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AV 75-2021 Minutes 11.17.21(Queensbury ZBA Meeting 11/17/2021) 1 AREA VARIANCE NO. 75-2021 SEQRA TYPE TYPE II WILLIAM MASON AGENT(S) WILLIAM MASON OWNER(S) LISA PAPLANUS ZONING WR LOCATION 15 TUSCARORA DRIVE APPLICANT PROPOSES A 768 SQ. FT. ADDITION TO AN EXISTING 768 SQ. FT. HOME. THE PROJECT INCLUDES A 16 SQ. FT. NEW PORCH LANDING ENTRY AND A SMALLER ACCESS LANDING TO THE EXISTING PORCH. THE HOME HAS AN EXISTING ONE BEDROOM AND THE SECOND FLOOR WILL ADD 3 MORE BEDROOMS. THE PROJECT INCLUDES CONNECTION TO THE TAKUNDEWIDE COMMUNITY SEPT IC AND WATER SUPPLY FROM THE LAKE. SITE PLAN FOR EXPANSION OF NON -CONFORMING IN A CEA AND NEW FLOOR AREA IN A CEA. RELIEF REQUESTED FOR SETBACKS, PERMEABILITY, FLOOR AREA, AND EXPANSION OF A NONCONFORMING STRUCTURE. CROSS REF SP 73 - 2021 WARREN COUNTY PLANNING NOVEMBER 2021 ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY ALD LOT SIZE 0.05 ACRES TAX MAP NO. 239.8-1-44 SECTION 179-3-040, 179-13-010 WILLIAM MASON, PRESENT STAFF INPUT Notes from Staff, Area Variance No. 75-2021, William Mason, Meeting Date: November 17, 2021 “Project Location: 15 Tuscarora Drive Description of Proposed Project: Applicant proposes a 768 sq. ft. second story addition to an existing 768 sq. ft. home. The project includes a 16 sq. ft. new porch landing entry a nd a smaller access landing to the existing porch. The home has an existing one bedroom and the second floor will add 3 more bedrooms. The project includes connection to the Takundewide community septic and water supply from the lake. Site plan for expansion of non-conforming in a CEA and new floor area in a CEA. Relief Required: The applicant requests relief for setbacks, permeability, floor area, and expansion of a nonconforming structure for constructing a second floor. The site is located in the Waterfront Residential zone on a 2,288 sq. ft. parcel. Section 179-3-040 dimensional requirement The addition is to be 10 ft. from the property line where a 15 ft. setback is required. The entry deck is to be 6 ft. from the property line where a 15 ft. setback is required. In addition, relief is requested for permeability where 66 % is proposed and 75% is required. Floor area is proposed to be 67% based on the lot size where 22% is the maximum allowed. Criteria for considering an Area Variance according to Chapter 267 of Town Law: In making a determination, the board shall consider: 1. Whether an undesirable change will be produced in the character of the neighborhood or a detriment to nearby properties will be created by the granting of this area varianc e. Minor to no impacts to the neighborhood may be anticipated. 2. Whether the benefit sought by the applicant can be achieved by some method, feasible for the applicant to pursue, other than an area variance. Feasible alternatives appear limited due to the existing lot size. 3. Whether the requested area variance is substantial. The relief requested may be considered moderate to substantial relevant to the code. The relief for the entryway is 9 ft. the remaining property lines are 10 ft. The permeability relie f is in excess 9 % and the floor area is in excess of 45%. In regard to the Floor area, the applicant has explained that the parcel is part of an existing HOA where a majority of the 18.7 acres are common area for the association members. In addition, th e master plan indicates the 18.7 acres are to be considered during the request for a house expansion with the HOA. 4. Whether the proposed variance will have an adverse effect or impact on the physical or environmental conditions in the neighborhood or district. Minor impacts on the physical or environmental conditions in the neighborhood may be anticipated. 5. Whether the alleged difficulty was self-created. The difficulty may be considered self-created. Staff comments: The applicant proposes a 2nd story addition of 768 sq. ft. and two entry landings. The project occurs in the Takundewide cottage development off of Cleverdale Rd. In 2003 the Planning Board adopted an MOU with Takundewide HOA outlining activities for future development. The project is similar to other cottages on the site where the increase floor area is the proposed 2nd floor mirroring the style of the other (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 11/17/2021) 2 housing. The submission includes renditions of the proposed home with the existing roofline shown on the plans. The floor plans of the existing interior arrangement are provided.” MR. MC CABE-So for the new people here this is a pretty common request, the fourth one that I think I’ve been involved with and I don’t know how many, Bill? MR. MASON-This is about my 10th I think. MR. MC CABE-So it’s a pretty common request, and so what they had were a whole series of these single story cottages and they blew them up to two story. So this is a continuing saga. It doesn’t look like there’s that many left. MR. MASON-I was just sitting here counting them because the Planning Board asked me that last night. We’re about halfway there. There’s 16, there are 16 of them that have this type of a second floor. There are a number of them and I don’t know that they’ve come in front of you, that have gone up in the attic and gotten a little. I didn’t say that. MR. MC CABE-So anyway, so you people understand that this isn’t a new, we’ve seen it before. So I need to have you identify yourself. MR. MASON-I’m sorry. I’m William Mason. I was here in 1986 when this Association was first born. My family built it. Anyway, that’s a long time ago, isn’t it? 1986. MR. MC CABE-Well, for some people it is. MR. MASON-I think the most important thing to keep in mind on this, and the thing that we talked about when we agreed on the MOU, was that there’s 18.7 acres of common property. It’s a 21 acre parcel. When you add the whole thing together, 21 acres divided up into the 32 homes, it’s about two -thirds of an acre per home. So it’s not as crowded. The numbers sound like we’re asking for loads and loads of relief every time, but when you consider the 18.7 acres, it actually is not that much relief being asked for. In terms of that, the setback is the same thing. Those are just little lots that we’re drawing 10 feet around each building and we could have drawn them 15 feet or 25 feet, but we didn’t do that back at that time. Probably a mistake because it caused this problem. If there’s any other questions. MR. MC CABE-So I think the other thing is that some of these didn’t tie into the common septic, right? This one does. MR. MASON-This one will. This is one of the real positives here. It’s already, all the homes in Takundewide are in the community water system. So there’s no problem with setbacks from wells or anything like that on the property, and this one has a very old, 1960 septic system. I was able to discover that it’s an old metal tank. It’s still functioning. There’s no problem with it, but I had no idea where the distribution box and the drain field are and it’s time for it to be replaced or upgraded and what they’re going to do is join the community system as part of this project. So they’ll be putting in probably a 1250 gallon concrete tank, replacing the metal one, and running a line over so that now it will be pumped into our community system 1,000 feet away from Lake George. MR. MC CABE-So do we have other questions of the applicant? MRS. HAMLIN-I don’t know if it’s of the applicant or you who brought this up. When I went there, because I’m not familiar with this at all, yes, there was a mixture of the smaller homes. So they were all that size. MR. MC CABE-At one time they were all that small. MRS. HAMLIN-They were all granted variances to do this. MR. MC CABE-The Town granted them the opportunity to do this, and so that’s what he’s doing. MRS. HAMLIN-That’s what the MOU is. MR. MC CABE-Yes. MRS. HAMLIN-Because I didn’t see the MOU. It wasn’t included, was it? MR. MASON-The MOU is in your files, and I can get you copies if you want it. MR. MC CABE-Jim used to be able to recite it. (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 11/17/2021) 3 MR. UNDERWOOD-Roy and I were on the Board when the Memorandum of Understanding was created, and that was our suggestion to have them do the leach field to hook up. MRS. HAMLIN-But, unlike a normal conservation subdivision, we’re allowing that, the land that’s in. MRS. MOORE-So this project is based, or this Homeowner’s Association is based on that Memorandum of Understanding that was developed so that the Town agreed and the applicant agreed to every time a house is evaluated it would actually come before this Board for that evaluation, as well as identifying the items within the MOU, whether they be required or identified as common area and things like that. MRS. HAMLIN-So that extra 18 acres basically factors into the density. MRS. MOORE-Right. So that’s an evaluation by this Board. Each time you evaluate it, you can conclude that that 18 acres is part of the common land as described by the applicant. That’s part of your consideration each time. It’s not guaranteed. MRS. HAMLIN-Okay. MR. MC CABE-Other questions? MR. HENKEL-I’ve got one question. MR. MC CABE-Go ahead. MR. HENKEL-I see you have, there’s going to be at least, you’ll be able to tie in at least five more homes to this septic system eventually? What happens when that’s at capacity? MR. MASON-It was sized originally for 11 homes. We have eight in there right now. So there’s only three more, according to the original numbers, but the engineer, Tom Hutchins, worked with me at the time. He sized it using the number of gallons per bedroom, and we based it on eight homes with three bedrooms per home. So that’s 24 total bedrooms. Now we’ve been adding homes. We still have only eight, but we have more than, some of them have more than three bedrooms. Some of them have two bedrooms. So what Tom, I’m sorry, I’m getting confused. What Tom and I are working on right now, becaus e he said since I have now 10 years of data, we’ve been keeping track every day, of the number of times the pumps kick on and off, he said we can now determine very accurately the actual usage that we’re putting into the septic system and he can come up wi th a better idea of exactly what the capacity is. He’s comfortable with the original because he said to me, has said many times, that the gallons that you get per bedroom are always, they’re high, and that when you actually use the actual numbers it’s going to actually give us a little bit more, and then we’re also talking right now about adding other treatments to that system because with the Transfer Law coming in, we know, we’ve already had a number of owners that have had to go in front of the Town to do that, the inspection, and we will have people doing this, we know that, in the coming years. MR. HENKEL-So obviously these were built around the same time, so they probably all have old, rusty metal. MR. MASON-Actually, no. Starting at Cottage Number 18, and they were built in order, this is 15, they were all concrete tanks, starting at that point that started to come in, and PVC pipe. So some of the systems actually are pretty good systems and they’re small cottages and they’re back further from the lake, and this one is quite far from the lake. The only problem with this one, the only reason that I would want this one to join the community system and not even look at putting in a little system outside right in that area is because now with the separation distance it would probably be a raised bed of some sort and we don’t want a whole bunch of pumps around that beautiful common property. So we got all these different things that we’re thinking about as an Association and the ones that are in that kind of a situation we want to get them to join the community system. MR. MC CABE-Other questions? MR. URRICO-At some point, it’s probably not going to affect this one here, but at some point you’re going to have 20 years of, when did you actually put in the septic? MR. MASON-The community septic is about 10 years old right now. MR. URRICO-It’s about 10 years old. So when do you anticipate coming back and trying to update the MOU to re-establish the goals and everything? MR. MASON-Well, that wouldn’t be tied, I don’t think, to the community system. We do have a large escrow fund. The Town has a bunch of money that they’re keeping for us, in case of a problem with the community system, and we’re putting aside money all the time. (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 11/17/2021) 4 MR. URRICO-I don’t mean updating the system, but updating the projections that the MOU had? MR. MASON-The MOU dealt with all of the issues and it did talk about the community system, and that was part of it. MR. URRICO-So it didn’t establish any goals or any specific number? MR. MASON-I don’t think that would be required unless we sat down and had a discussion with one of these Boards. MR. URRICO-I just don’t remember what we said back then. MR. MASON-Okay. MR. UNDERWOOD-I think originally, though, we were set up for three bedrooms maximum. MR. MASON-It was figured on three bedrooms because that’s what people, and the first ones, and they look very much like this on the exterior, but they were building, taking down the two bedroom and building three bedrooms, but now people have figured out a way to keep a bedroom on the first floor and add the three bedrooms upstairs. So they’ve got four bedrooms. MR. UNDERWOOD-So that’s the deviation, four bedrooms instead of three. That’s the only change. MR. MASON-Yes, but I don’t think the MOU had a thing in it on three bedrooms or four bedrooms. That was just a discussion. They talked more about the square footage. MR. UNDERWOOD-I think the MOU was arranged so that they would all be the same square footage, but three bedrooms is what I recall, not four. MR. MASON-Okay. MR. MC CABE-Other questions? Seeing none, a public hearing has been advertised, and so at this particular time I’m going to open the public hearing and see if there’s anybody in the audi ence who would like to comment on this project? Do we have anything written? PUBLIC HEARING OPENED MR. URRICO-No, but the Planning Board based on its limited review did not identify any significant adverse impacts that cannot be mitigated with the current project proposal, and that was adopted seven, zero on November 16, 2021. MR. MC CABE-So at this particular time I’m going to close the public hearing. PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED MR. MC CABE-And I’m going to poll the Board, and I’m going to start with Jackson. MR. LA SARSO-I’d be in favor of this. It’s pretty basic. It makes sense. I have no problems with it. So I’d be in favor. MR. MC CABE-Cathy? MRS. HAMLIN-Considering the precedent for this, I would have to be in favor. MR. MC CABE-Jim? MR. UNDERWOOD-I have to come down against this because I think we have to keep in mind this is a 768 square foot second story addition that we’re adding on and we’re going to have three bedrooms in there and I think the recommendations of the Board initially when we approved the MOU was three bedrooms only, not four. So unless you go one bedroom less, I’m not in favor. MR. MC CABE-John? MR. HENKEL-I definitely agree with Jim. I think it’s going to be too crowded in there without adding these homes with four bedrooms. So I would not be on board with it, either. I think the three bedroom idea is a good idea. MR. MC CABE-Roy? (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 11/17/2021) 5 MR. URRICO-I’m going to come down in favor of it. I think these have long been established in terms of what they would do to the lake and the septic system and the mere fact that Chris Navitsky is not here complaining about it shows that it’s meeting the standards that were required. So I’d be in favor of the project. MR. MC CABE-Brady? MR. STARK-I’d be in favor of the project also. MR. MC CABE-And so I thought about this a little bit, and, you know, toilets flushed a lot more back in ’86. You didn’t have five gallon per minute shower heads. So I believe that your system is indeed way overdesigned. The fourth bedroom doesn’t really bother me. So I’ll support the project, and so, Cathy, I’m going to ask for a motion here. The Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Queensbury has received an application from William Mason. Applicant proposes a 768 sq. ft. second story addition to an existing 768 sq. ft. home. The project includes a 16 sq. ft. new porch landing entry and a smaller access landing to the existing porch. The home has an existing one bedroom and the second floor will add 3 more bedrooms. The project includes connection to the Takundewide community septic and water supply from the lake. Site plan for expansion of non-conforming in a CEA and new floor area in a CEA. Relief Required: The applicant requests relief for setbacks, permeability, floor area, and expansion of a nonconforming structure for constructing a second floor. The site is located in the Waterfront Residential zone on a 2,288 sq. ft. parcel. Section 179-3-040 dimensional requirement The addition is to be 10 ft. from the property line where a 15 ft. setback is required. The entry deck is to be 6 ft. from the property line where a 15 ft. setback is required. In addition, relief is requested for permeability where 66 % is proposed and 75% is required. Floor area is proposed to be 67% based on the lot size where 22% is the maximum allowed. SEQR Type II – no further review required; A public hearing was advertised and held on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. Upon review of the application materials, information supplied during the public hearing, and upon consideration of the criteria specified in Section 179-14-080(A) of the Queensbury Town Code and Chapter 267 of NYS Town Law and after discussion and deliberation, we find as follows: 1. There is not an undesirable change in the character of the neighborhood nor a detriment to nearby properties. 2. Feasible alternatives were not really considered by the Board as this is considered to be reasonable. 3. The requested variance is somewhat substantial, but given certain conditions of the MOU I guess we are factoring in other things that make it less substantial. 4. There is not an adverse impact on the physical or environmental conditions in the neighborhood or district. 5. The alleged difficulty is self-created. 6. In addition, the Board finds that the benefit to the applicant from granting the requested variance would outweigh (approval) the resulting detriment to the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhood or community; 7. The Board also finds that the variance request under consideration is the minimum necessary; 8. The Board also proposes the following conditions: a) Adherence to the items outlined in the follow-up letter sent with this resolution. BASED ON THE ABOVE FINDINGS, I MAKE A MOTION TO APPROVE AREA VARIANCE NO. 75-2021 WILLIAM MASON, Introduced by Catherine Hamlin, who moved for its adoption, seconded by Michael McCabe: (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 11/17/2021) 6 Duly adopted this 17th Day of November 2021 by the following vote: AYES: Mr. LaSarso, Mrs. Hamlin, Mr. Urrico, Mr. Stark, Mr. McCabe NOES: Mr. Henkel, Mr. Underwood ABSENT: Mr. Kuhl, Mr. McDevitt MR. MC CABE-Congratulations, you have a project. MR. MASON-Thank you very much. You have a nice night.