ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS
MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2002
Members Present: Mr. Hare, Ms. Marteney, Mr. Darrow, Mr. Temple, Mr. Westlake, Mr. Gentile, Mr. Rejman
Staff Present: Mr. Moore, Mr. Leone, Ms. DeAngelo
APPLICATIONS APPROVED: 6 Lexington Avenue, 7 Adams Street, 5 Peacock Street, 124 Perrine Street
APPLICATION TABLED: 17 Columbus Street
Mr. Rejman: Good evening, this is the Zoning Board of Appeals. Tonight we have five items: 6 Lexington Avenue, 7 Adams Street, 5 Peacock Street, 124 Perrine Street, 17 Columbus Street.
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6 Lexington Avenue, lR-1, area variance of 20 sq. ft. for signs at Friends_ Restaurant, Anthony Tardibone
Mr. Rejman: 6 Lexington Avenue, are you here? State your name for the record.
Mr. Tardibone: Anthony Tardibone.
Mr. Rejman: OK, Anthony, tell what you would like to do there. I know this has been tabled twice, go ahead and just state what you would like to do.
Mr. Tardibone: I put up a sign on the building a 4 x 5 and I want to keep a marquee sign there for a venue of what is going on during the week.
Mr. Rejman: OK, have you decided on any comprehensive plan on the other signs that you have there, the additional signage that is on the building.
Mr. Tardibone: There are signs on the building up to tonight if you tell me to take them off, I will take them off tomorrow, if they need to come off. For the bands, the beer company does give me, when I have bands down there I have a poster
Mr. Moore: Banner
Mr. Tardibone: A banner that stays up for a week. I put it up on Monday and take down after the band has played.
Mr. Rejman: OK. Any questions from the Board?
Mr. Darrow: You do understand that the 4 foot x 8 foot marquee cannot have motion lights on the top, you can have it lit, but no motion lights.
Mr. Tardibone: Right.
Mr. Rejman: OK, Mr. Moore, with this 4 foot x 8 foot sign, we are still looking for a 10 square foot variance for the signs?
Mr. Moore: No, it is 4 x 8, that is 32, then you have 20 for other one, he needs a 42 square foot variance.
Mr. Rejman: So are you asking for just a marquee sign or the marquee sign plus some signage down below?
Mr. Moore: Only asking for two signs.
Mr. Darrow: The marquee sign plus the 5 x 4 at the cable end of the truss of the building.
Mr. Rejman: And variance would be how many square feet?
Mr. Darrow: 42 square feet, is that right Jim?
Mr. Moore: Yes. He also has got to remove that sign in the doorway and the four other signs on the building, they have got to go.
Mr. Tardibone: If you want those signs down we will take them down, all I am asking is to keep the one banner that the beer company that names the band that is playing. They come down on the weekend.
Mr. Darrow: Have you decided on a place for the marquee sign? Are you going to put it out more towards your walk so you can use both sides of the marquee sign?
Mr. Tardibone: I am going to keep it back there.
Mr. Darrow: You are going to keep it tucked in back there?
Mr. Tardibone: Yes.
Mr. Rejman: Other questions?
Mr. Darrow: You do realize that in the future if you decided you wanted to move the marquee sign in all likelihood you might have to reappear because the placement of the marquee sign would have a bearing on everyone’s decision this evening.
Mr. Tardibone: I am happy where it is.
Mr. Darrow: OK.
Mr. Hare: You said that you have a banner for bands, is that a perpetual thing? Do you have a band each week so there is always going to be a banner up there?
Mr. Tardibone: At least 3 weeks out of the month.
Mr. Moore: How long has that sign been up (points to photograph)? The Back Street Boys?
Mr. Tardibone: The Back Street Boys?
Mr. Moore: Back Alley Boys (everyone laughs).
Mr. Tardibone: Like I said it goes up Monday and comes down on Saturday. The Back Alley Boys are playing this Saturday.
Mr. Moore: I never counted that banner in on the signs.
Mr. Gentile: Are those considered temporary signs, the banners?
Mr. Moore: Temporary, yes.
Mr. Temple: They have been there ever since we have considered this.
Mr. Darrow: Well he sort of has been in limbo
Mr. Rejman: It is a temporary sign
Mr. Temple: I counted 7 signs up there.
Mr. Rejman: But it has changed every week, so it is perpetual.
Ms. Marteney: Different sign up there, one every week.
Mr. Rejman: Yes.
Mr. Gentile: Temporary, but on going.
Mr. Moore: It you want to call it permanent, then it becomes permanent.
Ms. Marteney: Are you always going to have a banner up?
Mr. Tardibone: We usually do for the bands, just so you can see it from the road, see what is going on that weekend.
Mr. Moore: Needs to be added in.
Mr. Darrow: Actually I feel just the opposite for one reason, that if he takes this down and then say if it is 2 x 8 there is another 16 square foot of added signage that could be put permanently where if it is temporary, if something does go up permanently he cannot exceed his 42 square feet.
Mr. Moore: He has only applied for two signs.
Mr. Darrow: Right, the marquee and the one on the gable end.
Mr. Rejman: We may have to adjust that down the road.
Mr. Moore: There are a lot of places that have temporary sign out. Lot of stores downtown will have a temporary sign out each day and they take it in each night. I don’t really have a problem with the one banner myself, as long as soon as Saturday night comes along it is taken off after the performance.
Mr. Tardibone: It is.
Ms. Marteney: Why are you keeping the marquee back?
Mr. Tardibone: Out of the way and I can hide stuff behind it. I adjust it and I can’t find enough letters to fill both sides. Use just the one side.
Ms. Marteney: You don’t have to have both sides show.
Mr. Darrow: He has his reasons.
Ms. Marteney: You have it and you are not using it.
Mr. Tardibone: I had it out before and it looks neatest where it is now.
Ms. Marteney: OK.
Mr. Rejman: Any other questions from the Board? Anyone wishing to speak for or against the application? None. Closing questions? Closing remarks from the applicant? Anything? Mr. Moore any questions?
Mr. Moore: No. As long as it is just two signs.
Mr. Rejman: OK, we will close the public portion and discuss amongst ourselves.
Mr. Darrow: I feel he is not asking too much when you consider it has been a commercial building for as long as I have been alive and can remember it. It won’t be allowed in an R-1 I think is a hindrance to try and run an establishment of this nature and taking into consideration how much square footage of signs are around him, I think 42 is very minute.
Mr. Rejman: Other comments?
Mr. Temple: Mr. Chairman, what did you mean when you said we may have to revisit this at another time, what did you mean by that?
Mr. Rejman: This issue of banners and signs -at what point does a banner turn into a permanent sign? Even though it has different verbiage on it week to week, that is the only thing that might come back to us.
Mr. Darrow: You look at the marquee, it is permanent, it can be considered permanent it is going to be put there, but yet the wordage could be changed weekly, daily, but it is more of a structure as opposed to a banner so probably the only thing that we have to go by whether it is actually a structure or string of paper.
Mr. Rejman: So down the road we will probably get some guidance from council on when does a banner turn into a sign.
Mr. Temple: From my prospective, I have been watching this location since the meeting where we talked about it once before, and at that time we expressed some expression of concern about the number of banners that were and from my prospective I am sure a business needs to have a sign, possibly a couple signs depending on how the business is oriented to the street and so forth. For me it is not a question of how many so much as it is the tastefulness and so forth, to me banner signs are least desirable of any thing and from my prospective looking at it for probably a couple months now, there is a succession of signage there and I have counted as high as 8 signs there most of which are banner signs and as far as being able to change in this marquee if you will, so that he reflects the bands, that would be the
function I would think of that 4 x 8 sign. Other than having that calling permanent temporary marquee sign, whatever you want to call, the little trailer sign in that location, I would not be in favor of voting for it if we have to see a succession of banners.
Mr. Darrow: I think that one of the items that we are addressing where Mr. Tardibone has agreed to take all the other banners down with the exception of the one that he puts up Monday and takes down Sunday for the band and Mr. Moore doesn’t have a problem with just that one as long as he is faithful about doing that and not leaving it up for extended periods of time.
Mr. Temple: Maybe Mr. Moore is not, but I am. I think that marquee sign that temporary thing is already a labor of standard rules and if we give him that, that should be good and sufficient. If he wants to move it to another location, as someone suggested here tonight, I think he should have some flexibility to be able to do that. But having signs up, signs up, signs up, three weeks out of the month constitutes a permanent sign in my mind. If we can’t do anything about permanent and temporary banner type signs, then I am not in favor of extending anything else for that marquee.
Mr. Rejman: OK. Any other comments from Board members? Mr. Moore any comments?
Mr. Moore: Temporary sign is allowed, advertising sign. But you guys should look at it whatever way you want, but he does have a marquee sign that he could advertise the bands there and gets rid of the other sign then. I am not going to make that decision.
Mr. Rejman: I think we need council to give us guidance on that before we cross that bridge.
Mr. Darrow: Arby’s has a new special out every week out front.
Ms. Marteney: If we allow other places to do that
Mr. Moore: Can I read what a temporary sign is?
Mr. Rejman: Yes.
Mr. Moore: Temporary Sign - a sign for advertising display constructed of cloth, canvass, fabric, paper and plywood or other like material and intended to be displayed for a short period of time.
Mr. Gentile: What is a short period of time? That could one day that could be one month.
Mr. Rejman: That is not the issue before us though, I think, let’s go back to the original
Mr. Darrow: Issue is amount of signs
Mr. Rejman: The applicant is asking for 42 square foot variance for two signs at the Friends Restaurant.
Mr. Temple: Plus being able to keep other banner
Mr. Rejman: No, that is a given. He can already do the banner.
Mr. Temple: That is a given, then I say that is enough.
Mr. Rejman: We should visit that question later on with council maybe but
Mr. Darrow: I would like to make a motion that we grant Anthony Tardibone a 42 square foot area sign variance for the purpose of erecting a 5 foot x 4 foot gable end sign and 8 foot x 4 foot marquee sign at Friends_ Restaurant as noted in attached drawing and photo.
Mr. Gentile: I’ll second the motion.
VOTING IN FAVOR: Mr. Hare, Ms. Marteney, Mr. Darrow, Mr. Westlake, Mr. Gentile, Mr. Rejman
VOTING AGAINST: Mr. Temple
Mr. Rejman: Application has been approved.
Mr. Tardibone: Thank you.
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7 Adams St., LR-1, area variance to provide no off-street parking for customers of proposed home occupation (hairdresser) Tammy Kukella.
Mr. Rejman: 7 Adams Street please. Hi. State your name for the record please.
Ms. Kukella: Tammy Kukella.
Mr. Rejman: OK Tammy, tell us what you would like to do there.
Ms. Kukella: I would like to not doing anything, I would like not have to have a parking lot in the back for clients.
Mr. Rejman: OK and tell us what business you are doing there.
Ms. Kukella: Next week I am coming for approval for a beauty salon in the back of my home. There is a sun porch on the back of the house.
Mr. Darrow: Planning or Zoning?
Ms. Kukella: Planning.
Mr. Rejman: Next week you are going to Planning. Tell us more about the business you hope to have there.
Ms. Kukella: I am actually operating a business right now for the past 11 years, I have been running a beauty salon in the back of my home. There was never any way to put parking in where I am now. I have been doing it for 11 years and it works out really good helping me be at home with my kids and I would like to buy my mother-in-law’s mother’s house and raise my family there.
Mr. Darrow: On an average how many clients would you have there at one time?
Ms. Kukella: One or two.
Mr. Darrow: One or two?
Ms. Kukella: Yes.
Mr. Darrow: So you just have two chairs then?
Ms. Kukella: Yes, a shampoo chair, a drying chair and a styling chair.
Mr. Darrow: You can’t take care of more than two at one time.
Ms. Kukella: No. The only time I have more than that is if a family comes and that would only be one car. There would be room for them in the driveway. I have a letter from my neighbors in my neighborhood now that states they have had no problems with the extra traffic and I also have favorable letters from the neighbors hopefully in my new neighborhood. We would prefer no parking area in the back of the house.
Mr. Rejman: Questions from the Board?
Mr. Darrow: Do you currently have off street for your vehicles?
Ms. Kukella: Yes.
Mr. Darrow: How many can you accommodate?
Ms. Kukella: In my driveway now?
Mr. Darrow: Yes.
Ms. Kukella: Three or four.
Mr. Rejman: We are talking about the new driveway.
Ms. Kukella: In the new driveway on 7 Adams Street, I would say three or four would fit in there. I never have to get out. If my husband leaves, he is always home we work out the hours. There isn’t a lot of traffic on Adams Street, it comes to a dead end, circles around to Sumner and then out into Elm. It is a pretty wide street. The most cars I have seen parked on the road is three maybe at one time, usually not that many.
Mr. Rejman: Is there anyone wishing to speak for or against the applicant?
Mrs. Kukella: I want to speak for her.
Mr. Rejman: State your name for the record please.
Mrs. Kukella: Ann Kukella. The house has been in the family since 1941 and we would like to hand it down to our son but they want to have a business. If she can’t have the business, she won’t be able to have the house and without the whole back yard being a parking lot.
Mr. Rejman: OK, thank you. You stated you are going before Planning next week for a variance for home occupation?
Mr. Moore: For a special permit.
Mr. Rejman: Special permit, Jim, ok. Last call for questions. You did a very nice job going around and talking with the neighbors. We appreciate that.
Ms. Kukella: They are real nice. Great neighborhood.
Mr. Rejman: We will close the public portion and have a decision in a moment.
Ms. Kukella: Here are two more letters for the neighbors.
Mr. Rejman: We will take a look at those and attach them to the application.
Mr. Darrow: I have a question for Mr. Moore. What were the circumstances that brought this application before us, if she has been operating for 11 years?
Mr. Moore: She was operating on 27 Walnut Street.
Mr. Darrow: OK. Change of location.
Mr. Moore: This is a home occupation, a special permit and part of the requirements for home occupation is that you have off street parking.
Mr. Rejman: Comments?
Mr. Hare: I wish my street was that wide.
Mr. Rejman: It looks like a low impact situation here, wouldn’t you say. One or two vehicles on the street during working hours, 4 to 8. If there are no questions, does someone wish to make a motion?
Mr. Darrow: I would like to make a motion that we grant Tammy Kukella of 7 Adams Street a use variance, I believe, so that she is not required to have off street parking for her beauty salon.
Mr. Gentile: This is for an area variance.
Mr. Darrow: Is this use or area? It says area, but I would think it would be use.
Mr. Rejman: It would be use.
Mr. Temple: It is an area because it is a change from what standards are employed for on street parking, we are waiving the off street requirement, so it is an area variance.
Mr. Rejman: I think counsel has some words of wisdom.
Mr. Leone: Basically what Mr. Temple just said, I would propose that you put on the floor a motion waiving application of Section 33.44 for this particular situation. Would you be comfortable with that Jim?
Mr. Moore: Yes.
Mr. Temple: Subject to a permit
Mr. Leone: Contingent upon their receiving the necessary variance.
Mr. Darrow: You are talking Section 34.42?
Mr. Leone: 33.44.
Mr. Rejman: Question, how do we put a cap on it or do we need to put a cap on it? If we waive 33.44 what stops all of a sudden six beauticians going into this house?
Mr. Moore: It is a home occupation for her. Giving her the home occupation.
Ms. Marteney: Not the house.
Mr. Leone: When Planning approves that
Mr. Rejman: I just wanted to put that out there.
Mr. Temple: Just for her so long as she is living in the house is that what Planning is considering?
Mr. Leone: Once again, I think I can only imagine that your presentation to the Planning Board will certainly reflect the fact that you are going to be sole operator of this.
Mr. Darrow: I would like to withdraw my earlier motion and put on the floor a new motion that we waive application accessory use structure 30.42 D15h pertaining to off street parking for Tammy Kukella of 7 Adams Street.
Mr. Hare: I’ll second that.
VOTING IN FAVOR: Mr. Hare, Ms. Marteney, Mr. Darrow, Mr. Temple, Mr. Westlake, Mr. Gentile, Mr. Rejman
Mr. Rejman: Application approved. Good luck with Planning next week.
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5 Peacock Street, R-1, area variances of 3’, 13.73’ and 3.5% for building area for an addition to residence, Michael Padula.
Mr. Rejman: 5 Peacock Street, please.
Mr. Couch: Good evening, I am Frank Couch, the architect on the project and this is one of the owners, Mike Padula. Before we start the program we have just a very very slight change in our site plan and I just wanted to give it to you
Mr. Rejman: All right
Mr. Couch: So that everyone has a copy. I asked Mike to assist here in the presentation, to act as our easel for the moment here. Looking at the site we are on 5 Peacock Street and there is a small diagram here which indicates Peacock Street is along here, Park Avenue is along here, there is the cemetery that backs up to the property here and the property we are talking about is indicated in the green marker here right in this corner. So there are two properties on Park Avenue that back up to his property and then you have the cemetery and properties next to that.
I have taken some pictures but I am not sure everybody has visited the site or been there, just to show you what the surroundings are like on the site. On the top picture that you see in this corner we would standing, this is the existing site here, we would standing here looking south at these homes on Peacock Street, looking through some bushes and you can see the houses way in the back. The houses are located up near Park Avenue and the distance between there is almost 200 feet, these lots are like 190 feet deep and the houses are up far end of that.
Second shot and the third shot you see looking towards the back and they are looking towards the cemetery. You can see wide open trees and of course the gravestones in the cemetery. It is a nice wide-open area.
Picture three we are starting to turn the corner here so you can see that neighbors do store things in their back yards here in this picture and then you look over here, we are looking down in back of the house, I am taking pictures from here looking north and you can see many of the neighbors have garages, storage sheds things like that in back of the property.
Come over to this picture on the left here, this is the south side of the house looking from here looking at the south side of the house two story building. Over here we are looking at the back of the property from the cemetery looking at the back of the house where most of the addition is going on.
As you look over here, we are starting to look at the property along Peacock Street and this neighbor over here has a garage not too far from the property line, a two car garage right here and you can see that more in this lower picture. In the lower picture this is a garage and this is the house we are speaking of. The tree out here will have to come down to do what we want to accomplish. This again moves a little further shows the front of this existing house. This is another picture of the house that shows the driveway along here and one of the problems we had is this driveway existing here is right on the property line. He has his driveway on the property line.
The picture you are seeing here is across the street, seeing the park that is across the street, so there is open land across the street.
Now what our proposal is to do, let me take one step further before that, what the owner wanted to accomplish is this is a small site, existing 5400 square foot site and the house itself is relatively small. What they asked me if we could for him are four things. One is to try to increase the kitchen, because the kitchen is very very small and I only have these three pictures and I will pass them around and you can see how small the kitchen area is in the house. That was their first objective to provide a larger kitchen area, a place for them to sit down in the kitchen and eat.
Secondly there is no garage on the property so in the inclement weather when it is raining or snowing or sunshine, there is no place to put the cars. Right now parking tandem here. Mike leaves early for his job and his wife is a schoolteacher she leaves relatively early so they are away relatively early and sometimes in the winter time it gets to be difficult. The other thing Mike would like to have he is a handy man does things around the house, builds things for himself and the basement head room is like six feet so he has some pretty tight quarters to work where he is working now. He wants to have a little area where he could have a shop and do some things. Only for himself.
Then he asked if we could provide a deck or patio or something in the back for their use in the back yard. We explored a lot of solutions for this and one of our earlier solutions we looked at was putting the garage over here on the north side where the driveway is. The problem is the garage there sits right on the property line and the roof overhanging there is just 10 feet there so there is no room to build something over here without being right on the property line. After doing some sketches and taking some looks this isn’t going to work so we said we will put another driveway over here and put a garage over here where we will have a little more room. So basically our garage will be on this side here. I will show you the plans in just a moment. His work room will be in
between and this will be for the kitchen expansion that we are proposing and this is the deck that they would like to utilize to sit out in the good weather, spring, summer, fall and other times of the year. There is already existing here a privacy fence, that is already existing.
What this does to us from a zoning standpoint is we are ok on this side but we need to have 7 foot over here and we can get about 4 feet so we are 3 foot shy of the set back requirement there.
On the back of the property we need to have 25 feet into the face of the deck we are about 11 feet to the face of the back of the garage we are about 15 feet. So we are short 14 feet because we use the deck as the dimension there.
The other factor is the percentage of site coverage. The house itself covers about 31% of the property, the deck is about 4% of the property and the little front porch is a couple percents and the steps, so we end up with a total percentage coverage about 38% and I believe it is 35% that we are suppose to have maximum, so we are slightly over, but this is partially due to the fact that the property is small. If any body developing in the City today has to have a 6,000 square foot property, but they don’t that is part of the hardship and they have a cemetery behind them so there is no place to go to get the additional property.
What we are proposing to do for them, the existing house stops along here and this is the expansion of the kitchen here and the change that we had in the proposal the site plan that we gave you before, before we carried this line out and now we are just recessing that wall back 6 inches. This area here would be his workshop here and hobby shop and this here would be the garage area for the cars, lawn mowers, for all the things that you and I keep in our garage. To accomplish this there is an existing stair that in the house that goes down to the basement, and so we took advantage of the landing here, instead of walking down here and going into the shop and the garage in that direction. We are exploring some other options with the stairs but that is all inside the building and it really doesn’t
affect the zoning requirements.
What this will look like outside we did present to Jim a sketch the other day, we made a slight modification in it, and I will hold these up and again this is looking at the cemetery side and what you are looking at here, this is the kitchen portion, the other end is the garage to here and then in between is the wood working and hobby shop. What the difference is from the sketch we gave Jim, on Jim’s sketch we had a lower roof in here, but we were concerned about snow problems and things of that nature, flashing, so we pulled this roof line up to match this roof line to resolve that problem. This is the deck on the back here. Then from the neighbor’s side this would be the north side this would be the kitchen addition you are seeing here, there will be some windows in that area, kitchen
table and thing that sit in front of that and then you are seeing the extension of the garage out the back and then this is the back deck.
I think in a nutshell I tried to include everything. Mike was very concerned about the neighbors and to make sure they are in agreement with it so I asked Mike to go around to his neighbors and ask him to show them the drawing and see if they would be in agreement to his doing what he would like to do there and I have about 11 copies of that and I will pass it around. I guess at this point in time I could answer any questions.
Mr. Hare: The existing driveway on the right hand side of the house, are you proposing to take that driveway out and reseed it or are you going to leave this driveway there?
Mr. Padula: We are going to leave it there because the garage I am putting in is only a one-car garage.
Mr. Hare: So you are going to have parking on side of the house?
Mr. Padula: Yes.
Mr. Couch: Right now they have to tandem park. Just to mention that the people that you see on this list here, 7 Peacock Street is right next door to them to the north, 9 next to that, 11 next to that and 13 next to that. The other two, the 47 and 49 Park Avenue are the two properties that back up to the side of his house. We tried to get the signatures of everybody that would be affected by it.
Mr. Rejman: Nicely presented.
Mr. Couch: Thank you.
Mr. Rejman: Is there anyone wishing to speak for or against the application? No. Questions from the Board?
Mr. Gentile: Are you going to do the work yourself?
Mr. Padula: I drive tractor trailer now I use to have a
Mr. Couch: He meant are you building your house?
Mr. Padula: No, not at all. All hired done.
Mr. Rejman: Questions, comments. Nicely presented again. Thank you very much. We will close the public portion.
Mr. Darrow: When you look at the size of the lot, they are truly making the best use of the small space they have, they are not being frivolous and just eating up green space. They are only 3-½% over for the covered space that they are allowed.
Ms. Marteney: And from the front the only thing you will see is the one car garage.
Mr. Darrow: I can understand the two driveways seeing what he is putting up with a single car width with a garage otherwise they are still in the predicament one wants to go you have to move the other vehicle. So I can understand that completely.
Mr. Rejman: Comments from this side. Questions?
Mr. Temple: I have a concern about the plan as it is. Following on what Mr. Hare asked about the other driveway. Is there anything that is specified how many driveways a house is suppose to have?
Mr. Moore: There is nothing in the Municipal Code or Zoning addressing driveways.
Mr. Temple: The plan what we received the updated one here shows that you have 10 ½ feet on the right side of the house with that driveway terminates, current driveway. Looking at the same plan shows 10 feet that they are going to use on the left side for that garage over there. ½ foot isn’t very much but I would submit that garages can be built varying widths and the garage could fit on the right side of the house and I bring that to the attention of everyone because I am somebody that is opposed to paving over front yards in the past and I have seen the number of requests that are coming to the Board for that type of thing and if we set a pattern where we are going to have two driveways to a house increases the paving over of yards and in this particular case it has to take into account
cutting down a large street tree which this house is in the vicinity of a park. So we are going to remove one large tree off an area that is a park and put in more hard surface. When I think that the plan could have been reversed around, I don’t have any problem with the set back things, the plan in general, giving him the garage and so forth, but I think it could be done on the other side of the house. I see that it can be done there, there would be room for run off and this Board has just recently as later part of 2001 did grant a variance to somebody who had water actually shedding onto a neighbor’s property line.
Mr. Darrow: One reason I can see why they have the garage over there is would seem through practicality that his hobby shop be off the garage so if he wanted to pull his vehicle to unload or do whatever he is doing or put something in his hobby shop he is not forced to truck around the side of the house through perhaps the area or what other access would he have, through his kitchen, so I sort of see how these follow a plan there. I mean to move the garage to the other side would be putting the kitchen between the garage and his hobby shop.
Mr. Temple: That is only if you assume that the kitchen has to remain in this new addition. We are talking about quite a make over in his house, if it was flipped just the way it is I think it would address your reason.
Mr. Darrow: You are talking about flip the entire addition so that the kitchen is on the left which would be off according to his living room rather than have his kitchen off the kitchen.
Mr. Temple: I haven’t been in the house, but it seems based on what it is they are trying to do that all those things could be accomplished in the shell, the same size as this one but just flipped over to use the existing driveway. That is my position.
Mr. Rejman: OK. I think it is a unique situation here. The neighbors behind definitely don’t care and across the street we are dealing with a park and yes we may lose one tree out of that whole street, but again we are dealing again with one of our infamous 60 x 90 lots in the City and what do you do with it? There is no really good place to put it a garage. I was just looking, if I had this situation what would I do. Would you drive in and bear left into a garage or drive in and bear right, what do you do? This seems like a low impact solution from the street side from the curb. I like this. So if we are correct here we need a 3-foot side, a 14-foot back yard and 3.5% area.
Mr. Moore: Yes.
Mr. Rejman: Yes.
Mr. Darrow: I would like to make a motion that we grant Michael and Linda Padula of 5 Peacock Street a 3 foot side yard variance, 13.73 rear yard variance and 3.5% area variance for total building coverage of a lot for the purpose of erecting a attached garage, kitchen and hobby shop as per drawing submitted.
Mr. Westlake: I’ll second that.
VOTING IN FAVOR: Mr. Hare, Ms. Marteney, Mr. Darrow, Mr. Westlake, Mr. Gentile, Mr. Rejman
VOTING AGAINST: Mr. Temple
Mr. Rejman: Application has been approved. See Mr. Moore in the morning for a building permit.
Mr. Padula: Thank you very much.
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124 Perrine Street, R-1, area variance of 210 sq. ft. for garage, Gregory McCormick.
Mr. Rejman: 124 Perrine Street, are you here please?
Mr. McCormick: Good evening, my name is Greg McCormick, I live at 124 Perrine Street.
Mr. Rejman: Yes.
Mr. McCormick: I am requesting a 210 square foot variance for an out building in the rear of my lot at 124 Perrine Street. A few things I would like to point out, the lot 228 foot deep which is rather deep. To the west of the lot there is a line of over 30-foot tall hedgerow of pine trees. In the rear of my lot there is also a line of trees. I have checked with my neighbors to the left and to the right and to the rear of me and they have no problem with the proposed structure if the variance is granted. It would be approximately 102 feet from the front of the home, plenty of room for my son to play. I do have an existing structure out there now, it is approximately I believe it is like 12 x 14. I am tearing that down if granted. To the rear of the proposed structure I would
have 15 feet from the property line to the left side of it I would have 11 feet 8 inches to the property line and to the east I would have 12 foot 7 inches from the property line.
I am currently planning to store a boat that I have, a 20-foot boat, storage can be expensive. I would like to keep the boat out of the yard for the sake of my neighbors, so I would like to put the boat into the proposed building along with tearing down this other structure, lawnmower, snow blower, bikes. I do have a hobby woodworking I want to continue that, I do it in the basement now, but I am getting soft spots in my head from banging it on the pipes. I believe that about covers it.
Mr. Rejman: Questions? What type of construction are you planning, a pole barn, planning foundation?
Mr. McCormick: Stick built.
Mr. Rejman: Stick built.
Mr. McCormick: I believe it will be on a slab. Still in the planning process. It would not be a pole barn.
Mr. Darrow: 40 foot is the minimum in length that you can get away with?
Mr. McCormick: Yes. The boat is 20, with the trailer and motor it is probably more like 24 ½ foot.
Mr. Rejman: Any one wishing to speak for or against this application? None. Come back to the Board again. Any questions? Final call. OK. We will close the public portion and have a decision in a moment.
Mr. McCormick: Thank you.
Mr. Darrow: It is a long odd lot.
Mr. Rejman: It is a long lot.
Mr. Hare: If it was a smaller lot it would be a problem. It is a big lot.
Mr. Rejman: And being that far back there is no way that will ever turn into a residence. Never get water and sewer to it. Water maybe, but never sewer. I don’t have a problem. If the trees weren’t there it would be a different issue.
Mr. Darrow: No neighbors opposed to it.
Mr. Hare: I would like to make a motion that we grant Gregory McCormick of 124 Perrine Street a 210 square foot area variance to erect a 24 x 40 or 960 square foot unattached garage.
Mr. Darrow: I’ll second the motion.
VOTING IN FAVOR: Mr. Hare, Ms. Marteney, Mr. Darrow, Mr. Temple, Mr. Westlake, Mr. Gentile, Mr. Rejman
Mr. Rejman: Application has been approved.
Mr. McCormick: Thank you.
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17 Columbus Street, I, area variance for rear yard for building addition. Tim Blackman
Mr. Rejman: 17 Columbus Street please.
Mr. Moore: The guy made application and he never came back with any of his drawings or anything. We don’t know what has happened to him.
Mr. Hare: Did he start building this and did we stop him because I see all the buildings materials along there.
Mr. Moore: Yes.
Mr. Darrow: Where is 17?
Mr. Temple: The old Jimmy J’s.
Mr. Moore: Took out a permit to put his roof on and then he torn the building down. He never came back with any application or anything.
Mr. Darrow: Give him one month?
Mr. Rejman: Yes, table this until next month.
Mr. Darrow: I would like to make a motion that we table 17 Columbus Street for the purpose of a rear yard building addition until next month.
Mr. Hare: I’ll second that.
VOTING TO TABLE: Mr. Hare, Ms. Marteney, Mr. Darrow, Mr. Temple, Mr. Westlake, Mr. Gentile, Mr. Rejman
Mr. Rejman: Tabled until next month, February 25, 2002.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.
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