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Non-Conforming Lots and Zoning Codes The public hearing is scheduled for May 13, 2009 Putnam Valley’s Town Board unanimously passed a Comprehensive Plan in December 2007. In a blatantly political move, the four opposition members of the Board decided that it would be in their best interests, not the Town’s, to delay passage of the accompanying Zoning Code. The code was completed and presented to the public in August of 2007. The writing of the code was a public and transparent process. Anyone could have contributed at any time. There were two attorneys on the committee, and two attorneys and two planners advising the committee. There was a member of the Planning Board on the committee. Due to politics, the public hearing for this code was delayed until January 2008. At that public hearing, the only opposition expressed was from an engineer who is working on the HYH project in Roaring Brook. Despite the support for the code, despite the legal difficulty in using a code that does not conform to the Comprehensive Plan, despite years and years of telling us that the code contains ambiguities and needs updating, despite taking public grant funds for the completion of the [...]
Putnam Valley Planning Board April 6, 2009
The illegal backroom meeting started late because there was no quorum until about 6PM. The real meeting was held up because of the illegal one. I still don’t understand the compulsion to “communicate” in the backroom before the meeting. Shine the light on local government!
Mr. Raimondi was absent, so Vice Chair Tom Patterson ran the meeting. The Board was still without an ad hoc member. Tom decided to flip agenda items 4 and 5, so that the Board could seek legal advice before discussing HYH, Raimondo, and Gunther. The Board did not raise the specific issues of litigation in the televised meeting. “Advice of counsel” is not a legitimate reason for executive session.
When the real meeting started, the first applicant up was the Peekskill Hollow Road project that has a conservation deed restriction on the property. The project does not conform to the conservation easement. I don’t know why it has even been brought before the Planning Board twice. There was no decision on sketch.
Next was a project on James Drive that we have seen before. It was abandoned because of the economy, but it’s [...]
Work Session – April 8, 2009
A short work session with a presumably long executive session. The agenda was not posted on the website.
Interestingly, after my last post on the suit jackets that were introduced to the meetings during the Carmelo era, at this meeting, all of the suits were without suits. It made me feel important.
Mr. Tendy will not be at next week’s meeting, so for those of you waiting to speak your mind at the podium, take note. This is your chance.
Added to the agenda was a discussion of the Barger Pond outlet being blocked by a beaver dam. This has been discussed before, and Mr. Tendy intimated that residents could take matters into their own hands. The DEC regulates beavers. After I posted that info, Mr. Tendy noted that a DEC permit is needed to trap the beavers. it is no longer beaver trapping season, but Mr. Tendy says that the DEC will make an exception for him.
The beavers have to be killed if they are trapped. Even if they are trapped, the dam is an attraction to other beavers, so removal of the dam and dam prevention methods would be preferable. [...]
The Bully Pulpit Oregon Corners – April Fools
It was Patty’s line. She told Bob that just because he has a bully pulpit doesn’t mean he has to bully everyone. Patty V. did an effective job in her ”Shootout” post of presenting the meeting. In an attempt to keep some of us from speaking, or at least delay the inevitable, Mr. Tendy started on the other side of the room. But then, he saw that Patty was not sitting with the rest of the people he wanted to avoid, so he had to make up a new rule that he was calling on business owners first. I hope that he will not succeed in making this a community vs. business issue. It is not. The business owners did a wonderful job of sticking up for themselves, and I believe that means standing up for the community too. It’s a shame that business owners have to waste an evening of their precious time, in a very uncertain economic climate, telling the town board what they should already be able to figure out. You do not design a business district without talking to the people who have businesses there. You do [...]
Zoning Board of Appeals March 26, 2009 The ZBA meeting this past week will impact the residents of this Town for a long time to come. The board rendered a decision in the Mobil gas station application. The station is on Bryant Pond Road. Before getting to that, in the backroom, Mr. Robert Lusardi discussed the Syracuse Aggregate precedent as it relates to the cemetery expansion. Rose Hills has been discussed before. The cemetery was on this agenda as Beverly Hills. The case law regards a mine or quarry that used a section of the parcel, and then expanded to other sections. The cemetery is not an accepted use under our code. Mr. Lusardi is advising the board on this matter. As I understand it, he has said that the applicant needs to provide evidence of clear prior intent to expand. That has not been provided, and seems not to exist. The cemetery has different parcels under different names. On the opposite side of the street, they received a variance to expand an existing building, and that was raised as an excuse to allow an oversized building on the Beverly Hills side. Mr. Steinmetz also feels that the tax [...]
Planning Board March 23, 2009 I got to the backroom at 5:40. The illegal meeting was already in progress, with planner, attorney, clerk, and a little later, the wetlands inspector. They were talking about a neg dec when I went in. Mr. Mike Raimondi announced in the backroom, that Adorno would be off the agenda and that their escrow balance was negative. They briefly discussed the “judgment” against Kaspar. It is my understanding that it was a consent order (agreed to by both sides). They discussed their ability to make reasonable requirements for farm applications – Adorno and Kaspar have been dealt with as farm operations. Mr. Raimondi also moved #7 to #3 on the agenda. Mr. Staudohar, engineer for #1, #2, and #7 requested it in the backroom. Can you move a review into the midst of public hearings? And they added a minor revision for Gunther at the end of the agenda. Still in the backroom, they discussed a memo that Councilwoman Whetsel had circulated requesting their attendance at next Wednesday’s meeting (April 1) about the Oregon Corners plan. They discussed the Padavano house built on the steam, and the applicant’s request for a CO before planting [...]
You don’t bring us bagels……. anymore. Lake Peekskill Improvement District Meeting March 21, 2009
I love meetings.
Thanks Patty for the acknowledgement of my posts. I haven’t mastered your art of rapid fire reportage. It still takes me a couple of days to get the reports out. I disagree with your comment about Priscilla’s clothes. She wears blue jeans with a blouse to meetings sometimes, as if she is like the rest of us, and I appreciate the connection. I remember when the Carmelo crew started the suit thing, and I have never cared for it. The flannel shirt/blue jean board seemed more diligent.
Anyway, the LPID meeting was Saturday at Town Hall, not at our community center. Bob Tendy was dressed “casually” but sat in his chair above us, like the king. He was not as mean as he had been at the board meetings, but he was dismissive nonetheless.
There were a few people there – five residents. Priscilla was there. He didn’t invite her onto the dais with him. Skip, and another non-resident.
He talked about the $15,000 pork (earmark) that Vinnie Leibell got for the Singers Beach monument. Times are tough right now, and [...]
Town Board – March 18, 2009 Bob Tendy had himself a four hour meeting Wednesday, and while his mood was much better than at last week’s work session, it was still foul. He mocked Councilwoman Keresey for her disagreement on incentive zoning, and he yelled at me for asking questions about non-conforming lots, and the proposed laws, even though I had held my questions until public comment. He is becoming angrier and angrier, and more and more uncaring about the public’s point of view. Most people stay away, and I really can’t blame them. There were eleven Town Attorney driven agenda items, things that Mr. Zutt has decided must be considered by the board. There was resistance on some items, but almost none on others. Mr. Zutt has stepped very far out of the role of Town, Planning, and Zoning Attorney. I am quite uncomfortable with this situation. The hot topic was road dedication. The resolution was really brilliant. It said that the town would not automatically accept dedication of roads, but that they could negotiate for them, thus leaving the door wide open for acceptance. Of course, the town has always had the right to accept or not [...]
Putnam Valley Planning Board 3/9/09
There was no quorum for an illegal backroom meeting until 5:44. The PB Attorney was not present in the backroom. It was announced back there that “Adorno” would be off the agenda. They discussed the Gair application and the apartment above the garage.
There were three public hearings. No one from the public spoke at any of them.
Masotti on Shopis Drive is building a 2 story addition, with an accessory apartment, on a 1.09 acre lot in an R1 lot. This is a zone that should no longer exist in the zoning code. This would properly have been a non-conforming lot if the code conformed to the Comprehensive Plan.
I would like to see the size of the existing structure on the agenda description. These descriptions have improved tremendously. I would also like to see a full presentation at the public hearing instead of the consultants just saying that their comments have been addressed. It is also my belief that SEQRA requires a real presentation of the consideration of the environmental concerns that are addressed before there is a negative declaration of environmental significance. And if we could just get those signs, [...]
Mr. Roabert Tendy was in a foul mood, and yelled at three of the Board members, who objected to 7 amendments to a 4 item agenda. He didn’t want to put off his discussions for “a technicality” like open government, So he yelled at them, then called an executive session and yelled some more. Even though it’s a closed session, his yelling came through the door. [...]
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