Town of Varick Planning Board Meeting Minutes
Date of Meeting: February 26nd, 2009
Meeting called to order at 7:05pm by Chairman Bill Squires
Attendees: Thomas Bjorkman Phil Knapp, Bill Larzelere, Linda Masteller, Bill Squires, Kevin Swartley
Absent: Susan Ottenweller
Guests: Code Enforcement Officer Paul Conroy, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Wilson
New Business:
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Wilson from 5406 Rt 96 attended the meeting to answer any questions our Board had about their proposed farm store selling fruits and vegetables grown on their property. There will also be a bakery in the main building. Tom showed drawings of the proposed main building and green house and said if approved that construction will begin within the next few weeks.
There was a discussion about the use and their plans. It was noted by Linda Masteller that this is a permitted use in the Agricultural and rural residential zone, based on the size of the operation and the Code use table.
It was also noted that if the business changed to, for example, selling soft serve ice cream or a small restaurant that they would need to come back to the Board at that time because it would then be required to meet more restrictive conditions and possibly a public hearing. Thomas Bjorkman said that this was a great addition to our Town.
Chairman Squires made a motion to approve the use as presented and Phil Knapp seconded. The vote to approve was unanimous.
Building permit forms:
Bill Squires noted that the forms our Code Enforcement officer works with need to be computerized, updated, and made available on the web. Paul Conroy agreed saying they should also be made available in the Town Office for people that want to pick up a copy to begin the process of filing a permit.
A form for applying for a Special Use permit needs to be created.
Bill Squires will work on this project and the first thing will be to make our forms available at the Town Office.
It was discussed that it would be a good idea to make process documents available for completing various building projects in our Town.
Examples would be from a basic building permit, to building a dock, to filing for a sub division, to larger developments. All agreed that this information would be a beneficial project.
Zoning Code Changes:
Discussion followed about several changes to the code that the Board would like to present to our Town Board around April . We would like to have a preliminary meeting with the Town Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals before a full Public hearing to adopt the changes.
Larzelere made the specific changes on the computer as the discussion proceeded.
Sections in the code that were discussed and changed are:
· sec. 104.1,
· Definitions for Mobile home paragraph 1&2, and section 310.5
· Definitions- Motel, residence
· Use table –Header containing zone descriptions across top of each page.
· Sec 306.3 Dock construction and setbacks
· Sec 309.1 Bulk Table Top paragraph moved to Sub division code
Deleted a second paragraph that was repeated
· Sec 309.2 Fences and walls changed
· Sec 309.5 last sentence about common access sites
Schedule: Squires noted that we may need an additional meeting to finish off changes before meeting with Town Board and ZBA. No meeting date was chosen.
Larzelere will get a copy of the code with all proposed changes out to the Planning Board ASAP.
Phil Knapp noted that our next meeting should include going over the list of community concerns from the public information meeting. He will make sure everyone has a copy of the documented concerns.
Meeting Minutes from Jan 22nd: Phil Knapp moved to approve as written. Linda Masteller seconded, Vote was unanimous to approve
Next Regular Meeting Date: March 26th Varick Firehouse at 7:00pm.
Meeting closed: at 9:10 PM
Minutes Submitted by: Bill Larzelere Planning Board Secretary