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Uh, Okay, welcome everyone to the uh
Bronxville Zoning Board of Appeals uh

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meeting. I am uh Charlie Law. I'll be
your acting chairman for uh the evening.

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And um joining me tonight are um Jamie
Rean, John Brown, and Mary Ellen

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Carpenter. Uh
we only have four people tonight. So you

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it requires a vote of three in order to
approve the variance. Uh I just want to

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make sure you're aware of that. Usually
there are five um but tonight we only

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have four. So we have one application on
for tonight. It is uh for an area

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variance for the um uh homeowners. Mr.
Mrs. Andrew Peltzer at 40 Duesenberry

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Road. Um, who is going to
be presenting?

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» Oh, you're the homeowner. Great.

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» I'm going do my best. Um,
so um this uh application, well, thank

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you in advance everyone for um for the
opportunity here. Um this application is

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part of a larger project that started
about a year a year ago. Um we're at the

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end of Denberry Road. We've had um
issues with flooding um around our

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property and and the the the largest um
concern we had was with our garage which

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was in the basement of our house. Um our
driveway. Um

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does this have a pointer function or no?
Can you go Can you please go back to the

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um the prior Yeah.
Thank you. Yeah. So, our driveway used

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to used to come around the back side of
the the left side of the property and

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then the entire you know left half of
the backyard was also a driveway. So, we

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had a very substantial driveway that um
we've reduced now to a much smaller

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piece. the

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the portion um in question for this
application is the small triangular

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piece at the front end of the driveway.
Um I don't know if this has a pointer or

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not. Um

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yeah, so this section here is is the
area we would like to add. Um,

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initially when the driveway was
designed, we we didn't really appreciate

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how difficult it would be to utilize a
driveway this short um with this kind of

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narrow setup at the front. So, in most
of the driveways that we've looked at,

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uh, where you have this sort of setup,
you have plenty of room to maneuver,

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right? You can enter the driveway, you
have room to maneuver the car into an

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adjacent spot. And what we found here is
that first of all the cars that are

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pictured in the diagram are not
realistic to cars um in uh today's

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world. And when you have a car parked on
the right uh in the right spot, it's

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impossible to navigate a car on the
driveway into the spot on the left. Um

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without driving over the area that we're
seeking to add. Um and and further, if

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you have a car parked in the left spot,
even if there isn't anything on the

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right, you're doing a five-point turn at
least to get out of the driveway without

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um driving over the curb. So, it's it's
very difficult to use. It forces you to

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to use first the car on the right, which
isn't, you know, my my wife, I have

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three kids. She needs the big car to
pick them up at school. It's created

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some problems. And what we've ended up
doing often times is parking parking in

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the street, which obviously is not um
not the objective. Um so

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um when we realized all the trouble we
were having with the driveway when it

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was completed, we started to look around
at what what was, you know, common in

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our neighborhood in terms of similarly
situated homes. And so if you look at

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all of the homes that have a twocar uh
two-car garage that faces the on the

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front of the house that faces the
street, um what you'll find on

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Dooenberry Road is that all of them have
the type of driveway that we're

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requesting now. So it's equidistant
um equal width driveway from the um

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garage all the way to the street. And
that's true of all um nine of the

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driveways with a similar garage set up
on Dooenberry Road. So you can see here

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they're all
um consistent

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um with with that. Some even have more
um paved space as well. Um we haven't

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had we've had nothing but support from
our neighbors uh who you know understand

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the the difficult see the difficulty
we're having. We had a car get stuck in

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this recent snowstorm when we were
trying to drive kind of cut the corner

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on that piece. Um um and you know, our
objective really is not to get something

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special. We want, you know, something
functional that works with our house,

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allows us to use um efficiently the work
that we've uh we've put into the home.

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Um and and as you've seen, the the the
plan that we're trying to to put forward

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here is is entirely consistent with with
the rest of the neighborhood. So, uh,

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we're, you know, hopeful, uh, to have
your support for for doing this

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extension, but if you have any
questions, I'm happy to answer.

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» How many feet actually are you moving to
the left to widen the driveway?

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» The So, the it's from the curb cut, it's
a matter of

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» it's like six and a half, something like
that.

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But it's a it's a relatively small
portion because you see after the curb

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cut the driveway actually flares out
again to the uh to the curb.

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» Yes.
>> Yeah.

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» Um so it's a it's a relatively small
piece. And then considering the size of

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the driveway that we've removed as a
part of this greater project, it it

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really I think it's something like 20%
of the of the former driveway. Did you

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design it like that for architectural
purposes and it did it's now not

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functioning the way you thought? Yeah,
the little piece.

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» No, I my understanding from speaking to
my architect was that we were limited to

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the curb cut that existed in the prior
driveway when we when we structured

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this. And so the challenge with that is
they're very different driveways. We had

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miles of driveway to to maneuver cars. I
could have parked six cars in that in

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that um back that back area on the left.
Um, this this area was entirely

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driveway.
>> Two questions I have.

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» Sure.
>> Do you need additional permission to get

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the curb cut, the new curb cut, or do
you have that or

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» is that okay?
>> That's my

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You haven't secured that yet, but you're
you will if you

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» if we get if we obtain the variance.
Yes, I think that's correct.

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» Second question. Um, is there
some sort of um

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it looks like maybe there will be less
permeable space if you um or have you

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addressed that issue or do you have to
address that issue in terms of drainage

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and
um for the for for for the additional

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driveway?
Um I there's a very complicated

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uh uh plan drainage plan for the
property that

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» gonna say no only because he's got
probably about 20 to 30 under his

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property throughout.
>> Yeah.

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» There's cult here. Basically everything
that's now grass is cold. So this is a

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big field of cult.
>> There's one there's one set here and

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there's a large deeper set here. Um so I
think we have we've we've done

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everything we can to address ressed with
the larger project. Is that

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» Yes, they're part of the the initial
plans. We put those all in in the last

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year.
>> Okay.

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» Mhm.
>> Yeah.

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» Oh.
>> Oh, so it's actually more.

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» It's all Yeah, we've returned a lot of
the space.

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» We've returned a lot of space to grass.
Yeah.

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» It's a big issue in Bronxville, as you
know. We We address that just about

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every meeting.
>> Yep.

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» And you And you should. All the water
ends up in my house.

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» We approved your application for that
part quite a while ago to get all that

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green space back. We thought was great,
which is

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» not that much
>> purpose. Hard.

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» That's it.
>> Anyone?

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» No, I think it's a great idea because
that's a one-way street and it's hard to

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make that left-hand turn that way.
>> Yeah, two-way street would be a little

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different, but
>> got a fighting battle there like that.

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» Had you planned to landscape that part
there? It's going to look better, I

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think, anyway, straight. But were you
going to landscape in there? Was that

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what you were going to do? Put grass
there?

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» Yeah. Well, we have we we ran out of
time during, you know, to to um seed and

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and landscape in the winter. So, that's
that's our plan is to we figure out

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exactly what it looks like to to put in
grass and landscape throughout the

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front.
>> Any other questions, input, anything

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like that? Okay. Then, let's um propose
variance. um resolved that the

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Bronxville Zoning Board of Appeals grant
a variance to the uh homeowners at 40

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Duesenberry Road, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew uh
Peltzer. Uh grant an area variance from

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uh 310-22-D.
Uh the request to enlarge the existing

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prop um existing driveway from 12 uh
feet wide to 19 and a half feet wide.

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Okay, I will start to my right. Mrs.
Carpenter, your vote.

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» Um, I approve. I think it makes sense.
>> I also approve. I think it's a very

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common sense approach. Thank you so
much.

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» I am in favor. And
>> I'm in favor.

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» I am in favor.
>> So, it is carried unanimously.

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» Fantastic. Thank you so much. you you
have one year uh to to complete the

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work. I'm sure you'll do it before that,
but just

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» I'm still under construction in one
year. I have bigger problems.

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» Well, that's what I that's what I say
when my credit card keeps buffering and

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buffering. If that doesn't go through,
I'll get bigger problems than just you.

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But anyway, thank you.
>> Welcome,

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» Christina. How'd I do?
>> Oh.

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Right.
So, so not yet. I haven't done well yet.

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Right.
>> Yes. Okay. So, the meet Well, the next

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meeting is scheduled for and do we have
a the meeting? Okay. Um and um the

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February 24th,
2026. And this meeting is adjourned.

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» All right.
Heat. Heat.

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Heat. Heat.