Legal definitions, amendments sorted -- 33 Middlebush Road now can accommodate personal vehicles

With only two items on the November 12 ZBA agenda, the ZBA opened the Public Hearing for two items related to the building at 33 Middlebush Road. If you recall, the owners had obtained site plan approval for "contractor storage" but wanted to enable, for a potential buyer, the ability of that buyer to store personal vehicles that were not related to the contractor business. Several meetings, months have passed and wrangling about whether the code would allow such use have occured - and many discussions involving lawyers. The suggestion of the applicant's lawyer to expand the definition of "contractor" to include personal was rejected by the board/town lawyer as having potential problems with other buildings/projects in the town - now and in the future. The distinction that the applicant's lawyer made between "personal storage units " of 100 to 200 square feet -- and the storage of the 3 units in this building (ranging from 1200 to 2000 square feet) - was that this would not be a publicly available storage facility -and its use would be limited to those who owned the building or rented one of the 3 units.

One individual spoke at the public hearing - concerned that the construction at the Wappingers Middle School was expanding the issues with the "lake" and causing drainage/water problems for the neighbors and didn't want this project to add to those issues. The board kindly told him that the hearing was a ZBA, not a Planning Board hearing - but the distinction wasn't clear to him.

After all the discussion... the board agreed to the language proposed by the Town Attorney which would allow the use for storing personal items in the building. The lawyer for the applicant did mention that the potential buyer of the building may no longer be interested.

Next up a discussion for applicants on Dana Place because of the shape of the property and position of the house on the property is requesting an area variance of 16'9" feet to construct a 25'x25' garage with an external staircase. There was some confusion by the board on the measurements presented in the plan - which the applicant will resolve. Public Hearing set for November 25.