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11-09-2006 By JIM AUSTIN Editor Michael Briggs, representing USNY in Penn Yan, N.Y., was at the meeting representing a financial institution interested in putting an office in Cooperstown. He said they plan to offer a standard array of financial services for businesses and individuals. Briggs said the front of the building, which is currently retail space, would become a bank office and the rear of the building would remain a residential apartment. Board members inquired about their intention in regard to an automatic teller machine and Briggs responded that they did not intend to install a drive-through ATM despite the property’s connection to both Elm and Chestnut Sts. Briggs said it was likely they would have a 24-hour ATM in the front vestibule that could accessed after lobby hours by swiping an ATM card. He said right now they plan on having two teller windows and seven employees in the bank. The hours of operation, according to documents on file with the village, would be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon. through Fri. Saturday hours are still under consideration. There is sufficient space, Briggs said, to develop on-site parking for employees. ``We’re trying to make the impact as minimal as possible,’’ Briggs said. ``We don’t want to change the neighborhood dramatically. We want to be a community asset.’’ A Key Bank proposal to put a 24-hour ATM at the corner of Chestnut and Beaver Sts. was shot down two years ago because of concerns about lighting, traffic and noise. Some nearby neighbors expressed some of those same concerns during the informal discussion Monday. Briggs said they anticipate having no more than three customers at a time with an average stay of ten minutes each. There are three on-street parking spaces in front of the property, he added. Briggs said that before they proceed with the plan, he wanted to gauge the ZBA’s thinking about the non-conforming use in an R-3 residential district. The antique store is a non-conforming use in the district and the village zoning law generally does not allow such uses to be expanded or changed to another non-conforming use. There is a provision that would allow, with the approval of the ZBA, a change to another non-conforming use determined to be more conforming than the original. ZBA chairwoman Susan Snell said the ZBA has set a public hearing on a change in use of the property for a bank. The hearing will be Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 5 p.m. |
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