HomeMy WebLinkAbout1977-10-04 GROTON TOWN PLANNING BOARD MEETING
Held at the
Town Hall , Groton , New York
Tuesday - October 4 , 1977
PRESENT : George Totman - Chair uan*
Don Payne *
Jim MacNeil
Lyle Raymond
Roger Gleason
Mary Adams
. Cecil Twigg
Josephine Bell - Recording Clerk*
* - Denotes those present .
Mr . Totman called the meeting to order at 8 PM and
passed out copies of the August and September
Planning Board meetings to all present .
R . Gleason : In the August meeting on page 3 , last sentence - C .
Twigg - Floyd Fouts - - that should be changed from
"his brother " to "his father . "
G . Totman : I guess we might as well get started . The two members
who are missing tonight are Cecil Twigg from West Groton
and Mary Adams from Peruville .
L . Raymond : I understand the term you are appointed for - - you have
to fill for the unexpired term .
G . Totman : I have to get a clarification from the Town Board - - one
vacancy was for Harvey Fink and one was for Fred Wilson
and you and Jim were appointed to replace those two but
they didn ' t make it clear who is replacing who but at the
March meeting of every year the Town Board appoints one
person to replace one that expires and they keep records
of dates and when terms are up appoint new people so will
have to go back to the Town Board to see whose term you
are filling out . Normally in the past unless you ' re
really a bad guy they don ' t bother to check with you they
just reappoint you .
L . Raymond : I was just wondering what the score was .
G . Totman : Right , - - the terms are for 7 years .
R . Gleason : Right and I have been reappointed once .
G . Totman : I think Fred Wilson was appointed to fill someone else ' s
place but he never completed the term .
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G . Totman : What I thought we would do tonight - - being there are no
pressing problems - - no subdivisions pending that I know
of - - no urgent requests from anybody except for general
overhaul , - - I thought I would give you some books we have
on things we have done in the past and what the Board is
all about for your benefit .
L . Raymond ; Right , - - I would be very interested in that .
Mr . Totman gave the new members material on the
Planning Board , Subdivisions , Zoning Ordinances
and so forth .
G . Totman : These books here are what we developed and this is the one
on the General Development Plan for the whole Town that we
started in 1967 through a 701 grant and the professional
services of Tom Neiderkorn out of Ithaca . We spent 5 years
developing this general plan . In 1972 we presented the
Zoning Ordinance to the people and it was passed .
L . Raymond : 0 . K . I remember that . I was around here in 1972 and Neider-
korn was there .
G . Totman : Yes , you used to come to some of the meetings and that is
where that book arrived from . There was another phase of
that same program concerning subdivisions for the Town and
Village of Groton and that is what this book here is .
I think probably you would have to read through them to Wt
the meaning of them .
The second book is more of a survey and facts and figures of
what the Town is all about and from it - - you can read it
and take directions or think about directions the Town should
be taking and , hopefully , reading it you will get a better
idea of what the Town is all about .
L . Raymond : Can we take these home ?
G . Totman : Yes , and keep them forever . Over the years we have done a
lot of other things . We were given the responsibility of
coming up with a junkyard ordinance and a swimming pool
ordinance .
I think one of the worst things the Planning Board gets
accused of is actually making the ordinance - - when some -
thing happens the Planning Board gets blamed for it .
L . Raymond ; Our capacity is advisory , right ?
G . Totman : Right , - -when it comes to the ordinance we study and make
recommendations to the Town Board and they take it from
there and pass it in its entirety or make changes . A good
example of that is in the past year] when we had the moratorium
on mobile homes and turned our findings into the Town Board and
they tore them apart and put it together the way they wanted it
and passed it but basically it ' s not ours .
If you were here in 1972 you ' ll recall trailer mobile home
problems back then and you know what we ' re talking about .
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G . Totman : This past year we , through the approval of the Town Board ,
- we contracted with the Cooperative Extension Agency
in Tompkins County and did another housing survey hoping
it would give us some insights of what people ' s feelings
are about the kind of homes they live in , the working en -
vironment and so on and these two books are the results
of that survey . You probably received a questionnaire to
fill out on this at that time .
L . Raymond ; I don ' t know whether we did or not , - -
G . Totman : You- should have gotten one .
L . Raymond : Oh , yes , I recall now we did get one and spent sometime in
filling it out .
D . Payne ; That was quite a session , - - that mobile home issue .
L . Raymond : Recently I attended a Town Board meeting about Lockwoods .
R . - Gleason : That was on a subdivision .
G . Totman ; Now that you mention the Lockwood problem . He is still
bugging me on trying to get approval for him on subdivision
and junkyard down there and all sorts of things . I guess
he has a gravel pit and keeps his cars inside the gravel
pit where they don ' t show from the road and he feels that is
legal for a junkyard but they won ' t issue him a junkyard
permit and he keeps calling me up and wanting me to exercise
my influence to get him a permit for his subdivision and so
on but never really gave us a formal application for it but
he apparently hasn ' t forgotten the fact that he is supposed
to do some things legal but bis last comment to me. ( I . - -
explained to him -he had - tn. go to the Zoning Boardkand so on )
so he said he bought the land and he pays the taxes on it so
let them come see what he is doing on it if they want to so
he probably will be a problem for as long as he lives there .
L . Raymond : It was advertised for taxes - - the whole property - - a
while back .
R . Gleason : One thing - - subdivision - gravel bank - - is supposed to be
separate from where he lives .
D . Payne : He has one piece he hasn ' t sold yet that is subdivided .
G . Totman : So - - Don , - - or Roger - - why don ' t you pick up on some -
thing I might have missed that would be beneficial to these
guys . Something you worked on or things the Board has asked
us to do we haven ' t done yet .
D . Payne : Did you mention that we do have the subdivisions ?
G . Totman : Right - - I didn ' t . When we get a request for a subdivision , -and I ' m sure you both know what a subdivision is , - -well first
of all the Town Board has the option to grant the Planning
Board plat approval but without this plat approval the Town
Board is the ruling - - the legal body or whatever - - to
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G . Totman : pass on subdivisions . Once they gave the Planning Board plat
approval then all jurisdiction on subdivisions falls under
the responsibility of the Planning Board - - sole approval or sole
denials on requests for subdivisions .
L . Raymond : You said awhile ago that the Planning Board is advisory -this is an area where they have given the Planning Board
authority?
G . Totman : Right , - - it ' s the only area we ' re not advisory in . And it ' s
a responsibility that sometimes can be kind of important de-
pending on the size of the subdivision . We haven ' t been hit
too hard in this area but in Dryden or Ithaca - - they have
their hands full studying areas out for drainage , etc , for the
best interests of the towns .
L . Raymond : Do you have funds from the Town to help with your analysis ?
G . Totman : The Town sets aside a budget for the Planning Board - - two
or three things are included in it . One - like this survey -
the money for this came from the Planning Board budget or if
we need to draw up an ordinance and need professional assistance
we have to go to the Town Board and request approval for spend -
ing the money but any time we want to have the Town Attorney
come to our meetings or work with us on some subdivision he does .
The Town Attorney is also responsible for doing work for the
Planning Board or we can consult with him when we have legal
questions .
R . Gleason : We also have the services of the County Conservation Department ,
L . Raymond : These services are free?
G . Totman : Right and our Planning Board is represented on the Tompkins
County Planning Board - - there hasn ' t been much lately on
the County Planning Board that has related to us too much .
L . Raymond : You mean a member of this Planning Board is a member on the
County Planning Board ?
G . Totman : Yes , I am . I would mention also that there ' s money put aside
in the budget of the Town Board each year for each member of
the Planning Board , if he so desires , to go to the New York
State Association of Towns meetings in New York City in
February . It ' s like a seminar . They have very good forums and
things like that relating to every facet of town government .
They have speakers and that sort of thing and the same applies
for our Zoning Board of Appeals - - there ' s a place for you. at
these meetings . They are usually held the 2nd week in February , - -
I usually go , - -Roger goes quite often , - - last year Roger even
took his wife along .
L . Raymond : The second week in February - - that ' s before maple sugar time .
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G . Totman : They have a set fee they give us to go to New York , When
I first started going it was $ 125 . I think it ' s $ 175 . You
turn in a voucher when it ' s done .
In a little while Verl Rankin , you probably don ' t know him ,,
he ' s acting Town Supervisor in the absence of Hicks Dow who
resigned, will be here .
L . Raymond : I ' ve been to Town meetings but names and faces are kind of
hazy .
G . Totman : In a little while he ' ll be down . We have a new Town Clerk
who is very efficient and at the last couple of Town Board
meetings she made it clear she wants better records kept
and turned into the Town Board in the future .
L . Raymond : Does anyone go to Town Board meetings and report on them?
G . Totman : Once in awhile but not always . If we need something or
have something pertaining to the Planning Board that
needs their help we go .
L . Raymond : I know there ' s a State law governing Planning Board , is
there a Town law passed ?
G . Totman : To the best of my knowledge all the Town laws was a resolu -
tion to create a Planning Board and they appointed the
original members and from that point why - - we sent for
some books from the State and other than that it was pretty
much for people to figure out what the Planning Board was
all about .
So far as the Town Board setting up rules and guidelines , to
my knowledge that was never done . You pretty well have to
follow State Rules and Regulations .
I think your question is a good one because I often wonder
when a new member comes on , - -we sit through these things for
10 years and they become automatic to us but then a new
member comes on and says what do these guys do . When you
go to something new you get enthused about it . A lot of
things you just pick up over the years and you assume every=
body else knows but they don ' t .
J . MacNeil : Do these books cover what is covered by the Planning Board ?
G . Totman : Not too much . But I do have some booklets .
D . Payne : I have some too that I can give to you .
G . Totma.n : You must have some too , Roger .
R . Gleason : Yes ,
G . Totman : If they haven ' t , I ' ll get some . I think I ' ll be at
Grossingers for one day of that planning thing . It ' s the
16th , 17th and 18th of October . It ' s too late to sign up
for it now but I ' m going on my own and , hopefully, will
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G . Totman : be there for the first day of it and if I am will get some
addresses and also pick up what materials they have there .
I ' m also planning on going to New York City in February .
L . Raymond : I just attended a meeting in Albany - - annual meeting of the
Association of Environmental Commission and the Consumers in Towns and Counties
and they did a lot of talking about environmental quality review law of the
Towns and also some of the other laws like wetlands . Does the Planning Board
get involved in these things ?
G . Totman : Some Planning Boards do , - - I think it ' s at the direction of
the Town Board whether they ask them to do it or not . We
very vaguely discussed the new law SEQUA but , at this point ,
we haven ' t got involved in too much of that .
R . Gleason ; In the County here - - have gone on a county level , - - the same
with the wetlands .
G . Totman : Since I ' ve been on the County Planning Board they haven ' t
come up with anything on that at all .
R . Gleason ; SEQUA has been passed .
G . Totman : Yes , - -under duress .
R . Gleason : Well , - - they had to pass it , I guess .
Some discussion was held on this by R . Gleason ,
L . Raymond , G . Totman and others .
G . Totman : These are the plans of the last subdivision that we worked
on and I thought it would be interesting to show them to
you as you ' ll be reading about them in the minutes of our
last meeting . When plans are submitted for subdivision
approval - - you will notice in the Subdivision Regulation
books - - they have to give us so many copies of maps . By
the way we have to sign these tonight , since we passed them ,
don ' t let me forget .
These were submitted to the Planning Board twice , - - the first
time we didn ' t approve them . We went up as a Planning Board
on these lots and the maps didn ' t match with what was up
there and there were a lot of things that weren ' t right
and a year later they resubmitted it again and we did
finally approve it last week .
J . MacNeil : What actually constitutes a subdivision .
Don Payne explained this to Mr . MacNeil.
G . Totman passed out more books to Mr . _MacNeil and
Mr . Raymond on mobile home ordinance , subdivision
ordinance and so on and said that basically they
should be somewhat familiar with them and would
suggest that they study the subdivision one
particularly because it is the one the Planning
Board is involved in the most .
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L . Raymond ; I assume you check on plans like this to see if they are correct ?
G . Totman : Right . We don ' t have a check list made up ourselves but each
member has his own questions .
R . Gleason : There ' s a list of requirements in that book . We have talked
about having a check list before - - making up something in
help person who is requesting - the subdivision .
L . Raymond : I heard it mentioned in Albany . Some of them mentioned they
had worked up check lists .
At 25 to 9 PM Verl Rankin came in .
Mr . Totman introduced Mr . Rankin to Mr . MacNeil and
Mr . Raymond ,
G . Totman ; We were just discussing with them the pros and cons of the
Planning Board and the things we are responsible for just
to give them insight as to what we are all here fot and I
told them you would be here to explain what the Town Board
does in relation to the Planning Board .
Basically tonight other than starting out on new venture of
study of some sort of change in the ordinance or whatever ,
we don ' t have anything pending before us - - no subdivision
requests or approvals or so on . Nothing has been turned over
by the Zoning Enforcement Officer to check into . So have
given them copies of all the ordinances and the development
plan and have just asked questions back and forth .
G . Totman : I have something to ask you , Verl . I noticed from the papers
tonight that apparently somebody is upset about the way we
are keeping records or doing something .
V . Rankin : They thought it would be a good idea if somebody from the
Planning Board could come in and brief us each month or send
us a note on what you ' re doing . I think somebody from the
Board ought to attend your meetings and work with you folks .
Her big gripe is coming in and using the hall without her
knowing about it .
G . Totman : She wanted me to get her approval . I told her I go to the
Town Supervisor ,
R . Gleason : Is it O . K . to ask anything else ? I would like to ask Verl a
question if it ' s O . K .
V . Rankin : 0 . K .
R . Gleason : Is someone on the Town Board working on areas like Fall
Creek , - - Lehigh Valley Railroad , - - Route 13 ?
V . Rankin : They appointed Hicks on Route 13 . He is still working on
that . They came up last night on the Fall Creek thing and
as Ben said it looks to him , - - and Claude was here too - - and
he said it looks the same to him , - -he would like the Board not
to be in favor of any commission or anything else like that
down there on this Fall Creek thing . We have our own Town
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V . Rankin : ordinances and it ' s just pushing a little more on us and taking
a little more away from us and somebody up there would be push -
ing us around . I don ' t know how you folks feel about it .
D . Payne : Aren ' t they going to do that if you have no representation there?
V . Rankin : It hasn ' t come up before the Board of Representatives yet and
Claude asked the chairman and this is the way Claude feels about
it and I guess some of the others feel the same .
R . Gleason : I understand what they wanted to do would be have representation
from the County but the Towns would have to implement it through
their zoning requirements .
V . Rankin : Maybe things have changed , - - I don ' t know .
R . Gleason : But the Towns then would have to implement it . There are those
that are pushing it so I don ' t really know because I didn ' t
make the last meeting . My personal feeling is there ' s an awful
lot to look at in that thing . I really thing an awful lot has
to be worked and looked at because of the people involved having
some real rights taken away from them .
L . Raymond : What is it they are trying to do ?
V . Rankin : Go ahead , Roger .
R . Gleason : It goes back to several years ago , - - the State had a program of
naming certain rivers and streams as wild and recreational and
scenic and they would take over control . Larry Hamilton at
Cornell worked on it and asked that Fall Creek be included in
this and that went over like a lead balloon but some people
said they might be interested on a County level or local basis
so the County Planning Department have continued to talk about
this and about a year and a half ago they had a meeting at which
they talked about it and met with quite a lot of opposition .
Anyways it ' s evolving around now , as I understand it , they are
proposing a certain plan for the Creek and the plan lays out
certain rules and regulations about it - - it starts out using the
flood plain - - certain restrictions in that area and I think they
have taken a half a mile on each side of the stream to designate
in that area and then certain rules are to be followed in there .
Some of these things they are going to have - - they are going to
be there whether we have it as recreational or not - - they went
a step farther and said would try to have some access points for people
to launch canoes and so on but there ' s opposition . People don ' t
want this sort of thing and they want to know who is going to police
this sort of thing . If they can ' t do certain things on the stream
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - you ' re going to have some zoning here
which is not in our zoning which is really restrictive zoning
like first people can ' t do certain things , - - at the same
time they are not compensating them for taking these rights away .
L . Raymond : Who is for all of this anyway ?
R . Gleason : Larry Hamilton at Cornell and the Environmental Counsel have sort
of gone along with it .
L . Raymond : Then primarily it ' s an Ithaca group pushing for it , not the people
up this way .
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R . Gleason : I ' ve just given you a very broad outline of the thing .
V . Rankin : They do have a booklet they put out . We have one but I don ' t know
where it is .
G . Totman : The way I look at this whole thing , - - a lot of farmers are against it
and I ' m not for or against it but as you watch what is happening
around our County today and most of this stuff they put out feelers
as to what is going to happen and you watch the growth . Everybody
wants water , - - there ' s growth coming up on Fall Creek all over the
place and if somebody doesn ' t do something it ' s not going to be
fit for the cows anyways .
V . Rankin : The County Board or Dryden should be watching those things .
Some discussion was held on this by G . Totma.n , R .
Gleason and others .
V . Rankin : I think the big thing is to keep more houses away from it .
G . Totman : The County Planning Commission does things sometimes that the
County Planning Board doesn ' t know anything about .
V . Rankin : I think George , basically , you ' re right on that and I think they
ought to keep it in its natural state .
G . Totman : But how to do that without stepping on too many toes .
V . Rankin ; I think this wood thing , - -you don ' t want to cut trees right at the
edge of the bank anyways . I think they have changed that .
R . Gleason : But still and all it enters into the thing having people go up and
down the stream and access points .
L . Raymond : They have cruises down there , don ' t they ?
D . Payne : At any public fishing area you can launch a canoe and go on to another
public fishing area .
V . Rankin : Claude is really not for it either . Personally he ' s not for it .
R . Gleason : But it ' s definitely in it the way it ' s set up now the taking of
some rights of the people along the stream and who is going to
be responsible for policing that?
L . Raymond : Who is going to take these rights . The County can ' t , can they ?
D . Payne : The State .
R . Gleason : It comes under zoning . I guess I can ' t answer your question .
D . Payne : Doesn ' t this come under the State Department of Environmental Con -
servation?
R . Gleason ; No , - -not under this proposal . Even under those plans though they
designate it but there ' i.' no money to the land owner for loss of rights .
This is the stickler on the whole thing .
L . Raymond : It ' s the same as the wetlands and so on .
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More discussion was held on this by G . Totman , R . Gleason ,
L . Raymond and others .
G . Totman ; Verl , - -now that you are here for the benefit of Lyle and Jim ,
is there anything going on from the Town Board standpoint that
the Planning Board should be working on ?
V . Rankin ; Nothing , - -we have been so busy with the budget and finances ,
we haven ' t talked about anything else .
G . Totman : I explained to these fellows about the appropriation in the
Town budget - - putting money aside for a Planning Board
budget to go to seminars and so on . I understand you put
$ 175 per man to go to these seminars .
V . Rankin : That ' s what we have been doing , - -was that enough ? I think
they have raised it to $ 200 . You could pick out another one
to go to , - - doesn ' t have to be just the one in New York City .
I think they ought to put so much money in there so people
could go to other meetings . Ben Bucko spoke about one that ' s
coming up this month .
G . Totman : Yes , - - the 16th and 17th .
V . Rankin : You must have some money in the budget .
G . Totman : I don ' t know , - - I never see it but I ' m going to go to that one .
Maybe not every day but I ' m going .
V . Rankin : Then your expenses should be paid for it .
G . Totman : Do you have anything else - Don or Roger an you would like to add ?
R . Gleason ; Have you taken any position on the Route 96 business ?
V . Rankin : No .
G . Totman : Any more questions , Lyle ?
L . Raymond : Only one other an - you were speaking about the Zoning Board and
other Town agencies , - - I was trying to get clear in my mind the
relationship between them and the others .
G . Totman : The Zoning Board of Appeals - - supposing Mr . X applies for per -
mission to do something . He goes to the Zoning Enforcement Officer ,
who is appointed by the Town and the Zoning Enforcement Officer
looks up the rules and regulations and tells him he doesn ' t comply
so denies the permit so his alternative is to apply to the Zoning
Board of Appeals for a variance and he applies for one and they
hold a public hearing and he has to show why he needs it -
hardship to the land (not to the person ) We as the Zoning Board of
Appeals , in my estimation , is one of the most important boards of
the whole business because if you have a board that aren ' t keen on .
zoning regulations it tears any ordinance apart by passing requests
for variances .
L . Raymond : Is any member of the Planning Board on that board?
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G . Totman : No , and in a lot of cases the people on the Zoning Board of Appeals
never were involved in the first place and don ' t know the reasons
for these rules and regulations and what they are all about and it
makes it difficult for them to rationalize why he can ' t do what he
wants to do . I would like to have at least one or two of the
members of the Zoning Board come from the Planning Board and at
least have some background on what they are making decisions on .
V . Rankin : Or they should go to some school for it .
G . Totmant Or go to seminars or something . It ' s a very important board .
V . Rankin : They should go to New York .
G . Totman : If I get down there No NO I ' m not sure yet but if I get there I ' ll
have one of the Board of Appeals ' members with me , Dick Bellpas
he and I are going to take a little trip . They have good sessions
down there for Board of Appeals . That whole thing is just
on planning and zoning .
R . Gleason ; I understand the . County Health Department has changed its rules on
the number of lots required before it becomes a subdivision and I
understand Dryden has changed theirs going to 3 - 4 before you have to
go to a subdivision and , in addition , I understand Dryden has said
any division of land in 10 acre lots and larger does not require a
subdivision .
D . Payne : There ' s a copy of a letter at the back of our September minutes that
explains that .
G . Totman : Have you got an active Zoning Enforcement Officer now?
V . Rankin : Yes , - -we had to abolish trailer enforcement - - had to write to
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - to get approval and they wouldn ' t approve him so
had to abolish that position and create a zoning officer position
and they were satisfied with that one .
D . Payne : All you did was change the name?
V . Rankin ; Right . This had something to do with trailers and he didn ' t have
the necessary qualifications . You have to have so many years '
service or building experience or college , etc .
G . Totman : For example , - - there ' s a rule in our town about not having more than
2 cars on your land unlicensed that are visible from the road and
some people will ask what we ' re doing about it and then we suggest
they see Bob Brown , - -he ' s the one to get them moved or else get an
injunction against them .
V . Rankin : They had them cleaned up pretty good at one time . We really need a
good enforcement officer .
G . Totman ; You have to have a strong person .
Some discussion was held on this by V . Rankin , R . Gleason ,
G . Totman and others .
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R . Gleason : On this business of subdivision , - - this letter - - it
tells about what the County has .
G . Totman ; It ' s what the County has proposed .
R . Gleason : Like it probably will be but it isn ' t what we have , - - the
point I ' m saying is shouldn ' t we be doing something to
bring our ordinance in line with theirs ?
D . Payne ; Would it be good for us in our Town ?
R . Gleason ; I think we should look at it .
D . Payne : 0 . K . but we need more information on it .
R . Gleason : Right , but George says we haven ' t anything pending now and
here is something we can work on , - - maybe change it and
I think it would be well to see what Dryden has done . They
say 10 acres instead of 5 .
D . Payne : 0 . K . so they went farther than the County .
R . Gleason : We ' ve been talking of going to 4 instead of 2 .
D . Payne : If we had had that back when this thing came through up on
the hill - remember that ? We wouldn ' t have been involved
in it , would we ?
R . Gleason ; I ' m not saying we should do it but we should find out more
about it and see what we do want to do .
Mr . Totman explained to the new members about the
request in the past for a subdivision on Sovocool
Hill .
R . Gleason : If you had it - - say 5 or 10 acres and no roads to be built
that would be one kind of subdivision which possibly
wouldn ' t require any approval because there wouldn ' t be new
roads or drainage or anything and in some cases you would
have some that would require these things . I do think there
are cases where it ' s not necessary for us to be involved .
G . Totman : The way it is now you mean with two or more you have to have
a subdivision ?
R . Gleason : Joe Worga has sold his farm in pieces . He was up talking to
me about it . He said something like in Dryden he ' s all set
they are all 10 acre lots or bigger and it ' s no problem and
as soon as he gets his survey done will be in to see us in
Groton .
There ' s another little gimmick in our law and I ran into
the same problem . Legally you ' re not supposed to offer for
sale until it has been approved but yet how - - you don ' t
know exactly what you ' re going to sell until you have sold
it and have it surveyed so you ' re really walking around the
law here . The way ours is set up - - it ' s set up for some
XYZ Company to oome in and buy 1 , 000 acres and start selling
lots and the way it looks here in many cases on the sub -
divisions we have had they have not been that type of a
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R . Gleason : subdivision so it gets to be a kind of a - -
D . Payne : By the same token though most of the people have subdivided and
know what they were putting up long before they came in to see
us and had the lots sold .
R . Gleason : 0 . K . so have to look the other way like we have . What I ' m
saying is there ' s a part that I think is unenforceable the way
we have it now .
D . Payne : I don ' t really agree with that . The people who actually have it
surveyed and actually subdivide know what they are subdividing
and then put it up for sale and sell so many lots and them come in
to see us . These are the ones that really should come up against
the Zoning Enforcement Officer and stopped at the point they put
that second lot up for sale .
Some discussion was held on this by R . Gleason , D . Payne ,
G . Totman and others .
G . Totman ; By the way , Lyle and Jim , - - there are two other members you haven ' t
met - - Cecil Twigg who lives in West Groton and is an artificial
inseminator and Mary Adams who lives in Peruville .
It ' s my suggestion , and it ' s open for discussion , that rather
than meet in November , which I think is election day anyways ,
we meet in December after the elections and then meet with the
new Town Supervisor . I don ' t think it would do any hurt to
meet with he or she and discuss what they would like us to work
on .
There ' s a lot we could do but unless the Town Board requests us
to study something it really , most of the time , won ' t be worth
doing unless we ' re asked .
So let ' s plan our next meeting for the first Tuesday in December ,
- - the 6th - - at8P . M .
Tonight we passed out minutes of our August and September meetings
and the original copies are on file in the filing cabinet and I
think we should approve them for the record ' s sake .
D . Payne made a motion the August and September minutes
be approved which was seconded by R . Gleason and the motion
carried unanimously .
R . Gleason made a motion that the meeting adjourned which
was seconded by D . Payne and motion carried .
The meeting adjourned at 25 to 10 PM .
Respectfully submitted ,
Josephine Bell
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