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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-27-1998 Special MINUTES OF SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1998 AT 7;30 P.M. Purpose of Meeting - Introduce proposed Local Law regulating sexually oriented businesses and set a public hearing date. Executive session for Article 78. Those present: Teresa M. Robinson, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Donald N. Palmer, Councilman Daniel J. Carey, Councilman Francis Casullo, Attorney Also present: Francis Ciccorrico George Totman Supervisor Robinson opened the meeting and turned the floor over to the Town Attorney, Francis Casullo. FRANCIS CASULLO, ATTORNEY- The first issue that we're here to talk about is the proposed local law that wants to do regulating of where sexually oriented businesses can operate in the town. And I began to draft, with the help of the draft that the Planning Board submitted to the Town Board in a local law. And while I was doing it Lyle Raymond, the Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals, gave me a call and raised some concerns that turned out to be rather legitimate. I spoke with William Sharp, the council with the State Department of State, and he's indicated to me (and I've done some research to indicate that he is correct) that the U.S. Supreme Court has deemed that before a local law can regulate sexually oriented businesses in town can be passed, the town has to undertake a study with regard to the operation of such businesses in the town and a panel needs to come up with a study after researching the issue and make some written findings and recommendations to the Town. And at that point, after you have the written study, then the Town can draft and enact a law that would regulate those types of businesses, given the considerations that have been put forth in the study. So I think that we are still within the moratorium time period, and I also understand that I can extend the moratorium period if necessary. But, I think that the first thing that needs to be done is for the Board to figure out who they would like to ask to perform this study. My initial reaction was to have the Planning Board deal with this. I don't know if that's something George wants his board to undertake or not. If not, we are going to have to find some group of people to do this. Or if we can find a report that has already been done by a town that is similar to Groton, we can also use that town's study, but you can't take like the City of Buffalo's study and compare it to Groton. It's going to have to be a rural community. So, there are two things that you can do: You could direct me to try to find the study, which I don't think is impossible, SUERVISER ROBINSON- Wouldn't that be "cheating" though? ATTORNEY CASULLO- It's allowed. The courts have upheld it. As long as you find a study that is comparable to yours, that's acceptable. Or you can do your own. Maybe the best thing to do is to give me a couple weeks before the February meeting to see if I can find a study. I'm sure they've had to be done because there's case law on it, and I'm sure I could probably find a rural community in New York thats done one of these studies. If we find it, then we can use that. GEORGE TOTMAN, PLANNING BOARD CHAIRMAN- I don't know if you think this is a good idea or not... we're not the only town in this area that's going through the same thing and I'm always of the opinion that you can help one hand wash the other and that sort of thing. What would you think about getting with the Town of Dryden or the Town of Cortlandville, which has already done that, and the Town of Lansing, the towns which are close by us, and coming up with a study that we can all use? 1 ATTORNEY CASULLO- I think that may work since they're all close by and all in the same vicinity. But the trouble you have is that you have to extend the invitation out to the other towns and hope that they accept. If you could get enough towns or at least a couple towns who would want to do it, or we could go the avenue of trying to find a study that's already been done. GEORGE TOTMAN- I thought that might hold up in court better. ATTORNEY CASULLO- Absolutely. I think so too. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Cortlandville already has passed theirs? GEORGE TOTMAN- Cortlandville has passed theirs. Dryden and Lansing have a moratorium on right now to do it. The Town of Ithaca has just given their board the authority, or job to do a special .... ATTORNEY CASULLO- Maybe the way to do it, maybe I could call Mahlon Perkins, who is the attorney for the Town of Dryden, because they have a moratorium. And I'm sure George could maybe contact whoever is the contact person in Lansing because they have a moratorium. And maybe the three towns could get together and come up with a study or form a report that could go to all three towns during the moratorium hearings. GEORGE TOTMAN- I kind of like that idea. Our local Planning Board really doesn't have the expertise to do that, I don't think. And they would need help from you or.......to do what they should do and come up right. ATTORNEY CASULLO- This is just speculation, but maybe to form the study, maybe the three attorneys from each town and then one other person from each town. Have a six person committee to draft this report and to represent equally the three town boards. GEORGE TOTMAN- I think right now that the attorneys in the other two towns that you're talking about, don't know what you learned today. ATTORNEY CASULLO- Yes, we're all under the moratorium period, so maybe that might be the way to go. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- I'm not trying to put anybody down, but I always think when you're first starting out, it's better to have more ideas; more heads have more ideas. GEORGE TOTMAN- I think with relationship to the Town of Groton, Mahlon Perkins would be a good one to work with because he's associated with another group that's very interested in this operation. And I know that Rich John is working on the same type of thing. ATTORNEY CASULLO- I think that if we could get the three lawyers together just for the purposes of continuity, and getting another person from each town to sit down and form this study, maybe that's efficient. It looks like you're taking into effect not only your own town but the surrounding areas as well. I'm just telling you, you have to do a study of some sort. You either have to do a study or find a town that's already done one that's similar or comparable to you. I think I can find you one. I think there's three wrongs of what a court would like to see. The first wrong is the town doing it themselves , just addressing its concerns. The next wrong is like George is saying, when you get some towns together and you're still addressing your own concerns but you're going a little bit larger. And the third wrong is you're using some other towns that may be two hundred miles away, but comparable to your town. The courts have said that you don't need to do your own study as long as you find one comparable. COUNCILMAN PALMER- How long does the current moratorium hold? ATTORNEY CASULLO- The current moratorium was November 11. So there was four months, December 11th, January 11th, February 11th, March 11th. But I've also been told that by local law we can extend the moratorium. But we have until March 11th. We have some time. 2 COLLEEN PIERSON, TOWN CLERK- That's not really much time by the time you do the study, time you wait ten days with the law laying on the table... ATTORNEY CASULLO- But he has assured me that we can extend the moratorium. CLERK PIERSON- Just automatically? ATTORNEY CASULLO- Oh, sure. We could hold a special meeting to do that. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- If each town did their own study, and they all came out the same, would that carry better in court? If we got together with Groton, and Dryden, and Lansing, or whatever, and everybody had basically the same study but did it in their own town, if they all came out the same, wouldn't that even carry more weight? ATTORNEY CASULLO- Yes, to an extent. I think though that they would probably like to see the three towns do it. The report would be a little bit dissimilar from one town to the other. But I think there's three similar communities, especially Groton and Dryden. It's the next town over, same county, I can't speak about the population, I don't think Dryden's that much bigger than Groton......What you need to do is let me know which one you want to be involved in this. COUNCILMAN CAREY- George, is Lansing's Village and Town, I'm not really too familiar with how the Village lies in Lansing, but is there a lot of agricultural land in the Village Limits in Lansing? GEORGE TOTMAN- In the Village, no. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- There is some. A little bit? COUNCILMAN CAREY- I'm just wondering whether, Dryden and Groton are similar, but I'm just wondering whether Lansing.... GEORGE TOTMAN- You're not talking about the Village, you're talking about the Town. The Town and Village of Groton have agreed. The Town and Village of Lansing don't have the comraderie like the Town and Village of Groton. They're completely separate from each other. So we're only talking about the Town of Lansing. ATTORNEY CASULLO- I think what you can do, is probably two things. You could direct me to look and see if I can find a town that's similar, a report from a town that's similar. If you've got that, that would make things real easy. And on the other hand, also direct me to get hold of the town attorney for Dryden, and ask that George do the same for Lansing and see if maybe we can come up with a cooperative effort. It would be like a two prong type of thing that we could report to you before the next board meeting as to which one is more successful. That would probably be the way to do it, unless you have any objections. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Anybody else have any objections?....Go to it. ATTORNEY CASULLO- I don't think you need a resolution for that. The next thing we need to do is go into executive session so I can update you on the pending litigation. Councilman Carey made a motion, at 7:45 P.M., to go into executive session to discuss pending litigation. Seconded by Councilman Sovocool. Ayes - Robinson, Sovocool, Carey, Palmer, Scheffler. At 8:30 P.M. Councilman Palmer moved to reconvene into normal session from executive session. Seconded by Councilman Carey. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Palmer, Carey, Robinson. 3 RESOLUTION NO. 5 - AUTHORIZE ATTORNEY TO DEFEND ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Palmer, Carey, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby authorize the Town Attorney to defend the Zoning Board of Appeals in the Article 78 action brought against them. There being no further business, Councilman Carey moved to adjourn meeting, seconded by Councilman Sovocool at 8:35 P.M. Unanimous. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk 4