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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1978-07-10 �I f i BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS it COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS �I CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK JULY 10 , 1978 i A regular meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, was held in the Common Council Chambers , City Hall , Ithaca, New York on Jul 10 , 1978 . ,f y I PRESENT: Peter Martin, Chairman }i Judith Maxwell jl Dr . Martin Greenberg Gregory Kasprzak i; Thomas D. Hoard, Building Commissioner I and Secretary to the Board Barbara Ruane, Recording Secretary ABSENT: Joseph Gainey, Jr. William Wilcox EI i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: I call to order the July meeting of the Ithaca !I Board of Zoning Appeals . The Board operates under the provisions of the Ithaca City Charter, the Ithaca Zoning Ordinance and a numb r of other Ordinances that give the Board authority. For any presen 1who may not be familiar with the procedures of the Board, let me ?; outline them briefly. The Board has a public hearing at which all I ltestimony relevant to the issue confronting the Board is invited. j 'jjAfter hearing all relevant testimony the Board goes into Executive ,! Session to decide and then resumes public hearing to announce the results . There are only four members of the Board present this ?` evening . For affirmative action to be granted on a variance all ;! four votes present this evening have to be in favor , under the !! Ithaca Ordinance and under the enabling act . Our first and only case, Mr. Secretary? APPEAL NO. 1211 : Appeal of Richard Schramm and Gail S . " MacColl for an area variance under !� Section 30. 25 , Columns 6 , 10 and 13 i (requirements for minimum lot size , maximum permitted lot coverage, and j minimum depth of one side yard) , to permit remodeling of the attic of the building at 117 Stewart Avenue to crea e i additional living space. The property is located in an R-3a (residential) use district , and is non-conforming ! under the Zoning Ordinance in that the lot is deficient in size , the maximum 'I permitted percentage of lot coverage ! by buildings is exceeded, and one side yard is deficient in depth. it E .j - 2 - ' CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Could you come forward Dick and identify yoursel ;land outline the grounds. Really all that is essential is that you fbe near this mike here. (E RICHARD SCHRAMM: My name is Dick Schramm, I am one of the co-owner's hof 117 Stewart Avenue. My wife , Gail MacColl , could not be here :! this evening since she is currently in Washington, D.C. I don' t i '' know the proceeding. . . '! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Could you just review for us the nature of the i I !' variance you are seeking and the nature of the changes in the prop-I , erty that are required? ! MR. SCHRAMM: Okay, first could I be a little bit clearer on the I i i ;; procedure? You said since - what you have a quorum, just barely? ;! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: We have a quorum. There are six members of the ; Board, the Ordinance requires four affirmative votes for the grant ! of a variance. Our rules also say that four constitute a quorum. ! i !f We are a quorum this evening - we are four. You will need all our votes to grant the variance. In case you should fail to get one or more of us it would be possible to come back at some later point + and ask for a reconsideration — that would be asking for a recon- sideration in which you' d be swimming upstream against a decision ;' the Board already made. Another option is to put over to another meeting in hopes that a more complete Board would be around in I I August. 1!1MR. SCHRAMM: I 'm perfectly willing to go ahead but I thought I I ;; would register the concern that it would be more likely to get four affirmative votes if there were six members of the Board here than !! if there were just four . I don't know whether you know. . . ! ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Those are the constraints of the New York State f� enabling legislation under which we operate . IIMR. SCHRAMM: Okay. Well in any case I will be perfectly happy to { ' proceed, I just thought I would mention that. Let 's see , let me ,i '! start back - we bought the house four or five years ago on 117 ',;; Stewart Avenue , where we 've lived - it ' s been a one-family home i ! since that time . It was a one-family home , as a matter of fact, ,! since the 1870 ' s when the first part of the house was built. One i i ;i - 3 i of the nice features of the house is that it has a very large walk 'i up attic and we had talked for several years about trying to fix the attic up. In fact , because of circumstances that arose in terms of our occupational status it seemed like now might be a �E good time to do it. Let me explain that . I work at Cornell - I have a half time position at Cornell with a contract for the next �i couple of years . My wife was employed in Ithaca but because she I' could not get a job she was forced to look elsewhere and she got a , (l very fine job in Washington, D. C. on a contract there which will Ilbe up in about two years. This created a situation for us where i liwas a little - I 'm in Ithaca about 500 of the time - I live in thi 11house with my children when I 'm here but the house - we are sort 'i of - trying to figure out how we could arrange this and it seemed j like the best thing to do - it would be a good time to fix up the ' attic so that if we are able to rent it to a family we could rent I it with the condition that they might let us stay in the house as jkind of guests during this two-year period and just use part of th i! house . It seemed to us it would be easier to do if we fixed up th .! attic. Also it turns out that we were, by playing ping pong in th �g llattic, out of conformance with the Zoning regulations , or the i Building Code, or something because it' s just an attic and it does ' t !shave enough windows and enough other things so that we would be unable to use it in any fashion or we were so informed other than f� storage I guess , so to fix up the attic for more space and provide I� a guest room in the long run which would be used in that fashion t ' give us more flexibility at this time when we are in a rather un- i 1usual situation where my wife is working in Washington and I am wo k- i� 'ling in Ithaca and I am only here part time , to conform to the re- quirements so that we could use it for recreation, we thought we would make this appeal at this time. The - we are out of conformance ' with all of these things because the house was built so many years li 1ago before they had these rules. Our plan would be to better 'i (iinsulate the attic, put in more windows so we would have enough 1window space to floor space , put in an emergency stairway which i s± ii I� I` - 4 ' would not be used - it could be used in emergency but not on a ; regular basis . There would be no plumbing put in or anything like that . We 'd have to fix the stairway up inside the house to get up there but our intent is to keep it a single-family house and I don' t know what options we have - I guess we could sell it or something but it seemed like the best way to work it would be to i I ,Iget a little more flexibility at this time . j CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Alright. The only change on the exterior is the it !! addition of the emergency escape stairs . MR. SCHRAMM: Y'es - that would be in the rear of the building. j ;! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Rear of the building - that would come down to a 'goof top and not provide regular access . HMR. SCHRAMM: That's right. It would come down to the roof of a i I porch that ' s in the back. You could then walk off the porch and Iljump down about two or three feet to the ground so it would be a i ; way to get out if there was a fire . The other thing is that the i !! windows would have to be enlarged and you could see that from the it front. 'I CHAIRMAN MARTIN: So it ' s a situation in which there is a material ! non-conformity in terms of yard coverage and yard depth on at leas gone side - two sides . No off-street parking and you are making a 'Imodest change on the exterior - you are finishing off an attic , �i ;' adding one bedroom and some recreational space and there is no wayl I you could do that and comply with the ordinance because the lot doesn' t fit the ordinance . I� ' MR. SCHRAMM: I was told that I had to come to you for an appeal i� ! because we are just basically out of conformance with the new regu- � I Illations and that ' s the rule . CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Any questions? I ,i DR. GREENBERG: Could you describe the structure as it exists now, ,' the number of rooms, number of bathrooms , what the basement is like? `I 1 MR. SCHRAMM: Well , okay. I ' ll start at the bottom and work up. I The basement - part of th-e house has a basement under it the old ! ! part which is just an old basement that gets water in it fairly regularly and its not useable except we have a washing machine dow i,7 �i there , etc. Then the first floor has no bedrooms , kitchen, living room, it has one bath on the first floor and several , kind of like a living rooms . I DR. GREENBERG: Two living rooms? i I MR. SCHRAMM: Well there is kind of a living room, then what we call 111111 the middle room and then there is the .dining room and there is a kitchen. The little room in the back where there is a bathroom i that has been added. So that you can, if you want to , in the very I back room - you can put somebody in a bed back there - for a guest dor something like that. And then you go to the second floor and there are essentially four bedrooms on the second floor and a bath i, and then there is this very large walk-up attic with no bath or e anything like that on that floor. ! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Tom, upon a sale of the property what kind of ;! occupancy would be permitted? I' MR. HOARD: It would stille be limited to single-family because it Il is a non-conforming structure . If they wanted to - if anybody li� wanted to convert it they would have to go through the zoning j� variance procedure for a conversion. Any they would also have to i get a certificate of occupancy for rental property. i CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Any further questions? Anything you want to add MR. KASPRZAK: What' s the parking situation? I believe Stewart i Avenue . . . l CCHAIRMAN MARTIN: There is no off-street parking whatsoever . Ther� ' s I no room for anything. � MR. KASPRZAK: That ' s what I though. Ii MR. SCHRAMM: No it' s really a drag to find a . . . it is a tough i + place to find parking , I don' t have to tell you that . !I �- MR. KASPRZAK: What is the maximum possible occupancy at that build i' ing? MR. SCHRAMM: Of the building as it now stands? Well let ' s see four bedrooms, well we've been living there with two adults and I I three children and I suppose you could have another -- it would be jIlike six people I: suppose, I 'mean it depends on the kids, how you jwork it with the kids. We had one , two, three and then - we had �t i� j - 6 - five people , two adults and three children on the second floor; i� 'i two in one bedroom - and one bedroom for the three kids so that ' s ii kind of the basic- not a maximum I suppose you could add one or i� two other people . i! CHAIRMAN MARTIN: And your plan is - as long as you are in this sort 'I of split situation with two bases is to rent out essentially the first and second floor to a family for their occupancy and then �0 use this guest bedroom up on the third floor yourself. j MR. SCHRAMM: Well what we 'd like to do , I don' t know quite how to - i' what options we have but it would seem like if we wanted to keep j like - rent it to a family but we would just ask the family if, on 1 this part time that I 'm there with the children, they live with me when I 'm in Ithaca, at least they - it ' s a long story and I don' t :f know how much of this to get in to but basically I have an arrange j ment that my children live with their mother in Ithaca and in the 1 past one year they have lived with me and one year they live with i her. So this is not my year and next year would be so that when I would be in Ithaca they would live with me. I feel sort of funny i getting into these things but the useage is a little bit peculiar I because we have a different family situation that you don' t run in o i but we would like to rent the house to another family with the pro- vision that on the few days, every other week - there would be fou days every other week that I 'm in Ithaca, the children and I would u have a part of the house where we could stay. j J MR. KASPRZAK: You don' t contemplate to renting it to "students" - �i and I don' t mean that in any sense to be derogatory. . . . ? MR. SCHRAMM: No I you mean in terms of next year . . . ? I 'MR. KASPRZAK: Right - when you are out of the city. 1 ' MR. SCHRAMM: I don' t know - I don' t even know what options I have in that regard. I don' t know when a family - if you leave your house and you go - suppose you go away for a year, I don' t know, does it have to be a one-family rental? j MR. KASPRZAK: Well , it has to abide by th-e zoning requirements, i i it is , you know, one-'family. I don't even know. . . exactly where it i i I - 7 - ! is . But you would have to rent to the family. If you rent it to students the situation is slightly different and we have . . . j CHAIRMAN MARTIN: It' s not a matter of student status but relating ii to a group of unrelated people. . . MR. KASPRZAK: Right, you know we get a neighborhood uprising and we try to avoid this type of thing. , MR. SCHRAMM: Oh I see. The neighborhood is almost all students , I think we are one of the few on Stewart Avenue , if not the only house I can think. of that is a single-family. We have - what I 'd have to do , I 'd have to come and ask if I can' t find a family to rent the house I 'd have to get your permission to rent it to E k1students? Or would I have to get related. . . ? I MR. KASPRZAK: Well basically you would have to talk with this �I ,, gentleman here with the pink shirt (referring to Tom Hoard) . And i! � he will advise you what to do . j( CHAIRMAN MARTIN: And I think he has already said what the situa- tion is which is occupancy by other than a family would require a Ivariance because it ' s a non-conforming structure . Are there any Mother questions from members of the Board? SMR. KASPRZAK. I 'm done . Thank you, Pete . i 11CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Okay. I think our deliberations will not be ! long if you want to wait around outside. i! �f ! i ii `I I I� I ; I I I t '.9 i� ;j i l I li 'i I 8 - BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS ITHACA, NEW YORK 14850 !I JULY 10 , 1978 !1 j j' EXECUTIVE SESSTON i APPEAL NO. 1211 : i. !j CHAIRMAN MARTIN: Motion is made that the area variance i requested in Case 1211 be granted on I( I the understanding that this variance only permits the finishing of the atti i� to create a bedroom and recreational area and does not authorize any change j ( in the existing single-family use . An such change in occupancy would require ii ii a further variance. it MR. KASPRZAK: I second the motion. i� FINDINGS OF FACT: 1 . The lot and building pre-date current zoning requirements and consequently are inadequate in numerous respects . 2 . Proposed change includes the addition �j of an emergency egress from the third i� floor . It makes no significant change I' on the exterior and so long as the i; building remains as a single-family ii it does not significantly increase the j j( density. 11 VOTE : 4 Yes ; 0 No . Area variance granted. `i i j ii 'i 'i i 9 ii Barbara Ruane , Do Certify that I took the minutes of the Board of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, in the matters of Appeal New York num- ., I Y tiered 1211 on July 10 , 1978 at City Hall , City of Ithaca, that I have transcribed same , and the foregoing is a true copy of it the transcript of the minutes of the meeting and the Executive Session of the Board of Zoning Appeals , City of Ithaca, on the II above date,- and the whole thereof to the best of my ability. i. It ri Barbara C . Ruane Recording Secretary ij J! Sworn to before me this day of (4" 1978 . `iNotary, Public CALLISTA F. PAOLANGELf Notary Public, State of New York No. 4664561 Qualified in Tompkins MCounty. .1 30, 1910 Term Expire� arch it