FINAL
Minutes of Meeting
October 7, 2004
Members
Present: Guests:
Mark Agle Drew
Reilly, Town Engineer
Dennis Brawdy Ed
Krycia, Jr, Councilman
Anthony
Weiss Don
Schreiber, Jr.
Kevin O’Gorman Russ
Gugino, Camp MaryGlen
William Zittel Reverends
Mulhisens
Juanita Majewski Yvette
O’Brien
Gerard Schwab
Andrew Romanowski, Alternate
Excused:
Absent:
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Chairman Agle called the October 7, 2004 Meeting of the Eden Town Planning Board to order at 7:30 PM. Agle requested
a motion to approve the September 2004 minutes as written, submitted and
revised, so moved by Bill Zittel, Dennis Brawdy seconded, carried all ayes. Juanita Majewski requested a correction to
the July 2004 Minutes, that her name be moved from the
absent column to the excused column, as she stated that she informed the Board
at the June meeting that she would be away for the July & August meetings.
NEW & UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Resubdivision of lots 3062 and
3064 Hillbrook. Mr. & Mrs.
Hickok and Mr. Bart Sobczyk agreed to a lot-line adjustment between their
properties. It is required that all
resubdivisions receive approval from the Planning Board. Kevin Gorman motioned to approve as
submitted, seconded by Jerry Schwab, carried all ayes.
Ron Zimmerman: Revised Site Plan –
Unavailable to attend, however he will be submitting a new site plan for the
former Bridgeos Pizzeria. One-half of
the downstairs is occupied by Tri-County Physical Therapy and the upstairs is
currently apartments. Another business
wishes to occupy the other half of the downstairs. At the January 8th,
2004 Planning Board Meeting, Mr. Zimmerman received an approval of the site
plan including a requirement that when a tenant for the other half of the
building is found, then approval of that use would require site-plan approval
as well. Cathy should inform Mr.
Zimmerman that if he submits his new site-plan (indicating proper parking in
particular), 2 weeks before the next meeting held November 4, 2004, he could
possibly receive approval at that meeting as long as the parking complies with
the code (i.e. Paved, stripped, dust-free surface).
Major Subdivision: Gary
Drive – Nussembaumer & Clark did
not follow up.
Pre-Submission Conference: Yvette O’Brien –
Purchased former “Garden of Eden”. There is one apartment upstairs. The owner would like to open an “Irish Pub”
in the downstairs space. Utilizing the 2
rear rooms as “cozy” space for clients for small groups to gather for coffee or
wine outside of the atmosphere of the bar area.
Agle stated that since the building has been unused for a period of
time, this would be a change of use and as such typically require site-plan
approval by the Planning Board. Site
plan requirements include use of the building, parking, seating capacity, how
many people, how many workers, hours of operation etc. Parking is always the issue in the downtown
hamlet area. This Board has some
flexibility with this issue, but there are minimums set forth in the code. Brawdy asked if the business would be
primarily day or evening hours? O’Brien stated that in the beginning it would
be evening and weekend hours. To the
north of this lot is the Gacioch property, which is currently for sale. She has attempted to purchase at least a
strip of that property for parking purposes, but was not successful. Drew stated that the site plan must be done
by a licensed professional architect/engineer; and as Chairman Agle stated,
parking will be the biggest hurdle.
Brawdy stated that if the adjacent businesses are primarily daytime and you are looking at evening hours, there would be
more consideration given to the on-street parking. Drew stated that the next step for the
O’Briens’ would be to get a copy of the survey, have your architect determine
the number of parking spaces you will need based on tables/seating, number of
employees, etc. The Hamlet Overlay would
require some landscaping features to be included, however difficult to require
due to there not being any greenspace to start with. Then speak with Scott Henry to determine
what interior building code requirements you need to meet for “public assembly”
space. If you plan on submitting a
site-plan for the November 4th meeting, be sure to submit you plan
to the secretary 15 days prior to the meeting.
Schwab suggested that O’Brien speak with the Chamber to see what
parking, if any, might be made available during the evening hours in the
Chamber parking lot. O’Gorman suggested
that another option is to speak with the owner of the “4-Corners Restaurant”, they are currently opened only daytime hours. Zittel stated that permission for all parking
arrangements must be submitted in writing.
Agle stated that this Board is willing to work with you,
however we can’t overlook certain code requirements. Scott Henry should be able to give you those
requirements. Drew stated that if you
are close on the parking, this Board can work with you but say for instance you
need 40 parking spaces and can only satisfy 5 of them, then
it would be difficult to approve the plan because there are public health and
safety issues that must be considered.
CAMP MARY
GLEN. Russ Gugino gave a
narrative for the Reverend Mulhisens in regard to the new use of Camp Mary
Glen. The (BES) Buffalo Enterprise School (part of
the Buffalo Public
School system) 275 Oak St., Buffalo, NY. When asked, Gugino said they are currently
working on a site-plan for submission, and that Cathy had explained that even
if it were presented here tonight, action could not be taken due to the fact
that the plan submission did not meet the 15 day presubmission deadline. Therefore the architect continues to work on
the plan. What remains the same is that
Camp Mary Glen would still like to function as a Camp and will do whatever the
Planning and Town Board require of them.
But what has changed since the July meeting is
the sponsors. The prior 2-week special
use permit was denied by the Town Board.
However certain things have changed that we would like you to be aware
of. The Buffalo Enterprise School deals
with children of special needs i.e. disadvantaged kids (not physically
handicapped, but learning disabilities).
They have approached the Camp and would like to use the Camp as soon as
possible on a year-round basis, perhaps 1 –2 weekends per month,
overnight. In return for the use, they
could make monies available to the camp to revamp the camp to meet the current
standards and codes of the Town of Eden and the
State of NY. They wish to renovate/winterize 2 of the
cabins this year. There is also a
bathroom facility at the camp that they would renovate/winterize as well. The possibility of refurbishing the dining
hall, not necessarily for dining but for classroom areas is still being discussed. No food preparation would be performed on
site. All food would be brought in
already prepared. The architect is
incorporating all of that in a site plan.
Mr. Gugino stated that this may qualify as a special
use permit use and that a site-plan approval is necessary and as part of
that procedure, a Public Hearing must be held.
The BES would like to utilize the facility as soon as possible this
fall; so on behalf of Camp Mary Glen, I am asking the Planning Board to
consider making a recommendation to the Town Board to set a date for a Public
Hearing at their 10/13/04
meeting. That by no means would imply
that you will approve the site-plan, but it would get things in motion asap. Agle stated
that unfortunately, you cannot put the cart before the horse. You cannot schedule a public hearing or issue
a Special Use Permit without an approved site-plan. Gugino stated that the Planning Board meets
again 11-07-04, and the
Public Hearing could not be scheduled until the earliest end of November, meaning
that this plan could not even be considered until near Christmas time. Juanita Majewski stated that even if we could
do that, you still have the situation of renovations needing to be accomplished
before they would be allowed to utilize this camp. Gugino stated that contractors are ready at
the go; as soon as even a provisional approval is granted, the school can begin
to release funds for renovations. Agle
stated that we just cannot move forward until a site-plan is available for us
to review. Gugino stated that this camp
would be used as part of the school’s curriculum. Gugino asked if a special meeting could be
held before the November meeting to just address this matter. Agle stated that we are bound by the Open
Meetings Laws to hold public meetings that require advance public notice of any
such meetings so that the public is able to come and listen to the
deliberations. We cannot legally act on
this without public notification. Your
being here tonight was not even on the published agenda and therefore we can
only give you the opportunity to attend and comment but we cannot act. Drew stated that he cannot at this point
determine the “definition of use. The
last recommendation for a special use permit was made under the assumption of
use as a campground. Campground by
definition of the town operates between April-October. So how is this defined? Gugino spoke with Mr. Henry, who stated that
if the use is not defined in the code, then the use is not permitted. Gugino stated that their concern was that
the way the “campground” is defined in the code, it
reads as though it is a campground for camper-vehicles. There is also language in the code for
“summer camp colonies”, but that also does not exactly apply. Brawdy asked if this use might fall into a
“private boarding school”? Drew suggested that Gugino research whether
their use falls under the New York State Education Code through the Buffalo Public
School system, then it may be basically
clear sailing. Drew suggested that
maybe this falls under a different category.
Drew and Bill Trask need to research this,
however Scott Henry, the Code Enforcement Officer will make the official
decision. If you disagree with that
decision, your next step is to petition the Zoning Board or Appeals. Demonstrate to Scott Henry if it is a actually a school.
Chairman Agle stated that realistically, the time frame you are
requesting cannot be met. There are just
too many items that need to be considered.
Public health and safety issues, issues of septic, water, access, bulk
requirements and some of these items are beyond our scope given the information
provided to us up to now. The engineers must address some of these issues. It is a large project and not well defined in
the code, therefore, we need our attorney and code enforcement officer to make
interpretations and that all takes time.
Drew suggested a meeting comprised of Bill Trask, Drew, Scott, Mark and
Gugino to hammer out these questions.
Brawdy asked if the BES would be the exclusive user of the facility? Gugino
answered that they would have exclusive use of the camp on the weekends that
they so designated; that’s not to say that other people couldn’t utilize the
camp during the other times. Agle stated
that may or may not help your case depending upon which a definition the
proposed project ultimately falls under.
Brawdy asked what your intention would be during the summer months when
school is not in session? These questions need to be addressed when the
use is defined. The use defined will
restrict other functions. If it is
defined as a school, then that doesn’t mean that is can turn into a camp during
the summer months.
If you intend to go beyond that function, it will need to be spelled out
from the beginning. Matt Mulhisen stated
that it will definitely go beyond that, we ultimately want to use this camp as
a camp for i.e.: Campfire Girls, Boy
Scouts, and other agencies are interested in using this facility as a
campground. Gugino stated that at this
point, they have only one use in mind – the BES curriculum.
Don Schreiber – Mini-Storage: Outdoor parking – At this
point, Bill Trask, Town Attorney joined the meeting for his advice and
input. Agle stated that there was an
approved site plan, special use permit granted, based on a public hearing,
subsequently an amended site-plan approval for outdoor storage was requested;
The Planning Board recommended against outdoor storage, the Town Board granted
an amended special use permit based on a public hearing and the Town Board asked
that the Planning Board approve the amended site plan to support that amended
special use permit. At the last meeting,
the vote was a deadlock, so we will discuss and revote to get beyond the
deadlock, one way or the other. Drew
stated that he takes responsibility for this action, basically the Town Board
could have just approved the amended special use permit, but Drew asked them to
send it back to the Planning Board so that you, as a board, could request any
additional screening or changes to the plan.
Dr. O’Gorman asked how the amended use permit could be granted if the
outdoor storage was not included in the discussion of the public hearing? Drew stated that there was a subsequent
public hearing for the amended site plan outdoor storage use in July. This is a yearly renewable permit; therefore
if problems with this arise, the Town Board has the right to revoke the amended
permit. Bill Zittel asked how many
parking spots for outdoor storage are we talking about? Don Schreiber stated 21 spots for DMV registered, licensed vehicles. Zittel asked if Don could possibly leave the
first 6 spaces vacant and move the parking back further on the property and
park them in reverse, start parking from the back forward? Don stated that the property really drops
down toward the back, therefore you really won’t see
much anyway. He also added that he is
required to either erect a berm or building by mid December 2004 and that he
will in fact be erecting the contractors building in front and this would
eliminate much of the visual concern.
Don wanted to go on record “stating that he would rather not, due to the
fact that he has already contracted out a few of those first spots. Agle stated that the new building would
essentially screen much of the outdoor storage.
The building will serve a dual purpose, screening and new business
potential. Bill Zittel motioned to
approve the amended site plan as submitted, Dennis Brawdy seconded, carried all
ayes.
REPORTS:
Chairman Agle reminded the Board members that Sonnybrook
Phase III final plat approval was due to expire in April 2004, a 6-month
extension was granted due to the lack of Erie County Water Authority giving the
Town water line extension approval. The
extension is due to expire in November, 2004.
Drew stated that the Town is actively working on this issue. Hopefully within the next 30 days, we will
have some news. Chairman Agle asked
Bill Trask whether this is a legal action? Trask replied that substantively Drew is
right, that it can be extended as long as substantive regulations that applied
have not been amended so that there are new factors that need to be
considered. Drew added that since Mr.
Schreiber received preliminary plat approval before the water moratorium, the
Engineer for the Water Authority, West Dust, basically stated that then the
plan should stand as is. Dennis
Brawdy moved to extend the plat approval for 6 additional months to April 30,
2005. Bill Zittle seconded, the motion carried all ayes.
Reappointment of Board Members: Chariman
Agle stated that Board members Jerry Schwab as a full board member and Andrew
Romanowski as alternate, were up for reappointment. Bill Zittel motioned to recommend to the Town
Board to reappoint these two members to the Planning Board, Kevin O’Gorman
seconded, carried all ayes.
Chairman Agle stated that the Board should address
the Beverly and Evelyn Major Subdivision requirements as to instruct Mr.
Minekime how to proceed. Drew stated
that the next step is for Mr. Minekime to address the questions that were
raised during the September public hearing.
The first decision is the SEQR decision in regard to whether this
project has an impact on the environment or not, specifically in regard to
drainage, traffic, etc. He has some
immediate problems that were addressed by the DEC, questioning sewer
capacities, sewers on both sides of the road, soils in the
are for drainage, sidewalks, recreation land, and archeologically
sensitive area, therefore, Mr. Minekime needs to contact SHPO (State Historic Preservation
Office). Mr. Minekime needs to submit
the results from those reports and justification to the board so that we can
determine impact on the environment.
Then the Board can proceed to grant preliminary plat approval and he
would then perform final engineering.
Drew stated that the next course of action for the Board is to determine
if there is adequate information to make a SEQR decision. Drew will discuss these items with Mr.
Minekime before the next meeting.
Chairman Agle brought up for discussion add-on
agenda items and the deadline for submission of items for Planning Board
Agenda. Drew stated that people can come before the Planning Board for a
pre-submittal conference without presubmitted materials,
they would receive direction, but absolutely no action. If applicant needs any action to be taken by
the Board, materials MUST be turned in 15 days prior to the Planning Board
meeting in order to be granted consideration for motion. Everyone on the Board must be given an
opportunity to review, research, and comment before a determination can be
made. It was the consensus of the Board
that the 15-day presubmission policy should be strictly enforced as defined in
the code, and that unless a submitted plan meets this requirement, no action would
be taken until the following meeting.
The published agenda must be followed.
The public has the right to know what items will be discussed in advance
of the meeting.
Bill Zittel motioned to close the meeting, Kevin
O’Gorman seconded, carried all ayes.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None.
Respectfully Submitted
Catherine A. Swiech
The Next Meeting will be held on Thursday, November 4th, 2004 @ 7:30 PM
