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Minutes, Zoning Board of Appeals, May 8, 2007
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2 STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER 3 TOWN OF EASTCHESTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X 4
5 MINUTES OF THE 6 EASTCHESTER ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS
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8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X
9 HELD AT: Eastchester Town Hall 40 Mill Road 10 Eastchester, New York 10709 May 8, 2007 7:30 p.m. 11
12 B E F O R E:
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14 LOUIS SATRIALE, Chairman PAUL CUBITA, Member 15 PETER BORDUCCI, Member STEVEN BAKER, Member 16
17 P R E S E N T:
18 LOUIS REDA, Deputy Town Attorney 19 KERI OULLETTE, Assistant Planner JAY KING, Building Inspector 20
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23 DINA M. MORGAN 24 25 COLONIAL ROAD BRONXVILLE, New York 10708 25 914-469-6353
DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER
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1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 5/8/07
2 THE CHAIRMAN: I would like to
3 welcome everybody to the May 8th meeting
4 of the Zoning Board of Appeals. Would
5 everybody please stand for the Pledge of
6 Allegiance.
7 (Whereupon the Pledge of Allegiance
8 was said.)
9 THE CHAIRMAN: The first item of
10 business will be the approval of our
11 minutes from the April 10th meeting. Is
12 there a motion to approve the minutes?
13 MR. CUBITA: So moved.
14 THE CHAIRMAN: Moved by Mr. Cubita.
15 Is there a second?
16 MR. BORDUCCI: Second.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: Second by Mr.
18 Borducci. All in favor.
19 (All aye.)
20 THE CHAIRMAN: Onto the agenda. We
21 have a very short agenda tonight, much to
22 the dismay of all the members. The first
23 item on the agenda is just a discussion
24 item, so we'll address that when we get
25 to it, and that's Application 07-02, 83
DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER
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1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 5/8/07
2 through 87 Maple Street.
3 We have two additional items on the
4 agenda under old business. The first one
5 is 06-91 Commerce Bank. Mr. Hocherman is
6 here for the applicant.
7 The last one on the agenda tonight
8 is Application 06-15, 71 Ridge Street.
9 The applicant is here and representative
10 is here.
11 With regard to the two applications
12 that are on tonight, as you will notice
13 we have a board of four tonight so you
14 have the right, if you so desire, to ask
15 that your matter be adjourned tonight and
16 put over to the June meeting when we
17 would most likely be a board of five.
18 The consequence of moving forward tonight
19 is if you end up with a two/two vote it's
20 a denial. You need three yes votes in
21 order for your application to be
22 approved.
23 With regard to Commerce Bank, once
24 we get to that one my sense is we're not
25 going to vote tonight any way even though
DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER
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1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 5/8/07
2 we had hoped to do that, so I don't think
3 it effects the Commerce Bank application,
4 but I would think on the Ridge Street
5 application we would be prepared to vote
6 tonight. We regard to Ridge, and you
7 have a few minutes to decide because
8 you're not the first application, if you
9 want to proceed tonight you certainly
10 have a right to do that as well, you just
11 need three out of four members to vote
12 yes. Think about it for a few minutes.
13 You have a question about that? You can
14 see how the wind is blowing and make that
15 decision then, although it's not
16 technically the right way to do it but we
17 have done that in the past. You could
18 reserve that option and if you don't like
19 the way it's going you can ask that we
20 not vote tonight. I can't promise that's
21 what would happen, but that's most likely
22 what would happen.
23 Before we get to the Commerce Bank
24 application, the first item on the agenda
25 is under discussions items, that's 83
DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER
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1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 5/8/07
2 through 87 Maple Street. For anyone
3 that's been following this application,
4 what happened last month was there was a
5 vote by the board to declare the
6 application a rehearing and that was
7 voted upon and approved unanimously.
8 Once we made that vote, in order
9 for the applicant to get the
10 interpretation they were looking for they
11 needed a unanimous vote as opposed to a
12 majority vote. The difference for that
13 relates to the rehearing. Under the law
14 if there's a rehearing you need a
15 unanimous vote. If it's a new hearing,
16 which is one of the arguments the
17 applicant was making, then they just need
18 a majority vote like on most
19 applications.
20 The board unanimously decided it
21 was a rehearing then we went to a vote on
22 the interpretation and it was a four to
23 one vote so obviously not unanimous. So,
24 therefore, that application was denied
25 because they needed the unanimous vote.
DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER
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1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 5/8/07
2 At the end of that vote, the applicant
3 asked the board to reconsider the vote
4 and made different arguments for us to
5 consider. We said at the time we would
6 take the matter under advisement and come
7 back tonight.
8 Where we are tonight, and the board
9 certainly can speak on the issue, where I
10 believe we are tonight is that the board
11 viewed our vote on the rehearing exactly
12 the way it was, it was a rehearing. And
13 because there wasn't a unanimous vote on
14 the interpretation, there is nothing
15 further we can do at this point. If the
16 applicant would like us to take some
17 different action, the applicant has the
18 right to do that and has to start a new
19 process for that application.
20 Anybody on the board want to
21 comment, anybody have a different
22 feeling?
23 MR. BAKER: No, I would concur with
24 you totally, Mr. Chairman.
25 THE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Borducci?
DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER
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1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 5/8/07
2 MR. BORDUCCI: As would I.
3 THE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Cubita?
4 MR. CUBITA: I agree one hundred
5 percent it's the proper way to proceed.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: That application is
7 now concluded. Our vote was taken last
8 month, the interpretation was denied by
9 the vote of the board and no further
10 action will be taken on that tonight.
11 That takes us into the old business
12 agenda. First application on tonight is
13 Commerce Bank, 685 White Plains Road.
14 Mr. Hocherman.
15 MR. HOCHERMAN: Good evening,
16 members of the board.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: Hello, Mr.
18 Hocherman.
19 MR. HOCHERMAN: As you mentioned,
20 we had been expecting some kind of
21 resolution tonight. I guess we became
22 aware that we wouldn't have one when it
23 was clear that the traffic report hasn't
24 come in yet and apparently a report of
25 the appraiser hasn't come in as well. I
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