April 12, 2007

By Lauren Heaton

Plans for two affordable housing units and an office space for Home, Inc. were denied by the Village Board of Zoning Appeals at the board’s last meeting on March 21. Home, Inc. has chosen not to appeal the BZA decision, according to Executive Director Marianne MacQueen. But during an interview on Monday, she and Home, Inc. Board President Stan -Bernstein expressed strong disappointment in the outcome of their organization’s attempt to build affordable housing in the village.

Home, Inc. had spent the past six months pursuing Village approval for what was originally a four-unit residential and office site on 1.6 acres at 1127 Xenia Avenue just north of Allen Street. The original plan met with opposition from surrounding residents, who felt the plan was too dense for a Residence B zoning district and was likely to cause stormwater drainage and parking issues in the neighborhood. Following Village Planning Commission’s recommendations, Home, Inc. adjusted its plan to include just one already existing single-family cottage and a modified existing auxiliary structure to use as a downstairs office for Home, Inc. and an upstairs efficiency apartment. The main and auxiliary structures would be attached for the purpose of providing sewer attachment from the cottage to the office.

In February Village Planning Commission granted a conditional use approval required for an office space in Residence B, but attached to its approval the condition that Home, Inc. receive variances from the BZA for all zoning issues of nonconformance.

At their meeting last month, BZA chair Andrew Brouard, and members Joseph Giardullo, Ted Donnell and Becky Campbell voted 4–0 to approve a variance for a nonconforming side yard lot line. Board member Kingsley Perry recused himself from deliberations saying his recent involvement as a board member of Home, Inc. was a potential conflict of interest. The BZA then voted 3–1 to reject a variance for a multifamily dwelling unit, which requires a minimum lot size of 12,000 square feet (Home, Inc.’s lot is between 10,000 and 11,000 square feet.) The BZA also denied a variance needed to connect the two structures because connecting two nonconforming structures exacerbates the nonconformity, according to the board’s and Village Assistant Planner Ed Amrhein’s reading of the code.

According to Amrhein, Home, Inc. has 20 days to file an appeal of the decision-making process to Village Council, which Bernstein said the board chose not to do. Bernstein said Home, Inc. has made no decision about what to do with the property other than to allow the current family to continue renting the existing cottage for “as long as they need to.”

Both MacQueen and Bernstein expressed frustration with the village’s apparent conflict in values regarding affordable housing. All claim to want affordable housing in the village, but no one is willing to accept it next to his house, they said, adding that no one in Village government is willing to champion a movement to make it happen either.

“Home, Inc. is very good at building affordable housing,” Bernstein said. “But I’m left with the question, where does the village want us to do that?”

In order to build affordable housing, a piece of land, preferably inside the village limits, must be both available and affordable enough, with government housing subsidies, to be able to finance building for a buyer who makes 80 percent or less than the area median income. The organization has built six homes around the village and is currently working on six more in the Thistle Creek development on King Street. Home, Inc. was also then able to purchase the property on Xenia Avenue with a grant from the Morgan Family Foundation in 2005 to use as another site for more housing.

But the village needs more affordable housing than that, and land is very hard to come by, according to MacQueen, who said there is only one piece of property even suitable in town, and it is too expensive for Home, Inc. to buy. Though the effort to annex the Fogg farm for new residential development at the western edge of town was stalled earlier this month, and Home, Inc. does not support sprawl, MacQueen has come to the conclusion that the best way to make affordable housing happen is to do it in new developments.

Bernstein also feels that it is Village government’s responsibility to create regulations and incentives that would support the affordable housing all claim to be so important.

“If the Village wants affordable housing, then the organs of government need to incorporate that as a value in the decision-making process,” he said. “It behooves someone to do that.”

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com