HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-04-30 - TB Town of Ulysses
Special Town Board Meeting
April 30`h, 2009
PRESENT : Supervisor Douglas Austic ; David Kerness, Elizabeth Thomas and Lucia
Tyler; Rod Ferrentino absent. Town Clerk Marsha L. Georgia;
Alex Rachun, Code Enforcement Officer.
Review of the Draft Comprehensive Plan
At the last meeting the Board discussed not having the Business Districts, the PUD and
the Industrial zones on the Comprehensive Land Use Map .
Ms . Thomas addressed this after she had spoke to Ms. Poelvoorde the Chair of the
Comprehensive Plan Committee. Ms . Thomas said that the feel was that if the businesses
outside of the area that is now designated as business (the dark purple area around Krums
Corners Road) should be encouraged to continue and whatever.
Mr. Rachun spoke up and said that is the thing — how do you want them to continue and
that is the problem . Mr. Rachun said that his feeling is that and is not sure if the new
document even addresses it. Mr. Rachun said there are some major businesses like
Taughannock Farms and Glenwood Pines and others and they are indicated on the land
use map as designated business and as such what are they thinking about to do with those
properties down the line. Do you want them just to be grandfathered and say that they
can only be just what they are; grandfathering is usually a pretty harsh note for a business
because it does not allow them to do anything other then what they are doing or build any
more. They would have to get a use variance to do something other then what they are
doing or to expand.
Mr. Rachun said a very good example is the developing business of Jamie Keyhole on Rt.
89 . He has not finished and currently has not finalized what his plans are.
Mr. Kerness asked what Mr. Keyhole is zoned as .
Mr. Rauch said he is currently in a business district and pointed it out on the map . Mr.
Rachun does not like grandfathering.
Ms . Tyler said that grandfathering prevents growth and prevents other uses as so she
understands from what Mr. Rachun is saying. Ms . Tyler said that there could be cases
where it maybe appropriate not to allow any changes because the Town does not want
that business to continue. Ms . Tyler asked if there could be something that could trigger
some sort of review.
Mr. Rachun said maybe but it could open up reason s for Article 78 review.
Mr. Kerness said that we are talking about three categories ; Business, Industrial and
PUD ' s. The question on the table is to superimpose those three onto the Land Use Map
or leave them in the zoning and not specific them .
Mr. Rachun said he does not have an answer to that .
Ms. Tyler said that might there not be a way to putting some language to address that and
the trick would be to come up with that language .
The Board discussed it further with no resolution.
Mr. Kerness suggested again placing the existing three districts on the Comprehensive
Land use Map .
Ms . Thomas and Ms. Tyler were not for that.
Special Town Board Meeting 2
04/30/2009
Mr. Kerness said you can not have your cake and eat it too, what do you want to put on
the map?
Ms . Tyler said she does not want to put anything on this map because to her it represents
more of an idealized kind of thing and in reality there are things distributed all over.
Mr. Rachun said that the attorney will be a good person to talk to for putting together a
paragraph or two addressing the excising businesses because in the long run they may be
grandfather in a way that they are viably. The concern is at a public hearing when people
come in that have these businesses and they ate going to say we all disappeared and what
is happening; we are not part of the Town anymore. It is an important to put that
statement into the Comprehensive Plan.
Ms. Thomas will talk with Ms . Geldenhuys about grandfathering and how to handle and
possibly come up with some language .
Changes to Draft Comprehensive Plan
• Conservation Area - add in small scale eco tourism based business
• Environmental Protection Area - add small scale eco tourism based business —
add after future — forest, farmland
• Village Residential - add the following sentence — Bed and breakfast
establishments or small scale commercial uses that are intended to be of a
neighborhood scale are also appropriate . (taken from the text further in the
document)
• Agricultural Priority Area - delete agricultural support and replace with
agricultural related
The Board discussed the map in the nature of how the Conservation zone was created.
Ms . Thomas explained the explanation from Bergman to why they put it on the map the
way they did or ask them again how they arrived at this . If the Town decided to change
the zone coverage on the map they could do that. The problem is how to present the zone
to the public . The large area at the top of the map that is designated Environmental
Protection Area is wrong on the map and needs to be fixed.
Before the meeting was closed the Board agreed that in the SEQR application read -0-
disturbed land. Alex will make this correction in the SEQR application.
Hearing no further changes or corrections the meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Marsha L. Georgia
Ulysses Town Clerk
MLG: mlg