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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1974-06-12 GROTON TOWN PLANNING BOARD MEETING Held in the Town Hall , Groton Wednesday - June 12 , 1974 8 : 20 P . M . - 9 : 45 P . M . D . Payne - Chairman G . Totman - Vice -Chairman Z . Kane - Secretary D . Chase H . F ink* R . Gleason ( arrived at 25 to 9 ) F . Scheffler* * - Denotes those present D . Payne : Would someone like to make a motion that the minutes be approved ? D . Chase : I move the minutes of our last meeting be approved as written . G . Totman : I second the motion . (Motion carried ) . D . Payne : Tonight - we are going to have our annual election of officers . As I stated at our last meeting I am not going to take the chairman - ship again this year , so I - would like to now open the floor for nominations . F . Scheffler : What is your reason ? D . Payne : Personal . D . Chase : I think you have done a nice job , Don , and would like to see you stay on . I would like to compliment you on what you have done over this year and would like to see you stay on if you would . D . Payne : I think the whole board should be complimented on the work we have done over the past year but , again , I am not definitely going to take it again for next year . If • _none has any nominations , I would like to nominate George Totman , D . Chase : Good idea . G . Totman : My only thought is I have been chairman and if anyone else would rather be chairman I would rather not do it but if noone else wants to be chairman then I told Don I would accept it . D . Chase : I don ' t know , - - I wonder how Roger feels about it ? G . Totman : I talked to Roger a month or so ago and he said then he definitely didn ' t want it . He and I are the only two members of the original board and I talked to Roger this morning and he said he would be - 1 - interested but he has developments coming up that would require public hearings and so on and so questioned whether he could be that effective on the Board as chairman due to the fact he may have some subdivision plans of his own coming up . H Fink : He called me and told me the same thing . D . Payne : How about you Frank ? F . Scheffler : Count me out , I don ' t want it . D . Payne : I have already discussed with Don Chase the possibilities of it and he has given me a negative answer . Would anyone like to officially make the nomination ? F . Scheffler : You nominated George didn ' t you , Don ? H . Fink : I move the nominations be closed , D . Payne : May I have a show of hands in favor of George Totman as chairman ? Those against ? (Unanimous show of hands in favor . ) D . Payne : Any nominations. for vice - chairman ? George had it last year and did a good job . F . Scheffler : Don , you could do that ? D . Payne : Yes . F . Scheffler : I nominate Don Payne as Vice -Chairman . H . Fink moved the nominations be closed and a show of hands were unanimously in favor of Mr . Payne as Vice -Chairman . D . Payne : We have one more - - corresponding secretary . D . Chase : I nominate Zana Kane as corresponding secretary . F . Scheffler moved the nominations be closed and a show of hands were unanimously in favor of Z . Kane for this position . D . Payne : Now that elections are over with , - - I received a letter from the law firm of VanFleet and Webster this past week concerning the subdivision proposed quite awhile ago by Milic Holocek . They requested I send the information concerning subdivision regulations along with an application and I called Mr . Tiravassi , associate with VanFleet and Webster , and advised him that the subdivision regulations and application could be picked up at the Town Hall . Apparently Mr . Holocek is quite serious this time about the subdivision and has hired this law firm to handle it for him so in the very near future we very probably will be having this subdivision to deal with , Also this last week , Dana Snell stopped at my house and requested 2 - D . Payne : the Planning Board look over an application for the possibility of a trailer park proposed by a Mr . B . H . Duffy , Jr . on Lick Street . I have a couple of copies of the application here if you would like to pass them around and look them over . The way I understand this situation from Dana , Mr . Duffy has purchased the land with an existing trailer on it . He wishes to put a new trailer on it for his own home and leave the second trailer , which is currently on the land , as a guest house or a place for people or relatives to stay who might come to visit him . The reason he is applying for a trailer park is because he doesn ' t have enough frontage to comply with the zon - ing regulations for two lots . Dana said that this situation was discussed between himself , Hicks Dow and Ben Bucko . Ben , the Town Attorney , told both he and Hicks that this definitely could be considered for a trailer park if there were two or more trailers involved . In our trailer regulations a mobile home park is defined as follows : "A parcel of land of no less than 1 acre . . . . . . . . . " I strongly feel , at this point , that the zoning and mobile home ordinances are being manipulated by Mr . Duffy and I feel that this should show in our report to the enforcement officer if everyone here agrees with me . Some discussion was held on this by all present . G . Totman : Does he have an acre of land ? F . Scheffler : 500 x 225 . G . Totman : Yes , that ' s an acre or acre and a half . R . Gleason : That would be almost 2 acres . G . Totman : He - wants to have two trailers on his land . I think he wants to rent one . Have to have 150 ft . frontage under zoning ordinance so is applying for permit for a trailer park and can in that way circumvent the zoning ordinance , D . Payne : Does anyone else have any comments ? D . Chase : I have a couple of questions , Don . You feel strongly that rules are being manipulated ? D . Payne : The reason I said that was that the - way it was explained to me by Mr . Snell I feel that way . More discussion was held on this by all present . - 3 - D . Payne : Let me read the definition of a mobile home park again , Roger , since you weren ' t here when I read it before : "A parcel of land of no less . . . . . . . " R . Gleason : Right , and since he is occupying one that might rule that out . D . Payne : And he doesn ' t intend to rent the other one , - - just use it for a guest house for friends and relatives for a week ' s stay . R . Gleason : He doesn ' t live there in the wintertime this Duffy , - - goes to Florida or something . The question I would have in the first- place is when you replace an existing with another existing and I don ' t know when it originally existed . . . . . D . Payne : Was the original trailer his or someone else ' s ? R . Gleason : No , it belonged to Pierce . He had two lots and he rented one to Duffy and Martin , Then a year or so ago sold Duffy this lot which then had 2 trailers on it , First he sold one part to Don Pierce and then Don got Martin out and then he sold the parcel to Duffy . I believe that ' s the . way it went , H . Fink : Yes , but once you remove it . . . . . D . Payne : That ' s right , anyone moving in now would have to complete with the current regulations , R . Gleason : Are you sure about that ? I don ' t know. If you were replacing a structure with the same type of structure . . . . . D . Payne : But this is a change in ownership , More discussion - was held on this by all present . D . Payne : Actually , as a planning board , we have no direct say or influ- r ence in the matter , We are just requested to look at this and give our opinions and a report as to our feeling concerning it , . D . Chase : Is he going to apply through us for this ? D . Payne : No , - -he has already applied . Only goes through us as far as the master plan is concerned and as an advisory committee to the Town Board and the zoning enforcement officer . D . Chase : Can we rely on the rules and regulations to make . . . . before it would be approved , it would have to be approved by this board ? D . Payne : No it doesn ' t have to be approved by us . We don ' t have the authority to approve or disapprove anything except subdivisions . However the mobile home regulations does require that any request for a mobile home park goes through the Planning Board for their recommendations , G . Totman : It says here , - - on page 5 , 4 . 4 "After the Planning Board ' s review , the enforcement officer . . . . . " - 4 - More discussion was held on this by all present , R . Gleason : Does this situation meet the requirements for a mobile home park ? The answer would be no . D . Payne : The way I read it , yes , but Ben says it does meet them because there are two or more trailers involved , R . Gleason : Well , if he says so . . . . suppose I wanted to set up something back in some place I had a lot and wanted to put one in under our present ordinance ? G . Totman : You can do that by special permit . R . Gleason : As a guest cottage . G . Totman : That would come under the zoning ordinance . R . Gleason : Going back to our conversation , this was what I was getting at , - - we don ' t know but this guy apparently . . . . G . . Totman : You have to be careful what he has in mind , R . Gleason : It happens. to be a trailer but , taking him at his word , it ' s to be used as - a guest cottage . D . Payne : I ' m only going by what Dana told me . R . Gleason : What I ' m trying to get at is we can be sticklers to the letter of the law but also have to take into consideration what people want to do . D . Payne : What kind of shape is that trailer in ? H . Fink : Not too good . Neither one were when they both were there . F . Scheffler : Seems a little odd . R . Gleason : As I understand it he lives here in the summer time , - -he just came back three weeks ago from Florida . The point I ' m trying to make is , isn ' t that I want to argue with him but whichever - way we handle it , could cause problems and we could have repercussions . F . 8cheffler : What would you do if he puts a permanent resident in there ? G . Totman : If he gets the approval for a park , he can put a permanent resident in there . H . Fink : He - could put in 6 or 7 trailers . D . Payne : Yes , if he could comply with Board of Health regulations . G . Totman : We ' re not supposed to be concerned , as I see it , with what he does per se with that other trailer as long as he doesn ' t sell the land to someone else . He has asked for a park and - 5 - G . Totman : can meet the requirements from what we have looked at . Then , our recommendation is that yes if he can meet the other criterias that go along with it , fine . He has the land so can get a temporary construction permit providing he meets the other re - quirements for a trailer park and meets all the conditions con - tained in the mobile home park ordinance . More discussion was held on this by all present . G . Totman : Our suggestion should be that he be made aware of all the re - quirements necessary to have a mobile home park . If we stick to the book and they make him stick to the book than that way we would have to give our tentative approval . R . Gleason : And also according to the master plan . G . Totman : Right . R . Gleason : Wouldn ' t it be reasonable to assume that as things grow , this would be another region for low intensity soon ? And then the possibility would arise that we would be in a spot if he did put a park in there , and would it be a desirable thing in that area ? G . Totman : Yes , I think it would , if it follows the general plan it would . Just for an example , go back to where they are approving Dutch VanBenschoten ' s trailer park in the same type of area and they are going to give him approval for that and are talking about letting him annex that part to the village so coan make that a trailer park area . Some discussion was held on this by all present . G . Totman : I have a strong feeling that if he is told he has to comply with all these rules he might not want to but if he does comply with them have no reason to refuse . D . Chase : I make a motion that we suggest that they stick firmly to the guidelines set up in the mobile home ordinance if he is really sincere about this . R . Gleason : I second the motion . D . Payne : Those in favor of the motion made by D . Chase and seconded by R . Gleason - those opposed ? (A show of hands was unanimous in favor of the motion - Motion . carried . ) G . Totman : The motion has been made that we see nothing wrong with it so far as the general plans are concerned so long as he is made aware of the ordinance and given a copy of it and made adhere to it . Will Zana write him a letter , Don ? D . Payne : He already has a copy of the ordinance and I ' ll write a letter to him on this . G . Totman : What date did Dana give you this , Don ? - 6 - D . Payne : He gave me this on Monday , June 10 . G . Totma.n : Well , we have 30 days to take care of this . D . Payne : At our last meeting we discussed the possibilities of the Planning Board getting into cite approval on subdivisions and Zana did write some letters , which I ' ll pass around for you to look at , and she got answers which I will also pass around so you can read them . Some discussion was held by all present on the letters Zana Kane wrote and the replies she received on possible future legislation for delegation of authority for approval of . cite plans to planning boards . D . Payne : At a special meeting held on May 21st - with the Town Board concerning a proposed concrete works near the Town of Locke , town line , the Town Board requested that the Planning Board look into the possibilities of zoning or changing the zoning in some areas of the town so they - would be acceptable for commercial use . As of right now only place we have in the town acceptable for this are the . areas bordering the village of Groton and Hamlet of McLean . Is that right , George ? The Town Board feels that industries are somewhat limited to growth in the Town due to the zoning so this is something we should be working at in the near future at our meetings . That ' s all I have for tonight . Roger , did you have something ? "-' Totman : Just in reply to what you are saying . I think - we really should look into this because in the - past we have been somewhat critical of the Town Board for not referring things back to us and so now they are asking us to look into the general plan again and to study it and see if ve can make recommendations to alter it to bring businesses into the Town so I feel we would be very remiss if we don ' t do this so I might be calling some of you during the next month or so to appoint a subcommittee to look into this and come up with ideas and suggestions to bring it out on the floor at meetings , if this is agreeable to everyone . D . Payne : I think it is a good idea , George . R . Gleason : Yes, it sounds good . D . Chase : I have just a question , - - as to how to approach this . Should we look for an area that could be rezoned and then question people as to whether they would want to sell the land or the other way around ? I would like to suggest that we try to concentrate on areas that could be rezoned without hurting anything . G . Totman : Well this concept , right from the beginning , came from Neider - korn Associates . That area , they didn ' t even want to include the little business district they put in the hamlet of McLean because of the fact of the link between Cortland and Groton . Really all towns leading into Groton could have the same thing as up there and if we look at it that way with the new Route 13 - 7 - . r . G . Totman : coming in , should look for areas on the way out . Our County seat is Ithaca and we might want to direct growth a little bit that way with a better access highway going in , Some discussion was held on this by R . Gleason , G . Totman and others . G . Totman : If you read the Ithaca Journal and see the problems they are having around the City of Ithaca lately and look at the direction government is taking in trying to preserve - land , I think part of the reason they are saying they would like to give us more power is because they aren ' t getting cooperation from the small towns . Whether we like the idea or not is somethingadifferent but when you stop and look and see what is happening in Ithaca and the Lansing area you can see where have to have some cooperation with other places . I am a firm believer that we should go back to Hicks , and I ' m going to have a talk with him , as I feel our chairmanto be honest with you , should be the representative to the County Planning Board , well , maybe not the chairman of our board but at least a regular member of our board should be a member of the County Planning Board so we will know what is happening . R . Gleason : Right , - - I guess Dan is the County Representative ? G . Totman : Yes and a very faithful member but it doesn ' t do the town any good if he doesn ' t bring anything back to us . Of course he hasn ' t been in very good health lately . More discussion was held on this subject by all present . Mr . Gleason requested that the Town Attorney , Ben Bucko , be asked to render an opinion as to the procedures for an application for a subdivision when a person is not sure just what the prospective buyers want in size of lots as it pertains to major or minor subdivisions . Mr . Totman said he would talk to Mr . Bucko on this . It was decided that the next Planning Board meeting would be held at 8 P . M . on Tuesday , July 9th unless something comes up in the meantime that needs immediate attention . G . Totman made the motionrthat the meeting be adjourned , H . Fink seconded the motion and motion carried . Re pectfully submitted , Jo ephi e Bell - 8 -