Board rejects YMCA housing plan

By RODNEY MINOR, The Leader-Herald
GLOVERSVILLE — Plans to expand the Fulton County YMCA residential facility on East Fulton Street will have to be put on hold, perhaps indefinitely.

The majority of the Zoning Board of Appeals voted that Building Inspector D. Robert Robbins made an error when he determined the proposed use of the second floor of the YMCA at 19 E. Fulton St. put it under the definition of a hotel in the zoning ordinance.

The board’s decision means expanding the YMCA residential facility would violate existing zoning law.

Steve Serge, director of the YMCA, said the club will consider taking legal action over the matter.

In March, the Planning Board determined the Zoning Board of Appeals had to review Robbins’ zoning ordinance interpretation and classification.

The state-funded $3.5 million YMCA project would add 30 beds for the low-income residential program in the building, bringing the total number of beds to 53. The single beds in the facility cost $70 a week.

Concerned downtown business owners and city residents have said homeless people from outside the area would be brought in when the facility expands, negatively affecting the quality of life in the city.

Board members Garrison Seelow, Arthur Simonds, Jeffrey Ashe and David Huckans voted that Robbins’ decision was incorrect. Chairwoman Karen Smith and John Callahan voted in favor of Robbins’ interpretation.

Robbins said there is no exact definition in the zoning ordinance for what the YMCA is proposing. He went through the zoning code, explaining why he felt the hotel classification was the best choice for the proposed facility.

The YMCA proposal consists of second-floor sleeping rooms with an accessory kitchen, lounge area and communal bathrooms.

It sounds similar to a rooming house, but there are too many single sleeping rooms in the YMCA for it to be listed as that under the zoning ordinance, Robbins said. A motel only deals with transient occupants, which is not always the case with the YMCA. That left hotel as the best definition, he said.

“You may or may not like this definition of a hotel. Quite frankly, I feel it leaves a lot to be desired,” Robbins said. “But it is what we have to work with, according to this ordinance.”

Huckans said Robbins did the best he could with the ordinance, but had concerns about what was meant by hotel when the definition was created.

“I think common-sense wise ... based on when this was put into the zoning law, this is clearly not a hotel,” he said.

Robbins said the zoning laws for the city were first established in 1921. He was not certain exactly when the definition for hotel was created.

After the meeting, Serge said he was disappointed by how the board conducted its work. The board got caught up in trying to guess what was intended when the zoning ordinance was created, he said, rather than base its work on facts.

Board members noted the zoning ordinance was vague in places and did not necessarily say whether certain things were allowed under the definition of hotel.

City Attorney John Clo, who sat in on the meeting and was apparently advising the board, said the board did not need to concern itself with defining a hotel. All the board needed to do was determine whether Robbins made the correct interpretation under the zoning ordinance as it is written, he said.

Ashe said to go by intent, the board would need to look up information it did not have available at the meeting. Instead, Ashe said the operational uses of the proposed YMCA expansion, in his opinion, are not consistent with the operations of a hotel.

After the meeting, Ashe declined to comment on what Robbins’ interpretation should have been. He said it would not be appropriate for him to comment on any business the board conducts outside of a public session.

Simonds said the YMCA proposal appears similar to housing for people with substance abuse and behavioral issues, he said.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, downtown businesswoman Susan Casey, an opponent of the YMCA plan, listed a number of the services the YMCA would provide, such as life-skills training and a food pantry reference.

No definition in the city zoning ordinance fits this, she said. The services it provides would place it beyond the definition of a hotel.

Serge said the YMCA is proud of the services it provides to its residents. Many of the on-site services offered, such as a laundry service and an exercise area, hotels do offer, he said.

At one point, Serge held up a jar he claimed was filled with almost $1,500 in receipts residents of the YMCA had received after making purchases from downtown businesses in the past month. It was proof, he said, that the YMCA residents added to businesses in the community.

After the meeting, Serge said he looks forward to receiving the minutes and the board’s official explanation in writing. When that information is reviewed, the YMCA will consider its options, he said.

“We have implemented a capital project on the basis of information [the city] provided to us,” Serge said. “Then they change the rules on us.”

The YMCA will move into its new facility on Harrison Street this summer, and work was intended to start on the East Fulton Street building when that happened.