Batavia planners mull home conversions

Walk around neighborhoods immediately to the west and east of downtown Batavia and you'll mostly pass by single-family homes, many built before World War II.

But every once in a while you see two or more mailboxes on a building, indicating it's been partitioned into several units.

Chances are the conversion was done 40 or more years ago, when "there was not as much of an emphasis on zoning," said Joel Strassman, the city's planning and zoning officer.

The city is proposing to continue restricting anybody else from doing so as part of an overall update of its 1971 zoning law. But maybe people should be allowed to, according to at least one plan commission member.

Karen Kosky, vice chairman of the commission, thinks a diverse housing stock is a good thing. Strassman agrees, noting multifamily conversions would increase the amount of affordable housing in Batavia. It would also be an option for senior citizens who would like to stay in their neighborhoods, but downsize from a large house, Strassman said.

"Wouldn't it be nice if they could move a block or so away and stay in a smaller residence?" Strassman said.

And so the commission decided to at least discuss the idea. It will do so at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, at the Batavia Government Center, 100 N. Island Ave.

"It is not an action plan by any means," Strassman said.

Mostly older areas

Kosky lives just west of the downtown, south of Wilson Street, one of those central neighborhoods "where there was not as much of an emphasis on zoning 50, 60, 70 years ago," Strassman said. "We don't have a lot of these situations in neighborhoods developed in the 1970s or 1980s on the east side or Tanglewood on the west side, he said.

One exception is the Woodland Hills subdivision, which allows duplexes on some of the corners.

Some are "granny flats" - subordinate living quarters, including a kitchen and bath, whose water and electric utilities run off the same connection as the main residence. Independent units have separate utility service and bills.

Preventing anyone else from setting up the same arrangement disturbed Kosky. "I wasn't sure it was a good thing," she said.

Planners do recognize the potential downsides: noisier dwellings, more people parking on the street, more traffic.

Conversions would require masonry fire walls between units, something that wasn't required in the 1950s and 1960s, and emergency exits. The public schools would also be affected, as there may be more children living in an area than the district originally planned for, Strassman said.

Kosky thinks that if the buildings are maintained well and "properly planned for and built," there would not be big problems.

Better oversight today

"There are structures that were converted to multifamily in haphazard and irresponsible ways. I believe our current building codes would not let that happen," Kosky said.

Before getting a building permit, the owners would have to show how they would handle issues like parking in ways that wouldn't hurt neighbors.

She also thinks any new conversions would likely be owner-occupied buildings, and so they would take care of their buildings.

"They would probably be very attractive ... it would be an attractive rental," said Kosky. She also noted that tenant and maintenance issues are not limited to apartments and duplexes; there are single-family houses for rent, too.

"I think we have to be careful to separate multifamily from rental units," she said.

Any changes will be presented in a public hearing later this year or early next, and then voted on by the city council when it adopts the whole revised code.