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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1971-01-20 GROTON TOWN PLANNING BOARD MEETING Wednesday , January 20 , 1971 PRESENT : D . Carey , Chairman G . Totman , Vice - Chairman J . Bell , Secretary R . Cotanch F . Scheffler The meeting was called to order at 8 : 10 P . M . by Mr . Carey , D . Carey : We have the Minutes and they are mostly Gleason ' s talk . Will give Frank a chance to read them over . Well , - - any omissions or corrections on the Minutes ? If not , they stand approved . George ? G . Totman : It ' s been so long since we ' ve met , - - I don ' t think I have anything new to bring up . D . Carey : Ron , - - how about 701 ? R . Cotanch : I haven ' t heard anything about our application and I ' m sure you have all got a card on tomorrow night ' s meeting which is down- stairs in the Village Hall . D . Carey : Let ' s see - - I didn ' t attend the last 701 . Have you had one since the Public Hearing ? G . Totman : According to the minutes you weren ' t there . R . Cotanch : You would be interested in that , Dan , - - it was a report on housing and I ' ll get you a copy of the proposals and report made by Barbara Blanchard of Egner and Niederkorn . She has some alternatives for Senior Citizens ' housing . She came right out and said there were other means of financing it that would be better and F . H . A . , I think , was one of them. D . Carey : Good . You mean - - what F . H . A . are you talking about ? R . Cotanch : Federal Housing Administration . D . Carey : Frank ? F . Scheffler : No . D . Carey : I thought maybe we should begin to talk about this legislation . They sent me supplements a few days ago and I finally got them put in - - I put the extra sheets I took out in the back of the book . G . Totman : What ' s that , Dan? D . Carey : Planning law revision . The supplements are all in here where they said to put them. - 1 - i r R . Cotanch : That ' s the thing I gave you , right ? A discussion was held on this subject by all . D . Carey : I read quite a lot of it and what I ' ve read of it , it really doesn ' t sound too bad . There ' s some criticism in two or three places - - there were three meetings held , - - one in Batavia , one in Syracuse and one in Albany and some talk about making planning board the administrating board and doing away with the Board of Appeals but I ' m just not sure - - I can ' t seem to figure out whether or not the County and the Regional group and the State have the veto power of what we do as a planning board in the areas in which they are con- cerned . If they do , we will never get anywhere because if we have to submit these things to them will never get anywhere . For in- stance Rocky put in this re . agricultural lands and that takes in our Town you see , so I think we ought to read it over and maybe pass it around . It ' s a slow thing to read . R . Cotanch : I read the supplement they sent some of the comments on Syracuse and Albany . There was apparently quite a little bit of criticism in both places in the general areas . D . Carey : It looks like they are aiming towards professional planners all along the line . R . Cotanch : Looks like they are aiming to do away with local planning as any source of power locally . A discussion was held on this subject by all . G . Totma.n : From the meetings that they had were there many letters sent in in opposition to this thing or comments at the meetings ? R . Cotanch : Pages and pages of comments . D . Carey : Yes . You might go over them and pass them along and give them to Hicks and send them around so everyone can have some idea of what comments are and give a resum6 of what the section is about . More discussion was held on this subject by everyone . R . Cotanch : I have a - - in the Farm Journal that just came - - they always have a page on farm business and I would like to read this one little paragraph : "You can ' t use zoning to keep people out of your area . . . . says the Pennsylvania Supreme Court . The Court recently ruled against a rural township ' s zoning ordinance that required home sites of at least 2 acres . Township officials argued that smaller sites would bring in more people and severely strain housing services , such as schools , sewage disposal systems and roads . They also wished to preserve the essentially rural character of the countryside . The high Pennsylvania court said the township cannot use restrictive zoning merely to avoid dealing with urban growth . The U . S . Supreme Court is expected to uphold that principle in a zoning case reported to be on the docket for this spring . " 2 - A discussion was held on this subject by all present . Frank Scheffler suggested we find an alternative for people rather than just try to keep them out because a lot of young people today can ' t afford anything but trailers in the beginning . R . Cotanch : Trailers are an economic necessity for a great portion of our population . Oak Ridge in Syracuse - - that ' s a trailer park and is supposedly the nicest one in the East . I haven ' t seen it so don ' t know but - - F . Scheffler : To me , there ' s nothing appealing about a trailer park . More discussion was held on the subject by all . G . Totman : We have talked about this for the last three or four meetings and I think if we ' re going to do anything , or make any suggestions to the Town Board , maybe we ought to have a committee work on it or ask somebody from the Town Board to meet with us and discuss it with us so we can show our concern or have Ben come to our meeting and see what we can do or how far the Town would go if we did make a proposed change in the Mobile Home Ordinance . D . Carey ; They meet the 1st of February ? R . Cotanch : Yes , - - the 1st day of February . Would it be appropriate for us to try to get the Planning Board to meet with Ben and whoever we can get from the Town Board . G . Totman ; I think we would gain more if we set up a special meeting for this . R . Cotanch : And this would be the only thing we would talk about . G . Totman : Yes . Lately they have had more company to their regular meetings than they used to and you don ' t gain what you want to gain at that type of a meeting . D . Carey ; Yes . R . Cotanch : I would like to make that a formal suggestion that we try to set up a special meeting sometime next week , particularly with Ben . D . Carey : He ' s off skiing now . R . Cotanch : He should be back tomorrow . G . Totman ; Where is he ? D . Carey ; Vermont - - then they went to New Hampshire - - I saw his wife at the doctor ' s office . Well , - G . Totma.nt I second Ron ' s motion . D . Carey ; All in favor ? Motion carried . Who wants to take the responsibility of doing this ? 3 - J R . Cotanch : I ' ll try to set it up if you want me to . D . Carey : Alright . I know I won ' t be here next week but that doesn ' t make any difference - - you fellows can handle it alright . F . Scheffler : Isn ' t the Town Board going down to New York the first of the month ? G . Totman : No , - - ' the second week in February . D . Carey : Are any of us going on that one ? G . Totman : Any of us can go that want to . R . Cotanch : That ' s the 8th , 9th and loth . G . Totman : I don ' t think I can make it this year . R . Cotanch : I know I can ' t . G . Totman : I ' d like to go - - it ' s productive . D . Carey : Can you go , Frank ? F . Scheffler : I don ' t know . They go on a Sunday , don ' t they? D . Carey : What do they do , - - take a bus ? G . Totman : They did last year . R . Cotanch : $ 10 . 00 or so each , each way . I can ' t go . D . Carey : I ' ll see whether Gleason or - - G . Totman : We ' re changing models and I have to wait another week to see whether I could go or not . F . Scheffler : I probably could go . Would have to find someone - - you know -to do the chores . G . Totman : What day do you open next week , Ron ? R . Cotanch : 26th and 27th . A discussion was held by all re . the special meeting to be set up with Ben Bucko and the Town Board . D . Carey : You ' ll take care of it ? R . Cotanch : Yes . Are you going to be around , Frank ? F . Scheffler : Next week is what ? R . Cotanch : The 26th or 27th . G . Totman : I ' m free both days . 4 - R . Cotanch : Alright . Will see Mr . Munson and see what hw has to say . D . Carey : Check with Roger and Hicks . More discussion was held re . having to take time to look at the Town Board ' s problems also . G . Totman : O . K. t - - you ' ll try to set up a meeting , then . R . Cotanch : Yes , for next Tuesday or Wednesday . G . Totman : For the sole purpose of discussing the growth of trailers in the Town . R . Cotanch : I would also ask Bert Huston , as President of the School Board , to talk on the subject . More discussion was held on this problem by all . R . Cotanch : I have a statement to make to the 701 Board tomorrow night - - it ' s just a thought statement - - that a new house produces three times the tax dollars as a new trailer but demands only 75 % of the taxable services . G . Totman : How do you arrive at this ? R . Cotanch : Because it ' s been fairly well proven that in regardx to schools more kids come out of a trailer than come out of a new home . It ' s fairly well fact that a trailer is more apt to house wel - fare family than a new home . G . Totman : The State figures won ' t back you up on that . R . Cotanch : We ' re talking about a new home not an old one . I said it was just a thought statement . I might have known you would have a pamphlet on it ! More discussion was held on this subject by all . G . Totman : Dan , I would be interested to hear your comments on how the Town Board reacted after our last meeting pertaining to snow- mobiles . R . Cotanch : He went away . He wasn ' t here to hear it . D . Carey : I wasn ' t here . A discussion was held on this subject by all present . Also on what would be discussed at the 701 meeting tomorrow evening . Mr . Carey also brought up the subject of the suggested road changes to improve Groton ' s downtown appearance and said he thought it would be a good idea to get the Village to put these suggestions down as ones for their long range programs . R . Cotanch : They are going to have to come up with some six- year capital improvement programs . We are going to have to make a planning stand . The Planning Boards and the Advisory Counsel are fairly realixtic in thinking people - - the two Boards that you are 5 - V j working with are thinking about what happened two minutes ago and a minute ahead and this is our problem so far as planning is con- cerned - - the attitude of - - good heavens that is going to cost a lot of money . Some discussion was held on this subject by all . R . Cotanch : I do have a couple of things to mention about 701 . There ' s a special informational meeting scheduled for February 16th at the High School at 7 * 30 P . M. G . Totman ; You ' re going to. make a news release on this ? R . Cotanch : No , - - tomorrow night I will appoint somebody to make a news release , George . Anyhow at the meeting we were talking about before the one that the petition was circulated for us to have a public meeting — No I don ' t know what her name is - - Jimmy Johnson ' s daughter and she is going to school at Cornell , in planning or something , - - she wrote an article for Tri- County publication out of Elmira , I think , just a college type of pamphlet paper , about the meeting and what transpired at it - - it was beautifully written and I would like to have sent it to the Ithaca Journal . She just plain reported the facts . G . Totman : Have you a copy of it ? R . Cotanch : Yes . G . Totman : I would like to read it . R . Cotanch ; She reported what happened - - had people ' s names down . She had it word for word . D . Carey : Is he the fellow that works at the Post Office ? R . Cotanch : Yes . She came in with the fellow that Bard replaced . D . Carey : Any further business ? We stand adjourned . The meeting adjourned at 9 : 20 P . M . Respectfully submitted , Jo ep ine Bell Secretary 6 -