The First Village Zoning:
The Zoning Board of Appeals
The first Cayuga Heights zoning board of appeals (ZBA) was appointed at the same December 10, 1925 board of trustees meeting when the law was passed and consisted of three regular members and a chair. Like the members of the commission that had written the zoning law, as well as the village board itself, they were all professors at Cornell. Initial members were Ralph Curtis in landscape design; Victor Gage in engineering, who was also a longtime member of the City of Ithaca Municipal Civil Service Commission; architecture professor George Young Jr., who had served on the zoning law commission; and law professor Oliver McCaskill, who was elected chair.
There being no terms of office laid down in the law, zoning board members served as long as they wished. Professors McCaskill and Gage resigned within a year of being appointed, replaced by local attorney Sherman Peer and Cornell law professor Lyman Wilson.(1) Charles Newman, the son and law partner of Jared Newman, was appointed to membership by the board of trustees and succeeded McCaskill as chair in 1927; he convened and presided over hearings of the zoning board of appeals until 1942. Local builder Andrew McPherson was the village zoning officer from 1926 to 1929, after which the job was added to the responsibilities of village engineer Carl Crandall. Crandall was paid for his services, whereas members of the ZBA, like those of the village board of trustees, volunteered their time.
There being no terms of office laid down in the law, zoning board members served as long as they wished. Professors McCaskill and Gage resigned within a year of being appointed, replaced by local attorney Sherman Peer and Cornell law professor Lyman Wilson.(1) Charles Newman, the son and law partner of Jared Newman, was appointed to membership by the board of trustees and succeeded McCaskill as chair in 1927; he convened and presided over hearings of the zoning board of appeals until 1942. Local builder Andrew McPherson was the village zoning officer from 1926 to 1929, after which the job was added to the responsibilities of village engineer Carl Crandall. Crandall was paid for his services, whereas members of the ZBA, like those of the village board of trustees, volunteered their time.
Professor Wilson kept a binder containing records of the seven cases adjudicated by the ZBA from 1926 to 1941.(2) The appeals of three decisions made by the zoning officer were denied, including one in 1928 from the Lambda Alumni of Theta Chi fraternity who wanted to build a chapter house on Highland Road in Zone 1.
The four upheld were those of Professor William Geer to build the chemistry lab designed by local architect Lakin Baldridge to match his house next door at 634 Highland Road; of Alison Mason Kingsbury Bishop, artist and wife of Professor Morris Bishop, to build a home at 903 Wyckoff Road on sloping land less than 15 feet from the roadway; of Cornell architecture professor Hubert Baxter to place a house on a subdivided lot at 119 East Upland Road with less than the requisite setback; and of Calvin Dodge Albert who wished to build a house at the corner of Kelvin Place and Brook Lane on 18.1% of the property. In all four cases neighbors either did not object or supported the owners’ projects.
The four upheld were those of Professor William Geer to build the chemistry lab designed by local architect Lakin Baldridge to match his house next door at 634 Highland Road; of Alison Mason Kingsbury Bishop, artist and wife of Professor Morris Bishop, to build a home at 903 Wyckoff Road on sloping land less than 15 feet from the roadway; of Cornell architecture professor Hubert Baxter to place a house on a subdivided lot at 119 East Upland Road with less than the requisite setback; and of Calvin Dodge Albert who wished to build a house at the corner of Kelvin Place and Brook Lane on 18.1% of the property. In all four cases neighbors either did not object or supported the owners’ projects.
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The zoning law remained in effect until 1953. At that time revision was made necessary by the annexation of land that quadrupled the size of the Village of Cayuga Heights from .44 to 1.82 square miles. The annexed land became known as the “new” village. It included neighborhoods in the Town of Ithaca west of the “old” village line adjoining Renwick Heights, neighborhoods reaching north of the “old” village as far as Lansing that were subdivided for development by Newman and Blood in the 1920s and 30s, and newer neighborhoods in the town being developed east of North Triphammer Road.
The annexation took place in the context of the expansion of Cornell as a research university and the growth of the Ithaca area in the years following World War II. It was initiated by petition of landowners in the affected area, led among others by Walter J. Heasley Jr. who in 1947 built the type of commercial retail center at Community Corners envisioned by Jared Newman. |
Carl Crandall's 1953 zoning map shows the outlines of the expanded village.
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ENDNOTES
(1) “L. N. Simmons, Village Clerk” to “Prof. Lyman P. Wilson, Law School, Boardman Hall,” February 7, 1930.
(2) Minutes of Zoning Board of Appeals of the Village of Cayuga Heights, New York, March 1926-August 1941.
(1) “L. N. Simmons, Village Clerk” to “Prof. Lyman P. Wilson, Law School, Boardman Hall,” February 7, 1930.
(2) Minutes of Zoning Board of Appeals of the Village of Cayuga Heights, New York, March 1926-August 1941.
