Business in the Town of Wappinger
The March 2 Planning Board Meeting's agenda was primarily focused on projects for commercial ventures in the town.
The two residential questions which were quickly handled - 1) a subdivision on Sky Top Drive which the Planning Board approved a resolution for the Planner to draft an approval resolution. There is a bit of a delay because the Board of Health needs to provide an approval (will be a condition in the Town's approval) - but can't do that until there is no snow cover, which this year may be July the way things are going. The second is a request for a Lot Line Consolidation between 9 Liberty Street and 11 Liberty Street in Chelsea. These are properties formerly owned by St. Mark's Church in Chelsea that have been sold. Currently the septic system is connected to a neighbor's property and if a new septic system were to be installed (the code now requires that septic systems need to be installed on property that you own) ... the two small (.17 acres and .13 acres) properties need to be joined together. The board waived the requirement for a public hearing and voted to approve the planner to write a draft resolution approving the consolidation.
The Commercial Discussions:
Performance Auto at 1401 Route 9. This is a difficult site, it is 1.01 acres and has two road frontages. There were permissions given in 2002 and 2011 by the town regarding placement of cars, lighting, number of cars etc. A few months ago, the Code Enforcement team cited the owners for code violations. The interesting thing, is that the plans that were previously approved were among the missing... so not sure the basis of the violations. The engineer now working with the owners have the plans and they are trying to build out a plan that meets the code requirements - which is 70 cars per acre. Long discussions on amount of "valet parking" (more dense) and employee/customer parking (less dense) and display parking (near the road). The car business has changed, and more cars in inventory are necessary to remain profitable. The site is also awkward in that it is not a flat piece of property, but rather has rock out croppings on it. The owners are frustrated, because they want to be compliant, have been making changes -- but feel like they haven't been getting clear answers on how to get to the end game. They have pointed to the investments they have made based on past guidance, on lighting etc. -- which is now being called into question as to whether additional investments, which would be expensive, will be required. The Planning Board is in the awkward position of not wanting to give "answers" -- but suggesting that another plan, more complaint is required -- and the owners wanting to get clear direction on what they can do with a minimum of investment so that they can avoid further financial difficulties. The Engineer they have hired has a narrow path to servicing both objectives... and meanwhile the clock keeps ticking... and the finance charges continue to grow.
Bank of America Exterior Signs - 1469 Route 9. The vendor providing the signs for Bank of America presented the new designs which will be replacing the signs at the Bank of America Building, aligning with the current facelift approved in a previous meeting and the new corporate branding strategy. Again, a member of the Planning Board decided to provide graphic design opinions about colors chosen -- but the Board approved the new signs as part of an Architectural Review.
Joker Ink Printing and Embroidery Studio - in a conceptual review - is proposing to build a 15,000 sf building on a 2 acre lot on Stage Door Road. This is a firm that has outgrown their current location in Beacon and wishes to construct a new building for printing, embrodiery production, staging, storage and offices. There are no tractor trailer delivery requirements, everything is a UPS/Fed Ex delivery/pick-up. The Board indicated their approval, but noted that one side of their property line is residential, which will require an additional set-back.
There is on site water and septic. They are expected to come to the board with a full submission.