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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-03-11 PUBLIC HEARINGS - GROTON TOWN BOARD Tuesday , 11 March 1997 Tocvn. Board Members (`present) others Present 'Teresa Robinson , Supervisor Francis Casullo, Town Attorney George VanBenschoten Colleen D . Pierson , Town Clerk ' Ellard Sovoeool 7BA Reps : Lyle Raymond & John Pachai *Dan Carey Planning Bd , Reps: George Totman & *Donald Palmer Cecil Twigg Joan Fitch , Recording Secretary Fubllc Present Oley Houghtaling, Arthur Dawson , DeForest Hall , Mary K Gloster, Colleen Gloster-Gray, Matt Hubbard , Phyllis Timmerman Supervisor Robinson opened the Public Hearing for Local Law # 1 at 8:00 p. m. Town Clerk Pierson read the Legal Notice , published as follows: Please take notice that a Public Hearing will be held dj the Town Board of the Town of Groton on March 11 , 1997, at 8:00 p.m. at the Groton Town Hall, 101 Conger Boulevard, Groton, New York, regarding the adoption of a Local Law of the Town of Groton. for the year 1997, which would amend or delete the following sections of the Land. Use & Development Code of the Town of Groton: Sections 20, 202. 1 (b), 203t 223, 234.4, 253.4, 276.3, 316. 6, 316. 7, 342. 2(a), 343. 2(a), 344.2(a), 345. 21a). 346. 2 (a), 441 .3(o), 441 . 4(d), 4229 428, 429, 430 and 335. Any residents of the Town of Groton entitled to be heard upon said proposed Local Law at such public hearing. Copies of said proposed Local Law are available to review at the Groton Town HaIL By order of the Town Board of the Town of Groton, dated February 11 , 1997. Dated: February 20, 1997 Colleen D. Pierson Town. of Groton Clerk T. Robinson: Okay . I have a letter from the Planning Department, James Hanson , Jr. , Commissioner of Planning . This is a review pursuant to 239- I and -m of the New York State General Municipal Law . Action : Zoning Amendments. (Supervisor Robinson reads the letter dated 7 March 1.997, in its entirety, a copy of which is placed on file) . Just to start it out -- Is there anybody that would like to make a statement? Is there no comment at all from anyone? We'll wait five minutes. E. Sovocook Close the hearing. Close the hearing if there's no comment. T. Robinson: I 'll give it a couple of minutes. (A few minutes elapse . ) We can adjourn this now , Colleen? I'll close the public hearing . F. Casullo: Now that we've closed the public hearing we have to go through the SEAR T. Robinson: We can do that later. F. Casullo: Well , the problem is we've got seven minutes; we can get it out of the way. Then have the second public hearing and carry on the rest of the meeting and pass the local laws towards the end. Just for the Board's knowledge, whenever you insert amendments to your zoning ordinance or land use code, the Town is required to examine the environmental impact, technically called SEAR which stands for State Environmental Quality Review . The long and short of this is that most of the amendments are not going to really have an affect on the environment; they are considered to be unlisted type actions as opposed to a Type I action which would require a long-form Environmental Assessment Form. We can get by with the Short Form Assessment. what 1 did was I prepared the form which I can do tonight. You've got the original copy. What I will do real quick is go through this and i IF public Hearings - Groton Town Board March 11, 1997 you have any questions, let me know. What I 'm going to do is have Teresa sign it and forward that on to the Local Law Department of State. Town Attorney Casullo then reads aloud Parts I and II of the Short Environmental Assessment Farm Negative responses were obtained to all questions in Part II and it was determined by the Town Board , upon a motion made by Donald Palmer, seconded by Dan Carey, with all members voting in favor, that the action, having no significant adverse environmental impact, receive a negative declaration. T. Robinson: Is it time? F. Casullo: Yes, go ahead . T. Robinson: We will have the second public hearing at 8: 15 p . m . , March 11 , 1997 . Colleen. . . Town Clerk Pierson read the Legal Notice , published as follows: Please take notice that a Public Hearing will be held by the Town. Board of the Town o f Groton on March 11 . 1997, at 8: 15 p. m, at the Groton Town Hall, 101 Conger Boulevard, Groton. New York, regarding the adoption of a Local Law of the Town of Groton for the year 1997, which would acknowledge the right of Town residents to undertake agriculture practices in the Town. of Groton, Any resident of the Town of Groton is entitled to be heard upon said. proposed Local Law at such public hearing. Copies of said proposed Local Law are available to review at the Groton Town Hall. By order of the Town Board of the Town. of Groton, dated February 11 , 1997, Dated: February 20, 1997 Colleen D. Pierson Town of Groton Clerk T. Robinson; Is there anyone wishing to be heard on this? D. Hall: The only thing I would have to say about it is this spreading of liquid manure by the farmers. I thought there was a law originally when they spread It that they had to inject It into the ground or something. Have you heard anything to that nature? D. Carey: No , I don 't believe there is a law. 1 think any practice like that falls under best management practices, which is kind of the way the State Soil & Water and Farm Service Agency refers to correct agricultural practices as best management practices. 1 agree with you that liquid manure can have quite an odor. The best management practice is to incorporate that as soon as possible when you can during that time of year. During the summertime, that may not be possible ; it may have to be spread on a hayfield . You may not be able to incorporate It. Incorporation is the best way to solve that odor problem . It's the best management practice - - to incorporate the liquid manure . When that's not possible , then you have to do the next best thing . You have to spread the manure somewhere. If you try to do it on the best possible day, maybe it's going to rain shortly or the next day so you do it the day before. You do it on a day when you may have a strong wind blowing away from your neighbors' houses . You try to take these things into account. D. Hall: When your neighbor doesn't have her wash up on the line or windows open . Also, they have to go up and down the roads with it. Is there any way that these fellows can not leave it in the road? D. Carey: That definitely can be a problem this time of year. As you enter springtime, it ' s difficult to pull out of a field that's wet and muddy and not bring it out in your tractor tires. The stuff does tend to cake on the wheels. I know some fellows have done that and then have gone back as soon as possible and scraped it off the road with a loader/ tractor with some type of device to scrape it off the road or into a ditch or back in the field to try to keep the mud out of the road . It's definitely a problem . 2 Public Hearings - Groton Town Board March 11, 1997 D. Hall: It's the manure . Is this something new or something that has to be renewed every year? T. Robinson: No, it's just something that we wanted to be on record as having. D. Hall: In order to protect yourself against anybody that would come back on the Town or individuals -- what's the real purpose of it? T. Robinson: I think the real purpose of It is to protect the farmers. D. Carey: I think the real purpose of It is to inform people who are located in the Town of Groton or moving into the Town of Groton , planning to build in the Town of Groton , that they realize they are moving into an area that is heavy In agricultural practices and that they are made aware of that before they do anything; before they spend a cent in this township they know that they are coming into a township that is heavily involved in agriculture . Yes , George? G. Totman: The State passed a law about five years ago, the Right to Farm Law, which is practically the same thing they're saying here . Realtors arc supposed to notify new landowners . J. Paehai: I think the difference is that anyone moving into the Town gets that notification prior to purchase , whereas with the State regulations , it relates to agricultural districts and so many feet from . T. Robinson: Any more comments? Yes. P. Timmerman: Do these practices apply outside of the Village of within the Village? T. Robinson: This is a Town - - P. Timmerman: Does that include the Village'? One thing I was wondering about was the tractors that you have to listen to . Can children be driving tractors around and making all that noise? T. Robinson: This is not anything we have In our jurisdiction . I 'm sorry. Anybody else? D. Hall: And these farmers -- all hours of the night. Is there a time limit, or do they just try to work with the neighbors on It:? T. Robinson: I think they try to work with the neighbors . After all , they're trying to get a crop In or get one down - - harvested . Sometimes they have a very short time . P. Timmerman: That's one thing - - putting the crops in — that' s when the kids are playing with the tractors . T. Robinson: Anybody else? If not., I ' ll close the hearing. You don' t have to have a SEAR on this one . Okay. (The time was So21 p.m.) Respectfully submitted, P�;� Joan E . Fitch Recording Secretary 3