Ancram ZBA weighs County Route 8 mixed-use conversion, plans letter to Planning Board

The Ancram Zoning Board of Appeals heard an application from Douglas Larson and co-applicant Victoria to convert the Brown House at 2 County Route 8 into a mixed-use property with apartments above and two businesses below. The applicants described a restored, historic 4,000-square-foot building and said existing tenants occupy a secondary structure on the lot.

Chair (Speaker 1) told the applicants the ZBA is limited by law in the relief it can offer and said the board will write to the Planning Board (chair Joe Crocco) to clarify which elements the ZBA cannot grant. "If you have a setback request, absolutely, you can ask us for that, and that is something that we can, discuss," the Chair said when explaining the board's authority to grant area variances but not to waive lot-size or lot-coverage rules. The applicants were directed to submit specific, written requests for any setback relief and a formal interpretation on residential density.

The applicants outlined a plan that could include two apartments and two ground-floor commercial spaces, or a possible third apartment if dimensional waivers are obtained. The ZBA noted several items—minimum apartment size, lot coverage and lot-size relief—are Planning Board responsibilities under New York State law and that obtaining waivers from that board will be necessary for those elements.

The ZBA will send a letter to the Planning Board summarizing which items appear outside the ZBA's jurisdiction and will schedule the application for public hearing next month. The board asked applicants to be specific in writing about the three-inch setback request and asked members to prepare an interpretation of density provisions ahead of the public meeting.

Next procedural steps include a written setback request from the applicants, a ZBA letter to the Planning Board, a public hearing in the following month and further ZBA deliberation afterward.