Town Board

9/25/2018

REGULAR SESSION

1.  Announcements

Hallocks Mill Sewer Extension. There will be an informal meeting of homeowners October 11, at 6pm in room 104 in the Albert Capellini Community Cultural Center.

Developmental Panel: The first meeting of the panel, created to assist property owners through the approval process, will be September 28  from 11-1pm in the board meeting room in town hall

Shrub Oak pool damage: Supervisor Gilbert asked the public to help the police discover the people who did considerable damage to the pool.   The Park & Recreation Department is soliciting quotes for security cameras at Legacy Field, Granite Knolls and the town’s two sw3immingi pools.

Water bills: Water Distribution Superintendent Ken Rundle announced that water bills now going out will have a different look because new software is being used to generate the bills. Although water usage is usually billed every four months, he said that during this transition period, some bills may be for five months, resulting in larger than usual bills.

Water loss: Mr. Rundle corrected what he said was misinformation about water loss – water that is consumed but not billed for. He said the loss was 18% last year, not 25% as had been reported. He said the loss was less than other towns and that one of reasons for the loss was the aging infrastructure system and frequent breaks.

2. Traffic

Sight visibility: Councilwoman Roker reminded property owners whose house is at corner intersections that they should trim back trees and shrubs that block the sight distance and/or traffic signs. Highway Superintendent Paganelli added that in order to assure public safety, if homeowners didn’t do the needed pruning, his department was likely come by and prune “more aggressively.”

Hallocks Mill Road: Mr. Paganelli is continuing to assess the effectiveness of making the street one way in order to significantly reduce cut thru traffic that he said is coming mostly from Connecticut

3. Paving

Mr. Paganelli announced that the town expects to receive an additional $250,000 from the state that will be used to pave Quinlan Street.

4. Catskill Aqueduct Repair Project/public hearing

Representatives of the DEP described the multi-year program to repair and rehabilitate the aqueduct, including 13 locations in Yorktown. The repairr is being made to insure adequate capacity in the aqueduct when the Delaware Aqueduct is shut down to repair a serious leak.  The work in Yorktown will be done in phases, with some work beginning next spring. The board and Mr. Pagallini requested that as work is scheduled to begin on each peoject, the town, and nearby residents who will be affected by the work, be notified.  The DEP representatives had no problem with this request, and a second request that they return to the board in the spring for a second presentation when construction is slated to begin.

The hearing was closed and the board okayed the wetlands permit needed for four locations.

5. Stop sign at White Hill Road & Mohansic Avenue/public hearing to amend the local law

On the advice of Mr. Paganelli, the law was amended to move the existing stop sign about 40 feet to provide the owners of three homes at the end of Mohansic Ave. safer access out of their driveways.

6. Mobil Gas Station/Public hearing for an amended special permit

(See Town Board, 7-24-2018.) Responding to the board’s earlier request, the applicant has agreed to add some molding to the canopy to “soften” its appearance. The board had no other issues with the proposed plan.

Susan Siegel (the person writing this summary) asked if the site plan included any provision for a future widening strip in the event the DOT proceeds with the overall widening of Route 202 as outlined in the mini master plan that was discussed in June in connection with the development of the Roma Building and The Weyant property.  Although the exact size of any future widening strip will not be known until the DOT starts the project, the applicant said he had no problem adding a note on the site plan that if needed, a widening strip will be provided.

The hearing was closed and an approving resolution will be prepared.

7. Televising Town Board work sessions

In a 3-2 vote, with Supervisor Gilbert and Councilmen Roker and Patel voting yes, the board approved a resolution to television ALL of its meetings.  Councilman Lachterman  said that televising work sessions was counterproductive and was an invitation to people to grandstand at the meetings. Councilman Diana said that if people were interested in what has happening, they should attend the meetings. 

At Courtesy of the Floor before the resolution was adopted,Jay Kopstein and Susan Siegel thanked the board for its anticipated vote. In response to Mr. Kopstein’s question about whether this would result in an added expense, Ms. Siegel stated that the board was already paying for the technician to have the microphones turned on during work sessions so that those attending the meetings could hear what was being said and that having the technician turn on the video portion of the system would not result in an  extra charge.

8. Landmarking the Albert A. Capellini Community and Cultural Center (ACCCC)

The board set October 16 for a public hearing to landmark the building.

WORK SESSION

9. The Weyant

In a 4-1 vote, with Councilman Lachterman voting no, the board advised the developer, John DeVito, to proceed with the plan for 22 townhouses instead of his original plan for two buildings with a total of 31 units.  The board also agreed that the rezoning should be for a transitional zone, not the standard R-3 multi-family zone,  in order to give the developer more flexibility in designing the project.

In the discussion leading up to the vote, both Supervisor Gilbert and Councilwoman Roker agreed that the two building approach was the better design, for both the adjacent homeowners and the town, but that after a meeting with the homeowners who opposed the two building plan, they were being responsive to the homeowners. Councilmen Lachterman and Diana objected to the fact that they were not notified about the meeting with the homeowners; in response, Supervisor Gilbert said that the homeowners had asked him to meet with them and Councilwoman Roker added that she had received an email from the homeowners asking her to attend.

Mr. DeVito repeated comments made at previous meetings that while he would proceed with whichever plan the board favored, he believed that the two building plan was the best for the town. In response to comments from board members who said that they wanted to see a more diverse housing stock, i.e., units other than single family houses that would appeal to seniors and young adults, Mr. DeVito said with the town house units that would 2-story, he would try to make up to four units 1-story which would be more attractive to seniors.  

In voting against the townhouse plan, Councilman Lachterman said that while he listened to the homeowners, he was also entrusted to make the right decisions for the town.

The board will hold a public hearing on the rezoning application on October 16 and will then adjourn the hearing to give Mr. DeVito time to prepare a more detailed site plan that can be reviewed by the Planning Board. Ultimately, the Town Board will vote on the site plan.

10. Pinesbridge monument

(See Town Board, 9-4-2018.) In an item not on the agenda and the town under pressure to make a decision about where to locate the monument, the board voted 3-2 to place it in Railroad Park, in the area in front of the building. Supervisor Gilbert and Councilwoman Roker preferred Patriot Park.  Planning Director Tegeder, who has been the lead person for the project, said that while he thought Patriot Park was the better location, he was okay with the Railroad Park decision. He said that the monument has been available for installation since May.

11. Summit Hill rezoning (Old Hill Farm on East Main Street)

The applicant repeated the basics of the plan, adding that since the last meeting with the board they have been exploring potential connections to Hill Boulevard and Bank Road.  Complicating, but not totally ruling out the Hill Blvd connection, are areas of wetland, the power lines and grade changes. The connection to Bank Rd is complicated by the Toys R U bankruptcy.

To start the rezoning process, the applicant asked the board to declare which board, the Town Board or the Planning Board, would be “lead agency” for SEQRA purposes; the board decided it would be the Town Board.

12. Tennis Courts

(During Courtesy of Floor, a resident asked about the status of the bids to repair the tennis courts. The response was postponed until the work session portion of the meeting.)

Park & Recreation Superintendent Orlowski reported that two bids had been received, with separate quotes to repair the lower Downing and Blackberry courts and to rehabilitate the Shrub Oak and upper Downing Courts. The total packages ranged from $305,680 to $486,000 (the cost figures may not be exact).

Mr. Orlowski suggested that the work be done in phases with the two Downing courts being done first (estimated cost for both would be $152,000.)  The issue for the board was: where would the money come from.  Councilman Diana advised the board that the contractor for a planned development was willing to do the work in lieu of the recreation component that was part of the project’s approved subdivision plan. Whether the plan could be amended, however, or how this switch would work remained to be worked out. Also at issue was how much money was in the Trust & Agency Fund that could potentially pay for the work. The board will confer with the comptroller.

13. Chamber of Commerce

(See Town Board, 9-4-2018.) No one from the Chamber was at the meeting so there was no discussion. (Note: based on a comment, it appeared that the discussion would have been about the show mobile. See Town Board 9-4-2018)   

14. Solar Law & Tree Law

A third developer interested in constructing a solar facility introduced himself to the board. No details about the proposed facility were discussed other than it appeared to be on town owned land next to a school facility. With three companies now interested in developing a solar farm, the board decided that it would devote its October 9 work session to a discussion of both the solar law and the tree law. Both laws have been referred out to advisory boards and the Town Board needs to review the comments.

15. Crystal Lake Pump Station Rehabilitation

No one on the board knew why this item had been placed on the agenda so there  was no discussion pending more information from the town engineer.