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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1975-09-22 dP i GROTON ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS PUBLIC HEARING.' Held at the Town Hall , Groton , N . Y . Monday , September 22 , 1975 8 * 00 P . M . PRESENT : G . Hoy - Chairman* D . Snell - Zoning Enforcement Officer* F . Fouts* R . Bell* J . Bell - Recording Clerk* J . Bell* G . Lawrence T'. Darling* M . Darling* - Denotes those present . Mr . Hoy called the hearing to order and read aloud the Notice of Public Hearing regarding the Darlings ' application for a variance which was published in the Journal and Courier on September 10 , 1975 , a copy of which is attached to these minutes and made a part thereof . G . Hoy : Mr . Darling , would you like to explain as well as you can about this lot ? T . Darling : It will be in our name and we don ' t know if we are going to get a trailer until we make sure we get the variance and we don ' t want to do anything until we do . G . Hoy : This is adjacent to your Father ' s ? M . Darling : No , my Father ' s . G . Hoy : Janet , here ' s a copy of their request . R . Bell : Your folks are the Clarks ? M . Darling : Yes . G . Hoy : This lot , then , goes right to the edge of somebody else ' s property? T . Darling : There ' s a hedge row , right . D . Snell : It goes to the edge of Bancroft ' s . G . Hoy : Yes , R . Bell : This actually doesn ' t border right on the road . M . Darling ; No , there ' s Adams Machinery Shop there . R . Bell : Yes , in between . 1 - G . Hoy : Have you seen , or asked Bancroft if you could purchase any more land tonmake it a legal lot ? This way , putting a trailer in , you don ' t have any place for a garage or anything . If you want one later on you would have to go through this same thing again . Do you understand this ? Mr . & Mrs . Darling : Yes . G . Hoy : Whereas if you can buy a little more land , then you could do your building with just a permit , right . Have you looked into this aspect of it ? T . Darling : No . You mean just get his permission , right ? R . Bell : No , all you have to do is buy whatever you need to make it a legal frontage from Don . You could take care of the hedge part of it after that or leave it right there . Does that make any difference , Gordon ? G . Hoy : No , that wouldn ' t be a problem . Usually on a request like this there has to be hardship , - - there ' s 3 things we can grant a variance on and one of them is hardship and I don ' t even know , without looking them up , what the other 2 are and until you look into whether you can purchase another strip of land , the hardship , - - I would say is out . How deep is the lot ? T . Darling : 213 ft . G . Hoy : Is that the depth of it ? D . Snell : 71 paces , - - I paced it back to the fence . I figured it was well over 50 ft . from the fence back to the orchard which would give them area enough . G . Hoy : Are there any more questions? Floyd? F . Fouts : It would be nice if they could purchase more land . G . Hoy : It seems like in the long run you would be happier . Even if you have the depth and don ' t have the frontage you would still have to get a variance for anything you would want to do . Each time you would have to come in for another variance whereas if you could purchase land enough to make it a legal lot all you would have to do is to get a permit . R . Bell : Is the date on that one ? D . Snell : This lot wouldn ' t be big enough to put a house on if they wanted to build a house . R . Bell : That ' s the part that scares me . Was it Hicks Dow or Ben Bucko that told you to bring the application down on that date ? G . Hoy : They told somebody else the night they had the hearing to get theirs in . D . Snell : The moratorium didn ' t take effect until the 20th . They had the public hearing the loth and then it has to be 10 days before it can go into effect . 2 - G.. Hoy : Are there any more questions on anything , - - anything you would like to add at this time ? T . Darling : I don ' t think so . G . Hoy : I ' ll adjourn the hearing , then . Do you want to discuss it now or vote on it , or what ? R . Bell : Can I ask you one thing , Dana . If this was tabled at this point here , only for the reason to see if they could pur - chase more land , is there a time effect that this would still be enforced ? D . Snell : I still think it would be in force because the application was in before . G . Hoy : If we tabled it , rather than voted on it , as long as they had the application in when they did , they could still get a trailer in this year but if we vote on it and deny it , - - R . Bell : Then that ' s it , even if they refiled wouldn ' t be able to apply for one until a year from then . That would throw them out entirely but I still would like to give them a chance to purchase a small strip . T . Darling : I don ' t think he would sell it anyways . R . Bell : I think Don is congenial enough . He might go along with it and I think I would be willing to wait first to see if you could buy it before I made a decision . That ' s my feeling . T . Darling : How many feet , would we need ? R . Bell : 36 ft . more for frontage . D . Snell : As I see it they wouldn ' t have to buy clear back if they bought 25 ft . back , just to get their frontage , they still have area enough . R . Bell : How would that affect the sides , Dana? I think you would have to go back further than 25 ft . more like 75 - 100 ft . - - - - a strip 36 ft . wide . I think that ' s all it would take . T . Darling : Won ' t the land going back be enough to cover it , there should be enough there ? G . Hoy : You have enough square footage but still the zoning ordinance requires frontage footage , too . R . Bell : To get you far enough back , I think you would almost have to take it close to 100 ft . back . D . Snell : 55 ft . from the center of the road , - - R . Bell : Close to 100 ft . to cover yourselves , to get away from the other allowances there . Me 3 - D . Snell : Also , one thing about this lot , - -you take about a 70 ft , trailer and you have to be 25 ft . from each side , that ' s 50 ft . and 70 is 120 . If you want to set it parallel to the road . R . Bell : Yes . Right now the only way the trailer , - - even if any- thing was granted , - - only way it could go in is lengthwise . D . Snell : You could get it in the other way if it wasn ' t a 70 ft . trailer . G . Hoy : How large a trailer were you considering? T . Darling : 70 ' x 14 ' in that range . D . Snell : A 70 ft . one would have to set it with the end towards the road . R . Bell : I would much prefer to see you go back and see whether you you can purchase that . My feelings right now is to deny you this variance , which is why I would prefer to see you go back and see if you could purchase it , rather than have us deny it and have this thrown out and there ' s no way you could come back for a year . T . Darling : What ' s going to happen in a year? R . Bell : You can ' t put any in for a year . M . Darling : What would be our chances after a year ? R . Bell : That would be up to the Town Board . Dana might be able to answer that better than us . D . Snell : No what the Town will do , I don ' t know . R . Bell : I know their thought now is to try to get all trailers into trailer parks and that ' s about it . D . Snell : I think you have a good idea and if you could buy a little land , then if you ever wanted to build a house you have room to do it . G . Hoy : Yes , I think so , too . Well , that sounds like a good idea . Would someone like to put it in the form of a motion? R . Bell : I think it ' s up to Mr . Darling , - -whether he wants us to go ahead and vote , or wants us to hold off . T . Darling : You mean try to buy the land ? R . Bell : Yes . T . Darling : We can try . R . Bell : You can bring it to a vote right now but I ' m not guaranteeing - - I would hate to see it go to a no vote and you wouldn ' t be - 4 on R . Bell : able to come back . That ' s the only thing because no way until after a year could you apply for another one . G . Hoy : Do you intend to use the same driveway as they are using for their residence ? T . Darling : Yes . G . Hoy : Uh huh , - m how much frontage is there at the house? Do they own land all the way down to the road ? T . Darling : All the way down to the next trailer . M . Darling : There ' s a trailer in there , - - Stockton ' s . G . Hoy : That ' s a shame that that ' s so tight but - - do you want to put it in the form of a motion and does anyone want to second it and that will be it ? D . Snell : They probably would rather have it tabled to see if they can buy the land . F . Fouts : Seems it would be the wisest thing to do . They would be much happier with it . R . Bull : It ' s up to you , - -whether you want us to table it or go ahead and vote on it . T . Darling : Why do they require 150 ft . frontage ? D . Snell : That ' s what the Health Department requires . T . Darling : Haven ' t they given any other people that didn ' t have quite enough in there ? D . Snell : Not since the Health Department required 150 ft . - - oh maybe if it was 6 ft . or something like that they might . R . Bell : When you start crowding about 40 ft . they give it an awful lot of thought then . Wnuld you prefer us to table it for say two weeks or something like that ? T . Darling : Yes , that will be best , I guess . M . Darling : 0 . K . so if we can , - - about 100 ft . back from the road . T . Darling : How much would we actually need ? G . Hoy : 36 ft . frontage . T . Darling : How far back ? G . Hoy : They were talking about 100 - 150 ft . , it ' s kind of an unique situation . R . Bell : It goes back about 250 ft . according to what Dana says , if it ' s 215 to the fence that ' s giving you close to 250 ft * back there . Me 5 - T . Darling : The problem is , I don ' t know if Don wants to sell or not . G . Hoy : You just have to talk him into it . D . Snell : Tell him you ' re in a pinch . R . Bell : If the hedgerow asn ' t there , - - M . Darling : That ' s all lawn . G . Hoy : Do we need a motion to table it , then ? R . Bell : I move the application for the Darlings ' variance be tabled to see if Mr . and Mrs . Darling can purchase more frontage . F . Fouts : I second the motion . (Motion carried . ) M . Darling : So who do we let know and when? G . Hoy : Let Dana know . M . Darling : Do we need to come back for another hearing? G . Hoy : No . D . Snell : They can report back , - - you ' re having another meeting next Monday night . T . Darling : If we don ' t get the land , it ' s probably no , right ? J . Bell : Use that as a selling point to get the land . Is it possible to take any land off the back and put it on the side ? M . Darling : No . T . Darling : All the land is her Father ' s . G . Hoy : Well , I guess that ' s it . When you find out let Dana know or Lois and we ' ll act on it later . T . Darling : 150 ft . back , 36 more in the front , right . D . Snell : Let ' s see , - - - R . Bell : I would say a minimum of 100 - 125 ft . would be smarter if you could get it . D . Snell : Well , 100 ft . would do them . You have to be 55 ft . back from the center of the road and 14 wide trailer 25 ft . from property line , about 94 ft , is a11 . R . Bell : So the 100 ft . would do it . D . Snell : But 125 ft . would be much nicer , I ' d say . R . Bell : 125 ft . would be much nicer but if you can get the 100 ft . it would be 0 . K . T . Darling : We ' ll have to see what he says . 0 . K . We ' ll see you . 6 - The hearing was adjourned at 8 * 45 P . M . Respectfully submitted , Jo ephine Bell - 7 -