I am writing in response to a legal notice posted on May 9 regarding a public hearing that is scheduled for Monday, May 22, at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Yorkville Municipal Building. The purpose of the scheduled hearing is to discuss the request by owners of 144 Campbell Avenue for a variance to operate a boarding house.

I read this legal notice over the weekend while browsing postings on our neighborhood
NextDoor APP. I was immediately concerned about the prospect of someone who recently purchased a single-family home (3 BR & 1 bath according to the Zillow listing for the recent sale of this property) who is now proposing to turn it into a boarding house. The wording of this legal notice led me to question:

1.) What is the definition of a “boarding house?” It is defined on the online site for the New York State Senate: www.senate.gov “a boarding house, furnished room house or tourist house. A multiple dwelling in which there are less than thirty sleeping rooms occupied primarily by transients who are lodged with or without meals, and in which there are such services as are incidental to its use as a temporary resident. Also, a dwelling two or more stories in height, occupied by one or two families and with five or more transient boarders, roomers or lodgers residing with any one family.”

2.) Who currently owns and/or lives in the residence and why is there a need to apply for a variance? In my opinion, this “need” should be suspect to scrutiny. Who will be the “boarders?” Why is there a need to change the zoning of this previously single-family home to a “boarding house?” We all know of homes in Yorkville that are rental properties. Some are occupied by longer term renters by lease. Other, shorter-term leases seem to be for Utica University students. As far as I can determine, they haven’t gone through a process of requesting a variance to be reclassified as boarding houses. Of extreme concern to this neighborhood should be the prospect of a boarding house being located directly across the
street from a public park where our children play.

3.) 144 Campbell Avenue sits on the corner of Campbell Avenue and Montrose Avenue. The driveway for the house is on Montrose, and there is a two-car garage. The times I have driven by the house, I consistently have seen two cars in the driveway, and a third car parked in the parking lot that belongs to Frank J. Robak Park. The third car has been parked in the parking lot at various days and times. This parking arrangement seems to be conducted despite signs posted on the park fence stating that the parking lot is only for parking while using the park.

I hope that my fellow Yorkville neighbors take the time to attend the public hearing on Monday. Please come out and listen to the discussion and ask whatever questions and concerns that you may have on this variance request. Don’t allow this request to pass through without neighborhood input.

— Kathryn Hanna, Yorkville