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Ithaca BZA grants variance to allow rebuilt garage at 213 Cascadilla Park Road
Summary
The Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously approved a variance allowing owners of 213 Cascadilla Park Road to replace and attach a small garage closer to the house than current primary-structure side-yard rules allow.
The Ithaca Board of Zoning Appeals on Sept. 2 approved a variance that lets the owners of 213 Cascadilla Park Road rebuild and attach a replacement garage closer to the house than current zoning for primary structures allows.
The homeowners, Reid Hugerich and his wife, asked the board for relief after soil movement and age left an existing freestanding garage in poor condition. The applicants said they plan to move the new garage farther back on the lot and connect it to the house while adding a small ground-floor mudroom and bathroom. The work would shift the structure from an accessory building (which requires a 3-foot side-yard minimum) to part of the primary structure (which requires a 10-foot side-yard minimum), creating the need for a variance.
Planning staff told the board the existing garage currently sits about 1.9 feet from the property line and that the applicants propose to set the replacement about 3 feet from the lot line, still short of the 10-foot side-yard required for a primary structure. The applicants and staff said attaching the garage during a larger construction effort made logistical sense because of the hillside work required.
At the public hearing there were no written comments and no speakers signed up in support or opposition.
Board discussion cited the street's steep topography and narrow roadway as constraints that reduce feasible alternatives. Board member Donna Fleming said the submission was "very thorough and clear." Fleming moved to grant variance No. 3293, finding that the request "will not produce an undesirable change in the character of the neighborhood" and that "the benefits sought by the applicant cannot reasonably be achieved by a feasible alternative." The motion was seconded and passed on a roll-call vote of 5-0 (Michael Cannon, Donna Fleming, Joseph Kirby, Andre Gardner and David Barkin voting yes).
The board told the applicants they would receive a written copy of the variance within days and that staff would forward the approval to the building division to accompany the building permit application.
The variance authorizes the replacement and attachment of the garage as proposed; the applicants must secure building permits and comply with any building-division conditions tied to that permit.
