By Adam Swift
The city council’s zoning subcommittee will take up a special permit request for a change of use at a business at 870 Broadway.
Master Spray Foam Insulation is requesting the special permit to change the current non-conforming use, a commercial garage, to another non-conforming use, a contractor storage yard.
At a public hearing before the full council last week, one resident who lives near the location raised concerns about the current state of the building at 870 Broadway, as well as about noise in the early morning hours and black soot coming from the exhaust system at the top of the building.
The attorney representing Master Spray Foam said the applicant would agree to having inspections of the building by the appropriate city departments to ensure that the building is safe.
“Specifically, what the petitioner is looking for is a place to have his vehicles stored that service his spray foam business,” said attorney Joseph Cattoggio. “There are three vans and three box trucks that will be stored overnight on site. There will be no off-street parking involved.”
Cattoggio said there are also no changes planned for the existing building on the property.
The only activity that will take place on the property is the loading of the spray foam for offsite jobs in the morning onto the trucks, and the unloading of the trucks at the end of the day.
“There will be no other vehicles, no construction vehicles like backhoes or tractors, anything of that nature stored on site, and no materials other than those already there for the spray foam business.”
Fiske Street resident Jo Gupta, who lives near 870 Broadway, told the council she had several concerns about the proposal.
“First, it has been used as a contractor’s storage yard for seven years, and I wonder why that has been allowed, it is supposed to be used as a gas and service station,” Gupta said.
Gupta also said that she is woken up at 5:45 a.m. by employees driving to the business and loading the trucks. Additionally, when the business gets a shipment of supplies, an 18-wheeler typically parks on Broadway and blocks Fiske Street, she added.
Gupta raised concerns about the condition of the building itself, noting it appears that stucco has fallen off the building and that one of the two exhaust systems on the roof regularly discharges black soot.
In addition, Gupta said there are a number of unregistered cars that have been delivered to and stored on the property.
“The permit should not be approved until all the cars are gone, and I don’t know why you would approve it if it is not a conforming use,” said Gupta.
Ward 3 Councillor Anthony Cogliandro said that under the conditions for the new special permit, the only vehicles that will be allowed on the property are the three box trucks and three vans for the company.
“The site will no longer be used for repairs of any kind,” he said. “They are only going to be allowed to have these six vehicles that are all owned by the petitioner and used for his spray foam business.”
Under the permit, Cogliandro said the hours of operation are 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and that if there are any issues, neighbors could contact the city. He added that the delivery trucks should not block Fiske Street, and that he wanted to know what was causing the soot from the exhaust system.
Cattoggio said his client would be open to any city inspections to help determine that the building and the site are up to code.
“I’ve had several calls on this, and I’ve got to be honest, speaking to the petitioner before the meeting, I think people are going to be happy with what is proposed,” said Councillor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto, who chairs the zoning subcommittee. “One, there is no on-street parking of any kind and two, it is truly a lesser use. This is not going to be a mechanic’s shop, those cars are not going to be there.”
Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio said that it would make the most sense to have the fire inspector look at the building and the furnace to make sure there are no outstanding issues with the property.
“At the end of the day, I think we can all agree that this is a better use for this property, we just want to make sure any concerns in the neighborhood are dealt with,” said Cogliandro.
