Zoning Board of Appeals - Regular Meeting

Gentlemen, I'd like to call to order the zoning board of appeals meeting for June 12th, 2025. Um the u what happens here is your application will be read by our secretary. At such time, could you then come up to the podium um introduce yourself and tell us a little bit what you want to do? Um, most of us have most of, well, we all had the chance to go out and look at your properties. It's one of the joys here. I've never been on Dixon Dixon Lane before and I've never been on Kelly Circle, but those were both beautiful places to visit. Um, and um, so we've seen most of the at least the areas where things are going to be done. Um, so we just need a brief explanation of what you're doing. Um, it is a public hearing. So there I will ask if there's anybody in the audience that wants to talk about what the application is. um that might be done either by Zoom or here in the audience. Um if there's nothing, we will possibly close the public hearing. There's one meeting tonight um or there's one application tonight which if you're here for the 150 Bedford Road LLC apartment building um that will not be closed tonight that public hearing because we can't act on that tonight um because it has to the planning it should have gone to the plan well it will go to the planning board. they will have to designate themselves as the lead agency for secret purposes and we so we can't do anything tonight to um to uh resolve what they would what they're asking for which from us is a variance on parking. Um but we can certainly hear what they're planning on doing and uh if there are any comments we can we can hear a few of them u but most of the comments we'll probably say for the uh planning board. Um, with that said, um, let's begin with our first, uh, application. Thank you. The Cardelline Trust, 139 Hook Road, Bedford, section block and lot 73.11-1-23,

residential 4acre zoning district. The applicant is seeking a one-year time extension of a variance granted on 10523 resolution 10236 granting a variance to permit an addition to the main residence patios and alter patios and driveway. Construct new swimming pool and pool house where the total building coverage results in 4.89% of building coverage where 4.49% 49% currently exists and where a 3% maximum of building coverage is permitted and where the total impervious coverage results in 10.63% where 13.08% currently exists and where an 8% maximum of impervious coverage is permitted in the residential 4acre zoning district article 5 section 125-50. I um received uh we've received a letter here from Ken Anderson who is who is representing the um the applicant um stating that they um would like an extension of a year I mean on the year um apparently um in doing some of the work they've already done they've decided to change what we have given variances for and um so I'm in inclined to say let's give them an extension of at least 6 months. Is there anyone here speaking? I don't think so. Oh, there he is. And I before you start, I just want to say I did drive by there today and um spectacular on the um deer fencing along the roadway with the cedar posts. Looks great. Oh, yeah. No, thank you. Go ahead. Um I'm uh Ken Anderson. I'm the architect. Um so, yeah, thank you very much uh board members for hearing us. Um I think let me share my screen. This

it says uh host disabled screen sharing. I don't if you blow the building up I won't forgive you. Okay. Spectacular Gordon furniture. Yeah. Let let me know when I should click again. Peter, is it okay? Okay. Yeah. He says go ahead and do it now. Okay. Apparently, he has to be granted permission. Yeah. You have to be granted permission to do that. Oh, we're seeing something here coming up. So, now it's your No, it's not because I don't have my computer here anymore. Ah, there we go. We've got it now. Okay, terrific. So, um it's very simple in a in a nutshell. We were changing the driveway, which they've done uh from the original. If you see this screen, the original was uh the original was is in red. Um and you can see the pool only existed over here. And there was an existing wing to this house here. And this is the red driveway. So, what we were going to do to make the coverage uh work to do the pool house, we reduced the driveway to this, which is already built. We were going to tear down this whole uh wing, the red wing here, and create a slightly bigger addition. Um I think the only thing that's changed is the wing they're going to keep now. Um they they don't want to tear it down and and redo it, so they're just keeping what's there. Um, and because of the coverages, they're slightly lower, but everything else is the same. But it still would require a variance, continuing variance. Yeah. So, you bet

you're still going to need a variance or not? We have the variance. So, uh, yeah, we're we're only asking for an extension. Yeah. Um, but I think I think because we're coming up on a year or past the year, um, we we needed to extend it because they would like to we we how this happened is we applied for our building permit because it took a while for them to make that decision. We also had to go to the health department to improve upon the septic and that took a very long time, but they do have that now. Would a six-month uh would a six-month extension be okay? It is it is it that we have to start because they're planning on starting in fall. I I only hesitate that if what standard, you know, will we get our permit by that time? I I think so. Yeah. I mean, I'm happy to give them a year if you want to give me a year. Year. What's realistic? Any uh all those in favor of giving them a year? I think I'm okay with it. Okay. So, we'll give you a year on that. Everybody says yes. Okay. Thank you very much. I'll just do a roll call. Mr. Stern. Yes, Miss Lee. Yes, Mr. Van Lover. Yes, Mr. McCallis. Yes. So, you've got a one-year extension. Thank you very much. Thank you. And thanks again for that wonderful fence, dear fence. No problem. Have a good night. Thank you. Okay, number two. How many of you been on Dixon Lane? Nobody. You've gone by Dixon Lane all your life here. here. If you've gone down to Mount Kisco on Nolton, I've never been there, but it was a real pleasure to be there. It's a beautiful street. Daniel Shapiro, 9 Dixon Lane, Bedford Corners, section block and lot 716-1-14 residential 2acre zoning district. The applicant is seeking a variance to

permit the construction of a swimming pool where the sideyard setback results in 21 ft where 40 ft is required in the 2acre zoning district. Article 5, section 125-50. Good evening. Yes, please. If you could just pick up the microphone. It just should just slide out. Yeah, there you go. You're going to have to be like Elvis Presley a little bit. For the record, uh Dean Pushler, landscape architect for Daniel Shapiro, 9 Dixon Lane. Um what we're proposing is to vary an existing um uh variance that was um approved in 1985 for a swimming pool within 10 ft of a sideyard setback. Um the pool that they built was further than 10 ft, but that doesn't matter. Um, we're essentially replacing the existing pool with a slightly larger pool. And because with the pool dimensions change, we need to come before you to ask for a variance. So the proposed variance is a variance from 20 from 40 ft, which is required to 21 ft. Um, so that it's roughly a little little over 50% variance. Um, but you're going to put you're putting the pool in where the current pool is pretty much if you were out there, the swimming pool is there. It's going to be slightly larger than that pool. Well, the pool came to a sort of a a strange end and then there was a lot of concrete that was longer. Yeah, that concrete patio. We're basically going to replace that with a a new patio. That would be part of the new pool. Yes. Gotcha. Yes. There's a slight outline in the plan where you can see the old pool. So the old pool is is is here. So we're

extending it roughly two to three feet. Um yeah two feet in width I believe four feet in length. See that's the outline. Yeah the propos. Oh okay. Gotcha. Yeah I didn't have a problem with it. It was an old pool that destroyed. So yeah coverage. Is there anyone in the audience who wanted to discuss this application? We're on the Zoom call hearing. No one. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. All those in favor? I. Public hearing is closed. Any discussion? Questions? I just have a comment about the condition of the pool. The homeowners may want to pull that cover tight up top so that animals don't fall in it because there's water in the bottom or or wandering children. Yeah, just leave that. That's fine. Yes. We'll address But I But yes, but I can see that there is a need to to fix up there. If granted, when would this when would this begin? As soon as we get a building. Gotcha. So the build the pool contractor is already ready to go. Okay. He's got to file for building permit as soon as he was. Okay. Make a motion. Yeah. Would you like that plan? In a minute. Yeah. take them all then you won't need them. I make a motion to grant the variance for the um application as noticed. Um this being a replacement and modification uh almost in kind of a of a pool that needs to be uh um repaired or replaced. Um so therefore the benefit sought by the applicant um although could be achieved by another means by moving it um it's perfectly reasonable um to the applicant to do it in in this location. So there will be no undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood or

detriment to the nearby properties and the variance requested is not substantial and the variance requested will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects on the neighborhood or community and the alleged difficulty is is uh not self-created in as much as this is again a repair replacement. But that's um also not the only factors to be considered by the board in making its decision and not determinative. Approval of the proposed variance would be subject to the following conditions. Applicants shall use their best efforts to ensure that the building permit is issued within one year um of the board's approval of this variance and then diligently pursue such construction to completion. Yep. Consult submit a oh here we go. Yeah. So submit a U certified asbuilt survey updating um the changes including building and impervious coverage calculations to the building department prior to the issuance of certificate of occupancy variances granted in accordance with the plans if needed by the board needed. I don't have any more. I have March 26 25. March 26 25. All right. Second that. I'll second that. You can put Rosemary down as a second. Mr. Stern? Yes. Miss Lee? Yes. Mr. Van Lover? Yes. Mr. McCallis? Yes. You got it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Lita Fletcher 387 Crotin Lake Road, Mount Kiscoco section block and lot 59.7-1-2 in the residential 4acre zoning district and uh 393 Crotin Lake Road, Mount Kiscoco section block and lot 59.11-1-3 residential 4acre zoning district. The applicant is seeking a variance to

permit already built peers located at 387 Crotin Lake Road, where two peers are 83 in and 52 in in height with a 21 in light fixture, resulting in a total height of 104 in and 73 in and are located at the front property line. and two peers are 82 in and 64 1/2 in in height with a 21 in light fixture resulting in a total height of 103 in and 85 1/2 in and are located 9 ft from the pro front property line where 4T is the maximum permitted height if located less than 20 ft from the front property line in the residential 4acre zoning district and to permit an existing gate that resulted in a height of 6'3 in where 50 ft is required for a gate greater than 6 ft in height and permitted and to permit a 24-in wire mesh fence at top a 32-in high stone wall totaling 56 in at its highest point where 4T is the maximum permitted height if located less than 20 ft from the front property line in the residential 4acre zoning district. And to permit an already installed fence along the sides and rear property line at a height of eight feet where a maximum of four feet is permitted for the first 20 ft on the side property line and then a maximum of 6 feet is permitted after the first 20 ft on the side and in the rear in the residential 4acre zoning district. and to permit an already erected fence at 393 Croin Lake Road at a height of 8 feet where six feet is permitted in the residential 4acre zoning district article 3 section 125-15A 1 and 3. [Applause] Good evening. I go here. Yes, please. U my name is

Ralph Fletcher. my wife would be here as I indicated, but it's granddaughter day and uh she's busy so I'm here and I've asked Glenn Tyers to keep me on the straight and narrow. Um that was a mistake. That was a mistake to be the first of many. I have more to go. uh I didn't know how to address this because when I read that you know I look at all this and I go this is all simple straightforward but we have lived there 45 years and we have done a lot of stuff during that period with our one overreaching goal be to improve that property and everything we've done we've tried to improve it we've reconsolidated properties we've put up the fencing to secure the property not from people necessarily but from animals animal mostly coyotes, bears, etc. back up to the reservoir which is a lot of wildlife. We've also been cognizant of the fact that the wildlife needs access and the 393 property almost 8 acres is ours which we bought uh 30 years ago and we have kept that completely open so that they have all the access well I think they have all the access they need to get up and back to the to the road or wherever they want to go. I was going to go down each of these items because I have a answer for each of them. They when you give me the inches and heights and all that they sound terrible. Uh but when I looked at it I said well the answer really is that our property is a little unique in that it slopes down rapidly. The high points as Kim told excuse me Kowalsski told me to do was to measure at the highest point not at the lowest point. The front pier is 40 in high off the road. From there it all drops 3 and 1/2 ft off to the back. And so we end up above it. And of course,

since it's dark, I put lights on it. Sorry about that. Um, the fencing, um, we went, we've been through four iterations over the 40 years. Started with electric fence, creassol, which we decided that wasn't the best thing to do. Went to pressuret treated electric fences again. And as I've mentioned to a few of them, I made a mistake and I got zapped once. Two days later, it was on its way out. Um, we ended up with a black wildlife fence which we think disappears into the background. Our whole goal has never been to infringe upon any of our neighbors, never to infringe upon the road at the street level. It is uh it's not really a mesh fence. It's I have it here. It's u a single wire, three of them going across left over from the electric fence. Um we we've done this. We admit that. Uh but we don't think that has had any severe factor. The gate that which she mentioned at 6'3, it was six feet till the garbage truck ran into it. They we had it reconstructed. They brought a different hydraulics in. When they put the new hydraulics in, it went up to 6'3. It is 240 ft off Croin Lake Road. It basically is there to protect our property from I'm gonna say neighbors because we have a house sitting up there and with five people having coming in and gone out there's been a differential in where the property line is and what's the difference between an easement for ingress and egress as opposed to ownership. And this sort of just helps define the property. Uh there is one other section. There's a 6T 6T fence along the back edge between us and the neighbors and that is only 6t on the property line. Um we put that in a bunch of years ago and we've never had a problem with it. I I don't know what to say except this all we believe this all started with something that our neighbor did and we

got caught up with uh the complaint. Gotcha. And we're here to fix it. Okay. Uh thank you. Is there anybody in the audience that wanted to speak on this or on the Zoom call? No. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? I'll make it. All those in favor? I I public hearing is closed. Um I was out there seen what I mean you've everything seems you know you wouldn't even know those totals exist because there were so many plantings around everything. Um, I'm seeing here from surveys from 1957 backing up your statement that it's been there for quite some time. Um, is there any uh Well, I I agree that the pillars appear to be there possibly from the 40s or 50s and then the reconstruction was needed to support them. So, they're quite a few years that that they pre-existed there. So, I didn't I didn't have a problem with that. I think you know the major thing is the the fencing along the front face the road and I I guess when when we had a discussion there was some issue about whether someone else might have put up some of the fencing that that I'm not sure did you get a violation for that or is someone else we believe what happened we don't know this for sure cuz they won't tell us that our neighbor re recently acquired it two years ago or something like that and I we I think his idea was to improve it because the fence was fall. The whole thing has always been fenced back 50 years and it was falling down and he went to improve it and he improved it, excuse me, by putting an 8 foot high black wildlife fence along Croat Lake Road. Right. And we believe that someone complained. Fair enough. And uh when um uh the complaint officer, the enforcement

officer came, he looked over to the corner where our 8ft fence comes 40 ft inside our property line comes up and dead ends into the pillars. There is an 8ft pole there. Never even thought about it in my entire life. And that's how our we have a walking gate there. That's how you lock the gate. We that's what we were told was the violation. Now, that led to our discussion, right? Here's the fence. What else have you got? What permits do you have? Uh or don't have, I guess, is the answer. And we went down the whole list. And she was very helpful getting this straightened out. And that's why we put them all down here so we can tell you this is all the stuff we did. Yeah. I think it's also uh going to make it clear that that fence along the road is not his property. That's what I was getting us. It's not his property. That's the neighbor to the front. Okay. So, that's going to be pursued separately. Yes. I think that's what sort of spurred it because you really can't tell where one begins and one ends. No. If I were if I were driving down the road, I would assume that I I also did. Yeah. But that's been the biggest one of the bigger problems we've had is because those two properties were years ago owned by the same person. He sold that 4 acre lot to his brother and that is traded that's the one that's traded five times in our 45 years and we you know we tried to buy it and couldn't buy it and it wouldn't happen but it's there and we have to figure a way to deal with it. Okay. I don't have any other the property is beautifully maintained. The appreciation that you do have the other lot, a large lot which does allow access um and I think that you know we have regulations that are reasonable. They allow people to have security gates and uh do some fencing and I and I think you've done the best that you can with the property. We um we don't view the fence as

security for us because as you know when you came the gate opens automatically. people have access. It was basically to protect our horses cuz we have two horses on the property. We have four dogs, you know, and it's just We've had coyotes. Our neighbor, he was a big boy. Big boy. I believe it was about 300 lb. How close to that big bear? How close? 5T away from Yikes. Um he didn't have a long lens in that. No, I had my I had conversations. Oh, I tried, but he was more interested in eating the bird food. for you. Yeah. Well, that's right. That's a big And he's been there three I don't I say he we've been visited three times. This is We've seen him twice. This is the only time I had the camera. The other time all we saw was the destruction and that was very obvious. But they come in probably came in off the road. You know, the 4ft fence there climbed over came down. I've done a lot of wildlife photography. I've been to Alaska. I've been up to the polar bears. I've been a lot of strange places and this guy's big. I've seen them all. This is actually a really good picture cuz I had one on my property and it moved so fast I couldn't get a picture of it. I can show you a movie. I had him going through my front yard if you'd like that. But they're not going to feed him anymore. We're going to be more careful about that. Incredible. But u we we we do our best to try to it's we've loved it here. You know, who who knew we'd be here 45? We plan to be here 20 more and then let the kids worry about it, I guess. But that property, I'll just make this clear, 393 will not be touched other than just normal cleanup as long as we own that property. That access will always be there. [Applause] Any No. Okay. I'll make a motion then. Um I propose that we grant a variance um as it is um laid out series of

variances. What's that? I'm not going to read all this as it's laid out in the application. Um doing so will um cannot be achieved by any other means feasible to the applicant. Most of the fencing that we're talking about has been around for 40 years um and has been either planted out or grown is is not objectionable from the from the road. Um there won't be any undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood or detriment of the nearby properties because it's been there for as long as it's already been there. Um and the gate that uh they're talking about is set back over 240 ft from the road as it is. The variance requested um is not substantial. I don't believe as it's already in existence the variance requested will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects on the neighborhood or community though it may keep wildlife out which is the intended consequence. The alleged difficulty is not self it is self-created but it's only one of the factors that we considered by the board in making it decision and it's not determinative. Um you're not actually looking for anything to to add on to. So this would just be if we grant this to the variance would just be granted. We have things that are that are already listed. So there's nothing related to this. It's an add-on. I will be back for a building. Okay. But that's later. That's a whole different body and replacement of a building. Got you. He does need a fence permit. He does need a fence permit. Yeah, I need permit. Legal fence permit. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So you'll get the fence permit if we grant this. Rosemary, just second this. Do we need to cross reference the map at all? I don't. Well, yeah. Um, it it's a new 1983 map only recently filed with us on April 22nd if you need it for there's a blow up with the with the that you can read, but it's hard for me to read this small. It looks like it says 11017. Uh, but let's I mean the way it's

happening, you should we should just keep that as um which one are you using? This one. Okay, that's the one I was going to say use. Yeah. And Rosemary, you second? I second it. Yes. Mr. Stern, yes. Miss Lee, yes. Mr. Van Lover, yes. Mr. Valis, yes. You've got it. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Mr. Fletcher, would you like your plans back? Uh, I made so many copies you throw in the trash can. Thank you. You know, if you take them, you won't need them. I know. We We'll keep the bear. We'll keep the bear. Keep the bear. Thank you, Kim. Thank you. You're welcome. God, it's an amazing bear. I would never show my wife. Dennis and Amanda Delahonte. 10 Ashby Place Kona section block and lot 49.19-1-35 residential quarter acres zoning district. The applicants are seeking a variance to permit the construction of a two-story addition to a pre-existing legal non-conforming residence located on a corner lot where the sideyard setback resulted in 12.6 6 ft to the covered porch and where the addition results in a sideyard setback of 29 ft. Where the zoning yard requirements for a corner lot requires a sideyard on a side street to be equal to the required front yard setback of 35 ft in the residential quarteracre zoning district and where the addition creates an increase in the height of a dimensional non-conforming structure in the residential quarteracre zoning district. The construction of a garage results in a sideyard setback of 6 feet where 15 ft is required. And the rear yard setback results in 13 ft where 40 ft is required in the residential quarteracre zoning district. And the combined sideyard setback results in

18.6 ft where 35 ft is required in the residential quarteracre zoning district and where the ground floor area of an accessory structure shall not exceed.5% or 104 9.4 ft of the area of the lot and where the detached G excuse me garage results in 576 square ft or 2.63% of ground floor area in the residential quarteracre zoning district. Article 3 section 125-11 and 125-27D2 and article 5 section 125-50. Hi, good evening. Uh my name is Stephanie Fox. I'm the architect for uh Amanda and Dennis. Um just a little quick summation. Um so the project consists of constructing uh two new structures uh which we're going to uh replace two existing structures. The first would be um to construct a new two-story edition off the rear of the house uh which would replace an existing one-story um addition that I believe was built in 1992. Um over the years it's been improved upon. It had um a roof terrace, a jacuzzi up there. It's really kind of in disrepair. Um and it's pretty much just falling down. Um still habitable of course, but um you know um really just not constructed well um back in the '9s. Um and then the second one is um a new 24x 24 one-story garage to replace um an existing you could call it a shed, you can call it a barn, you can call it a garage as well. Um and um some things to note about the site is is that it's a corner lot. So of course, you know, you need the two front yards. Um the existing covered porch is the bigger non-conformity. Um but um the new uh addition will also be non-conforming. Um

the existing shed is only about 3 and 1/2 ft off the property line. Uh we're looking to move it um further from the property line to um help relieve that non-conformity a little bit. Um and uh we are looking for a rear yard uh variants as well. Um I don't know if you received them, but um we have letters of support from the neighbors. Did you receive those? Yes, we have. Um and those are from all the the neighbor to the if you want to call it west here, the neighbor across the street. um the neighbor to the rear here as well where diagonal from where uh the garage is going to be and um across the way as well. Um the only other thing I'd like to note is that um although we're reconstructing, you know, these two structures, there's really only an increase of 350 ft. Um and those increases are well within the allowable um building coverage and impervious surface coverage on the lot. Um and then in terms of aesthetics, um these will be uh the next step if approved will be going to the um historic review commission. I was going to ask you the age of the house of the age of the original structure. Yes. What is the age? Um I believe it's you know 1898 1898 1898 something well the amazing thing is the front property uh in the the facing property with the with the house is beautiful I'm sorry the the entry to the house you know with the with that entrance to the house is no is on Ashby it's on Ashby place so there's a long walk up the yeah that's what I was talking about there the sense that the space is and the construction behind it will is really not not visible really very much. I mean

it is from Valley Road I guess but across from Valley is the school. So, um, you know, not too, you know, the garage is very deteriorated, right? And and the Yeah, the garage is in disrepair and we're just trying to make it, you know, nice and better and going to match the aesthetic of the house, you know, with the high peak and, you know, some the slate roof and scalloped um um siding and the like. I don't have that map in in the the online submission, but the the lower map. So, it's two titled lots, right? two separate. Um so it is yeah so there is a second lot here that which they are in ownership of um but they they bought it separately and they wish to remain separate because it is a developer lot. Yeah. Yeah. No, I just wanted to confirm. Yep. And they haven't been joined. Is there anyone in the audience that wanted to speak on this application or anybody on the Zoom call? No. Hearing no one. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? So move. All those in favor? I I Any discussion more? I'd like to thank you for staking the property. It makes it so much easier when one shows up. Dennis, he did. He did a fabulous job. Uh I also I I noticed that while in fact you're increasing the size of the building based upon where the stakes are, each one of the sides of the building already has a structure that comes out to that line. So, from my perspective, you're just filling in the lines where you're going to be adding the property and not really exceeding what's there except in the back. You're coming out, I think, another 18 18 inches or so. Couple feet. Yeah. And the garage definitely needs to be replaced. Yeah, we tried to make the scale of the the project fit what was already there. It's just that, you know, like I said, the addition wasn't done great. Um, and there is a need, you know, for a little bit more space. So, we would like to make, you know, the new

addition two stories. And like you said, clearly the garage is in need of some help and the treehouse gets to stay. Yeah. I would also note that I like that you pushed the addition extension back from the original base. Well, a couple reasons. One, because, you know, it's certainly if it's within the 5T of the property line, now we're talking about, you know, really some fire um issues, fire separation issues. So, um, you know, just trying to make it a little bit more conforming. Um, no, that was both for zoning and for building code. Yeah, it's a nice detail. [Applause] Any more discussion? How do you want to make a motion? I'd be glad to. Thank you. since you like them. It's one of those Well, I have a an older house also, so when I see older houses, it it makes my heart sing. Um, the board found in particular, the board found that the benefit to the applicant by granting the variance outweighs any alleged detriment to the community and determine the following. The benefits sought by the applicant cannot be achieved by another means feasible to the applicant and there will be no undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood or detriment to the nearby properties and in fact the garage will be moved closer away from the fence. Um so there'll be a little bit more space back there. The variance requested I feel is not substantial. The footprint is already there. The variance requested will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects on the neighborhood or the community. And while the alleged difficulty is self-created by virtue of the fact that you're going to be expanding and going up, it's not it's

but one one of only the factors to be considered by the board in making its decision is not determinative. Likewise, you will be fixing existing structures to make them look better and to make sure that they are safer based away from the 1992 construction. Approval of the pro proposed variance would be subject to the following conditions. The applicant 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 such construction to completion. The applicant shall submit a certified asbu survey, including building and impervious coverage calculations to the building department prior to the issuance of the certificate of occupancy. The variance is granted in accordance with the supp plan submitted to the board April 30th, 2025. April what was they're dated April 30th. They're dated April 30th, 2025. Thank you. That's my motion. Um second. I should before we uh vote on it, I just wanted to put into the record that we have um these four letters here in um family at 6 Ashby Place is in favor. Family at 84 Valley Road was in favor. Uh 45 the terrace was in favor and 79 Valley Road was in favor. Um, they took the time to write a letter, so that'll become part of the record. And um, unanimous. And they like your dog, too. Mr. Stern, yes. Miss Lee, yes. Mr. Van Lavren, yes. Miss Black, yes. Mr. McCallis, yes. You've got it. [Applause] You can have these. Never. She wasn't supposed to be here.

You weren't supposed to be here. [Applause] Samuel and Mary Martin 31 Kelly Circle Kona section block and lot 49.18-3-6 residential halfacre zoning district. The applicants are seeking a variance to permit the construction of a screened porch and deck where the rear deck results in a rear yard setback of 1750 ft where 50 ft is required in the residential halfacre zoning district. Article 5, section 125-50. Good evening, uh, chairman, members of the zoning board. Uh, Stephen Helms with the Helms Group Architects, Sam and Mary, uh, Martin here with me, and Mary's dad is in the audience as well. Um, they've been at this property what, seven years or so, five years. And, uh, what we'd like to do is, uh, replace an existing deck off the rear side of their house. Uh, we didn't stake it out. The deck is there. It's been there for about 35 years. It's reached its life. It needs to be replaced. Structurally, it's got some issues. And uh they would also like to uh a portion of the deck uh is built a small screen porch with a gable roof to give them some outdoor living. Um this deck in addition and screen porch would primary be used for summer, maybe late spring, early fall, but not in the winter months. The property is pretty heavily treed around the size. I have some photos here to show you if you need it. And uh we feel the addition uh even though the setback is 17.5, the existing setback to the deck is 16.5. So we are improving it a little bit, but we're basically replacing the deck in kind. Uh the deck was built back in the 80s. Not sure if it had a variance or not, but uh the septic is in the front. There's no issues with that. It's pretty much the same footprint. Um and uh it's only a sideyard. We do comply with

building coverage and impervious and things like that. Um, and uh, let me see if I can add anything more to this uh, application. Um, I do have some photos that I'd like to share. I don't know if you all visited the site. Yep. Oh, you have? Okay. Beautiful landscape. Let's see your four just some and this is pretty much falling down. And then what they're going to do is so from this part over the screen and then this part will just be open. Is there anyone in the audience that wanted to speak on this application? Nobody on Zoom. Uh hearing nobody. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? I'll make it. Second. All those in favor? I uh mot uh public hearing is closed. Some discussion. I just note for the record you do have the one letter. We have one letter that was [Applause] kind of confused. Uh they think we've already denied the application which we haven't done. Um, but there was one there was one and I don't know exactly where she lives on Douglas Drive. Douglas Drive. Oh, 13 Douglas Drive. Jill Muller. Yeah. Wrote in wrote saying that it was too close to the property line, but I don't know how. I mean, it seemed like you were pretty far away from any property. I just I saw that letter sent to me as well. This is her house, the neighbor's house here on Douglas. This is the subject property here. So, and there's a big drop down. a bit of trees there, deciduous trees, uh pine trees, but uh that's the house there on Douglas. So the Martin house is up by and uh Well, you're pretty much replacing what

you already have in the same spot. So yeah. Yeah. When it's been there, actually just making it a little smaller. Yeah. But we'll make it we just it'll be part of the record, but it's just one letter. [Applause] Any discussion or questions? I I would just note too, I mean the neighbors concerned about it being too close and it's it is a adding the ports makes it more bulk, but you already would have view of that bulk, you know, from the deck because the house is right there. It's not as though we're talking about a flat like tennis court, let's say, where there's no structure around it or close proximity. So, um, you know, replacing the deck makes sense and adding the porch is not unreasonable given everything else really largely conforms other than the setback that we're already approaching. Um, I don't think it's it's going to impact that view in any meaningful way really by having that porch uh instead of a portion of the deck essentially the same footprint. I would agree. [Applause] You want to make a motion? Sure. Uh let me see [Applause] related to the application for a variance um at uh of uh Samuel and Mary Martin at 3 31 Kelly Circle for the construction of a screen porch and deck uh and a rear deck uh results in a setback where 50 ft is required. Um the board has reviewed the application and finds that the existing deck needs to be replaced. It is in poor condition and some siding also as well. Uh so therefore the the the deck is uh pre-existing and is in need of replacement. Also, the board has visited and and uh there's extensive screening uh uh in a large uh uh front area of the

house that is really not visible due to the the structure of the of the trees and also the surrounding areas that this is uh not visible and it needs to be replaced. So, we find that uh the benefit sought by the applicant cannot be achieved by another means feasible to the applicant. Uh there will be no undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood or detriment to the nearby properties as they're primarily not visible at all and the existing structure is there and will be improved. The variance requested is not substantial. The variance is will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects on the neighborhood or community. There's extensive screening treeine and setback. The alleged difficulty uh is necessary. It's self-created but it's necessary for the repair and maintenance of the house and it's only one of the factors that we consider by the by our board in making a decision and that is not determinative. So approval of this proposed variance will be subject to the following condition. Uh the the applicant s shall use their best efforts to ensure that a building permit is issued within one year of the board's approval of the variance and then diligently pursue such construction to completion. The applicant shall submit a certified asbuilt survey, including building and impervious coverage calculations to the building department prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy and the variances granted in accordance with the plans submitted to the board which are dated April 29th. Yeah. April 29th 25. April 29th, 2025. Second. I'll second that. Okay, [Music] Mr. Holmes, in in the future, can you on on the maps? My eyes are not as good as they used to be. Like larger size prints. No, no, it's the dates on the bottom. Okay. Of course, the lightest one is the date that you for the filing

for ZBA. Gotcha. And my eyes don't pick up the lighter colors. Okay. Thank you. Maybe you know just expand that on this. Absolutely. Thank you kindly, Mr. Stern. Yes. Miss Lee, yes. Mr. Van Loverren. Yes. Miss Black. Yes. Mr. Mallis. Yes. You got it. Thank you. Extra copies. Say what? Copy. Good luck. Yeah. Um, you were here. We can't decide on this anyway. Okay. Because the planning board has to become the lead agency for secret purposes. Okay. Well, you may need to know just an error to erect offense. Maybe the cut and paste error probably cut and paste. Didn't delete that. So, was that Donna's fault? Yes. Say yes. I think we need to get rid of her. It's going to be her fault for a lot of things for a while. I don't know if it was enough to constitute. 150 Bedford Road LLC contract vendee 150 Bedford Road Katona section block and lot 60.7-2-39 commercial business zoning district. The applicantation applicant is seeking a variance to permit the construction of 15 unit multif family dwelling consisting of six two-bedroom and nine one-bedroom units with a full basement level for a storage and mechanical room resulting in 4,600 square ft of first floor area where 4,000 square ft is the maximum permitted in the central business zoning district and where the required parking spaces for a 15 unit multif family dwelling Dwelling is 26 on-site parking spaces where 23 on-site parking spaces will be

provided resulting in a deficiency of three spaces in the central business zoning district. Article 3, section 125-209.7B and article X10, section 125-102A. Good evening. Again, for the record, Steven Helms with the Helms Group Architects representing 150 Befford Road LLC contract vendee. Uh both my the both partners uh one might be here tonight, but uh he may not. He said closer to the quarter to 8 time frame. The other one's out of town. Um, we are proposing a 15-unit apartment building, three-story apartment building on a vacant piece of land in in Kono off Beford Road, just north of the new building that just went up. Um, it's about a half acre lot. It's rectangular in shape, about 100 ft wide, 200 ft deep. And um uh we had met with the planning director, the building inspector, and we had come up with some designs uh building up front, a linear building, things of that nature. The consensus was to try to maintain the streetscape of buildings on Beford Road. Therefore, the building's up front. It does comply with all building setbacks, building coverage, um height. Um we are seeking two variances. The parking is in the rear of the property. We do have two handicap spaces up front. There will be a concrete sidewalk that continue up front. Um the two variances uh sub two variances that we required is there's a uh se section in the code under CB's zone district that has a 4,000 ft threshold for single type of use other than a multi medical building. This is not a medical building. Our building coverage is 4600 square ft. our footprint. Um, so we're 600 square ft over that includes the front porch and the rear porch. Technically, our building is like 43, but we included the both the front and

the rear porches, which I think are important to a building. It helps give it scale, protection from the elements, things like that. Um, the irony is that that was put in to keep the CVS from being in that spot. We actually ran the numbers when we were at the planning board last month on other types of uses for this location. Yeah. Medical building, offices, it they would all require twice as many cars. This requires 26 off- streetet parking. We actually demonstrate 24. There was a typo on our chart. We were deficient by three cars. We're only deficient by two. And actually with the planning board, they can allocate compact parking up to onethird of the car parking. So we can make the back seven spaces. We can pick up one there and we'd only be deficient by one space, which is what I'd like to share with you on the board because that's one of the variances. Um we again we conform to the building coverage. It's 20% is allowed. We only 19.8. So we stayed under that threshold. Um I have an elevation there which gives the look of the building. The front section is out then it steps back about 20 26 feet. Um I do not have a rendering. I have another side elevation that I can show you. It's three stories with a full basement. The build the complex is going to consist of uh six twobedrooms and nine onebs. fully elevated sprinkler building, full basement with a laundry facilities, maybe a small gym, storage for the tenants. Um, and uh, again, we were at the planning board uh, last month. They were very receptive. They said the town needs housing. Um, we also reached out to the Kona Fire Department, sent them our drawings. They acknowledged the receipt and they have no problem with the placement of the building and accessing it and so forth. Um, I'd like to just run over and just show you the other elevation.

This is the south elevation. Bring your mic. Can you put it up? That's the south elevation there. And again, that front section is set back about 20 ft. Um, put that up, please. Thank you. Oh, I can't see it. [Applause] um Gamrell design style similar to a building I was involved with a couple years ago in front of the We call that the helm style. Yeah, helm style but it's uh in keeping it keeps the scale down. It's three stories but with the gamber roof and so forth that helps pull it down. Um we like to do some stone here. Bring some of that in. Uh probably James Hardy shingles windows. I don't think we're going to be putting shutters on this project. Thank you very much. um fair amount of landscaping. We have to do a landscaping plan for planning board. We have to do uh a few other things, site drawings. So, we're in the early stages of this project. Um but uh just to give you a rundown, this is the footprint. So, we have a front and a rear entrance. We have a one-bedroom apartment here, uh which has two exposures for light and ventilation. We have another onebedroom in the back corner that repeats over here with a twobedroom, two bedroomedroom and a onebedroom. Same floor plan for each level. And this is the basement here. Um, okay. This south elevation, this is on one plane, but that is stepped back about 28 feet. Uh, can't appreciate it. It's a 2D drawing. I'd like to get a rendering um which might be helpful for marketing and other approvals. Um let's see if there's anything else I can share with you.

[Applause] So in the code under parking um I believe you need at least 28 or something to even consider compact cars. And uh we have an opportunity as I said earlier these spaces here we showed six we can make them compact can't have more than eight onethird of the parking and so we can pick up one space the deficiency goes to two actually we have 26 required we have 24 we do that we only deficient by one and what's the width take that into because that's uh 8 ft the sparkling is 9 and a half actually the compact definition is 7 12 by 15 in your code which is very narrow. Um but these are not types like a medical office that going in and out. It's a more permanent. What is the already erected fence that you're you're looking at at Croin Lake Road? No, no, that's a mistake. Oh, that's a mistake. Okay. Cross there. Yeah, that was a typo in the uh there was a Yeah, I'm going to recommend we we redo the republish the notice again just to remove the typo so it's a clean notice. Okay. It's going to be noticed by planning, too. So, um there was a parking study done for the 156 complex. And I don't know, I don't have that information with me, but I know I can get it. But, uh if we need to do a parking, you know, study on this, I guess we'll have to. But, uh I'm not sure if it's going to be required. If there was one done recently, uh um that came that went in with 15. They reduced it to um 13. That building actually is a 5,800 ft building footprint. 1,800 ft² over the 4,000. This is only 600. So tighter building. I I mean I know the lot it's it's got tractors and everything on it, but all the way to the rear. Is that is that the the railroad

in the back? Yeah, way in the back. Yes. The site slopes about 16 ft from street to all the way to the end. So there's going to be a retaining wall in the track is pretty pretty close. But our client has interest in airway as well. Um and that sometime I don't know how far he is but he would like to develop that project. He's in the very early there may be other people looking at that site but um with the planning director and I think we met with the building inspector at that same time. We felt that the building up front would be more harmonous with the other buildings in town. I'm not sure if it's going to be yellow. Yeah. I don't think we need to do white. There's too much white there. I think some soft color. And you grew up in a yellow house. Yeah. Um, is there anyone in the audience that wanted to talk on this application? Like I said earlier in our meeting that we're not going to be able to reach a decision tonight because uh we have the planning board's got to determine whether a lead agency for SRA purposes. Um, but yeah, there's got to be a determin environmental determination before this board can take action and they'll have to keep the public hearing open. And as Miss Black stated, it probably would need to be renoticed at the time we know we're coming back. I don't The planning board's, you know, only has one meeting this summer, so it's going to be a while. Can you uh if you'd like to speak if you just you know knowing that it's not you know the public hearing will continue but at least you you'll be able to get your viewpoint through. Um you don't need that mic if you're standing there because that other one. Thank you. Uh, I live across the street uh on your name, uh, David Brandt at, uh, 20 Sunrise and so I don't love it that the other the 156 went up. Um, uh, now that it's summertime, the the greenery is blocking it, but it's, uh, you know, an eyesore. There's been a

year and a half so of cars parked in, junk dumped all over the the front of the road there. And so last week I saw or several weeks ago I saw people doing something at the end of the end of Sunrise Avenue or tease off onto uh Bedford Road. So I'd be concerned about traffic coming how how it's going to where it's coming out. It seems like it's awful close to the street. I don't I don't exactly I haven't quickly seeing it but uh that be my concerns. you know, it's a it's a lot of units uh for all of a sudden on that side of, you know, that that area of town. So, when you um when the planning board does take this up, you should come and speak to them as well. Okay. Yeah. So, there's just so for clarity, there's two different roles that the boards play. So that's where they're going before the purview of this board is going to deal more with the question of the variance of the 600 square feet that they're last asking for on the square footage the variance on the parking as to the design elements itself and the overall question of the planning. Exactly. That's about cars. It they overlap because it also comes down to the um as you heard before like the size of the spaces and stuff also gets looked at the site plan and the functioning also gets looked at by the planning board. So that's why the chairman's making the recommendation to not just expect your comments here to flow directly to the planning board. They will they usually are heard and shared, but certainly feel free to attend and continue to share it or to submit letters. We we've gotten letters in the record to reflecting stuff. So it's help how to uh it's going to be it will be publicly noticed just like this one that there's a planning board meeting dealing with this particular property. So you'll see that notice p um published by in both on the website as well as in the mailers. Yes. And it sounds like you're close enough that you'll you would

receive a notice anyway. You got the notice here, right? So exactly, but there's only one meeting coming up this summer. The parking again is one and a half spaces per onebedroom and two spaces allocated for a twobedroom. So based on that scenario, it's 26. We have 24. We don't get the compact with deficient by two. That's the variance request. He could get off streetet. He could get parking through the town walking, you know, enough parking permits that he could get. Um but uh he doesn't need any town property to to make this thing work. It was designed to conform to setbacks. Uh we're not asking for any variances for setbacks, building setbacks or height or building coverage or impervious. It's just that thing in the CB's zone district to keep CVS or Target from coming into Katona. Um, so you will be at the next planning board meeting. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Is there anyone else that wanted to speak on this one? No. Um, well, we're going to keep the public hearing open and we'll wait and have uh the planning board, I guess, take on lead agency role. Who dictates the traffic study? Is that the planning board? plan. Well, this board can dictate a parking study that parking's within its purview, so it could dictate something. I know SL did the one next door. So, I mean, we Yeah, I'll wait. I'll let we we'll leave it to the planning board to as part of their site plan approval. Yeah, it should be planning board, but um and I Peter, you were on the the master the master plan uh um committee. I mean, I just think that, you know, the town should have input in this in terms of the the development and certainly the planning board and it isn't just about a traffic study. I know what the traffic study is going to say. You know what it's going to say. This road can this road can easily manage the traffic. It's not the

issue and everything if it's according to you know DOT code is that but the town has I think feel that the town has a greater responsibility just may merit mentioned the Arowwood property is to take a good look at Kona and maybe that's an area a gateway going into Kona maybe that the town should start thinking about working with um you know the state and with the county on you slowing down the traffic as it comes in and they can get attracted for the the neighborhood and all that stuff. So, there's lots that the town should be thinking about. That section of the road is not a state. It's a town road from the light up from the light north point. Then the town has total control over it and I think it's not always fair to throw these things onto the applicants, you know, just do a traffic study. No, be a partner in this. Likewise with the with the apartments you mentioned, good point. There was some talk with a local realtor. I won't mention his name, but he said if we can create a like this north part of Katona Parkway where it has an island between the roads and maybe it doesn't look like a you know just soften it up and give more residential look a little bit with some tree line things like that. I mean it's happening like Stanford Norwalk have been some great stuff with with traffic management. We can do the same thing in Katona. I would also say to the apartments, you know, there is a need for apartments and I think, you know, look, you can easily fix the two variances. Yeah, very easily. You can make two bedrooms into studies instead of bedrooms. You're done with the parking variants. You could carve out a corner, make that a porch, you're done with the other variants. But the the greater vision here is is, you know, is that really going to change the impact? Is that really going to improve on the five categories we look at? Um, I don't think so. So, I I think I think

what you've present in my opinion, what you've presented here is very thoughtful and and and appropriate for the site and you know, so I think we're on the right track. Yeah. my perspective. I mean, looking at the balance of what's been go what went on with the other building and how it goes up and things and the neighbors concerns, we have to be looking at um softening the streetscape and how pedestrians manage through there and also the impact of that landscaping. If you look at the landscaping today, it's certainly going to take a number of years to get to where the beautiful pictures have it. And some of that might seem fair from a cheaper price point, but it's not fair to the community at the onset when they when as the developer they realize the impact. And I think the three-story buildings will allow an in town and by code they have an impact that needs to be offset more immediately by some choices that are made. Certainly breaking up the facade as you said by pushing back a section of it makes some of that but also like you're presenting as mature trees. So, I'd say in the drawings, you know, like that needs to be carried forward in a planting plan that actually reveals the plantings that are going in at the time are more more mature than a 2-year-old, you know, a three-year-old tree because otherwise what you're presenting is a picture that they're going to see 10 years from now. And that's not really fair to the residents that live there over the next years. And the streetscape and managing that sidewalk, even on a narrow site like this, that connectivity, it's valuable when it's done well and then creates the place you want to be. When it's not done well and it's too shallow or it leaves pedestrians feeling uncomfortable or if those crosswalks in terms of the driveway aren't managed well, then it just creates a traffic nuisance and a hazard which isn't welcoming then to the community either that you're establishing or the one across the street. And I think that's what we're hearing from the neighbors and we heard it before is this concern about bulk. We've heard a little bit if you follow on social media there's a little bit of concern about the bulk. I think the landscaping helps with that, but there needs that needs to be part of the presentation because, you know, as pointed out, you could rectify these

variances pretty easily without having to come to them and do it as of right. Right. But I think there's some benefit to the developer to doing it that way. Certainly, yeah, I think a 3D colored architectural rendering would be helpful. Uh landscaping plan so it's all gets executed and you can really see the in 3D, right? And I I think you hear us what we're what we're saying and aiming at. And I think that's what you're hearing from a lot of the neighbors is they don't want it to be feel like here's my here's my road. It's a drive by, you know, and it's very open and it just feels like I'm on a commercial road. That's not what I want the end or entrance to my community to feel like. And I think the town at large feels that way too, which is why this the architectural elements are appreciated, the landscaping development. just making sure it all ties together and as presented is actually what comes to fruition in sooner rather than later. I I would say the aesthetics are very important and they contribute to the to the development of the whole site, but the bigger issues are the what the unknown impacts to the residents. You know, is it going to affect my parking? Is it going to cause my street to be more busy? Are are the cars going to come parking? We've had another development here before us at the medical building where the community behind them said all of the landscaping is falling apart. They're not maintaining the parking lot, etc. You know, that that's really what the personal part of it is. How is it? How can I envision that there are going to be this many cars and this many people and it seems I think overwhelming and so the aesthetics are very important but the detail of what may the unknown of what might happen to them I think is is the and we did get I don't we'll make it for the record we did get uh a letter you know related to concerns about it so there will be part of the record and we had looked at an underground parking uh a lot more cause it's a whole different ballgame there and it just wasn't do it. That sounds way out there. I don't I don't know if it's the parking per se, is it managing the traffic and

managing those cars in a meaningful way where it doesn't turn the streetscape into a traffic hazard for people coming in. Well, maybe if the other part gets developed, maybe that's another entrance to this property if they can do things like that to really tie it all together. It's all thinking about it. And again, it goes to that streetcape impact makes a really big difference in terms of how it feels. Um, and you can see that sentiment even the trees that came down in Bedford Hills recently because of the sewer work, right? That made a big immediate visual impact with those trees coming down versus I know the ambulance when they have their meetings sometimes their cars are on the road parallel park. Last night they were there, but that's an hour. Mhm. But that doesn't happen too often. Well, looking at what's there now, uh, as in the other, uh, apartment building that was developed, what was there was horrific. And what's at the on this lot now is basically parking for a lot of empty lot permitted use. So, it's it just, you know, make it good. Appreciate your time and suggestions. Mr. Helms, it's going to be stick built or more metal. It'll probably We don't know yet. Uh most likely poor foundation, steel beam, stick built. Uh whether it's metal studs or wood, we're not I don't it's not going to be concrete. No, I understand that. We're doing soil boring testing right now. I have three or four soil boring. I want to know what the soils are so I design my footings properly. There's no unknowns. Um I want to get that stuff. Got to get our site in our or engineer to do all our drawings there before we go back to the planning board, landscape plan. So there's a fair amount of work involved. And and by way of comment, I want to thank you for sending a copy of the plans to the Katona Fire Department. Yeah. Well, that was at uh the building inspector's request. Ah, no wonder. We have done that in the past on other projects. I had some concerns. I'm also a fire commissioner here in the hills. So, when I looked at the plans, I had

concerns. I had thoughts. Seeing it's not my jurisdiction, I brought it to the chiefs in Kona who had already seen the plans. Well, my actual client wanted to move the building closer to the white building and I said, "No, I got to have it here. I need 35 ft between the buildings because they're too tight." But at least running it by the local Yeah. Do we need fire department for an opinion helps? So, I would imagine I mean the planning board may have some thoughts about the compact parking. Yeah. From my perspective, my personal preference would be not to do it. I think in that strip if you squeeze and your point of two bedroom a study and then we get around that might be a way to navigate it makes the parking that much tougher and the risk of actually losing that spot because some person parks wrong. It's I I don't know. I think it's better to to stick with approving with um cars. We will super quick as far as the fire access and everything. Steve's going to do a full thorough uh reach on it, take a look at it as far as turn the aerial turn. Uh that'll have to be incorporated into it. Right. Right. And it'll be the same thing with the uh waste and recycling. You know, same thing we did on the last application where we looked at the trucks and the accessing and making sure that everything height, all of that stuff, all that good stuff. We have um four letters. One from Rachel Kurt, um Michael Melon, Lauren Camp, Loren Campanelli, Tom and Tom Campanelli on Orchard, and Patricia Rogers. all from the across the street roads um you know voicing concern. So again we'll just put them as part of the record. I think a lot of the concerns go to you know how how the

how Katona and Bedford manages that whole streetscape and the traffic if you just let the traffic go loose and you allow cars to speed through there. Yeah, it's going to get busier. Sure. Yeah, it's going to get you know there are a few buildings in town that have offices on the second and third floor that someday maybe within five years we'll switch over to apartments. Um and because the offices are you need offices too but uh it's a trend but we don't but Katona is doing a good job and getting nicer and nicer. So it's going to attract more people. It's going to attract more shoppers. It's it's everything we want and then we're like, "No, we don't want any people here because it's like Yogi Vera. Nobody wants to go there. It's cuz it's too popular." But well, in the comprehensive plan going back, one of the recommendations we put in for Bedford Hills was do a complete streets survey, which deals with traffic, pedestrians, safety, uh visual impacts, slowing traffic, handicapped, uh mobility issues. Mount Kiscoco has just completed theirs and I'm hoping that we can do the same thing because we really need it. You know, all the way old 117, Bedford Hills, Katona, and even Bedford Village has incredible scary traffic problems. So, we'll see you back after you uh go to the planning board. Go to planning board and back to your board. Okay. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Nice. Thank you, sir. Pick up the easel tomorrow. You can leave it here. I can take it out. God, it makes it so big. They'll use the Andrew Margaret Ostrander, 91 Huntville Road, Katona, section blocking lot 49.18-3-6 residential quarteracre zoning district. The applicants are seeking a variance to

permit the construction of a two-story addition which increases the height of a pre-existing legal non-conforming residence where the lot area is non-conforming at 6,250 ft where 10,000 square ft is required in the residential quarteracre zoning district and where the lot does not meet the 75 ft effective square requirement in the residential quarteracre zoning district and where the resident's front yard setback resulted in 34.5 ft. where 35 ft is required and where a variance granted July 27, 2020 resolution 7-28 for a non-conforming sideyard setback of 4.2 2 ft where 15 ft is required and a non-conforming combined yard setback of 13t 6 and 1/4 in where 35 ft is required in the residential quarteracre zoning district article 3 section 125-11-12 and article 5-125-50. Thank you. Um my name is Andrew Rosser. I'm the owner of the property. I'm also a licensed architect in the state of New York and Connecticut. Um, my wife and I have lived at this property for 10 years. We have three very active boys. As some of you may have toured the site, there's a lot of accutraants in the backyard of children and damage done by dogs. And um, we're we're getting to the point where we are looking at this house and we have getting a little big for it. Uh, we have one bathroom in the house. We have five people including my wife who shares it with four boys. And we are getting to the point where also upkeep on the house from 1935 is getting to be, you know, we can't just do one project at a time. We have to do we have to replace all the windows. We have to replace the siding. For those of you who visited, the front porch is kind of skewed a little bit. So, we're looking at this as an all-encompassing way to keep ourselves where we are. We've got another 7 to 8 years minimum at Kona Elementary. So, we really love the

location. We want to stay there definitely. Um, and we see this as a way to keep ourselves in the community. um and not have to leave and find a bigger house. Um as I said, the house was built in 1935. When they built it, they did not have the setbacks that I assume are in place now. Um we have a combined, I think, 13 ft. Um those are not going to change. That is if you look at the sharing, but the driveway width is going to stay the same. This is uh I think in the 30s it was originally a covered porch. I actually found the old um uh catalog house plans. It was a covered porch. At some point, someone filled it in. It is now a office room. Um but we are not making those we are not shrinking those dimensions. We're increasing those dimensions. What we are doing is extending the house back by 11 ft 8 in on one side, 10 ft 8 in on the other side to help break up that large facade. Um right now we have a deck that's about 9 ft 8 in. So we're really only increasing that depth about a foot. Um, after Rosemary had come out, I did try to stake it, but my two-year-old really enjoyed them. So, it it is not staked. I I apologize for that. Um, we are not we will still be in compliance with the rear setback, which is 40 ft. I think we're proposing 54. Um, the front setback is not changing. We are going to reconstruct the porch roughly as is. It's not going to change in shape, dimension. And we're just going to level it out, probably change the materials to be a little more uh in coinciding with what I think we can do for the design. And we are going to do a small series of steps down to a patio at the bottom. So this is the the house today. Uh also central air. It would be great if we can get that in there as well instead of the window units hanging out of the side. Um so I'm sorry if you go back to that picture a second ago. Okay. So the addition is going right on this this

side here. What's in the back? In the back. Yeah, we're going only in the back is the addition. So, the front of the house, we're just improving aesthetically. The rear of the house is where the addition would go. And today, the rear of the house looks like this. Again, we have some active children. Um, so the front of the house really just the same. We're not sold on the color yet. My wife is And you're going to live through the construction? Uh, we're going to try, but let's be let's be hon. I'm already well prepared to leave the house for the construction. Um, so I suggest you all were at the front of your house. Um, cuz I went out to look at it. Um, your 91 is on your door. Yes. Which was open. So you you can't find it. Yeah. So might be great on the pillar or just We had a uh we had a mailbox on that front part. Okay. And the mailman knocked it off and we just never put it back. Oh, I say delivering mails. He also did. So now the mailbox is loose on the inside of the stoop and he's gotten very comfortable. I did a U-turn there and like crossing guard looking. Well, yes. All these things are things I'd like to to. And I did meet your dog. Very nice. He's very nice. He's a He's Thank God the glass was between us, but he's he's a He's a lazy dog, but he is not the worst dog from the last the dog makes the neighborhood. The neighbors love the kids. They love the dogs. What can I say? Um, so this is the the driveway side. As you can see, the the dotted line there is really showing the existing house and then the addition in the back and then the small steps down to get to the patio. Uh, we did look at making that deck a little bigger, but we're trying to maintain the coverage requirements. So, we're at like 19.8 on a coverage percentage of 20% allowed. So, we're trying to keep that in without asking for too much. We'd like to be as compliant as we can. Um, and this is the rear of the house. So, there's access to the basement today. We'd like to keep that access. Um that door is not great,

but we have kids that come in and out, bikes that get stored, things, so we keep that in place. Um and then on the east, can't do my math. East side, uh really stays the same. And again, we're just extending that off the back. Um we'll probably reside the house. We'll do a little re-roofing as necessary. We're going to replace all the windows, which are the springs are broken, the strings are shot. they've just you served their life. Um, and that's really it. Um, this is just the coverage table that's available on the the coverage sheet. And then I I did do a rendering because I'm an architect and I can I had you guys gave me a month to sit on it, so I got bored. Nice. And I can do that. But that's that's roughly what we'd be going for. So, bigger kitchen, a little bigger living space for the kids, and then my wife and I get our own bathroom and bedroom, which is Is there anyone in the audience who wanted to speak on this application? No. Seeing no one, can I have a motion to close the public hearing? So, moved. All those in favor? I I public hearing is closed. I stood in your backyard not really knowing where this was. I was trying to figure out where it was going to go. What I did notice was that your house compared to the houses on either side of you definitely is a well stubbier is a terrible word to use, but it doesn't go back as far as the other ones. So now that I now that you've pointed out that you're going back, you will just be basically catching up with what your neighbors have. Correct. The house at uh 93 Huntville, I believe, is almost our identical house just turned sideways. And then the house at 90 or 89 Huntville, I believe, is a different kind of ranch style house, but it has a bigger deck. Well, it has huge deck. Yeah, exactly. And and and it also went back farther. Yeah. So, I didn't have a problem with the idea of you going back at all. I I agree with Peter because the

house would be very consistent with the other houses on the block in terms of height and depth and all of that. you and you do have that again a nice long entrance and you know very much needed for from a 1935 perspective in current day living and they're keeping you're keeping the impact in the road really it's staying the same functionally just aesthetic really not going to impact that visual on the street or anywhere else to make it feel like it's an overly large addition or house Jeff Jeff Kaine who's our across the street neighbor wrote a letter of support and he's just like oh thank he jokingly He said, "Thank God I won't have to look at that anymore." But just a fun guy. Do we have that? Yeah, that's right. Here, Jeff. We have that. Jeff, do you want to make a motion? Sure. Um, I would move to approve the application as noticed. The variance, the benefit sought by the applicant cannot be achieved by another means feasible to the applicant. It's already a pre-existing non-conforming lot. Um the building as it is doesn't meet uh meet all the requirements of code. But that being said, it's not inconsistent with other um houses on the block and the addition that's being sought here as far as going back and those setbacks. It's not going to have any detrimental impact um or undesirable change to the character or the neighborhood or detriment to nearby properties. And again, it can't be achieved by another means feasible to the applicant. The variances requested here um I would argue is are not uh substantial in that you already have a non-conforming lot. You're already sitting somewhat within those setbacks themselves. You're extending it backwards further, but in the totality of when you look at the neighborhood, that particular setback and issue is not inconsistent with what we're dealing with. Um the request will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects on the neighborhood or community. The alleged difficulty is self-created but that is only one of the factors to be considered by the board in making its decision is not determinative need to make a change

but it very helpful for your family and elsewhere to stay here. So in that sense it's self-created but it's again only one of the factors as you heard from the board not one that we have a particular issue with for this application. Um the approves uh the approval of the proposed variance would be subject to the following conditions. The applicant will 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 such construction to completion. The applicant will submit a certified asbuilt survey including building and impervious coverage calculations to the building department prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy and the variance is granted in accordance with plans last dated May 1st 2025 and it consists of a set of a 0.0 0 A 0.1 A 2.1 A a A2.2 A2.3 A2.4 and I think that was it for the points. Roger. Yep. [Applause] Mr. Stern. Yes. Ms. Lee. Yes. Mr. Van Loverren. Yes. Ms. Black. Yes. Mr. Mccelis. Yes. You've got it. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Come take your extra plants. Extra plants. Do Do one of your boys have the helmet with the spikes in it? Lights up, too. Okay. When I was going to visit your friend's property, I was the one that stopped to let your family across the road. The traffic uh the traffic he does the schools in the morning. Yeah. He's constantly grabbing my six-year-old from running off the middle. Yeah. Well, that's what that's what children are all about. We appreciate the crossing on the way out. Good night. Thank you all. Good night. Best of luck. Look forward to it. Dominic Rita to Cottage Terrace Beford Hills section block and lot 6018-2-9 residential quarteracre zoning district. The applicant is seeking a variance to

permit the construction of a fence on a corner lot where the fence along Main Street is 6 ft high picket fence on top of a 3-ft high railroad tie retaining wall which results in a total fence height of 9 ft 4 in and is located less than 20 ft from the front property line in the residential quarter acres zoning district. Article 5, section 125-15AB. Evening. Good evening. So, um, thank you guys for taking the time. Uh, me and my wife, uh, we purchased the home, uh, just last August. We're coming up on one year. Uh, we did a few aesthetic changes in the house, painting, sanding the floors, and so on. We end we ended up moving in uh, about right around the Halloween time frame, so last October. And you know, first time living in the house, you kind of learn the nooks and crannies of the home, figure out what's there and what's not there. So, as we get into the spring, right, we've had a a pretty pretty pretty heavy rain the last couple weeks, right? Uh months and so on. And, you know, as we're trying to focus our attention now on the outside of the house, right, we we know that we do have this retaining wall that's right along Main Street. It's an existing railroad tie. It's it's well beyond its design life. Um uh it's certainly tilting. Uh I don't think that it was built with proper drainage. Don't know when it was put in whether it was with the first uh homeowner or sometime thereafter. So on top of the um the the front home front portion of the house has this 3-ft high exposed retaining wall with the railroad tie. Uh on top of that is sitting an existing uh 4ft high uh PVC fence. And then from about the the front edge of the property or the the home itself towards the back uh that that uh railroad tie uh retaining wall narrows down to about a foot in the back end that that is now all kind of rotted out. So that's pretty much all gone. And then from that same point there's about

there's an existing 6ft high fence uh white PVC. And really what the ask is is that we can go in and replace the 6' high fence that's already there and continue that uh same 6t high up to the front of the property to the existing edge of the retaining uh railroad tie retaining wall. Um this way we' have an a clean elevation all the way start to finish of the home. I've given you guys a sample uh of what it looks like. I was my wife was making fun of me cuz I was walking around the house the you know about two weeks ago holding it up to the trees. I had a few different wood samples of trying to find the the color that matched best and and that's the the one that kind of fits in nice. The idea is maybe it kind of just blends in cuz we do have some shrubs and trees and on that side of the road. So hopefully it just kind of blends in and you don't even really pay attention to it at all. So that that's the ask. Um and uh look forward to hearing you guys uh uh questions if you have any. Um let me know. There's no one in the audience. So, can I have a motion to close the public hearing? This is Peter. I'm sure you guys probably know Peter from from around town. I'm hoping to hire this guy to Well, he's wearing the same shirt as your picture here, so I'm sure he's not here to talk against it. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? Oh, yeah. All those in favor? Public hearing is closed. Perfect. Thank you, guys. No, not yet. Any questions? No, I'm I'm I'm happy about this because that was going to be my suggestion instead of the light. So, this is great. Yeah. I mean, the the whites, you know, first of all, it's outdated, but then also it gets dirty and kind of shows quite quite a white. Actually, pictures just printed this offline just to in case you want to see what what the ultimate fence would look like it's complete. Yeah. So, the the top it does have a little bit of, you know, different aesthetic to it. Wood grains on that color. Yeah. The walnut. Yeah. That's the color that the photo. So, this is

going to extend across the entire section. Correct. On facing Main Street. Yes. Well, clearly the wall is deteriorated. You can see it. It's kind of crumbling. That's very important because that's shoring up that that whole hillside. And uh this seems to be a good, you know, a good choice for protecting, you know, since you have at such a height and elevation overlooking Main Street there that, you know, it it it kind of gives you a little privacy as well as sh um you know, sheltering off your house from visibility, too. So, It's not immediate though either. I mean, we've had applications for fence applications where they stack. You've got stack on stack on stack and it's a direct vertical without any real solid justification for that type of vertical. But this has the deck on it to offset some of that vertical aspects and the intensity of the height of that fence is not immediate on you. And it makes sense within the context as Mary says of the elevation change that you have between where the property is located and where Main Street is and the need for that retention um of the earth materials and the like. Um so that those are things that are differentials from other applications we've seen where they have request the fence variance and it goes with height and that fence is excessively tall. This is not This is kind of makes more sense with an overall context of this property and its topography and location and like and the lighting is very good, too. I mean, I drive that road all the time and I don't see any, you know, kind of excessive lighting coming even though you're up on, you know, quite a hillside. So, it's it seems to blend in with your property. Yep. Necessary. You make a motion, Roger. Sure. If I can stitch this together. Um, I'll make a motion. um for the uh fence replacement upgrade as noticed. Um in particular, the board

found that the benefit to the applicant by granting the variance outweighs any alleged detriment to the community and determining the following that the benefit sought by the applicant um cannot be achieved by another means feasible to the applicant. This is repair and replacement. Um, and particularly the the area on the front is in dire need of uh restoration. Um, there will be no undesirable change in the character of the neighborhood and detriment to nearby property and the variance requested is not substantial. The variance requested will not res result in any adverse physical or environmental effects on the neighborhood and community. The alleged difficulty is um not self-created as I'd say not self-created as it is a requirement to up to uh upgrade and renovate uh restore the existing condition. Um but that will also not be the only factor to be considered by the board in making a decision and it's not determinative. Approval of the proposal variants would be subject to the following conditions. Applicants will use the best effort to ensure that a building permit is issued within one year of the board's approval of this variance and then diligently pursue such construction to completion. Um the applicant shall submit a certified yes they'll still need it when they put still need it. Yeah. Uh so submit a certified asbuilt survey including the building and impervious coverage calculations to the building department prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy. Um I would also add that the applicant has shared uh with the board the choice of fencing a walnut color and a style of the fencing uh which is here part of the um the

variance uh approval. Um, the variance is granted in accordance with plans submitted by the board dated. I guess it's an April 7th, 1988 notation on the map. And to the board on April 15st. May 1st. Yeah. Let's use the date May 1st. Okay. Yeah. Anything else? I second that. Mr. Stern. Uh, first I'd like to say that as a neighbor who received notice of this, I I am happy to support the application as a neighbor and I thank you because every day when I leave your drive, I see I see your fence and I have wondered over the years with what the trees have done whether that would affect. Are you on the cottage or you uh somewhere? I'm on sunset. Sunset. I every time I leave the house, I I see your property and I thank you for what you're doing and compliment you on your choice of contractors. I know of their firm through my fire department. They've done work for us and as a board member, I vote yes. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lee. Without any further ado, yes. Thank you, Mr. Van Loverren. Yes. Miss Black. Yes. Mr. McCallis. Yes. You got it. Thank you. Thank you. Um before we go guys, I've got two I've got one two or two two things. Um we uh WIS Wis is in the restaurant at the firehouse. Um if you take you can take it back. Oh yeah. You've done work at Wis is the fire is in the firehouse um uh down in Katona. It's a restaurant. Um what's going on with it? Well, it's ready to

open. Mhm. Um we put in our um as one of our um uh conditions that they needed to get uh uh to come back to show us that they had gotten parking permits and parking permits. I have got a I've got a um a uh an email here from Brian Kennley, our our our um Conaly Connealy, our our our you know controller. Controller. Thank you. showing that they've picked up four permits for representing 12 spaces and um and so and if we agree that that's fine um they can go ahead and issue the CFO to um to um Well, is that Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. But didn't we have didn't they have to get 12 off-site spaces and provide written evidence of that? Yeah, 12 spaces. You said it just did four. No, four permits consisting of 12 spaces. Oh, okay. Are they all behind the building? There's a that was an area. I don't know where they are. They're list here. They are. I mean, they're listed here uh with the plates number and everything. Really? Yeah. Okay. But no, they got the spaces cuz behind the building. I know there's some parking. They got it all. They got it all. Okay. So, so if there's no if there's no issue, then we can tell we can let the building department know. Parking permits and do we have traffic circulation? Was that I'm not exactly sure what that's referring to because there's no real I think a lot of this there's some Well, because it went it was us then planning board, right? So, what we wanted to make sure is all the parking spaces were numbered on the plan so that everything matches to what the variance was granted. So, that's really what the question is. Are we confirm that all the spaces on the plan match and then allow for the 12 site plan has to Well, I didn't do the final inspection, but I'll check with Jeff, but everything matched the site plan. Okay. things out there. So that's what it looks for. Okay. So they'll document that. They'll submit that and document. We have to make sure we get everything

else, you know, storm water, whatever. But I mean on our end, I just wanted to make sure that we have the approved. Yes, we have the 12 spaces. Record time because they were doing a lot of four for 12. Exactly. This is the one that this board approved before when they were talking about farming. Farming fish. That was when they were going to do the roof. Right. Right. Right. Right. No. I mean, and I'll tell you the the conversation about the parking spaces came up when I was in town at one of, you know, one or two of the businesses and asking there was japose. There was, you know, are they going to make us come make parking because this was one of the historic use and I was there. I'm like, that's not how it works. But and they're like, well, there's so many parking issues. I'm like, and that is why they were required to go get it. They didn't just get a variant saying you don't need to worry about parking at all, but it had to be addressed in a meaningful way and proved that it was addressed in a meaningful way because the concern is if we let all the uses come but you don't have sufficient parking to handle the traffic then it's really a detriment to the business. Are those spaces dedicated to restaurant patrons or employees or the employees? Are they there is probably associated with license plates? It's Yeah, license plates too. Yes. So, it's probably the employees. Yeah. So, it's not patrons. They'll go to a parking lot or something like that. Yeah, they're actually all registered in in the owners in Aaron Hoffman who I guess is the owner of Wooies Bar and Grill. Yeah, but you probably need to get a name. You have to license number. So, I'll give this back to Can I to K. I'm just curious. Thank you. The other thing I wanted to bring up was that um after 20 years of incredible service to the zoning board, Donna Monaco is resigning. And I just wanted retiring. I wanted to put that on the record. uh she's going to be sorely missed. She's been a great addition in the department uh for all the years that she's helped. And um there is a goodbye uh to her at 1:00 on June 25th at the second floor on Cherry Street if you want to come by. Thank you. Got it in the gallery. Yeah.

Yeah. Very well done. Kept kept everything going. But Kim's not going anywhere. Uh right. We're not We're chaining Kim to her chair. Kim doesn't have too much long after that. Better be nice to me. Be nice to me though. Exactly. So, well, that was No, I anticipated this meeting was going to be really long ruling. I can't believe that. Can I have a motion to uh I'm sorry. Confirming. Are we just scheduled at this point for a meeting in July? Yes. Okay. No. And we are July 12th. 12th. July 12th. Okay. So, we will see you back here on July 12th. Okay. Okay. I'd be here. Great. All those in favor of adjourning, I we're adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. All right.