of some nature around the perimeter of the property ands with full knowledge that planting trees and shrubs can be expensiv� and Mr. Northrup, I believe indicated some reluctance to commit ( himself to specific plans at this point , would there be any partic - lar objection to permitting to the concept of a green belt being planted around the front of the . . . MR. HINES : This is on Hancock and Third? MR. WALSH: Yes sir. MR. HINES : Because you've got the building on the other . . . I canIt ` find any objection to cosmetic improvement such as that and the co f, cept of it but if you are talking about $10,000 worth of trees - it 's not feasible at the present time . The problem with all of th se I� ideas is that they have to be translated into something which we can say we can afford to do or we can't afford to do it for a year or we can phase it in slowly. There are some trees , as I think Beverly or somebody pointed out - along Third Street which dont ' d� very much. I don't think - and as I said last week, and I really mean it whether it sounds that way or not , I don't think there i any, thing of concern to the neighbors that isn' t accepted and shar d by Cliff Northrup and Ed Austen, And we they are dedicated to living here in this community and raising their kids and doing i reasonable things. What bothered me , and I''m sorry if Ilost my, 1composure =- one has never known that I ever did that before - it I ( seems° to me that i.f there are constructive legitimate professional ) suggestions that we would have been more than happy to hear them a t, atncouple of weeks ago and we want to hear them from the neighbors bu c u e it is kind o hard you know we are not going this �u t r f y g g to close this transaction Wednesday it 's quite obvious to me rig t now, which means we have to -7 I don't know- what is going to happen - i I i - 56 - I �j I don' t control that - but the answer to your question is certainly ! � we are amenable to that - anything that you want to impose that' s reasonably consistent with some time frame - I mean we can' t do it as a condition precedent to operating Norton Electric. ' MR. WALSH: One more specific, if I may. The question of exterior ! ! painting of the building. Would there be an objection to conditioi- 1, ing the variance on a program of painting the exterior of the buil4- I � ing within a given period of say six months or nine months of ac- quisition or something on that order? MR. HINES: Well , you can't paint in the winter and I don' t know - 1 ! Cliff is back there I don' t know what your plans are - or Ed ! Austen, or somebody you can' t put paint on, I don' t think until i when it falls below 50 - but I don' t know when . i MR. GAINEY: You won' t be able to paint now before late May - the I exterior of the building. {;MR. HINES: Cliff, you do plan to paint the outside , I assume of 1, I I I some kind? i I IIMR. NORTHRUP: I 'd just like to inject one thought here. I under- Istand the people . . � . SECRETARY HOARD: Cliff, could you come forward so this can get on !the tape? i � MR, NORTHRUP: On this planting and this type of landscaping - it scan go two ways - being a home owner with a large lawn and knowing i ! what the upkeep on a large lawn is , you can landscape , you can put i ( shrubbery in - you can do all types of things. You can paint the i I building 50% of the people will like the color, 50% won't like the !color, The landscaping can be very expensive but if you don' t keep', ,I lit up, it' s worthless. The shrubs in five years can be nothing butj ( large hedges untrimmed. The beauty of anything is the beholder. To lime a nicely mowed lawn out front and a swept blacktop driveway - I 1 i there is nothing wrong with it if it' s kept up that way. So when'; !you are talking about doing these things R it is only the effort yoµ 1,put into them after you do them that makes it worthwhile. I cannot! I see at this time , going in there and putting shrubbery around that j (place. It takes many, many man hours to keep it up. But to have a' I (� I i' i� 57 - i ; green lawn and keep that mowed, pick the papers up, pick the botti4s i ! up - don't mow over the papers and make many small pieces of paper ' - ! these are the things that can make that property desirable. IT"S 1 'i JUST LIKE THESE HOMES _ THE HOMES WE ARE BUILDING AROUND. They ar �Inot mansions but they are kept up and they are nice. I think one I goes with the other. I think these are the things you have to loop Iat. I understand the people wanting us to shrub and do these things but sometimes it just doesn' t work out that way. AS far as what w� Aare going to do with the face of the building it depends on where, I Norton Electric locates . If you locate on the north end of the 1 i building, we 've got to cut a doorway in we 've got to cut a glass ; doorway in.. We ' ll have some kind of an overhang over it. We ' ll I f� do these things as we go along but we do need this variance to mov� our operation in there and to move EC Electric. Under the zoning J that is already there I could put an all night bar in there. We �Idon't want that in that neighborhood. There are so many things Ilthat we could do under the variance that we are asking for that would �ib.e much better for that neighborhood than what we can do under B-2 I fI think these are some thoughts that should be given to you. i CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you. One more comment? Yes sir. MR. RAQIB: I 'm new here. My name is Malik Raqib - new resident td the City of Ithaca only one year. I live at 106 Second Street . iI I came here for a reason. I , too , was running away from an industrial I I jungle Buffalo, of course PCB' s adjacent to love canal , etc . , i industrial parks and all the other kind of things that is supposed ; to bring about economic growth. But what about human growth? I I ' think what we 're talking about in our community is growth for our i ' children. T'm a new member of this community y and I would like to Ilsee my little five year old come up in a decent community. I, too , i am planning an investment in that community, hoping in the near I future to buy. I like this town I really like it. It ' s giving e a chance to really slow down to be a little less aggressive, to ;': walk down the street safely at night. I can walk home in the w I, middle of the night and feel safe , nobody is going to knock me in ,i 11the head. Nobody is going to do anything to harm me or my family. ] �1 i S8 'j ' I feel good being here but I also feel that I owe something to thi ! community - the community I live in. I owe a lot to it because it ' ' I � is giving me a new home and if I 'm going to be part of that home ( I 'd like to see its growth be for my children, a very, very whole- some growth - not a new industrial park as I 've seen. I 've seen ( enough of them. I 'm in my 50 ' s and I 've seen a wonderful communit such as the north side deteriorate. A very, very beautiful commun' ty I saw four of them, in fact, in Buffalo. Sure they are now ghetto and they are now wasteland - now burned out homes and everything else I 've saw that - I 've been running for a long time the last twenty l years and I 've decided to settle down. I 've brought my whole family eight rooms of furniture and five of us came. We came to seek a new future a new beginning for our children. I don' t know how long II 'm going to be here - don' t know if I ' ll ever see my kid arrive Iat twenty but I 'm a part of that community and I 'm not saying - I 'm not asking for Norton Electric not to appear there because they are part of the growth of the community, they' ll add to the community - Tadd dimension r add a whole lot to that community - but let us be a Ipart of it since they say they want to be neighbors , let us share in that neighborhood process, that 's all we are asking for. We are not asking for no more and no less than people in Cayuga Heights, over their on Giles Street, south hill or east hill . We are not asking for any less. Maybe our skins may be black over there or maybe we might be poor but we are still people and we are trying to Iget the best of our lives - best for our children and let us parti- cipate in that that is all we are asking here. Thank you. f SECRETARY HOARD: We have a petition here that no one has read into the record so I ' ll read parts of it at least : "To The Ithaca Board f planning and Development and The Ithaca Board of Zoning Appeals . We, the residents in the neighborhood of the old Great American at hird Avenue and Hancock Street wish to protest the granting of a Iblanket permission to use this property for warehousing and contrac - tors, We are committed to maintaining and rehabilitating the north de nei.ghb�orhood as a residential area. Conversion of retail roperty into warehousing property poses a potential threat to the i i' - 59 - il l I ilresidential character of the neighborhood. The property is sur- 1! rounded on three sides of R-3 residential zones . We can forsee th !! following possible problems : 1) Numberous idling trucks causing aJr .; and noise pollution; 2) Messy outdoor storage in the parking lot 11with a fence around it causing an industrial invasion of this resi� � dential area; 3) Deterioration of the exterior of the building to Ithe appearance of a warehouse ; 4) Possible storage of inflammable , '' polluting or stinking materials. We therefore urge that : 1) Every ' effort be made to find retail tenants for the propert ; 2) If B-4 .i type (warehousing) occupants are the only ones available they be Il granted special limited permission on a case by case basis with suitable guarantees to protect the residential nature of the neighrl borhood; a) Extensive landscaping be done to buffer the property from the surrounding residential neighborhood; b) Outside storage I ' 11 be prohibited; c) The building be painted and maintained at the jlevel of a retail store and 3) No permission for a B-4 use (ware- housing) warehousing) be granted until these points are negotiated with the it residents in the neighborhood." And that is signed by twenty three iipeople in the neighborhood. MR. FERRISS: Itis 69. 11 SECRETARY HOARD: Well this has twenty-three this is what was ,I i; submitted by Alderman Saccucci. That' s all we have. MR. WALSH: They have submitted some others , Tom. SECRETARY HOARD: Okay, well this one . . . MR. WALSH: They have the petition up to sixty-nine . i i SECRETARY HOARD: Okay. So we have sixty-nine. CHAIRMAN AMAN: We have the one. SECRETARY HOARD: Another thing I ' d like to comment on. Mr. Wilcox I it mentioned the staff assisting the Board of Zoning Appeals regul�- I !i tions specifically prohibit the Building Commissioner and Secretary �l of this Board from assisting in the preparation of the zoning case 1! because it would put the Board in an untenable position if they f4el that the staff has worked something out with the appellant and then it comes- to the Board and the Board turns it down. So that' s why , I, I could not advise the appellants except for the obvious things and !i i' Il I li I 60 - If If � I ' d also like to advise the neighbors that the Planning staff has I ' assisted in applications before and the Board has ruled against , those cases so my advice to an applicant is not to go to the Plan- ning Board necessarily because that does not always mean that' s the I !;way things are going to turn out. Generally it has to go through the review process first before things come out in public hearing i because the staff would be operating in a vacuum as much as I would!. I would have thought that warehousing would be preferable to retail' because my office gets more objections from neighbors about retail i uses than it does from warehousing uses . So that' s why, you know, �lyou don't want to depend on staff to advise applicants on these . It ! (needs to go through the public hearing process. That' s all I wanted aIto say. I �iCHAIRMAN AMAN; If there' s nothing further on this case, we' ll take', i it under advisement and call the next case. I i fI iI E �I ,i ii I i i I ' i I t 1 I li ii 61 BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS (i COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK I i, NOVEMBER 3 , 1980 EXECUTIVE SESSION �I APPEAL NO. 1326 : j� The Board considered the appeal of Clifford Northrup and Edward N.I, Austen for a use variance and an area variance under Section 30 . 2511, i Columns 2 and 13 to permit use of the property at 301-15 Third Street for an electrical contracting and wholesale business , and 11 the storage of bulk goods . The property is located in a B-2a j; (business) use district in which contracting and warehousing businesses are not permitted uses, and the property is deficient in one side yard. I MR. WALSH; I move that the Board grant the use and area variancesll, requested in appeal number 1326 limiting this approval to Norton II Electric and EC for sales and warehousing operations and that any li other non-conforming use of the property require an additional i! variance, and that the variance be conditioned as follows ; ! a) outside storage of any nature be prohibited; b) storage of material classified by the NFPA as high hazard be be prohibited; IIc) upon the removal , within six months from the day of conveyance' 'i of the property, of high intensity lighting in the parking area ; I! d) temporarily chain or block off two entrance-ways . The owner is to effectively limit the points of vehicular access to the iiproperty; one each on Hancock and Adams Streets - each point of (�i , access to be no more than two traffic lanes wide; I' e) there shall be no bulk loading and unloading into the building from the Second Street side of the building, 11MR, GAINER; I second the motion, �IVOTE: 6 Yes ; 0 No Granted with conditions . H FINDINGS OF FACT: I� 1. Economic hardship has been demonstrated by testimony that the p•remises could not sustain a business completely retail in it nature and by testimony that the property has been offered for. j I - 62 it 1` Appeal No. 1326 - executive session (continued) I sale for a period of at least five years with an eye to retail it it use but without attracting a buyer. is f I 2) The proposed use is likely to improve the property in that th Ii proposed uses would not be generators of substantial volumes of traffic, would be essentially non-noise producing and that Ii �i the normal hours of operation thereof will be limited to the hours of 8 : 00 A.M. to 5 : 00 P.M. The Board notes that there was substantial testimony by persons �I residing in the neighborhood indicating concern that the external ! �I appearance of the building and the property be improved. The Board believes that the imposition of specific requirements going] to, for example , landscaping, painting and the like , is , as a practical matter, beyond our powers in this case. However, in II view of the concern expressed by the neighbors , we would strongly] I� recommend that the owners consult with the Neighborhood Associatibn ' and attempt to agree on a mutually acceptable plan dealing with the appearance of the building and property. � I I f Ij I� I i i � I I �f I I , �! I i; �I - 63 - it BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK NOVEMBER 3, 1980 i i SECRETARY HOARD: The next case, Mr. Chairman, is appeal 1327 : Appeal of Don Robertson for an area variancq under Section 30. 25 , Columns 11 and 13 and Section 30. 49 to permit the addition of two ! j bedrooms to the second floor of the building at 606 Cascadilla Street. The property is li located in an R-3b use district and is de- ficient in minimum required front and side i yards. l I understand that the Planning Board held that over, although thel I applicant didn't know that . The next case is appeal number 1328 : I, i( Appeal of Elizabeth and C. Selvarajah for a ', ( use variance under Section 30. 25 , Column 2 i to permit conversion of the single--family dwelling at 101 Edgecliff Street to a mul- tiple dwelling. The property is located in an R-2a use district in which multiple ki dwellings are not a permitted use. fl I understand that that has been withdrawn. The next case then is ,, +� appeal number 1329: Appeal of Jerry Hersh for an area variance under Section 30. 25 , Columns 4 and 11 to peamii conversion of the property at 402 N. Cayuga '; i Street to medical offices. The property is located in an R=3a use district and is deficient in required off-street parking and minimum required front yards. i I I hope you don' t take offense becatise everybody is leaving. �I DR. HERSH: I 'm Jerry Hersh and I plan to renovate 402 N. Cayuga i! Street as a medical office building. In order to fulfill this ob-', I jective for the use of the building , in order to preserve the his+ toric and residential character of the neighborhood, I am applying for a variance in two areas. First is the setback. The house do$s f not meet the setback requirements in order to actually meet the regulations it would have to be moved. As a part of the DeWitt Historic District an application has been accepted in Washington and is now part of the National Registry Historically significants structures, The house has been sitting on its present location fpr over one hundred and fifty ears and is only one of five federal homes in .the district, Potential damage to the home if moved would .I j be an immense loss to the significance of the neighborhood as well as to the city. As far as parking, although the property is zone I - 64 I for medical office use - there is a requirement for nine parking i spaces . My plans indicate that there is ample room for four parking I` spaces. A variance is requested because I wish to keep 402 Northl I`. l Cayuga Street in character with the neighborhood. I am maintaining lawn and landscape space - I am presenting a more residential ap- j Ey pearance. In line with maintaining the neighborhood, there is amP�le i needed parking on both Cayuga and Court Streets and three spaces directly in front of the house. A city owned parking lot about a � block and one half away. MS. DE COMBRAY: Would you explain better the parking spaces? ARe' you saying that you would not build in these parking spaces that you have there now? jDR. HERSH: The way it sits now there is a garage where those four, I parking spaces are. I have a n there is a meeting with the Land- mark Ithaca to see if I can actually demolish that garage , I have had several architects take a look at it to see if it is historically 4 significant and apparently it is not and the - if the city agrees with that, then Ind be I 'd like to demolish that an that is what! I I would be the four parking spaces . MS. DE COMBRAY: And if you were not allowed and it was found pre- ferable not to tear it down, would you . . . i DR. HERSH: The - I have area now that would meet for seven spaces _ if I left the garage on but that would mean taking away many of the landscaped areas that are presently now there. MS. DE COMBRAY: How many clients do you usually see at a time? In other words would the seven parking spaces be required? i DR. HERSH: I think four - what the code sets up - is for the entire building and I only plan to use half of the building myself with the �I bottom floor. For my own practice I would need four required spaces . �I j MS. DE COMBRAY: And the other part of the building? DR. HERSH: The upper part would also be part of the medical a �I , medical use out of it - I am thinking about using half of the up- stairs as well and the other half would probably be rented out tq a - probably suitable for a psychologist, social worker, or a psychiatrist. I i !i i i i - 65 ii i {' MS. DE COMBRAY: So you would actually be making two medical units y y g � i{ out of it? ' I DR. HERSH: Right. MR. WALSH: Dr. Hersh, I understood you to say that your practice i i' would require approximately half the ground floor , is that correct? i DR, HERSH: No, the entire ground floor. it MR. WALSH: The entire ground floor. 1 Ij DR. HERSH: Right. �! MR. WALSH: So then you would have the possibility of a practice i {� of approximately full size upstairs then R of some nature not your own, necessarily? !1 f I DR. HERSH: Right , { MR, WALSH: Would it be your expectation that such a practice woul� require an equal number of parking spaces as that required by your own? f� I DR. HERSH;; It really depends. It would really depend on the firs 11 floor you' ll find that there is a second floor medical there is very limited uses that there can be. I think it probably would bei ij 11 5. more in keeping with low density practices lake, again, social wo4 I i more of the cQuns,eling type of practice rather than an active , ill{ I� I population that you would be seeing that many people will not be able to get up to the second floor. We couldn't make it a -family practice n we couldn' t make it a pediatrics , probably couldn't make it an internists office, It wouldn' t be a high volume type I of practice on a second floor. I; 'IMR. WALSH: How many persons would be employed in your practice, i itself? In other words, when you say you need four spaces for you { practice, how many of those would bepersons actually working withi� your practice? DR. HERSH There would be myself and two other people. j I� I 1( MR. WALSH: So that would leave you one space as to transient per- I I sons visiting the premises of the four? i IDR. HERSH: We I haven' t really decided what I am going to do 1 { with_ those spaces yet - whether , again, I am not sure I'd want to park - you know likewise if you have people coming in and there is i ' I i� 66 - no place to park, its going to be tough to get in. I think we mai 11 want to leave those and find other spaces or do something else with �( staff and myself, as far as where we would park. MR. WALSH: The building as it is presently constituted appears to f' +I have what is living type space on the third floor , is that correct? i DR. HERSH: No. The third floor is just an attic - it can be used for a - it is big enough for a fairly nice apartment up there . I ', would not put anything up there at this time. MR. WALSH: So it is specifically not contemplated that any part (� of the building will be used for residential purposes at this time? DR. HERSH: Right. �! I �i MR. WALSH: Is it conceivable that the second floor might be used !, (? i as residential property rather than a second medical practice? ij DR. HERSH: It' s conceivable, if, in fact , I don' t find anybody. I have had two offers to actually take the upstairs as a medical office and it would certainly be in my interest to actually use it as a medical office rather than residential. I certainly would like to keep away from using it as any residence. MR. WALSH: Have you had any objections, sir, to converting this Ipiece of property in the neighborhood to an office use? There has Ibeen some concern about the spread of offices from the downtown ( core northward. ( DR. HERSH: actually hive had just the opposite. I wrote about I i I� guess twenty letters out to neighbors and I 've had three letters ii �+ I received myself in favor, and I think when we went to the Plan i ping Board I had one neighbor that stayed for four hours to speak I ; in my behalf I haven' t heard any negative feed back. I CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any further questions? Thank you Doctor. Anyone here wishing to speak for the variance? (no one) Is there anyon6 here wishing to speak against or in opposition to the variance? j (no one) MS. DE COMBRAY I just had another question, if the barn cannot be torn down, then there would be no parking space or would there ',, I be two parking spaces? i (i DR. HERSH: There would be two and again I can use some of the i i i' l - 67 - I� grassed in area at this time to make parking area. Depends , again, iI on what you feel would be best . . . At this point , again, when we �! met the requirements forthe historical landmark preservation they ; II I suggest leaving things as they are and that is what I would like iko i �I do - in keeping with that - do as little as possible. Ij MR. WALSH: Doctor, is there a request pending as to the status of 1 I the garage? DR. HERSH. Yes, we' ll be meeting on the 13th and I have had seveial architects , again, give opinions as far as whether it' s - it was �} built in 1909 about twenty-nine years anter the main part of the I house. I don't think it is anything any historic significance } I. � I 'm optimistic that they would - you know allow me to tear that ! down. Thank you, CHAIRMAN AMAN: Thank you. I SECRETARY HOARD; We do have two letters that were sent to the Board. One from Mary E. Watt at 40S N. Cayuga: "To; Board of Planning $ Development and Board of Zoning Appeals . Re; 402 North i I, Cayuga Street Appeal 1329. To Whom It May Concern; I am in ;I favor of Dr. Hers-h. renovating the premises at 402 North Cayuga St ! as a medical building. To move the structure woujld be a great ;; h loss to the Dewitt Historical District. It has been my personal I experience, since we have a medical building next door, that the houses are maintained and continue to present a well kept resident• I tial appearance. It certainly better than the situation which; I j exists on the opposite side of the street slum landlords - - wh6 ii are interested only in the pecuinary reward to be gained, who do not take care of their property, and who rent to transients who have no interest in the appearance of the neighborhood. With the ; i li proximity of the public parking garage and metered spaces in the Ii ' immediate area, I would think the additional parking could be handled adequately. Yours truly, /s/ Mary E. Watt, 40S North Cayuga Streot. " it and "Board of Zoning Appeals , Sirs : As neighbors of property 402 I North Cayuga Street that requires a variance (# 1329) , we are hope I �! ful it will be granted as requested to Dr. Hersh. /s/ Wm. E. Gra " I ` CHAIRMAN AMAN: Okay, will you call the last case? iI I� j 68 - I !I i( BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS �( COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK it NOVEMBER 3, 1980 EXECUTIVE SESSION �! APPEAL NO. 1329 �I The Board considered the appeal of Jerry Hersh for an area vari- ance under Section 30. 259 Columns 4 and 11 to permit conversion of (� the property at 402 N. Cayuga Street to medical offices. The property is located in an R-3a use district and is deficient in (� required off street parking and minimum required front yards . CHAIRMAN AMAN; I move that the Board grant the area variance requested in appeal number 1329 conditioned upon the removal of the garage on the premises and the creation of four additional parking spaces. SIR. WALSH: I second the motion i s COTE; 6 Yes ; 0 No Granted with condition I) FINDINGS OF FACT: 1) Practical difficulties have been demonstrated as to set back I � p� requirements. i I 2) The remaining deficiency in parking is overcome by the exis- tence of off-street parking along Cayuga Street and the ample; parking available in a city owned parking lot within 22 block of the property. �I I c it i I; I I i� i; I) i j� i li II - 69 �l '! BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK it NOVEMBER 3, 1980 SECRETARY HOARD: The last case is appeal number 1330 : j; !� Appeal of Lansing Research Corporation for an area variance under Section 30. 25, Columns 7, 11 , 12 , 13 and 14 and Section 30. 49 to permit the enlargement of the non-conforming structure at 705 Willow Avenue , The property is located in an I-1 use district, has no i frontage on a public right-of-way and ; is deficient in required front, side and rear yards . IMR. MORRISON: My name is Richard Morrison, I 'm the attorney for I i Lansing Research. Development Corporation. This is involving proposal j; by the Corporation to add an addition to the front of this building ! which is shown on this survey. A reduced copy of this is attached! i Zito the application so you can refer to it. The proposed addition is I! I 1- approximately thirteen feet in width by one hundred feet long and ! the Corporation was denied a building permit for that. We appeared i before the Planning Board last week and secured their unanimous ap- I { proval for this project. The basic configuration of property show. .I lon this- survey the corporation bought it in 1966 - it's landlocked I we don't have am street frontage Isimply by definition. We sham ' a twenty foot right-of7way with Mix' s Auto Repair, Donahue-Halverson land other contiguous neighbors - that right-of-way. The only actual impact that this proposed addition would have would be on the i ' easterly property line - it would be somewhat closer to the easter�y property line than the existing building here. That easterly line ; Iin fact is the right-of-way or is a ditch belonging to LeHigh Valloy j ,! Railroad and is overgrown undeveloped trees and essentially doesn' t I ;;! impact the neighborhood at all. We still have access or fire equi�- i. (( ment would or whatever, to the rear of the building it doesn't ( affect the corporation' s parking facilities, Essentially it has Il very little impact on the use of the area other than to allow the i corporation to expand some of its inside space , Arthur Shull is i lihere tonight he is the president of the Corporation so perhaps !; you might want to direct questions to him as to the proposed useage , I I ii l it \ r - 70 - I' i ii Land so on, of the interior space. 1IMR. GAINEY: What is the additional space needed for? Will it be ii storage or manufacturing? MR. SHULL: Well the project started because we wanted to install an �Iautomatic cut off saw and this piece of equipment would be used to ' !: cut up long lengths of aluminum excursions . We had no space that Iwas sufficiently long and clear to put this in and we began to get : : the feeling that if we moved that wall out we would both get the j ( enclosed space that we needed and be able to insulate the walls of the building . It is a plan basically developed around that need to ff i '( house that particular piece of equipment. IMR. WALSH: Mr. Shull , with your proposed plan there is no problem : �Iwith. access of fire equipment or other safety . . . MR. SHULL: No there R the corner that gets closer to the property ) line, until thin year had two large willow trees on it but they both `! died this year and it' s unfortunate but - so it has never been used jfor access, in the past - physical block. We would hope if we can (lever find the Conrail people, to clean up the drainage ditch. We 'i Hare even willing to volunteer to do it but weave had a hard time I, I i ! f inding anybody I IIMR. WALSH; Good luck in finding them. .f jMR. SHULL; Who will admit to a responsibility for it . MR. WALSH: The rest of the nation is looking for them as well , !1 MR. SHULL: It' s really very strait forward, I mean, the major part r. �! of the zoning variance is of the long conforming elements - came I with the change in the zoning law in 1977 and we are sorry that we ' were non-conforming then but this is an area that was cut up by lroute 13 when it came through and that is just what this piece of 11 property was left with. MR. WILCOX: You are putting a second story on it or . . . ? l MR. SHULL: On the building? No, the building is already two 'i stories . Yes. The addition would be two stories as well . I MR, WILCOX0 Yes. i1 CHAIRMAN AMAN: Any further questions? I I !i I� !i i' I� f!; 71 - 1 I �! MR. SHULL: Here are pictures, landscaping. i; CHAIRMAN AMAN: It' s all included in your application in reduced form. Is there anyone else here wishing to speak on behalf or against this variance? (no one) Thank you very much. The Board i ,twill go into executive session. 'I BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS I� COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK f NOVEMBER 3 , 1980 �i EXECUTIVE SESSION APPEAL SSSrON APPEAL NO. 1330 : �IThe Board considered the appeal of Lansing Research Corporation r for an area variance under Section 30. 25 , Columns 7 , 11 , 12 13 andf 114 and Section 30. 49 to permit the enlargement of the non-conforming i structure at 705 Willow- Avenue. The property is located in an I-1 i ;fuse district, has no frontage on a public right,,of-way and is defi icient in required front , side and rear yards. �IMR. GAfiNEY T move that the Board grant the area variance requested in appeal number 1330. i �! MR. WILCOX: I second the motion. 11VOTE: 6 Yes; 0 No Granted �! FINDING OF FACT: �I1) The proposed addition would have no significant affect on the i I neighborhood. 2) A definite need has been shown by the appellant for additional , space. I I i I I I! it f II I I! I `i I �f !I f 72 - I ! II , BARBARA RUANE, DO CERTIFY that I took the minutes of the Board � of Zoning Appeals, City of Ithaca, New York in the matters of Appeals numbered 10-6-80, 1324 , 1326 , 1329 and 1330 on November 3 , i 11980 at City Hall , City of Ithaca, New York; that I have trans- i� I ijcribed same and the foregoing is a true copy of the transcript of i ! the minutes of the meeting and the Executive Session of the Board Ij llof Zoning Appeals, City of Ithaca and the whole thereof to the bes Iof my ability. I� li Barbara C. Ruane (� Recording Secretary i� ; Sworn to before me this i i I day of 1980 ii t i' Notary Public fix. J/'j018 ►I �l j i I I 1� ! � I I I i I i I I I� i I �I