Village Planning Board
Village Planning Board
New Build on Elizabeth Street Spurs Discussion re: Village Design Standards
The August meeting of the Ellicottville Village Planning Board opened with discussion regarding a Special Meeting held July 28th - a Public Hearing for a Special Use Permit (SUP) for Liquor Sales at Adventure Bound/Ellicottville Coffee Company. The SUP was approved.
Next, there was discussion regarding a new build to be located at 13 Elizabeth Street. This is a Single Family Home with two applications before the Board, Site Plan Review and Architectural Design Review. Regarding the Site Plan, all standards are met in height, setbacks and dimensions. It is the Architectural Design that has left continued questions from the Board. During the August work session, the applicant was asked to change a handful of design elements. Some of these are included but not limited to windows, roof pitch, materials and door changes. From the revised plans, the sliding front door now shows divides to simulate double hung windows. The size of the stone chimney was reduced, the stone privacy wall in the front was reduced in size, mullions were added to some upper windows. The pitch of the roof was increased but not enough to meet the intent of the architectural design guidelines of this area. The board commented that the pitch change was critical to blend in with the other homes and character of the neighborhood, but it really looked to have no significant change since the work session. The asymmetrical pitches do not fit the character of the neighborhood. The applicant expressed her frustration that she wants to build a beautiful home and be a good resident of the village, but does not understand why there are rules to dictate design when there were no rules on design when the homes were built. To this she was advised that the reasoning for creating and implementing the design standards was to protect and keep that character of the early 1900s homes. One Board member, Sean Cornelius, advised that a lot of these homes have been redone recently and everyone was held to the same design standard, even himself. The applicant pointed out other homes built in the modern era. However, according to the Board, because these homes were built prior to the architectural design guidelines, they aren’t all compatible with the historic character of the village residential neighborhoods. The Board made suggestions to the applicant of a few residences that the applicant should look to for a more “modern” take on the design standards the village requires. The applicant is going to take these into consideration and will work with her architect to make changes before the next submittal deadline.
Despite changes that should be made, this is still a complete application and there was a motion to set the Public Hearing for September 8, 2020 at 5:30pm; a second and ayes carried. Contact the Ellicottville Village Clerk at 716-669-4636 for instructions on how to join the meeting virtually.