What is the meaning of an "Historic District" and "Greenway" and how to comply with the Town's code when the interpretations keep changing?

Once again, the information published on the town website and the agenda had a mismatch for the Novembet 17 Planning Board Meeting - which makes it difficult to get an engaged citizenry to participate.

Public Hearings:

1) No member from the public commented on the Amended Site Plan for Hudson Valley Volkswagen. This plan, which includes building out 520 square feet of the showrooom and a service drive -- and requires a variance to increase the amount of inventory parking allowed - has been ping-ponging back and forth between the Planning Board and the Zoning Board for several months. The public hearing was closed and the Plannning Board Voted to request the Town Planner to write a draft resoluton approving the site ammendment plan. The Zoning Board will be required to formalize their vote approving the required variances.

2) Wheeler Hill Road Lot Line Re-alignment. The owner of 4 continguous lots, would like to change the lot line of a 3 acre lot, to enable it to conform to the town code's setback requirements, to make it a buildable lot. Two residents spoke about the efforts of Mrs. Reese and Mrs. Fuimarello to get US Interior Department Designation of the area - not just the buildings, but also the landscape - as an Historic District - which they accomplished in 1991. Also, in the early 1990s, The Hudson River Greenway was established, and the town signed onto that compact -- and one of the walking trails is in this area. Since then, the town has done very little to nothing, to further define in code what those designations mean. A request was made to the board that they think through the broader implications of potentially 6 or 7 additional homes being built in an area with those designations, and to consider including conditions appropriate to an Historic District/Greenway if the lot line realignment is approved. The board seemed interested in understanding those designations, but the chairperson didn't seem to grasp that its not a "simple" lot line realignment request... with that approval, further actions could occur as a consequence and the residents asked that they consider those consequences carefully. One of the consequences could be that the area is degraded to the point where the Historic District designation is removed. The public hearing was adjourned until January.

3) The same owner of the Wheeler Hill Road properties also asked for approval to subdivide a 1.01 acre lot on Myers Corner Road into two lots, with a shared driveway. (Oh what could be the problem with that?). The Plannning Board did request that the potential of separate driveways be shown on the plan, but did request the Town Planner to write a draft resolution approving the subdivision.

Discussions:

1) The Citgo Amended Site Plan at 1336 Route 9 - the Town Planner is unable to write a draft resoluton denying the request as the board is waiting for comments from Dutchess County Planning. Once those comments are received, the process will proceed.

2) Performance Auto - Amended Site Plan 1401 Route 9... oh what a tangled mess.

This is a business that has been operating for decades.

The difficulty is that the current code requires a three acre lot (they have 1.01 acres) and there are different calculations for parking - depending on inventory cars, display cars, customer cars, employee cars etc. There is a wetland next to the property, and a neighbor's property is being used to park cars. The Town building department has been issuing violations to the owners for several months. The owners are working to comply with the cited violations. However, there was a resolution in 2002 -- by the Town Board - enabling the business to operate. No one can find this resolution... including the. Town - which raised the question - how did they know what to "violate"? In the meantime, the owners have sharply reduced their inventory, trying to comply -- and missed the busy summer season, which has affected their sales revenue. One would think that the building department and the Town Planner would come prepared to the meeting with the appropriate documentation, resolution history ... whatever. So the Planning Board is running blind, the business owner is loosing money and probably customers -- and there is no clear solution forward because no one can state what is acceptable. The owners have gotten differing recommendations during this process (and have been paying an engineering firm also!). Such support for long time property owners!