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The board room just about cleared out after the decision on the Dobbs Ferry Lutheran Church was heard on Wednesday night. The church had more than its fair share of spectators at the Zoning Board of Appeals public hearing of its application.
"Those were all people in support, there was a petition of 27 concerned mothers whose kids go to the school," said Joseph LoCascio, the Lutheran Church's attorney. "[Most were either] pastors or concerned parents, all in favor."
The Dobbs Ferry Lutheran Church is in the middle of a process to sell the two-family house on two Storm Street. The house is on the corner of Ashford Avenue and Storm Street and has adjoining property with the church. The church wants to subdivide its property so that it can sell off the private house but retain ownership of the playground, which many children in the village frequent. It needs zoning board approval to subdivide.
"We have asked the board to allow us to sell the house and to keep 2,000 square feet of the playground area," LoCascio said. "It's going to be smaller than what is there now, but it's better than nothing."
The new proposed line would give the residents in the house a 60 foot back yard, which is more than what's required by the village code, but because the front yard is nonexistent the property comes up short of what the code requires.
"We just want to move the lot line between the two properties we own and then we will probably put the two-family house on the market," LoCascio said.
One neighbor voiced a question to make sure the church wasn't going to make the property a building lot, which LoCascio insisted it would not.
The church has been before two boards already and now that the Zoning Board of Appeals approved the proposed variances on Wednesday, it needs to go back before the Planning Board to file a map with the Westchester County clerk's office and re-divide the lot.
What's your opinion on the church's plan?
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