It is the purpose of this chapter to preserve the prevailing
aesthetic character of the City and its environs while permitting
originality and resourcefulness in building design and appearances
which are appropriate to their site and surroundings, yet preventing
such design and appearances that would be unnecessarily offensive
to visual sensibilities. The preserving and promoting of the character,
appearances and aesthetics of the City will serve to maintain the
property values within the City of Mount Vernon. Enhancing the attractiveness
of the residential and business areas of the City offers an economic
stability for the entire community. This chapter serves to provide
procedures for an architectural review of structures henceforth erected,
reconstructed or altered in the City to encourage good qualities of
exterior building design, appropriate appearances and to relate such
design and appearances to the surrounding sites and structures. It
is also the purpose of this chapter to prevent the harmful effects
of inappropriate exterior appearances of buildings erected, reconstructed
or altered in any neighborhood, thus promoting and protecting the
general welfare of the community and conserving the value of buildings.
The City Council hereby finds that structures and architectural
features with excessive uniformity, dissimilarity, inappropriateness
or poor quality of design in the exterior appearance of buildings
erected in any neighborhood adversely affects the desirability of
the immediate area and neighboring areas for residential and business
purposes or other use and by so doing impairs the benefits of occupancy
of existing property in such areas, impairs the stability and value
of both improved and unimproved real property in such areas, prevents
the most appropriate development of such areas, produces degeneration
of property in such areas with attendant deterioration of conditions
affecting the health, safety, comfort and general welfare of the inhabitants
and occupants thereof, and destroys a proper relationship between
the taxable value of real property in such areas and the cost of municipal
services provided therefor.
The Architectural Review Board of the City of Mount Vernon is
hereby created pursuant to Article 5, § 96-a, of the General
Municipal Law of the State of New York.
In considering a certificate of appropriateness, the Architectural Review Board shall be guided by the following standards prior to rendering a decision pursuant to §
10-7 of this chapter:
A. The natural features of the site and surroundings, exterior design
and appearances of existing structures and the character of the surrounding
properties and neighborhood and its peculiar suitability for particular
purposes, with a view to conserving and enhancing the values of property
and encouraging the most appropriate use of land.
B. The scale and mass of proposed new structures or additions to structures
in relation to the property itself, surrounding properties and the
neighborhood.
C. The exterior materials, textures, colors, patterns, rhythms and styles
of a structure in relation to the structure itself, surrounding structures
and the neighborhood.
D. The visual compatibility of a structure with surrounding properties
related to the facades of a structure, their proportion and arrangement
of windows, doors and other openings within the facade.
E. The proposed action's consistency with the any design guidelines
established by the Architectural Review Board.
The City Clerk is hereby specified as the officer who shall issue on behalf of the City the certificate of failure of the Architectural Review Board to take action as prescribed in §
10-8D of this chapter.
Any person aggrieved by the action of the Architectural Review
Board in disapproving a certificate of appropriateness application
may take an appeal to the Zoning Board of Appeals. The Zoning Board
of Appeals, after proceeding in the same manner as is provided for
zoning appeals and with the same power and authority therein vested
in passing upon appeals before it under the provisions of law and
in the exercise thereof, may reverse or affirm or modify and affirm
the action of the Architectural Review Board.
This chapter shall take effect immediately.