Town Board

January 3, 2017

1. Appointments

Joe Falcone was reappointed to the Recreation Commission.

William LaScala was appointed as a regular member of the Planning Board; he had been an alternate member.

William Battista was appointed Assistant Civil Engineer in the Engineering Department.

2. Getty Station, 3700 Barger Street: Public Hearing on special use permit

The applicant walked the board through the changes that had been made to the plan to reflect the board’s earlier requests.  The monument sign with the Welcome to Yorktown and two LED price sections was moved, additional landscaping was added along Barger Street, and a 4’ vinyl fence will be installed on the southern boundary of the property.  The permit will specify that no used cars will be sold on the site. (The applicant, Global Mintello Group, owns the site and leases it to a tenant. The lease prohibits the sale of use cars.)

With staff satisfied with the plan changes and no comments from the public, the board closed the hearing, and voted to authorize the supervisor to sign the site plans.

If, in the future, Global wishes to expand or replace the existing building, the company will apply for an amended site plan.

3. Mohegan Auto & Tire Center, East Main Street, Shrub Oak

Although on the agenda for a decision, the board tabled the item, pending the submission of final site plans. (Mr. Tegedar explained that to date, the board had only seen a one page “presentation plan.”) Supervisor Grace said he wanted to see the site plan to include all the conditions associated with the board’s approval and not just a resolution with the text of the conditions.  The supervisor will sign the site plan.

On the issue of selling used cars on the site, the supervisor repeated comments he made at the public hearing that transactions regarding the sale of cars could be made at the gas station parcel and that he saw no difference between cars being parked on the rear parcel as an auto wreckage storage site and cars for sale. He distinguished the used car sales that had been conducted at the Getty station (and have since stopped) and the sales at the Mohegan station saying that the former had more cars and a trailer and was a “real” business as distinct from the fewer used car sale transactions at Mohegan.

4. Kelderhouse Property, Turus Lane, Public hearing on wetlands permit

Reason for the wetlands permit: It was explained that the property owner granted the town an easement many years ago for the installation of a stormwater pipe from Judy Rd. Because of where he wants to situate the house on the lot, he wants to move the pipe about 100 feet of the pipe into the wetland buffer. Flows from the pipe will not change.  The existing pipe will have to be videoed.

Residents from the surrounding area expressed concern about existing drainage problems in their neighborhood and their fear that a new house will exacerbate the problem. They were especially concerned about the possibility that the water and sewer lines that will service the new house will involve the removal of trees along  Priest Lane, a paper road, which will further exacerbate drainage problems. Their request to the board was to look at the overall picture and develop a solution to their drainage problems.

In response, Supervisor Grace said that the application dealt only with the relocation of the stormwater pipe and that the applicant could not be expected to solve problems that have existed for many years. He did say though that he would have town staff push for a more global solution to the neighborhood drainage issue.   Stormwater coming the site (sheet flow) would be addressed at the building permit stage.

A related issue was the proposed size of the sewer line that would serve the house. The applicant was proposing a 4’ line but the town engineer suggested an 8’ line that could serve future development in the area and avoid a proliferation of small but long “spaghetti” lines.. (It was not clear how many additional houses could be built in the area; it appeared to be only a few.)  Supervisor Grace said that if Priest is used for the utility lines, the disturbance should be minimized.

The hearing was closed. No decision was made.

5. Organization resolutions

Included in a series of resolutions passed every January, the board set the meeting schedule for 2017.

6. Courtesy of the Floor

Bathrooms at YCCC: Gil Kaufmann of the Senior Advisory Committee asked about the status of the bathroom renovations.

Tree Law: Carl Hoegler and Dan Strauss both expressed their displeasure at the fact that the board voted for the law (in September) immediately after closing the hearing, giving the appearance that it made no difference what the public had to say at the hearing. Mr. Hoegler, who had spoken at the hearing, said the board’s actions bordered on the “insulting” and that the dismissal of the public’s comments was “painful.”  He said he had some suggested grammatical changes to the law and asked if the board would consider them; Supervisor Grace advised him to get in touch with the town attorney.  Mr. Strauss suggested that the board’s vote was not the way it should be doing business.

In response, both Supervisor Grace and Councilman Bernard said that the draft law had been vetted during work sessions so that they had heard the same comments prior to the hearing and chose not to factor them into the law.  Councilman Bernard said “you know our philosophy,” adding that board members wanted to protect property rights and not have a law that was punitive for property owners.  Councilman Lachterman noted that two changes were made in the law after the hearing was closed and prior to the vote to adopt based on comments made during the hearing.  Supervisor Grace didn’t want to say anything more as the law is currently in litigation, although he repeated his position that the prior law was not effective in achieving its goal.

Hallocks Mill Sewer Pump Stations:  Susan Siegel, the person writing this summary, repeated the question she asked at the previous meeting about the status of the bids to replace two pump stations. She said the sewer district fund balance had $6.2 million, more than enough to cover the full cost of the $2 million project and not create problems with the tax levy/tax cap.  She also asked for clarification on the “global approach” to the sewer problem that Supervisor Grace had talked about at the previous meeting, noting that the pump station project had nothing to do with creating a new sewer district for 450 unsewered houses as the projects would be paid for by different taxpayers.

In response, Supervisor Grace repeated that he was planning a global approach to the different sewer issues, adding that the plan would include all pump stations in the Croton Watershed, including the Chelsea pump station that is currently in the Peekskill Sanitary Sewer District, and that the available $10 million in East of Hudson funds could be used for all the projects. He said the board might ask the bidders to extend their bids, or just use the bids that were received as guidelines for what the project might cost. In the meantime, he said the board is gathering data and seeking legal opinion from bond counsel. He anticipated a decision within the next month or so.

SPECIAL NOTE: On January 4, 2017, the public was notified about a special Town Board Meeting Friday, January 6^th. In response to an email inquiry, the Town Clerk’s office advised the CIY observer that the sole agenda item for the meeting was a PILOT agreement (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) for the Kear Street Affordable housing project.  The agreement had to be approved by January 6^th.