Mike Ricard's Zoning Break
This page discusses the improper zoning variance obtained in Guilderland NY by Michael Ricard, an incumbent on the Town Board. Further below are some pictures that help explain. In short, Ricard never should have been granted this variance. He got this variance approved because of his political connections.

Ricard's house is in western Guilderland on Furbeck Road. He has 12 acres of land (satellite image below). In 2004, he applied for a variance for locating his pool and the fence around it. Under the town code, there is a setback requirement of 50 feet from the front property line. Ricard wanted to reduce this to 24 feet.

Under Town Law § 267-b, to get an area variance, an applicant must address five factors. The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) found in his favor on all five of these.

Factor 1 has to do with whether the change would be "undesirable," or "detrimental" to the neighboring properties. This is not obvious one way or another, so we'll skip that.

Factor 2 is, "whether the benefit ... can be achieved by some method, feasible for the applicant to pursue, other than an area variance." Ricard has 12 acres of land, and could have found another spot for his pool. Also, his own diagrams (see below) show that there was plenty of room in the area where he put it. Take a drive to 2881 Furbeck Road (zip 12009) and see for yourself. The ZBA should have found against Ricard on this factor.

Factor 3 is, "whether the requested area variance is substantial." The variance cut the setback by more than half. In this case a change of less than 5 feet would not be substantial, but 26 feet certainly is. The ZBA should have found against Ricard on this factor.

Factor 4 is like Factor 1 -- hard to define.

Factor 5 concerns whether the difficulty was self-created. Two years earlier Ricard built a 2100 foot steel building in a spot where he could have put the pool. He created the hardship himself. The ZBA should have found against Ricard on this factor.

The law also requires the ZBA to "... grant the minimum variance necessary and adequate ...." In this case the ZBA made no effort to minimize the variance, giving Ricard exactly what he asked for.

The ZBA is filled with people connected with Ricard and the local Democratic Party, and was filled with them at the time.

See the pictures and text below for more information.



The photo on the left is a diagram submitted by Ricard as part of his application. It clearly shows substantial space between the back part of the fence and the start of the supposedly steep slope. You should be able to enlarge the picture, perhaps by right-clicking and then viewing the image, or downloading the image. Ricard zoning - diagram
These two images are part of the zoning application. In the second picture, Ricard asserts that the "steep slope" behind the house would "prohibit" building a pool. This is total nonsense. On 12 acres of land, they could have found room somewhere for a pool.

These two pictures are a little blurry (cell phone camera).
Ricard Zoning application - 1 -- Ricard zoning application - 2
The satellite image on the right (from before the pool was installed), shows some of Ricard's 12 acres. From above at least, there certainly appears to be enough room for a pool somewhere on the property.
 Satellite picture two
Even working within the general area where Ricard wants to locate his pool, this image shows that everything could have been moved back at least somewhat. The slope does not start until at least 20 and perhaps 30 feet behind the house. In the first photo on this page, you can see that the back of the fence lines up with the back of the house, rather than at the line where the hill starts.
It's also interesting to compare the diagram above with these satellite images. The garage is missing from the diagram.
 Mike Ricard's fence and pool

There are two candidates for change in the Guilderland Town Board.
Please go to our Guilderland NY home page to find out more.