2004-10-01 THOLMES - Laserfiche WebLink

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SIRACUSA:Okay. I was wondering about the long gap between that and the current request and -. DARROW:It might be a better -. SIRACUSA:But that might explain it then. Okay. Thank you. SPRINGER:Mr. Yuen? YUEN:I think the Applicant could correct us but I think it was actually the same person, and there was a long gap in building this project, and -. This was a subject of a lot of discussion in the Department with the Applicant about whether he would have to go for a, whether wed make him go for a SMA Major Permit because the original, a onesinglefamilyhomeisexemptifitsnotpartofalargerdevelopment.The Department can make a decision that it should get a SMA Permit if it has a significant environmental or ecological effect. We would not look, have looked at this, we do not, the previous administration nor myself looked at the initial home as having a significant effect. The question comes into play in that if you, you can then, you build a house and then if you convert it to a duplex for under, or, you convert it to a duplex or even a triplex for under $125,000, then it can be an SMA Minor Permit rather than a Major Permit. Whereas, if you apply from the beginning for a triplex, you would need, you would definitely need an SMA Major Permit. This has a potential for abuse; and in the end we decided that we would not accept it as a Minor Permit based on the value of the conversion, but we would require a Major Permit based on the fact that you were going to end up with proposed three units. SIRACUSA:The reason, part of the reason I asked was because I was under the impression that when someone applies for a permit, theyre supposed to be applying for the whole project, not just little piecemeal bits of it, even if they choose not to develop everything immediately but only in phases. And, so, that long-time gap made me pause because he says now that his wife is handicapped and cant access the upper floors of the structure. And I can understand that, I have trouble with steps, too. But I was wondering if he has known about this all this time and was just trying to get around that, or if this is something recent that has come up, or if someone else had owned it previously. Thats the way my mind was working on that, the questions that were raised, yeah. SPRINGER:Thank you. Any further comments? Questions of the staff? If there are none, at this time Id like to invite the Applicants representative forward, and any members of the audience who would like to testify on this matter, following the applicants representative. Mr. Gimpel, youre already under oath. We have also an Ellen, and Im not sure of the pronunciation -. 3