Meet the Zoning Board of Appeals and its Chair Alan Weil
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Your Name: Alan Weil
Board or Commission you chair: Zoning Board of Appeals
Your role: Chairperson
MyRye.com: What is the charter for your Board?
Weil: The governing document for the Zoning Board is the Rye Zoning Code, a statutory code enacted by the Rye City Council. The Zoning Board’s decisions are also governed by existing New York State statutory law (environmental laws, for example) and case law, as well as Federal statutory law and case law and precedent. The Zoning Board meets once a month, usually on the evening of the third Thursday of each month (although the Board does not meet in August).
Looking at 2025, what will be your top initiatives?
Weil: The Zoning Board does not make the law (that is done by the City Council), we only interpret the law and apply a “balancing test” when granting variances––weighing the benefit to the applicant against the detriment or negative impact on the neighborhood and community. We don’t really have any special initiatives planned for 2025.
Who is the City Council liaison to your Board for 2025?
Weil: We have not seen our City Council liaison for some time, so I am not certain who that is or if a new City Council member has or will be appointed for our Board in January.
Tell us about the residents or others you interact with at your Board.
Weil: During our monthly meetings. the Zoning Board regularly interacts with homeowners seeking variances for a renovation, and their architects and attorneys. We also interact with builders developing or re-developing properties and their architects and attorneys. The Board works closely with the City Planner, the Building Inspector and Corporation Counsel for Rye. Finally, the Zoning Board has appellate jurisdiction over Board of Architectural Review denials, and occasionally coordinates decisions with the decisions of the Planning Commission.
When was your Board [or Commission] chartered by the City of Rye?
Weil: Rye’s first Zoning Code (and the establishment of the first Zoning Board of Appeals) was enacted in 1945 and since that time the Code has been modified and enhanced several times, perhaps most significantly in 1993. Federal law (including several Supreme Court cases) established a local government’s right to regulate the development of private property-basing the government’s right to do so in the police powers clause of the Constitution (the right of the government to regulate to preserve the health, safety and welfare of the public). A large amount of case law (mostly New York State case law) has qualified and defined the scope of zoning codes and the role of the Zoning Board in interpreting and applying the laws regulating development.
Looking back across 2024, what were your Board’s top achievements?
Weil: On the Zoning Board we do our best to support our decisions with sound reasoning based on legal precedent. We try our best to avoid situations where applicants or opposing neighbors appeal our decisions (called an Article 78 Proceeding) because those appeals require that the City respond and incur costs (mostly legal fees) that cost the taxpayers. It is quite rare that Article 78 proceedings are brought against the Board, however two such proceedings were brought in 2024. In both instances the Zoning Board’s decisions were upheld by the Appellate Division of the New York Courts.
Tell us about you.
Weil: My family and I have lived in Rye since 1993. Our son and daughter both attended Rye schools and graduated from Rye High School. I was a partner and global head of real estate at Sidley Austin LLP––a large international law firm. I retired at the end of 2023.
How long have you been in your current role?
Weil: I have been the Chair of the Zoning Board for about 12 years or so.
Who appointed you to this position, and when?
Weil: I was first appointed to the Zoning Board in 1998 (proposed to the City Council by then Mayor Ted Dunn).
Is the role full time or part time’? Paid or volunteer?
Weil: Part time and volunteer. I retired from the full-time practice of law at the end of 2023.
How much time does your role require in a typical month?
Weil: Typically, no more than 5 to 15 hours per month.
How would your friends and family describe you in one word?
Weil: Thoughtful.
Where did you grow up?
Weil: I was born in Portland, Maine but lived in many places. My father worked for General Electric and we lived in Maine, Virginia, Illinois, New York and Connecticut. By the time I was about 12 we had moved to Westport, Connecticut where I grew up, after which I attended Tufts University undergraduate and University of Chicago Law School.
What is your favorite unimportant thing about you?
Weil: I play guitar and before COVID played weekly in a rock band in New York City.
If the next five years is a chapter in your life, what is this chapter about?
Weil: Staying active and healthy, traveling a lot and enjoying retirement.
What would you do if you were not afraid?
Weil: I’d lead a revolution to try to end racism and hatred in this Country.
Where do you live in Rye and how many years have you lived in the City?
Weil: I’ve lived in Rye since 1993––first on Valleyview Avenue on Milton Point and now (since about 2012) in one of the townhouses at 720 Milton Road.
Are written agendas and written meeting minutes available?
Weil: Yes, and available from the City Clerk.
Thanks Alan!
Learn more:
Are meetings recorded?: No.
Are written agendas and meeting minutes available?: Yes.
Main Zoning Board of Appeals page on City website
Members of Board:
Alan Weil, Chair 12-31-26 (term expires)
Guy Dempsey 12-31-27
Anthony DiCaprio 12-31-25
Carolina Johnson 12-31-26
Peter Olsen 12-31-26
Caroline Polisi 12-31-27
Alan Wiener 12-31-25
