Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Driveway Variance 19 Primrose topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Applicants seek to legalize long-standing driveway at 19 Primrose; board adjourns after neighbors cite flooding and encroachment
Summary
Applicants for 19 Primrose asked the Greenburgh Zoning Board to legalize a driveway leading to a two-car garage. Neighbors including a 52-year resident said the pavement encroaches and causes water damage; the board asked for revised plans, photos and drainage proposals and adjourned the case to Dec. 19.
The Zoning Board of Appeals of Greenburgh heard public testimony on Nov. 14 over a driveway variance request for 19 Primrose Avenue and adjourned the matter to Dec. 19 to allow applicants to submit additional evidence and design alternatives.
Janari Caro (joined on the record by Jose Caro) told the board they purchased the house in April 2024 and are asking the board to legalize a paved approach that leads to a two-car garage. Caro said historical photos from 1975, 2004 and later show a driveway in place and offered deeds and photographs for the record. “We come in peace,” Caro said, asking the board to allow the driveway needed to access the garage.
Neighbors urged the board to deny the request or attach conditions. Blaise Spinozzi of 21 Primrose, who identified himself as a 52-year resident, said the property has been a long-standing problem and said it has caused repeated water damage to his home. “This property has accumulated over a $150,000 in tax arrears,” Spinozzi said, and he described past flooding and a building-department notice of violation for a driveway setback. Another longtime resident, Linda Koch, said she has lived across the street for 64 years and urged the board to consider runoff and neighborhood character.
A town building-department official told the board that records show a garage built in the early 1960s and that portions of the existing driveway predate 2004, a date that affects which modern stormwater requirements apply. The official also said the applicants applied for a permit on Sept. 13, 2024 and were issued a building permit on Oct. 16, 2024 after plan revisions.
Board members pressed the applicants to clarify exactly which paved areas they want legalized and asked them to supply comparative photographs showing nearby driveways to establish neighborhood context. Several members suggested design changes — narrowing the paved width (board discussion referenced a 9-foot moving lane measurement), moving pavement closer to the house to provide a soil buffer at the property line, adding drainage such as a dry well, or using pervious pavers — as conditions that could reduce runoff onto adjacent lots.
The applicant agreed to remove the paved portion in the rear yard and to address a fence that the applicants said sits on their property. The board instructed the applicants to submit photographic evidence keyed to parcel locations and to work with staff and neighbors on possible alternatives. The hearing was adjourned to Dec. 19 so neighbors, staff and the applicants can review revised plans and evidence.
What happens next: the applicants are expected to provide photographs of neighboring driveways, revised site drawings, and details of any proposed drainage or grading changes before the board resumes the public hearing on Dec. 19.
