Peekskill ZBA keeps hearing open on appeal over storage at 711 North Division Street

The Peekskill Zoning Board of Appeals on Jan. 1 heard an appeal by property owner Christopher Warren challenging a September notice from code enforcement that found commercial outdoor storage and vehicle storage at 711 North Division Street were not permitted in the C‑4 neighborhood‑commercial district. The board heard legal argument from the owner’s attorney and testimony from tenants who use the yard and then voted to keep the public hearing open until further records are gathered.

David Cooper, attorney for Warren, told the board the site has been used as a combination of residential and commercial storage since about 1960 and argued that history supports a legal preexisting nonconforming status. "The combination of uses of this property since 1960 has been residential and commercial storage consistently," Cooper said, urging the board to annul the notice of violation. A staff member described the enforcement file as springing from neighbor complaints and the code-enforcement officer’s inspection, which identified piles of rock and gravel and about 13 vehicles.

Board members pressed Cooper and staff on specific evidence — including a 1976 aerial photo, a 1982 certificate of occupancy and a 2016 notice of violation referenced in the file — and on how the city code defines "enlargement" or "expansion" of an unenclosed outdoor use. Staff read Peekskill Zoning Code §575‑44(a)(1), noting that a preexisting nonconforming land or building use "shall not be enlarged, extended, or placed on a different portion of the lot... nor shall any external evidence of such use be increased by any means whatsoever." The board directed staff to research the 2016 record, confirm the CO and chain of title, and clarify how the code treats expansions of unenclosed storage.

The board left the public hearing open and adjourned it to Feb. 19 to allow staff to gather additional materials and for the applicant to provide clearer dated evidence. The decision on whether the property’s combined residential and commercial storage may continue as a legal preexisting nonconforming use will await those materials and the board’s subsequent deliberations.