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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1971-06-02 TOWN PLANNING BOARD MEETING June 2 , 1971 8 * 20 P . M . - 9 : 45 P . M . PRESENT : D . Carey H . Dow G . Totman R . Cotanch F . Scheffler J . Bell - Secretary Others . A . Clark C . Lillie Do Carey : Has everyone seen the minutes of the last meeting ? G . Totman : There wasn ' t a quorum at the May meeting so I passed out the minutes of the April 21st meeting to the members that were here and then we left . I have extra copies for the members that weren ' t here that night but I haven ' t got them with me tonight . D . Carey : Possibly it might be just as well to read them . G . Totman : 0 . K . I ' ll read them . (Mr . Totman read the minutes of the April 21st meeting aloud ) . D . Carey : Any corrections or omissions ? H . Dow : Mr . Morris was going to work up something? , D . Carey : There ' s a two -page handwritten piece in the minutes . H . Dow : I see , We - I thought it would be more elaborate than that . D . Carey : Any corrections or omissions ? If not , they stand approved . I guess I was a little confused on these policy statements and I thought originally the statement that was put in by the 701 Committee was a recommendation so then we followed through and I thought we should have a policy statement on the basis of those recommendations but then , after reading the minutes over carefully again of the March 3rd . meeting when we were discussing it , I think it was George made the statement that this is a policy statement . G . Totman : The reason I wrote the statement was that you asked everyone to come up with a policy statement for the Town Planning Board so I brought one back . D . Carey : The reason I asked was that I thought these were recommendations . Here it is right here . (Read aloud from the minutes ) . Then the other day after the meeting I read these over and - on R . Cotanch : Well , the 701 did make a recommendation adopted by the Planning 410 1 - Board which makes it a policy - - right ? D . Carey : I didn ' t realize that . (Mr . Carey then read from the minutes re . the 701 recommendations and Mr . Totman said it was a planning policy . ) D . Carey : So I think in order to get this thing straightened out we will have to declare this 701 recommendation as approved by the Planning Board at our March 3rd meeting as the policy of this Planning Board . Now , Of in the future we want to change that policy , we will have to rescind this policy and start in on another one . R . Cotanch : You ' ll find in the next few years you ' ll be doing that quite often . D . Carey : Is there any more old business now . R . Cotanch : Do you want a report of the 701 under that ? D . Carey : Well , - - that would be new business . R . Cotanch : 0 . K . D . Carey : Let ' s go along with the new business - - if you want to give the 701 report . R . Cotanch : The next two meetings of the 701 committee - - the regular monthly meeting will be on the 22nd of June rather than the 17th because Niederkorn can ' t be here the 17th and that will be held here in the Town Hall and this will be the final regular meeting of the first phase and will complete the odds and ends and master plan proposals and give us recommendations , I believe , on the zoning ordinance . On the 29th of June the 701 Committee has reserved the large group in- structional room at the High School for a special meeting to present the proposed master plan and zoning ordinance to the public . We will advertise that meeting the same way as we always have through the newspaper and the shopper . We have an appointment to talk with the Community Service Center ' s Board of Directors next Tuesday night - - that ' s the 8th . Mr . Erlitz will be there . It is our feeling - - D . Carey : This is the 701 Committee ? R . Cotanch : Yes , and Bucko . - - It is our feeling that the Community Service people are not all that happy about the outcome of the meeting here the other night ( the 24th) . I think the amjority of them are responsible people trying to do a good job for the Town of Groton and want the same things we want to make Groton a better place to live and I think we should make them aware that the second phase deals primarily with low income housing and fiscal policies which would possibly point the way towards financing low income housing as well as Senior Citizens ' housing - - and I think we need the general support of the broad spectrum of the people of the town to get the zoning ordinance passed . The 701 Committee is recommending , and we will be accused of backing off but actually it was made before the public meeting , that the zoning ordinance - - the large zone - - the agricultural zone which makes up the largest percentage of the Town be - that a dwelling unit will be placed any place in the Town in the - 2 - agricultural zone on a 30 , 000 square foot lot - - I say that arbitrarily that a dwelling unit is anything the Tompkins County Health Department will let you live in . D . Carey : They are only interested in the sewage and water . R . Cotanch : Right . Some discussion was held on this subject by all . R . Cotanch : The mobile home parks that would be allowed in the agricultural zone , as well as the next step down , in the residential zone - - the low intensity zone . Now if the Town Board sees fit , at some future time , to do away with mobile homes altogether , that ' s their perogative and we have no authority over them anyway . This is our recommendation and we feel it is the fair thing for everybody in the Town . You can argue with me , if you want to . D . Carey : No , - - I won ' t argue with you . R . Cotanch : This is the unanimous opinion of the 701 Committee and the best way to handle the problem we are faced with on mobile homes . We are not limiting them to any one particular area . H . Dow : To me it seems a very well thought-out recommendation and a fair approach to the problem . It ' s structured to allow fair treatment of everybody . D . Carey : If it ' s enforced . More discussion was held on this subject by all . D . Carey : Let me ask you this one - - a hypothetical question . Suppose I have a piece of property and someone wants to buy an acre of it and put a trailer on it and I refuse to sell it to them for this purpose and then a week or two , or three months later , someone comes along and wants to buy that same acre to put a house on and I sell it to them . Will Mr . Erlitz come in and say that ' s dis - crimination? G . Totman : It depends on the reason you give for not selling . More discussion was held on this by C . Lillie , G . Totman , A . Clark , D . Carey and others . R . Cotanch : I think the best thing for you to do is to hire yourself a John LoPinto and ask how you word your answer in such a manner that he can ' t sue you . I think there ' s a law suit in Cortland County for that particular reason right now . I looked into the property values in relation to the School Board . If the School Board in the School District of Groton raises their taxes on assessed valuation they will get $ 15 , 000 back to use for school services . In the School District of Moravia they get $25 , 000 back , in the School District of Dryden $ 35 , 000 and in Lansing they get $ 60 , 000 back . C . Lillie : Why the difference ? - 3 - R . Cotanch : That ' s a good question . Some discussion was held on this by H . Dow , A . Clark , G . Totman , C . Lillie and others . R . Cotanch : I guess that ' s all on the 701 . D . Carey : That ' s all ? R . Cotanch : Right . I think we are getting into the arbitrary stage now and need to be careful of what we say . I think we have thought this trailer problem out very well and this is what we are going to stick to and would like to advise you that on the 29th if we get a yelling crowd like at the May 24th meeting , the meeting will be very swiftly adjourned . I will advise them one time that the meeting is to impart the information we have gathered and if there is going to be a disruptive force I will make the recommendation to the two Planning Boards and that will be that . Some discussion was held on this subject by H . Dow , R . Cotanch and others . R . Cotanch : Dan , I think we have a couple of other problems to discuss tonight and one is your letter of resignation to the Town Board , D . Carey : I prefer not to talk about it . I told you the reason why I did it . R . Cotanch : I had hoped we could talk you out of it . D . Carey : No . They will have it by now . R . Cotanch : 0 . K . Now this tape that George has on the May 24th meeting it would seem that the Planning Board came under unnecessary fire by the populace and this was propagated by the Town Board . It bothers me knowing that the Planning Board came under the implica- tion that this was our doing at the public meeting and that this is believed by the people of the community and I don ' t know whether it came from this group or not . I know some of us were at that meeting up over the Bank and there was nothing below the table at that meeting . More discussion was held on this subject by G . Totman , D . Carey , H . Dow , R . Cotanch and others . G . Totman : As far as that meeting was concerned the Town Supervisor was as much a part of that meeting as the rest of us as a participant . D . Carey : My problem was that they insisted that somebody has been pushing them to do it from this Planning Board so I got mad and wrote my resignation . A . Clark : They put Glenn in a spot in asking who was there and Glenn told - 4 - them who was and they only listened to the names of the people of the Planning Board . More discussion was held on this subject by R . Cotanch , D . Carey , A . Clark , H . Dow and others . R . Cotanch : The Town Board directed their regular counsel to amend the mobile home ordinance and to set a date for a public hearing . This places the responsibility for the proposed amendment and the public meeting squarely on the Town Board . At no time was the Planning Board ad- vised of this action or asked to review or comment on it . It is completely without reason to attempt to shift this responsibility . C . Lillie : Send it to the paper just the way you wrote it . R . Cotanch : If this undermining action continues I feel the Planning Board will become completely ineffectual . It would seem the Town Board should admit that the action was theirs and the Planning Board was not involved . D . Carey : Well , - - in our conversation Metzgar said to me or rather I said you have no official recommendation from the Planning Board and he said "No " and he said that the other night when we were discussing this that they had no official recommendation and that they should have . I think there ' s something wrong somewhere . R : Cotanch : Something is fishy here some place . The proper way to handle this is if the citizens ' group and others meet to discuss this problem and we ask that the Town Board take a look at the recommendations of the citizens ' committee . The Town Board voted not only to take a look at it but immediately to instruct their legal counsel to draw an amendment to do away with trailers . D . Carey : Let me ask one question , Ron . Why was that decision made at that meeting ? Why didn ' t it come back ? Normally an amendment to an ordinance that we had written and recommended - - it would seem to me would come back to us and the Town Board should have re- quested us to do it . R . Cotanch : I don ' t know . The proper way was the Town Board should have in- structed Ben to write up the amendment and submit it to the Planning Board for our recommendations but they didn ' t do that . They don ' t recognize the Planning Board as being an effective tool of theirs . D . Carey : But as I got it , it was recommended at that meeting . G . Totman : What meeting ? D . Carey : Up at the bank . More discussion was held on this subject by G . Totman , A . Clark , H . Dow and others . D . Carey : Is there any further business ? R . Cotanch : No . - 5 - D . Carey : Do you have any further business , George ? G . Totman : No . D . Carey : Hicks ? H . Dow : No . D . Carey : Frank ? F . Scheffler : No . R . Cotanch : I would like to ask Art what his plans are for reporting this meeting ? D . Carey : There were parts of this meeting that I asked him specifically not to report . R . Cotanch : I think that the feelings of the Planning Board being blamed for something we weren ' t to blame for is a news item . A . Clark : There will be a summation of what your complaint is . Roughly what I said in the story . G . Totman : Seriously - ON usually we complain about the way he puts his articles in the paper but I thought that meeting was very well reported . More discussion was held on this by D . Carey , G . Totman and others . D . Carey : I move we adjourn and would like to say that I have enjoyed working on the Board . H . Dow : I think this is a terrible thing for you to do . D . Carey : You should have been here and heard the conversation I had with the Town Board afterwards . It was the Town Board that riled me and what they said , not the crowd at the meeting . H . Dow : You have given more service than the bunch of them combined . D . Carey : At any rate you have some serious things to do here and think we should work as a Board . The meeting adjourned at 9 * 45 P . M . The next meeting will be held in the Town Hall at 8 * 00 P . M . on<V!q 16th , 1971 . ,- a &� � Respectfully submitted , Jos phi a Bell - 6 00