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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1975-06-02 ii i p !i TABLE OF CONTENTS I I EC BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA CITY HALL, ITHACA, NEW YORK JUNE 2 , 1975 I� Page APPEAL 1072 Elizabeth Selvaraja 1 107 Harvard Place APPEAL 1072 Executive Session 8 APPEAL 1076 Anthony Albanese 9 102 Adams Street APPEAL 1076 Executive Session 30 APPEAL 1080 Myron Wasilchak 31 110 Hawthorne Place APPEAL 1080 Executive Session 42 APPEAL 1082 Iry Lewis 43 525 W. Seneca Street APPEAL 1082 Executive Session 55 iII APPEAL 1083 Robert Teeter 56 f �f 311- 315 Eddy Street APPEAL 1083 Executive Session 68 s i i ! I i B s I I i I I � I { i I i I s I� e i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA CITY HALL, ITHACA, NEW YORK JUNE 2, 1975 A regular meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals, City of Ithaca, was held in Common Council Chambers, City Hall, Ithaca, New York, on June 2, 1975. PRESENT: Peter Martin, Chairman C. Murray Van Marter Gregory Kasprzak Elva Holman John Bodine Edgar Gasteiger Edison Jones, Dep. Bldg. Comm. and Secretary Olga Potorti, Recording Secretary Chairman Martin opened the meeting listing members of the Board present. The Board operates under the provisions of the City Charter of the City of Ithaca and under the provisions of the Zoning Ordinances. The Board shall not be bound by strict rules of evidence in the conduct of the hearing, but the deter- mination shall be founded upon sufficient legal evidence to sustain the same. The Board requested that all participants identify themselves as to name and address and confine their discussions to the pertinent facts of the case under consideration Edison Jones announced the first case to be heard. APPEAL NO. 1072: Appeal of Elizabeth Selvaraja for an area variance to minimum lot size under Section 30.25, Column 6, at 107 Harvard Place in an R-2 District. Mr. John Nichols will present the case. j JOHN NICHOLS: I should clarify first that I am now the amner of that building. The closing was earlier than anticipated, and so, I imagine that the appeal should really be in my name and not that of the Selvarajas. Basically, -2- my desire is to add an apartment to the existing building. The idea is to maintain the building as primarily a single family residence with an auxiliary apartment, and this is to be for income purposes. The major problem is the size of the lot which is about 5,500 sq. ft. As I understand the present zoning regulations, the minimum lot size required for two dwelling units is 6,000 sq. ft. MR. MARTIN: The figures in the appeal were 5,036, is that correct? MR. NICHOLS: That is correct. ]R. MARTIN: So that you are asking for an area variance of roughly 1,000 sq. ft. MR. NICHOLS: Right. MR. MARTIN: Any questions? ]MR. GASTEIGER: I think he should develop. As I read this, it seemed as though there would be Some advantages, at least as you present it, I'd like to hear this developed. MR. NICHOLS: Well, in the actual specifics in the way I'm going to develop the property, the presen three-car garage which is on the property is f in very poor condition. My plan is to remove that structure and to replace it with a two- car garage. Also, the present back porch i which is on the building is in quite poor 1 -3- condition. That back porch must be removed i in order to permit the addition of the small I � Ming which will be used as the livingroom and diningroom of the apartment. This result in a small decrease in the actual lot coverage, so that there will be somewhat more open space in the back. My reason for doing this is to make a more pleasant back yard basically. MR. MARTIN: You recently acquired the property. You did so knowing full well what the Zoning Ordin- ance required of it? MR. NICHOLS: That is correct. MR. MARTIN: So that you bought in the hope that you could have the area variance to do that which you I wanted to do. i MR. NICHOLS: That's correct. Yes. MR. MARTIN: Further questions? MR. NICHOLS: May I also state that it is my understanding that the building next door at 109 Harvard i Place which belonged to the Cranches, present y has an apartment in it, as does, I believe, j on the other side of me. It's so marked, buts i whether or not it's presently being used that way, I don't know. I MRS. HOLMAN: Can you describe how the new garage will sit on the lot in relation to the wing. MR. NICHOLS: The new garage will be smaller in order to permit the wing to come out the rear of the i building. I believe you have the drawing in i i -4- front of you which shows the apartment wing coming out. I'm not sure whether the copies j you have show the garage or not. You see, the present garage sticks behind the present building almost this much. That's to be reduced to make a yard. Right now itb filled up with a garage. So the wing will come out this far, but the garage will be reduced 10 feet. Mt. GASTEIGER: This is new? MR. NICHOLS: This is new. Right. ]R. GASTEIGER: The living-dining area. Mt. NICHOLS: The living-dining area, right. And then on top of that will be the porch for the living- room of the house. Mt. GASTEIGER: So this is at basement level? Mt. NICHOLS: That is correct. The ground slips off quite steeply. Actually, more level is achieved about here from the basement and continues to fall back and then sort of levels out to the rear of the lot. M. GASTEIGER: This is the entrance to the new apartment? Mt. NICHOLS: That is correct. Yes. Mt. GASTEIGER: And then the entrance to the house is off the front porch. What is this? Mt. NICHOLS: That's a stairway down from the deck so that both units can use the back yard. Mt. GASTEIGER: So the single dwelling is a two-story? I -5- i MR. NICHOLS: That's correct. The reason that it becomes attractive to do so is because the basement has a very high ceiling. It's three feet clear of the rafters, and is quite dry because the ground slopes off so rapidly. MS. HOLMAN: Does denial of the variance of the dwelling present any difficulties to you? MR. NICHOLS: Well, it's less advantageous economically. I can survive, I imagine, but it will be tighter. M. MARTIN: Is there anything peculiar about your lot? From the application one gets the sense that i the smallness of this lot is shared by lots around it. MR. NICHOLS: Yes, in fact the houses on either side of me are quite a bit larger than my house. Although they occupy larger lots, I believe they cover substantially more of the lot area .than mine I does. Mine is kind of a pie shaped lot. C i Theirs are pie shaped but less so, and they are somewhat wider. MR. MARTIN: Are there other questions from members of i the Board? MR. VAN MARTER: I have a question in regard the parking, please. How much parking on the street can you provide? IR. NICHOLS: Well, there'll be two places in the garage I and then the driveway would in theory accom- j I modate two more, but the main intent is to i i -6- have two car parking. NR. VAN MARTER: Can you give me the dimensions of the frontage of the lot at the street please. MR. NICHOLS: I'll have to guess at 56 feet. I've forgotten the specifics. MR. VAN MARTER: Thank you. NR. MARTIN: Any further questions from members of the Board? GASTEIGER: I guess I don't have a very good feeling for the hardship here. It's true as I look at this that 'it will be more attractive and a better way to use this space, but I think the ordinance requires something about the hardshi . MARTIN: Actually, the language is slightly different in talking about an area variance. Practical difficulties are special conditions. The Word "hardship" does not appear in the area variance section. Any further questions from members of the Board? Thank you. Our pro- cedure then asks if there are any others present to speak in behalf of the appeal. Are there any others present who would like to speak in opposition to this requested variance I would like to read into the record a letter which the Board received from a Miss Linda Runyon concerning this requested variance. It reads: Dear Persons: Concerning the property at 110 Hawthorne Place, I oppose the application for an area variance. The propert -l- is presently a hazard to the residents of the neighborhood. The sidewalk is overgrown with !4 weeds and there is broken glass. The weeds also cause a dangerous visual obstruction to i the numerous cars turning the corner at Pearsall Place and Hawthorne Place. MR. VAN MARTER: That doesn't apply to this case. MR. MARTIN: Excuse me, I've got the wrong one. I was given the wrong number for this. None of the correspondence we have applies to this case. It will be saved for the appropriate case. That concludes our hearing on this case. f -8- BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS C ITY OF ITHACA I� JUNE 29 1975 EIMCUTIVE SESSION i APPEAL NO. 1072 I Mt. MARTIN: I move . that the requested area variance be denied. IRS. HOLMAN: I second that. FINDINGS OF FACT 1) The deficiency in lot size is nearly 1,000 square feet (nearly 20X). i, 2) The evidence presented failed to establis that the property in question could not reasonably be used for a single family dwelling which complied with the Zoning Ordinance area requirements. 3) Other lots in this area are of similar size, and if a variance were granted in this case, it might set a precedence for similar approval in the future. VOTE: YES - 6 NO - 0 f i E� -9- BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA CITY HALL, ITHACA, NEW YORK JUNE 2, 1975 Edison Jones announced the next case to be heard. APPEAL NO. 1076: Appeal of Anthony Albanese for a use variance in permitted uses under Section 30.25, Column 2, at 102 Adams Street, in an R-3 district. Mr. Richard Albanese will present the case. W. R. ALBANESE: My name is Rick Albanese. My father owns the building at 102 Adams Street. It was originally the Ithaca Clock Factory. We now have an office and storage area in that building. We are proposing a use variance for this building for the following uses: the storage and sale of books (the Friends of the Library are interested in space for this purpose), we would like to make some storage i cubicles that we would call mini-storage for persons who would care to store, for example, summer articles, lawn equipment in the winter and winter articles in the summer. Another proposed use would be for office and storage space for contractors similar to j ourselves. Two businesses in the community have expressed an interest in this, Taughannock Construction Company and Towner Electric. A transmission specialist has expressed an inte�- est, and we have space available for this type of service in the rear of the building i along with a, guess you would call it a home I � -10 or custom items for the home, such as railings . f A Mr. SanSouci is interested in part of this area to build like stairs, railings, special- ties for the home. In other words, they would be small items, and also we have space, additional space, we have approximately 24,000 sq. ft. There is room for a retail shop or a type of personal store. Another individual in town has expressed an interest in this in the line of an antique shop. Those are the uses. Do all of you have a copy of this sheet that I've just mentioned? We gave them to members of the Planning Board I believe, and the Codes and Zoning group, and I believe they passed them out as I understood it. Int. MARTIN: What's the sheet you're referring to? MR. R. ALBANESE: It's a sheet of proposed uses for 102 Adams Street. I have copies if you'd like one. f MR. MARTIN: We have a report from the Planning Board which I think summarizes what you've just given us. having summarized those uses, would you care to address yourself to the sorts of findings which the Board will have to make in order to grant a use variance, • , namely, that their peculiar special circum- stances, unique hardship that relates to this property which prevent it from being used in conformance with the Zoning Ordinance. M. R. ALBANESE: Well, the building when it was originally purchased, a variance was granted for apart- ments, or agreed to for apartments. I belie 33 apartments. After going into the economic of building apartments and maintenance, it was totally, economically unfeasible at the time, and still is. These proposals now are much more feasible, much mare usable, and would allow us to make necessary repairs to the building, and those repairs would include a chimney that needs to be taken dawn, a roof that needs to be repaired, the walls need to be painted and pointed, windows need to be replaced, there are over 200 windows in the building, there is a sprinkler system tha needs to be restored, an elevator that was certified two or three years ago and needs to be checked again, repairing of floors, parts j i of certain floors where the roof has leaked need to be repaired. i MR. MARTIN: Can you elaborate on the unfeasibility of the use for apartments? You say it was originally acquired with that in mind. I assume you then explored how much it would cost and can give us some details on the difficulty of that kind of use. Mt. R. ALBANESE: Well, roughly, I was not directly in on the financial dealings, but it would cost approx. ! i i imately five times the amount to build, just C -12- build apartments in the building. That is, refurbish it entirely and include heating, plumbing, all that would be necessary for apartments, as opposed to some offices and storage space which would require minimal amount of plumbing, heating, lighting, genera exterior upkeep, would be less. MR. MARTIN: Are there questions from members of the Board MR. RASPRZAR: I would like to ask a question. I just made a list of the items that you said are going to be used for the uses that will be in that building. Among them, the contractors and transmission specialists as you call it, and you're basically in the middle of the residential area. How do you allow for the traffic and the noise and things of that nature? There is also a park right ahead of you if I remember correctly. There will be children playing there. With this type of activity, how do you expect to have this balance out? MR. R. ALBANESE: Well, the building itself is about 120 ft. R 150 ft. roughly, and the area around it has ample off street parking to accommodate more i than we have proposed. And the transmission shop, should the area variance be granted, would be in the rear of the building on the back side between. There would be a set of five garages that would be between any shops -13- and the nearest home, and this would be away from the nearest home. I estimate it would be over 100 ft. to the nearest home. MEL. BODINE: How much off street parking do you have? ISR. R. ALBANESE: When we Went over it, I believe there are 30 spaces. Someone from the Planning Board was down and we talked about it and discussed it. TRS. HOLMAN: How many employees does your business have? IR. R. ALBANESE: At the present time we have five. MRS. HOLMAN: And how many vehicles? MR. R. ALBANESE: Business vehicles, three. MS. HOLMAN: And the transmission shop--would there be vehicles involved with that? Obviously, then are going to be vehIcles. I mean vehicles owned by the proprietors of the business and used in their business. MR. R. ALBANESE: Owned by the proprietors evidently. I cant say for sure. ISR. KASPRZAK: How many vehicles would the transmission have to operate? Mit. R. ALBANESE: If it would have more than one I would be surprised. I don't know for sure. AR. KASPRZAK: How are they going to pick up transmissions and deliver them? 1'R. R. ALBANESE: There would have to be a truck or if it was a minor repair, the person would bring their vehicle in to have it repaired. Mt. KASPRZAK: How many people are you anticipating in the i! S -14- building after all these uses are incorporate ? NFL. R. ALBAMSE: That would depend on the number of actual offices. We anticipate six different offices or businesses, with two or three and possibly as many as four or five employees in each. The transmission shop would have two and the employees, and the custom shop has two, and I'm not sure about Taughannock Construction. MR. RASPRZAK: In essence, you're saying you will have approximately 25 people on the premises. MR. R. ALBAMSE: Approximately that, yes. MR. RASPRZAK: They all will be coming by car. MR. R. ALBAMSE: Yes, I believe so. MR. GAS7EIGER: Will there be a flow of people aside from those who are permanently working there? For instance, the library book sale obviously involves a fair amount of traffic. For each one of these businesses, is there any estimate of the flow of traffic to and from? MR. R. ALBAMSE: As far as the book club goes, they have explained to me that they will function in a way that people will drop some books off during a week and possibly twice a week a volunteer would come in for a couple of hours to catorgorize the books. The others would be similar to our cern business where they may have two or three, and on a good day, four or five customers come by. !I I -15- BR. BODINE: Would 3ou anticipate any large trucks making deliveries there? MR. R. ALBANESE: There may be at rare intervals, rare being once every couple of months. MR. BODINE: So they wouldn'-t ordinarily deliver plumbing supplies there? MR. R. ALBANESE: No. Large deliveries go to the job site. M. MARTIN: Other questions? Ed- MR. GASTEIGER: Will the traffic during the library book sale come up for discussion? Have you experienced { that? Mt. R. ALBANESE: Yes, we had the Friends of the Library rent i from us last year in our building, in a slightly different location, but they used a significant amount of area, and as far as traffic goes, there was a considerable amount, but we appreciated the enthusiasm of the community. There was quite a wide cross section of the community people that frequent-ad the book club during the sale. Mi. MARTIN: Other questions? MR. VAN MARTER: The number of tenants you have at present, please. I i MR. R. ALBANESE: We are the only tenants. AR. MARTIN: And your use is covered by an earlier varianc ? MR. R. ALBANESE: Yes. MR. GASTEIGER: How long have you owned the building? j i MR. R. ALBANESE: 172. It was purchased in the summer of 172. i MR. GASTEIGER: Since then you've gone through the question I I -16- of apartments. You would like to build them, apparently that was the intent. MR. R. ALBANESE: Yes. AR. GASTEIGER: Then this is three years then before you come before us with a request. Is it only recently► that you've made an effort to do something else with the building? M. R. ALBANESE: No, we have from the beginning tried to find � markable and economical solutions to making the building useful again. We were very enthused about the apartment idea, but it Jus proved totally unfeasible and now what work we have done since that time, this seems to have boiled down to be the most feasible, economically possible, and useful type of thing we can do. AR. GASTEIGER: Peter, I'd like to get a feel for how restric tive or definite this is. Are we talking about very specific uses, each one in tram, I all uses that he has proposed? MR. MARTIN: Well, they all of them go beyond the prior variance, and so each of them constitutes, ifs you like, a separate variance, or we can deal with them as a totality, either way you choose, and I would assume that having granted narrowly tailored variances if the Board should grant a variance tonight, subsequent new tenants who constituted different uses mould bring you back here for another varianc i � I I -17- That we would in effect be supervising the use of this building over a long period of time. Mt. GASTEIGER: The reason I asked this is that some of these things seem somewhat tentative. I mean, there are no contracts signed. W. MARTIN: How many of these are definite in terms of firm leases or firm commitments? MR. R. ALBANESE: We have no leases with anyone, although four people have said should a variance be granted they will definitely move in. The book club, Towner Electric and Taughannock Construction, and I'd have to check on the other. Mt. GASTEIGER: You've mentioned that there was a difference of about five times for renovating the building for residential purposes as against commercial purposes. Do you have any figures in terms of returns in the residential capacities as f against the renovating for residential purposes? Imo. R. ALBANESE: No, I wouldn't have those figures, although I could call for a little assistance. MR. MARTIN: It is our procedure to allow other people to be called when you have concluded. Do you want to call someone else at this point? NR. R. ALBANESE: Certainly. Mt. MARTIN: Wouldou come forward y war and identify yourself? MR. A. ALBANESE.- I am Tony Albanese, the owner. It was my . night at the Planning Board, so I gave him i his chance tonight. I went over this whole -18- building with some builders, with materials, and there were a couple of people who sell lumber, and we arrived at a figure of about between $350,000 and $400,000 to put in 33 apartments. These plans were made up by Tony Egner which they gave to me very gladly. I'm glad I didn't have to pay for them because I worked on them for about a year and in the meantime Shulman was in the building, and they occupied the entire building with the exception of the little office that we are in now and the boiler roan, and they got out last spring, and by the time we got the thing cleaned up, by the time Shulman moved out, by the time we got all the pressers, the washers and all the materials and all the machinery that was in there, we found the building was in worse shape than we had anticipated. I didn't anticipate too much anyway, but the building was a lot worse off than I thought it was, and we've opened up the floors and the walls here and there and we found that the only feasible thing to do is to leave it as a commercial thing rather than make it residential. Its got three floors in the front of which is Adams Street, and two on th sides, and two in the rear, and there were approximately 30 some parking areas, off street parking, and we weighed this all out i i -19- f just recently and found out we would occupy about half of the parking areas with less congestion, and we could salvage the building with eight rentals. Now this means all on the first floor. This is what we have to ren out to maintain the taxes on it and other expenses, the insurances and the necessary things like the chimney, and I think we just elaborated on that, and I figured out it would cost probably a little over $100,000 to get these people in here, and we have arranged them as though I were going to live there myself, the noisy people in the back and the middle, the quiet ones are on the i perimeter that were nearer to the residential homes, and so far we've had about six request and they vary quite a bit, but basically, they're not much different from what we have there right now, and we've minimized the amount of traffic. We've minimized everything ,, and I wouldn't think there would be more than 10 or 12 people in the building outside of the customers. This would minimize traffic, minimize the noise, minimize everything, and if there was noise, it would be during an eight hour day, not nights or weekends, unles it Was an emergency. The building was a clock factory originally, and I don't think there have been too many changes made since then. It's over 100 years old and we've it -20- touched a couple of malls there, and they're i I about to come down. We've got one half down now. That was not intentional, but that's the way it happened. This is the minimum requirement to keep that building up or else we've got to go into something heavier like apartments, a lot heavier, and in the last year the cost of materials has risen up to � 30 and 40%, and this is just the materials. Labor averaged about 107 since last year, so this comes up over a half million dollars to build the 30 some apartments in there, over $350 to $400,000 last year. So if we can minimise it, a lot of this stuff we anticipate doing ourselves because we can't afford to hire it done. I've had a few concrete figure like tearing the chimney down was $3,000, to level off the driveway and gravel was $6,000 and they're up in these figures, and I got up to a little over $100,000 so I quit asking them, but this is about what it will run, a little over $100,000 to keep 6 tenants beside i ourselves there. This is all on the first floor. The second and third floor I'd like to utilize it with mini rentals. I don't mean like having a lot of trucks in there like we had before. We didn't like that eith These trucks would come in all hours of the i night and they'd have these sleepers and i -21- leave the motors running. They were noisy, I didn't like it-myself, and I heard a little complaints. But I think the people will speak for themselves. We've talked with, I'd say 25 to 30% of the people in that immediate ) area, and they said, for God's sake, get those trucks out of there, and that was the only objection they've had so far, and we've ' been there three years, going on three years. MR. MARTIN: Questions? Int. VAN MARTER: I have a question. In regard to the Planning I Board report. They mentioned outside storage Can you describe that? MR. A. ALBANESE: Yes. Outside storage was really there are five garages in a row at the rear of the building, nure or less like in the middle of the block so to speak, and there will be storage there. I'm talking about, that won't , be seen from the street, and this is where the storage will be, plus the fact that we propose to put a fence on the end or wherever there might be anything on the outside. All this stuff should be covered most of it should be, or inside. No outside storage unless it would be a vehicle. Now the proposed vehicle would be just two for that transmission shop, that's all. MR. VAN MARTER: Their report says you would undertake screen- ing for the outside storage area, so I don't -22- think they are referring to the garage. If you have a welding shop there, there's going to be outside storage, no question. MR. A. ALBANESE: No, there wouldn't be outside storage. It would be inside definitely. Now the way this works, there is an old boiler roam on the very rear of the original building which is separate, and right immediately behind are the five car garages. They would occupy one garage for storage, and use the old boiler room for their shop. The Friends of the Library will be on the Dey Street side. The Taughannock Construction and myself will be in the front on the Adams Street side, and Towner and myself will take the Auburn Street side. This is all we have. We'll just fill the bottom floors with plenty of room without any congestion. It's about the simplest way out of it. MR. MARTIN: Further questions? Thank you. Are there any others here tonight who would like to speak on behalf of this requested variance? Please cane forward. MS. BARLOW: I am Carolyn Barlow, the president of Friends of the Library, and I can answer any question . What we would propose to be doing would be storing our books there throughout the year as weather permitted, beacuse we're not going to have too much heat in there. We would go 1 I -23- in there and straighten out the books from time to time, and for a period of six, possibly eight weeks in the fall is when we have the heaviest use of the building, and at that time there wouldn't be any more except for the 10 days of the sale. About 10 people will be there a day sorting books and some cars coming to deliver books, and we would be there from 9:30 to 3:30 every day while we were arranging! for the sale, and during the time of the sale we would be there from the sale hours of 10 to 8 all week days and on Saturdays they'd I be from 10 to 4, and that Mould be Just two Saturdays, and then we'd clean up the Monday after the sale, and probably wouldn't come back again much until springtime, and the question that was asked of me last week was, did we plan to have the sale if we had a space, sort of daily or everyday. We say no, l we have run it this way for 28 years, and this is the way we'd like to continue to run it, and we'd like to continue to run it for 28 more years without any worry about where we could have it, because our sale has gotten so we need about 4,000 sq. ft. of space to handl all our books. MR. RASPRZAR: Did you look for any other location? I MS. BARLOW: Yes, we have. I MR. RASPRZAR: Any results? -24- MS. BARLOW: We tried all sorts of places, like the Family i j Bargain Store, and all those kind of places, and they have not been very hospitable toward a community benefit operation shall we say, because we're not in the financial position where we can pay the rents of those kind of people would want. i Mt. KASPRZAK: You have to pay rent here too? MS. BARLOW: Yes, but not to what something like the Family Bargain stores those outside owners would demand of us. MR. KASPRZAK: What I'm trying to find out is why did you choose this one in preference to the others; you say the cost was the only reason? y y y MS. BARLOW: We looked and looked and looked, and this was the place the day before we more or less had to decide if we were having a book sale or i not, we got Mr. Albanese's place last year, and we were very happy with it, and we though if he was willing, this was a good solution to our problem. MR. GASTSIGER: It was a little cold wasn't it? MS. BARLOW: Yes, but we're hardy people, so we can stand j it. Mr. Albanesewill put in a minimum heatin system for us with a sprinkling system to I secure against any fire risk. MR. MARTIN: Any further questions? I MS. HOLMAN: Did you have any problems with parking last � i year Carolyn? i f -25- MS. BARLOW: Not that we were aware. It would be the people in the community if they complained, but we didn't hear any complaints from any- body in the neighborhood. I MR. MARTIN`: Further questions? Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak in behalf of the variance? ISR. BERNSTEIN: My name is John Bernstein of 216 Dey Street. I'm speaking in favor of the variance with one reservation. This building, the old clocks works, is a building of some historica importance. Historic Ithaca has expressed an interest in it. Many people in the neighbor- hood would like to see it retained. We don't want to see it torn down because it would be very costly right now, and because it might be difficult to find other uses that the city would go along with immediately, so that this building is of importance to the people in the neighborhood. They want to see it retained. There's also a park to the south of the build Lug which they want to see enlarged, and to the extent to which this use variance conflic s with the expansion of the park, this proposal has some problems with off street parking, in that the street which is proposed for removal Adams Street, may provide the owners of this activity with some 14 to 15 parking spaces which they might lose. This would throw more E 46- parking on to streets directly in front of ' the homes. We'd like to see the building improved. We'd like to see it be made more i like other business in the neighborhood, for instance, Cayuga Electric Corp. has a very attractive building on Lincoln Street, but we oppose the use of the building for any obnoxious activity, and that includes noisy activity. We spokewith some reservation abou welding last week. That's been removed from the list of possible tenants, and we also oppose the use of the auto transmission of the building for repairing cars for we felt that would involve all kinds of people who like to test their cars on the streets, and in a residential neighborhood, that doesn't go very well, so we favor the use of the building for storage purposes, for office purposes, for Mr. Albanese's purposes, and f07 any other tenants who can be found who aren't along this line. It's been a mess so far in the back. This variance will permit Mr. Albanese to get to work on fixing up the building in the front and back, removing the safety hazard, the chimney, which is cracked, but I urge your consideration on the question of the auto transmission facility which a number of people in our neighborhood oppose, including me. Thank you. ' 1 I -27- M. MARTIN: questions? Mt. KASPRZAK: Has there been any reaction to, ,you say certain uses like an auto shop use? I agree i with you that it would be 'rather uncomfortable to have it there. What about the building contractor and people of that nature? Mt. BERNSTEIN: Well, office activity, it seems to me, would not require large customer turnover. It would require two to three employees which we can handle in terms of noise and in terms of parking. We're okay. Taughannock Con— struction would not be storing equipment there. They would be keeping the equipment elsewhere I'm led to believe they would be just keeping their office equipment there. That would be part of their heated facility. In other words, that wouldn't be cold storage, that would be a heated activity. MR. MARTIN: Yes, do you want to verify that? MR. A. ALBANESE: The gentleman who wants to rent it came in today from Taughannock Construction and all they do is remodel homes, so they have storag and an office there. They have their place on the lower end of State Street now, up on the second floor, and I don't think it's there because they can't store too much up there, but my understanding is they do repair work and remodeling - no construction. O M. BERNSTEIN: So they're not a heavy construction company. i -28- We all know V9hat they do. They do light remodeling, so they're going to be storing i i stuff. They're going to be bringing trucks through there and to that degree, it will be a problem for us. IR. MARTIN: Are there further questions? MR. GASTEIGER: I'm a little confused about this park versus the Ithaca clock building. Can some further statement be made about it so there is some competition here for space. I don't have a good picture yet. i MR. BERNSTEIN: Very well. The park we're talking about is called Auburn Park and it's earmarked by the 1968 city planning study as a site for im- provement as a neighborhood park. It hasn't been touched for the past six or seven years. There is no other neighborhood park that serves children of Fall Creek other than Tompkins Park, from Cascadilla Creek and Cayuga Street, and proposals to the city favor improvement to this park. The city is currently planning on making these improve- ments themselves. They also want to give lengthy consideration to expanding the park northward toward the factory. This would involve removing all or part of Adams Street which lays between Auburn Street and Dey Street. I would be glad to draw you a map ifI that's needed. I -29- MR. MARTIN: The consequences you have already pointed out is that if and when that becomes a reality, that removes some of the parking that current1y exists and will throw that same parking eithe on the off street parking available at the clock factory or on the surrounding streets. Mit. GASTEIGER: Is the park the little triangular three-sided piece? Mit. BERNSTEIN: Yes sir, MR. GASTEIGER: Does Mr. Albanese own this fullarea? MR. BERNSTEIN: There is the sidewalk on the north side of Adams Street at Mr. Albanese's. He owns up to one foot from the sidewalk. MR. MARTIN: Any further questions? MRS. HOLMAN: Did the Friends of the Library sale have much impact on the neighborhood? As far as incon- venience, I mean. MR. BERNSTEIN: That was very temporary and a number of us were happy to see more people in the neighbor hood. We don't oppose the use of the building,. We are concerned about noise and our feeling is that a transmission shop would be noisy. MR. MARTIN: Are there others who would like to speak in favor of the requested variance? Is there anyone here tonight who would like to speak in opposition? If not, that concludes our hearing on this case. i -30- BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA EXECUTIVE SESSION APPEAL NO. 1076 MR. MARTIN: I move to grant a use variance permit for sale and storage of books, sale of antiques, and professional and business offices. MR. BODINE: I second that. Subject to the following conditions: 1) Owner will complete within two years the removal of the existing laundry power plant smokestack and clean up visible portions of ! the property. E 2) Owner provide the amount of off street parking required fac tenant uses. 3) The requirements of the Sign Ordinance for an R-3 district will be complied with. FINDINGS OF FACT 1) Evidence presented indicated that the building which was not designed for a resid- ential use, could not reasonably be converted to such a use. 2) The proposed uses for which the variance is granted are similar to the current use being made of the building or otherwise have a limited impact on the residential area. VOTE: YES - 5 NO - 1 -31- BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA CITY HALL, ITHACA, NEW YORK JUNE 29 1975 Edison Jones announced the neat case to be heard. APPEAL NO. 1080: Appeal of Myron Wasilchak for an area variance to lot size in front and side requirements under Section 30.25, Colum 6, 11, 12, 14, 15 at 110 Hawthorne Place in an R-2 district. Mr. Michael Pichel will present the case. MR. PICHEL: This is strictly an application for an area variance. No use variance is requested. The use is a two-family dwelling which is allowed in an R-2 zone. The lot is on the corner of Hawthorne and Pearsall. It's an approved sub-division lot. " It presently has a, I believe it's a five-car garage being used for storage. The lot is 110 X 55, not including any of the roadway that's owned. So there is over 6,000 sq. ft. of area which would allow the two-family dwelling, and there is 110 ft. of frontage on Hawthorne Place which, I believe is the front yard, which would give enough frontage along the road. There is a 55 ft. frontage on Pearsall. It's a earner lot, and the Ordinance as read strictly requires two front yards of 25 ft. each, and the side yard and the back yard requirements, if you read the Ordinance strictly, would only allow a building 10 ft. deep and 70 ft. long, which I don't think anybody would want. So I think this comes under the area variance where there is a practical difficulty of an unreasonable -32- impossible situation to comply with. The lot is about the same size as all the other lots in the neighborhood, and I think most of them, if the buildings were required to meet the side yard and front yard and back yard require- menta, they wouldn't comply either. He wants to retain this pretty good concrete block structure. It's solid, the foundation isn't cracked, and the walls aren't cracked, and add on to it. There's a picture of the plot plan and a sketch of the elevation with the application. I think the lot is not terribly attractive now, and having a residence on it I think it would be better kept up and in keeping with the neighborhood. There was another application once before I understand, by someone else who wanted to put a four-twit apartment on top of this garage, and that was opposed by the neighborhood, and I guess it was disallowed, so there is this application which I think would make better use of the land. It would be in keeping with the neigh- borhood. It would be a residential use just like the rest of the neighborhood. Are there any questions I could answer? MS. HOLMAN: Are you planning to retain any of the existing garage stalls as garage stalls? That's not clear to me. MR. PICHBL: No. he wants to have the garage changed into -33- residential and the parking would be on the side yard off Pearsall. There's ample parking to meet the requirements of the parking reg- ulations. HRS. HOLMAN: Parking off Pearsall? Mid. PICHEL: Yes. Calling Hawthorne the front, Pearsall the side yard. Right now it's graded sort of funny. It cases up and then it drops down. It would be smoothed off there, having parking off Pearsall. M. GASTEIGER: The 45 X 20 structure is the garage? IR. PICHEL: That's the existing building. The roof would be taken off and a new roof would be put on. The concrete block would be parget and brought up to look like a brand new structure with the other building the new construction. MR. MARTIN: Other questions from members of the Board? MRS. HOLMAN: The existing garage would be one unit and the new structure a second? IR. PICHEL: Right. 1R. MARTIN: Other questions? Mit. PICHEL: The back yard would be more than the back yard we have now. The side yard would be just about right and the front yard would be just about right, but we need this variance to leave the existing garage there. MR. MARTIN: We have, and I've already read part of two letters that concern this case. They both of them begin by describing the current situation -34- as unsightly and unsafe, and arguing that it' likely to continue, and that is inappropriate to incorporate the garage in a new structure. Would you like to comment on that? I will read them in their entirety later on, but I thought it might serve to..(interrupted) MR. PICHEL: Might now it isn't very attractive. It's an old garage and looks to me like there was at one time most of the lot was covered with a blacktop parking area, and the garage struc as I said is perfectly sound. There's nothing wrong with it, so that if it were polished up and a new roof put on it, and it was landscape properly, I think it would be a large improve- ment. I think it would be wasteful to tear down this structure. I don't know what you would tear down. If you just tore it down to get a little bit back from the road, you wouldn't gain very much, I think for the neighborhood. I think it would just be waste- ful to require him to tedr it down and build something else in its place when that building can be refurbished. It isn't very attractive now, and I think this application would improve it. MRS. HOLMAN: Has there ever been any attempt to rent the garage to the neighborhood for storage or as garages? PQ. PICHEL: I don't know the history of this lot. I reall -35- can't answer that. Mr. Wasilchak has been using this as storage, business storage, ever since he had it, and that will cease if this were approved. MR. MARTIN: Further questions? Are there any others present tonight who would like to speak in favor of the requested area variance? Any present this evening who would like to speak in opposition? Would you come forward? While you come forward let me continue with the letters. The first is from the one I started to read before, Miss Linda Runyon of 118 Hawthorne Place, who opposes the applica- tion for an area variance, the property is presently a hazard to the residents of the neighborhood, the sidewalk is -overgrown with weeds, has broken glass, the weeds also cause dangerous visual obstruction to numerous cars turning the corner at Pearsall Place and Hawthorne Place. With the many children of this neighborhood, it is truly .an unsafe place . The present structure is an eyesore. I under- stand it's to be included in the proposed building. The view of this from my living. room is most unpleasant. I object to the use of this building as a permanent structure. I hope the Board of Zoning Appeals will take into consideration the opposition to this application. The second is somewhat shorter. 46- It's from Mrs. Helen Goodman, 117 Pearsall Place. Dear Board Members: I am writing to oppose the proposed construction at 110 Hawthorne Place. Presently, the garage and lot are unkept and in an unsafe condition. I can only feel that any future construction by Mr. Wasilchak will be managed in a sub- standard way. All right, we have those two letters on this case. IR. CULLIGAN: Thank you Mr. Chairman. My name is Don Culligan. I live at 627 Hudson Street. My property goes through on to Hawthorneand borders the north end of this property that is being talked about here tonight. I'm actually representing myself, but I am rep- resenting quite a few people in the neighbor- hood who were not able to be here tonight, although there are a few here. This has been contested, I think for the fourth time now on various reasons. It was a beautiful piece of property 15 years ago. Every garage was used. They were built at the time it was called Cornell Housing, which was the Hawthorne, Pearsall and Crescent Place project, which wa built in 1947. An attorney bought them up, not the present attorney, but an attorney bought them from Mrs. Pearsall through her estate and doubled the rent on everybody, and everybody roved out of their garages, so they -37- i stood empty for quite a long while, and the conditions even then were like they are some- what now, unkept property, dangerous corner. Mr. Dahman bought over, I would say, five or six years ago, and has used ,it for his per- sonal storage of business property, which no one in the neighborhood objected to. His trucks came there from time to time, but there was no problem and why this doesn't continue to be a business property for him under those aspects of storing things, I'm not quite sure. The neighborhood is one residency neighborhood. My property is 135 X 210, Dr. Visnyei's is larger than that. The lady in one of the letters, Mtn. Goodman, her property across Pearsall is large. The Normans are here tonight, their property is right across Hawthorne and is equally as large if not larger, but these are all one residency homes, families, this is the neighborhood characteristic. People pay extra taxes. I'm assessed for my land, and I pay for that little extra privacy, and to see a two unit structure trying to be, it's prosaic to me to believe that the existing structure which is not good, even the gentleman ahead, who is probably not an architect, may say it is, it' not good structure, and how anybody could conform this property with no cellars, into i i -38- I i a formidable type living dwelling, I just cannot no see. The only thing that I can see in that corner lot would be a good one structure ) home built by somebody or kept as it is as a storage place or restored to garages. There are no garages. I have one, I'm lucky I guess. It's been there a long while, but there are very few garages in the entire two and one- half to three block area from that spot. Of course, people park in the streets for free, but I'm quite sure that if the garages were restored and were made available, the people would use them. Mt. MARTIN: All right. Now the precise nature of the requested variance in this case is that we waive the setback requirement imposed on corner lots, that they have in effect two front lots. A similar request would have to be made before a single family residence could go in here, at least as I understand the arithmetic. The essence of your objection is not to the variance, but to what is going to end up being put there, namely, two units rather than one. Mt. CULLIGAN: I'm not sure. Two units rather than one. I would say I would not be here tonight if one unit was being appealed to before the Board tonight. I wouldn't be here as a citizen or representing any. -39- MR. MARTIN: The request is not for them to be able to do two rather than one, but for them to be able to do it without the required setback. MR. CULLIGAN: In no way should the existing structure be considered in the use of any building there for human occupancy. I'm not sure if the Board ever goes to visit these places, partic ularly to view personally, but it is an eye- sore. MR. MARTIN: Questions from members of the Board? MR. CULLIGAN: There are a few others here who might want to speak. Thank you. MR. MARTIN: Are there others who would like to speak in opposition? Let me simply remind you again that we don't count votes. We'd like to hear the evidence. Please limit your remarks to the issue that is before the Board. W. VISNYEI: My name is George Visnyei and I live on 631 Hudson Street. We have three lots on the west side of Wasilchak's property, and we use all three lots for our residence and home. It's a single residence and basically, I thin Mr. Culligan has put most everything on the line here. We've gone through this before for variance of one sort or another for a four apartment unit, and Mr. Gersh presented the case, the size and so forth of the lots, and I'm sure you have that factor with you, s I'm not going-Into__that,_ but I object to the -40- variance for the simple reason that there is a factor in the zoning there which whether it s a single unit or two units home that's going to be built on there, it should meet the re- quirements of zoning. There's no sense in presenting any more facts other than that. I think that as far as multiple units are con- cerned in that area, knowing the situation with the University and the student rentals that we have here, I'm sure that isn't going to be an asset to the neighborhood if it's going to be more than one unit, so I oppose it on that basis. MR. MARTIN: Any questions? Thank you. Anyone else who would like to speak in this case, please come forward. MR. NORMAN: My name is John Norman. My address is 122 Pearsall which site right across the street from this piece of property now. My main objection to this piece of property for being used as a double dwelling property is the noise aspect. If there is visitors, the streets are narrow. As they are right now, off street parking causes quite a hazard. We have a church up there now that I believe is up for sale, and on Sundays and during the week nights when they do congregate there, it's kind of hazardous to weave through there so if there is any kind of visitors at all at -41- this double dwelling that he proposes to buil there, it would be still quite a hazard for the parking and off street parking. I can't see where the lot is. My lot is bigger than that, not much, but it's a little bigger. Most of the properties up there do have small lots. Now if there are any children that this double dwelling is put up and families move in there, where are the children to play except in someone elses yard. There is no parks up there. There's a school about two blocks down, so I'm in complete oppositi to the variance. HR. MARTIN: And again, the essence to your objection is t the two units. If this were a single residence being proposed you wouldn' t be objecting. It' s not the waiver of the setback that you're objecting to, but what's going to be putthere MR. NORMAN: Right. If it were a single unit and if the dwellings that are there now, the garages, were removed, I could see where they would have plenty of room for a single dwelling. MR. MARTIN: questions from members of the Board? Anyone else to speak on this case? That concludes our hearing on this case. i ii -42- BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA .TUNE 2, 1975 EXECUTIVE SESSION APPEAL NO. 1080 is HR. GASTEIGER: I move that the requested variance be denied. MR. VAN MARTER: I second that. a FINDINGS OF FACT is 1) While the lot in question may well require '! an area variance in order to accommodate a residential structure, the requested variance': i! which would provide for no setback from Hawthorne Place for part of the structure .i does not adequately comply with the spirit C of the requirements of the Zoning Ordinance. i j Some reasonable setback is necessary even i though full compliance with the setbacks in 4 the ordinance may be unreasonable for this lot. 2) Evidence presented did not establish that the compliance with some reasonable setback i with Hawthorne Place would be unreasonable or impossible. 3) It also seemed quite likely that the proposed structure would require a variance to the percentage of lot coverage requirement of the Zoning Ordinance. it VOTE: YES - 6 NO - 0 i -43- BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA CITY HALL, ITHACA, NEW YORK JUNE 2, 1975 Bison Jones announced the next case to be heard. PEAL NO. 1082: Appeal of Iry Lewis, Inc. for use variance for permitted uses under Section 30.25, Cob= 21, at 525 West Seneca Street in an R-2 district. W. Iry Lewis will present the case. Lewis: I'm Mr. Irving Lewis, corporate officer of Iry Lewis, Inc., who owns the property at 525 West Seneca Street, and we are here tonight to request a variance. The building is zoned for business, but the present tenant that we rented the building to is a bike and hobby shop. In addition to. a bike and hobby, he is planning to add a kindred line to his sales, which is motor scooters. The Planning Board denied this request, and I read this in the paper, because they said it was going to be a motorcycle repair shop on the end of a resid- ential neighborhood. I want to correct that because it is not going to be a motorcycle repair shop. Mr. Button who has been identi- fied with bicycle sales, first on West State Street, and then on the 100 block where the former Shulman property was located, has always been in the bike and hobby business, and he found that it was to his detriment to stay at the 100 block of West State Street because there was a problem in traffic in unloading bicycles out of the back of a car �44- with parents bringing bicycles down and young eters standing there getting the bicycles out and he was able to secure this building which is an ideal location for this type of business. Now on the east of this building there is the Geological Survey building, which in itself does some motor repair work to their own service cars, and on the west side of this building there is a paint shop and a gas station, which of course is a motor vehicle operation. Both of these places in my estimation and you can even question Mr. Button because he would know more about it than I would, both of these places would be much noisier than the type of business he is going to operate. Now in the front of this building, he is going to sell his bicycles and there is a driveway there, which has a side entrance that he will entertain any bike or motor scooter repairs. Before I rented this building to Mr. Button, when we drew our lease and without knowing that we would even have to come here for a variance on this part icular phase of the business, we included about 11 things that were agreed upon between Mr. Button and myself, and they were the gen. eral things that you find in a lease, such as paying utility bills and such things like that, but three of the things I really wanted -45- to point out here because I think it is con- ducive to what would happen down here because ) this is on the edge of a residential area and one item was that Mr. Button agreed the tenant would maintain the building and ground including snow removal, grass cutting, garbage removal, and the other item was, there are 12 items and I'm only going to recite three of them here, the second is that the tenant will keep the outside area immediately ad- Joining the premises in a neat manner so as not to destroy the character of the neighbor- hood, and the third item, the eleventh one, tenant will provide elimination of noise, garbage and scrap material without disturbing neighborhood and adjoining businesses. We thought of this because we just want to have a good relationship with our neighbors where we own any properties, and we thought this would probably be an ideal location and an ideal area for Mr. Button. Mr. Button runs a family oriented business. He operates it with himself, his wife and two sons, and I believe that noise problem which is what we are talking about here and only that, is not going to be a detriment to the location of the building down there. If there are any questions, I'll be very glad to answer them. MR. KASPRZAK:. You said that he's planning to add motor scooters. Is he going to test them before -46- he sells them? HR. LEWIS: Is he going to test them? No, if it pertains to that, I'm going to have Mr. Button answer that question because I think he'd be in better position to answer that than I would, but if any questions are pertaining that I can answer, I'll be very happy to. HR. MARTIN: This is a use variance again and when we are talking about a use variance, we have to, in some fashion find that the building as it exists can't reasonably be used for the purposes listed in the Zoning Ordinance. Could you give us the ammunition with which such a finding might be made? Mit. LEWIS: If you're thinking of the motor scooter portion, not the bike portion, because it is a business . . . . IR. MARTIN: We would have to find, and I'm paraphrasing now, roughly that the building cannot feasibly be used for those limited uses listed in the Zoning Ordinance before we would be permitted to grant any variance. MR. LEWIS: I don't know. I understand that the building can be used as a business because it is in a business area zone. We're talking about this noise area. I was very selective in finding a tenant for this building. The building has been empty for about two months and I made notes of some of the people who had inquired about the building. We had an auction house, -47- a 47_a furniture auction house where they have a I couple of auctions at night, an I suppose they would have to come in here and ask for a variance, I don't know, but we didn't want that because there is a church across the I street, up a little ways, and across the street, and we didn't think that would be very desireable because most of their auction are done at night and that wouldn't be very good, and usually I don't know why, but with some of the real estate I own I always get requests for bar rooms, and I haven't yet rented one, and we turned that dowry because we knew there was a church across the road. I really didn't know I had to ask for this variance until I spoke to Mr. Jones, and he said that I would have to because we were dealing with motors, and I spoke to- Mr. Buttor about this and he told me that at no time would he operate his business after regular business hours, which I had assumed would be i around 5:00 or 5:30 or whatever time you clos�. There would be no noise back there, and then the work they would be doing would be in the i rear of the building which would be quite a ways away. I question whether any of the residents in that area across the road would hear a motor scooter-running any more than the could a lawn mower. I mean this is the way I feel about it. We're not talking about motor. I i -48- cycles, we're talking about a motor scooter which is a smaller motor and everything else, but I think Mr. Button here would be glad to iI answer any questions pertaining to the mech- anical portions. MR. MARTIN: Any questions of Mr. Lewis before we hear Mr. Button? MR. GASTE ICER: Is the business operated under a variance now MR. MARTIN: No. It's a B-2, and an appropriate B-2 for the bike and hobby shop, but sale and service of motor vehicles is a use permitted in B-4 but not in B-2, and a motor scooter I assume is a motor vehicle. MR. GASTEIGER: Is it operating as a retail store now? MR. LEWIS: Retail, yes. MR. MARTIN: The business without the motor scooters would qualify for a B-2. All right, it might be appropriate to call for Mr. Button then. MR. BUTTON: I'm Ralph Button, the operator of Ithaca Bike Just a little bit, I'll try not to take up to much time, but what we had planned an doing or would like to do is by adding motor scoote3s and small motorized bicycles, the service on these, Mr. Kasprzak asked the question, are we going to be testing them. Naturally, it has to be done. We're not going to go racing around the countryside. This I won't tolerate. MR. KASPRZAK: You will possibly go out into the street. MR. BUTTON: Can't put it out on the street without a license. MR. KASPRZAK: I presume you have a license. i 4 -49- HR. BUTTON: As a vehicle, unless it has a license on to it. We do have two of the fellows, my boys, who are working for me, do have motorcycles themselves, bigger motorcycles. They are licensed to operate them as am I, but I don't have a motorcycle. I'm not that fond of them Yes., we would have to test them to make sure they are operating properly, I grant you that We do service work on bicycles and we intend to carry it over. If you grant the variance we would like to carry it over into this same type -of work than we're doing now in the motor scooter, the smaller mo-pad type of motorcycles, not motorcycles, but motor bikes with the effort geared more for bicycles than anything else. We are not goingto take motor cycles and motor bikes off the street to service unless we sold it. We're not going to open up a motorcycle repair shop. There isn't quite room enough to do it, to carry all the parts that would be required to try to service every make of motorcycle. You can't do it and this happens. Even the large motorcycle shops run into this problem. They have to service only what makes they sell, and this is why, because there are so many different parts. We're not going to be oper- ating other than one night a week we'll be open until 9 o'clock and this is Just strictly sales, not service and no Sunday operation. -50- We're not going to create any problems as far as the neighborhood is concerned. We'll be Ij �) making less noise actually than the Geological i Survey next door. Our store waslocated on the other end of that building about three years ago, and we did run into some problems there, where the fellows who were working there worked on their own cars and used the driveway for testing, to which the black marks attested, and created some real problems even with the neighborhood, which I don't know the problems as far as zoning and things like this, we're just looking at our own building and we're hoping that you're going to look at it favorably. MR. MARTIN: Could you help someone who doesn't know the terminology all that well, in understanding the difference between a motorcycle and a motor scooter and what you refer to as a mo-pad? MR. BUTTON: Okay, a mo-pad is something you don't see here at all. You haven't seen them yet. Everybody has been a little bit afraid of New York State regulations. We have checked into it and found out that a mepad is legal on New York State highways. They are small motor- cycles, but actually 49 CC engine. They will get a speed of maybe 35 MPH if you push hard, i a down hill tailwind. They are used very much in the Orient and in Europe for transpor -51- tation. They'll give you about 128 miles a gallon of gas. If we get this next price increase on gas, seventy-five cents a gallon. i It's a real feasibility. It's going to be a perfect thing for commuters. Motor scooters,; 4 we've all seen these, the Cushman motor scoottrg a this type of an outfit, either two wheel or three wheels. None of these make a tremendous ;a amount of noise. They have good equipment asp i far as mufflers and things of this nage. MR. MARTIN: So the requested variance you're seeking is for sales and service of mo-pads and motor scooters, but not motorcycles? a Mit. BUTTON: That's right. MR. MARTIN: Questions from members of the Board? o MRS. HOLMAN: I guess I'm still not comfortable with where you're going to do the testing. i! MR. BUTTON: Motor testing is going to be done in the shopy making sure the motor operates properly, i' getting the fuel it should, should we have a y problem in the gearing clutch mechanism, brake mechanism, yes, we're going to have to test it either in the driveway or as second recourse or last recourse, on the highway. Then again, the vehicle must have New York State license tags on to it, and the operator must be licensed, helmet and all. MR. MARTIN: Further questions? Thank you. Are there any others present this evening who would like to speak on behalf of the requested -52- variance? Is there anyone who wishes to be heard in opposition? ii MR. LEE: Mr. Chairman,, members of the Board,, I'm Boardman Lee and I'm appearing in opposition to this variance on behalf of Mr. Edmund Clynes. He owns three houses across the street from this property, which are in a residential zone, and while of course, the other side of the street is business, this is a distinct departure from the kind of business that's been there before, namely, as you all know, entrance into the motor vehicles sales and service deal which is allowed under B-4 but not under B-2,, and so it's very well to say that the noise won't be obvious, there's ii going to be testing, there's. going to be running of motor vehicles out in front of that shop and around that establishment which is just going to depreciate the value of the residential properties across the street just that little bit more. Now the constitutional issue which has been raised by Mr. Clynes is this point., and I'll just refer to it very briefly. I. myself, have been opposed to the idea for a long, long, time of making it a zone, especially if you're in a business and residential zone down the middle of the street, because one side is going to be developing in a way that will be obnoxious to the residents on the -53- other side of the street, and you've got a built-in deterioration of that residential neighborhood by reason of the business of occupancy of the other side of the street, soj this is our point here, so I think you ought to be particularly careful in a case like this not to make the situation worse by is permitting even a slight variation of the strict letter of the ordinance. Furthermore,' as you, Mr. Chairman, I think pointed out, I would say that the proponents have not satin�� factorily raised any question of hardship. There are plenty of other places around town where they could rent and so I ask you sir to kindly deny this request. '1 NR. MARTIN: Any questions from members of the Board? The Board received a statement from Mr. Clynes which I might at this point then read into the record. He opposes the granting of the variance for the following reasons: it would generate traffic and be conducted in an atmos- phere which is depressing and injurious to the residential environment across the street. Said use would be unconstitutional and void where a commercial use faces a residential tract. In such circumstances, a variance cannot be granted citing several decisions. The gas station and dry cleaning establish- ments were non-conforming uses. They existed before the Zoning Ordinance was drafted, and -54- finally, traffic on Meadow Street north and Seneca Street west is very hazardous and dangerous and will further depreciate the neighborhood. That's the statement which we ,i have, and I read into the record. Thank you Mr. Lee. Anyone else who would like to be , heard on this appeal? That concludes then our hearing on case 1082. i 'I i i i i ii !i I I i; i !l i i6 i� +i j !I 1' i -55- BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA JUNE 2s 1975 EXECUTIVE SESSION APPEAL NO. 1082: MR. MARTIN: I move that the variance be denied. Int. KASPRZAK: I second that. FINDINGS OF FACT 1) The owner of the building seeking the variance failed to present evidence adequate to establish evidence of inability to use the building for the use specified in the Zoning Ordinance. 2) No showing that there was anything special. or unique about this property which prevented it from yielding a reasonable return under the requirements of the Ordinance. VOTE: YES - 6 NO - 0 ii -56- BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA CITY HALL, ITHACA, NEW YORK JUNE 20 1975 'i Edison Jones announced the final case to be heard. APPEAL NO. 1083: Appeal of Will Robert Teeter for area variance under Section 30.25, Column 4 off Street parkingi to convert two apratments to 4 efficiency apart- ments at 311-315 Eddy Street in a B-2 zone. AR. TEETER: I'm Bob Teeter. I have a building at Eddy Street, 311-315. It consists of two stores, '. a restaurant and Gnoman Press, and seven F� apartments above. I bought this building about four years ago, and it was put up about, eight years ago after the building which had been there had been destroyed one night in a fire. When I bought the building it had these code violations, and they were built into the building; they were perfectly okay at the time. What I'm concerned about are i two apartments - a number two and a number 3 ;1 and you have these drawings in front of you. There are spiral staircases. } MR. MARTIN: I don't think we have your drawings. MR. TEETER: The two apartments, one consists of four bedrooms and a kitchen and bath, two bedrooms: up and two down, and if you notice they are virtually nothing but cells, they have no windows and the two upstairs are blocked off. This is a sort of artist's window. They are F I blocked off from any ventilation except for air vents, and actually these rooms shouldn't 'r be there as they are in the present stage, !i i °! -57- and what I'd like to do is convert them into two apartments, each with one bedroom, one livingroom, which would mean involving taking, out that spiral staircase which was very attractive. The students seem to like it. The inspectors do not at present time at least and therefore, have one apartment on the first floor and another apartment on the it second floor. In the back apartment we have i the same situation where we have again the two bedrooms upstairs and a large livingroom downstairs, and again the spiral staircase, and taking out thespiral staircase making this an efficiency apartment downstairs, liken putting in a bath, and upstairs putting in a kitchen where the spiral staircase would be, o and making one of these bedrooms into a livingroom and the other one could be a bed- i1 room, but as it is now, the way it's set up, i i! it over heats in the summer and is extremely difficult to ventilate. In this apartment there is a fantastic waste of space besides the fact that the spiral staircase is closed.' Sometimes there are four or five students living in this part apartment, and three or i four living in the back apartment, and by changing we will be reducing the number of participants. There isn' t any off street parking, there never has been. There wasn't j any when the old building was burned down, i -58- and when this building was put in, Mike David; from whom I bought it, it covered such a little lot space. MR. MARTIN: Code violations referred to are primarily thee. I circular staircase or are there other problems? MR. TEETER: The staircase and also the fact that you do not have any windows which open right into the bedrooms in the front apartment. MR. GASTE ICER: Are there windows in the back in the bedrooms? MR. TEETER: Yes, there are windows in the back. If you I know where Gnoman Press is, its that huge. 'i fantastic black window which is very attractive i put in by one of the clients. 4 HR. KASPRZAK: Sir, you talk about the Building Code, it's one heck of a thing to keep in operation. You are here strictly for another reason, am IF !j E I not correct? �r MR. TEETER: What other reason? il MR. KASPRZAK: Well, you're talking about staircases which is something else. It's not part of this Board's responsibility. !1 MR. TEETER: Well, I requested a building permit and I was j told I had to come to the Zoning Board to i request permission to do this. MR. MARTIN: But the precise nature of the area variance that you require is what? What about the 4 proposed new set of apartments will not comply with the Zoning Ordinance? ;SMR. TEETER: The new apartments will apply. -59- iS MR. MARTIN: Not as far as parking. The continued absence; of off street parking is the only thing that is a problem under the Zoning Ordinance. MR. GASTEIGER: Presumably that is being reduced. NR. MARTIN: And that problem is being reduced. MR. BODINE: The lot size is large enough then? MR. JONES: Yes, the building is already there, no problem with that. MR. VAN MARTER: We're talking about density then. �4 MR. JONES: This building covers the total lot. ;s MR. MARTIN: Right., but the number of units is increasin i g � 8 MR. TEETER: But the amount of space is not. It's the same amount of space. We're not adding on to the building, we're not pushing up nor out, ii we're just rearranging the space. MR. MARTIN: The question is take the number of units and ask what size lot that requires. Do we have i an adequate size lot? It's the size of the lot and the parking. What is the size of the: inadequacy of the lot under the Ordinance? i We're moving from two units to four, increasing by two the number of units. MRS. HOLMAN: The lot is completely covered. . . HR. TEETER: Yes, except for a wee piece in the back. MR. BODINE: There are how man a y par tment sin the building ; li I now? INR. TEETER: There seven apartments and two stores. I MR. BODINE: Right now? i j MR. TEETER: Yes. MR. BODINE: So we're talking about making a total of nine �f I� -60- apartments. MR. TEETER: Nine apartments within the space which is occupied presently by seven. Mit. VAN MARTER: There are seven units at the present time? MR. TEETER: Yes, plus one restaurant and one store, or two stores, one being used as a restaurant, it's the Blockley House and the other is the Gnoman Press. Mit. VAN MARTER: It's been converted then from when it was originally built. MR. TEETER: No, it hasn' t. Mit. VAN MARTER: I promise you sir. . . . . . MR. TEETER: Well, this is the way I purchased it. MR. VAN MARTER: Right, okay, let's get that in the record. MR. MARTIN: When built it had what? MR. VAN MARTER: Two living units up and down, that's what made the spiral stairs acceptable. It was not a multiple dwelling, and the spiral stairs occurred within a living unit. MR. TEETER: It's still within a living unit. There are two bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms down..- stair, the kitchen down and the bath up. It'js still one living unit, the spiral staircase is the connecting. . . . . MR. VAN MARTER: There are seven separate tenantcies for residj- en tial use in the building. Aft. TEETER: Yes, there are seven apartments. MR. GASTEIGER: Is it a four-story building? MR. TEETER: No, it's a three-story building. MR. GASTEIGER: Then on the first floor there has to be how many units? MR. TEETER: On the first floor, on the ground floor, street floor, you have the restaurant and then in the back there is one small one bedroom apartment, and then on the next floor you have two apartments plus the lower half of two apartments, and then on the next floor, t you have two more apartments and the upper half of two apartments. MR. GASTEIGER: In rentals do you indeed control numbers. Iti, seems to me that you go to efficiency apart- ments and one bedroom apartments, that you can have two people in there. MR. TEETER: Well, as it is now, sometimes I have five in k that large apartment, and the year I bought it, the gentleman had six in there. It depends on the number of students who want to live together because two of the bedrooms are quite large, and they can be used as double bedrooms as it's presently set up, but none of the bedrooms in the front apartment have any ventilation, which would mean an open window. In fact, two of them are just cubicles. MR. GASTEIGER: Do they have mechanical ventilation? MPP. TEETER: Not the bedrooms, no. The kitchen does and the bathroom does. MR. KASPRZAK: The bedrooms have no ventilation at all? MR. TEETER: Well, they have ventilation but the ventilation comes through this long sliding window with vents built underneath, but you cannot open -62- a 62-a window into the bedrooms. You can in all the other apartments in the building. MR. GASTEIGER: The question is, is there an open window or not, and you said there is no ventilation. MR. TEETER: Well, ventilation in the sense that you can open a window. Mt. KASPRZAK: There is no natural ventilation? MR. TEETER: Right. MR. KASPRZAK: And you say that you have seven units that i you've converted to nine? Mt. TEETER: Yes, that would be converting from presently seven to nine. Mt. KASPRZAK: Okay, so that you have basically seven tenants in one unit. How many tenants do you have all together right now? Mt. TEETER: I have, let me see. .one. M. KASPRZAK: How many individuals? ' MR. TEETER: That's what I'm just counting right now. Seven, eight, ten, twelve, thirteen, fourteen MR. KASPRZAK: And with those nine units you have probably more tenants. MR. TEETER: Not necessarily because these one bedrooms might rent just to one person, because the one bedrooms right now are all . . . ML. KASPRZAK: Not necessarily, but if possible. . . `' Mt. TEETER: There is a possibility that you might have a couple taking one bedroom, but on the other hand. . . MR. VAN MARTER: I have a question sir. The first floor is t -63- being converted to two apartments? ISL. TEETER: Right. The first floor would be one apartment here in the front. Mgt. VAN MARTER: You're eliminating the two commercial occu- pancies then? MR. TEETER: No. They're on the street floor. MR. VAN MARTER: The second floor as marked is in fact the third. MR. GASTEIGER: I think Greg's question is a good one, because as I read this, it looks to me as if you'll be cutting yourself off of rents by going in this direction. Either he wants more per unit, or you'll end up with more occupancies. Will you change the density of this area? MR. TEETER: We 11, I get much more for a one bedroom apart meat than I can for a four bedroom or a three' bedroom. MSR. BODINE: Do you have any idea how many sq. ft. the lot on one floor of the building might be? MR. TEETER: I think the lot is about 60 X 80. MR. MARTIN: I assume the original building, the new building, the one that replaced the one burned down, was built under a variance. ISL. TEETER: I don' t know sir, I can't answer that. All I do know, it was a huge brick building which must have been three or four stories tall. It was very much like the present Hunter building which is right next door. I lived at East Seneca Street, I lived at 805 when that went up one night. -64- MR. MARTIN: Any further questions from members of the Board? Thank you. Is there anyone else here this evening who would like to be heard on behalf of the appeal? MR. BAR?: I am Bruce Bard and I prepared the plans that you have in front of you, or you had in front; of you a few minutes ago. I'd just like to say that I have accompanied the city inspectors through the building and gone over the whole building with them as to what was needed to make it an improved habitation, and then with those ideas and some of Mr. Teeter's, and some that I came up with myself, I put together a set of plans which would meet . the city code. and also provide a better situation for Mr . Teeter who has difficulty sometimes in renting an apartment that requires four compatible persons to live together for a year. Very often one person will default, flunk out of college or whatever, and that leaves the burden on three other persons. Maybe they can't find another person, maybe they decide they can't pay the rent and leave Mr. Teeter in an awkward situation financially. He's got two apartments in that category. The other apartments in the building are very up-to-date and there's no problem with them, but these two he does have difficulty keeping, them filled with people that are compatible and can make use of an awkward situation. `f -65- MR. KASPRZAK: Mr. Bard, I understand that you're implying I think, if I'm wrong, I'm sorry, that the !! city is making the request that you convert !i this apartment, or is it the incompatibility of Mr. Teeter's tenants that makes you convert it? MR. BARD: We have some of both. In other words, the city code requires a certain amount of light in each habitable room, each bedroom, each livingroom. Now, whoever built this building' i originally built it without sufficient light, p• )1 and what light there is in there, was kind of } an invention. It was not a practical means. II There is a large window 16 feet high up the front and it is an overhang over the sidewalk, i� and it is constantly a maintenance problem, } jbut also because the room that is in the front end of the building is 16 feet, all the heat `E goes up to the top and makes a heating problem j and the light goes into the bedroom on the second-hand light. In other words, it goes IE through a second set of windows in order to reach the bedrooms. Now this is kind of a contrived way to beat a code in the first place before Mr. Teeter ever bought the place, MR. KASPRZAK: Did this get the code approval before it was 'F built? j MR. JONES: I have no way of knowing-it was before my time. ! ' MR. VAN MARTER: I think if you removed those protections that are parallel to the sidewalk you end up with the original one room the way it was designed -66- when it was built new. j ]MR. BARD: That could be, because the construction that is there now is. . . MR. VAN MARTER: The reason it was limited to two units was to: avoid all those requirements for a multiple dwelling. rj MR. BARD: Right. ! lit. VAN MARTER: This was precise and clearly understood in the beginning. ; MR. BARD: Well, now on the first level which is marked ;E first floor there, it's the first floor of this apartment, are two cubicles there which are barely right size for a minimum bedroom J ;a according to the codes that we operate under, is and the only windows in there are some that i open to a livingroom, the livingroom has !' light, and so this is an undesireable situation and what we are trying to make is a better building, a better city, and so by tearing out those cubicles and laying out the rooms differently so that they do have outside light, they do conform, you can make the rooms larger by the new layout, and make a situation where ' Mr. Teeter can rent the thing as a single, more advantageously than he can trying to i squeeze all those students into those oversized. . jMR. KASPRZAK: I wish you didn't use that word 'squeeze' . IMR. BARD: Well, maybe I should use another word, but they apartments are kept well, and if you had a lower number of occupancy as possible, in 'i i' q; -67- other 67-other words, you've got to have one occupancy; for each bedroom in the present setup. If you change the number of occupancy to four singles, you may have a few doubles, but you'll probably have a few singles too. You're actually going to have a tendency to reduce j your density and you're not in a location 's there where you're so far away from the University that you're going to be renting to persons who have cars as a general rule. They may or may not, but there's a tendency to rent them to people who don't have cars, and I do the largest share of Mr. Teeter's remodeling and maintenance work, and I'm familiar even with the students that live in his property. I MR. MARTIN: Any further questions from members of the Board? Thank you. Seeing that there are no others to speak on this case, that concludes our public hearing for this evening. i i i ;i it i f i I! i{ i i y -68- i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA .NNE 22 1975 EXECUTIVE SESSION APPEAL NO. 1083 !1 MR. GASTEIGER: I move to grant the requested area variance. NR. MARTIN: I second that. it !' FINDS OF FACT 1) The requested variance is limited to it variance from the off street parking require 4 ments of the Ordinance. The existing building has no off street parking, and a proposed i conversion would seem to have no more serious I I parking effect than the current building. i 2) The practical difficulty which makes it impossible to comply with the off street jparking requirements of the Ordinance was i recognized at the time the existing building f was put up. I VOTE: YES - 2 NO - 4 ii li 'I ,i i i e I i i ,i i i -69- i� C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, OLGA POTORTI, DO CERTIFY That I took the minutes of the Boardof Zoning Appeals, City of Ithaca, in the matters of Appeals Nos. 1072, 1076, 1080, 1082, and 1083 on June 2, 1975, at City Hall, City of Ithaca, New York, that I have transcribed the same, and the foregoing is a true copy of the transcript of the minutes of the meeting and the Executive Session of the Board of Zoning Appeals, City of Ithaca, on the above date, and the whole thereof to the best of my ability. Olg9orpotorti Adm nistrative Secretary Sworn to before me this lam,_ day of- 0"' , 1975. N Public JOSEPH A RUNDLE Notary Public, State of New York No. 55-4507134 Qualified in Tompkins Count Term Expires March 30, 19'��