Center of Hope in Gloversville will apply for use variance | The Daily Gazette
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ERICA MILLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Center of Hope Code Blue shelter at 33 Bleecker St. in Gloversville is pictured on Monday.
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GLOVERSVILLE The advisory board of a downtown Code Blue homeless shelter on Thursday voted to apply for a “use variance” to continue to operate the shelter at the former YWCA on Bleecker Street after the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-0 to reject the group’s application for permanent certificate of occupancy on Wednesday.
Rev Rich Wilkinson of the Gloversville Free Methodist Church, which operates the Center of Hope shelter, participated in Wednesday’s ZBA public hearing. Wilkinson’s church owns the YWCA building and operated the shelter under a temporary certificate of occupancy from February to mid-April. Because the temporary permit expired, the shelter has not been able to reopen when temperatures drop below freezing.
aonyon@leaderherald.com
Brenda Liett, a congregation and board member of the Gloversville Free Methodist Church and lifelong city resident, speaks in support of the code blue shelter proposed by the church at its 33 Bleecker St. mission building before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Wednesday. (The Leader-Herald/Ashley Onyon)
GLOVERSVILLE After hearing from an extensive list of supporters and opponents of a proposed code blue shelter in the former YWCA building on Bleecker Street and following a lengthy deliberation on city code provisions, the Zoning Board of Appeals upheld the determination by the building inspector that the shelter is not allowed under city zoning code. The ZBA went on in their decision to provide shelter organizers the opportunity to amend their application in search of a variance to potentially advance the project.