Zoning Board of Appeals - Regular Meeting

gentlemen I'd like to call to order the zoning board of appeals town of Bedford for February 5th 2025 um my name is Peter michis I'm here with rosemary Lee and Meredith black um Roger van Len is who's under the weather with the flu is on the zoom call but able to participate and um our other members are away um the process will be that our secretary will just read the um applications and then we will move forward from there and it's a very light agenda tonight with just two two items so Kim CR wall hour and Company Incorporated 655-665 Bedford Road Bedford Hills section block and lot 71.8 d221 roadside business Zone in District the applicant is Seeking a variance to permit the installation of a free in illuminated pylon sign where a variance was granted for four signs on 1 1925 resolution 1-24 where the total square footage results in 32 square fet where 25 square feet is permitted and where the front yard setback results in 6 in where 10 ft is permitted in the roadside business Zing District article 11 125-1 120 B3 in Article 5 Section 12550 approved was that fast enough if you on your own with that okay go ahead James so this was a continuation from the last meeting you guys already saw the sign that we proposed and I think everybody was in favor that they actually like the placement better uh now than than uh than the where the existing sign is then it's also lower to the ground y it's not the PO sign I think it was it looks nicer you know class year you don't have you don't have

a picture of it do you yeah let me see I don't know why it's not letting me share my screen oh I see well we have a picture of it here in our packet okay yeah I don't know why it's not oh yeah I think that's going to look so much better any discussion is anybody in the audience or on the zoom call that wanted to talk about it can I have a motion to close the public hearing so all those in favor I I public hearing is closed I remember there was 100 ft setback for that pylon was it 100 ft on the pylon or was it for the wind window signs the 100 ft back from the roadway the 100 ft back is if the lettering is greater than 12 in so they reduce the lettering this sign is 12 in 12 all right great and this is lower to the ground than the one that's up in the air better at the corner I mean the big part was it's location but you don't want it too close to the store you need close to it's still behind the stone wall that they have there yeah yeah it's it's setback is appropriate and it's a 6x4 which is slightly bigger than what the code allows um and then one thing that I will mention too is this box itself um the entire thing won't light only the letters light uh so it doesn't you know give a large glow or anything like that uh the the the red part and the white part is actually it would be painted aluminum so just the acrylic would light so just the letters themselves will light okay is that the Ace Hardware and and Ben Ace Hardware the wall hour paint Hardware design vure more only that light gotcha okay not the whole sign no not the whole sign

gotcha I don't have a problem with it no no I don't have a problem I I think it's helpful in terms of the drawing that it shows the the size to the lettering and whatnot and over this the scale of the sign makes sense within the context of the lettering size as well like it's not over yeah and they're removing a lot of those window sticker signs so it's not U complete coverage there yeah so I think that's important to note is the the just as a as a we in last year had a discussion about how we handle certain commercial and business signs but this has not it hasn't yet so we had a discussion about asking the town board to revisit the code Provisions that per pertains to signage um on certain zones and in certain certain types of um set setbacks and settings because there's different things that come up that has not that conversation has not closed yet so we're still under the existing code and provision maybe we could touch base on where where that's at sure can I ask you a procedural question um can we this to the previous one that we approved or is this a separate um so this is was submitted as a separate application but the applicant so unlike things where we usually have disjunct the applicant had included the signed variants on their last application but there was a problem in terms of it being noticed in the location of it I think it wasn't actually it wasn't not well he didn't realize he needed a variance for the distance correct so so what the um so now it's been noticed as a separate application right so we just have it as was it assigned a new application number or was it assigned as a continuance of the last one it's appended to the existing per um application that's entered but I think since it's a completely different setback and all um that it should be separate separate okay so yes so it'll be two Standalone variances but I again for the record I want to make note the applicant didn't try didn't intentionally separate the applications it was that when he submitted the application and had this

the sign here on it but there was a problem with the notice and the setbacks that needed to be corrected by way of a new notice to be issued to correct that issue so we wouldn't have um a problem but we allowed him to proceed on the balance of the signs in the last hearing and so this one's presented as a separate application now go I think you could approve this as a fifth sign for this for the totality of the site I'll make a motion that um we excuse me Grant of Arian um as noticed um on the agenda uh doing so we believe that the benefit sought by the applicant cannot be achieved by another means feasible to the applicant there's no undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood or dets of the nearby properties and in fact I think we all believe that the removal of the existing sign that is on a pole and about 10 ft up in the air um and this this being marked or replacing that is a better is better for the look of the roadway in that area um the variance requested is not substantial they've conformed to the right size lettering um the variance request will not result in an adverse physical or environmental effect on the neighborhood or community and while the alleged difficulty is self-created um it's only one of the factors to be considered by the board and making its decision and it's not determinative the applicant if approved shall use their best efforts to ensure that a building permit is issued within one year of the board's approval of this variance and then diligently pursue to such construction to or such construction to completion I would assume you're going to do this along with the other signs that that that came along in the last meeting that we had um unless you've already started beginning that those um the applicant shall submit a certified as built survey including building and impervious coverage calculations to the building department prior to the issuance of a certificate of ecy showing us where this marker is along with the other sign locations and the variance is granted in accordance with the plans submitted to the board

dated what we have I have 11264 say again 11264 1126 624 okay and that is that really how can that be when we when we just had him write it out again yeah that's true because this [Applause] says oh yeah you're right November 26 2024 yep oh that's I mean it's there yeah that's fine I'm I'm good with that all I need is a second second Miss Lee yes Mr van Len yes Miss Black yes Mr mallis yes thank you you got it all right thank you thank J good night okay now this is gonna take a [Applause] while yeah there's a lot of reading Here hawkley Homestead LLC 699 and 701 Guard Hill Road Bedford section block and lot 84.6 -1 D2 and three residential 2 ACR zoning District the applicant is Seeking a variance to permit expansion to a pre-existing non-conforming residence proposed as the primary residence on a pre-existing non-conforming lot at 699 Guard Hill Road that is 04 acres and we a pre-existing non-conforming lot at 701 Guard Hill Road is 1.05 Acres where the two lots will be combined to create one lot that will consist of 1.45 Acres where 2 acres is required in the residential 2 Acres zoning district and where the proposed primary residence results in a sidey yard setback of 18.5 ft where 40 ft is required in the 2 Acres zoning district and where a

pre-existing Barn lesser side yard setback resulted in 1.6 feet where 40 ft is required and where the front yard setback resulted in 3.6 ft where 50 ft is is required in the residential 2 acre zoning district and where the combined sidey yard setback is 20.1 Ft where 80 ft is required in the R2 zoning district and where a pre-existing garage built in 1942 resulted in a front yard setback of 38.2 ft where 50 ft is required and resulted in a side yard setback of 6.1 ft where 40 ft is required in the residential 2 Acres zoning district and a result resulted in a total of 1,571 Ft of ground floor area where an accessory structure shall not exceed 5% or 315 Square ft of the area of the lot and where the gross floor area of the proposed Cottage existing 1806 residents shall not exceed 800 square ft of gross floor area and results in 1,142 square ft and where the total floor area of the the proposed Cottage shall not exceed 25% or 712 squ ft of the total floor area 2,846 Square ft of the principal residence in the residential 2 Acres zoning district and where the building coverage results in 11.9% and where the existing building coverage is 10.3% where a maximum of 6% of building coverage is permitted and where an additional driveway is proposed for the proposed Cottage where a single driveway shall Serv as both the primary residents and the cottage in the residential 2 Acres Zing District article 3 section

125-1 D 125 d27 D2 and Article 5 section 25-50 and article 8 section 12579 do1 A6 and 7 and SE section 125 attachment 5 I think that may you that nobody got that right that may qualify you for an a Grammy award or something if I said everything right this time not like okay uh who's speaking first here um i' I'd be happy to talk first uh so I'm John needam good evening everybody thank you chairman mes and uh the zba committee for hearing our application tonight and I I really want to give special thanks to uh Kim Kowalski um Al srao and uh Jessica young blood and the planning board for what resulted in that um that paragraph that Kim just read um it it it really uh what what happened here was our goals and aspirations for this property which are actually quite simple uh needed to be translated into the language of variances because it's a pretty unusual property so uh what I'd like to do if it would be useful to you is to just um tell maybe translate it back to explain what it is we're trying to do I know this is a public hearing I don't see any of our neighbors who were notified but maybe they'll watch someday on the YouTube channel so i' just like to make a brief statement to explain uh the project if if that would be appropriate sure okay so I'm going to screen share um and as I said what we're planning to do here what we're hoping to do we're

hoping you will approve is pretty simple um we would like to add an 18800 Square ft addition onto one of the seven buildings that is on this unusual property um that's that's pretty much it we also want to make the driveway we want to make some tweaks to the driveway to create a more orderly flow and better parking Arrangements but our goal is to make the home more livable safe and accessible including wheelchair accessible while remaining true to the historical qualities of this unique property um so let me see if I can advance here so we were lucky enough last May 1st to close on our purchase of this really unique home we bought it from Yuri and Hilda hawkley Manar uh and the hawkley family has been living in the property until May 1st of last year um for the last 153 years um uh and during that time they have provided lots of services to the town it started as a blacksmith shop they moved into shoe making cattle dealing Etc the only reason I'm telling you all of this uh is that it helped explain the unique layout of the property so what you see here is that that over the years going back 150 years um a total of seven buildings were built on the property and the only one we want to we want to make an adjustment to is this one here in the back if you can see my cursor um another Point that's important for zoning considerations is that in 1939 if you see this vertical line here in 1939 the property was subdivided and so it's actually two properties we're we're

applying to dissolve it to make it back into one property but as you will see here the layout is kind of interesting only one building this back Cottage uh is on one of the parcels 699 Guard Hill Road and then the other parcel uh has the other six buildings uh on it so it's kind of a little village of um of buildings um so our goal is really to preserve it we think it's a really unique slice of bedford's History uh we want to keep it pretty much as it is um and I want to just show you what these buildings look like this is the one building that we want to put the addition on uh this is a 1942 Cottage um and so if you look at this layout here it shows that we want to expand this building here by putting on this 18800 ft Edition ition the reason we want to do that is we want to put on uh two downstairs veterans if you go back to here you see this steep flight of stairs right now the house is not very good for older people or or people with young families uh we're kind of increasingly moving in the the older people Direction uh and um so by putting on this addition with two ground floor uh residents uh two ground floor uh bedrooms uh we will make it really usable and then by combining the two properties what'll happen is this expanded back Cottage will become the primary residence and The Farmhouse on the road will become the accessory Cottage so that's all uh in the variance that uh variance language that Kim read the other thing we have to do is bring up to CFO the um the two buildings on the on

the property property that were were built after uh building permits started to be issued in 1929 the rest are all before that but one of them is this concrete building over here so that's part of the variance is to bring that up to uh up to code I guess um I want to just show you I'm not going to go through all these slides uh but this is the ultimate outcome that we're heading toward so I I showed you that picture of the the back Cottage as it exists today it'll look almost identical to what it is today and the the C the addition has been very carefully laid out uh to be toward the back of the property um it's also very low and that's you know it happens that we want to have these downstairs bedrooms but it also helps in terms of the visual impact from the road uh that this new addition will be a single story and also done in a very attractive architectural style that matches the the style of the property so um just to I I'll just wrap up by showing you some of the other buildings the these are not things we intend to to change uh this building was built in the 18th century uh we just like it just like it is uh This Is The Farmhouse on the road 1806 this will become the accessory Cottage and won't be changed um that's the Old Blacksmith Shop on the on the road the Red Barn uh from 1881 [Music] uh that's a back a Back Barn also U from the 1880s uh that's a chicken coupe not changing that uh at one point it was a stables became a chicken cpop then a pot in shed we're not going to change that one uh and that is the um the cinder Cinder building as as we call it uh

which is this industrial building that the Hawley used for Carriage repair lawn mower repair that kind of stuff so I'll uh I hope that's useful I'll I'll wrap up there and I know Rick Binger our site engineer is there and he's also available to answer any questions or whatever you need thank you um first of all before you do that Rick let me just ask if there's anybody on the zoom call or in the audience here that wanted to speak and seeing of course nobody I guess let's close the public hearing have motion move to close of public hearing second second all those in favor I I public hearing is closed I thanks no there are no letters no I don't have any letters no it looks great uh it was a very you know thank you for that presentation it was fantastic I think it I think we all understand and I think the engineer though has the walkthrough here of the um driveway adjustments yes okay uh Rick bolander K CJ consult ing uh we are the civil engineers on the project just to highlight I knew the um the driveway would be u a topic tonight so I wanted to highlight that in yellow so that's what you see highlighted in yellow here so we tried our best to maintain the existing driveway and maintain that flow um right now the driveway um is gravel and we're going to remain gravel uh there are Madam aprons I appreciate that at the entrance because of um to the West the Western uh driveway just because of the the steepness of it we think that Madam should stay um gravel just wouldn't hold it get plowed and it it would become a mess you said the aprons would be Madam but the driveway would be gravel exactly are those aprons though over the property line do I see

that correctly yes they are okay um so just you know kind of keep those the way they are um maybe pave over them if they're I think think they're in pretty good shape right now but it might get beat up during construction so maybe we could look at repaving that but that'd be it wouldn't be expanding the only thing that I saw I mean just my SUV it's just very tight between the the the stone wall yes and we'll look at that when we um when we go through the site plan and work with the planning board on that and just real quick status update uh on on the other remaining items for the project we've done uh the soils testing we've submitted to the health department uh for the improved septic because we are going from a total of four bedrooms two in what's now known as a cottage and two in the main residence two uh two still we're not touching what will now be the cottage and adding the two bedrooms um as Mr need them uh summarized so a total of six bedrooms uh so we're redesigning the septic system it's great soils um both houses will have use the same septic yes two separate tanks but into the same same fields and we've been um in constant discussion with the reviewing Engineers Haun engineering um about you know the site layout and whatnot we have uh preliminary comments nothing substantial all very easily addressed and uh that's really it on the engineering side a question about we we spoke earlier about you've you've managed to stay under the impervious surface by 13.9% at 14 so I congratulate you and that gravel driveway uh really really helped but all buildings will remain on the on the property all buildings will remain on the property essentially um all remain untouched obviously except

for where we're putting the uh proposed addition okay and U when you get to that chart you could go over the tree removal yes and replacement yes uh so we participate about a total of 10 trees to be removed um there's some in this area of the proposed uh new driveway that will service what will be now known as The Cottage a few trees to be removed to accommodate the septic system and then there's a group of smaller trees um in the area kind of in between the cinder building and the garage uh to accommodate the driveway this this was designed this way just so we could maintain we didn't like the layout of having the driveway in between the property line and the building like this it was it was too close it really it didn't make too much sense so we wanted to maintain a turnaround area which is you know the goal of this um to try and and uh duplicate what we had with the with the circulation but we just we felt that this was a better way of doing it and replacement trees are there going to be any Replacements yes we're going to uh put a landscaping plan together that will be presented in front of the planning board and we'll um we're we looked at this and we wanted to focus the Landscaping along the western property line um understand that that's the closest property line to the proposed Edition um the houses they're not very close to each other but they're closer than uh the other surrounding neighbors so we wanted to screen that in out of respect for the for the Neighbors okay I have a question about the second floor of the existing Cottage I did look like your drawing uh the the addition of the one

story to add the bedrooms and the and the great room and the the stairway that goes up to that very difficult uh you know access and what will what is remaining on the second floor of the of the C the existing house those are where the the two bedrooms are are there are the two I thought I saw two bedrooms two bedrooms up there um and those are to be remained there's kind of a a sitting room in between those two and then the bathroom to serve those and those those remain untouched that makes [Applause] sense I one more question on your coverage calculation chart I noticed that you moved under the uh impervious surface you move decks and sheds up to con structions right and you redid the calculation there and then you left you have checked here driveway walkway stone walls and patios and that amounts to proposed coverage of 1274 impervious I'm just trying to figure out [Applause] where I'll double check these numbers inary I was just trying to figure out what you're includ you mooved some things up to building coverage which makes sense like uh the I sheds I believe that was updated after our conversation with okay planning and and you know our meeting together I think it was updated per that um but I'll double check that yeah see see what I'm some of this was moved to the up there yeah up there and then I'm assuming driveway walkway ston walls is this number yeah all right it looks like for the Edition it's a one story Edition the whole Edition simple it's a one story but with double height ceilings in some of the rooms is that

right um John if you kid you're more familiar with the architecture I don't want to misspeak on that uh it's a um it's a single story um and it is designed to be lower than the existing two-story house uh the great room will have a high ceiling I I don't know I can't remember what the exact uh but in our packet there is a um there is a chart I think show you to answer that question the one that says existing Cottage with addition for floor plan no I want the the height height oh the height [Applause] on I have those drawings on flash dve if you want me to bring those up quick I have a a 1.02 I just can't read the elevation clearly you want to oh do you have it's actually oh that's okay here's right here proposed cut oh okay yeah on that so this I think this chart which I find slightly confusing apologies but um so this building is the farmhouse on the road this chart is intended to show the height of The Farmhouse here of the addition so you can see that the the twostory historic farmhouse on the road is that tall yeah and the existing um 1942 Cottage is this tall and this shows the relative height so it it's uh it's lower okay and again I go back to this uh okay this chart that shows the rendering okay so that's the perspective from the road showing the relatively low height of the new addition okay oh looks does that answer your question uh kind of I I think it's

okay though I just wanted to make sure cuz we obviously have the floor plans for the first floor and with the the I I call it a double height ceiling right so you're going above the 9 foot or whatnot to have the ceiling in there it's a cathedral ceiling probably right and correct and technically it be the same anyway because you need pitch anyway so it's just that they're they're they're basically not putting a ceiling right no that's what I I was checking cuz it just I wanted to make sure cuz I didn't have floor plans for the second floor I just have the addition of that first floor so I wanted to make sure I understood I don't have yeah I the elevations are a little bit different in terms of how they're revealed they're in the they're in the smaller packet out but it's a little bit different than how they're usually presented Roger you able to see all this any questions it's a wonderful presentation great care has gone into it and and very thoughtful so all [Applause] good I I agree it's a really beautiful use of the property and it preserves all of the historic aspects of the property I know the uh the historic board is also very pleased with the preservation of the property in the history there's no chipping green to go across Guard Hill on the eighth to eth fairware should be a lot of golf balls are you going to be doing the annual garage sale miss that well it's funny um that's how we first came came to see this house um Hilda had a big sign up that said fourth generation house never thrown anything away her taag sales were legendary we're we're just sorry that some of the great memorabilia uh is no longer there but I will mention one interesting thing um the cannon which today sits right next

to the historic courthouse in vord Village was found buried in the backyard at the hawkley property and they donated it to the town weirdly it it it came from the War of 1812 which wasn't anywhere near Bedford but anyway somebody buried the cannon in the backyard there's lots of quirks like that at this place quirks very cool The Spoils of make a motion or sure um I would move to approve the application as noticed the applicant here there's a whole variety of variances that are being sought but it's very clear the applicant cannot cannot achieve um the benefit by any other means feasible to the applicant here you have a historic property they're already going through efforts to to maintain the character of the property that they're purchasing and in fact merging the lot so as to continue to preserve that historic feel of the property and in order to modernize the property making this addition is really I think it makes sense it doesn't really disrupt the view from the road the overall usage of the property or the community at large and that goes into the second one which will there will be no undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood or detriment to the nearby properties the scale of the addition the setback of it is very cognizant of the views from the neighborhood and in fact set um set further into the property than the existing house itself so essentially respecting more so the boundaries between the property the structures themselves and the um B the property line and the Neighbors on that side which is appreciated as well uh the variance requested I would say is not substantial in this case and that when you look at the overall context of this particular application and what's being sought a number of these variances actually relate to structures that have

been on the property for a very long time and they have not had a detriment to the community and people that have moved in are aware of them and whatnot and again the setbacks that we're talking about and the addition to this property that home that's being proposed is the addition is not out of scale with the other buildings on the property nor with the abing abing um properties at large and so while some of the variances may appear to sub be substantial in their number given all of those factors I would say that they are not overly substantial in this instance the variance request will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects on the neighborhood or Community the alleged difficulty is self-created uh they're building an addition that's uh not NE not necessary it's not but at the same time something that um they can do and this is only the one one of the factors we consider in making decision and and it is not determinative in and of itself the approval of the proposed variants is subject to the following conditions the applicant will use their best efforts to ensure their building permit is issued within um one year of the planning board's approval of the variance and then diligently pursue uh such construction to completion the applicant shall submit a certified as built survey including building and impervious coverage calculations to the building department prior to the issuance of certificate of occupancy I would also note that to the extent the stone walls need to be modified uh as part of the planning process you'll need to make sure that you get the appropriate permits for that that because there are permits for touching stone walls in the town of Bedford so it need to be cognizant of that um it's also dependent on the merger of the Lots planning board approval County Health Department approval and securing whatever miscellaneous tree removal permits and Stonewall permits are required for this particular application to proceed uh I would also make note that while a landscaping plan has not been submitted as part of this

application it's the applicant's intent to replace we have 10 trees being REM that are currently planed to be removed on the site I would request that they replace 10 trees a minimum of 10 trees on the property when they go back in and work on their Landscaping plan there will probably be more than that I realize but I would simply ask that they be cognizant of that and given the location of the driveway I think it's um reasonable to expect a significant number of those trees will be placed on that along that property line as opposed to uh a replacement in kind in the general location maybe where they're exactly remove since we know a number of the property trees being removed are more interior to the property to accommodate the driveway for replacement in those locations would not facilitate you know screening or essentially an asset to the neighborhood at large which is why we look at trees in some some way so I would ask that that be done that way um the variance is granted in accordance with uh plans dated December 16 2024 we actually have them revised January 2 January 22nd 2025 and as well as has the uh summary of the requests for the Bedford zoning board of appeals that was presented tonight because it has additional detail that are not in those other plans um and uh that's the motion I'll second that M Lee yes Mr van Len yes M black yes Mr mallus yes you got it all right one question what is the number of your house going to be 700 that's a really great question Rosemary thinking about that you know we got 699 and 701 i' love to split the difference and make I don't think we can right we're on the south side of the road oh okay I don't know that's that's a good question you know actually for that you just check check with the postmaster because they're the ones that pretty

much determine that um in Bedford Village and the assessor and the assessor yeah okay interesting okay cuz I actually I I I did get the name Katona wood katona's Woods Road changed but it went through the it has to be done by the postmaster because they're the ones that then put it out there so you might be able to get the well I'm glad to see it says Bedford and not Bedford Corners because that also was changed B Corners wasn't pre-existing it was changed thank you for the care of the property the thoughtful design and consideration of historic value it has to the community at large and respecting that and going forward that's was appreciated I was going to put in a request that you had to use NM landscapers but I know that you'll use need Landscaping yeah we knew the Landscaping would come in very very nicely and any drone shots you need you let me know I think the lesson is when you do something right this board is very pleased we're happy to see something done right any thank you very much thank you good night thank you appreci good luck is there any other anything you want to talk about no okay can I can I have a motion to adjourn so moved thank you very much second so we're adjourning now CH what is our date March what March 6th That's Thursday March 6 is a Thursday 6:30 6:30 thank you