The Croton-on-Hudson Zoning Board of Appeals refused a five-foot second story on Riverside Avenue, granted four other variances, and deadlocked 2-2 on a carport at its Sept. 30 meeting — a tie that, on the last night of a departing member's term, wiped the carport application out entirely and sent it back for a full re-hearing. Christine Wagner chaired. Rocco Mastronardi, James Tuman and Daron Weber made up the rest of the board, with Doug Olcott absent, so every application that night turned on four votes. It was Mastronardi's final meeting after years of service.

A five-foot addition, and the building that could replace it

Rob Luntz, the architect for the owner of the Switch Inc. electrical contracting business at 25 North Riverside Avenue, came back to a public hearing the board had left open from earlier meetings. The request was a rear yard variance under Village Zoning Code § 230-35 for a roughly five-foot second-story addition to the existing commercial building, plus a variance under § 230-164(E) giving the owner two years to start work. What was new was a drawing of something much larger. Luntz told the board that if the addition were refused, the zoning envelope on the lot permits a three-story building about 91 feet long, 26 feet wide at one end and 16 feet at the other, running 5,800 to 6,000 square feet — set 30 feet off the rear property line, but far taller. "Anybody in their right mind would build this to their highest and best use," Read 3:27▶ Luntz said, and the owner, John Whelan (sp), had already bought another property in Cortlandt and was moving the business there regardless. Four residents spoke. Catherine Ryder, of 7 Bank Street, said the existing building predates the zoning and could not be built there today, and that the addition would reach her neighbor's porch: "It would go right up against her back porch the extra five feet," Read 7:43▶ Ryder said. Asked what she would like to see on the lot, Ryder said: "I'd like, personally, to see all of Croton remain exactly how it is right now." Read 11:58▶ Laura Constantini, whose 6 Bank Street house sits directly behind the property, said she liked the owner but expected to lose value and privacy. "I will suffer because the house will devalue, and that's very important to me," Read 12:54▶ Constantini said. Alicia Anfiteatro, who owns the neighboring business and lives at 1 Michaels Lane, spoke for the application, saying Route 9A once carried three-story buildings before the highway went through and that the design would improve the streetscape. "I really don't think that the five feet that they're asking for is gonna make that much of a difference," Read 13:51▶ Anfiteatro said. Ed Riely, of Truesdale Drive, told the board he had no stake in the outcome but expected the Riverside corridor to be redeveloped either way, and suggested the owner buy off the view problem: "If I were this builder, I would offer, for instance, these two homeowners or anybody else they obstruct out of a neighborliness, right, to build a deck on the top of their house," Read 17:39▶ Riely said. Luntz answered that nothing was proposed at the property line — the existing one-story garage would stay as a buffer, the new second story set back its full width, and a green roof would replace the asphalt the neighbor now looks at. Five feet, he said, was the minimum that would leave usable ceiling height, lighting and room for mechanical systems. Working through the five statutory factors, the board found the project would cause a detriment to nearby properties, that the benefit could be achieved another way, and that the request was substantial — while finding no significant environmental harm. Tuman was the one member who wanted to grant it, because of what he thought would follow a denial. "This is gonna be a housing site. That's what it's gonna be. It's gonna be a three story housing site sold to a developer," Read 26:23▶ Tuman said. Wagner said she would personally prefer the smaller addition if she lived next to it, but did not think the record supported the variance. "We've gotten the inputs, and there is a way to do this without granting the variance," Read 27:30▶ Wagner said. Mastronardi said he came down with the first neighbor who spoke: "I'm more in line with the thinking of the first speaker." Read 27:55▶ Weber moved to grant a rear yard variance of 28.67 feet and the two-year commencement period, and Tuman seconded it. The motion failed 1-3, with Tuman in favor and Weber, Mastronardi and Wagner opposed, according to the minutes. The variance was denied.

Two sheds, granted

Ann Palm-Reibel appeared for 99 Mount Airy, where a shed stands closer to the street than the house and needs relief from § 230-40(B). "I'm the owner of the property, and we're hoping to sell it," Read 31:52▶ Palm-Reibel said. Assistant Village Engineer Ron Wegner said the problem surfaced when the village went through the property's permits ahead of the sale and found none for the shed. The current shed replaced a dilapidated one on the same spot about a decade ago, and the ground behind the house is wooded, hilly and ends in a pond. No one spoke at the public hearing. Tuman moved to grant, Wagner seconded, and it carried 4-0. Raymond LoGiudici, a 28-year owner at 41 Whelan Avenue, asked to swap an 8-by-10-foot vinyl shed for a 10-by-12-foot wooden one on the concrete pad already there. "It looks like I'm set back really only about a half a foot from the back property line and about 1.3 feet setback from the other property line," Read 40:12▶ LoGiudici said. Tearing up and moving the pad would be a significant expense on a corner lot with little yard to spare, he said, and the new shed would stand about a foot taller, near nine feet. Letters raising no objection came in from 103 Oneida Avenue and 37 Whelan Avenue, and again no one spoke. Mastronardi moved, Tuman seconded, and the board granted setback variances of 3.7 feet and 4.5 feet, 4-0.

The house passes, the carport ties

Joseph Arnow, the architect for Peter and Lisa Overmyer at 19 Irving Avenue, brought an application in two halves. The first was to square off the front of the house, add a full second story and attic, and legalize conditions that have been out of compliance since about 1950: a front setback of 14 feet 10 inches, two inches short of the 15 feet the code required then and now, and a chimney projecting roughly 25 inches into the east side yard. The 1931 code in force when the house went up allowed a chimney to encroach only 18 inches, Arnow said, so the condition was nonconforming even then. The second half was a detached carport about 10 feet 8 inches wide on the west side, which would sit hard against the lot line. "Request a variance of five feet to bring the carport roof edge to the west property line," Read 56:53▶ Arnow said. He argued the site is unusual: the neighboring house at 80 Radnor Avenue is roughly 45 feet from the shared line, behind a tall fence, and the carport would be open on all sides. The board split the vote. The house drew no opposition and passed 4-0, with side yard relief of 2 feet, total side yard relief of 3.1 feet and front yard relief of 0.3 feet. The carport did not. "I don't like the zero setback on that on the carport," Read 72:09▶ Tuman said, adding that he did not think it a good precedent. Mastronardi took the other view: "I am feeling inclined to, to approve the carport, respective of Jim's opinion about the zero setback," Read 76:12▶ Mastronardi said. The carport vote came back 2-2. A tie is not a grant, and with four members seated there was no fifth vote to break it. Because the board loses Mastronardi and will seat a replacement, Wagner told the applicants the carport cannot simply return to the next agenda — it has to be re-noticed and heard again from the beginning. "It'll come back here to be heard, and it'll be a slightly reconstituted board," Read 83:23▶ Wagner said. The Overmyers can pull a building permit for the house in the meantime.

Fifty years on Hunter Place

The last application was 12 Hunter Place, where attorney Peter Schuyler asked the board to legalize a front entryway, a side addition, a deck and a shed for owner Marlene Galazin. Schuyler opened by correcting his own paperwork: Galazin has owned and lived in the house since 1979, not 40 years as the application said. The property carries an oddity from an old subdivision, which left narrow strips marked "walk" between the streets that the village never took over. Part of the house sits on one of them. Before the pandemic, Schuyler said, the owners tracked down the heirs and obtained a court decision confirming title by adverse possession, leaving only the zoning setbacks at issue. "They bought the property fifty years ago. This is not a self created hardship," Read 89:44▶ Schuyler said. Letters of support came from 14 and 11 Hunter Place, and Schuyler said the immediately adjacent neighbor at 10 Hunter Place had voiced support without writing. No one spoke at the hearing. The board granted a side yard variance of 6.8 feet, a total side yard variance of 10.3 feet, a front yard variance of 1.3 feet and a side yard variance for the shed, 4-0 — finding the house conditions not self-created and the shed self-created but outweighed by the site's constraints. What to watch for: the carport at 19 Irving Avenue has to be re-noticed and re-heard before a board that will include Doug Olcott and a new member in Mastronardi's seat, so it is the one item from this meeting still live. And the argument made over 25 North Riverside — that refusing a modest variance invites a larger by-right building — will keep returning as the Riverside Avenue corridor redevelops.