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Home My WebLink About20190087 Kovachick Residence Correspondance 2 March 2019 1Efl .xxr. ara�|eys. oir�eM �� •annin�andEconomicoeve|opment ��Administrator uU '~�'` �d �QJ9 °CityofSaratogzSphngs 474 Broadway Saratoga SpringsNew York l2866 Ms.Tamie Ehinger,Chair Design Review Commission City of Saratoga Springs 474 Broadway Saratoga Springs, New York 12866 RE: 184 Phila Stnaex—AdditionsandAlterationstoxovachicknesidence DRC Agenda Item: 20190087 As a resident of this same historic district for almost 50 years, I am very familiar with this property and our neighborhood. I knew its previous owners, the Sandbergs as well as the Kovachicks,who have been wonderful stewards of their property, both preserving and making modifications that have reinforced this magnificent home on this stately corner lot. It is because of the responsibility that we shoulder as buyers and owners of historic properties within historic districts—supporting the efforts made over the last 42 years by our city and its preservationists that I write in opposition to this proposed addition. I find the current suggestion that an auto barn wing and its accompanying hard surface parking lot attached to one of the two principal elevations to be U['advised' unnecessary and inappropriate muddling of the structure and its landscape setting. This proposition does not respect the tenets of our Historic Review Commission's(DRC)own "Guidelines for the Preservation of the Saratoga Springs Historic District" and our city's Historic Zoning Ordinance Standards. I am reminded of another proposal—in the very early days of historic preservation in our city—to add a Holiday Inn residence wing attached to the Canfield Casino. Those were desperate times, but these are not.That proposal was wrong for many of the same reasons that this proposal is wrong. This proposed 'suburban' solution of an attached three vehicle garage with a parking arrival and 'motor court area' within the front yard is in conflict with the city's guidelines. In this district/neighborhood, new garages are to be "detached and sited at the rear of the property" because 'garages are generally not visible from the street". In fact,this application proposes the only property on Phila Street—from Circular Street(continuing on Fifth Avenue) to East Avenue, some 59 parcels(save for one nonconforming preexisting 1940 Colonial on Fifth)—that would now have the anomaly of the attached front yard auto display that is typical of those later suburban homes further east.And while the proposed arrangement may be de rigueur for recently built upscale neighborhoods in our city, it is not what we have legislated to be acceptable design for this historic district. There is no apparent necessity or justification for constructing a new curb cut with an auto parking area and a multi car garage entrance within the two front yards of this property. As the SSPF has correctly pointed out in their letter submitted in opposition to this application that the proposed garage barn could easily be rotated 180 degreestofrontonthpexistingdriveandpresentamuchlessobtrusivepresencea»a ~carriagehouse^ onthesite, respecting both the principal elevations of the existing architecture and remaining in harmony with the other 59 properties in the neighborhood. |t would seem that both the Departments of Public Safety and Public Works would be required to determine the traffic and safety impacts of this proposed curb cut near the corner,weighing the fact that the parcel already has an historic and currently utilized curb cut entrance on Nelson Avenue which is wider and less congested than the often crowded, narrower Phila Street near the oblique intersection at Nelson Avenue as proposed. 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