pf08-008 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

� ^ over twenty-iive children, the vast majority under the age of 12, it gets significant use as a site for bicycling, ballgames, and other delights of childhood. The Autumn Street Parking Spaces First and foremost, the unanimous concern of the residents of Autumn Street, reflected in the signatories to the letter to the Planning Commission (see the Appendix) is this: we all oppose the use of the south side of the building at 1901 Lexington and any attempt, intended or unintended, to intensify the use of the Autumn Street, an R-1 residential street, as a route for automobile traffic to the business located there. The proposal and sketches submitted to the City threatened such an intensification of use. It included the proposal for a take-out window on the south side of the property, making use of the six-car parking area on the Autumn Street side. This proposal threatens to generate significant traffic on Autumn Street, making use of it as an easy thoroughfare that avoids the difficulty of turning across and onto the three-lane, busy traffic of Lexington Avenue. We direct to the further analysis of this in the letter submitted to the Planning Commission members and attached here (Appendix). Following on from the discussion at the Planning Commission, I can speak for the unified voices of the residents of Autumn Street in saying that any future action concerning this property, including the present one, must include the stand-alone requirement of the removal of the Autumn Street parking—as was anticipated by the 1997 Conditional Use Permit—and approval of a landscaping plan that seeks to divorce this business property from the residential properties abutting it on the western property line and facing it on the southern vista. The need for a removal of the property's Autumn Street parking leaves the property with a very substantial parking area, facing Lexington Avenue, and in no way limits the enjoyment of the property by its current or future owners. Further, the City Council would be wholly supported by both the nearby residents and its own planning staff, if it were to impose this condition, as anticipated by this Council's own foresight when it approved the 1997 Conditional Use Permit. Indeed, in light of all the factors, it would be wholly irrational for the City to approve this rezoning and CUP without requiring action to remove the Autumn Street parking, as provided for as a condition of the 1997 CUP. The Rezoning Request as a Whole We have no ill will toward with the proposed owners of the deli. Some residents of Autumn Street have relatively little concern with the proposal for a deli. I still speak with the endorsement of many residents, particularly those with children, concerning the proposed rezoning as a whole. Indeed, as stated in our letter to the Planning Commission, we enjoy the multi-use district at Lexington and Roselawn and the various "destination" businesses that the City has found fit to allow to locate there. These include a hardware store, a realtor, professional offices, and most recently a bookstore. The residents of Autumn Street are among the most frequent and loyal