City officials focused on zoning change for neighborhood markets

Mar. 11—The ripples continue to spread from the community uproar in Oneonta about a proposed coffeehouse in a residential neighborhood.

The city of Oneonta's Legislative Committee debated Monday, March 11 the need to clearly define neighborhood markets and restaurants in city zoning codes to avoid confusion and legal disputes.

The move comes after Stagecoach Coffee withdrew its site plan application in December to open a coffee shop on a residential property, which it applied for as a neighborhood market, after a public outcry against the plan.

Part of the many of the objectors' argument was that a coffee shop is a restaurant, which are not allowed in the zoning district of the proposed location, and not a neighborhood market, which are allowed.

Because the definition of a neighborhood market does not meet the community's desires, the council approved Feb. 6 an eight-month moratorium on accepting applications for neighborhood markets within the city.

"We're here to better define what a market is," Kaytee Lipari Shue, D-Fourth Ward, said, "so that if we choose to go forward with markets in our code, we do have limits on things like hours and noise."

The new definition would create language that states cafés and coffee shops are restaurants, not neighboring markets.

Code Enforcement Officer Stephen Yerly said that since the city last changed its zoning codes around neighborhood markets in 2011 as part of the city's comprehensive plan, there has been one application for a market — Stagecoach's.

He highlighted the importance of reassessing city zoning to accommodate mixed-use neighborhoods, saying that that removing neighborhood markets from the zoning code would go against current trends in planning and development.

"My position is, I'm just not going to advise you to make the code less mixed-use in favor of more residential or single-use, for anything," he said. "There's many things in our zoning code that create unnecessary hurdles to development, and also are representative of very antiquated ways to think about land expansion."

Typically, zoning is utilized to negate or prevent concerns, but because of zoning appeals, much of the residential zone where Stagecoach wanted to build is not conforming to the zoning ordinance.

"Most of center city is not single-family housing," he said. "Most of it is not owner occupied. It's one of the most dense neighborhoods in the city, so to somehow argue that our zoning, as it's configured now, even is reflective of what we have in the city, is also problematic."

Because the definitions of a restaurant and a neighborhood market in the zoning code are not as clear as they could be, there is the potential for legal issues for the city if the Planning Board denies an application based on an unclear definition.

Lack of clarity in the zoning regulations always goes in favor of applicant, Yerly said.

"Their argument will be, lack of clarity in the zoning ordinance is not the fault of the applicant, it's a fault of municipality," he said.

Even if the council prohibits neighborhood markets in residential areas, that might not prevent another situation like the Stagecoach application, since any zoning code ordinance can be appealed to the city's Zoning Board of Appeals.

"Someone could file a use variance," Yerly said, "and go to the Zoning Board of Appeals, and be like, 'hey, I want to I want to open in a neighborhood market and I think that I have a hardship that I can show.' They can appeal, and the Zoning Board of Appeals can make a determination on that. Not following the process could lead to litigation."

The ZBA could deny applications that don't meet specific requirements, or it could mandate the applicant meets those requirements in order to get a special use permit.

The committee decided to table the discussion to its next meeting, scheduled for April 8.