Zoning Board Agendas and Minutes

MINUTES OF THE COHOES ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS HELD VIRTUALLY VIA THE ZOOM APPLICATION ON WEDNESDAY, August 26, 2020 AT 6:30 PM MEMBERS PRESENT: Mr. Greg Mollnow, Chairperson Ms. Mary Shanks Mr. Anthony Kusaywa Ms. Carolyn Dion, Alternate Member MEMBERS ABSENT: Ms. Joyce Baranski, Vice Chairperson Mr. Mark Cotch ALSO PRESENT: Joseph Seman-Graves, City Planner Sharon Butler, Administrative Assistant CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES FROM THE JULY 22, 2020 MEETING Chairperson Mollnow called the meeting to order at 6:33 pm and asked for the Board to review and comment on the July 22, 2020 meeting minutes. With no questions Chairperson Mollnow motioned to approve the minutes. Mary Shanks seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. YES NO ABSTAIN Greg Mollnow X Joyce Baranski Absent Mark Cotch Absent Mary Shanks X Anthony Kusaywa X Carolyn Dion X CONSIDERATION OF AREA VARIANCES AT 59 GRANT STREET: Chairperson Mollnow: Moving to agenda item #2 for tonight; this is a consideration of an area variance at 59 Grant Street. The applicant is proposing to remove 2 existing sheds on the property that takes up 672 sq. ft. of space and make an accessory structure that measures 600 sq. ft. 20’1” x 29’3” of space. The space will give the applicants mother who resides at the location a place to smoke. In the future it will also give the applicant a dry space to have a workshop and storage. The applicant is seeking 2 area variances. The first will be for minimum set back of an accessory structure in R-2 district. The requirement is that the structure be 10’ off the property line and the applicant will be seeking a relief of 4’ as the structure is 6’ off the property line. Secondly, the applicant will be seeking an 8’4” variance from the height requirement of 15’ as the proposed structure is 23’4” high from the grade of the ground to it tallest point. According to Schedule B Zoning Schedule of Area & Bulk Regulations in Chapter 285, an accessory structure is an allowable use in an R-2 Residential Zoning District. An accessory structure in an R-2 district may have a maximum height of 15’ and setback requirements of; front 50’, 10’ from side and 10’ from rear property line. The appeal consideration is for an area variance. For an area variance to be legally granted pursuant to Section 81 of the General City Law, the following must be considered: 1. The benefit to the applicant if the variance is granted, as weighted against the detriment to the health, safety, and welfare of the neighborhood or community by such grant; 2. Whether an undesirable change will be produced in the character of the neighborhood or a detriment to nearby properties will be created by the granting of the area variance; 3. Whether the benefit sought by the applicant can be achieved by some other method feasible for the applicant to pursue, other than an area variance; 4. Whether the requested area variance is substantial; 5. Whether the proposed variance will have an adverse effect or impact on the physical or environmental conditions in the neighborhood or district; and 6. Whether the alleged difficult was self-created. Joe at this time are there any other documents that you would like to show? Joe; I can show them or if you want the applicant to explain before we do public comment. Chairperson Mollnow; is Ms. Greco on the line? Ms. Greco; yes, I’m here. Chairperson Mollnow; could you describe the project for us? Ms. Greco; so it’s a take on an old fashioned carriage built which is already there on the property, built probably 80-90 years ago. It’s one story, the roof is a gambrel roof. What is special about the roof, which ended up costing me a lot more money to do because I wanted to add character to the place, it’s a curved sloped roof, the upstairs is going to be used for storage. I have a multifamily here and I don’t have the luxury of attic space so I thought I could tackle and address my seasonal things and decorations. I do have a basement but as most basements, its wet, damp and musty. The first floor, it was a rough winter, I had a, my mother smoked out in the gazebo which I had then, I added some insulation, some heat, some plastic, it was just really a long winter. Of course I don’t want her smoking inside the house, for myself and my young daughter. So this will give her space just to go out and smoke, she’s 78 years old and she’s not going to quit at this point. And then in the future I see it being a workshop. I am a handyman, contractor type person. I have a lot of tools and what not and it’ll get me out of the damp wet basement and give me a place to have my tools and stuff like that. Is there anything else I can further explain? I did get this variance, I got a variance last, it was August maybe. Everything I have done, I’ve had my inspections, all my inspections done, didn’t really know what kind of roof design I was going to go with, which I had submitted at least 2 months ago and it wasn’t until I started building that, I heard somebody had a problem with it. I had all my inspection up til then and I was actually shocked that when the project came to a stop. Chairperson Mollnow; ok, thank you for the description. Joe at this point can we roll into public comments we received? Joe; sure. Joe read email from Tom Dietriech on Younglove Ave. (email attached to minutes). Second email Joe read from Marty Baker no address (email attached to minutes). Chairperson Mollnow; are there any other public comments before we discuss anything else? Joe; if there are can you please state your name and address before hand? Ms. Greco; can I respond to that if nobody has anything to say? Chairperson Mollnow; yes, Ms. Greco, once we get through public comments we will go back to you. Ms. Greco; ok, thank you. Joe; I don’t see anyone in the chat raising their hands. Chairperson Mollnow; ok if there’s no other public comments, Mr. Greco if you would like to respond to any comments made. Ms. Greco; I’ve been here 28 years, I don’t know how long, I don’t even know those other 2 people to be honest with you. I know it’s not the house that’s directly to my right because the neighbor approached me the other day and said that they absolutely love the structure, it is only going to add value—there used to be a carriage house on the property that was my intention. As far as like lies, I have no intention in making additional rental property that is the last thing I plan on doing. Having a workshop for myself down the road, yes. I’m tired of going down in the wet dingy basement. You know to say I’m lying, why didn’t I be honest, well because I was originally going to build off, I had the 2 sheds back there. I’m getting rid of the other shed, I am getting rid of the other shed. I put a new roof on it because I want to be able to sell it. My brother sells sheds, I have somebody ready to pick it up, deliver it to the person who’s going to take ownership of it. I just wanted to get the maximum value I can from it. Trying to think what else they said. I wish I had a (at this point Joe put the email back up on the screen), that’s great I can see that. Chairperson Mollnow; Joe I think if you go to the next one, with the bulk. Ms. Greco; yeah, neighborhood, there’s a house, you see this house here (she put her phone up with a picture of a house on it) I don’t know if you can see it – you know as far as it not looking like anything in the neighborhood, well this is the house that’s next door to me, that’s a 3 story house with a gamble roof, I don’t see how the gamble roof isn’t in style with the neighborhood. Barn like? I mean it’s a sloped roof and it’s a lot more expensive than regular roof. And as far as $20,000 project, I do construction for a living, I don’t know what they know, if they’ve looked out their window and have seen me and my 15 year old nephew building a house. The day I set the trusses, I did have my uncle come in and help me set the trusses. I can show proof of how much this project has cost be to date and I’m closing in on the $20,000 cost, but that is true. I never lied, I never lied. It was when I discovered that the structures that I had on the property just weren’t going to work – between the ground hogs, everything that gets underneath that shed it was best just to remove that shed and build little footings so I can rest the new structure on, not worrying about things crawling underneath it, about feet staying warm, just being warm enough in this structure. You know as far as a fire hazard, I mean come on, how many people smoke? You know there’s a fire hazard cooking on the stove, there’s a fire hazard running your gas heater. I will have precautions and have the smoke detectors, just like if I had a work shop. I mean the fire hazard actually was smoking in the gazebo that was an absolute nightmare. Joe; there was just those 2 that were sent in. I think you covered….. Ms. Greco; I don’t know who Marty Baker is, I don’t know the other one either and I know all my neighbors pretty well, unless it’s the new people that move into the white house and Tom I don’t know. What’s the address of these 2? Joe; these were addresses provided, unfortunately I didn’t get a change to contact them, one was Younglove Ave, the other does not provide an address. Ms. Greco; Oh, it doesn’t provide and address? Maybe it’s the older gentleman on the other side over on the corner, I don’t know his name. I know my neighbors on Grant St. and I’m glad to see there’s nobody here on Grant St. upset about it. They know how hard I work, they know what my intentions are for the property and for the structure, know it’s going to be absolutely beautiful, the one house on Younglove that’s directly to my right that’s the one I showed the picture of, they’re so much in love with it, they want the plans because they want to build something like that themselves, not there but. And also note with the house I’m on an acre of land here, an acre not, I don’t know what they think I’m blocking what view I’m blocking. I’m..there aren’t any houses at all, just vacant property, I meant not vacant property obviously its owned but there’s nothing on that property. It’s going to be beautiful, I can see how it looks without having the shingles on it, not enclosed, I can see how it kinda looks overwhelming but it’s just a roof. I mean I’ve been building this for over 6-8 months, no longer probably than that, it’s just myself and my nephew and those walls were up for at least 4-6 weeks, didn’t people realize I was going to put a roof on it? You know I don’t understand why something wasn’t said before I ordered my trusses, which I submitted my roof design. I couldn’t lock into exactly what I wanted to do. I didn’t hide anything I promise you. Chairperson Mollnow; ok thank you Joe; I believe I did give you guys stamped roof design too, I just didn’t include them in the presentation, is that correct? Chairperson Mollnow; Yeah I have a copy of that as well as the building permit that was issued by the town. So any comments from the board for Ms. Greco or any comment at all? Member Kusaywa; I have no comments. Joe; and just to note for the minutes too, I did have another inquiry, somewhat of a complaint, more of an inquiry that was from a resident that wasn’t on Grant St. as well, at least not directly facing the applicant, but there was one more comment sent. Chairperson Mollnow; Joe, can you share that comment or no? Joe; They requested their name not be associated with it, so I’d rather not. I just want you to know that there was a comment. Chairperson Mollnow; so I just want to review a couple of things, so I talked to Joe a little bit about this so we could get a better understanding. My understanding is you got a variance last year for an addition on to your shed—you were going through those plans and decided not to submit a new building permit, the building officials did not require you to get a variance and issued you a building permit which may have been incorrect, so to my knowledge I would agree that I don’t think you lied, I think this is an issue with our process and that the process was not followed correctly. It’s something that we shouldn’t have let get this far without having this meeting first—so I just wanted to make that know for the record. If there’s no other comments from the board or questions from Ms. Greco, would a member of the board make a motion? Chairperson Mollnow; Ms. Greco my only other question would be, this would have to do with the setbacks. I know the structure is already in place, are there issues with the trees or structures on the property that wouldn’t allow you to meet the required setback of 10’? Ms. Greco; there is a tree I think you can see it in the picture that would prevent me from coming closer to my house. Chairperson Mollnow; thank you Ms. Greco; it’s a sentimental tree at that, I actually planted it when my daughter was born, so yeah it, I thought my variance to be honest with you, I didn’t realize my variance, I didn’t know what my variance was for now honestly, I don’t even know. I guess I could have replaced it but I didn’t know. Chairperson Mollnow; like I said, it seems like the variance you got last year, Joe obviously wasn’t here and I wasn’t here for that, we didn’t have a town planner at the time this building permit was applied for, it was just a miscommunication on the building side—they didn’t realize the variance was for a previous project and a new project needed another variance. Ms. Greco; the sheds that were on the property previously they were actually closer to the fence—they were 3’ off the fence so I actually pulled it back closer to the house as far as I could, just more for convenience so my mom can come in and out, less places for her to slip and fall and stuff and for my own convenience and the tree being there Joe; Greg we do have someone raising their hand, I don’t know if you want to open public comments up again, I have a request. Chairperson Mollnow; yea we can take a comment at this time. Hi this is Jeremy Mc Donald 74 Grant St; I don’t see the slide up there right now, but I live across the street from Darlene, she’s a wonderful, fantastic neighbor, so like I said I’m not ready to say that I have a concern right now but I thought from the drawing that the proposed building is at a right angle to where its placed and I’m just confused; is it being relocated, like location #2 on the drawing? Just looking at the dimensions and trying to figure things out, is this structure that is partially built going to be relocated to that location or is it going to be right closer to Younglove? Asking for clarification right at this point. Chairperson Mollnow; Ms. Greco do you have a comment, I’m assuming you’re the one who put this together. Ms. Greco; yeah the structure is I believe 28’ on the Younglove side off the fence off of my property line and then off of Mrs. Chorny 30’ off of her property line, so yeah, no its plenty far enough off of those 2 sides I believe, it’s the rear that’s the problem-6’off of that property line and I’m kicking myself now because I could have brought the property back there. I don’t know if that clarifies it for you as it being… Mr. McDonald; I didn’t go out there with a tape measure but it seems like it, even in the last picture it seems closer to the Younglove side. Ms. Greco; yeah by 2’, by 2’ 28’ off that property line 30’ off Mrs. Chorny, its actually dead center on the house, that way it…. Mr. McDonald; if this drawing is correct what you’re saying is this drawing is 46’ away from the Younglove side? Ms. Greco; yes 46’ is that what I have is 46”? Chairperson Mollnow: yes you have 46’ and 48’ Ms. Greco; I can run out with a tape, I don’t know if I wrote that , I don’t know if its 26’, I thought it was 26’ and 28’, now I’m confused myself. No 46’ sounds right, literally I can do this very quickly, I have a tape measure, I can take another quick measurement just to clarify, would that be helpful? Yeah, that’s right 46’ and 48’ that is correct. It’s a big property, I have an acre of land, my property sits on an acre of land with the house, it’s a big piece of land. Chairperson Mollnow; Ms. Greco if your drawing is correct saying 46’ and 48’ Ms. Greco; yeah and I wrote it down as I had measured it that day. Mr. McDonald; it just seems, I don’t know maybe just appearances but, it seem like its a lot closer to the houses on Younglove than what it is. Ms. Greco; yeah it is by 2’, so you would be right that it’s closer to Younglove by 2’ Chairperson Mollnow; Jeremy, sorry I didn’t get your last name Mr. McDonald; McDonald Chairperson Mollnow; Mr. McDonald, the side set back requirements for a property in this residential district is only 10’ so by being 48’ and 46’ or 28’ and 26’, if that was misspoken, would still be in the requirements and its not an issue that would need a variance. Mr. McDonald; ok and I’m not questioning that, I’m questioning this is kind of a strange situation with the building already being build, looking for the variance and I’m just saying visually when I drive by it, it just looks like it’s a lot closer to that Younglove and I thought it was closer to Darlene’s actual house, that’s why I’m trying to—that even from the picture that’s shown at the end of the presentation it just looks closer. Perhaps (Joe put the picture up again) Ms. Greco; Jeremy I did go for a variance. I know you started in the meeting late, I did go for a variance, I did go for my permits, I had all of my inspections done, this is not an issue of do it and then plead for forgiveness, that is by all means not what happened here. I set out early on to do this project and it was just a misunderstanding and I was given a height of 25’ of what I could work with and that why I did the design that I did, I had all my inspections. I have everything up until now and this variance is because something-somewhere along the line something got miscommunicated or something, I don’t know, I don’t want to pass blame, everybody’s been good to me. I’ve been here 28 years, everybody’s been good to me and I’m not looking to point any fingers, but I just want you to know I’ve done what I was supposed to do. Joe; if I can for a second just clarify, I don’t want any confusion at the end of this. The applicant went for a variance to increase the size of her shed that didn’t meet the 10’ from the property line that was the original variance she went for. She changed her project after receiving that, went to our code department, now at this time, the last city planner was no longer here and I had not come in yet, so there was a vacancy in the office. The code department and my office is the zoning office, so we are the people who look for these things. The code enforcement department opened the zoning book and they saw there was a 25’ height requirement in this district, which is correct if talking about a secondary detached dwelling unit, which this is not. For and accessory structure the height is 15’, so that is where the first point of confusion come into play. The 2nd one was the code enforcement department viewed our system which literally we just go a new system today to clean up some of the miscommunications that have been happening and it’s been in the works for about 5 months, but the system does not allow you to see what a variance is for or what was granted, so unless you go back and look at the actual file or talk to the city planner, our system would only show a variance, so the code enforcement department was brought up and saw that the height was not a problem based on how they read this, they saw that there was a variance given on the property for an accessory structure in the rea and that’s kind of how we got here. It’s an unfortunate, that there was not better communication, these are things that I’m working on improving and I hope I’m getting to that point. This is one that I wasn’t aware of until the roof was, or the structure was mostly up and how it is currently, so that’s why we’re here, that’s why we’re asking the applicant to come back and request additional variances. I do not believe after doing my research that she did any disingenuous or try to pull a fast one, I think she followed the process that was laid out for her by the City, it’s just a process fail and that’s something we need to fix internally and I’m working on it. I just wanted to clarify that, so there’s not a doubt that the applicant did something wrong here, I don’t believe she did. Chairperson Mollnow; Joe to add on all the plans we’ve seen here, the documents as well as the roof truss drawings, they have all been submitted to the town and made it through code? Joe; that’s what the code enforcement department approved. Chairperson Mollnow; ok, it was seen by somebody and got approved, whether right, wrong or indifferent, it was submitted and Ms. Greco has not like you said did anything imperious to your knowledge? Joe; I just want that to be a different, a separate issue. She did what she thought she had to do to get approvals and they were given. The thing is, not all the necessary approvals were presented to her and the manner she had to go in and receive them. I want to make that very clear because that is a big point that needs to be noted in the minutes. Mr. McDonald; ok, I, forgive me again this is a zoom meeting, I really appreciated the clarification. So and again, I just want to be clear at this point I’m not saying I’m against the project, just trying to learn a little bit, because it’s very confusing to us as neighbors because this whole thing unfolded in a strange kind of way. Is there someone on the, it was mentioned potential in the future to becoming a separate property, in respect to Darlene, she sells the property someone else buys it and say you know I think this is a great opportunity to put up a 2 family and get some rental income, is there anything in the law that would prevent that slippage if the other comments aren’t mentioned? Joe; sure a lot of things. 1. Code enforcement department would have to go and actually issue a certificate of occupancy so it’s not like we can just have someone living there. The 2nd thing before that can happen is it would need to be rezone to multifamily residential. So they would need to, the applicant would need to come back for a use variance. So what you’re seeing on the screen here, you can see there are 6 considerations for an area variance, not all 6 of these need to be met for the area variance to be granted, where as a use variance there are 4 considerations and all of them have to be met so it’s a little bit harder to change the use of a property—well not a little bit, it’s a lot harder to change. There are, you can’t just come in and someone could possibly stay there but it wouldn’t be a legal dwelling-I’ll put it that way. And if it was presented as someone was staying there and it wasn’t a legal dwelling, code enforcement can issue them to vacate the property. Ms. Greco; Jeremy, I’ve been here 28 years I don’t plan on going anywhere, I’m still young 52. I love this place, I poured my heart and soul into it. I probably should have moved 25 years ago when I outgrew this place, but I just love it so much, I love Cohoes, I love the street, Mrs. Chorny threatens me all the time, I can’t move unless I take her with me. You know, I plan on passing the place on to my daughter and it’s going to be a place where, you came in late, but a place where I can you know I do construction Mr. McDonald; I really didn’t come in late, it just a zoom meeting, but you would be asking the same exact questions. I’ve been here 54 years, I intend to pass my house down to my children, my concern is slippage and it’s happened in another neighborhood, I’m not going to comment on the concerns of others, these are my concerns about slippage. All of a sudden Grant St. and we’ve seen it in other parts of the city, once you set precedence, and then it’s easier for the next person, that’s my concern, that’s where my questions are directed. Joe, Greg thank you very much. My main concern I’ll make one comment and get off—I get it, I understand it, this has been a very messy process. I know Darlene to be a very good person, me personally wouldn’t get in the way of commerce as long as the rules are followed and Joe and Greg you are giving me the assurance that the rules are followed and you’re giving me assurance that in the future as long as we’re diligent, keeping an eye out, things happen right? And if the property is sold, somebody want to do something we can have a watchful eye and make sure that doesn’t happen correct? We, being me the homeowner. Joe; absolutely and sir to your point you brought up several issues in an email to me that I don’t have to rehash all issues, but they weren’t just about your neighborhood, it seems like a bigger systematic problem in the city, just how things were being handled and I, the same thing I said to you, it still holds true I, there’s just a big problem with the system and that something I’ve been working on since I started. The fact that there’s a power point on this screen, might not seem like a lot, but it’s bounds above what the last dozen planner have done, just to try to be more configurative with the public to be transparent. Mr. McDonald; I do want to commend you Joe, I’ve mentioned to a number of people in Cohoes and some decision and political leaders, the email that you sent to me was probably one of the most professional, no it was the most professional emails, in point b the book gave me the information I truly appreciate it, I see you’re doing fantastic work for Cohoes and I really appreciate it. I’m done with my comments, I understand this is a tough situation, I’m not necessarily against this project, I appreciate you giving me the answers I asked for and I leave it to the rest of your deliberations—thank you for answering my questions. Darlene thank you for the clarifications. Chairperson Mollnow; Thank you Mr. McDonald. Ok we went back and forth a little bit, so that will be, unless there’s any other public comments or anybody raising their hand Joe? Joe; no Chairperson Mollnow; if there’s no other public comments, I’ll go back to the board, any additional comments, I know nobody had any before, but after that, does anyone have any questions or comments they want to bring up from the board? Member Dion; I have a question; at the time of the original variance issuing, would the limits on the size of the property have been communicated or the size of the structure been communicated? Joe; yes, so what the applicant actually went for and this adds to the confusion, she went for a variance to increase the size of the structure, so she could have something that’s above the allowable foot print within the 10’ of the property line. So anything over 144 square feet is considered to big to be within 10’ of a property line. The original variance that she got allowed her to build something larger than…. Member Dion; right, but the height too? Joe; the height, I’d have to ask the applicant, the height in the original application didn’t go near the 15’ so that probably wouldn’t have been brought up. Ms. Greco; I was unaware of the difference in variances to be honest with you. I didn’t know there was an array of variances, I thought my variance was my variance. I did meet with the building inspector and asked him if there as limitations on the height and he said he would get back to me. He got back to me and said my limitation was 25’ that what was told to me. I think that answers your question, as far as the size of it, the footprint, the actual footprint of it, is the exact size I said I was going to do in my original variance. Chairperson Mollnow; I believe your new structure is smaller or the same size as the 2 original sheds, because the original was to add on to the one shed and keep the second one. Ms. Greco; yeah it’s actually smaller Chairperson Mollnow; the footprint of your new building is small than the original footprint? Ms. Greco; that is correct, it’s neater and cleaner, it’s what I was going for, to just really kinda clean it up, make it look good and just give myself some more land to be honest, you know for different things; garden and whatnot, so the footprint is actually smaller. Chairperson Mollnow; any other questions or comments from the board? Member Kusaywa; I don’t have any questions. Chairperson Mollnow; ok, so since there are 2 area variance we are looking at, I’d like to make a motion for the area variance for the set back- reducing it from 10’ to 6’—I make a motion to approve that variance. Member Kusaywa; I’ll 2nd.  YES NO ABSTAIN Greg Mollnow X Joyce Baranski Absent Mark Cotch Absent Mary Shanks X Anthony Kusaywa X Carolyn Dion X Chairperson Mollnow; that variance is approved, now on to the second variance of the height requirement adjustment of 8’4’ above the 15’ requirement for an accessory structure. At this time I’d like to unless there’s any other comments, I’d like to make a motion to approve this variance as well. Sharon; do we have a 2nd? Member Kusaywa; I’ll 2nd YES NO ABSTAIN Greg Mollnow X Joyce Baranski Absent Mark Cotch Absent Mary Shanks X Anthony Kusaywa X Carolyn Dion X Chairperson Mollnow; ok, so both variances were approved based on the vote. Adjournment There being no further business, Chairperson Mollnow made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:17PM Seconded by Member Shanks