The Zoning Board of Adjustment approved preliminary and final site plans and use and bulk variances for a Campbell Street property that will be used as parking for the YMCA.

The application was heard at the Sept. 17 regular, monthly public meeting of the Zoning Board.

The property at 1491 Campbell St. (Block 153, Lot 28) is zoned R-2 and up until last year housed the 100-year-old VFW Post 681 building. The Y acquired the lot for $102,500 in August 2016 and razed it the following spring. Since the principal permitted use is for single-family dwellings or other permitted uses, a variance was required. Another variance was required because maximum impervious coverage is 60 percent, 50 percent depending on the use, but the application indicates 90 percent impervious coverage.

The variance was requested “to allow further growth of the staff and membership of the YMCA, without burdening existing public parking.” The number of parking spaces would be severely limited by compliance with maximum impervious coverage, according to the application. The 75 x 101.5-foot lot is roughly 7,615 square feet, or almost a third of an acre.

The YMCA owns several buildings on the block, containing both their building and parking on various other lots. “This lot will be used for additional parking for staff and patrons who can walk to the property owned by the YMCA by easement across another lot. The proposal is for a new asphalt lot with concrete curbs, lined parking spots, and ingress and egress from Campbell Street,” according to the land development application for Resolution 5/18.

The site has an overall tax assessment of $284,500 but both the VFW and YMCA are nonprofits so they are exempt from property taxes. (The assessment normally would yield a property tax bill of about $18,177, based on an overall 2016 tax rate of $6.389 per $100 of assessed value. The land assessment of $100,800 alone would generate taxes of about $6,440 if it was not exempt.)