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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-03-19 TOWN OF GROTON PLANNING BOARD MEETING MINUTES Thursday, 19 March 1998 Board Members (*absent) Others Present George Totman, Chairman Joan E . Fitch , Recording Secretary Monica Carey John Pachai, Applicant Sheldon Clark Peter Clark & Katherine Wolf, Applicants *Verl Rankin *Van Travis Cecil Twigg *George Van Slyke The meeting was called to order at 8: 30 p.m. by Chairman George Totman upon achieving a quorum. G. Totman: What we're going to do, being that it's 8 : 30, and John is not on the agenda, we're going to leave John and talk about the Clank's first. We'll dispense with the Minutes until we get our business done so people won't have to wait for us. Peter Clark & Katherine Wolf = Chipman Corners Road = Minor Subdivision - TM # 16- 1 -7.92 G. Totman: You all got the literature in the mail. There's a new lot they want to create. We had previously, not too long ago , done a SEQRA on that property, so I would be in favor of having a motion to dispense with the SEQRA because it's already been done on that property. M. Carey: I'll make the motion . S. Clark: I'll second it. G. Totman: Now, any questions? M. Carey: How many acres will this leave? K. Wolf, About ten. M. Carey: And that one will be subdivided? K. Wolft It won't. P. Clark: That's a building lot. K. WONT: The way the land lies, that's it. So this is the last one . M. Carey: Okay, C. Twigg: What's this jagged line down through the middle? P. Clark: Tree line . C. Twigg: It looked like a temporary line you'd put in there and the surveyor would put a permanent one in there someday. K. Wolh No, no, just trees. 1 r4 Groton Town Planning Board Meeting Minutes 19 March 1998 C. Twigg: Okay. That's what that would be . You're right. Why didn't I think of that? I'm smarter than that. M. Carey: I don't see anything wrong with this subdivision. S. Clark: Not at all. G. Totman: Well, it's in line with everything else we've done . It's too bad we have to bring them out to do that, but that's the rules. C. Twigg: Seems like we ought to harass them a little bit; we don't let people get out of here this easy very often. S. Clark: Are we ready then? G. Totman: Anybody else got any questions or anything? If not, M. Carey. I'll make a motion we approve the subdivision. J. Fitch: You haven't voted on the first motion to dispense with the SEQRA. G. Totman: Well, nobody said no. It was a unanimous decision. C. Twigg: All in favor? (All members present indicated they were in favor.) M. Carey: And I'll make the motion to approve the subdivision without a public hearing. C. Twigg: I'll second that. M. Carey: Aye. S. Clark: Aye. C. Twigg: Aye, G. Totman: Anybody opposed? (No one indicated opposition; Chair Totman did not vote .) K. Wolh Thank you very much. G. Totman: Got it all sold, haven't you? K. W61P Pending subdivision approval. John & Linda Pachai - Max Street - Subdivision Approval/Boundary Change - TM # 26- 1 - 17 . 23 G. Totman: What John is here for is we approved his subdivision before. This lot he sold -- M. Carey. This is the Max Street lot? G. Totman: Yes, this is Max Street here . The person who lives here wants to buy this part here, so it's a boundary change on this lot. M. Carey: Didn't we do that on that already? G. Totman: We talked about it. I thought we did it, but according to John we didn't. M. Carey: I could have sworn we did this before . 2 Groton Town Planning Board Meeting Minutes 19 March 1998 G. Totman: It's strictly a boundary change. It's one of those things that really should have to come to us, but we left it in the Ordinance that it does. We've done the SEQRA on that property, so as far as I'm concerned, we can just make a motion to approve the boundary change as presented and get it stamped. S. Clark: Without a public hearing, or that wouldn't be required. G. Totman: Don't need one for that. S. Clark: I make a motion that we approve the boundary change as requested. G. Totman: And, John, what you should do -- C. Twigg: Don't you have to second that motion? G. Totman: Monica seconded it. M. Carey: Cecil did. G. Totman: Cecil did? Anybody against it? (No member present indicated they were against it.) Passed . I got his money, but he didn't make out a formal application . But he'll have to do that. Can you come in tomorrow? J. Pachai: Yes, G. Totman: I'll give this to them and put a little note on it. You can leave those here or bring them back tomorrow. Why don't you bring them back tomorrow and then she'll put the stamp on them. She's got my signature on them. J. Pachai: I think my -- G. Totman: In case she doesn't have enough stamps for all of those , I'll be here probably about 1 :30 or quarter of two, because I come in every Friday afternoon. J. Pachai: Okay. And you've got the tentative application. G. Totman: Yes, I've got the information. And I'll leave her a note that we passed it in case you get here before I do. J. Pachai: Right, Technically, I've given you an application, but I haven't given you the form portion of it, for the record. Approval of Minutes of January 15 & February 19, 1998 Meetings G. Totman: Okay, moving right along. We will now go back and approve or disapprove the Minutes of the January and February meetings. Does anybody have any questions about either one of those meetings? S. Clark: Very good minutes, by the way. J. Fitch: Thank you. G. Totman: If we put the two meetings together, does anybody have any objections to passing them? M. Carey: No. G. Totman: That's a unanimous vote . 3 Groton Town Planning Board Meeting Minutes 19 March 1998 J. Fitch: Who made the motion? G. Totman : Monica. J. Fitch: Okay, who seconded it? C. Twigg: I'll second it. Informal Discussion - Site Plan Review G. Totman: Okay. Were you at the last meeting? C. Twigg: No. G. Totman : You were. S. Clark: No. G. Totman: Just Monica and me? S. Clark: No, everybody else was. It was a very good meeting with Dusty Kyes, C. Twigg: I missed that; I would have kinda liked to have been there . G. Totman: Do you think we handled that okay? C. Twigg: I think you did a fine job. S. Clark: I was impressed. G. Totman: As long as you weren't here at the last meeting, Sheldon, when we were in NYS they had these sessions; one was on site plan and special use permits. I passed these out at the last meeting, but you two weren't here. Anyway, when it talks about site plan review, this is what Van Travis, who went to this meeting -- I asked him to. See where it says site plan review? You see the next sentence? S. Clark: Yes. G. Totman: It says it's an allowed use if you go to site plan review. For the life of me, I cannot understand why everybody wants to go to a site plan review. Co Twigg: Well, they haven't read any further than that. Cellular Tower Discussion G. Totman: Now that we've got everything else taken care of, there's a year's moratorium on cellular towers. We've got to come up with an ordinance. And I say we, the Planning Board . You can't do it when you stay home . We're working under the moratorium of the Town and we have to come up with an ordinance like we did with adult entertainment. So I've got some sample ordinances here from three different places. And there's a lot of rulings that came from the NYS Association of Towns. I don't think probably anyone will read all of these all the way through , but it tells all about what you can and can't do . C. Twigg: What makes you think we're not going to read this? G. Totman: Did you get one of these , Monica? M. Carey: No, not the first one . 4 Groton Town Planning Board Meeting Minutes 19 March 1998 G. Totman: I don't think it will be that hard to do. I think if we brush up as much as we can -- oh , here's another one, too. M. Carey: Oh, man . G. Totman: Did you get one that says the Town of Webster on it? M. Carey. Yes, G. Totman: Okay. We can either try to do -- if the next meeting doesn't have much on the agenda, then we can try discussing this and get an idea of what we're doing. Then maybe we can break it down into a group of two or three , like we did before. That worked out fantastic before. C. Twigg: I didn't get the Webster one . G. Totman: That's compliments of our secretary. There's not much more we can do with it tonight because there's a lot. It's just like the nudie bars; you can't ban them completely. One of the things we can do and can say is you can tell them what area you will allow them in. And one of the strong things that we want to make sure of is that when it's proved that they are no longer in use, they have to remove them completely within 60 days or something like that so we don't become overburdened by the towers. Sometimes it's cheaper for them to just leave them and walk off and do something else. C. Twigg: But these are different things than a nudie bar. There's no reason for not wanting a tower around, is there? G. Totman: If they wanted to put a tower up on the hill in back of my house, I don't think it would make any difference to my house or the sale of my house, or anything else. S. Clark: There is people that think so. G. Totman: There is people that think so, yes there is. CO Twigg: But in actuality, I don't think there's any reason -- G. Totman: Well, it's like Bert Houston had a tower on his property. It's been there for years. So because we are the Planning Board, we've got to come up with an ordinance. I think one of the things in there, it gives you a lot of things --- if you really look at that thick one and just pick out what you want to read in there, it tells you a lot of things that you can do and what you can't do. And as long as we follow that, and there's some cases in here too where people take them to court and stuff like that, read up those on where people have lost and we'll make sure we cover that. I don't think we're capable of determining if there's the right type of steel in them or anything. They cost a lot of money to put up. C. Twigg: Who determines whether they're safe or not? There must be an agency that does that. What if they tip over? G. Totmaw You know, as I was reading in one of these things, there are some that are made where if they go to tip some of them are built so it will break and come straight down instead of tipping over. They've got some kind of special joints in them that triggers that if the wind starts to blow it over. CO Twigg: Don't most of them have guy wires? So it's pretty hard for them to blow over. G. Totman: I would think so . So anyway, I ask you to please read up on these because at the next meeting we will either bring it up or we will have to do a special meeting just to do towers. Because this is our obligation, and I want to make sure you understand that. I don't have anything else to bring up . S. Clark: I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting then . M. Carey: I'll second it. 5 Groton Town Planning Board Meeting Minutes 19 March 1998 G. Totman: All in favor? (All members present indicated they were in favor.) Opposed? The meeting was adjourned at 99. 15 p.m. JoaA E. Fitch Recording Secretary 6