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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOC Minutes 2013-02-13 1 CODES AND ORDINANCES COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES February 13, 2013 MEMBERS PRESENT: Bill Goodman, Pat Leary, Eric Levine, Fred Wilcox ABSENT: Eva Hoffmann, Bill King OTHERS PRESENT: Susan Brock, Attorney for the Town; Susan Ritter, Director of Planning; Bruce Bates, Director of Code Enforcement; Dan Tasman, Asst. Director of Planning; Chris Balestra, Planner Chair Bill Goodman called the meeting to order at 6:30pm. Agenda Item No. 1 - Member Comments/Concerns: Chairman Goodman reported that the Town Board passed a law at their February meeting to allow the issuance of a building permit in certain circumstances even if a zoning violation existed. Agenda Item No. 2 – Approval of Minutes from December 19, 2012 and January 16, 2013 meetings: Approval of December 19, 2012 meeting minutes: Eric moved and Pat seconded the motion to approve the minutes as amended, all in favor of the changes. Approval of January 16, 2013 meeting minutes: Fred moved and Bill G. seconded the motion to approve the minutes as amended, all in favor of the changes. Agenda Item No. 3 – Continued Discussion of Draft Modifications to the Town Cluster Subdivision Provisions (discussion of revised redlined staff-recommended modifications included in mail out): The Committee went through the redline version provided by staff and made comments and changes as follows: Page 1, Section 234-31(A) - last sentence: change “Residence District R9” to “HDR.” Page 1 - Section 234-32(A) – Susan B. suggested that the language in the last sentence had been confusing in the past, and that it might be a good idea to clarify. So the Committee decided to change “Notwithstanding the foregoing” to “In addition,...” Also - change “Residence District R15” to “MDR” and “Residence District R30” to “LDR.” Page 2 - Section 234-32(F) - the Committee was okay with the elimination of wording in “F.” Page 3 - B(1) 3rd line – Susan B. felt the language was confusing and suggested it be re-worded to clarify the intent. Small discussion followed and Dan T. will re-word accordingly. B(2) – fix typo (“strictures” should be “structures”) Page 3 - C(1) – Bruce felt this could be confusing to some people and suggested defining the term “building envelope.” The Committee discussed alternative wording and ultimately decided to delete C(2) and change C(1) to just “C,” which will now read: “C. Building envelopes (areas that designate where buildings may be placed) must be included on the preliminary and final 2 plat. Building envelopes do not have to conform to setbacks in the underlying zoning district, but must conform to the stream setback requirements in Chapter 270, Zoning.” Page 3 - (D) - Susan B. informed the Committee that, per the cluster subdivision portion of NYS Town Law, the Planning Board had the authority to vary height if it was not specified in the Town’s own cluster regulations. Nevertheless, the Committee decided to keep the line as is and require the height to conform to the underlying zoning district in the Zoning Code. Chairman Goodman moved to recommend the Cluster Subdivision regulations to the Town Board with the changes. Eric seconded the motion and the motion was unanimously approved. Agenda Item No. 4 – Continued Discussion of Town Draft Revised Sign Law, “Exempt” sections (picking up at “E – holiday decorations” on page 3): Pat provided new language for the Committee to consider regarding prohibiting hate speech et. al., but asked that the Committee table any discussion until Eva and Bill K. were present to review it. The Committee then picked up on the draft Sign Law, page 3 (“E - holiday decorations”). The comments and changes are as follows: E - Move back to the temporary section. The Committee will discuss it more when they get to temporary signs. F - Chris explained that this was transferred from the existing law to the proposed law “as is,” with no changes in wording. After short discussion about how “F” related to the banner provisions that were recently added to the law, the Committee decided to delete “F” completely. G - After much discussion regarding the various businesses, churches, etc. that desire copy change elements in their signs but cannot get them without variances, the Committee decided to wait until a later time to discuss “copy change” signs in general. H - Chris explained that “H” combined two parts of the previous law that were in the same section. The original “H” was an “E” and it said: “Memorial signs, building names, erection dates, similar information cut into masonry or other permanent surface or constructed of bronze or other incombustible material, not to exceed 36 square feet in size” and the other part said “Historical markers not to exceed 6 square feet in size.” The Committee decided to leave “H” as is in the draft law. I – Leave as is. J - Susan B. mentioned that there were court cases regarding content discrimination and stated that the Town cannot regulate certain types of flags and not other types of flags. Chris did not realize that there was a content-neutrality issue and indicated that the existing law stated: “Flags, emblems, or insignia of a nation, government, or school may be displayed in any district without a permit.” Susan B. said that the Town’s existing law was illegal. This spurred a small discussion regarding exempting flags of a certain size and regulating the height of flag poles instead of regulating specific types of flags. Chris stated to the Committee that she would reword the language in “J” and bring something back to the next COC meeting. 3 K –Reword to read as: “Posted” or “No Trespassing” signs and boundary markers, up to 2 square feet in area.” L - The staff suggestion was to combine “L” and “M” in an effort to make the exempt list shorter, but the Committee decided not to combine “L” and “M”. The Committee did decide to change the wording of “L” to read: “Entrance, exit, and directional signs.” M - Leave as is. The Committee left off at “N” on page 3, and will pick up from there at the next COC meeting in March. Agenda Item No. 5 – Other Business: None. • Next meeting date tentatively scheduled for March 20, 2013. Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm. Respectfully Submitted, Sandy Polce, Administrative Staff