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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-11-03 1 TOWN OF DRYDEN ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS November 3 , 1999 AGENDA: ( 1 ) Janice Vestal - Area Variance (2) Foundation of Light - Area Variance (3) Richard Preston - Area Variance (4) Lakeview Golf Course - Use Variance MEMBERS PRESENT : Chairperson Charles Hanley, Stuart Berg , Ann Everett, Nick LaMotte, and Rita Harris. ALSO PRESENT: Janice Vestal, Robert Martin , Esther Gowan, Deb Grantham, Mahlon Perkins, LEGAL COUNSEL: Randall Marcus (4) Lakeview Golf Course Chair Hanley re-opened the application of the Lakeview Golf Course of 430 Lake Road , Dryden. He went on to read through the new additions to the file . A memorandum from Peter D . Novelli Consulting Engineer 203 N . Aurora Street , Ithaca , dated October 21 , 1999 to Robert Martin of Lakeview Golf Club. (Please see attached memorandum) . A letter from the IJ Construction Company of 934 East Shore Drive, Ithaca dated October 11 , 1999 to Chuck Hanley. (Please see attached letter) . A letter from David T. Smith , Phyllis Smith , and Kenneth Smith 15 Bridle Lane , Dryden , dated October 4 , 1999 to Whom it may concern . (Please see attached letter) . He then opened the floor to the public. R . MARTIN : I am the owner of Lakeview Golf Club at 430 Lake Road . They explained to me also that this is just the expense of getting to the land. There is also the entire expense of development . If you got to the land - the way they explained it to me - you have to put a road so that the houses could have a road to get in and out, and utilities which would take up another three acres, which would leave three acres to put on maybe two houses if you're lucky. So basically it comes out to zero value for housing . That is the way it was explained to me. ATTORNEY MARCUS : Who gave you that estimate? R. MARTIN : Ivar Johnson . He is a big contractor/land developer. /y I S . BERG : That was one of the statements. ATTORNEY MARCUS : I just wanted the record to show who he got that additional Information from. CHAIR HANLEY: Does anyone else want to add anything? MAHLON PERKINS: 477 Lake Road . My wife and I live right across from the existing first hole . We don't have any problem at all with the proposed use of this additional land . We think that an 18-hole golf course would be an asset. However, we do have some other environmental concerns that we hope the Zoning Board of Appeals would address in its deliberations and let me tell you why . This is really the disturbance of a large piece of land . There are 28 or 28 acres there and at some point or another during construction all of that land is going to be tilled or disturbed or dug or seeded or whatever. As I understand it there isn't another forum where there is going to be any environmental review of this project at all . Given • the topography of this land - and it's all slopping there is just no level part on this additional land - there are legitimate drainage and erosion concerns that we have . What concerns me is that a large amount of earthwork and drainage has already been under taken without any permit, without any environmental review of this project at all . As far as can tell without any detailed plans at all other than a sketch . It seems to me that what the owner has said is 4*om did this to see if the drainage would work. " That seems to me to have the result before the plan . Because if it doesn't work -and I don't know whether it has worked or not - you have damage which has already been done . I don't think this kind of planning and this kind of approach to a project of this scope - which admittedly is going to have to be several hundred thousand dollars to accomplish the construction of another 9 holes - is the way we ought to 2 encourage the development in the Town . So what I would like to see the ZBA do is to take a hard look at the environmental issues that go with this project . I think those , quickly, are erosion control during and following construction , you have a very valuable community resource that all this land drains to, and that is the lake. There are significant wet lands both within and adjacent to this property that is being developed and as far as I can tell there has been no salvation control used at all to protect those wet lands from the work that has been done already. There needs to be some provision made for dust control during construction because of the dry summer when the wind was blowing and the equipment were moving in and out of the access road, and you know we just constantly had a dust storm swirling around our house anytime we had any kind of breeze . As far as I know there isn't adequate parking to begin with . Any other project of the town that talks about expansion has to have some provision made for an improved parking area . Right now there isn 't enough parking on one side of the road, the overflow goes together and that is all done on lawn . I 'd like to see the issue of parking and the need for additional parking area addressed . Also , I came by J tonight and there are six large outdoor lights on these buildings at the golf course and I don 't understand why in the middle of a country we need all this extra light. If it is for security it seems to me that it can be on the side of the building that is next to the house or something like this. But we have all this extra light being broadcast out into the neighborhood . And this time of year, especially when the leaves are all off it 's quite noticeable . I just wonder if there is some way that you can address that issue during your deliberations. Since this is the only Board that Mr. Martin will have to go to I think it weighs heavily on you to address all of the environmental issues. I donl think there is a question 3 about what the proper use of this land is although I would like to see him have more land so that he can do a better job with the design of the course and so forth and not crowd it. Certainly I think that the appropriate use of this land next to the course is for expansion . I just urge you to address these other issues at some point . CHAIR HANLEY: Just for clarification Henry would you address the environmental issues? H . SLATER: It would go before the reviewing Board and you have the SEQR form in front of you . It may or may not be in sufficient depth . You may want to have them take a look at a long form . They certainly would have to file a storm water management plan with the DEC, since it is more than 10 acres. 1 know he has been in contact with the DEC but I don't know what his response from them has been . As we discussed at the last meeting , the consideration of the wetlands has been mentioned here again . You certainly may want to look at parking for the facility how that would be handled . There is a formula there for recreational purposes . Typically in a special permit or a site plan review the Town does take a look at exterior lighting that it be unobtrusive in nature. There are certain lights that can be used that would fulfill that . S . BERG : That would be related to the new construction . He is complaining about lights in the existing construction which is not under consideration here , right? H . SLATER : I believe that is up to you to decide, but you're not looking at that piece of land . ATTORNEY MARCUS : This doesn't involve any special permit or special sight plan review. CHAIR HANLEY: What review is required for the wetlands considerations or is what we do here it for the wetlands? 4 H. SLATER: You could ask the applicant to demonstrate that he is not infringing upon any wetland or wetland setback. That he has sediment and erosion control measures that will be employed both during and after construction . You certainly need some demonstration that he has filed a storm water management plan . DEC of course will require these very things. You probably are going to want to have contingencies that they somehow demonstrate that they have conformed to the regulations . R . HARRIS : How does DEC get involved? H. SLATER: You can require them to - as we talked about at your last meeting - show that he has met all regulatory requirements that would apply to his development on that site and to the adjacent lands in question . R. HARRIS : Because we also talked about contaminants in Dryden lake resulting from fertilizer runoff. I know that Bob said that they were using natural fertilizer but I also understand - since that time - from researched that I have done , even natural fertilizer runoff into a body of water can contaminate and suffocate . H. SLATER: I think if you pre- mitigate the contamination from reaching the lake - by containing it on site - then you don't have to wont' about whether it's going to get there or not. ATTORNEY MARCUS : Typically if you are in a position where there are requirements such as sedimentation control , erosion control (all of these issues that you are referring to) and your Board doesn 't have the expertise to evaluate a plan , you may want to consider conditions for proposes approved by the Town engineer. Certainly the TG Miller firm has all the expertise that you would need to evaluate not only erosion control plans, but lighting plans as well . Within that office they generate those plans for developers 5 I themselves so certainly they would have the ability to evaluate the submittal of someone else 's plans as to whether it's adequate or not . CHAIR HANLEY: I should have read this before, the letter from TG Miller dated October 260 1999 simply says concerning this application "we agree with the cost analysis provided with the additional information for the Lakeview golf course ." That is the only reference it makes to this application . Mr. Martin , you wanted to say something? R. MARTIN : We are also , especially myself, very concerned with the environmental part of it and we have tried to contact the DEC . They were suppose to have contacted us and visited the site even before this hearing . We have tried three times to get him to come and so far no response from them . We will work very closely with them. We are the first golf course in this area that doesn't use chemical fertilizers or anything like . We are doing it completely organic. So we are leaders not only in this area but in the entire country. The plowing and dirt work that was done over there was done by a retired farmer who used his plow and disked the land so that we could get the rocks out of there. He also carved out the actual places of the greens and the places to get back and forth . This I think is very intelligent. We used the natural lay of the land ; there will be no more excavation work except to put in the lines to variegate the greens . Every green is in the natural lay of the land . All we have to do is form it and put in the top 12 inches. There are some ponds that we wanted to put in . The dust this year would have come from any place . It swirled in from of our place where it wasn't even plowed , but that should not be a concern from now on . There is no more major work except for a little bulldozer work because again I used the natural lay of the land rather than trying to build some up or create land . We are going to stay away from the wetlands; an additional pond will actually create more wetland . Fi We are going to put in = by the time it is finished - over a thousand trees. We will be very considerate of the neighbors. The parking , we could create hundreds of parking places for cars on the other side of the road . What we would do is just simply make the driving range smaller. So whatever parking you want , we can make arrangements for that. The lights are around the building because we were told it would be better to light up the street. I doubt if it would be too bright now, but we would be very happy to change the bulbs or whatever to satisfy that . We will work with the environmentalists. I consider myself an environmentalist. We will make sure that the land is kept environmentally safe. CHAIR HANLEY: Does anyone else want to speak to this application? D. GRANTHAM : Organic fertilizer is a chemical , and the issue with fertilizer entering the lake is simply a nutrient issue it doesn 't matter whether it is synthetic or not. One of the things that I would recommend is that if you get that far that you look at a nutrient management plan for the golf course and try to reduce the amount of nutrients used and reduce the amount that runs off or leaches into the ground water. That lake has a lot of ground water recharged to it and so nitrates can leach into ground water. Fertilizer is another issue and we can develop a pest management plan that reduces your pesticide use and still keeps your greens green . This is pretty important stuff to do and it could save you money in the long run too. Erosion control is extremely important and if you get that far I would say you need a storm water management plan . ATTORNEY MARCUS : Henry at what point does Mr. Martin have to come to you with a permit of any kind ? Apparently he hasn 't had to in connection with the work that he has done so far. 7 H. SLATER: Well that is an interesting question because , I think it has been said to ® you before that you are the only review process he is going to be before other than other agency involvement relative to the project . He is actually not building anything so therefore there is no building permits there is not special permit or site plan review so he has the issue of expansion by the variance or not expanding and other agency involvement and requirement that those agencies would consider relevant to this project. Storm water management is obviously one of them that he is required to do because he Is developing more than 10 acres. ATTORNEY MARCUS : That results in an approval. That's not simply a submittal . H. SLATER: Actually, and I think Councilperson Grantham can correct me if I am wrong , but I believe that's simply a submittal and is filed with the DEC other than what the town may be requiring , and that is as far as it goes ® until such time as there is a complaint lodged against the project. D. GRANTHAM : Storm water? H . SLATER: I don 't think they do an actual review of it. D. GRANTHAM : They are suppose to . They may not but they are suppose to . CHAIR HANLEY. You were indicating that someone with expertise who would review these plans for us would be normally found in Millers? ATTORNEY MARCUS . Or another engineering firm. Miller's happens to be a full service firm and they are the Town 's engineer so they've looked at this application in a general sense to get to the point of concurring with the financial information . But certainly there are people within the firm who are also familiar with erosion control plans and any of the other issues that have been brought up about site development. CHAIR HANLEY: So if we were to ask for erosion control and nutrient management and ® storm water plan review they would give us an analysis of them? ATTORNEY MARCUS : I 'm sure they could . CHAIR HANLEY. Anyone on the Board have any questions for anyone? Anyone else have anything to add ? N . LAMOTTE: I hate to keep beating this issue to death , but I raised the issue last meeting about the fourth criteria , that the applicant is suitably required to address. I am wondering if all of this discussion we have had tonight is really relevant until we have crossed that bridge . I 'm talking about the issue of self-created hardship , and it's not been addressed and I frankly cannot see any possible way with the information that is before us at this time how the applicant can possibly meet that, and in my hope would be that he would approach the Town Board with a request with some change in Zoning that would allow him to proceed without the variance. ® That would take it out of our hands, the Town Board could establish whatever requirements relevant to these issue they might choose . I simply see no way that they - at this point - can comply with number 4 of the state-required criteria . CHAIR HANLEY: Okay the question then becomes, do we want to save that for the deliberative session and tackle that first, or does anyone want any extra comments from anyone here on that specific issue? N . LAMOTTE: Maybe Randy can give us some direction there about how we should proceed . ATTORNEY MARCUS : I think you have a couple of choices that Chuck just laid out. But as far as the issue goes as I have said before , that's very wide open to interpretation , the case law about the issue self imposed hardship. I don't think that there are very many cases that are clearly self-created or 9 I clearly not self-created . As we have discussed on a couple of different applications it's something that can be looked at in a spectrum of ways. What Nick is referring to is that it is a use variance it has to be found not too be self-created . R. HARRIS : I thought that Mr. Martin documented the fact that a 9-hole golf course is not a practical business. Therefore the need to expand is not self- created but rather created by the facts of the economy and what happens In a business. S . BERG : That point was brought out last time that the other golf courses all in recent years have gone from 9 to 18 holes, and to be competitive he needs to expand . R . HARRIS : I thought because we documented that it negated the issue of self- created . CHAIR HANLEY: Well we haven 't made a finding yet . Nick brings up a valid point we will have to discuss . We have all the testimony we need and obviously that is one of the arguments to be made . I think now for purposes of taking any more testimony I get the impression we are done now. So we will close the public hearing section . DELIBERATIONS : CHAIR HANLEY: Randy , what are the possibilities here , can we postpone a decision? ATTORNEY MARCUS . Yes , you have 62 days from the close of the hearing which apparently closed tonight so technically your decision has to rendered by January 6 . Before you come to your decision you have to fill out at least the short form . My opinion is that you can deal with this issue with a short form because the environmental concerns although Mahlon went into some 10 detail , they are really all within a category relative to erosion and ® drainage and sedimentation issues. It doesn't involve flora and fauna , archaeological , and air quality. The short form gives you enough guidance to take care of this issue. Then you have to deal with conditions, which I was suggesting you might lump together by listing the concerns and making t a condition that your engineer approves those plans. You have to get all that out before you come to your decision . Whether you do your findings first or the SEOR first is up to you . I think you might find it easier to do your findings first. CHAIR HANLEY: Can we postpone the deliberative section? ATTORNEY MARCUS : You can . CHAIR HANLEY. This is a difficult one. S . BERG: Here is another issue . Typically what's the load in the December meeting? CHAIR HANLEY: It usually drops off during the winter. H . SLATER: I have nothing (scheduled) at this time . Another suggestion I have is that you ask the Town engineer to develop a list of critical criterion that you might want to visit in a conditional variance approval. A. EVERETT: Do we want to ask him to come to a meeting with us first? To get some professional input on how to put all this Information together? H. SLATER : I don't think it's that complicated . ATTORNEY MARCUS : I don't think it is either. It 's a little surprising to me that with the kind of money he has to be spending to get from here to an end point, that he hasn't already engaged an engineer to come up with this plan . S. BERG : He said a lot of this work is voluntary . 1J R. HARRIS : It bothers me a little that this is developed before it ever came to us. It's not like he came to us and said °Phis is what I am proposing to do in t he future once this is approved ." it's done . ATTORNEY MARCUS : For him to not do any more you would have to walk out there with a stop work order right? R . HARRIS : I understand but it's just a little bit bothersome . S. BERG : Is he moving ahead? In another month he will be done? H . SLATER : They won't do anything more until spring . R. HARRIS: But he has been working on this all season. There has been work ongoing . This did not come to us until October, yet since April or May there has been this work ongoing . H . SLATER: I have been rejecting his application since June because it was so full of holes that it made no sense to bring it to you . ATTORNEY MARCUS : His variance application? H . SLATER : Yes, I have rejected 2 or 3 of them saying that if I took it to the ZBA you might as well stay home . A. EVERETT: So Henry you are able and Randy is able to help us go through all of this and find out what we need ? H. SLATER: Yes, I think we have mentioned every issue tonight . CHAIR HANLEY. I also don't want Nick to feel bulldozed here . We still have his major objection to this . N . LAMOTTE : It's the same issue , and I feel that we should resolve that before we go through all the rest of it . ATTORNEY MARCUS : Maybe you should take 15 minutes tonight and deal with that issue . CHAIR HANLEY: I 'm not sure it's going to run 15 minutes. I don 't want to start down that road if waiting until the next meeting will help. I think we should open ® 12 with Nick's objection and deal with that first. If we can 't get by that then ® there is no point in . . . . S . BERG : What's your objection Nick? N . LAMOTTE: This self-created problem . I feel there is no question about it . The distinguished council feels very much the other way. ATTORNEY MARCUS : I have my own personal view of that issue . That is that you can always argue whether it is self-created or not . R. HARRIS * I agree with Nick in the sense that he bought that golf course he bought it with the intention of turning it into an 18 hole golf course . I am convinced of that totally. Therefore it is self-created . H . SLATER : I disagree . I think the golf course is the applicant not a particular person because the golf course is the non-conforming , preexisting use of which 1701 paragraph be brought here . ATTORNEY MARCUS :Or you could say that he bought the property for whatever reason , assuming that it could be used and then investigated the cost of using it for permissible uses and determines that it can 't be financially prosperous. S. BERG : I disagree because the environment changed in the time that he owned it. In the time that he owned it these other courses went from 9 to 18 holes. The competitive environment changed . ATTORNEY MARCUS : You could put an argument like that in the record . I think it is a logical argument. I think there is a basis for that argument, but the problem have and the reason I could also side with Nicks point of view just as easily is that you are suppose to look at the property under consideration . You're not suppose to look at the next door property and what it happens to be used for. You 're suppose to be looking at the parcel that is being considered for a variance . Which has been farmland 13 and apparently it wasn't very profitable as farmland . The only other thing that you are allowed to do with it in the zoning district is residential . S . BERG: It's Gear that it is not suitable for residential because it is too expensive . ATTORNEY MARCUS : So that gives you good justification to get over the first hurdle of financial hardship, but does that give you justification that it is not self- created? I don 't know. If he bought it knowing that it was not profitable as fame land and it's pretty obvious that it is not profitable for residential then isn 't 4 self-created hardship to try and do anything else with it? R. HARRIS : He bought it obviously with the intent of adding 9 holes. That is the only reason he bought it. S. BERG : So you are saying that when he bought it, all the other golf courses were already 18 holes? R. HARRIS : No, I 'm saying when he bought this additional piece of property with only one purpose. S . BERG : I do remember him mentioning that it was a super deal and the guy came to him to sell him the land . They guy came back 2 or 3 times and the deal was too good to pass up. Isn't that the story that he gave us? N. LAMOTTE: Yes, you put that well , "the story that he gave us .° H. SLATER: I believe that story is true . But ultimately he paid an exorbitant amount of money for it. ATTORNEY MARCUS: The point is that he wouldn 't have a problem if he didn 't want to build a golf course . It 's his interest in building a golf course that creates the problem . CHAIR HANLEY, I would suggest that the Board postpone the deliberation section . Henry would you extend the invitation to the next meeting to the Town engineer? ® 14 H. SLATER : Yes, I will take care of that in fact if you would like to have me work with Dave to develop a list we will do that. ATTORNEY MARCUS : If they want to talk with me about it . I took detailed notes as people were raising issues. I deal with that literally every day . CHAIR HANLEY: We will most likely open with Nick's point . Do I hear a motion to postpone this deliberation? S . BERG : So moved. CHAIR HANLEY: Second? R . HARRIS : Second. CHAIR HANLEY: All in favor? ALL: Aye CHAIR HANLEY: Do 1 hear a motion to adjourn the meeting? S. BERG : So moved . CHAIR HANLEY : Second ? A. EVERETT : Second. CHAIR HANLEY: All in favor? ALL: Aye . ® 15 PETER D . NOVELLI , P . E. FILE: CONSULTING ENGINEER 203 NORTH AURORA STREET ITHACA, NEW YORK 14850 ® (607) ( (607) 275-0964 64 (FAX)FAX) PDNONOVELU-ENG .COM MEMORANDUM DATE : OCTOBER 21 , 1999 PROJECT NO: 238 TO: ROBERT MARTIN / LAKEVIEW GOLF CLUB FROM : PETER D. NOVELLI , P .E. RE : PROPOSED ACCESS TO RESIDENTIAL ZONE Attached is an excerpt from the Lakeview Golf Club master Site Plan. It indicates a potential buildable area zoned for residential development. Also indicated is a possible location for an access road which is required in order to access the land . This is required if access is to be obtained from this section of Lake Road because the slope of the land drops approximately 15 to 20 feet from Lake Road , and this would result in an unacceptably steep access road . One way to provide access would be to install a concrete culvert along the center of the gully. A large amount of compacted fill would be required above the culvert to bring the roadway up to a level grade. The approximate cost to construct this would be in the range of $250,000 to $300 ,000. Another option would be to construct concrete abutments , with fill behind them , and a steel or concrete bridge spanning approximately 125 feet. The approximate cost of this would be in the range of $450 ,000 to $600 , 000. Either option would have to be designed and constructed to Tompkins County and Town of Dryden design standards. A detailed design would be required in order to further refine cost estimates. However, a figure in the range of $250,000 to $600 ,000 is a relatively large sum of money in order to access a relatively small parcel of land . Please call if you would like our office to investigate this project further. Attach : Site Plan excerpt COPIES TO : O .ram: J J✓•��� __-'--.+-t..+.���— a cT� I � ^ "` ~~ti�� 1 \ �r ' peo FbsED s ITC R4 1 ``- 2OD ' See� �on Un1y_ � ti25o � z4o IVAR JONSON 60M72-7163 � Gil o ' (� p [ S ! 0 [ !ITlAL J Al APARTMENT BUILDING 934 East Shore Drive Ithaca , N . Y . 14850 October 11 , 1999 Board of Zoning Appeals 65 Bast Main Street Dryden NY 13053 I . J . Construction 934 East Shore Drive Ithaca NY 14850 Dear Mr. Hanley, ® We inspected the land in question located at 430 Lake Road, left of the golf course to see if it was financially suited for housing. The answer to this question is no . Out of the approximately 26 acres, only 6 acres would be suited for housing. This area is located just left of the present #2 golf hole. The major problem is the land is landlocked, and you would have to build a bridge across the ravine fronting the property . The cost of the bridge would be around one half of a million dollars, which alone would make the project a financial disaster. When you add the other costs, roads, utilities, sewers, etc. it just would not work. This land would be more suitable as open recreational land , Sincerely, I fnd �t � son Phyllis and David Smith, 15 Bridle Lane, Dryden , NY 13053 Fpw qj � October 4, 1. 999 To Whom It May Concern: During much of the last decade we have established and maintained nestboxes to restore the population of the Eastern Bluebird in Dryden, Groton and Virgil . Tree swallows, chickadees, house wrens and other cavity-nesters are also being attracted . One hundred sixty bluebirds and more than 300 tree swallows were fledged this year. Lakeview Golf Club is making an important contribution to this success. Nestboxes on the golf course attracted four nesting pairs of bluebirds this year. Nearly 70 tree swallows fledged from nest boxes on the course. Bob Martin, Jerry Ryan, and those with whom they work, have encouraged the frequent monitoring required . When unusual events have occurred, they have kindly alerted us. Their cooperation has made these results possible. At other locations where e such cooperation has been lacking, it has been necessary to remove nestboxes, rather than provide a haven for predators. The management at Lakeview Golf Club has been prudent in observing good management practices as aggressive steps were taken to improve the course . Design for the course expansion capitalized on the unusual beauty of this location on the east side of Dryden Lake . Initial grading and fairway seeding of additional holes were accomplished with minimal site degradation . Care has been taken to preserve the aesthetics of this extraordinary location , Newly planted trees provide demarcation of the new fairways, as well as enhancing several areas on the established course. Expanding the course at Lakeview Golf Club can only enhance the successful attraction of bluebirds, tree swallows and other cavity-nesting birds. it promises to provide even more recreational opportunity for this community, as well as enhance the local economy. We urge careful consideration of the requested variance, and support such approval . j(o1Ck it David T . Smith, Phyllis Smith and Kenneth Smith k4@clarityconnect.com