Harriman City Zoning Code
ARTICLE VIA
Senior Citizen Residential Overlay RSH District
§ 140-41.1 Purpose and intent.
Senior Citizen Residential Overlay District is hereby established to enable the Village of Harriman to permit housing intended to house people 55 years of age and older and to address the specific needs and desires of that population particularly those persons living in the Village of Harriman. The RSH District permits the Village to evaluate the need and demand for such housing, specific aspects of the RSH, relate the type, design and layout of a RSH to a particular site and control the impacts that such a development may have on the surrounding community. Furthermore, the RSH District is intended to discourage urban sprawl while encouraging innovative, traditional neighborhood developments and alternative land development practices, which will otherwise promote the public health, safety and welfare of the public, preserve, or enhance property values within existing residential areas and maintain the unique character of the Village.
§ 140-41.2 Applicability; minimum parcel size.
B.
Applicability. A RSH District shall represent a mapped geographic area applied to the Zoning Map according to the amendment procedures of the Village of Harriman Zoning Chapter. The RSH District may be applied only within any of the zoning districts established by this chapter except the I Zone and may encompass one or more of those districts, provided all other criteria are satisfied. Unless expressly stated otherwise in this section, all lands affected by a RSH District shall conform to all other applicable provisions of this chapter that are not inconsistent with the RSH Zone.
C.
Central water and sewer must serve the development.
D.
Once applied to a site, the underlying zone shall no longer apply.
E.
The Village Board may attach such conditions upon the grant of RSH zoning designation as it may deem appropriate or as may be required as a result of environmental review. Conditions will include a requirement that Village residents (as defined by the Village Board) and/or their immediate family receive first preference for units for up to 60 days, when the units become available. Following this sixty-day period, units maybe offered to non-Village residents.
§ 140-41.3 Application; approval.
Acceptance of an application for the RSH District shall be at the sole discretion of the Village Board. Approval of an RSH District shall also be at the sole discretion of the Village Board and shall require a determination by the Village Board that the application meets the following criteria:
A.
Demonstrated local need. The local need for such a development within the community shall be demonstrated by the applicant to the satisfaction of the Village Board.
B.
Evaluation and mitigation of significant impacts. The development shall not significantly impact the adjacent area, circulation and traffic, historic structures, the overall population mix of the Village, the tax rate base and any other issues as may be identified, together with a full environmental impact statement, as required.
C.
Site development concept plan. The development concept of all areas encompassed by a RSH District shall be adequately described by a site development concept plan comprised of scaled drawings and associated reports. At a minimum, the site development concept plan shall adequately describe:
(1)
The boundary and area of the RSH District, including underlying zoning districts,
(2)
The general location, orientation and size of proposed principal and ancillary structures and the individual lots upon which are situated associated parking areas, open space and landscape areas, recreation areas, the location, size and general treatment of environmentally sensitive areas and the general pedestrian and vehicular traffic routes (external and internal) to and from the development;
(3)
Tabular data, written statements, graphic materials and illustrations sufficient to demonstrate compliance with all applicable provisions of this chapter; and
(4)
Any data that the Village Board deems necessary to evaluate the development proposal.
D.
Prior to making its determination regarding the amendment to the Zoning Map, the Village Board shall seek the opinion of the Planning Board. The Planning Board shall have 62 days to report to the Village Board. If no report is forthcoming in this time, the Village Board may proceed to act.
E.
If the Village Board adopts the map amendment, the applicant may proceed to site plan review by the Planning Board in accordance with the site plan review provisions of the Zoning chapter (§ 140-45 herein) The site plan must be generally consistent with the concept approved as a basis for the zoning. The plan submitted to the Planning Board may not vary significantly in any dimension or parking requirement. If the Planning Board approves a site plan that varies from the concept approved by the Village Board in a significant dimension, or density (10% or greater) the plan shall be referred back to the Village Board for review and approval.
§ 140-41.4 Standards for development.
A.
The standard for Senior Citizens Housing developments shall be as follows:
(1)
It shall be the duty of the owner or his agent to file a certification with the Building Inspector indicating compliance with this chapter's requirements relating to the number of occupants and the age of the occupants in each dwelling unit. Such certification shall be filed no later than January 15th of each year.
(2)
In the case of sale units or cooperative or condominium units, the contract of sale shall include a covenant restricting occupancy of said unit to those persons permitted by this district. Said provision shall be reviewed by the Village Attorney and shall be included with the contract of sale and filed with the County Clerk.
B.
No dwelling units shall contain more than two bedrooms, except that one dwelling unit for a superintendent may be provided which shall consist of no more than three bedrooms.
C.
Except for the superintendent and his or her immediate family ("immediate family" shall mean spouse/partner; children; parents), the occupancy of a senior citizen housing development shall be limited to persons 55 years of age or older. Occupancy of a dwelling unit by a person younger than 55 years of age shall be permitted if it is established that the presence of such person is essential for the physical care of an eligible (55 or over) occupant or is the spouse of such eligible occupant (55 or over).
D.
One superintendent apartment may be permitted for each 60 dwelling units.
E.
Persons under the age of 18 shall not be permitted residents of dwelling units. For the purposes of this regulation, "permanent residents" shall mean any person who lives in the dwelling unit for more than four weeks in a row at one time, or has listed the residence as a dwelling unit for purposes of establishing residency.
F.
Accessory uses:
(1)
Within the senior citizen housing development, certain related accessory facilities may be permitted, either in a separate building or in combination with a building containing dwelling units, such as dining facilities, self-service laundries, lounges, game rooms, workshops, for use of the occupants and not for general public use. Such facilities shall be subordinate to the residential character of the development and with no outside advertising. Any such accessory facilities shall require specific approval of the Planning Board. At a minimum, the Planning Board shall require all senior citizen housing developments to have a common meeting room of sufficient size, in the Planning Board's judgment, to meet the needs of the development.
(2)
In addition, permitted accessory uses include administrative, social and recreational buildings, structures and areas. Facilities may include, but are not limited to:
(3)
Individual home occupations are not permitted.
G.
The site density shall not exceed 15 dwelling units per net acre for multifamily units and a maximum of six dwelling units per net acre for townhouses or patio homes or detached homes.
H.
Coverage; open space.
(1)
Development coverage shall not exceed 60% including building, walks, parking areas and driveways, Building coverage shall not exceed 20%.
(2)
A minimum of 15% of the total lot area shall be set aside as open space to remain in its natural undisturbed state or revegetated to appear as minimally disturbed land. This area may include buffer areas as required in this section. An additional 10% of the site shall be devoted to active and passive recreational uses such as recreation and social gathering areas, walkways, sitting areas, gardens and adjacent usable open space. Areas devoted to active recreation or passive recreation shall include grades acceptable for use by senior citizen residents.
I.
At least 1.25 off-street parking spaces must be provided for each dwelling unit plus 0.25 space per dwelling unit for visitor parking. Each parking space should be within 200 feet of the unit it is intended to serve. Each parking space shall be a minimum of 10 feet by 20 feet. The number and location of handicap parking spaces, in addition to minimum code requirements, shall be determined during site plan review.
J.
The maximum building height shall be 40 feet with a maximum of 3 1/2 stories. Where a structure is on a sloping site, the maximum height may be increased up to 48 feet at the discretion of the Planning Board. In making its determination, the Planning Board shall consider the scale of neighboring structures and distances between structures,
K.
The minimum distance between detached buildings shall be 30 feet. No principal building may be closer than 30 feet to a property line of the overall development.
L.
Group sitting areas shall be well-defined by walls, fences, hedges or other plantings designed to impact a sense of containment or security and to provide group privacy.
M.
There shall be provided a safe and convenient system of drives, service access roads and walks with due consideration given in planning such facilities to such items as handrails and ramps. Such facilities shall be adequately lighted, and said lighting shall not be directed on adjacent streets or properties. Walks and drives shall be connected to walks and drives on adjoining property wherever possible.
N.
Central refuse collection areas shall be located for the convenience of all units. They shall be supplied with an adequate number of covered receptacles and shall be provided with proper screening and maintenance.
O.
All parking areas, driveways, recreation areas and refuse collection areas shall be no closer than 10 feet to any building, and any swimming pool shall be no closer than 30 feet to any building and 50 feet to any lot line. Parking, other than driveways leading to a garage or carport, may not occur in a front yard whether measured from a public or private street. This does not apply to private internal access drives within a residential development comprised of multiple dwellings or townhouses.