Planning Board

March 24, 2014

Attending: John Kincart, John Savoca, John Flynn, Richard Fon, Darlene Rivera, Ann Kutter

1. Fieldhome

The board had an initial discussion of the conservation easement drafted by Mr. Capellini for the 32 acre portion of the site that will be used by the town for a soccer field.   At Mr. Tegeder’s suggestion, the board will do a more in depth review of the draft before it is sent to the town attorney for her review and before the Town Board acts on the easement.

The easement will include a license, the text of which remains to be drafted, for the town to use a portion of the site for the soccer field. The preliminary conditions of the license, based on earlier discussions with the board, will be for 20 years and will limit the use of the field to pre-high school age players, hours will be: Sat, 9-4, Sun 10-4 and school weekdays 3-7:30.   The easement, which will make the property tax exempt, will remain in place even if the recreational use ceases at a future date.

2. Yorktown Auto Body amended site plan

The board anticipates voting on an approval resolution at the next meeting.  DEP approval is still pending. Mr. Riina explained that as part of the site’s stormwater plan, the applicant will use one of the green infrastructure measures approved by the DEC:  runoff from the roof will be collected in barrels and used for washing cars.  The runoff from the washing will go through an oil filtering system before being discharged into the stormwater system.

3. Arrowhead subdivision

Having resolved a bankruptcy situation, and with contracts for two lots signed, or soon to be signed,  Mr. O’Keefe advised the board that he was ready to complete the remaining site improvements  for this  5-lot subdivision originally approved in 2007 but which has failed to progress. He said he anticipated completing the infrastructure work within the next 3-4 weeks and would return to the board for final approvals.  The board asked him to provide third party assurances that all environmental issues have been satisfactorily resolved and, for SEAQRA purposes, to verify that there have been no changes in environmental issues since the original approval.

4. Staples Shopping Center

In an item not on the agenda, architect Tony Romano asked the board if it could intercede to expedite approval of a variance at the ZBA to allow a larger sign than allowed under the existing code. Explaining that at its February meeting, the ZBA indicated that it didn’t want to act on the application until after the town had adopted the pending Master Sign Plan, he said that the proposed sign was in accord with a prior Planning Board memo and the issue was not a design issue but just one of size.  It was noted that a draft of the Master Sign Plan has been finalized but that it has not yet been reviewed by the Planning Board. There was no action for the Planning Board to take. (Note:  The Master Sign Plan may be discussed at the March 25 Town Board meeting.)