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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1973-04-18 GROTON TOWN PLANNING BOARD MEETING Held in the Town Hall , Groton , N . Y . Wednesday - April 18 , 1973 G . Totman , Chairman* R . Cotanch D . Chase* Z . Kane* F . Scheffler* D . Payne* R . Gleason* J . Bell* * - Denotes those present Mr . Totman called the meeting to order at 8 : 20 P . M . and introduced the new Town Planning Board member , Don Chase , to everyone . He then passed out copies of the minutes of the February 28th meeting to all present . Don Payne made a motion that the minutes be approved as written , which was seconded by Frank Scheffler and the motion was carried . G . Totman : The main reason we called the meeting tonight was -to hold our annual , - - so -called , - - annual meeting . When we first started the Planning Board decided that each year on the 1st of April we would hold our annual meeting and elect new officers , - -a chairman , vice - chairman and telephoning secretary and the purpose of this is to give the Board a chance to elect a new chairman if they so desire and not have one person stay in there forever . Nothing much has happened since our last meeting , - - I asked Ron Cotanch to see if we could get somebody to put on a forum—type meeting for cluster housing to acquaint us with cluster housing and , hopefully , open this meeting to the public to give everybody a better idea and knowledge of what it is . Ron has set the date for this for May 16th . I ' ll have to get together with him as to what time it will start between now and then . Mr . Anton Egner of Egner and Neider - korn Associates has volunteered to he - the speaker and show a film and discuss cluster housing . Z . Kane : And how it relates to us in our particular area . G . Totman : For your benefit , Don , at our last meeting we felt we were at a complete pass - - don ' t have any requests for subdivisions right now - - we have completed the task of getting most of the ordinances the Town has asked for and unless you are doing something meetings are purposeless so we thought it would be good to have people come in and give us knowledge and their experience in other areas . I have written to Albany for - 1 - G . Totman : some films on different types of planning in rural areas and so on . Z . Kane : This cluster housing forum is to be open to the public too and Ron said he hoped we would have a good turnout and publicize it well so Mr . Egner won ' t turn up for just a handful of people . G . Totman : To my knowledge there aren ' t any more subdivisions being applied for in the Town since our last meeting . The one that we discussed in McLean for two 4 - apartment buildings has been resubmitted to the Zoning Enforcement Officer and has been approved by the County Health Department for sew- age and drainage . He lacks 15 ft . for road frontage and he told me .: on- the phone;- that he was applying for a variance . D . Payne : Didn ' t we discuss this and decide it wasn ' t really under subdivisions? G . Totman : Yes and I gave it back to him and told him to go the other route . D . Payne : Has anything more been heard from this fellow over on Champlin Road ? G . Totman : Not to my knowledge . D . Chase : So what do you do , George - - call meetings ? G . Totman : The first two or three years we met the first and third Wednesdays of each month because for two years straight every meeting we met with Mr . Niederkorn to discuss and draw up the zoning ordinance . We , through the Town , contracted with him to do the paper work and research on it . Then , after that was done we changed to one meeting a month and if nothing really was coming up there wasn ' t any purpose in having a meeting so we left March open for that reason . One of the things we did was decide maybe there were some things we should be doing , - -you see a Planning Board can be as busy as a Town Board wants it to be . In lots of Towns the Town Board directs a lot of things to their Planning Boards ' attention . If something comes up they ask the planning board to study it and make recommendations . Already we have seen some flaws in our mobile home ordinance and at our last meeting we decided we should go to the Town Board and ask them what they would like us to work on , which I did . Z . Kane : What did they say ? G . Totman : I suggested the things we talked about at our last meeting , - - the mobile home ordinance and the skirting problem Dana told us about and looking into the ordinance and seeing what should be done about it and whether it should be updated . But anyways my response from the Town Board was you go back and - 2 - G . Totman : come back to us with something specific and bring it to our next meeting and we ' ll think about it . D . Payne : On any of the things we discussed that you would bring up , did you get any specific responses ? G . Totman : No . On page 7 of these new proposed subdivision regulations the fee for the application was omitted so will have to write it in and be sure it is shown on a couple of Hicks ' copies . We agreed earlier on $ 20 . 00 for that fee that is not written in there . F . Scheffler : Do you want to write $ 20 . 00 in there ? Z . Kane : Yes . On page 9 the footnote should be corrected to read "assess " . G . Totman : Actually we should cross that out . It shouldn ' t be in there . D . Payne : No , it shouldn ' t be . Z . Kane : O . K. let ' s remove the footnote . It doesn ' t need to be there because we have the money in there now . D . Payne : On page 12 , - -what is the " suggestion" ? Z . Kane : I saw that , - -now in the old copy let ' s see what was that might have been . - - - The bottom of 12 should be crossed out , - - the footnote on page 12 should be crossed out also . D . Payne : Are these the latest maps on the Town ' s requirements for roads ? G . Totman : Yes , - - and are put in there right after page 18 . I thought as long as the subdivision ordinance talked about putting the roads in to the Town ' s specifications the maps should be put in there so I asked Hicks to get a copy of them and put them in there as page 19 so the subdivider would know . These are the latest Town Specifications 2 / l /72 when they approved them . That is why they are put in there . Z . Kane : There ' s another one on page 24 , - - that ' s new , isn ' t it ? G . Totman : No , that was there before . Z . Kane : Yes , - -you ' re right . G . Totman : If there aren ' t any more changes in that we ' ll leave it . Roger , did you hear us tell about the cluster home meeting we are going to have ? On May 16th will have an open meeting put on by Tony Egner . R . Gleason : Very good , - - I hope I ' m not too busy with the corn around then . - 3 - G . Totman : Why don ' t we make it for around 8 P . M . ? I ' ll talk to Ron about it . Z . Kane : I think it will be about 8 P . M . anyway . ( Z . Kane asked for copies of the mobile home and swimming pool ordinances and Mr . Totman said she should have them . ) G . Totman : Laura Volpicelli called me a couple of weeks ago . Some guy next to her wants to put 4 trailers in right next to her house and would have to have a variance . She was all upset because she is a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals so wanted to know if she had her facts and figures right . Z . Kane : Shouldn ' t we mention the public hearing to be held on May 7th ? G . Totman : Yes , - - the Town Board will be holding a public hearing on the 7th of May at 7 : 30 P . M . The purpose of this hearing is to approve the changes in the Subdivision Regulations . Accord - ing to Mr . Bucko , the Town Attorney , any time they make a change even though it was mandated by the State have to hold a public hearing and explain it to everyone as to why it was made . Seems like a waste of time and cost . So we should all plan to attend this hearing , if possible . D . Payne : I think most of you are aware that one of my neighbors burned out . What he would like to do , until his house gets rebuilt , is put in a house trailer in his backyard temporarily only to live in until the work is done . He has no other family around here he can live with . What kind of objection would he get by doing this? What would he have to do ? G . Totman : He would have to apply to Dana Snell and Dana would have to turn him down and then he would file an appear and ask for a variance and the Board of Appeals , I ' m sure , would say yes because they are doing the same thing for Mr . Adams on the Groton Road . Then as soon as his house is built the trailer has to go . If there isn ' t anything else to bring up now we should hold election of officers and go home early . How do you want to elect your chairman tonight , - -ballot or show of hands , - -or what ? I am not going to run for chairman . I won ' t accept chairman . D . Payne : Under any conditions ? G . Totman : That ' s right . Election of officers was held by nominations and the new officers are as follows : Chairman - Don Payne Vice -Chairman - George Totman Secretary - Zana Kane . Tlie - =news, Plamzing �,Board member , Don Chase , requested that he be given copies of - 4 - minutes of some of the past Planning Board ' s meetings and both Don Payne and Zana Kane provided him with these , and he was advised that all of the minutes from the beginning are kept on file in the Town Hall and he can either look at them sometime or take them home to study . Mr . Totman told Mr . Chase that he and the other members are very glad to have him as a member of the Town of Groton Planning Board . Mr . Gleason asked Mr . Chase if he had moved to Groton recently and Mr . Chase said he has been here eight years and has two children attending the Groton High School , Don Payne , as the new chairman of the Board , decided to leave the date of the next meeting open and Zana Kane will phone all the members and advise them when it will be held . Zana Kane moved the meeting be adjourned and Roger Gleason seconded the motion . The motion was carried . The meeting adjourned at 9 * 25 P . M . Respectfully submitted , JrHsephine Bell - 5 -