How to Research a Property for Potential Zoning Violations

Property records are located in Binghamton City Hall, 38 Hawley Street. The following Departments contain documents related to zoning and code enforcement issues:
 

To obtain information on property records of other property owners, a Freedom of Information Act form will have to be filled out by you and signed by the Director of each Department before you may see the files. The Assessor's Office may not require this form for certain documents to be reproduced. Getting this signed can take a day, as Directors are not always available on the spot, so a return trip may be necessary.

Copies, which are made by department personnel, are 25 cents each.

What To Look For:

Building and Construction: Permits for electrical, plumbing, structural alterations and repairs are found here, filed by street number. Variances can also be sometimes located here. The inspector's notes are often valuable information. Certificates of Occupancy And Compliance may also be found, listing the Zone Use, how the property is to be occupied (single family, etc.), along with any restrictions ("attic shall be used for storage only," for example). Some files will contain nothing at all.

Code Enforcement: Will contain Letters of Violation, Complaint Forms, Inspection Reports, and Inter-Office Memos. Some of these files will be quite thick, others empty. There may be additional, older files in storage; check the file jackets for labels such as "Second File - 1990 to Present." These can be useful for violations of zoning, such as complaints lodged against student housing for density issues will sometime have an inspector's notation: "six students - six rooms" or "1 student in attic bedroom - 6 on two floors." 

Planning and Community Development: Variances filed for properties here. Files will determine whether a property has a variance to allow unrelated people to live in an R-1 property, for example.

Assessor's Office: Forms to look at: Residential, Farm and Vacant Land Property Record Card has all pertinent data on property, including number of bedrooms and total number of rooms. This provides a "baseline" to help determine whether a property has "grown" rooms magically over time. Another form, the Inventory Control Sheet can provide useful data. Petitions for assessment reduction are also file here. The files here will contain the property owner's name, address, and the most recent purchase price, as well as the value of the property for tax purposes. 

Police Records: A Police Call Record can be generated for a property for a period of time, say the past five years. This will indicate such things as "SUNY Disturbances", assaults, parking issues, and the like.

Additional Information Resources - Binghamton Public Library: A valuable reference source here is the Criss-Cross telephone directory, which lists all individuals with a telephone, by street address, within the City of Binghamton. Different persons listed from year to year at a given address is indicative of the transient use of the property.

Binghamton University Housing List: This resource is available online. It lists student housing for rent with the number of bedrooms, date available, address of rental unit, rent price, owner, and their telephone number, and whether it is furnished or includes utilities. Most families own their own furniture; transients do not generally own major furnishings in common.

Collect Names: Names collected from the mail box of the property in question (if practical) are useful in establishing that residents are not related by name. They can be cross-checked against the Criss-Cross telephone directory listings year-to-year to establish transiency. You can also use web sites that allow you to enter a street address and obtain the name(s) of the person(s) at that address. There are several searches available at reverseaddress.com. You can also use your favorite search engine, such as Google, specifying "reverse address" to find other sites. 

License Plates: It is helpful to collect these numbers from the tenants' cars, which can be researched by the Department of Motor Vehicles. A form, MV-15, can be downloaded from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles web site. Follow the instructions, and send it in, along with a check for processing fees. Response time is about two weeks. 

Support from your Neighbors: It is also valuable to have letters of support, petitions, and other such supporting materials, if possible, from your neighbors who live near the complaint property or situation. Multiple witness testimony adds to the effectiveness of the complaint. Be a neighbor - help your neighbor!

Plan Time for Research: A visit to one of these offices, filing the Freedom of Information form, reviewing the files, taking notes and obtaining copies of the requested documents supporting your case can easily consume an hour or more. Plan a block of time, where you will not be rushed, so that you can thoroughly research. As you review these files, take notes of what was found and where, important items, etc.: this will save you time when you organize the data for submission. Some Department files will yield little or nothing, others a treasure trove of useful information.

Organizing and Submitting Your Data: A letter, which draws upon the information which you have gathered, and incorporates it to support your complaint, will activate an investigation by the city. There may only be one piece of data from one or more pages of documentation, so it helps to identify it for the person reviewing it. For instance, stating that "The Police Report printout enclosed lists 'SUNY disturbances on (list dates)'. This indicates that student tenants were reportedly residing here at this time, by qualified city officials." Or, stating that "The Assessor's Record Card, enclosed, states this property is classified as R-1."

Highlighting of important data (such as R-1 listing, or where it says "SUNY Disturbance") on your copy to be submitted supporting your complaint (student rental, rooms illegally added) will help speed the review process for those who are analyzing the documents, as well as for yourself. This is not absolutely necessary, but it helps!

Be sure to make and retain a copy of all research data, letters written, etc. for yourself. It's far easier than having to hunt it down twice!

Who To Send Your Complaint to: Written complaints involving zoning violations in R-1 and R-2 districts (such as unrelated individuals, who are not the functional and factual equivalent of a family, and are living in these zones,) are mailed or hand delivered to Mr. David Chadwick, who is the Director of the Office of Building and Construction. This will start the investigative process of your complaint by the city. This is the mailing address:

Mr. David Chadwick, Director
Office of Building and Construction
City Hall 
38 Hawley Street
Binghamton, NY 13901

You can refer to this map (PDF, 1.5 MB) to determine which city council district you reside in.

Additional notification letters should be sent to:
 

If no response is received from the Office of Building and Construction within three weeks, a follow-up letter to Mr. Chadwick should be sent to him, inquiring about his investigation of your complaint. Keep the others listed here informed of your progress.