HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BZA-1971-09-07 E BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA, CITY HALL, ITHACA,
NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 7;. 1971
PRESENT: RALPH P.1 BALDINI, Chairman
ANTHONY PETITTI
JAMES ROGAN
HARRY BORTZ
EDISON JONES, Building Commissioner
CHAIRMAN: Opens meeting. The first case is #875, the
Appeal request for exception to the provisions of Section 7, �
Column 7 of the District Regulation Chart.
CI DAVID GERSH: Specifically Mr. Ledger has a house at 201
!� College Ave . which he operates as a rooming house. Presently
j; he has 12 tenants, three others with whom he is negotiating.
He can lawfully put 15 students in this house which is in
j� the heart of Collegetown, which you can tell by the address.
!; What he'd like to do and which he seeks permission to do is
to provide additional kitchen an additional bath for health
and safety reasons, and at the same time, to add additional
i' bedrooms both to compensate for those bedrooms which will
j be used in kitchen and bath additions and also to permit his
12 - 15 students each to have his own bedroom, for reasons
of health and sanitary conditions, and also so he can charge
jj a reasonable rent and obtain a better return on his fairly
j� substantial investment.
ii Orson Ledger, having first been duly sworn, n
answered as follows:
David Gersh:Orson, are you the owner of property at 201
college Ave.?
(meson LedgemYes, I am.
Q. And, how many bedrooms does this house have at
l the present time?
A. Ten
Q. Ten bedrooms?
A. Yes.
Q. And is that house occupied at present by some
12 students?
A. Yes, it is.
Q. And am I correct in saying that there are three
others with whom you are now negotiating for
leases?
A. Yes, I am.
Q. Tell the Board, if you would, what your plans
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A. Iwould like to remove the porch from the
front of the house facing Bool St. and College
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Ave. and put an addition to abort 5 sleeping roo s,
a lounge, kitchen, and another bathroom.
Q. Tell me, Orson, have you experienced difficulty
with your tenants in the use of hotplates?
!! A. Yes, I have some?
Q. Have you endeavored to eliminate these hot plate ?
A. Yes.
How have you tried to do this?
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Q.
Well, I've told them it was punishable by $100.00
jE fine and I believe 30 days in jail by using
hotplates in student rooms.
jl Q. Let me just interrupt there for a minute. That'
$100.00 fine against whom?
A. Against myself. I
j Q. Against the landlord. And possible jail sentenc
Ij against the landlord. And you attempted to
ji prevent the use of these hotplates?
�iA. Yes .
Q. You've made frequent inspections?
• �� A. About every two weeks.
Q. And do you find . that you are successful in pre-
venting the use?
A. Well, not quite 100%.
Q. So this danger remains?
l A. Yes, it does .
Q. So, in addition to the criminal penalties which
you are unable to fully prevent, is there also
a substantial danger of a fire hazard?
' A. Yes, there is.
.i Q. In your judgement, is the wiring in the house
j adequate to support hotplates?
I. A. It is not.
Q. By adding this extra kitchen that you speak of,
you will then have a total of how many kitchens in the house
A. Two.
Q. And this will enable some students to use the
kitchen on the second floox?
A. Correct.
Q. And others to use the kitchen on the first floor
A. Yes.
i Q. Will this, at the same time, avoid conjestion?
�) A. I would say probably it would.
Q. In other words, you would be spreading out the
i use of the kitchen over the entire house, rather
that the present conjestion in the single kitche
A. Yes.
Q. Now, the same thing is true with the bathroom,
I� is it not?
A. Yes.
At present, all tenants are using a single bath?
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!; A. Two baths .
Q. Two baths , rather. And you desire to add a thir
I" bath for obvious sanitary and hygienic reasons?
A. Yes. ;
I Q. I think, Orson, you should advise the Board and
j1 make this very clear. Is it your intent to in- 1
crease the total number of students occupying
!i this house?
i! A. Not beyond 15.
Q. Not beyond the present 15 which you already have
i` A.., Yes .
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Your purpose, and I think this should be clearly'
brought out, so as to avoid any confusions, is
actually decrease the density rather than increa e,
to permit each student to occupy his own bedroom
rather than the doubling up which now occurs . i
A. Correct.
Q. You will not put more students in there?
! A. That' s not my intention.
Q. Orson, even with the addition that you propose t
• make, how much of a front yard setback will you
�I have?
'i A. Approximately 25 feet.
i And side yards, will that comply with the Zoning
Q. Ordinance.?
A. Yes, it will.
!j Q. In other words, you' ll have at least a total of
j 15 feet with one side being at least 10 feet and
your rear yard?
A. About 25 or 30 feet.
j Q. What about parking? Your property is situated
! in Collegetown within walking distance of Cornel ?
A. Yes.
Q. In fact, that' s one of the attractions of this
i� property and one of the reasons that you paid
�I the fairly steep price that you did, for the
property. How many cars did you have using your
parking spaces last year?
A. Five.
Q. And how many cars do you have using your parking
spaces this year?
A. Two.
Q. How many total spaces are there available for
tenants of your building?
A. Eight.
Q. Let me show you this diagram. Pointing to a
diagram with a considerable quantity of red
diagonal lines on it. Tell the Board what this
map represents?
Chairman: Mr. Gersh, are you going to use this as evidence
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ii Mr. Gersh: Yes, sir.
Chairman: Can we identify it then? it
Mr. Gersh: Yes , sir. we' ll mark it as exibit 1. Rb..ferring j
you to a red chart on exibit 1, marked for
l inda2#ification, describe for the Board, what thi
map demonstrates. i
A. ; This black mark here is the house which I own.
I� This being College Ave. and this being Bool St.
running up to Linden Ave. This is Blair St. , ov r
here, and Cook St. running down to it.
The red lines are multiple dwelling or people i
with rooms to let for profit. This house here h s
three apartments but an older couple has it.
(The house at the corner of College Ave. & Cook
j St. ) Mr. Riley owns it. He has two or three
apartments in the house that he decided not to
fl rent because of his wife' s nervous condition.
The house right behind me on Linden ave. And
Bools St. is the only house that I know of that
is not an income property. There is a single
• �, family living in it.
I Q. So that the entire neighborhood clearly is de-
voted to income property.
A. Right.
Q. And the proposed improvement that you wish to
make to your property, is not in any way going j
to change the character of the neighborhood?
A. I can' t see where it would.
i° Q. The next map is a black and white sketch.
j What does this map show?
A. This shows the drawing at the County Clerk' s
i; Office of the lot and the building that is taken
i off of the map at the Clerk' s office.
1 Qr. This shows the lot coverage of the building?
A. Correct.
And your lot demensions are what?
' A. 130 feet by 58 feet.
j Q. And this building in the rear is the garage?
A. Yes, it is. A two car garage, which was not
included in the pakking of the eight cars.
Q. That' s additional parking?
A. Yes.
Q.
And then at the bottom of the diagram of the i
�! sketches that you drew of the proposed addition
and these sketches were made part of our appeal..
I trust each member of the Board has one.
Now, Orson, on your behalf, I point out to the
Board that Mr. Ledger is not a Civil Engineer or
an Architect and these are his drawings and the
blue prints demonstrate his proposed improvementi .
! What is the approximate value of the improvement
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that you plan to make?
A. About $6,000.00 to $8,000.00. II
l Q. Have you discussed this proposed addition with
I� your neighbors?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. Tell the Board the results of your discussion. l
A.- I discussed it with two of the neighbors that
I were at the meeting the last time we appeared in:
June, and they told me they did not understand
j the nature of the Appeal except for the lot size}
I� I talked it over with them and they thought I !
was just going to increase the density of the
house and it would just add more confusion to
parking and noise of the area. I told them
that this was not my intent, that I was trying j!
II to create a lesser health problem by having less !
in the kitchen, more bathroom facilities, and
a bit more room to substantiate the cost of this
jl being done.
Q. Once again, they didn' t understand that you were
not doing this to increase the number of tenants
in the place?
A. Right. They also did not have regard that I was
adding a bathroom or a kitchen,:
Q. Which side of the house would you say that was
going to be on.
11 A. Southwest, facing College Ave.
�j Qhairman: Mr. Ledger, how many hotplates are there in the
building right now?
I1 A. None, that I know of.
Chairman: Well, when you did know how many there were,
how many were there?
A This year I haven' t substantiated any. Last yea
I found two. I had quite a lengthy conversation
with both of the children that had them. One of
them decided to put it away, and I believe he
did. The other didn' t. We had quite a hassle
over the thing, and I told him if I saw it again
I was going to confiscate it and thraN it in the
garbage.
Chairman: Are you through with your presentation?
Mr. Gersh: Yes, sir.
Chairman: Any questions from members of the Board?
None.
Is there anyone here wishing to speak in behalf
of the petition?
r i None.
Is there anyone here wishing to speak against 1
the petition?
None.
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i The next case is No, 943, in theWredy@@� g?r a ':I
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varience for the use of 613-615 as �an antique
and furniture shop.
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CHAIRMAN: Opens the meeting.
I4�
j Atty. Adams: I'm Atty. Armand Adams, representing Ralph Perryy
the purchaser of the premises of 613 - 615 Green,
St. This matter came before you on the applica- �
tion of the former owner, Nancy Kline, last May
for the same release and understanding that the
I; property was to have-Ahen been purchased by Mr., !�
Perry. It has since been purchased and consider
able work hats been done in the neighborhood to i!
improve the property for any available use. Then
property consists of a double lot just two
!! houses to the East of the Kentucky Fried Beef
area on Green St. , and it eonsists of a house f!
which has been rented as a residence and a large ]
barn which occupies the back of both the double
lots and a considerable area for parking in the
front. This property has been used for various j
nonconforming uses for practically 50 or more
Ij yejars . It has been used as a horse stable and !
is equipt for the handling of horses, but that ('
!� was a long period ago and we don' t have any bse I'I
j for such things at this perticular time. It wash
Ij used as a headquarters for Mr. Daino for his pizza plant
�I and is equipt inside with a walk-in cooler where�l
I! some of the material and food stuffs were kept,.
(, But the property has gone down over the years, a d
it this finds ownership to a great extent, and is i
a bad state of repair. I think that•,many of =
j you have seen this particular property as the
matter was considered last May, and I hope that
�I you will consider and take a look at it again,
because there have been considerable improve
i� ments. Would you mark these exibits A and B.
And I suggest that they are the pictures which
were before 'your group at the previous time of t e
premises as they existed at that particular time
j Since then, through the co-operation of the
neighbor, Mr. Hart of the West, arrangements
II have been made to take down some of the dead elm
trees, which have been a menace to the neighbor-)
hood, falling on this property and others, and
they are considerable. Mr. Perry, himself, has
done a great deal in improving the property, cut
!; ting the grass and to some extent tearing down
�I portions of the building which had been damaged
previously be trees. It is his intention at
his request that he be able to use this pr
operty�i
for a retail store for the purpose of the sale
of antique furnishings and house fixtures . I' ll
ask a few questions of Mr. Perry, in indicating
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the use he intends to make of it and the improve
ments that he hopes to make in the event that hid _
li request for a varience is approved. There is
i little or no use of this property other than thel
one residencd could be used. There is plenty I;
Ii of room for parking and the use of the property I!
for a retail store dvpuld not unduely burden the {
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other properties along the line. j
s Ralph Perry, having first been duly sworn in,
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answered as follows:
Ij
Atty. Adams:Your name is Ralph A. Perry? j
Mr. Perry: Yds.
�I Q. And you live where? I
A. 414 E. Lincoln St.
Q. Are you the owner of premises of 613-615 W. Gree
St. ?
A. Yes, I am.
ii Q. And they were purchased of Nancy G. Klines at
what time?
! A. July 13, 1971. �!
l� Q. And have you been in possession of this propertyll
ii since July 13? l
11 A. Yes, I have. I�
Q. What have you done to the property since you
have been the owner? i
jj A. The biggest problem that I have had at the
i; present time is I am sure most of you people
! are aware, the property has been a good many
years coming down. As of last Friday, I took
the thirty-first load of debris out of there,
i from where the trees have caved the roofs in to
every kind of tin can. Everything that was
possible to be thrown into the yard and repairin
windows and things of this nature, in the house.
For one little five room house, I put 64pieces I
of. glass in that was broken out. It has mainly
�{ been cleaning up-,.the property and trying to get
it into a position where I can put repairs onto
it. I have done a lot on the house, but it' s
i mainly the grounds that have been hard to work
i with.
Q. Would you describe the barn located on the pro-
perty?
• A. The barn runs East and West. To the best of my
knowledge, it sets completely on all of its own
land. I don' t believe there is any excess land'
around it. The--.barn is A No. 1 shape. There
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�j isn' t anything wrong with it other than where th
j trees fell on it and have made 4 or 5 holes in
the roof. We' re trying to eliminate the trees I?
at the present time so I can repair the holes
jj cause if the roof goes, the barn goes. Right
j� now, we' re having temporary delay in getting I
the eq#pment to get the trees out of there. I
it Q. What business are you engaged in, Mr. Perry?
A. I have my own business in finding income pro-
perty for myself. {'
Q. You collect, buy, and sell antique furniture and
household furnishings?
!( A. Yes, I have . for man3,r:•yeatt. I
Q. And to what extent are you in that business . €!
i A. I'm trying to get the varience so that I can !j
open up a store to give me an income to put thisji
j, property in shape, and make it a credit to the
community down there.
I Q. To what use will the property be put as a retailll
II store? What will be the extent of the use of
j that fillage for that purpose?
l A. Mainly to resell used furniture and antiques. i
' Q. Will there be any machinery or work in connectiat
in the repair of the antiques taking place ithere i A. Nothing other ;than a saw. I
Q. Do you know the extent of what the butiness woul
be involved in as-,to what the parking situation
might be with cars that would be available?
!` Do you anticipate so much use of the property
�j that there would not be adequate parking space?
A. No, there is adequate parking space.
Q. Can you describe what the parking space is now?
!; A. North and South I can park four deep and I have
I! two across in back of the house, plus the full f
driveway all the way back to the barn. There
is room on each side of the barn so you can get
in and out.
II Q. Without the use of the driveway itself , you have
j; adequate space for six cars?
l A. I believe so, yes. I
Q. That would not involve any parking on Green St.
itself?
A. No.
Q. The parking on Green St. is metered parking in
j front of the house?
A. No. j
Q. There is parking in front of the house?
A. There Aren' t any meters in that block. i
Q. And what is the extent of the parking along that �l
lblock? You've observed it in the past. Is ther(i
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parking on the street itself, in front of the
j house? -
1 A. There seems to be from Ceracches. The TV
i! people park on Green St. who work there.
it Q. But there are parking spaces available?
I1 A. Yes.
j; Q. What other business establishments are there in j!
the ares? ;!
i! A. There' s Kentucky Beef, which is two doors downif !
from me on the best, and then there' s the Print ';
j� Shop which is two doors East of me.
li Q. Other than that, it' s a residential Brea?
A. And Ceracche' s is right across the road, I'm I;
assuming that he' s 'commercial where the drive-
way comes out 'through. {
Q. So that the commercial area backs right up to I�
that two way street on that side. But this one' !
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block is the only one in that area that is res- I'
j� idential with some commercial areas in it?
A. Yes.
jI Q. Is there anything else you would like to tell
us concerning the use you expect to make of the
it property there?
A. No, other than this is what I have to have as
li some kind of an income so that I can make the' -
improvements on the property. I believe it
always has been commercial, this is one of the-
reasons I went on. As I remember when I was
a kid that grew up in that neighborhood, the
Ithaca Delivery used to be in there, and there
i was an oil business in there. I can' t remember
Ray' s name. He was a young fellow in Cornell
who started the meet packing business . The
meat cooler that is in there he put in. He had
a severe accident and was fataly killed and the
meat business went out. Then they had an apple
packing business in there. Shulman was in there
for I don' t know how many years as a storage
space.3. He was in and out of there with trucks
continuously. Joe Daino was in there with his
pizza business. And- those are a few that I know
personally because that used to be in the town
where I came from.
Q. Does any member of the Board have any questionsf
they want to ask Mr. Perry?
Harry Bortz:Mr. Perry, this is a refinishing of used furni-
ture?
A. No.
Q. You' re not going to use any vat or removal of
any varnish or anything of that nature?
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A. If I do,it will be by hand: Whatever anybody !�
does in their own backyard.
Q. There will be no fumes connected with it?
A. No, sir. j
E Chairman: Mr. Perry, what will be the hours of operation
of your enterprise?
A. In the future, it will be regular store hours.
From 8 AM to 5 PM. I
I� Q. No nights?
ii A. No, sir. I hope not.
Q. Six days a week, 8 to 5?
A. Right. j!
Q. 'You intend signing this place? Having a sign?
A. Only a small sign stating what it is.
i{ Q. What percentage of the business do you figure wi�' l
be antiques and what percentage will be used
I� furniture and household appliances? �)
{ A. I really can' t tell.
Q. Well, will it be a majority, will it be pre- i
j dominately a used furniture store or will it be
ii predominately an antique shop?
_ ii A. I have a mother-in-law and a father-in-law which
!{ is in the antique business out of town. And
this will be where I will be getting most of my
{ stuff which they refinished.
Q. So, what we can think of, perhaps, is mostly
a second hand store with antiques as a sideline.
Or should it be the other way around?
A. No. I would say that' s right. But, I have the
advantage in that I believe I can get mine and
keep it in the building. I don' t have to have
{ them out on display on the property, which is
I� my intent.
James Rogan:Do you plan on renting the house out front?
i A. Yes, I do.
Q. 'Is it rented now?
� A. No, sir.
1 Chairman: Any other questions from the Board?
None.
Are you finished, Mr. Adams? I didn' t mean to
interrupt you. Is there anybody here wishing
to speak in behalf of granting this Appeal?No.Is
there anybody here wishing to speak against this
Appeal?
Mrs. Thompson: I'm Mrs. Thompson of 226 Cleveland Ave. I'v
lived in Ithaca for 51 years this first of Augus
past. I lived on Green St. and I lived on Mea-
dow St. in the Bruno house for 9 years and then
the Lord blessed me with my own home and with
Giordano as my neighbor that place around there
is such a mess it never ets cleaned up. You
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can' t even enjoy sitting out in the yard anymore?l
j because of the smudge and that poluted air and to
air is poluted now because I can' t even enjoy
:. my backyard which I have a very nice yard and ;l
I can' t enjoy it because there' s so much smudge
coming down I cannot keep nothing clean to sit
out there. I was going to have a picnic out
there yesterday---and it wasso bad you couldn' t
j even set out there. So, I'm against it be- !�
it cause there' s enough stores and enough lunch- l
!; rooms and enough mess around there now some of
it needs to be cleaned up around there and
!i where you' re living, you want to keep your
house and your outside halfway decent to let ?
someone know you care about yourself. I do,
�I I care about myself, and I try to keep my place !
j decent. Anybody that knows me knows that I do. �!
I keep a very nice place, inside and out. And jl
I don' t feel that we need another store. There'I�
plenty things out on Elmira Rd. Why don' t they
go out there and set up stores where nobody Ii
lives, but just merchant places out there. I s
l don' t see why they have to set up stores right
over on Green St, where people live. I don' t i
see what they're going to do that for. It',• s
l just a regular mess right out here now. It used li
I to be a very decent place to stay but there are
milk cartons, beer cans, and everything over in =
j my yard so I kick them or throw them back over
there because they haven' t got anything to put
�I their trash in, so they just throw them over in
my yard and I just pitch them back over there.
Chairman: Good for you, Mrs. Thompson. `
Mrs. Thompson: It' s awful. Man, you can' t even live where I
i; you've worked hard and paid for it. Then, when j
you get old you can' t enjoy it. I think it' s I
awful.
�I Chairman: Thank you, Mrs. Thompson,. Is there anyone else
wishing to speak against granting this Appeal?
Will you identify yourself?
ii Mr. Hart: I'm William H. Hart, retired from the Post Offic
and still working.
Chairman: What is your address, please?
A. 617 W. Green St. As a matter of fact, I have
three houses. I'm flanked on one side of Mr.
Perry by two houses, and flanked on the other by
• i one house. Now, it was mentioned a while ago, I(
that that place has been commercial. I bought
that place in 1946. Yes, it was commercial. B ,
i on the standing I think the Building Commission
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will admit to it. When a business ceases to bb
a business in a residential section, it goes bac
to R-3. Is that right or wrong? And this has
been R-3 -for 4 or 5 years. And the next thing I�
about it, the whole street is conjested and if u
you move your car in the morning at 7 o' clock 1
ii and come back at 9, you can' t get there by the I�
car. Now, this particular parcel that is being
spoken of is not really enough room in there.
!i That' s number one. The next thing; for him to
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have the business there is encouraging a
;! greater conjestion. My bedroom is right on line '
by that barn, and I had an operation a year ago
and at times I cannot sleep until probably 4 or ;I
5 o' clock in the morning. Now 7 or 8 o' clock
there is a lot of banging and talking and so for h
out'.there. If there' s going to be a residential
section, it should remain that way. Like Mrs. �!
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Thompson said, when you get old, you look for I!
comfort and peace. You're disturbed by the �I
trucks at night when they' re going through, and
!� the trucks with the freezers on them running
j while they' re in the restaurant eating. And, ;.
there' s no peace for you. I think, that it' s
j; wrong to have anymore or to encourage anybody
to come there and improve or make any greater
+' business than what we have now. We want quiet-
ness and if we' re going to have a commercial
I� zone, they should make it completely commercial.
And I think this Board ought to consider, I hope
!i that they will consider these few remark�a which
I've made, as if it were their personal thoughts
= and their wishes: Thank you.
Chairman: That* you Mr. Hart. Is there anyone else wishing
�j to speak against the petition?
None.
jl If not, then that ended it for that particular
I� case.
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'I The next case is #951, asking for a varience for
othe property at 366 Elmira Rd. in an I-1 District ;
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ii BZA Appeal li
Louis Schutte: I'm Louis Schutte representing Hi-Fi Gasoline
We' re asking for the varience for the property ;{
on the side yard and also for the side of the
I sign. I believe you have a plot plan already
presented to you.---'This is a picture of the sign;
that we' re asking for. I would like to enter it�
I also have picture of other signs in the area.
Ij It' s 4 feet high. It' s a 12' by 201 , as you
can see by the picture. It' s two individual
I 6' by 20 signs. We' re asking for the front yard )
i; setback varience because of the proximity of j!
other signs and buildings in the area. If we
set back the required 25t , we' ll be behind
Kramer' s building, for one thing, and we' ll be
behind other signs in the area, too. We' re pur- 1
chasing a 200' front piece of property there, ani
i! if we set in the 501 , we' ll be in the middle
If of the driveway. �I
Chairman: Did you say you are going to purchase it?
i� A. We have it under contract to purchase it, yes,
subject to getting all the permits. Ii
Chairman: Do any members of the -Board have any questions �I
with Mr. Schutte?
j� Q. What about the sideyard?
i� A. The sideyard in the industrial zone is only 501 . '
Q. What did you say the lot size was?
(� A. 200' by 1851 . Kramer' s is in this particular
it parcel of ground and our sign will be located on
II the far corner, 5' back and 8' from the side
property line.
Chairman: So, it' s out of the way of your exit?
�! A. Yes, it is. The Ordinance reads it must be 50'
from the property line which will put it over
here (indicating the map) . However, the same
man we're buying it from, does own the property
belond us, Mr. Russell.
! Q. How far back is the sign?
A. How far back? From the front property line? 5'
10' to the base of the sign.
Q. How about the center line of the road? Do you
have anything on that?
A. To the center line of the road is 381 , I believ
ifrom the base of the sign.
Q. Any other of you gentlemen want one of the plot
plans? Anymore questions from the members of
the Board?
it
None.
Is there anyone here wishing to speak in behalf
of the Appealant?
• None.
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The next case is 952, to grant a Zoning Ordinancell.- : . . :14
iiexception for the property at 409 S. Geneva St.
James McCarthy: My name is James McCarthy and I'm appearing
for Mr. Fernandez, who lives in Naples, Florida II�
at the present time. We' re seeking an exceptionlf
!? to the Zoning Ordinance for a two family at
409 S. Geneva St. Historically, how this came
about was that Mr. Fernandez in 1968 or 1969 ob-1,
tained a varience to build a one family house
it on his lot, and he put in a small unit for his I!
mother. He' s a Cuban immigrate. His mother was
it to live in the small unit. When she left Cuba, !!
'' her health was bad, so it was necessary for her l
ii to stay in Florida and he closed up everything
and went down there. So the house has been used
(j as a two family which was not according to the
zoning. Now, we're pleading for the exception
because there is a hardship involved here-in
i that it is impossible for Mr. Fernandez to
sell this down there as a one family that his i
obligations are down there and what his obliga-
tions are down there and what it cost him to
j; build the house. It' s about a year and a half
!� old. And also, to rent it as a one family throu h
I; normal channels, it would beppossible but not �
normally to rent it for enough to carry. The
city since 1970, have assessed him as a two
family, so he pays probably $300.00 to $400.00
Imore in taxes a year than the adjacent pro-
perties at the present time. He' s supposed to
be returning here and the property is going down
!� hill some with the local owner would be living
either in the house, or in town. Probably the
exterior trim has never been painted, and his
financial condition is such that it will be
unable for him to do much of anything more to
the property. So, at the present time, he can
i{ only rent it or sell it as one family. 'What the
price or what the rent would have to be would be
just about impossible. The city has had him
assessed for almost as a two family,
Chairman: Are you finished here?
A. Yes.
i' Chairman: Any questions from members of the Board?
J. McCarthy:Your lot size is small. There' s ample parking
(� in the rear. There' s plenty of depth.
Mr. Kleist: What size is that lot, would you know off hand?
I;
Mr. McCarthy,-It' s s 40' by 133' . i
j Chairman: Do you have any idea why he built a two family
dwelling, when he was given permission to. . .
• Mr. McCarthy: I didn' t make it clear, I guess, his intent was
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for his mother to live there.
j, Chairman: Yes, but. he didn' t have permission to build a tw'
family dwelling.
j Mr. McCarthy: She was , I understand, physically all right if
she had her own seperate unit. She was an
intricle part of his family.
j Chairman: He was granted an exception according to the
Planning Board to build a one family dwelling as
requested. It was granted by this Board and they
Planning Board approved it. However, Mr. Fernan
j dez constructed a two family dwelling without
any permission, and has since rented the buildin
�i as a two family dwelling. What was the reason f r
this mixup in the first place?
Mr. McCarthy: Well, as I say, I have never rented so I can' t,
!� speak about the rental. . .
�) Chairman: I just asked you why this mistake happened?
�I A.- Well, whether he thought he was all right or
�I not, I don' t know. The intent was his mother
was going to live there.
Chairman: That' s the answer that I sought, Jim: you don' t
know.
ii Mr. McCarih y: Except what his intent was .
! Chairman: I'm just curious how come a fault was made like
this.
Mr.McCarthy:He has no children. He intended to live in the
!i larger part of the house and his mother was
i alone for $75.00 or more. . .
Chairman: No, he sure knew enough to rent it as a two !
family dwelling though, once he built a one
family story. That' s the thing that I don' t
understand. I can' t reconsile.
Mr.McCarthy:That was after he had gone to Florida. !
Chairman: Yes, I know.
Question: l He can' t get enough out of it in the 400 block
of S. Geneva St.
Question: 2 Market wise?
Question: l That' s right.
`i Chairman: Now, anybody wishing to speak in behalf of this?i
j Mayor Johns:What are you asking for it? i
Mr.McCartby:$23,000.00 he' s asking for it. He' s obligated
for about $18,900.00.
Mr. Johns: You' re more apt to pull that kind of money on a ()
private, don' t you think?
McCarthy: For two family, right.
Mr. Johns: You've got a better chance to pull that kind of
money on a private rather than a two family in
that price range, I would think.
McCarthy: No, we had a buyer for it.
Chairman: Is there anyone elso wishing to speak in behalf
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of this petition?
None.
i
Is there anyone opposed? One at a time please.
What is your name, sir?
'f Mr. Kleist: Jerry Kleist. I live at 407 S. Geneva St. I
find it necessary once again to come before this
Board to oppose this special varience pertaining )
to the property at 407 S. Geneva St. Two years
ago we were here opposing a single family dwel- II
ling to be built there, because the lot was too
narrow and we felt that the house that would be
built there would look like a trailer rather
than a house that would comply with the rest of
the neighborhood. Now the Board at that time,
jj saw instead to approve this single family dwel- II
ling for room for Mr. Fernandez and for his
i! family and a room for his mother to live there
it also, and perhaps a room for an office that he
I wanted for his own use. Now, it is my opinion !,
that if the dwelling was built as a single
family house, which was proved by the Board, he I�
would not have found himself in a financial bur-
den. Now, it appears that Mr. Fernandez did not
i comply with the regulations to begin with. The
j house has two kitchens, one up and one down, he,
has two baths, one up and one down, he has three
bedrooms up and three bedrooms down, and he also!
'j has a seperate entrance for each of the apart-
ments, which would be up and downrthrough a cen-
tral foyer which is up against the house. Now
it looks to be as though the house was built as
a two family house rather than a single family
house which was approved by this Board two years
ii ago. He also has rented the house to two differ -
ent families, which also tells me that he built
the house for two families rather than a one
Ii family house. Also, the house is still incom-
plete, the lawn is uncared for, the garages, the
I were torn down. What' s left is an eyesore to
the neighborhood rather than any improvement.
Because he chose to build the dwelling as dis-
approved by the Board, why should the rest of
j the neighborhood have to have his problems
i; envolved? Just because he went ahead and built
`j a house that he wasn' t supposed to build to begi
I with, why should the rest of the neighborhood
suffer for his problems?
For years, the Board has always used good judge-
ment and never would permit a building to be
I� built on such a narrow lot. Now, before the
it �I
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Board makes any further mistakes, I would like !
to have the Board deny his request for a double
family housing for these reasons. There would
just be too many people in a small given area ofl�
i{ land which is left there. There is no lawn for
the children to play, if there was to be child-
if
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ren of two families. There is no parking area.
There is a two car parking garage there now, II
but I assume that when the house is approved
j for a double family house, you' d have to tear
down more garage space, thereby eliminating more
j! parking space for your cars, and you'd have to
!, have more parking space for cars . It would only
add to the existing problems of blocking the
driveway which is a joint driveway. There are 11
many times when I cannot get into my own parking((
!! spot or my tenants can' t get into their parking jl
area because the driveway is blocked with cars
w from the other house. This problem is only !!
going to double itself if it is approved for a
l two family house. And, of course, the noise,
t the trouble, the confusion, which all double �)
themselves. And, as far as I'm concerned, may- (l
H be it' s ohly me, but I feel that the house, builit
if as it is, where it is, has devalued the houses i
the neighborhood, or the surrounding area. And,
�f I feel that making the house a two family house,
!1 would only further devalue the same houses in
jj the same area. So, I request the Board at this
it time to deny the special varience which is re-
quested on 409 S. Geneva St. Thank you.
( Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Kleist. Does anyone else wish to
! speak? This is a public hearing, and anyone
l; has the right to speak so long as he limits his
comments to the case at hand.
( Question:l Can ybu build on a 40' lot?
(( Chairman: Not without a varience. As I understant it, it'
!! got to be a 50' minimum.
Question: l Well, that' s what I was told when we moved whey
we moved around the corner from there. My mother
owns the house, directly nea tA9or; j _And anothe
thing that I don' t think is stressed, is the
density of that parking. Do you realize that o
Spencer St. they park on one side of the street
at night. The other side of the street, they !
can' t park on, so they have to come down on
li Geneva St. , or Titus Ave. , and Wood St. . Do you
realize that Albany St. on the other side of
! Geneva St. has parking on one side. Those
people have ,.to go to another street. Very ofte ,
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as Mr. Kleist said, even in front of driveways . ii
And that house is on a very narrow lot. I was
born and brought up in that neighborhood, and
nobody, as Mr. Hunt said when he was the origina
ii owner, was ever allowed to build a house on it,
because is was so narrow.
Chairman: Are you through? Do you wish to say somemore?
Question: l Yes, I do. My mother can' t be here, she' s in h
80' s and she just had a stroke, and I'm repre-
ii her because she is also against it.
Mr. Zhe: I'm Mr. Zhe of 405 S. Geneva St. and the varienco
was granted to build a 1 family house to begin I
with. He didn' t comply with it as the Chairman
knows. Under that circumstance , I think you
it should refuse it, at this time, because he
ii didn ' t comply with in in the first place.
II Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Zhe. Does anyone else wish to sp6-ak
in opposition?
Mrs. Axtell:My name is Mrs. Axtell, 119 N. Titus Ave. , and
I moved into the house 57 years ago. Our
objection to it is it is an unsightly house.
Of course, we only just see one end of it from
our backdoor. But I feel that he deliberately went
against thm instructions and built a two family 1
house instead of a one family house. And, are
ii we going to continue letting people do these
things and get away with it? What are the
arguements g6ing to be like?
Chairman: Thank you.
Mrs. Wood: I'm Mrs . Wood and I live at 121 S. Titus Ave.
I don' t think it' s been brought up that this
house has no basement. It has been in a sad
state of repair since it' s been built. It also
is selling for $23,000.00 and he told us the
other day he wanted $21,500.00.
Chairman: Thank, you.
Mrs. Bloom: My name is Mrs. Bloom and I live on the corner of
S. Geneva & S. Titus Ave . Now, Mr. McCarthy,
this article was listed in the paper: "Brand
new, two apartment houses in downtown Ithaca.
First floor apartment furnished and rented for
$160.00 a month. Second floor, three bedroom
apartment is available now for owner. Will
take a large mortgage on it. " It' s a hardship
case. There' s a two car garage. Then, that
was in October 26, 1970 and on 6/17/71 he put
another ad in. How can he do that when it' s not
a two apartment house?
• Chairman:- Anyone else wishing to speak against the grantin
of this petition? I guess now, Jim you can rebu
Mr. McCarthy:Doctor, I just want to correct this gentlemen.
20
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He said there were three bedrooms when there Ij
really aren' t. There' s one small office and j
utility. And as far as the lady' s statement
about that he will carry mortgage, he' ll
assume the bank mortgage.
j� Mrs. Bloom: That was in the ad! How can he put that ad in
j as a two apartment house? Doesn' t he know it' s
built for a one family house?
i; Chairman: Does anyone else wish to speak against the
granting of this petition?
i; Mr. Kleist: I think Mr. McCarthy said there' s a bedroom
and a half?
I, Mr.McCarthy:A�bedroom, a small office, and a utility room.
li Mr. Kleist: And there' s nine people living in that bedroom,
i small office, and utility room.
i Chairman: If there are no more questions, then this case
I� is closed.
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The next case is #953, for a varience under I
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I Sections7, Column 2, in a B-1 District, the i
!� DeWitt building.
I
j Chairman: Letts take the 200 block of N. Cayuga St. for !j
a varience under Section 7 Column 2 in a B-1
District. Mr. Downing, I think, is going to
speak in behalf of the Board of Education.
---Mr. Downing, having first been duly sworn in,
answers as follows:
Mr. Downing:My name is William Downing and I live at 512
j! E. Seneca St. You know, the Ithaca City School
!� District offered to a school in a seal bid f
'I arrangement, and it happens I was the only ;!
bidder. The school board has accepted my bid, r�
which was conditioned, in part, by hearing a =
zoning varience.
What I would like to describe to you is first
jj what I propose to do with the building, if I
get it, and I' ll answer questions on it as we !�
I go along, Mike. First of all, I understand
II from the Building Commissioner, that, were we �I
j not seeking a deed to varience, a building
permit could be issued, for a B-1 occupancy
as proposed in my plan. My proposal is to convert
j the building into approximately 44 apartments,
i� and convert the ground floor and possibly the �I
H pent house into offices and shops. The plan it
that I have shown you, of course, is subject
to some variation. We might be occassioned by
jl the request of tenants, but our intent is to
change the building as little as possible, in
H order to retain it' s architectural quality.
There are planned no additiors to the building
at all. The plot plan indicates parking for
approximately 48 cars. We, of course, would
be doing landscaping along with the construction
of the parking area. On the next page is the
ground floor, this is the area which,.. . .
Chairman: Bill, can we interrupt for just a minute. Can
! we identify this as petitions exhibit A.
I Mr. Downing:Yes, this is a set of plans which shows all the i
floor plans of the school. I propose, in additi n
j( to remove the metal building that' s presently
I on the sight, and substitute parking.
jj Chairman: Would you describe the location of that metal
�j building?
Mr.Downing: The metal building is immediately adjacent to
= the Temple theater.
�! Chairman: Yes, it' s on the Southeast corner of the lot.
Mr. Downing:The Southeast corner of the lot, right. On the
Ij first floor, second, and third floor, we are
�I proposing apartments . In the pent house, we
are seeking some solution for the use of that
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space which would be within the Zoning restrict-
ions and a satisfactory tenant for that area. i
i; It might take a number of forms, even apartments
Chairman: What do you plan doing with the auditorium?
'I Mr. Downing: Bordman Lee, who, I think, is President of the
DeWitt Historical Society, would like, if it is
j; at all possible, to move the DeWitt Historical
j� Society into that space, and make that space
level with the floor and make that into, in
effect, a museum, in accordance with my appli-
cation. The neighborhood, at the present time,
is a varied one. The entire balance of the
i� block is now B-2. Perhaps, had school not
been there, the entire block today would be B-2.1,
On Seneca St. , on the corner of Seneca St. and
Tioga St. , there is a commercial block already. i!
On Cayuga St. , of course, there between Seneca
St. and State St. , there is a lot of commercial
��. property. At the present time, my wife has a
shop on Buffalo St. , and this is a small town-
house type of building, the other half of which]
is owned by Mr. Saperstone, and it too is being i(
used as a commercial store. I feel that the
creation or the conversion of this building to
apartments and stores and museums as requested,
would add a life and an excitement and im-
portant stimulus to downtown business. I feel
that this kind of investment is important to
the community and I think it' s a highly desirable
use of this property as opposed, say, to another
proposal which involves the demolition of this
building.
Chairman: What type of retail stores do you propose for
this property?
Mr. Downing:Well,• my wife has a dress shop and I would pro-
pose that, and it would be that type. Probably
clothing stores, maybe a gift shop, this type of
j thing. Possibly a photographic supply, or service.
No restautant. Naturally, were I the owner of
the building, I would want the store to be
compadible-with the apartments so that they
would be a benefit to this community of families
and not be in anyway objectional.
Chairman: Do you, without mentioning any names, have any
business or has anyone approached you as to
renting spaces in this building, in regards to
retail stores?
Mr. Downing:Yes, I have.
Mr. Alo: Any firm commitments of any kind?
Mr. Downing:Well, the problem with a firm commitmEnt, Frank,
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is that until you own the building, the man 11
doesn' t want to commit himself or perhaps, on
'I the other hand you donit really have a credable jl
prolspect for him. You can' t say, I' ll rent you
jf this. I have a rather important merchant in
I town who says he's very interested. And, if and
when I get through all of these procedures,
j he wants very seriously to talk to me about it.
And I think he' s a very serious prospect.
Mr. Alo: My only thought here is that I would hate to seal
j any slipshot organization going in here. There'!
�j a lot of memories ais far as I'm concerned in ,
i ragards to this building, and I would hate to ')
see it run down by some poor shop or organization
going into it and I for ,one would like to know
i; what is proposed in regards to the type of
i! shops that are going in here, before I would
i give my stamp of approval on anything of this
I nature. ;j
�I Mr. Downing:Yes, well first of all, let me explain my pro- i{
posal. My thought on the subject is that the
classrooms along Seneca St. are ideal locations
j for certain kinds of highclass shops, gift I
�) shop, dress shop, menswear shop, something !�
� of that sort. The classrooms along Cayuga St.
are already spoken for by a financial institutio
Chairman: You 're talking about the first, the ground j
floor?
j Mr. Downing:Yes, and on Buffalo St. , you have only the
cafeteria. I have two or three people who are
interested in that.
Chairman: I think that this Board is not asking you to
j betray a _confidence. I don' t think the intent
of the Board is ever that.
Mr. Downing:But you can see, Frank, I couldn' t possibly j
j put in an undesirable, I wouldn' t put in an ,
i undesirable facility because that would adverse
the effective potential of three whole floors.
Chairman: My question is one of time. What is your time-
table. From the time you have everything.. . the
situation is go, how much time douyou anticipate
when you will be ready to rent to these people?
Mr. Downing:The rehabilitation time which may take several
months in certain areas, I would assume that by
Spring, the classrooms on Seneca St. would be
suitable for occupancy by shops. I think it
may take longer to prepare the other areas. -
Certainly,
reas.Certainly, it will be till September before the
apartments will be ready. But, the type of
tenancy that I have in mind. . . As far as I'm
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concerned, you' re very welcome to limit it, be-
cause I'm not interested in having any kind of
undesirable. Everybody has his own definition
of that. I'm not describincarticular enter-
prise as being undesirable, but the kind of
things that I know that. . .for example the dress
+: shop: I don' t think you' d object to that. Ther ' s
j the proprietress, over there.
And, let' s say a men' s shop and gift shop, 1.
That is the type of occupancy that I am, that I
f feel is suitable for this occupancy and the typ
ii to which I am limited for that very reason.
6 I also hope to have my own office in this
building, too.
Mr. Alo: I have another question. The one thing that jl
really bothers me, I think, more than anything !�
else, is the parking. This area is conjested,
anyway, and noise will make it that much more
conjested, something of this nature.
iI Mr. Downing:For example, I own Bel Aire Apartments with 43
apartments in it. We have about 25 or 26 parkin
places, and that' s all we need because the
occupancy of that type of building with an ele-
vator, highrise, and so on is very often elderl `
i� and they don' t have cars.
11 Mr. Alo: I'm not speaking about the apartmthts•t themselvej
I'm speaking about the shops that will degenera
i; the looks of this area that will bring more
traffic to this area .
Mr. Downir)g:Well, that is certainly a genuine concern. But, l
i the property does meet the Zoning requirements
of being within 5001 .
Mr. Alo: I'm not denying this, not at all, but even
though there are parking areas closeby, you
still are going to generate more traffic that
will bring about more traffic problems so that i
I there will be a need for more parking spaces.
li Mr. Downing:Well, I think three small shops aren' t really
i' going to change it that much. But, there is a i
point there that is well taken, and that' s
the point that I think was considered by the
Planning Board, as well.If I may, I' d like to re
fer you to a resolution of the Board of Public �
Works. And that is, the Board of Public Works,
and I think Common Council all end up with a
similar resolution. It is a responsibility of
I the city to provide parking for the downtown
i business district. . .
Mr. Alo: I realize this. After I've been on the Board o
Public Works for 6 years and I was Chairman of
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ii the parking traffic committee, I know this .
li But still, even though this is true, like I
said, this can generage more parking problems j
so that more parking areas will be needed.
Mr. Downing:Downtown Ithaca needs more parking, that' s for f'
sure, I agree with you there. One of the pointsil
that I think I should bring out, what I'm
trying to do is to take a major building down- �
town which some people have suggested should ber .i
demolished, and try to rehabilitate it and put i
it on the tax roll. It' s going to cost a tre- ii
1, mendous amount of money to rahabilitate this
building. So much so, that this building is
i certainly going to have to have rent compatible
with other areas. It' s going to cost a lot
of money. It will be easier to make a success
of this venture if I can have the freedom to
! develop it as tenants arrive. And I think that,
under the circumstances, it woul:be easier for
the DeWitt building to become a successful mem-
ber of this tax-paying community if the B-2 k
i varience were granted. I wrote a few lines here
while I was waiting, and it goes something like
this. The high cost of rehabilitation will
require the rent schedule be similar to spaces i
i! other buildings in the neighborhood, even on
State St. But unfortunately, competition is
!� the name of the game in this country, as I'm !
sure the Board will agree. If I'm successful in '
I! my effort before this Board, and if I can
overcome certain legal problems, the DeWitt
Building will ask for no tax rebates, no federal
or state funds, no special assistance. This is
! a private enterprise project fully prepared to y
pay its own way. I'm enclined to think that
downtown has enough vacant lots, holes in the
ground. Here' s a chance to see some success in
i the tax-paying side of this picture. And I i
need the flexibility that a varience from this
BoErd will give me in order to assure success
in my venture,
Chairman: Bill, as a graduate of that school, and I think !
every member of the Board that' s from Ithaca is,i
I have a feeling of nestalgia for the building,
but I have a special feeling of nestalgia for
{
that green victory of San Otrace. Is that still
there?
Mr. Downing: I don' t remember.
Chairman: It used to be in the hallway up the front steps
on the Cayuga St. side. You wouldn' t take that
out, would you?
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Mr. Downing:Not me. I'm going to leave the Boys and Girls
sign, too. Somebody asked me if I was going to
put up a sign, andI assured them that any sign
that would be there would read not only Boys
f and Girls, but they might be so very small and i
tasteful .signs suitable to this kind of develop-j
ment. And, it would be attractive landscaping.
There' s about 30' or so between the sidewalk
and the building on Seneca St. , and it' s my
'i idea that that would make an attractive terrace
perhaps with benches or something and some trees
i and make this a little oasis in what is some-
times toobusy Ithaca.
Chairman: Any questions of any member of the Board? Mr. i
Robinson? Would you give your address please? 11
! Mr. Robinson: My name is Michael Robinson, 310 E. Buffalo St'
l I'm alterman for the second ward in which this 1
particular piece of property resides. I' d like' I
I to make it very clear from the outside. I'm
not here to discuss wisdom or a lack of wisdom:
j in the School Board' s axwptance of Mr. Downing' sl
bid. I'm here only to discuss the request it' s
I, asked for. I don' t want to get into the super- I
I ficial or other side additions concerning this
i
property, I only want to discuss briefly the
potential it has for the community. We've seen
in the past several years, numerous properties
taken off of our tax rolls both on the Cornell
University campus, and in other areas of the
city. I've seen properties taken off the tax
rolls on S. Cayuga St. for construction just
;i recently completed over there. We now have the
opportunity to place a piece of property which
�! would attract and generate commerce in downtown
Ithaca, attract people to the center of our
city, placed back on the tax roil where it has
not been for a number of years. We've already
j� got enough tax-exempt }arpperty in this city at
this time. I don' t think we can afford any more
Now, as far as the traffic conjestion is con-
cerned, I can' t personally see how small shops
and apartments as explained by Mr. Downing, his
outlined program could create any more of a
I traffic jam than what the high school did there
I, for several years with buses lined up all around
the place, teachers having to find parking
• t spots all day, children and their parents driving
cars to school, picking up their children. Or,
I can' t see how there would be anymore of a-
traffic problem than if this building were to be
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it
used as a centralized governmental or Social
Services office building which would attract
I as many, if not more, people than the prdject
that Mr. Downing has in mind. I think that we
have an opportunity to put this on the tax rolls
that' s where it belongs. I don' t care whether
j; it' s Mr. Downing or anyone else. With this kind
ii of purpose in mind I think that this community
�I should go ahead with this opportunity. Thahk yo ,
Mr. LaPinto:My name is Michael LaPinto and I live at 304 j
I. Mitchell St. I'm one of the owners of the De
Witt School building, in a sense, because I'm
a resident and voter and property owner in the
Ithaca City School District, and the Board of j
Education holds it as a trustee in my behalf
E� and in behalf of everybody in this room, I be-
�� lieve . So, I am in a sense, one of the owners
of this property. I don' t represent anybody
11 else here but myself. I question the legality
j of the proposition presented to this Board at
this time. I don' t think that Mr. Downing and M.
Robinson have addressed the proper board. This
ii is a board of Zoning Appeals, not a Planning Boa d,
it' s not a Common Council. The Question here:
should or should not a varience be granted? As
I understand it, usually a varience is granted
on the basis of some kind of hardship. And,
I have heard no evidence, no suggestion here
of any hardship. Mr. Downing mentioned it' s
l success and I wish him the best of success in hi
ii life in general, but that' s not the question
here. I think the question is, who' s suffering
any hardship by vurtue of this situation? 'We
�! all know, and it' s common knowledge that this
j application is made by the Ithaca City School
District, represented by the Board of Education.
!� I've seen a notice of the meeting that was sent
i out by the Board of Education and I think the
question as I read some of the authorities on
the subject here, that the issues that you have
to deal with, and whether or-.,,not you should
grant a varience is whether there is any hard-
ship. I would like to ask you gentlemen a ques-
tion at this time . I'd like to know if you cou
answer this question. On what grounds was this
application made? Was it made on the grounds of
hardship, or some other grounds? If somebody
it would be so good as to advise me of that.
Mr. Jones: Well, the Building Department was asked about
Speciality shops in a B-1 Zone, and I told Mr.
a
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Downing that not permitted, the only way it coul
ibe done was to go before the Zoning Board and
hopefully get their approval. That' s how this
i; case got to the Zoning Board.
Mr. Lapinto:But, isn' t the question whether anyone is suf-
fering a hardship? I know the Board of Educatiof
isn' t suffering a hardship. So, the only thing
!! that they have at stake here is a $20,000 sum
and this application is made in order to make !I
valid or give some force to this purchase offer �!
that' s been made by Mr. Downing which has in it !
a contingency that he will not be bound by.' it unl
less he gets a varience or perhaps he gets !
new legislation permitting him to put this °
building to the use that he proposie:s.. I think I
that this Board has to have some evidence of har -
ship or most have some evidence of something
of that type in order to give a jourisdiction
to act upon this application.
Chairmman: Mr. LaPinto, the only evidence of hardship that
i has come before this court is the fact that the
Board of Education had this building on the
block for sale for so many months or whatever
and they only recieved one bid and this is con- ,
sidered a hardship. I think Mr. Downing referr
to in his comments that he was the only bidder.
it Mr. LaPinto:Well, I beg to differ with him, because I know
as a fact that the Savings Bank offered a price
much greater than Mr. Downing' s price. And, I d It
think it' s for this Board to get into that.
Question: where is the hardship here? I don' t
think there is any evidence whatsoever of any
hardship. And none has been presented to this
board. Thank you.
I� Chairman: Thank you, Mr. La Pinto. Is there anyone wishin
to speak against this? I know there is one
person that can hardly wait4 Mr. Saperstone.
That' s David Saperstone, 100 W. Buffalo St
! right?
Mr. Saperstone: My name is David Saperstone. I live at
100 W. Buffalo St. , Cayuga Apartments, one of
the few apartments that pays taxes facing the
it high school. Now let' s take Buffalo St. . No
taxes on the park. A church on the other side.
The high school on the other side. Cayuga
Apartments pays the taxes. They're all corners.
Number one. Let' s take the other corner, the j
Masonic Temple. Clinton Hotel. The only ones
that pay taxes. We should have some say in this
Now, I recieved two registered notices of this
1 �
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meeting, no notice of the sale, but two regis-
tered notices like this, and one blank. This i
side pays a lot of taxes in that area. It says ;I
in this notice, that the Board of Zoning
!i Appeals, the Ithaca City School District will if
appear before the Board of Zoning Appeals on
September 7, 1971, at 7:30 PM in Common Council f
Chambers. Are they here?
Chairman: Well, I think Mr. Downing is representing. . .
it Mr. Saperstone, I asked who was representing the'
p
Ithaca City School District when I openedAhis
portion of the hearing, and Mr. Downing said he i
was representing it.
Mr. Saperstone: Mr. Chairman, be it as--it may, I know this.
I' He is not on the School Board, he hasn' t bought
it yet, it' s in litigation. The trial goes 11
September 10, as you know.
;I Chairman. Yes, I know. i
II Mr. Saperstone: Maybe, yes, and there could be an Appeal.
Chairman: Yes, I realize. . .Mr. Saperstone, it doesn' t
say anywhere in the Zoning Ordinance that the
person must be a member of the business. We are
having a lot of lawyers coming in here and
appear in behalf of their clients. I don' t
know what relationship legally Mr. Downing has
with the Board of Education but when he said
I� that he was speaking under oath and he said he
' was representing the Board of Education I took
p 9 ,
j. him at his word.
Mr. Saperstone: I accept it, Mr. Chairman, except that the
notice was somewhat misleading. 'The Ithaca
City School District will appear before the Boar . "
Chairman: If one wanted to interpret that, one could say
i that the entire school board should have been he e,
right?
Mr. Saperstone: Well, I' d like that, I' d like that very much
Chairman: And that' s one interpretation. I'm sorry to
I have interrupted you, Mr. Saperstone.
Mr. Saperstone: Oh, that' s all right. Mr. Chairman, I speak
for the Masonic Temple as well as Mr. Wilkinson
who is ill, as you know. And he asked me to
say that he is utterly opposed to any Zoning
changes. And, of course, the people that own
the other three corners that do pay taxes, are
utterly opposed. That' s my settlement. Do we
get that straight? Now we are directly effected
I nobody else, no neighbors, no houses, no double
tenants, nothing. We pay the taxes. Now, I
agree with Mr. LaPinto. If he can show a hard-
ship, the school can' t show a hardship because
' $20,000. is about 3t on each tax bill. And, I
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don' t believe anybody would suffer a hardship IZ
and we' re all stockholders of our school system
It' s not right to say or lead people to believe
that the Savings Bank had gotten the school at
$122,000, which would net the school about $72,0 0
that they were going to have another patking lot�
That isn' t the case at all. I happen to know
for a fact, and I think some of you members know
that in that place, they were going to build thr e
luxury tower apartments, totaling about 125
apartments, at a cost between 3V2 million and 4
million dollars. Now, when you talk about taxes
that' s what you want to talk about. That would
give us $125,000 or 150,000, in income, in
taxes. So, let' s assume that the people who
think they have it bought, put in $500,000. At
the present time, it gives you $52.00 a-' thousandi
on $400,000 at 80%. No taxes . It wouldn' t
make 10� difference on each tax bill. So, that' �
really not the issue here. The issue here, is
not to commercialize DeWitt Clinton School. I
don' t think I object to apartments, but to
commercialize it, at a 17V2� cost per square foot'?
That' s what it amounts to. $20,000 on 113,000
square feet of space? It' s 17!/2� a square foot.
And, if Mr. Downing gets it, and he does put a
museum there, the school board should be the
first to go in. Cause that is the most stupid
sale ever made in this whold area. 17��. Do
you expect me, with the buildings on State St. ,
to compete when I've paid probably $30.00 a
square foot, or $20.00 a square foot, and the
land thrown in for free? Now, that' s only
115,000 feet per building. 61,000 square feet
of land, the choisest land in the City of Ithaca
they throw thAt in on the 17Y2¢. Do you expect
the people who purchased property on State St. ,
can compete in office space or shops at a cost
of 17Y2¢ a square foot? That' s rediculous . To
come here to ask for a Zoning change, and tell
them that they' re going to have shops and they' re
going to need some parking Zoning changes, and
they need some Building Zoning changes, and it
adds nothing to the community, it gives nothing
it to the community, and those buildings should be
used for community services . Nothing else.
It' s now assessed for $1,670,000 with a $20,000
price tag. The background of this strange
coincidence or strange sale is quite lengthy
and I won' t go into it, Mr. Chairman, cause I
31
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know the board members would like to go home.
f But a look in some of these Zoning Court changes !
State of New York, Supreme Court, and this , of`
!! course, is in the Supreme Court now, on a differ ;
ent matter. But, it seems to say, where there
are practical difficulties, or unnecessary hard-
ships , in carrying out certain things, they may
be entitled to some kind of varience. If the
land cannot yield a reasonable return, they
could possibly get a varience . The plight of
the owner, I mean, one step out of the poorhouse
or an application to the Welfare Department,
would specify that. They' re under no consid-
eration. In the old days we used to call them
swindles, by the school board. Today, they
call them, sort of, sweetheart deals. Now, �I
there' s a long, long story to this thing and I
wish you would consider carefully, methodically,
and certainly, by all means, no one still owns
the building. If our claim isn' t upheld, the II
Savings Bank' s .rrmay, because the Appealant Divis-
ion did hold that the school board trustee for t e
people. It' s the people' s school, the people' s jl
funds, the people' s money, the people' s taxes.
They are supposed to get the high buck, the
H high dollar. Got nothing to do about the school )
the sentimentality, the 39 years of me looking ;
I at the school, has no bearing on it, whatsoever.
It' s supposed to take the high dollar, regardlescl
jI of what happens. Even if they did run a parking
garage, or a parking lot. The high buck was
j; $122,000. Under these circumstances, gentlemen, j�
I don' t see that at this time, or at any time, !I
that you can get any kind of a varience. There
are absolutely no hardships . It' s not a sale,
I it' s a giveaway. At17%�, do you expect the' j
(; people who run the Home Dairy, if they got
a second floor to rent, and the building was
it sold at $90,000, do you think that they bought I'
that at 17%� asquare foot? And the land thrown �!
in free? Why, Urban Renewal land bought $2:100-;:
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li I never finished high school. I had to go to j
war and I had to go to work. But that' s all
right. I have a lot of feeling for the sbhool.
Very•-:littiq feeling for the school board, very
little feeling for promoters, and very little
j feelings for a fast deal and a fast buck.
Thank you! l)
Mayor: I think he ought to get the records straight.
i• He' s criticizing the school board and not Mr.
�I Downing, I hope. What Mr. Downing has done is
perfectly legal. It' s been advertised, put
�j in an offer, and if there' s any criticism, it
should be to the board. And it' s one question !
if the board were here, I would like to ask a i
school board member if they asked for a varience �
�j wouldn' t this change the value of the building?
And I think the school should ask for a varience�j
before they put it up for sale.
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. '
Mr. Saperstone: Mr. Chairman, I want to answer the Mayor.
f Just two minutes. i
Chairman: Just a minute. Is there anyone else wishing to
speak against this? I want to get someone who
hasn' t had a chance.
Mr. LaPinto: I just want to ask my question. I asked you
originally, what was the basis for the appli-
cation for varience. Whether it was hardship I�
or what it was.
Chairman: The Building Commissioner answered you, I think.
i Mr. LaPinto: Oh, did he?
Chairman: Is there anyone else wishing to speak against
this petiticr2 Mr. Saperstone, you have the
i floor.
'+ Mr. Saperstone: I don' t always g-ee eye to eye with the Mayor.
He says Mr. Downing was the rightful bidder.
Chairman: He said everything Mr. Downing did was above
board.
Mr. Saperstone: Oh, there' s no question about it.
Chairman: That' s all that the mayor said.
Mr. Saperstone: And all I want is an answer to the question.
When I say that my apartment on the forth floor
in the Cayuga Apartments where I've been for 39
yeras, and I get a notice for bidding, I looked
at it, gentlemen. To me it looks like a quarte
of a million dollars. That, I can' t afford to
give away. That is a little too much, And I
don' t think my relatives would like it. But
j $30,000. I think I could live and stay off the
Welfare roll. Now who in their right mind
could look out of the window and say, "I' ll
bid $22,000. 1' Who? You know what they did to
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people in Germany? Do you know what they calledjl
• the Italians?
j� Chairman: Mr. Saperstone, I don' t like to interrupt you, !j
but this is not. . .
! Mr. Saperstone: Well I just want to say that why I didn' t
answer a bid. Because $22,000 is murders
Chairman: Now I fail to see what that has to do with. . .
Mr. Saperstone: And we don' t steal anything. Regardless
whether they blame us or not.
Chairman: Mr. Downing, you can reply now.
Mr. Downing:There was a question raised as to hardship, and
!i I am making a plea to the Board that the hardship
j that exists, in this particular case, is involv-1
j ing the rehabilitation of a building as big as
this so many spaces which you can derive little �j
j if any room. Is that in order to assure
j successful financial venture, I need this var-
j ience so that I may put in shpps, or offices, o
i; apartments, or a museum. It' s a big building, d
'! it' s very hard to organize, and it' s very hard
�i to put together. And I can assure you that it
I going to cost me a great deal of money and be
quite a substantial tax payer if I can carry
I
through. Thank you.
_ Mr. LaPinto:Mr. Chairman, I respectifully submit to you , jl
I and I don' t know who your legal advisor is but
I'm sure you. . .
Ij Chairman: - Mr. Weinstein.
Mr. LaPinto:Mr. Weinstein.
Chairman: Heys an associate of yours.
i Mr. LaPinto:He: isn' t any associate of mine. He just happen
to have an occupied space in the same building,
j� that' s all.
Chairman: Well, you must talk to each other once in a whi
You look at each other. . .maybe you look past
!j each other.
Mr. LaPinto: I don' t have a chance to talk to him: he' s
too busy.With the problems the City has in
addition to his own problems . I want to say
j this, with all due respect to Mr. Downing, who
I have the highest admiration for. I would lik
i to say that the hardship that he talks about is
I not the hardship you gentlemen have to deal
with. Somebody has to be in a jam. It shall be
the owner of a piece of property who is having
the trouble. He can' t get enough income out of j
it. He has other problems. He' s really in
I trouble: he' s in a jam. But, the owner of this
. + property, the Ithaca City School District,
the Board of Education, the school district
z- who represents me, who represents all of us and ►
I, II
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holds this property trust for us is in no jam.
i' They spend money like drunken sailors. $20,000 ;i
that Mr. Downing might give5.them, doesn' t mean !,
a drop in the .bucket to them. And, as far as
'i I'm concerned, $20,000 is a token. This build-
,
j ing here, as Mr. Saperstonepointed out, is jf
assessed for over a million and a half . And
it' s probably worth 2 million dollars to some-
!i body based on assessed valuation. The $20,000., �!
ou might sayis a ift. Cause $20 000 compared!
with the sizp
of the property , the value of the
!I property, and all the other facts, and circum- j
li stances , that you are all fimiliar with $20,000
!I is equal to 01 Thank you.
Mrs. Thompson: It' s so good and everything, and they could
have the Junior High School there, and now since ,
they moved the Junior High School down there
where the high school is, why don' t they want
f,I this man to have the building. What good is
!} the building of they couldn' t have the Junior
j High School there? They said the building was n
! good for those children to go in and be taught.
When my daughter came out of this school in 19401
her education proved for any young college. But,
this school that are putting children out now. . .
my niece graduated here in 1969. And what she
ii got out of it. . .nothingi She couldn' t read and
Ij write, and she took a business course, and they
didn' t taught her nothing. She graduated up
here on the hill and didn' t know nothing. And,
�i not only this, but I hear it every day on the
radio, where they say the people aren' t teach-
ing the children nothing. Now, with sex, that
iiwas born with them. ;
Chairman: This case is closed.
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it The next case is #954, with varience under Section ii 35
7, Column 2 in a R-3 District to operate a beauty
!i shop in conjunction with the Whig shop.
Chairman: Mr. Freund, at 1025 N. Tioga St. , with varience ;3
under Section 7, Column 2 in an R-3 District to
operate a beauty shop in conjunction to the Whig
I Shop.
Mr. Feund, having first been duly sworn in,
j answered as follows:
Mr. Freund: Chairman, I'm William Freund and I'm in a jam as{
a landlord. I have a tenant, know as the Whig- �!
i1 In on my property. She just informed me that
j in order to keep going in her business, she woul
be required to open a beauty shop, in conjuncti
that this beauty shop would have to conform to
all the rules and regulations as set forth by
it the State of New York. So, I would like a !!
varience to allow her, as the part of the Whig- j
In to operate a beauty shop.
Chairman: My first question, Mr. Freund, is when did she
find out that she had to have a beauty shop in j
j conjunction with the Whit-In?
Mr. Freund: About two months after she opened, she heard
jj there had been a ruling by the State of New
it York, that anybody dealing with touching the
�i human head, in any sort of business, would have ``
!I to be a licensed beauty shop. I checked with th
State in Albany, and found out that there was
j a director number of 428-70 by Mr. Molara, who i
is the director of the cosmotology section in th�
licensing bureau of the State of New York which
states that anybody touching the human head, in I,
the operation of a Whig Shop.
Chairman: Do you have a date on the directorship?
Mr. Freund: I have no date. She' s a woman I talked to in
�! the office. Actually there' s no great increase.
i We have a little addition in the backroom that
was already there. We put linoleum on the floor
and a sink and built this into a beauty shop
that would conform to all rules and regulations
�i of the state. And, it' s actually part of the
Whit shop. Now, she has been dealing in Whigs.
They wash :them and set them, and do all the thins
that are norman to whigs, to hair, actually.
And she has been asked many times by her custome s
why they didn' t have a beauty parlor in con-
junction so a woman could come in and get the
full service. The only difference is onds
'imitation hair and the other' s the real thing.
They want very little additional space. By the
way, we also have men' s whigs down there.
Chairman: Any questions from members of the board? Is
C
36
I.
there anyone here appearing in behalf of grantin
this petition? Mr. Furman? Mr. DeForest Furman
What is the address where you live?
Mr. Furman: 111 N. Plain St. . I'm here in behalf of Mr.
Freund. I believe that he' s put a lot of good
ii rugged hours on this job, and I'd like to see hi
pull through. This is an obligation that he
needs and has experienced credit. Thank you. ii
11 Chairman: Is there anyone else appearing in behalf of gran
ing of this petition?
II Mayor Johns : I didn' t know what was going to be on the agend
I know the area and the property very well.
There' s about 1,0006 improvement in this par- I
ticular piece of property. It used to be a
laundrymat, and this is a big improvement over
a laundrymat. We have a commercial across
the street, and we have on the East and West
lots a commercial and this is a big improvement
over what was on that particular corner.
Chairman: Is there anyone here appearing against the grant
ing of this Appeal. The case is closed.
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The next case ij 955, the request for a varience to 37
1� Section 7, column 2 at 227-229 Linden Ave, in an R-3
District, for use of part of the first floor of the
structure for a recreational club.
Chairman: Mrs. Amdur, I think. ,3
Mrs. Amdur: Yes, sir. How do you do. Chairman, gentlemen
My name is Helen.Amdur. I'm an attorney in Dry-
den. I represent the Cornell Radio Guild, Inc. ,
which operates station WVBR. We have bean
before this board before on an application for
varience. The situation has now changed j
slightly. We are now the owners of the build- I
ii
f ing as of September 1, 1971. The occupancy
and use will be precisely the same as described
to the board when we recieved the varience. E
,j At that time the board made a decision in which
I� it required that any future tenants, together
with the owner of the building would have to ap-11
'i ply for use varience for any portion of the build-
ing, And we are here today for such a use Ij
varience. Just for the record, I would like
to state that the board in many previous appli- f
cations has already made findings as to the
hardship involved in this building. Originally,
it was used as a garage. Then is was used as a
laundrymat, and then it was vacant for a period l
of time. And there' s been ample evidence in
j) the findings of fact in decisions of this board,!
r that to remodel it, to use as apartments, Ij
which would be an allowed use in this district,
would be a prohibited expense. To tear the !�
I building down would also be a prohibited I
expense because it' s made of concrete and steel.
This has all been established in previa; procedi gs
i and we would like to incorporate those by
reference. The proposal now, is to have a
private game club which will occupy approx-
imately 4,000 square feet directly under the
WVBR studios. Now this will be a private
�i club, membership only for a selective group.
There will be a residence manager who will be
present on the premises at all times. The
business involves various games, such .as billiards
ping gong. There' ll be card tables, there' ll
be bridge games, and other card games. The
hours will be approximately from 11 AM to
midnight, although we would prefer not to be
bound by those particular hours, depending on
how the business developes. There are certain
very stringent rules for membership, which will
be enforced through the resident manager. He
j would like to answer any questions the board mayl
have.
There' s going to be a dress code. People will
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!; be required to wear shoes, and upper and lower l
garments. There will be no loitering in the
premises or outside the premises. And there
!P are parking restrictions on Linden Ave. which
ji are all specified in the proposed charter and
rules of membership which have been attached to
the application. This will be a profit making
organization. That' s the aim, anyhow. The I
Ij members will be obligated to pay for the use
of the tables by the hour. Right now, it' s
1, uncertain as to how many members will be attract d.
I think the only way to find out is to start
the business. We do not expect oto"have an
occupancy of more that 10 to 15 people. There
will be a lease. The present proposal is that l
6 parking spaces will be supplied. There' s a
total of 16 spaces; 6 were designated by this
I; board to be used by WVBR. We plan to use 6
for this group and this is all inside parking.
Aad then there' ll be 4spaces which we reserve
I
j� for another tenant, in the upstairs area, for
some future date. A lot was mentioned about
= I� taxes . I might say that this building would
be exelnpt as far as the use by Cornell Radio
Guild is concerned. It will be partially
taxable dependant on whether there are tenants
.which are tenants of commercial nature. Are
jlthere any questions?'
Chairman: That building isn' t taxed now?
i' Mrs. Amdur: Well, it will be taken off the rolls if it' s
used only by WVBR, with no mental income.
�i Chairman: Yes, they can' t have a tax exempt statis on a
!j profit making operation.
�{ Mrs. Amdur: There will be partial exemption, which is deter-
mined by the accessor.
Chairman: You mentioned two things that I didn' t get i
1 quite clear. One was you said that occupancy
would be limited to 10 or 15 members.
Mrs. Amdur: No, not limited. That' s the expected occupancy.
You can see from the number of tables and so
forth that are available.
Chairman: What is your limit to the number of members
you're going to have?
Mrs. Amdur: Well, there' s no limit. There may be up to
700 members, but only the small. . .
Chairman: Who' s sponsoring this?
Mrs. Amdur: This is a private organization. I think at thi
i point, I'd like to ask Mr. Wood to come forward
and tell us more about it.
Mr. Bortz: One question. You say you' re going to manage
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I! the inside and outside for loitering. j
Mrs. Amdur: Yes.
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I Mr. Bortz : How do you propose to manage the outside of
4a. u,� the building?
Mrs. Because we have a rule that club members must i
refrain from any unruly conduct in or about f
the club building including rough housings
loitering, profanity, or any loud voistrous
activities, which causes the stress to other
members or neighboring houses. And, failure I
to adhear to this rule, amoung other rules,
would mean that their membership would be
revoked and they would be barred from the club. I
It will not be opened to the public.
Mr. Bortz: - Perhaps not to the membership, but people in
!! that vacinity where there is quite a high densit ,
!� I understand, of. students . How do you propose
to manage people other than your own members? �!
Mrs. Amdur: Well, we: can only control our own members. Onlyll
!� members are given admission to the place.
Mr. Bortz; Do you also have a recreation area?
I� Mrs. Amdur: Well, it would be a private recreational club.
Mr. Bortz: Do you ever intend to have legal beverages on
i. the premises?
j Mrs. Amdur: No, there' s no application for that at all.
If there were any application, we'd have to
come before this board and the state liquor
authorities. Right now the only proposal was
to possibly have vending machines for refresh-
ments.
Mr. Bortz: What did you say the hours were?
Mrs. Amdur: 11AM to 12 midnight.
Mrs. Amdur: Mr#. Thomas C. Wood will be the leasee of the
premises and I think {he can answer your
questions a little more fully. Insidentally,
we have taken a poll of the area, and have
gathered a list of people who are in favor. . .
will you mark that exhibit. . .and there' s
been extensive visiting of not only the owners cf
the neighboring buildings, but also the tenants.
I think there are only three people.-who indicatel
some objection and those people are concerned
more about parking than anything else. There
is a public parking lot which we compute to be
bout 600 feet away, and from the nature of
the club and nature of the membership, which
would be mostly :,. people from the college, we
would expect a lot of them would be coming on
foot in any event. One lady suggested that we
could have dances. And, I told her that wasn' t
-_- contemplated, unless you- could dance on ool
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I; tables. We have Mr. Bates here who is the man-
. !i aging director of WVBR, and he' s prepared to ansr
wer any questions you might have for him. ;!
Mr. Bortz : Can I ask you, is this something original, just
started here, or are there more of these? This I
;! is the first one? I see, in other words, there '
!i isn' t any organization that is connected with
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j Mr. Wood: This is not something across the country.
Mrs. Amdur: Well, if it works out here, we can start it 11
across the country. This is just Mr. Wood who'
has an idea. Tell them about the golf course.
Mr. Wood: Do I have to be sworn in or anything? Just a
couple points.that you bi-ought up. Number one,
I° you said something about membership. How many
if people we' re going to have in the club and I
j� that kind of thing. I don' t have that much j
experience running a pool hall and I'm the
i' employment manager at the NCR Co. I've been
in Ithaca about 17 yeats, and I plan to stay hei
My interest initally in Ithaca, is I like to
!; play billiards. I have been active in sports
all my live and it just happens that the Ithaca ��
I� Bowl who has the largest billiard room in town, f1
i went out of business in terms of billiards I�
��! Sunday before last. They're going to put
! 8 allies in there. Rigth now they have 9
commercial tables out side the bar pool tables
in Ithaca. I knew this was going to happen aboLt
8 months ago and I talked to the owners of the
building, on the Elmira Rd. And, so we started
looking around, possibly open up our own billiaid
lounge. That initally started the whole thing.
Later on the line I found that there are just
about no buildings available that could possibl
11 be used for any kind of billiard lounge, public
or private, just because the buildings don' t
exist. You have color problems. The size of
the room just don' t go along with that kind of
use. So we started talking with VBR, who is
contemplating buying the building at that time,
�I and they now have bought it. We expanded the i ea
to make it a recreational game room type of clu
I There is a club that I know of that deals just
primarily with pocket pool and billiards in
Rochester. Now, I've been in that club several
times. It' s an all night club, in Rochester an
ii they have about 1200 members. Now anytime
�) that I've ever been in there, I would say the
jmost I've ever seen in there is 15 to 18 people
at any one time. In Ithaca if you had 700 rpembe s,
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�i we' ll say a substantial portion of those are
students, I do not think that you can say thatthO
it 700 members could be there at any one time when
you start thinking about summer vacation. If
They just aren' t going to be in Ithaca. If you I!
had 300, it' s a transian type thing. A lot
f; of them are going to leave in January, they're
ing to leave during Spring vacation, they i
leave on the weekends, they leave when it' s
Christmas vacation, they leave at Thanksgiving
vacation, and so forth. So, I don' t think that
the crutch of the matter is the number of mem-
bers, but rather what we' re trying to do. We' re�j
trying to set up a club for the Ithaca popula-
tion and the student population, where they can
get some alternate form of entertainment which
looks like it' s being pretty well banned in
Ithaca, right now, especially in terms of walk-
ing to it,as opposed'.to the only other tables 1
would be in the Ide' s bowling alley up on the �7
hill. That' s not really accessable to anyone. j
There are no commercial ping pong tables in
Ithaca, right now. We propose to put that in
!, also. She mentioned golf. We were trying to, 'I
i this goes through, we' re going to pursue it and
see what we can come up with. They have a
II computer golf game that you can play. I don' t
know if the members ::of the Board are.,aware of
that but it projects the scene of a hole on the
screen. You hit a ball, it registers how the ball
is hit, and then it gives you another saying
such as hitting the ball out of the rough to th
green. You can play an 18 hole golf match.
It' s an interesting idea anyway. We've got the
space to do that now. I don' t know if we can
i get all that in there, but we' re going to attem
that also. At one time I was the Vice-Pres=
ident of the Ithaca Bridge Club, and they have
now been located in the Tin Can down by Stewart )
Park. And we've negotiated with at least one
of the Directors that had directed it. It' s
very possible that they might like to hold some
of their games someplace in the Collegetown
area just to attract more people to the Bridge
Club function. Now, that has not been persued.
It' s very hard to persue anything until you
know actually that you have the building, and
? can make some sort of firm arrangements. Do
you have any specific questions you' d like to
ask?
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i •. i Mrs. Amdur: We have a proposed manager here
tonight, Mr. Thomas and he will be available asl�
a fulltime manager of the club and will be
present at all times that the club is in oper-
ation. I think that will be helpful in the
question someone asked before about how do we
control loitering. We have someone there that
will be the head of the control.
Mr. Alo: Mr. Thomas, are you a student here at Cornell. it
Mr. Thomas: No, I'm not at present, I enrolled in the
i' Cornell University in 1965. I spent 21/2 years
there, then joined the Navy. I was out last ;I
year. I was seperated from the Navy last summer��.
I went back to school, and this summer I had to
enroll.
�i Mr. Rogan: Do,:you contemplate going back to school? I
Mr. Thomas: Yes, I do. I'm not really sure what my accidemi�
direction is on and I don' t think you would. . .
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Mr. Rogan: The reason I asked you is how would you find
time to manage and go to school?
Mr. Thomas: Oh, no, this residence manager position that I'e�
concerned with is a full time position. I
wouldn"t be returning to school.
I� Mr. Wood; I might just suggest that we have talked to as
many people as we can, but we were required to
notify by letter within the 10 days prior to th'
meeting. We've gone around, knocked on doors,
people were away, some we couldn' t find. But
�I the ones we did talk to brought up several points,
concerning parking, concerning.,noise. There are
some that say it might turn into another Eddy S
situation, and that kind of thing. And that' s
why we devised the three main rules. One about
no loitering, on or about, no voistrous activity,
no parking on Linden Ave. from Bool St. to Drydea
Rd. . Hopefully, those three things, if one of tlem
i) is violated, and some resident or some tenant
of one of the apartments says, "Hay, there they
go. " , the resident manager should be there at all
times. He can' t be there 13 hours a day. But,
the manager or .someone under his direction would
be there ataall times. And, hopefully, he would
respond by saying, "Okay, there are the guys
out there. These are members . " And either
reprimand them in a sense that, "Okay move along
if you don' t want to do that then you don' t wan
ii to be a club member. " And, it is in our bylaws
that the owner or the manager of the establish-
ment would have the right, on his side, though
I just to revoke the membership at that point.
Now,, the nnl�aV we cnnno . enforce that. I don'Ik
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see how we can too well, is if someone is a
I' resident of the street already. And thet' re out
side loitering. Either loitering as a club
j� member or loitering as a resident. I don' t know)
II Outside of that, one point, our intent is to
make those rules stick. I do anticipate prob-
lems, but not ones that we're going to sherk
li our duty. and just let it ride.
�I Mr. Alo: I' d like to ask you a question about it. Your
'i plans are now to maintain this as a club, right?
!! Mr. Thomas: As a private club. With one exception. There
would be some provisions for guests along the
line of the Country Club wlf ch allows people out-`!
ij side the County to come in three time a year,
ii or something along that line.
Mr. Alo: Say, for example, that this wasn' t a successfully
club operation. Then you have the idea that you
would like to open it up for the public. Then �i
you would Oave to come back here again for
permission, and to change this so that you
E could then rent the tables out to anyone who wised
to use them.
Mrs. Amdur: Yes, this is correct. And they would also be
under the regulations under the state laws.
Mr. Alo: Oh, yes. The application is definitely for a
iprivate club.
Mr. Thomas: As I%understand, Mr. Jones has indicated to me
that this is for specific use, a varience
for specific use. If we'd violatethat use,
I then you' d have every right to do what ever
i you do and make us close up or get some other
further varience of some other kind.
Chairman: Mrs. Amdur, there' s nobody''.here wishing to
speak for or against it is there. The public
hearing is terminated.
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° • EXECUTIVE SESSION, BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA, j
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SEPTEMBER 7, 1971
-----------------------------------------------------------
Case #875
1
MR. PETITTI: Moved to grant exception to the provisions !�
i of Section 7, Column 7, to add an additional �(
!
j bath a kitchen for health and sanitary rea-
sons.
I'
MR. ALO: Seconded.
FINDINGS OF FACT:
1) Applicaht does not substantiate claim `4
ii of hardship. j
2) No special circumstances shown.
I �!
VOTE: Yes - 3 No - 2 M
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EXECUTIVE SESSION, BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA,
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SEPTEMBER -.7, 1971
II -----------------------------------------------------------�
CASE # 943
j MR. ALO: Moved to deny Appeal for a varience on the
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1'
`I Mr. Bortz: Seconded.
II
FINDINGS OF FACTS
1) Only substantial change is that Mr.
I�
Perry is now owner. No additional informa-
tion given. `
VOTE: Yes - 5 No - 0 I
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• EXECUTIVE SESSION, BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS CITY OF ITHACA,
_ it
ji SEPTEMBER 7, 1971 !I
-----------------------------------------------------------�I
i CASE # 951 I�
i Mr. Alo: Moved to table the Appeal for a varience
i for the property at 366 Elmira Rd. until `{
Weston' s case is cleared by the courts. Ij
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;i MR. BORTZ: Seconded. I�
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� FINDINGS OF FACTS: i
1 1) none.
VOTE: Yes - 5 No - 0
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EXECUTIVE SESSION, BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF TTHACA
SEPTEMBER 7, 1971
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CASE # 952
MR. ROGAN: Moved to deny appeal to build a two family
at 409 S. Geneva St.
MR. PETITTI: Seconded.
FINDINGS OF FACT:
1) Appealant not granted permission to
ii build a (2) two family house.
21 Did not show reasonable attempt to
sell as ( 1) one family house.
VOTE: Yes 5 No 0 �,
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EXECUTIVE SESSION, BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACAJ
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SEPTEMBER 7, 1971
l -----------------------------------�
j; CASE # 953
BORTZ: Moved to deny application.for purchase of
j! DeWitt School. There was no second. The !�
motion was defeated for lack of a second.
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MR. ROGAN: Moved to grant request.
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MR. ALO: Seconded.
i; �
f' FINDINGS OF FACT:
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i 1) It would not be possible to convert thisi�
�j property withou-t income from retail stores.
'• r 2) Shops , offices, and retail stores exist i
�I in adjacent areas and public parking is
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available within 5001 .
jj VOTE: Yes - 4 No - 1
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EXECUTIVE SESSION, BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA,
SEPTEMBER 7, 197D"
II
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CASE # 954
MR. BORTZ: Moved to grant Appeal-to add a beauty shop
on to the present Whig shop.
MR. PETITTI: Seconded.
FINDINGS OF FACT
1) Beauty Shop and Whig Shop are compatible. 1
2) Board cannot give credibility to unsigned
r
3) Nobody appeared in opposition to request.
VOTE: Yes 5 No 0
50
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EXECUTIVE SESSION, BOARD: OF ZONING APPEALS, CITY OF ITHACA,j
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-----------------------------------------------------------II
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j CASE # 955
I" BORTZ: Moved to deny appeal to put a recreational �J
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!I area in a portion of the WVBR studios. No
I� second. The motion was lost.
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MR. ALO: Moved to grant application.
�? MR. ROGAN: Seconded.
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�III FINDINGS OF FACT:
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v 1) Stipulation of the Zoning Board that
owner appear before Zoning Board with each
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prospective tenant of fore mentioned pre-
mises to apply for varnence for use.
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2) The Management will be present and in
charge of club at all times.
VOTE: Yes - 4 No - 1
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