Zoning board approves smaller pole barn for Pinnacle Road property after neighbors raise historic and environmental concerns

The Henrietta Zoning Board of Appeals on Monday approved a variance allowing an enclosed vehicle-storage building on a recently purchased Pinnacle Road lot, but only after trimming the applicant’s original request and requiring landscaped screening.

The applicant, who identified himself as a long-time collector of Pontiac GTOs, told the board he needs enclosed, climate-controlled space to preserve five classic cars and to perform light mechanical work. “I currently have five Pontiac GTO,” he said during testimony, describing storage and maintenance plans and saying the vehicles are maintained and not used for commercial sales.

Neighbors and several board members voiced concerns that the originally requested building — several times larger than a typical house on nearby lots — would be out of scale with the neighborhood, visible from the road in winter months and could require tree clearing near a nearby creek. “The structure … fits more in line with a self-storage unit than it does with the historic nature of the buildings that are there,” said neighbor Millie Sopranic, urging the board to consider historic‑area impacts and review by the town’s historic site committee.

Board members also discussed drainage and possible damage to trees’ root zones when building a new driveway and pad. Mike Stafford asked about the structure’s distance from the creek; staff later estimated a closest‑point distance of roughly 55 feet on the submitted plan.

After a long discussion and an initial poll that split the board, members approved a motion that sets the maximum footprint at 40 by 60 feet and requires the screening plantings the applicant described in testimony. The resolution characterizes the use as residential vehicle storage and notes the structure must not generate commercial traffic, excessive noise or other impacts beyond typical personal-storage use.

The board’s approval imposed conditions intended to reduce visibility and environmental impacts: the smaller building footprint and the planting scheme described by the applicant during the hearing. The applicant agreed to the conditions and was told to follow up with the building department to complete permits and inspections.

The board’s action followed a broader exchange about how a large accessory structure would sit beside several older homes on Pinnacle Road, including properties with 19th‑century buildings nearby. The board flagged preservation, screening and environmental mitigation as considerations for the file.

What happens next: the applicant must submit final construction documents and follow the town’s building‑permit process; the board noted a requirement for compliance inspections and that civil survey conflicts with neighbors remain a private matter to be resolved outside the zoning process.