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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-01-08 TOWN OF GROTON ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS MEETING Held at the Town Hall , Groton , N . Y . Monday - January 8 , 1979 - 8 PM PRESENT : G . Hoy - Chairman B . Bucko - Town Attorney F . Fouts F . Pierson G . Bushnell J . Bell - Recording Clerk Mr . Hoy called the meeting to order at 8 : 10 PM . G . Hoy ; First we ' ll work with Neils . Have all of you looked over the minutes of the public hearing ? If there ' s anything in them you want to refer back to , we have them here . Would somebody like to start the discussion on this ? There ' s one point that I think should be brought out . I don ' t know whether we can add it in as a stipulation if we pass it . On that particular part of the road there ' s quite a hill on one side and if he doesn ' t keep his area plowed out it could be quite a traffic hazard . . I don ' t know how familiar you are with that particular area . G . Bushnell : Yes , there ' s a problem and the building there is close to the road . G . Hoy : When I saw it before there were so many snowmobiles there and two cars parked on the road . G . Bushnell : When I went by there were 6 or 7 snowmobiles parked there and 2 cars on the road . F . Pierson : I think he has area enough there for parking if he keeps it cleared out and if we stipulate that that is one thing he should do . . G . Hoy ; Right . I just thought that was something we really ought to G . Bushnell : All he is to do there is repair snowmobiles , - -no selling , - - just repairs . G . Hoy : Right and he specified at the hearing if he was going to sell , he would sell them somewheres else . G . Bushnell : If this is granted - - G . Hoy ; He is just to repair and all snowmobiles have to be inside and not outside and no junk . How do you enforce this? B . Bucko : Bob Brown , F . Pierson : Then he goes on to say it ' s only a winter occupation . B . Bucko ; Did he state he had a franchise for any particular items , - -because he is a franchise dealer ? - 1 - F . Pierson : Gordon asked him and he answered yes he had but didn ' t state what for . i G . Hoy : Ben , then if we should grant him one would we have to put that stipu- lation in ? Be Bucko : Yes , let me explain it without going into the merits of this case . You can grant a special permit and lay down certain conditions you are concerned about like parking . If you read the ordinance that he cannot sell he cannot sell and you can put in special conditions and and state the permit will be revoked if not met . That area is to be cleared and that he sell no items and that they are not to be stored outside and that there are to be no sales on the premises except for the first paragraph of the ordinance " . . . . . . . . . . and . . . . . . . parts " . I believe I have a copy of the ordinance here but don ' t know if it ' s a draft or not . Mr . Bucko read aloud paragraph 2 of the ordinance . Be Bucko : Is that what you have ? G . Hoy : Yes , that is what we have . Be Bucko ; He can sell the parts there and they can come in and get the parts . As far as selling is concerned you have to go back to the general ordinance . G . Hoy : Under these conditions they can . Be Bucko : The way I explained it before On - I raised questions after I talked about it and read it again and he can sell parts but the machines cannot be stored outside or anything else . G :jBushnell : What did he say he would do in the summer time ? G . Hoy : Repair cycles . G . Bushnell : Also lawn mowers and garden tractors ? B . Bucko ; Right and you can put in there there will be no noise and can only test them at certain times so it will not disturb the neighbors . I ' m just saying some of the conditions you can impose with a special permit . G . Bushnell : Yeah . G . Hoy : Are there any other points anyone would like to bring out ? F . Pierson : Say he was to test a cycle , - - that is licensed , - - it ' s legal to ride that on the road so have no control over that . Be Bucko : If he did it and it disturbed the neighbors they could phone Teresa up or Bob Brown who would tell them to go to Court . He ' s causing a nuisance and we have no control over that . You can say there will be no testing on the property , - - can ' t run them in the backyard . G . Bushnell : Yeah , ammoreally Burlew was the only one there that had anything to say about not having it there , wasn ' t he ? G . Hoy : Yes . 2 F . Pierson : Uh -huh . B . Bucko : Well , Burlew is thinking it may devaluate his property from selling it as a residential place . G . Bushnell : That ' s what I thought . F . Pierson : He actually sold this to Morris? G . Bushnell : It was a land contract , wasn ' t it? This is Morris ' main source of living ? G . Hoy ; Yes , F . Pierson : This land on the outside is what he has on a land contract , - - this he owns . G . Hoy : Right and Burlew has this 250 ft . frontage here that runs ; % along the hedge on the north side . Most of the neighbors around there didn ' t appear to be too worried about the situation . Like Mr . Payne said at the hearing and I also stated that Russell DeMond called me up and said it wouldn ' t be any problem to him and the neighbor down the road from DeMond called me up that same night and said he couldn ' t see any problem and then Mr . Marsh , just the other side of Burlew , called the next morning and said he had no complaints about it , so - - - F . Fouts : Johnny Beck didn ' t talk about it . G . Hoy ; No , I was surprised he wasn ' t here that night . It seems strange that the people that are living there don ' t see any problem and Burlew sees such a big problem in the whole thing . G . Bushnell : Is that the same Burlew that has a shop in Cortland and Morris worked for him at one time ? G . Hoy : Yes . F . Pierson : In fact Burlew was stating the conditions of his contract to us and to us that ' s between Mr . Burlew and Morris and has nothing to do with us . That ' s the same as those people on Ogden Hill trying to tell us they have their own little community up there . That ' s nothing to do with us . Be Bucko : Is the property that Neil Morris is buying , - - is he buying it on a land contract? F . Pierson : The acre and . 15 hundreds he has , - - it ' s the other piece . (Mr . - Pierson showed this to Mr . Bucko on the map . ) Be Bucko : I just want to point out - - I ' ve read the minutes and read Wes McDermott ' s comments about not imposing conditions , - - in other words you have motorized vehicle repair shop but you have to take the neighbors into consideration and you do have the authority to put in conditions if you want to give him a permit as long as they are reasonable and I ' m leaving that up to you without going into the merits or anything . 3 an G . Bushnell ; May I ask a question ? It was mentioned that sales were not allowed . What ' s so bad about that ? Be Bucko : Because the ordinance prohibits commercialism in an agricultural area . Because then you would be running a retail business which is prohibited . Not all of them are . You would have to read the ordinance . Some are allowed and some aren ' t . G . Bushnell : A person could sell say TV ' s or something like Plunkett over here . F . Pierson : He ' s in Dryden . Be Bucko : 0 . K . F . Pierson : So if he starts selling yard tractors - - Be Bucko : Can ' t do anything about it because that is agricultural equipment . If he wanted to have tractors for farmers , he could . F . Fouts : He could even have yard tractors because farmers are using them . G . Bushnell : Yes , they are handy . F . Fouts : A lot of farmers around here use snowmobiles , too . We could use one this time of the year ! G . Bushnell : Yeah . Be Bucko ; My opinion is that this has got to be revised completely so every- body can understand it and I think the County Planning Board re - commended to them you take certain things you want in a particular zone and leave 3 or 4 blank so if something new comes up you can see where it fits and say this is an area where you can have it with a special permit . F . Pierson : Let me ask this question . If you were to grant him a permit with some restrictions and then between the County and the Town Board they come up with changes , would he be entitled to do this ? Be Bucko : He would go to the Town Board to see if they would allow him to or not . I don ' t know whether it would be by a special permit or what , or if it ends up having to be a zone change it would go to the Town Board but he would have the opportunity to come back . F . Pierson : That ' s what I was wondering , - - if he would get a chance then . Be Bucko : I ' m going to leave now because I think I have answered all your questions . All I ' m saying is you , as a Board , can put in certain conditions . If you think there ' s a traffic problem or noise problem you people have the authority to do it and my only other comment is you are the Board of Appeals and you stick by what you make and don ' t let anybody tell you anything different . You have the facts and you make the decision and don ' t be afraid that somebody will say you didn ' t do the job right . G . Hoy : Well , we aren ' t going to please everybody , - - thanks for coming down , Ben . - 4 - B . Bucko : 0 . K . , - -'X:I just wanted to make some comments . Let ' s say that Neil or Dave Burlew sues or something . The decision has got to be on what you heard at the hearing , what you feel will affect the neighborhood and if there ' s a legal question I ' ll be glad to answer it to the best of my ability and if it ever goes to Court where you have to justify your position it should be on the record . (Mr . Bucko left the meeting at 8 * 30 PM) After some discussion by all present Mr . Frank Pierson made the following resolution : F . Pierson : I make a resolution that a special permit be granted to Neil Morris for a Motorized Vehicle Repair Shop at 459 Champlin Road with the following stipulations ; 1 . That noise is kept at a minimum . 2 . To encourage off- roadside parking because of the locality and hazards of roadside parking on the existing highway , and 3 . That retail sales are allowed only if in compliance with the existing Town Ordinance for the Agricultural Zone , G . Bushnell : I second that . Roll call vote was as follows ; F . Fouts - Aye F . Pierson an Aye G . Bushnell an Aye G . Hoy : And I ' ll vote yes . G . Hoy : Now we ' ll consider Erik M . Hewitt ' s application ( 106 Bird Cemetery Road) . G . Bushnell : What did he request? G . Hoy ; A special permit for an auto repair shop . Mr . Hoy read aloud from Mr . Hewitt ' s application what he asked for . G . Hoy : Is there any discussion on this ? G . Bushnell : He has a good parking area . F . Pierson : He was actually there before zoning went in . G . Hoy : He was ? F . Pierson : Well - as 1970 We ON that ' s when he bought it . He ' s been in business almost that long too , I guess . G . Hoy : You weren ' t here at that information meeting we had , were you ? G . Bushnell : No . - 5 On a G . Hoy : The ones that had them before can carry on but are required to have a permit . F . Pierson : I think he is one of them . G . Hoy : May I have a resolution of some sort on this one? G . Bushnell : I make a resolution that we grant Mr . Erik Hewitt ' s special permit as long as the requirements of the zoning laws are met . F . Fouts : I second it . Roll call vote was as follows : F . Fouts - Aye G . Bushnell - Aye F . Pierson - Aye G . Hoy : And I vote yes . Mr . Hoy adjourned the meeting at 9 * 05 P . M . Respectfully submitted , Jos phine Bell - 6 -