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have to ask for a variance. Variances are very strictly only permitted under certain criteria that is determined by New York State law, not the Town of Hamburg Law. Section 267(B) of New York State Town Law says “no such variance shall be granted by a board of appeals without a showing by the applicant that the applicable zoning regulations and restrictions have caused unnecessary hardship. In order prove unnecessary hardship the applicant shall demonstrate to the Board of Appeals that for each and every permitted use under the zoning regulations the applicant (1) cannot realize a reasonable return provided that the lack of return is substantial as demonstrated by competent financial evidence (2) that the alleged hardship related to the property is unique, and does not apply to a substantial portion of the district or neighborhood, (3) that the requested use variance if granted will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood and (4) that the alleged hardship has not been self-created.” This is the very limited authority of the Zoning Board of Appeals. If the applicant does not meet these criteria, the Zoning Board has no authority to change the zoning. Attorney Gogan hopes this clarifies the process for the Zoning Board of appeals for everyone. The Zoning Board of Appeals does not change the zoning; they can only issue a variance under strict New York State guidelines. The reason you want the board to follow those guidelines is so that they do not arbitrarily do it for some other business. The Board has to be consistent with all of their decisions and follow those guidelines. Kathleen Moriarty, attorney with Attea & Attea, spoke on this variance next and represents the 10 Lives Club. She stated that 24 Karat is represented by a separate attorney, Mark Guglielmi of Webster Szanyi. On April 23, she sent an email to the Town. It was a letter from attorney Mark Guglielmi with a summary of taxes, utilities, and maintenance costs. The response she received was that it was a good start, but they also want to see some indication of how it has been attempted to be sold in the past and some of the difficulties in selling it. Moriarty stated that in 2017 the property was listed for $2.5 million and did not sell. In 2019 and 2020, it was relisted for $1.55 million. In 2022, it was finally listed for $1.5 million. She said she has some issued with client confidentiality but she stated that the current contract is just a fraction of that $1.5 million. To some degree she feels that the financial hardship is self-evident because he has consistently gone down with his price over the past 10 years. In addition, it is a one acre parcel; for most of the industrial uses that Attorney Joe Gogan listed, the lot is not large enough for an industrial use to operate. 10 Lives already owns the building next to 24 Karat. She is not sure where this falls in terms of being allowed to operate there in reference to when the town code was written and did not allow that use (if they were grandfathered in or received a use variance). When 24 Karat was operating there was significant drug use. 10 Lives has found condoms and needles in the parking lot. She also stated that there was a murder there 10 years ago. These are issues that would trouble any neighborhood. If anyone wanted to use this property for an industrial purpose would need to tear down the existing building; it is a strip club not set up for an industrial use. She apologized that the information was submitted late. She just received the letter from the 24 Karat realtor the day before outlining the property listing history.