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Zoning board grants setback variance for 2412 Fifteenth Street, allows four on-site parking spaces
Summary
The Troy Zoning Board of Appeals approved an area-variance request for 2412 Fifteenth Street that reduces required front-yard setbacks so the applicant can provide four on-site parking spaces; the board also issued a SEQR negative determination.
The Troy Zoning Board of Appeals voted to approve an area variance for 2412 Fifteenth Street, allowing the owners to alter the 25-foot setback to accommodate on-site parking and related site improvements.
The board found sufficient information in a Short Environmental Assessment Form on file and voted to issue a negative SEQR declaration before considering the variance. "As supported by the staff reports and my understanding of, a short environmental assessment form on file ... I ask that the board find this proposal to be an unlisted action with sufficient information available for a negative declaration," a board member said when moving the SEQR motion.
Why it matters: the property had previously received a use variance to allow two commercial uses in what is technically a residential zone; the current request seeks relief from a 25-foot setback that had constrained site design and prevented meaningful on-site parking. The applicant told the board the goal was to reduce curbside parking on Fifteenth Street and control circulation at the site.
Board and applicant presentations: Andrew Donovan, the project's civil/structural engineer, described the site's history and constraints, saying the team originally tried to provide on-site parking though the zone did not require it. "Given this site's constraints, the best we're ever gonna do are 4 spots on this lot on this site," Donovan said, and added that the submitted site plan shows four spaces and an 18-foot practical setback in places even though the applicant sought relief to reduce the formal setback requirement.
Board members discussed SEQR and agreed the project qualified for a negative declaration based on the Short EAF on file. A motion to approve the area variance followed; the mover framed the findings of fact for the standard area-variance factors, including that the variance "will not create an undesirable change in the character of the neighborhood" and that the benefits sought could not be achieved by a feasible method other than the variance. The board voted to approve the variance.
Details: the applicant said the plan will provide a controlled entrance/exit, turning radii and four marked spaces to reduce on-street parking; the team reported there had been a prior use-variance approval but that planning commission sign-off was a condition of that approval. The applicant told the board that the on-site configuration would likely remain at four spaces due to the site's topography and lot dimensions.
What the board decided next: with SEQR complete and the area variance approved, the applicant may proceed with the site plan steps required by city planning staff.
