News That Matters » dawnpowell

Putnam Valley August Town Board meeting

dawnpowell — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:04:00 +0000

Town Board August
Amendments to the agenda
Executive Session – the specific litigation must be announced. They use this one a lot to hold backroom meetings.

And the fire department building – this should not have been an amendment. There should be announced meetings where the public can address their concerns. Eddie McCarthy did a good job of explaining. Patty Villanova did a good job of questioning. Both got a little irritated at the end. The public needs more information. The fire department did their homework, but did not share that homework until this was all planned. The public should be able to ask questions and they should know ahead of time that this is the topic. An $8 – $12 million project is not a mere last minute presentation at the beginning of a Town Board meeting. This subject deserves its own, well advertised meeting. Someone other than testy Tendy should Chair, so that there will be no badgering, “What was the question? This is a question and answer session.” And no one should feel that if they have concerns, and want to ask questions, that they are un-American, or do not appreciate what our volunteers do for us. Patty has been asking questions that others in the community are too afraid to ask. People shouldn’t be afraid to ask about a $10 million building project in a bad economy.

“We can’t spend all night on this.”- BT We need to spend time on this. It is important. – DP

Ag district law – listen to Gene Yetter on this one. The board adopted a neg dec on this law before discussing it, and of course, they didn’t discuss the impacts (a legal requirement). This Town is supposed to adopt a ‘right to farm’ law. This isn’t it. This a farm deterrent aimed at ‘so-called farms’ according to the Supervisor. If you were thinking of getting a few chickens, forget about it. They just outlawed it.

Wendy said, “I feel a little the way Gene does.” Watch her explanation before you vote. The primary is September 15. After 3 1/2 years, she still does not know what she is talking about.

And why is Bob Cinque no longer recused on agricultural issues? Was there an expiration date?

Peekskill Hollow Road – Councilwoman Whetsel has decided that this is a good campaign issue, and that she should talk about it, not actually do anything, just talk. She did not attend the two Physical Services Committee meetings on this important issue. She did not come to this meeting with any action in mind. All she did was table Bob’s “loosy-goosy” letter and make the public wait until the end of the meeting for discussion. Par for the course. Talk about alternative energy and defeat solar panels. Talk about smart development, then broker a secret deal for a development on a dead end road with a grade of 15%.

Bob said that the legislature was showing political cowardice for listening to the public.

The big new is that Mr. Cinque is growing a beard and seeking public opinion. I got a ugh! And an eeuuuuuw… I’m fond of facial hair, so he’ll probably shave tomorrow.

BZ and WW were color coordinated, he in a yellow tie, she in a yellow shrug.

They decided that you should pay for your neighbor’s private road.

They are hiring an outside attorney to represent the Town in a new lawsuit. I don’t know why.

They passed a resolution on LOSAP (length of service awards program – for the fire department) without knowing the cost.

The important information:

Primary, September 15, both Republicans and Democrats

We will be using new voting machines. Be prepared. These are the locations for demos:

SEQUOIA IMAGECAST DEMONSTRATIONS FOR PUTNAM VALLEY

September 9
1PM – 3PM PV TownHall, 265 Oscawana Lake Road

September 11
2PM – 4PM PV Library, 30 Oscawana Lake Road

We will also have some changes in polling places. I will blog that closer to the election. That little card that the Board of Elections sends tells you where you vote.

Hopefully this will all be posted on Channels 18 and 20.

Putnam Valley Planning Board

dawnpowell — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:58:16 +0000

Back to the Future

July 25, 2009 Planning Board Meeting

These meetings are very hard to hear above the background noise. Hope springing eternal, I request that the new Town Board do something about it.

The Cemetery

This was very interesting. The cemetery on Mill St. went before the Planning Board, the Zoning Board, and the Planning Board again. The plan was to build a large office building on the Rose Hills side of Mill St., to put a scattering garden in the wetlands, and to add 1500 gravesites. There was a mausoleum in the plan initially, but that was dropped early on.

Mr. Zutt recused himself from this application because they were clients, but he sat in on all discussions. Bob Lusardi represented the Town, but was not present for this meeting.

The applicants went before the ZBA for variances. The size of the building is 50 X 68. The code allows 50 feet. The distance between buildings is supposed to be 100 feet. This is 7. The open space is already below what the code allows and it is being reduced further. And the cemetery is a non-conforming use (not permitted in our code), and it is being expanded.

When Mr. Lusardi was talking to the ZBA, it seemed that the case law was clear. If there have been variances and lawsuits, and expansion of the non-conforming use has not been broached, then the expansion is prohibited. Expansion had not been raised in other applications.

I have not seen the ZBA decision. I have only heard it reported. The variance for the size of the building was granted. As I recall, the new site has already been disturbed and the buildings on the King David side will be removed, and that site mitigated. What the scattering garden looks like and how it impacts the environment will depend on how it is done. Aside from ash volume, we already know that the ash is environmentally inert.

The major issues with the current project are the drawing of 900 gallons per day from the stream and the segmentation of the environmental review. Before allowing a new structure, wouldn’t the Planning Board require a well? Maybe they will with the segmented future project, Phases II, III, and IV. This is the new way of avoiding a full environmental review, just like the camp did. And how is the cemetery expansion functionally unrelated to the updating and expansion of the office building. I believe that this method of review will catch up with them, and will not be allowed at some point.

The other change that has occurred is that, now, expansion has been discussed.

“For us not to expect that a cemetery wouldn’t be expanded is not realistic.” – Chair.

Is that the legal threshold?

Cemeteries release toxicity into our groundwater, while contributing nothing to our tax base.

There are green alternatives, but no one has discussed them. Perhaps if the cemetery became an eco-cemetery now, and restored all the lawned area to natural beauty, we could tolerate their lack of contribution to our town taxes, while their business is thriving.

Two house on Birch Hill Road – there were members of the public present for the public hearing. The EAF is two years old. Shouldn’t that have been updated before the neg dec was passed?

Lee Ave. – an accessory structure on a separate parcel. The lakes associations and the neighbors have come out to express their objections. I can see allowing a walkway for access, but one of the neighbors talked about erosion caused by raised walkways. One neighbor said she had never received notification. As always, I believe that the neighbors need to be brought into the process sooner. The severe pruning and the removal of 7 trees from the parcel prior to this application are a major source of controversy. There was speechifying about taking photos and calling the Code Enforcement Officer.

….but I remember this call coming into Town Hall when I was working there. The neighbors did call when he was cutting the trees on the lot. I gave the information to Irv (Sevelowitz), and either he or JohnAllen went out. It should be in the building department record.

And the repeated remarks about strict laws on the assemblywoman’s lake, please ask for her assistance with stricter state laws.

A response to another speechifying remark that new homes are not polluting the lake, and that old septics are the problem. New homes create more impermeable surface (as does the deck, shed and walkway, so they do damage the lake, especially in the buffer. The science indicates that buffers need to be increased. And Lake Oscawana’s associations (and Lake Peekskill’s Civic Association for their lake) are trying to do something about older septics. New construction and old septics are not mutually exclusive concerns, and both issues have been raised repeatedly in lake quality reports.

Putnam Café – Wasn’t Sisyphus the blog comment? Mostly old remarks – the telephone pole, the internal grease trap.

But, there is severe erosion around the pipe, and I am wondering why the only moment to address that is a review of the application. Then, there is the conversation area. You would think that is important, since they are next to a stream. No one knows what it means, what the plan is. And the landscape buffer – what? Where?

There is no security bond for the sewer connection. Gutter changes haven’t been cleared with Putnam County.

You have to admire persistence.

Then, there was open development on Kramer’s Pond Road. They cannot combine the driveway and they need a variance.

The minor revision explanation is worth seeing. Read the statute. This whole discussion doesn’t jive with the law. One James Drive, after the applicant cleared the lot, the elevation of the house was higher than he thought. Huh? They all agreed. Watch it. The applicant is lowering the elevation, and moving the driveway. The elevation change is an improvement, but it is not minor.

It was good to see public participation.

VOTING MACHINE DEMOS

dawnpowell — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:31 +0000

New Voting Machines

Putnam County will be using new optical scan voting machines in this primary election, September 15, 2009. These machines are being demonstrated throughout Putnam County.

SEQUOIA IMAGECAST DEMONSTRATIONS FOR PUTNAM VALLEY

September 2

9:30AM – 11:30AM PV Senior Center, 117 Town Park Lane

September 9

1PM – 3PM PV TownHall, 265 Oscawana Lake Road

September 11

2PM – 4PM PV Library, 30 Oscawana Lake Road

SEQUOIA IMAGECAST DEMONSTRATIONS FOR THE REST OF PUTNAM COUNTY

September 2

9:30AM – 11AM Carmel Senior Center, 110 Old Route 6, Bldg 1, Carmel

9:30AM – 11:30AM Mahopac Fire House, 741 Rte. 6, Mahopac

September 3

12PM – 2PM Patterson Recreation Hall, 65 Front St., Patterson

September 8

10:30AM – 11:30AM Reed Memorial Library, 1733 Rte. 6, Carmel

September 9

10AM – 3PM Veteran’s Memorial Park, 201 Gipsy Trail Rd., Carmel

September 10

10AM – 12PM Kent Town Hall, 25 Sybil’s Crossing, Kent Lakes

1PM – 3PM Patterson Library, 1167 Rte. 311, Patterson

7:30PM Southeast Town Hall, 1360 Rte. 22, Brewster

September 11

10AM – 11AM St. James Church, Doherty Hall, 14-20 Gleneida Ave., Carmel

Putnam Valley Planning Board

dawnpowell — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:28:06 +0000

August 10, 2009

There has been a change in the Planning Clerk, and a change in the Planning Board agenda. I don’t know if those two changes are interrelated. “Communications” is on the agenda again for 5:30. That means that the Planning Board’s backroom meetings are legally noticed. That is an improvement. However, it does not satisfy the legal requirement that the public be accommodated.
At these backroom meetings, the public is generally me, although in the last few months, I haven’t been able to get there. I arrived at 5:45 for this meeting…. and I was not accommodated. If you’ve never been in there, go in and look at the conference room. There are lots of file cabinets, and a large table with 5 chairs. There are 6 members of the Planning Board. There is a planner; there is an engineer; there is a wetlands inspector; there is a clerk; normally, there is an attorney, although not at this meeting. On this agenda, HYH was being discussed, so there was an additional engineer, and an additional planner. The Code Enforcement Officer was present.
Does that sound crowded?
It was.
Isn’t this a little ridiculous? Why do they do this? Is the point to evade public observation?
There was a review of Warex – the expansion of the gas station on Bryant Pond Road. Gas stations are prohibited in the ground and surface water protection overlay district. The Town Board just changed the non-conforming use law. That means that the zoning board interpretation of this application is in conflict with the new local law, and there is no approved plan. So it was referred back to the zoning board.
Oh, and the DEC monitors the water there because of MTBE contamination from the old Getty station.
HYH – A popular topic, a large project in Roaring Brook. The Planning Board declared themselves lead agent for SEQRA – environmental review. Their representative said that most of the impacts – steep slopes, wetlands – cannot be mitigated. The planner disagreed. There is a great deal of public opposition to this project.
And last, but definitely not least, was a fascinating discussion of Pine Brook Farm. This property got an ag district designation, despite some notable opposition. The Town ended up in court due to the owner’s violations of wetlands buffers, etc. There was an agreement to settle by both parties – a stipulation of settlement. To date, many provisions of the settlement have not been met.
Mr. Keith Staudohar is now the engineer for the project. He has been the engineer for Marsh Hill Road (Emerald Ridge), for the cemetery, and for the gas station.
It seems that they (Pine Brook Farm reps) have met with the Supervisor, and, as I understand it, have been led to believe that if they have a subdivision, they will not have to abide by the stipulation, or that the stipulation will be changed. This legal meandering has been brought to you at taxpayer expense.
There was more public participation than usual at the last two meetings. I was happy to see the public presence. I do not find this to be a public friendly board.
Next Planning Board meeting is Monday August 24, 2009. 5:30 in the backroom.
DP

Peekskill Hollow Road

dawnpowell — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:25:44 +0000

Peekskill Hollow Road – update
I’ve been down this road before.

What Has Happened
They have changed their language. Since everyone is in favor of road maintenance, bridge maintenance, drainage improvements and a safe entrance at the high school, that is what they talk about now. Nobody explains quite what that means.

The resolution – the county says they won’t do anything about Phases II and III of the project. Everyone knows that the resolution does not change anything. A future legislature could reverse the resolution. It was a good will gesture and should be taken as such. There has been lots of talk about scenic and historic designation. The Friends of Peekskill Hollow Road do not feel that scenic designation offers protection, and therefore, want historic designation. Additionally, they would like the Town to pass its own law, along the lines of other Town laws protecting roadways, most notably that of North Salem. A Town resolution, sent to the county, as well as a local law, designating the road as historic, would be a good start. A county law protecting the road would help.

And while we are on the subject of what has happened, what is the trench next to the repair shop at Oregon Corners, who is doing the work, and do they have a wetlands permit?

What Has Not Happened

The current project is approved. Nothing has altered that. The funds for the “takings” of private property are not forthcoming. That is what is protecting us.
Why hasn’t the faulty SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) negative declaration of environmental significance been rescinded? For a fuller explanation of this, see Bill Zutt’s comments at the May Town Board meeting. The DVD is available at the library.

For a Supervisor angry, molten meltdown, see the May work session. I was in attendance at that meeting, and it was worse in person.