X Minutes of the City of Yonkers Zoning Board of Appeals September 23, 2008 - 6:15 P.M
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Page 1 STATE OF NEW YORK CITY OF YONKERS -----------------------------------------------X Minutes of The City of Yonkers Zoning Board of Appeals September 23, 2008 - 6:15 p.m. at City Hall 87 Nepperhan Avenue Yonkers, New York 10701-3892 -----------------------------------------------X B E F O R E: JOSEPH CIANCIULLI, Chairperson JAMES BLANCHARD, Member DIANE PEARSON, Member NANCY LITTLE, Member LEVAR BURKE, Member SAMUEL SINGH, Member ANTHONY LANDI, Member LEE ELLMAN, Planning ALAIN NATCHEV, Assistant Corporation Counsel DOUGLASS REPORTING COMPANY 50 Main Street White Plains, New York 10606 (914) 946-1059 Page 2 1 Proceedings 2 MR. CIANCIULLI: Ladies and 3 gentlemen, can I have your attention, 4 please. You want to take a seat, 5 please? Thank you. 6 The September 23rd, 2008 Zoning 7 Board of Appeals public hearing is now 8 in session. Will the members introduce 9 themselves. Ms. Pearson. 10 MS. PEARSON: Diane Pearson. 11 MR. LANDI: Anthony Landi. 12 MS. LITTLE: Nancy Little. 13 MR. SINGH: Samuel Singh. 14 MR. BLANCHARD: James Blanchard. 15 MR. CIANCIULLI: I am Joseph 16 Cianciulli. I am Chairman of the Board 17 and I think Mr. Burke is going to be 18 late tonight. Would everybody please 19 stand for the pledge of allegiance by 20 Bill Schneider. 21 (Pledge of allegiance). 22 MR. CIANCIULLI: Please be seated. 23 This room is a tough room. We don't 24 have any microphones. We don't have 25 anything, no air conditioning, but we Page 3 1 Proceedings 2 got heat, yes, we do, but anyway, we 3 don't allow any talking in chambers so 4 I am going ask you to go outside if you 5 want to talk. If you have a cell 6 phone, put it on vibrate because if it 7 goes off, it's going to come up here 8 and it's going to go home with Mr. 9 Landi. 10 There is two cases here tonight, 11 both continued hearings. One relates 12 to 56 Warburton Avenue, and one relates 13 to the Cross County Center. 14 The first case for tonight will be 15 the 5053 area variance. Mr. Delbello 16 on behalf of 54 also known as 56 17 Warburton Avenue, Block: 2017; Lot: 24; 18 in the CBD zone. CBD stands for 19 Central Business District. 20 I am not going to read the whole 21 thing, Mr. Delbello, is that okay with 22 you. 23 MR. DELBELLO: Yes, that's fine. 24 MR. CIANCIULLI: Anybody here 25 tonight want me to read the whole Page 4 1 Proceedings 2 thing? Is everybody comfortable the 3 way it is? 4 Mr. Delbello, introduce yourself, 5 please. 6 MR. DELBELLO: Alfred Delbello. 7 MR. CIANCIULLI: I failed to do 8 one very important thing. On my right 9 is the Building Commissioner, Richard 10 Schneider. On my left is Corporation 11 Counsel who represents the Board, Alain 12 Natchev. To my far left is the 13 Commissioner of Planning, we have Lee 14 Ellman. Mr. Delbello. 15 MR. DELBELLO: I am Al Delbello 16 from Delbello, Donnellan, Weingarten, 17 Wise and Wiederkehr, attorneys for the 18 applicant. 19 We have been before your Board on 20 this matter a number of times. 21 MR. CIANCIULLI: Let me ask you, 22 everybody has been notified? 23 MR. DELBELLO: Yes, they have. 24 MR. CIANCIULLI: Were there any 25 returns? Page 5 1 Proceedings 2 MR. DELBELLO: Three were 3 returned, Mr. Chairman. 4 MR. CIANCIULLI: Is there anybody 5 here tonight on this case? This case 6 is on Warburton Avenue between Manor 7 House Square and North Broadway and 8 anybody here tonight on this case? All 9 right, we can take some of the people 10 up here so you can hear better if you 11 want to come up. You can sit over here 12 or sit over here, wherever you want to. 13 Thank you. 14 Mr. Delbello, would you explain to 15 us about the project, please. 16 MR. DELBELLO: Thank you, Mr. 17 Chairman. We have with us this 18 evening-- this is, as you know, a 19 project that is being sponsored by the 20 Greystone Foundation. With us this 21 evening is Steve Brown, the President 22 of Greystone, along with Shelley 23 Weintraub who is Vice President in 24 charge of the real estate division. 25 We also have our architects and Page 6 1 Proceedings 2 our engineers, traffic people and 3 anybody necessary to respond to your 4 questions. 5 As you know, when first presented, 6 this was a 16 story building. It's a 7 work force affordable building designed 8 for affordable rentals, I am sorry, 9 home ownership, affordable for sale 10 property. 11 It was originally 16 stories. We 12 reduced it to 12. It was originally 13 108 families, we reduced it to 105. We 14 are before you looking for a number of 15 variances, the most significant is a 16 parking variance at a 31 car parking 17 variance, an area variance, variances 18 dealing with our loading docks, all of 19 which we have gone through with you in 20 some detail in the past, so rather than 21 taking your time and re-presenting each 22 of those features, I would rather open 23 these up to questions. 24 We have the people who can respond 25 to the questions. We have a power Page 7 1 Proceedings 2 point presentation in case there are 3 any issues that you want to see 4 visualized, we'll be able to present 5 that for you, but other than that, Mr. 6 Chairman, we'll take your questions. 7 MR. CIANCIULLI: I just want to 8 clarify something. You are required 9 that 50 foot is the most height you 10 have, you are going for 121, that is 71 11 feet higher than you are allowed to go, 12 okay, you say 150 foot it was 13 originally, has nothing to do with the 14 case. The required space, 180, you 15 have 151. I want to get that in the 16 record, okay. 17 MR. DELBELLO: Yes, Mr. Chairman. 18 MR. CIANCIULLI: Thank you. 19 Mainly the height of the building, I am 20 concerned about that. You have a 21 shadow study in here and I see the 22 shadow study. Basically you are saying 23 this is the shadow study you had 24 originally? 25 MR. DELBELLO: We had refined it Page 8 1 Proceedings 2 somewhat and we'll be able to show that 3 to you if you want to see that. 4 What we have done is, we have 5 developed a shadow study that shows you 6 how the shadows are today, the existing 7 buildings, and what the difference 8 would be with the new buildings, and 9 for that purpose, Stuart Lachs, the 10 architect, is here, and he can go 11 through that in some detail for you, if 12 you would desire. 13 MR. CIANCIULLI: Well, that's 14 fine, you can bring that gentleman up, 15 that's fine. 16 MR. DELBELLO: Stuart. 17 MR. CIANCIULLI: If you want to 18 put something up, Mr. Delbello, about 19 the shadows, that is fine. Mr. Landi 20 brought up we approved the minutes from 21 the June 26th meeting, just to make 22 sure I make a motion to approve the 23 minutes from the June 26th meeting. Do 24 I have a second? 25 MR. LANDI: I have two corrections Page 9 1 Proceedings 2 to make, please. 3 MR. CIANCIULLI: Sure. 4 MR. LANDI: Page 87 line 8, 1001 5 should read 101, and page 95 line 10, 6 Sierra, should read SEQRA. 7 MR. CIANCIULLI: As amended, I 8 make a motion. Do I have a second? 9 MS. LITTLE: Second. 10 MR. CIANCIULLI: Everyone on the 11 motion say aye. 12 (A chorus of ayes.) 13 MR. CIANCIULLI: Opposed? Passes. 14 I want to continue with something 15 else. 16 MR. DELBELLO: I think we would 17 rather get into this right now, again, 18 unless you have other questions. 19 Are you ready, Stuart? 20 MR. LACHS: Almost. 21 MR. DELBELLO: Almost? Okay. 22 Any other questions we can respond 23 to, we can do that now. 24 MR. CIANCIULLI: I think what 25 we'll do, we'll wait for this gentleman Page 10 1 Proceedings 2 because the other questions have to do 3 with traffic and some other things. Do 4 you have traffic people with you 5 tonight? 6 MR. DELBELLO: Our traffic 7 engineer is not here, but BJF is here 8 and they have the information necessary 9 to respond. 10 MR. CIANCIULLI: Are you all set, 11 young fellow? 12 MR. LACHS: Almost. 13 MR. CIANCIULLI: If not, we can 14 come back to you. I don't want to 15 waste any more time here. 16 Mr. Delbello, we'll let this 17 gentleman get started. We will go to 18 something else. 19 Manor Hall, okay, it's a little 20 bit of a fragile building, at least 21 they think it could be. I don't know 22 what measures you are proposing to 23 protect the building from construction 24 of your building, and the same question 25 for the adjacent buildings. You want Page 11 1 Proceedings 2 to answer that, please? 3 MR. DELBELLO: Yes. Stuart, I 4 think you will be needed to respond to 5 that.