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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1978-04-03 I it �I j TABLE OF CONTENTS MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, ITHACA, j ; NEW YORK - April 3 , 1978 f 'I Page i ; APPEAL NO. 1193 Anthony Albanese for 2 JaBe Mills Pet Foods 102 Adams Street iAPPEAL NO. 1193 Executive Session 6 '! I APPEAL NO. 1196 CornellRadio Guild 7 227 Linden Avenue ;,APPEAL NO. 1196 Executive Session 10 I .i lJAPPEAL NO. 1198 Student Agencies , Inc . 11 it 411-413. 415 College Ave . 1APPEAL NO. 1198 Executive Session 26 � '!CERTIFICATION OF RECORDING SECRETARY 28 i; i i 'i j I j i i f ii i I { i i i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS i CITY OF ITHACA, COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS APRIL 3, 1978 i! JA regular meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, ;, was held in the Common Council Chambers , City Hall , Ithaca, New !; S ! York on April 3, 1978 . i !i ! PRESENT: Peter Martin, Chairman Judith Maxwell Martin Greenberg i I William Wilcox Thomas D. Hoard, Secretary to the i f Board & Building Commission r Barbara Ruane, Recording Secretary IABSENT : Joseph Gainey, Jr. Gregory Kasprzak ! ' Chairman Martin called the April meeting of the Ithaca City Zoning ';) Board of Appeals together . We have a slim Board present this even Ding but we do have a quorum. Since there are only four of us !;present this evening that means the following : State law requires '1that for a variance or similar permission to be granted by the Boa !d there must be four affirmative votes and that means that this even-� !ling you are shooting for four out of four rather than four out of ! six. For those of you who are not familiar with the Board' s pro- !; �ceedings let me very swiftly summarize them for you. The Board i `;operates under the provisions of the Ithaca Zoning Ordinance , the '; Ithaca Sign Ordinance and the charter of the City of Ithaca. Our !!proceedings are not governed by strict rules of evidence but we do j ':.!follow the following somewhat orderly procedure . We take the cases s +1up in the order in which they have been filed with the Building l j,lCommissioner. We hear first the person presenting the appeal , { whether the land owner or some representative of the land owner. l Members of the Board may have questions for the appellant , then we ! ! hear others who have testimony relevant to the issue before the Board, first those who are in favor of the action then those who a4e { ; opposed. Finally, after hearing all testimony relevant to a partil 1 11cular case we hear the others . After hearing all of the testimony i i ! in public session the Board then goes into executive session to j +E ! I� I i i' - 2 - I '; deliberate on what we've heard. We vote, come to findings of fact to support the action we take based on the public testimony we 've j: heard and then reconvene in public session to announce those re- !1sults. This evening we have one case that the Board carried over I1from its March meeting because of the absence of a person who coul I I{i give more specific information about the use involved. So we will 1hear that case before hearing fresh testimony on the cases which 'I have been filed for this April meeting. SECRETARY HOARD announced the appeal to be heard: i IJAPPEAL NO. 1193 : Appeal of Anthony Albanese for a ue II variance under Section 30 . 25 , Col- eumn 2 , to use part of the premises at 102 Adams Street for a pet food i' store . The property is located ini an R-2b (Residential) use district where mercantile uses are not per- mitted. 'I 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Mr. Albanese . 1MR. ALBANESE: I 'm Mr , Albanese, Mr. Chairman. I I ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Mr. Albanese you can take it as a given that the i! IlBoard is familiar with the property in question and the history of ! Ithe case. Our sole concern, that led us to hold this matter over Ijconcerns the precise nature of the use that we are talking about - ' 11the Pet Food Sales tenant that concerns 1193 . '!�i I MR. ALBANESE: Well, Mr. Munson from Lansing is the tenant and they j�have approximately about 900 square feet which is storage , then I` I�they have about 400 square feet which is a little office in the reaIr of the building and they have just one employee and they use one f i parking lot . That' s about the extent of it . !ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Is Mr. Munson here? MR. ALBANESE: Yes h.e is - he is in the rear here. I 1 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay, does the Board have any questions for Mr . ! lAlbanese before we turn to Mr . Munson? I ' MR. WILCOX: One parking lot you mean one parking space? ,MR. ALBANESE : One parking space, that ' s all that is necessary. I �iCHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay. I think that since the questions that I I i 'I `i I - 3 - r recall from our last meeting all concern Mr. Munson' s business tha i ; � we might just hear from him then. Thank you. MR. MUNSON: I 'm Cal Munson. CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Mr . Munson, could you just describe to us the kinds of pet foods that you store , the kind of customer traffic yo I� generate and such other things that would help the Board get a sen e of your total business and it' s impact on the neighborhood. I MR. MUNSON: Some of the things we sell are dog food in bags , ever - � thing is bags some horse feed, chicken feed, water softening sal beads . . . . CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Is the horse and chicken feed also in bags? r( MR. MUNSON: Everything is bagged - there is no bulk. e CHAIRMAN MARTIN: And it' s all - you don' t bag it , it comes in bag ? i1 i� MR. MUNSON: No , it' s pre-bagged by the manufacturer . i3 CHAIRMAN MARTIN: And your customers , how do they get in touch with 11this food? They pick it up themselves or do you deliver it? 11MR. MUNSON: They pick it up themselves . ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: ues you.Alri htCan guesstimate for us how man Alright . Y g Y ii customers come by your operation in a day? ii ;SMR. MUNSON: On the average right now I 'd say probably - just beim �;a guess - about fifteen to eighteen. i 11,zCHAIRMAN MARTIN: Do any of them come in pretty big trucks? ! i '!MR. MUNSON: No , not to my knowledge . Mainly a pick-up or a car . CHAIRMAN MARTIN: And deliveries? How often and in what kind of vehicle do they . . . ? �MR. MUNSON: You are talking deliveries I make or ? ' CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Deliveries to you of the food that you sell . iI jIMR. MUNSON: Just being a guess again I would say, every two weeks . i! It would vary anywhere from small truck to tractor trailer occasion- ,,ally. ccasion- ,,ally. ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: How often do you get the big tractor trailer? MR. MUNSON: That would come only - roughly - three times a year. 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Th-e deliveries you make to customers - how many of ;them and involving what . . . ? f f i F - 4 - MR. MUNSON: Mainly to Cornell . Very limited and that' s usually I :: made on a direct basis from the manufacturing pick-up to Cornell directly. 1 ,, CHAIRMAN MARTIN: A concern that at least one member of the Board i ;! expressed as we pondered this without any hard information last i ,: month was rats or other vermin. Do you - what steps do you take ilto be sure that ' s not a problem? :1MR. MUNSON: We use a commercially made rat control poison which Il ii Ham very - you know - also worried with you about it because once something is broken , of course you wouldn' t dare sell it, you'd ii o� have to just throw it away and be done with the bag . 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Have you experienced any difficulty? ;l ;!MR. MUNSON: As of now, no . �i ( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there additional questions from members of ` I i , the Board? 1,iDR. GREENBERG: Is this business likely to expand, do you have i , facilities to expand where you are located? I jMR. MUNSON: You are talking more room for the business? 11DR. GREENBERG: Yes . 1MR. MUNSON: No , there is no more room available that I know of. ?We are not looking to expand, we have sufficient space right now. IICHAIRMAN MARTIN: When your customers come, where do they park? E IMR. MUNSON: Right out in front of the door . ! SICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay. On the street? t i !!MR. MUNSON: Which would be - you know - toward Dey Street . They ;,normally come in off Dey Street toward the store . ;`CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Now you have the one parking space that you have I been assigned off the street and you use that for your vehicle? �I 1MR. MUNSON: Yes sir. , JCHAIRMAN MARTIN: Any further questions? ii j!MR. HOARD: What are your hours? !I ;IMR. MUNSON: 10 : 00 to 6 : 00 . it !iMR. HOARD: That ' s six days or seven days a week? ! t �I MR. MUNSON: Five days and Saturday we are open 9 : 00 to 1 : 00 . 'i i �i ii Pi - 5 - �� I 'ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Any further questions? � DR. GREENBERG : How big is the largest bulk that you are selling? �i iP! How large is - heavy is the bulk bag? i' ' MR. MUNSON: 100 pound bags. i� IDR. GREENBERG : 100 pound bags . So you have to give a hand to the i customer? ,! MR. MUNSON: We carry everything out. I I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay, I think you've answered our questions Mr . 'IMunson. Thank you. i' i� MR. MUNSON: Thank you. ( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Is there anything else that the Board should hea jion this case - 1193? If not, we' ll move on then to the cases I I ; docketed for April . j I� i� ii i) ii ii ii ii ;i f� i� 'i ii I� j I P� L Ilff i" {I j i� i! I it l ii 4 j' ii i 'i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS ' CITY OF ITHACA, COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS !` APRIL 3, 1978 j �1 it i1 EXECUTIVE SESSION ! APPEAL NO. 1193 : 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I move that the variance requested in case 1193 be granted. 11, MRS. MAXWELL : I second the motion. 'i !; FINDING OF FACT: 1 . The sole issue in this case concerns f k the compatability of the proposed pet food store in the neighborhood, the question of hardship having been dealt i' with in an earlier case involving the I� i! whole building. i 2 . Testimony presented indicated that the Pet Food Store generates fairly light customer traffic and that deliveries involving large trucks occur infre- quently so that the traffic impact on ii !; the neighborhood is insubstantial . i! 3 . The Board' s concern that the feed might ) i' jdraw vermin was calmed by testimony tha the appellant made use of sophisticated i` rat control techniques . i! I1VOTE : 4 Yes ; 0 No. !i I Variance granted. .i I I 'i i= ii I� II i li I �i ij 11 i1 I i - 7 - iI IJSECRETARY HOARD ANNOUNCED the next appeal to be heard. E; APPEAL NO. 1196 : Appeal of the Cornell Radio Guild, Inc. for a use variance under Section 30 . 25 , Columns 2 and 4 , (permitted primary uses and off-street parking requirements) to 1 permit use of the ground floor of the j building at 227 Linden Avenue (where !� radio station WVBR is now located) for j� storage by the Cornell University Theatr Arts Department. The property is locate in an R- 3b (residential) use district, and is deficient in required off-street parking . ';CHAIRMAN MARTIN: This particular property, like the Ithaca Calendar Klock factory case we just heard involves a structure that ' s been i. Ithe subject of many variance requests before the Board and unless 1some member of the Board wants to hear new testimony on the diffi- I I Ilculty of putting that building to residential use, I think we can spass on that question and talk simply about compatability of the j, proposed new tenant - tenant ' s use with the neighborhood . PAVID GOLDSMITH: Okay - it' ll be the Cornell University Theatre I �lArts Department. They are looking for spaces to store scenery and '1props for their productions . Cornell obviously can' t seem to find i; any space to put them up there so they are looking for other space . IIThey will be at the building very rarely, probably - maybe six I 11times a year at the close of a show bringing down props and picking liup new props for the next show. Any traffic that will be involved ;;will be a 18 ' U Haul Truck which they will rent when they need to , I I Ito bring the equipment down there . Traffic should be very light jand they will be there very little time . It will be very quiet and jmake no noise at all . It seems to be an ideal tenant for us for the ;building. They are very quiet , we' ll have no problems with them. 'i IlIt ' s just plain storage. IICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay, could you fit this into the building for us? Pmean, you've lost the Mid Week Observer which was your downstairs �Itenant. MR. GOLDSMITH: Right. ;;CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Will this fill up the . . . . ? jMR. GOLDSMITH: No. This takes up about the left hand side of the it ;building space from the first floor - roughly at 500 of the space . I i iI i! i 1i i! _ g _ �j !CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Leaving vacant the right hand one? i; lMR. GOLDSMITH: Right . i !CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. So if you are lucky and find another 11tenant then there would be another future variance concerning the ;fright hand one-half. i 1MR. GOLDSMITH: Right. I ? CHAIRMAN MARTIN: How frequently will props or scenery be brought fin and taken away? MR. GOLDSMITH: Probably six times a year, maybe a little bit more I l!but nothing more than a couple of times a month at the most . ! w ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Questions from members of the Board? SMR. WILCOX: You own the building? MR. GOLDSMITH: Yes. ;�MR. WILCOX: Don' t they also plan to construct scenery there? i lJMR. GOLDSMITH: No . There will be no construction allowed there I1 whatsoever. They have a full scene shop at Cornell . This will be j i, } strictly for storage. SMR. WILCOX: Because they rented space from me and they needed room lto construct stage and they bought a couple of saws and . . . i' ,jMR. GOLDSMITH: Yes - we discussed this with them very clearly and slit is set very straight forward in the lease that the space is only! i' to be used for storage. I ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Well it certainly - you say it ' s in the lease, lithe Board could make it clear in the terms of the variance that it I! ! granted that it was only granting a variance for storage and the jassembly of scenery was not within it ' s scope . '' I SMR. GOLDSMITH: That would be fine . ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Any further matters of concern to the Board? By �jall appearances this is a far less intensive use than the prior ;i 1itenants? MR. GOLDSMITH: Yes , much less , in all respects - less traffic , les �Ideliveries , much more ideal tenant for the building. i' i i 'I i I' ! it ; 1 i� 9 . i� ;; CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay. No further questions? Thank you. i : 1MR. GOLDSMITH: Thank you. 1CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Is there anyone else who would like to be heard i, on this case involving the property at 227 Linden Avenue? We ' ll Ii ff ;! move on then to the next case . i l� j it ; I i 3 ;f i ;i I 1 I i i l i ii � i I - 10 - E i it BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS I ii CITY OF ITHACA, COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS it APRIL 3, 1978 I; EXECUTIVE SESSION .i Il APPEAL NO. 1196 : ( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I move that the variance requested in case 1196 be granted. j MR. WILCOX: I second the motion. I ! ii FINDING OF FACT: 1) The issue in this case concerns only i the compatability between the proposed !' use and the neighborhood, the issue of i. hardship having been dealt with in an ;i earlier case. E 2) The proposed use, which involves storag ` only and no construction of props or scenery, is according to the testimony presented likely to generate very littl� ii traffic at the building. :I I i ii 3) In terms of impact on the neighborhood I! i +� the proposed use is significantly less I intensive than some of the prior uses I in the same space . i I� This variance , like the application, is �! limited solely to the storage of scenery it and props and does not extend to their i ! li construction. iIVOTE: 4 Yes ; 0 No . I Use Variance granted. �i �! I ii ii ly �I 1 1 '1 11 I i 'ISECRETARY HOARD announced the next appeal to be heard: 1APPEAL NO. 1197 : ,! Secretary Hoard announced that Appeal 1197 has been withdrawn. ;i 1j The appellants did not notify all property owners within 200 ' of w their property. !,ISECRETARY HOARD announced the next appeal to be heard: ! APPEAL NO. 1198 : Appeal of Student Agencies Properties , I Inc. , for an area variance under Sectio I 30 . 25 , Columns 4 and 10, (off-street I; parking and maximum lot coverage require- ments) and Section 30. 49C (extension or ii enlargement of a non-conforming struc- ture) to add a four bedroom apartment , I? add a single bedroom to each of four existing apartments and replace the rear I� porches and stairs to the building at 411-413-415 College Avenue , in a B- 2 (commercial) use district . The appeal concerns a non-conforming structure , and property which is deficient in re- quired off-street parking, and exceeds I the maximum lot coverage permitted for I! the district . i s1CONNIE MILLER: - My name is Connie Miller, I 'm an attorney, I work i lIwith Michael Pichel who represents Student Agencies Properties , Inc. 11 ion this appeal . This application is for an area variance only, not la use variance . There was a unanimous recommendation of the Planni g RBoard to the Zoning Board of Appeals . The building is located at ,1 411-413=415 College Avenue . That' s at the northern-most end of ( College Avenue immediately adjacent to the Cornell campus . In fact) :(there isn' t any place in Ithaca closer to the Cornell campus than ;that building. -On the first floor there are three commercial store , Iuggsy' s Cafe, which is not yet opened, Collegetown Bagles and ,lRuloffs . Are you familiar with the building? '(CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Yes . 0S. MILLER: There are apartments above the ground floor . Student v' ,Agencies Properties, Inc , would like to replace a non-conforming !{good frameback porch and fire escape with a conforming steel and ii , fl` ock bedroom structure and a steel and block fire egress . This i1ould not extend beyond where the present porch now ends . And in i i i 12 - ;,; addition to that they would like to build a four bedroom apartment ;; into unused fourth floor space at 413-415 College Avenue . This i would be a conforming apartment which would be exactly the same - jwell not exactly the same but similar to an existing apartment which 11is already at 411 College Avenue on the fourth floor. At the last meeting there was some question about whether these improvements w re ,f being made because of a requirement of the Building Commissioner nand I ' d like to make it .clear that these improvements are being I i� 'jmade but the request is to make them voluntarily by Student Agenci s i ;! Properties , Inc . They now have a Certificate of Occupancy. There !lis no requirement that they replace the wooden back porch and the il�!j wooden fire escape with a steel structure . I think this is what jthey would like to make this improvement in the building. It would jcertainly improve the appearance of the back of the building and iat the last - at the Planning Board meeting there was a representa � LJtive from the Luthern Church which looks out at the back of the building, who was very much in favor of having an improvement to i l. the appearance of the back of the building and I think it would also I � be a safety feature for the remaining buildings on that block. P 1CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Excuse me , Ms . Miller, I can understand, I mean, !II think I understand the total package here , but I don' t understand why it necessarily fits together . Can you explain to me why the jlappearance of the rear could not be improved without adding bedroo s jback there, why, similarly, the wooden porch, which provides the egress in the rear, couldn' t be replaced with a more fire safe I Ilstructure without the addition of a bedroom. In other words , why I ?I the thing which brings you here for a variance necessarily couples Hwith improving the appearance of the rear and providing a safer wayl w j out? j MS . MILLER: I guess you could say it ' s primarily an economic con- I sideration. Of course the improvements could be made and it couldl I be replaced with a steel fire escape and a concrete block structurq libut in order to justify the added expense of changing that, Student II !� i 13 - '; Agencies Properties , Inc . would like to put an additional four bed- " rooms in the back in the space that' s already there . I guess you i ; would speak to the representatives from Student Agencies Properties, i IInc. here , as to that matter but I believe the major consideration 'iwould be that in order to justify the expense of building that the i ;iwould like to have the additional rentals . The primary reason for the variance and the primary concern with the Planning Board, at iileast , was the B-2 requirements for parking . In that regard I i i. !( would like to point out that this is the building closest to the ! Cornell campus and most of the people who live in that building are students and they live there because of it' s location. Of the H i1twenty-four present tenants only one of them has a car and I don' t i ; really believe that parking is a problem from the practical sense ! because this is why students rent in that particular building and 11 1+ on that block, so they can walk to the Cornell campus so they won' ii need a car. They pay someone high rents to live in a collegetown l area in lieu of having a car and living in the country or downtown. None of the buildings on this street , I don' t believe , meet the jparking requirements and they are all buildings which are non-con- ! forming in that sense. There is simply no land available in that ijarea to create parking spaces for these buildings . It ' s an impos- sibility. There is public parking and Cornell parking nearby, thq i public lot that is down below the street . There are spaces also I11available to rent from private sources in the Collegetown area and i� flat the last meeting Jason Fane testified that even as low as $3 . 00 ! per month for parking spaces in areas which he has to rent in the lCollegetown area, he is not able to fill those spaces . There just if simply is not enough demand in the Collegetown area for parking . The other question is the lot percentage coverage requirement. Th !!building presently exceeds the 750 limit and the proposed changes , again I would point out , would not enlarge the building beyond where lithe back porch is now extends . They would only replace the back (porches with. concrete block and steel fire escape structure . This ] e. i� i' i� iI 14 - I i karea is zoned B-2 but I don' t believe any of the properties on thi ,;, particular block of College Avenue meet the requirements for B-2 I ;! and all of them are variances . This is historically true - they'v 'jbeen that way for many years . I don' t believe it would be in keep- I ding with the character of that neighborhood, in that particular ;, block, to make any of the buildings meet the B-2 requirements and jto create side yards and alleyways in between the buildings and 40 ' store fronts , etc. The character of the neighborhood, I believe, �y iris more like the B- 3 downtown commercial district and if it' s goin to be zoned B-2 I think that should be with liberal variances . Ju5t for an example , John Petrillose was at the Planning Board meeting i and he spoke in favor of this . His building, which is burned, on lCollege Avnue is a non-conforming use and if he should build later (; than a year, in that building, he would have to conform to these requirements and I don' t believe if he had to create the side yardt 11specifications that he would have in the building. This building ;! isn' t any larger than the 15 ' side set back requirements and Bob ;! Johnson of Triangle book store also telephone the Planning Board l 11in favor of this proposal . I 'd just like to conclude by asking ( that if you have any doubt about the character of that particular 1;block of College Avenue that you go up and take a look at it. It 11 ' is a commercial area, it' s a student residential area - very little! j; parking is needed and I don' t believe that the proposed improvements 'Ito this building would in any way interfere with the present char- '� acter of the neighborhood. Any questions? I� CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Do members of the Board have any questions from f; jMs . Miller? 11 1DR. GREENBERG : How many additional occupants would be included in ! t ! the building if this variance were granted? !SMS . MILLER: There would be eight . There would be an additional j �I ;!bedroom in the back of the building for each of four present apart-� ;invents and there would be an additional four bedroom apartment on e !thefourth floor . f� i� i I is e iDR. GREENBERG : We count bedrooms if we haven' t counted people, i but you are assuming that one person per bedroom? ;SMS. MILLER: These will be single bedrooms , yes . 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: In there presently, we've got two counts . One ii i! in your written application and one in your oral presentation. liHow many tenants in the property? You said twenty-four, the writt n 1presentation said twenty-two . i TMS. MILLER: I think that was an error . I believe there are twent - �i i four. ( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Twenty-four . With - full up? I mean, full occu- pancy? i. { MS. MILLER: Yes . You could check with the representatives from I Student Agencies . It' s twenty-four . 1 li { CHAIRMAN MARTIN: So, I mean, you are adding a third again to the capacity of the building in terms of residential tenants? MS. MILLER: Yes . ;CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Yes . IMS. MILLER: That is what this area is designed for - is student I(� residential use . , CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay, are there further questions from members of i ii the Board? 'SDR. GREENBERG : I have on, it ' s kind of a peculiar question, I sup- Igpose. You gave a long list of owners of adjacent premises and I �i lcan almost go along with everything that has been proposed by the lPlanning Board but I ' d like to hear what the students have to say, �ithose who are residents of the area. It seems to me they should i1 �Ihave some weight and yet they are not spoken of really as giving i an input . �kMS. MILLER: Well I have my office on College Avenue and I live in 4hearea so I am familiar with the character. The president of 'Student Agencies , Inc. is a student at Cornell University and perha s ,ie can answer your questions as a student . He ' ll be speaking here . (CHAIRMAN MARTIN: We ' ll have a chance to ask him some questions , �I �akay. Any further questions for Ms . Miller? Thank you. li - 16 - �i IMS. MILLER: Thank you. i 1ROBIN LANG: My name is Robin Lang, I'm the president of Student iAgencies , Inc . and Student Agencies Properties, Inc . I would like to perhaps answer a couple of inquiries that you posed, Mr. Green- ' !� berg. ;! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: As the thing is set up , when the Board says no, it Ilif the Board says no , the Board is saying no to a prettier hind en for your building and a safe egress from a fire and I just don' t see why those things necessarily hook up with the proposed expan- Hsion of the residential capacity of the building of by one-third. I !i 11MR. LANG: Okay. `! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: You could do all those other things without it , ! right? t 11MR. LANG: Correct , we could do those other things . I haven' t I1looked through the zoning ordinance to check it out but I imagine 11those things could be done without adding apartments in. Ms . Mill r I1was correct in saying that the basic reason for wanting to add the `` additional occupancy on is economic . The - although the wood fire j� ( egresses there presently do not conform to current code they are ;! acceptable by virtue of the grandfather clause so we are not in th jiposition ofbeing forced to remove them and it would be economically( Ii lunviable for us to do so . It would be - we have looked into the l'icost of installing some - of removing the existing fire egresses , ' I 11replacing them with new ones that would conform to current code + and it is quite prohibitive from our standpoint so we are trying t ? add some revenue generating space onto the building at the same !` time we believe we are improving it. it ii CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Without regard to the increasing the number of ibedrooms wouldn' t the improvement of the fire egress have a bene- ficial affect on your insurance? !' MR. LANG : I do not believe so sir. I HCHAIRMAN MARTIN: Are there questions? j I i! .i I� ,j jll - 17 - IMR. LANG : Could I respond to one of the questions? I believe one ! of the questions you posed was about the number of occupants in th Libuilding. We currently have twenty-four bedrooms in the building hand our leases stipulate that there will be no more than one occu- pant per bedroom. We are adding eight additional bedrooms and we �iwould continue to stipulate in our leases that there would be no {more than one occupant per bedroom, so we would be adding eight I, jloccupants as well as eight bedrooms . You were asking what the i 1Istudents thought . . . �f , DR. GREENBERG: Of the increased density in the area . . . I i' MR. LANG: Of the increased density in the area - I can speak for I myself, I have no objection in fact I think it' s good. I don' t I think any students oppose that vehemently - there has been legal i : notice of this meeting . Many people who have come in - prospective ii ! tenants for next year and current tenants now, as well as people in your office are aware of this and none of them have come to complain ilfor have complained to me. I don' t know if you are familiar with our �i flcorporation. Although we have no legal or financial ties with 1 ornell University we are entirely student run and owned by a foun- I i ation. I am the president of the corporation. All the managers Znderneath me are also students with the sole exception of Mr. i I�Clemente who is sitting in the back , and if you people will give hi chance I think he might like to come up and say something , who is Ikur consultant on a fee basis . So we have no objections , we think i. t would be good. The only other two points I can add is there hav f, een - there presently in the one building 413 - 415 - there are our four-bedroom apartments and two per floor . I think if that I wilding was thirty stories high and I had sixty apartments I could I�^ent every single one of them out if I wanted to . I have a stack o i I have not been signing any leases for next year as of yet , becau e 11 would like to have a resolution of this to try to figure out whetler i am renting - four-bedroom or five-bedroom apartments and how many. it i iii i! 18 - �I I have a stack of about thiry or forty different names of people ,, who wish to rent from us so I think there is a great demand for .' housing in this area and I think that the students are in favor of ;lit . If the Board would permit me, I would like to point out two ;! specific distinctions to you people if I may. One has to do with d this particular block of College Avenue which we are talking about jas opposed to Collegetown in general . Collegetown in general , if !� f you go in the one and two hundred block of College Avenue or Eddy Street or up in Linden Avenue or whatever is a residential neighbo - E1hood with old single family units that have been turned into a cou le ;sof apartments . The first block of College Avenue as well as the ! Il first block of Eddy Street - this is not so , this is a strictly co - mercial area with residential units on top. Every building in the area is a commercial unit, it is a couple of blocks that are of a + completely different character than the rest of Collegetown. Another '! distinction I would like to point out is there has been some concern I } expressed over the years about the need for parking in Collegetown M and in this particular area of Collegetown in particular . There i! was a meeting in this room a couple of weeks ago with the Mayor I. and some members of the Planning Board about establishing a parkin ;, garage and some development in Collegetown. I think the need for !! jparking in this area is a need for parking during the day from the 1+ hours of 10 ' til 5 or 10 ' til 6 for the commercial traffic , for th shoppers . It is not the need for long term parking , as we have i; i4 l� already point out only one of our current twenty-four tenants in tl e ; building - and there are twenty-four of them - possesses a car. I11There is within approximately 300 ' of our building a few parking 1 is i ; which rent spaces at reasonable rents which have a high degree of i vacancy. There is plenty of available long term parking in the f? ! area. It is a need for short term parking that there is here and we !! will not add any burden to that I do not believe . 11 CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Any further questions? Thank you. 1`1MR. LANG: Thank you. f i i I - 19 - i1 CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Now is there someone else who would like to be ifheard on this case? Yes . i MR. CLEMENTE: Good evening. My name is Ed Clemente, I am known a i J a consultant to Student Agencies in this sense - more or less an ,jadvisor. I think the best I could do at this point would be to i1 ;! summarize the points that Mr. Lang and Ms . Miller have made before ; lime , specifically that what we propose is very much within the char iacter of this building. It' s a building of student residents which jwe do intend to expand , the expansion will be accomplished by addilng jnew conforming modern units , which I would suggest would be above ' average living facilities for this area. We anticipate that this l lwould be very well received by the student rental market in that , f Lias Robin has pointed out , even for our existing facilities we are laccustomed to having very extended waiting lists for this particul r location. This being , again, the closest available housing - the i; closest available off-campus housing to Cornell . Second, as Connie ;lin particular pointed out , I think it is well within the character � of the neighborhood which is essentially a merger of commercial an it I Iaccompanying residential of generally more consistent with a B-3 lzoning such as downtown than the B-2 which it is currently zoned. j I If this area, in fact, were zoned B-3 none of the aspects of vari- � !lance which we now request would, in fact , be at variance with the 11code. We would be in - to the best of my knowledge - in full con- I formance if this were zoned equivalent say to the Commons area which I , it does , in fact, compare to very closely. .lust a third point , less ;specific , is that when members of our firm sat with the Planning t; Committee of the City Council two weeks ago , at, which time they were jdiscussing prospects of general area redevelopment in Collegetown t I�I 11primarily dealing with traffic flow and providing expanded parkingf in the area behind Sheldon Court which is across the street from us , done of the particular points made by Mayor Conley was that one of ; the anticipated and intended results of such redevelopment would, I ;I l lin fact , be to intensify the usage of Collegetown to provide an i1 Ij I 1 li i i !I - 20 - i lincentive for private capital to upgrade and to further develop the jarea. I think that what we propose here is well within what the .' City apparently has in mind when they - in light of what they woul ' anticipate being the desired results of their possible participation ,fat some future date in the redevelopment of Collegetown. ;CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Questions? Any questions for Mr. Clemente? it ;Thank you. Alright , is there anyone else here, first anyone else `,who would like to speak in favor of the requested variance? ! !i "IMR. LEWIS: My name is Irving Lewis and the Company that I am ; affiliated with owns the property which is located at 407-409 Collelge 'i Avenue, which is right next door. I 'm not here tonight to approve !or disapprove of the request that these people are making next door+ 's : to increase their apartments . I am concerned, of course about the �- i 1Pn fact I didn' t expect to speak here tonight but I couldn' t really jhear the young lady that spoke so I got parts of it as the two men it, ; were speaking later and I understand they are going to increase the E 1area there for more student housing and I concur and agree with { !Ithem that there is a market there for students that want to come ini 'here and live right near the University because that is very, very jclose. We rent apartments above the rental stores downstairs and , i, they are usually rented about six months in advance . There is al- ways more people who want them than we 've got space for . I am con-1 i cerned of course about - I haven' t spoken to any of the people of ! Ithe Student Agency and didn' t know they were going to even make this ;enlargement until I got the letter from the city - the organization ; ;here. I 'm concerned about the density because the density is imporl- i; ,!tant up there . The area is very small and when you have students hiving in apartments and we find that from our experience that we o Iialways try to control them as far as garbage - you know, setting ! jfgarbage receptacles out , picking them up and taking them back and , ,:out seeing if the garbage is strewn around the street , I 'm concerned. ;;about parking , of course, I just heard these people speak about ,sparking and I don' t know what the plans are up there - there is !I � �Ii i j i r - 21 - I ;'' really a definite shortage of parking. j ; CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Their experience has been, they tell us , that th ii 1tenant' s who rent these apartments so close to campus don' t have , automobiles so they don' t create a parking problem. They say one ;lout of twenty- four of their current tenants - one one out of twent - I1four has a car. Is your experience with 407-409 the same? I ` MR. LEWIS : I would say that they are probably right on that be- cause people living so close don' t need cars , I 'd say that and I j ;! really don' t know how many people who live in our apartments , and II 'm really not too close to the property - my son manages it but h , Itis not here, he is out of town this week and I thought . . . �ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Their argument on the parking point is that whil� Erin general it is a concern but the kind of expansion they propose j� doesn' t impact on the parking problem. . . . . �kMR. LEWIS : I would say that perhaps it would not and I really dont j� know how many cars our tenants have , I really don' t know and I dont know how many tenants their - how many cars their tenants have butt I1j would speak in general terms that there isn' t as many cars by + the group of students living there that you would find with studen s living way off campus - probably ten or twelve blocks and I want t �Ireiterate again I 'm not here to approve or disapprove . . . I 'm only!! � I jlconcerned about the parking up there and the - not the parking - ff� the density I should say I want to strike that out . There has always been up in that area certain problems because students are ; sometimes a little harder to manage than non-student tenants . And ! !' in the summer time , of course, when the students go away I don' t I1know whether they have summer rentals up there or whether they hav� all year round rentals. In our case we don' t rent in the summer 11time , we only rent on a nine and one-half month basis - or ten month lease to our students . So things quiet down in the summer time bu ;lin the fall when school opens up and through the school year - it i� ;; gets pretty close there and there is no parking at all during the !i ! day time - it is pretty hard to find a spot . If you want to go ups i' !i 'i i 22 - ,! there and just park you just can' t find a place to park. But I would think that some consideration should be given to - from your ! group - as to what activities there are up in that area as to the '' density. How many students are living in that area and if the are '! can take it or if the area can' t take it . And that' s about my onl jconcern here. I only came here because - I only appeared up here ; right here , because I couldn' t hear the young lady that was speak- ' f ;ling but I thought perhaps as I got the gist of things from the two men speakers that I could see that they were going to enlarge that ' i ;abut now - did I hear them say that they are only going to increase !Jour tenants , is that it? (; CHAIRMAN MARTIN: No, eight tenants . There will be eight addition 1 jbedrooms . I, MR. LEWIS : I see, eight bedrooms and one tenant to the . . . 'l CHAIRMAN MARTIN: One tenant per bedroom. �i MR. LEWIS : per bedroom, yes . Okay. That' s about all I have to s�y. ;! j; CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Lewis? Thank i jyou Mr. Lewis . ;; MR. LANG : Would you mind or would the Board appreciate it if I 11respond to a couple of the points? !! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: We ' d appreciate anything you can tell us about density and garbage which I take it is the one new matter on which f i ;; we 've heard concern expressed. !� MR. LANG: As to the garbage I think, fortunately for us our build ! ing is slightly different than most in Collegetown. There is an � 9 ! alley which goes up one side - it is a service alley - which goes yip �E one side of our building and extends around the rear . In that alley ; there are currently four dumpsters of Seymour' s Disposal Service f !'! which are rented by the commercial tenants of our building. These ! ,I 1dumpsters are emptied seven days a week in the morning and we have I1been able to make arrangements , in fact we have actually incorporall '' ted into the leases of our commercial tenants that those dumpsters i! will also be used by our residential tenants so we do not have the ! f iI i - 23 - ! !i ; problem - we do not have any garbage cans , period. All our tenant ii ;Ido is walk out of their apartment into the alley and throw their garbage into the dumpster. So I think that we do not have that sane ;! problem as maybe some other buildings do . As far as Mr. Lewis was i ;; talking about the problems over the summer and what not , all our , leases are on a twelve month basis . We switched to this about two i I! years ago and we have found that there is no problem whatsoever in 'I !; renting these out on a twelve month basis and all of our apartment dare rented in that manner . As to the density and the activities din the area, I would suggest that the - this area is a densely pop - lated area and it is a student area and that is the nature and the i :' historical nature of the area and I think it should be preserved a d i jI feel that what we are doing would go along with that . I think i I 1 there are certain other areas - there are peoplein other areas of Ie the city who do not want students around. Well if someone who is j� living in Collegetown doesn't want students , I 'm afraid they are living in the wrong place . That ' s where we are. As far as the ! student' s activities there have been some problems up in Collegeto n i some social problems . My experience in the last three or four years that I have been there is that most of the problems are not ( from the students , however. They are from local youth of the city ) I� I hand the hangers on who have maybe graduated a few years ago , or dic t not graduate and are staying around for want of something to do . ; don' t think the students are actually a problem. I �l MR. WILCOX: Do you allow pets , animals in the apartments? IMR. LANG : Our leases are drawn up that we will not allow pets how- ;fever we are flexible to a certain extent. I think throughout our ! apartments we -- I think we have one, possibly two that have cats . Il e have no dogs in the building. IMR. LEWIS : Is it alright to ask a question? i' !ICHAIRMAN MARTIN: Please . We are small and we can, therefore , be 11 ( informal tonight . ii , IC i ii - 24 1 iIMR. LEWIS: I hope I didn' t leave the impression that the students ;? were a problem up there because we don' t have a problem with our 1students . But the question I want to ask you is when you rent on ; twelve months basis , do you permit that student to sub-lease during ; the summer months when he is away? MR. LANG : Yes we do permit the sub-lease. Our experience howeve , ! is that there is not much sub-letting that goes on and the majorit � - what will happen very often is if a student has a lease that jjexpires in August and he wishes to leave in, let' s say June , he ;; will sublet to th-e person who will be moving into that apartment I� the next September . We do have some cases where there is a - you - know - a sub-lettor over the summer months who will subsequently I i `J leave but in general this is not the case . MMR. LEWIS : The only problem that we had with University propT j lerty and Mr. Celemte here is more aware of the facts here than I i Ilam because he has been closer associated with it . Our problem has I, ; always been with the subleasing problem up there. That' s the only it '; place that we ever got into problems and they would work like this I !', We rent to a student who would be a senior graduating , not going t� � take the apartment next year and he would have about three months �f Eunused use of th-e apartment. So he would rent it for about half t e sl jfprice that he was paying for it just to get something out of it . j I� Il And he would rent it to just about everybody or anybody who would j come along. And we had just an awful lot of trouble up there with; dour sub-leasees , wild parties and had a lot of problems up there and i the police docket downstairs would probably show that they had t i. i, go up there several times to straighten the affairs out. So we ;; cut that out and now only rent on a school year basis and I think II what we did was charge an extra $5 . 00 or $8 . 00 a month I think to i' jibear part of that cost out and then we just close the apartments V up , and give an apartment to a student on each side who would kindl of baby sit the apartment. For that he would do a little work to ii r I i 25 - : get the place fixed up . That ' s it. (Mr . Lewis made a couple more istatements which were not clear on the tape) . '! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay, are there further questions for Mr . Lang? Thank you for clearing up the garbage . ! MR. LANG : Thank you. i ' CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Is there anyone else here , that I don' t see who lwants to speak on this case? That then concludes this public por- � tion of the meeting , we will have to ask you to leave and we will i go into executive session. We will invite you back if you wish to � �i flstay for the results after we are done . r ii I� ii i it i �l � l i i i� i i ii t i 'i 26 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA, COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS i; APRIL 3, 1978 ii i p EXECUTIVE SESSION ii iAPPEAL NO. 1198 : CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I will move that in Case 1198 , an area variance less than the full variance re- it quested be granted. The area variance granted would permit the addition of the { one bedroom per each existing apartment j on the rear of the building in replace- ment of the current wood porches which I� i will enable the construction of a con- forming fire egress . It would not include i! the conversion of the attic to an addi- tional four bedroom apartment . !MRS. MAXWELL : I second the motion. it ! FINDING OF FACT : l) The variance of the dimensions granted I� adds only four tenants to the building {{' which does not significantly increase i the density. �I f� 2) The replacement of the wood porches per- i, mits a material increase in fire safety. !k l 3) The unique location of this property, itis proximity to the campus, suggests that t e I i� I off-street parking requirements of the li B-2 district are less a concern than wit even other nearby properties . The testil- i mony which. the Board heard concerning the present residential tenants of the i I I I I' j 2 ! - I !i property confirms that impression. This variance is granted on condition i 'j that the fire egress described to the i Board at the hearing is a part of the i bedroom addition. I VOTE: 4 Yes ; 0 No. i ¢i I) l� I I i I NI iI i� i j ii �i 'i ii i i. I� i I �I '1 'i f � i k �j 'i ,i i - 28 - i j I , Barbara Ruane , Do Certify that I took the minutes of the Board lof Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, in the matters of Appeals if ,, numbered 1193 , 1196 and 1198 on April 3 , 1978 at City Hall , City jjof Ithaca, New York ; that I have transcribed same , and the fore- 0 jdgoing is a true copy of the transcript of the minutes of the i ii ; meeting and the Executive Session of the Board of Zoning Appeals , f ! City of Ithaca, on the above date , and the whole thereof to the !ibest of my ability. i IIS I� li I� ii Barbara C. Ruane E Recording Secretary i' ii !I f� l s fi 's 'i I, 'i !ISworn to before me this C, d o 1978 1 ay £ 'a,f i Notary Public T2TTT T:%r_NT n ''T-Vti Notary k-i,iic, S`-=�.te of I:ew York Nc. -1641223 Qui 5i 0.. in 'Tvuipldns County I Terri i xpires March 30, 19$<. f j it s1 i