Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

And after the discussion with staff, we'll start the meeting and allow Adriana to make her way in. It is Wednesday, September 16th, 6.01 p.m. We have three board members present for our five-member board, and we're expecting a fourth, so we currently have quorum. Project AV 2026-15. So this project is for an area variance at 6 Mountain View Avenue. I'm going to ask the applicant, Timothy Ellis, and or Representative Clark Henry.

Both of us.

Both of us. All right. Come on up. And to provide a brief presentation. I understand that this project has been discussed in front of some of the board. Yep. But we have a new member, Celeste Knight, My name is Julissa, and I was not at the last meeting, so if you wouldn't mind just doing a brief overview of the project itself, and then also I know that there's been some changes since the last presentation, and just going over those. Absolutely, yeah.

I think hopefully we laid it out rather expeditiously, but obviously any questions you have, feel free to jump in. So my name's Tim Ellis, I'm joined by Clark Henry, The owner, along with my wife, MLS, is here with us also tonight at 6 Mountain View Avenue.

And it's for an area of variance that would allow us to install an in-ground pool with a complimentary patio space around the property. It is above the 30% for where we're zoned. So originally when we were here on August 5th, I believe it was, The request was for 43.7. We since revised that to 41.3 by, we won't get into this in the presentation, reducing the proposed impervious surface by 300 square feet down to 1,400 square feet from 1,700. And also, after consulting with an engineering firm, KB Engineering, adding a mitigation measure of a rain garden type

mitigation, or it could be a draw train, where we end up to mitigate the impacts of the added impervious lot coverage. So this is where the location of the property is, up in New Scotland Avenue as you're exiting the city of Albany, right below the number scale creek. This was the original site plan. The lighter gray, closer to the house, the bottom, yeah, right in there.

Thank you. That is existing concrete patio.

And the other gray would be the additional patio that we're looking to add.

We noted that there were several properties, neighboring properties, actually adjacent properties, that did exceed the 30% coverage limit.

Most notably, it was in 2018, the property actually directly behind mine received a variance for up to 45.25%.

board member, and we just got started just with an overview.

Okay.

Good to see you again. Thank you.

Cornelia, if you wouldn't mind just jumping back down, back to the previous slide.

So also notable from the presentation, I suspect, was we were able to get a soil form from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Market, which pointed out that it's low-grade soil. They did consult with City Engineering. is an open lot, which is an added benefit. And at that meeting, it was requested by the board to identify some additional alternatives and also a stormwater report, which is when we engaged KB Engineering for that report.

So this is a kind of a layout of how we are proposing to reduce the impervious surface by 300 square feet.

Essentially, you know, the pool will shift over. That's what that long red rectangle is meant to identify. Also bringing it in from the edge of the impervious surface. And then most likely proposing that kind of fire pit area.

A lot of this we're kind of piecing things together until we can actually walk the site with the contractor.

But making that either impervious surface or removing it all together

Um, in the KB engineering report, they did identify possible mitigation being a rain garden. Um, that is the general area of where, uh, we were supposed to, uh, implement that. And that I believe is a beneficial area because the property is kind of sits up on kind of a hill. Um, and so, and this was actually kind of unique was all the runoff if any, is directed to that, I believe it is the north of the corn front corner of the property. So this would catch any, would be in the area to catch any raw from the impervious surface.

It could end up going towards the front of the property, just to stop it right where it's exiting.

But that again would be, I guess, kind of final design points. So again, reduced it by 300 square feet, stormwater analysis. was performed. We used the DEC stormwater management design manual, the size and appropriate size rain garden, which should be approximately 110 square feet.

And then the stormwater analysis was repeated with that mitigation in place. And actually, the results were it was actually slightly below than the property is currently today. So it actually improves the overall condition of the stormwater impact of the property.

Maybe if you want to just pause for a second, I can just explain the stormwater a little bit. So the way they do that is they take the property as it exists today, so without the pool and without that additional impervious surface. So all it would have is the light gray stamped concrete that Tim mentioned. And that's kind of their current state. And they get an amount of runoff coming off the property under that condition. Then they analyze it with the additional concrete that you see there. And those red rectangles, again, are basically areas of impervious surface that are being removed. So just kind of picture all that impervious surface being moved. The pool essentially slides a little closer to the house. and the other areas get chopped off. And then we used the New York State DEC stormwater design manual to calculate the size of rainwater, rain garden that would be required to mitigate the runoff coming off of the additional impervious surface. And that's how we sized the rain garden at 110 square feet. KB Engineering repeated their stormwater analysis with that rain garden in place, and those were the results that Tim mentioned where there's actually slightly less stormwater coming off this site than the current state conditions without any of that additional service. That's kind of the, that's a very typical stormwater approach for larger projects with a bigger development or in this case where you wanted to be really careful about the stormwater.

And so the reds are getting, the red areas or the areas within the red lines are getting replaced with what is the concrete? Essentially it's going to be less overall size of the concrete. So there's concrete. you know, on the other sides of the lines, right? And so it's grass.

I would picture that being gone. So the long skinny rectangle, it's almost like you just lifted that concrete out of there and slide everything to the left.

And so on the back end you have more grass. And then same thing on the end. So the grass is not in the red area, or like the extra grass area or like non-concrete area is not necessarily in the red areas, but it's just the concrete has shifted towards the house and towards the, yes.

The top box actually would become grass. That middle one would not, everything would just shift.

Okay, thank you for clarifying. And the rain garden is what and where?

And we're either directly there or the front corner of the property would be the most appropriate spot for that.

And we've got some additional, we have additional slides in the package that show the rain garden and all of that. So as deeply as you guys want. Okay, sure. So then here's the chart we just spoke to. So the as-is before the pool, the runoff comes in at 0.49, that's cubic feet per second, and that's using a 100-year storm, which is a pretty high storm water number. So then the original design at the 1700 square feet, that was with the pool. the additional concrete area was up to 0.8 cubic feet per second and then by reducing it by the 300 square feet and adding the rain garden you can see the runoff is down to 0.46 so it's just slightly under the as-is condition.

So again you know unique and favorable conditions of the

favorable grade infrastructure, presidient infrastructure report, the extra safety factor, the buffer factor, if you wanted to call it, for Mountain View being an open lot.

And what we showed, it's a couple more slides down that we showed at the first meeting, but one of the really nice outcomes, I think, of this and doing the stormwater report is it creates a very nice precedent for you guys, if anyone wants to exceed that 30%. We have a couple of slides where during one of the really big storms we had this summer, some stormwater does come off of this property, but it runs right down the road. It goes right to the catch basin and it gets handled by the city's infrastructure very well. There was no backup or issues, but we understand the intent of the 30% So the approach that you guys have requested and that Tim has done, he's 100% mitigating the impact of that increased impervious surface. So if anyone comes down looking for a request a year from now or whatever, you have a great precedent of complete mitigation of that additional impervious surface. So on top of, in this particular case, the infrastructure was able to take that, the stormwater piping and the catch facing, but above and beyond that, you have mitigation at the site, which puts you in a really favorable position for anyone else seeking a variance.

So this is just a view from the property, north-facing view. We recently just completed extensive renovation, putting a whole second story on what was a one-story cave this past winter, actually.

This was a property my grandparents built back in 1952 and family home that me and my wife decided to make our forever home, hopefully is the case. Just another view from the property facing from the east view. This is the proposed layout. where the pool would sit and be surrounded by the associated patio. This is a video from the July 27th, 28th, 29th rain event that we all experienced. I think it was reported in Albany we received 6.93 inches of rain.

I actually was traveling at the time and asked the neighbor to kind of just put a bucket out, and from what I measured, at least we received over nine inches of rain. in that area of the city. So it was extensive, and if you would like to see, and my neighbor was gracious to put a raincoat on and walk around the property, so.

I don't know that we need the video unless there's a board member who was not here for that super fun event.

Yeah, we all, I think we all. There's a video there, because she hasn't seen it.

Yes, it's simply a video of the storm. It's attached to the presentation.

I think it's worthwhile.

My recollection is it shows that obviously it's raining a lot and that the property is already drained. I think it supports what the reports have shown that the property already drains pretty well. So there's no big pools of water standing or anything like that. The water's flowing off your property onto the... And there still will be a large amount of green space on the property.

Kind of that is, I believe, what happened was my grandparents bought one lot at the time, and eventually we were able to purchase a second and put a garage on it. So it is kind of over to one side, and we're just trying to develop the one corner. on the entire lot itself, there is still extensive green space there. This is just the section of the ordinance question.

Same overview of lot standards, and then the review criteria. So as far as character of the neighborhood goes. We did do a review of houses in the general area. There are a number, as you can see, about over 60% coverage in the general vicinity.

I know it was raised that potentially compounding factors of having those properties there, but I think the stormwater analysis and the proposed litigation actually shows that it kind of is turning the corner making the whole area slightly better. Also, there's not going to be any elevated structures.

We're not proposing anything like that that would be there. And this is the one property directly behind me that received a variance back in 2018.

I remember they had to unfortunately demolish the previous house and then the gentleman behind me built on that parcel.

So we're meeting all the setbacks and then all grade level improvements is what's going to be made.

And then the big change here is the KB engineering analysis was done to quantify the runoff and the size of the rain garden as Clark mentioned. And for anyone who wasn't at the last meeting, any updates we put in red, just so they would stand out from the previous.

Here we soil grade, see if it's well suited for a particular site of the project.

And then it allows us to put an outdoor living space that's well buffered from any public views or neighboring views that would be associated with required fencing. to be installed and also the plan is to have mature landscaping.

So the summary of that question is we really feel that it doesn't impact the neighborhood at all, not visually or the additional impervious surface is mitigated by the rainwater.

So the alternatives that were considered

Once learning about the need for the variance was I did approach my neighbor, who owns 4 Mountain View Avenue, about potentially purchasing a portion of that, but not all. He was not interested in doing that. Thought it would be a decent solution. Using paving stones, which would be a permeable surface done with the correct methods compared to the poured concrete. That increased the project cost by approximately $30,000. And then there's a couple others on the next slide. I did look into doing a portion with decking material. Again, that would be a permeable surface, because water would be able to go through the deck. But even just a 300 square foot portion of that

And then, you know, the engineering analysis that was requested really kind of brought us to our conclusion of reducing the overall square footage by 300 square feet and adding mitigation of the rain garden. So this is just really a kind of more detailed of each alternative. That was the area kind of for the decking. in the next one to reduce the overall storage footage.

Yeah, this is just right out of the New York State DEC stormwater design manual regarding rain gardens. So that's a section of the manual that we use to calculate the size of the rain garden, and that's the way it will be constructed.

As far as the substantiality of it, while it is numerically over the maximum pervious lot coverage, I think the engineering analysis shows, and with the mitigation, that it really is neutral if not improving the property. Also, before the engineering analysis in the neighborhood, there were a number of properties as identified that exceeded the maximum lot coverage. quite extensively.

Again, minimal impact, we believe, based on the analysis from the engineering, stormwater analysis, and reducing the 5300 square feet and adding the rain garden. Then it was also repeated and shows that it will be slightly improving. kind of a summary of what we've kind of already discussed, the stormwater analysis, or sorry, the USDA soil report, sorry. I finally worked for AgriMarket, so I get too confused.

But this is the report we were able to track down specifically to the property and identify the positive drainage there.

Yeah, and this actually came from KD Engineering, the engineering firm that

This is just from our consultation with city engineering. Really, that was just trying to get an understanding of what the strategy is in my particular area for Roth. And we feel there's a couple more slides that show that strategy and where everything exists now. And we feel this fits into that overall strategy. The main thing here is six Mountain View is down there at the bottom of the page. So as you saw in the video, the grass is actually much greener than shown here.

But proper rainwater does run off during a really heavy storm towards the upper right portion of, towards Mountain View Ave. And then it flows down, you can see the goldish line along the road. that that dash line is a swale so there's a swale at the side of the road that kind of channels any water down towards the solid gold line is a culvert that goes under one um properties driveway so that that and then if you kept going to the top of the page so that's a culvert that solid gold area and that goes right down to a catch basin down at the of New Scotland and Mountain View. And in the video, you can see some water running down and going exactly where it's supposed to go, right in that catch basin. And even during that very large storm that we had over the summer, that catch basin was not overflowing or backing up or anything. And in part because from that catch basin, the stormwater pipe goes to the left if you pan out a little bit you can see it goes to the left down new scotland ave and then it pretty quickly discharges to an open discharge point so it's in the river into the norman scale yeah so this particular area of your stormwater system is very well suited for the water that it's receiving or how it discharges.

So, you know, was it self-created?

You know, look at the choice to install it. It's going to be able to make improvements in your backyard is obviously a choice. But I believe with the KB engineering, a long time, the runoff and proposing the reduction in curvy surface, And the rain garden actually is improving the area. And as Clark says, it actually gives you all a good precedent going forward. I think it also captures what one of the previous meetings, one of the concerns one of the other board members who isn't here tonight mentioned is just the kind of compounding factor of multiple properties over the usage or the maximum pervious lot coverage. that maybe it's too much for the area where the analysis actually shows that it's actually improving the areas in terms of corn a little uh again property was built by my grandparents in 1952 and uh you know the goal is to make this our our forever home that uh we can enjoy and uh be there for the foreseeable future and that's not just that was the property in november of 2025 and that's where we are now Thank you.

So we'll get to the public comment in a second. Any questions from the board?

Well, first I want to commend you on all the work that you've done within a relatively short period of time in terms of getting the studies and really responding to the questions that were asked right at the last meeting and in detail. and the amount of detail that you all provided. Could you just talk a little bit more about when you reached out to KB Engineering, how was that process? How extensive was their involvement in improving or making any changes to this foundation?

Yeah, so they came to the house and did a site visit.

They had the information we could find They also used some county mapping because of the small size of the parcel, and kind of normally this is done for much larger projects. They did come out and actually look at the grade, where the water would go, and then they, using that information, ran the analysis with the 1,700 square feet. You know, we've identified that there was an increase. I don't think anybody expected there wouldn't be. And then it was, you know, what are our mitigating factors?

And using the DEC manual to, you know, kind of size a rain garden. We came up with this, reduce the overall surface, and 110 square feet seemed like something reasonable that can fit into the overall design.

And so that was kind of their goal.

No, it's a great summary.

They're very familiar with projects like this and they do them quite frequently.

Thank you. I just have a clarifying question. Was the requested variance officially amended? It looks like it's presented on the agenda as kind of modified. The request is no longer for 43.7%, but for the 41.3%. And I guess just for my own clarity in my head, the 41.3% means that as a result necessarily that reduces the amount of the concrete likely. I guess it doesn't tie to necessarily a commitment to the main garden, right? Like just in my head. like from the variance perspective, and how it's set up currently in the request.

Okay. Or even like the specific design, you know, if the ship sits in a slightly left or slightly right, it's just a lot of coverage and stuff.

Yeah, there are a number of different mitigations that could be used.

You know, rain guard, I think there's a broad term. There's, and I'm not going to pretend to be the technical person, but along drains and perforated they can go up along the side of the property to spread out the absorption of the muddy water.

So I think that's really, at the end of the day, going to come down to how does everything fit in there.

Anyone else? OK. So we do have public comment. Looks like all three of them are written in comment. They are available in the record. I'm not gonna be reading them in the record tonight, Celeste. And there's nobody other than Mrs. Ellis here, so there's, I'm assuming, nobody here for public comment, secretly hiding. I also don't have any questions, so I'm gonna ask if there's any motions to be made on this project, or rather, I'm gonna ask first if there's any additional discussion, and if not, if there are any motions, then anybody wishes to meet.

Let's have a quick question. Do we have to do the seeker? No seeker. Okay, we don't have to do that, but I'm staying careful, okay? Yeah. So in that case, I do have a motion. I move that we approve Area Rebarance 2026-15. Is there a second?

Second. Adriana, how do you vote? Celeste, how do you vote? In the affirmative. Sabrina? Yes. And I also vote in the affirmative. So Area Variance 2026-15 is approved. Thank you, both of you. I do want to say, because I watched the last meeting, and I'm going to just echo Serena's comments. This was really a truly effective and clear and we appreciate the effort that you put into really considering the code and the questions of the board and really doing the analysis and hope you enjoy the changes to your property.

Thank you, and I appreciate the questions. I have to say, you know, couldn't have done it without the assistance of Corneille and Anna. They were great, and it's been a family endeavor, and having Cousin Clark as a resource.

Making Grandfather proud. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I think we got a result initially that he wasn't worried about.

Thank you all.

Have a good day.

Thank you. You too. Really quickly before we adjourn, I spoke with staff a couple weeks ago and talked about a couple of shifts, minor shifts that I want to make. The first is for voting, instead of doing individual voting, we're just going to do show of hands in the affirmative, negative, or abstain. Thank you, I was going to say abstain. So we'll do that moving forward. The other thing that I want to encourage people to start doing is to try, is to start explaining the vote at the time that you make the motion. As you can see on the last page of the staff analysis, they do a pretty easy breakdown that you could use that to explain the vote, assuming we are going with the staff recommendation. So basically just making a motion based on the fact that these criterias were met and we believe X, Y, Z, just so that there's a little bit more flesh to what and why we are voting the way we are. And then finally, this is not new, it's just because we are going to continue to have challenges with attendance, my own included, I just want to remind everybody as much as possible to review the files in as much depth as you can, so that, because we're at the point now that a quorum is gonna continue to be difficult to maintain for now, and so adjourning could mean that it's two or three months out for an applicant. So if we can prepare with questions as much as possible ahead of time so that we can give them to staff, have the applicant answer them, it just limits the potential for extensive adjournments. Obviously, this isn't always possible. Sometimes things come up when we're in the meeting and we learn things, but to the extent that you can, I think the staff, Celeste, you just joined us, but I know the staff is really started putting a lot more meat into their analysis, and they're pretty good at figuring out the questions we're gonna ask, because I think we all sort of ask the same questions, like, you know, what are the effects of neighboring properties, you know, any other variances, things like that, but to the extent that you can, and as long as you do that either directly to Anna or directly to me, then it won't be a meeting for the purposes of Open Meetings Law, so just send those on. if you have those questions. Yes, do not copy everyone, please. But just encouraging, because I think as we get into the winter months, and we still don't have our fifth board member, that I want to try and mitigate that challenge as much as possible. Sorry, that's what I meant, yeah. We're swapping out a lot of people. I am not going anywhere, as far as I know. With that, are there any questions, concerns, issues, thoughts, nothing?

which is awesome to emphasize even more. Depending on how much you keep up to date with City News, our Corp Council is razor thin. We have three members now. Martha Moskowitz is leaving also in a week and a half. So if you have any legal questions, we really, really need those in advance. Obviously there's plenty of attorneys on the board, but if there's specific opinions, then we do need those in advance.

What's Moskowitz's first name again? Is there a motion to adjourn?

Move that we adjourn. Second. All in favor? Yes.