TOWN OF WALLKILL

PLANNING BOARD MEETING

MARCH 8, 2004

MEMBERS PRESENT: G. Lake, R. Carr, A. Dulgarian, T. Hamilton, G. Luenzmann, G. Monaco, P. Owen

MEMBERS ABSENT: None

OTHERS PRESENT: G. Barone, D. McGoey

1. PUBLIC INFORMATIONAL HEARING 7:30 P.M. - SHAPIRO - ZONE CHANGE (MI to R1) 38 Webb Road (69-1-51) #082-003

G. Lake: Public Hearing started at 7:41 P.M. M. Hunt read the Public Informational Hearing notice.

M. Hunt: NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a PUBLIC INFORMATIONAL HEARING will be held by the Planning Board of the Town of Wallkill, at the Town Hall at 600 Route 211 East, on March 3, 2004 at 7:30 P.M. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be heard that day on the application of Beatrice Shapiro for a zoning change of certain premises located on Webb Road from MI to R1 as more fully defined in the Zoning Law of the Town. Said premises consists of 12.9 acres (69-1-51) and are located at 38 Webb Road as shown on the Town of Wallkill Zoning Map. All parties of interest will be heard at said time and place. S/Gary Lake, Chairman

G. Lake: Give us a brief description of what you want to change? You want to change this twelve acres plus along the railroad tracks on Webb Road, is that correct?

B. Shapiro: Correct.

G. Lake: Let me go through the Board before I go to the Public.

A. Dulgarian: I will wait until after the Public.

P. Owen: I will wait.

R. Carr: I will wait.

G. Luenzmann: After the Public.

G. Monaco: After the Public.

T. Hamilton: After the Public.

G. Lake: Is there anyone from the Public who wishes to comment on this application?

MOTION to close this PUBLIC INFORMATIONAL HEARING at 7:44 P.M. made by G. Monaco and seconded by G. Luenzmann.

A. Dulgarian: Aye

P. Owen: Aye

R. Carr: Aye

T. Hamilton: Aye

G. Monaco: Aye

G. Luenzmann: Aye

G. Lake: Aye

MOTION CARRIED. 7 AYES

G. Lake: Mr. Dulgarian?

A. Dulgarian: I don't believe we should take any action at this time based on the Master Plan Review Committee is already looking at changing zoning and I would like to leave it up to them until their research is done. I've heard that from another member of the Board and I kind of agree with it.

P. Owen: I'm in agreement with Mr. Dulgarian. It's tough to start changing lot by lot for zoning considering that the whole Town is being looked at right now. We don't necessarily know what they want or what they have in mind for that area and I think it is prudent to wait.

R. Carr: I agree with Mr. Dulgarian and Mr. Owen. Given the finding that right now the whole Town is being looked at, I think it should be done as a whole. Additionally, this is MI and nothing ever goes back to MI once it's changed.

G. Luenzmann: Here I am going for it and I was thinking about the same thing and you already said it. It's unclear in my mind what's actually going to happen to that end of Town and that's the reason that the Master Plan is working to come up with some recommendations and then the Town Board is going to have us make comments on it and then they will make the new changes. That end of Town is very desirable for development, at least I think it is, for business or commercial development. Right now I have to say we should wait for the Master Plan.

G. Monaco: Yes, given the limited amount that we do have and the fact that the Master Plan Review Committee is looking at it, I think we should wait.

T. Hamilton: Yes I also think we should wait for the Master Plan Committee and wait to see what the Town is going to do with the Master Plan Committee's recommendations depending on how it is going to develop. I think it is premature for us to start changing without knowing what the rationale of the whole committee.

G. Conzone: Everybody said about there being a change there, can you give me a time frame of when there will be a change?

G. Lake: First off, the Town, when the Planning Board talked about the Master Plan Review Committee, that is an on-going committee that's been working right now for about a year and three or four months. I believe that they are within a couple or three months of coming to some kind of a recommendation to the Town Board. At that time a SEQRA process will have to be gone through to take comments on if they decide to move on it. I'm not even sure exactly what. I have no idea what their time frame is to even get the Town Board to look at it. Actually at this point, the Board feels that this is something that should be looked at on the plan scale by them. What we do here tonight is only a recommendation to the Town Board. The Town Board is the one who actually changes the zoning. So, no matter what happens here tonight, it will still go back to the Town Board. Their the one's that actually make the decision.

G. Conzone: The other question I have is Mr. Carr had indicated that it doesn't go back to the same zone. Can you explain?

R. Carr: I was saying that it's rare that it would go back to MI once it's changed to R1. It would never become MI once that's done and MI is an asset when it comes to taxes. As we change them, they have never gone back.

G. Conzone: So, what your saying is that once you change it to an RI you're losing out on taxes and so forth and it's not something that you normally do?

R. Carr: It would have to make a lot of sense for us to make it into whatever. From my prospective, simply because it's desirable MI producing taxes back to the Town as opposed to residential.

G. Conzone: It's currently being used as residential and there is a home that has been there for several years.

G. Lake: Right.

G. Conzone: One of the problem is with the MI it requires business and manufacturing, that property has no access to it other than an easement from another property and it's only a ten foot easement from the other property which makes it a little bit difficult to have a business with something like that going on. Can anybody speak on that?

G. Lake: It's the whole piece that we're looking at.

T. Hamilton: Dick, just one quick question. Just looking at this map, that railroad right-of-way is going to separate the RI from that MI. Can we do it? It would technically not be contiguous to the R1 zone because the railroad right-of-way is in between.

G. Barone: It's not contiguous but it's substantially close.

T. Hamilton: We've always had it where they had to be contiguous otherwise it would be spot zoning.

B. Shapiro: I don't understand.

G. Barone: It's another issue that the Master Plan should address.

B. Shapiro: It's always been a residential zone for over fifty years.

G. Lake: Yes.

B. Shapiro: It's never been manufacturing.

G. Lake: Well, the zone has been and you were just grand-fathered in since it's been there for fifty plus years. I believe the zone was changed in the late 1970's to MI.

B. Shapiro: Was it R1 originally?

G. Lake: That was before my time. I don't know what it was before the present zone. It is in the MI and the reason that house is there is because it's been there for fifty plus years and became a non-conforming use. Again, what we do tonight is only a recommendation. You can go back to the Town Board and at that point the Town Board would make the decision actually. If they feel they can override or go along with this Board or whatever that Board decides to take but the Town Board are the ones that have the ultimate say, not us.

G. Conzone: Will we know what your decision is tonight?

G. Lake: We're going to do it right now. I'm going to call the vote right now.

G. Conzone: Can I ask another question?

G. Lake: Sure. Go ahead.

G. Conzone: If it currently has a house on it and it's being used as residential and has been grand-fathered in, can that property be subdivided to put other residences on it because there's one on it already?

G. Lake: Not at all.

G. Conzone: So, basically the house that's there can stay but nothing else can be done to that property?

T. Hamilton: You can do whatever is allowed in MI.

G. Conzone: So you would be able to do some kind of a business there but we wouldn't be able to do it because we only have the twenty foot access?

G. Lake: You would have to hire an Engineer or somebody to lay that out. That's not our function.

C. Conzone: I'm just trying to get feedback.

G. Lake: The answer to that would be yes with the proper setbacks and everything else. That's why you would have to hire somebody to lay it out.

G. Conzone: So, in other words if we hired one they would be able to tell us how we can utilize that land and not something that we can find out here?

G. Lake: Yes. You still have one step to go. You still have to go back to the Town Board.

G. Conzone: Right. I just want to make sure I understand where you come in and what the options are.

G. Lake: Right now, we're going to take a vote and send that back to the Town Board and then it will go through their process and then make the final determination.

MOTION to recommend the ZONE CHANGE from MI to R1 made by A. Dulgarian and seconded by P. Owen.

A. Dulgarian: Nay

P. Owen: Nay

R. Carr: Nay

T. Hamilton: Nay

G. Monaco: Nay

G. Luenzmann: Nay

G. Lake: Nay

MOTION DENIED. 7 AYES

2. PUBLIC HEARING 7:35 P.M. - WALLKILL MANOR APARTMENTS - SITE PLAN/SPECIAL USE PERMIT - Silver Lake Scotchtown Road (50-1-1.2, 51-12-2) #051-002

G. Lake: Public Hearing started at 7:57 P.M. M. Hunt read the Public Hearing notice.

M. Hunt: NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a PUBLIC HEARING of the Planning Board of the Town of Wallkill, Orange County, New York, will be held at the Town Hall at 600 Route 211 East, in said Town, on the 3rd day of March, 2004 at 7:30 P.M. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be heard that day on the application of North Jersey Realty, P.O. Box 602, Montville, New Jersey 07045 for approval of Wallkill Manor, 1 104 unit garden apartment complex on Silver Lake Scotchtown Road near Second Street under Section 249-38C of the Zoning Law of the Town of Wallkill. All parties of interest will be heard at said time and place. S/Gary Lake, Chairman

A. Fusco: I am with Fusco Engineering. I'm representing the applicant's on this project. We are putting a Site Plan up on the board to indicate what's proposed. We are proposing a one hundred four unit garden apartment complex on this site. The access would be off of Silver Lake Scotchtown Road basically going up Second Street. The project does go up into the rear of the property. We have two emergency accesses, one on Overhill and the other one into the adjacent project called Kabro. Both of those are emergency accesses for fire trucks and other emergency apparatus. The normal access would be off of Second Street. We have had numerous meetings both before this Board and with the Planning Board Engineer in work sessions. We are in compliance at this time, I believe with most of the requirements. We did receive a notice that was dated just recently February 25th and we have no issues with any of those. One of them included SEQRA determination document which I gave to Mr. McGoey and Mr. Barone and I will give one to you for the file. Again, with your wishes we can go through this list. Again, it's one hundred four units.

S. Silverman: We are showing a series of six units. There is natural vegetation from the site and allowing for (not clear) throughout. Basically we used a traditional design. The units are designed to be highly flexible.

A. Fusco: We have gone through all the environmental aspects of the project and we have cooperated with the Town with the drainage, the traffic study with the various projects around us. We have as part of this project agreed to construct a traffic signal right at the intersection of Bert Crawford Road and Maltese Drive. We've done a survey on it and retained John Collins. In addition to that, we have in addition agreed to contribute fifteen thousand dollars toward traffic mitigation contribution for the construction of the left turn lane on Tower Drive which was part of that joint traffic study and we have agreed to that and has been included in the SEQRA documents. We await your pleasure and would like to receive Preliminary Approval.

G. Lake: I will go through the Board.

A. Dulgarian: I will wait until after the Public.

P. Owen: After the Public.

R. Carr: I will wait also.

G. Luenzmann: After the Public.

G. Monaco: After the Public.

T. Hamilton: After the Public. Just one more thing for the Public information, can you give us a count on bedrooms for the whole project?

A. Fusco: Yes. Absolutely. It's one hundred four units.

A. Dulgarian: Two hundred forty.

A. Fusco: A combination of one and two bedrooms.

G. Lake: Anything else, Mr. Hamilton?

T. Hamilton: Not at this time.

G. Lake: Is there anyone from the Public who wishes to comment on this application?

J. Caliendo: Good evening. I own a piece of property on Second Street on the corner. It isn't on Silver Lake Scotchtown Road. I really don't know the Section, Block, and Lot.

G. Lake: You own on the corner of Second and Silver Lake Scotchtown?

J. Caliendo: Not on Silver Lake Scotchtown.

A. Fusco: Section 52, Block 11, Lot 1.

J. Caliendo: It's this one right up here.

G. Lake: This one here.

J. Caliendo: This is a paper road. Technically that road isn't owned by the Town. It's just a paper road. It wasn't dedicated to the Town at all and my concern is, I here it is going to maybe a private road.

G. Lake: We are going to discuss that.

J. Caliendo: My problem is with a private road I will give you the drawbacks. If I do get an easement at the end of that property, what about the easement to hook up the water and sewer and underground utilities? Drainage, that property in that area was zoned at one time as wetlands. Is there going to be a catch basin on that corner?

G. Lake: They won't answer that at the Public Hearing. It will be answered as we move forward.

J. Caliendo: My concern is just that to the end of the property is a public road so if I ever want to hook up to water and sewer on Silver Lake Scotchtown Road I can go along the side of the road.

G. Lake: We have spent much time on this subject.

J. Caliendo: My question is this, and it's probably a legal question. If you give me the easement to get into the property but you're not giving me an easement to go for the utilities to Silver Lake Scotchtown Road into that road.

G. Lake: No, and that's why we're having the Public Hearing so that we get all the information needed.

N. Guenste: A couple of questions as far as the road. Being that it's not a dedicated Town Road, is there anything in the plans to bring it up to specifications as far as the Highway Department. My biggest concern is the traffic. You're talking probably approximately two hundred cars on Silver Lake Scotchtown Road in that area. There's no sidewalks, there's no shoulders. You can just about get two cars at the same time and in good weather and now you're going to have an additional two hundred cars making turns on that road. I understand they're helping to mitigate the traffic problems in other areas of the Town but I think that's a tremendous problem in that area and should be looked at. With that many cars, somebody will get hurt soon.

G. Lake: Is there anyone else who would like to speak on this project? Mr. Barone and Mr. McGoey, Second Street. We have a letter from the Highway Superintendent that we've been discussing that he really doesn't want Second Street.

D. McGoey: Yes. As a matter of fact, the Planning Board doesn't want the road to be a dedicated Town road. That's been made very clear to the applicant right from the beginning. We've asked the applicant to resolve the differences and attempt to get the concurrence of the adjoining property owners. They've attempted to do that and that apparently has not been accomplished to date. The Highway Superintendent has written us his comment. He says that the right-of-way of Second Street is not a dedicated Town road. The applicant will assume all liability for obtaining title and satisfy all requirements to acquire Second Street.
G. Barone: My view is what we can have as a minimum for a starting point is to bring in a title examiner as to the status of that road. It shows up on the tax maps. If the Town has abandoned the road then that's one thing. Now, if the road has been accepted we need to nail that down to know how we're going to address that road.

G. Lake: The other thing obviously, if there is an easement given to this back property during this process would that also include hooking up to water and sewer?

G. Barone: That could be included depending upon who owns Second Street.

A. Fusco: I have spoken to Mr. Barone. We have made attempts to try to interact but we are at the pleasure of the Board and your consultants in relationship to whether that be made a public road to the end of the property or project. We will follow your direction in order to take care of that. We would have no issue to including the easement for the utilities also for that one property.

G. Lake: The Highway Superintendent, I did have a conversation with him on this. He feels he really doesn't want Second Street. But at the same token, we must make sure that if the gentleman does get a Building Permit for that piece of land, I will have to rely on our counsel on that legal aspect. Is there anyone else from the Public who would like to give comments on this applicant before I close the Public Hearing.

MOTION to close the PUBLIC HEARING at 8:32 P.M. made by A. Dulgarian and seconded by P. Owen.

A. Dulgarian: Aye

P. Owen: Aye

R. Carr: Aye

T. Hamilton: Aye

G. Monaco: Aye

G. Luenzmann: Aye

G. Lake: Aye

MOTION CARRIED. 7 AYES

G. Lake: Let me go through the Board.

A. Dulgarian: The only way into this project is Second Street?

A. Fusco: That's correct and we have two emergency accesses, one at Kabro and the other at Overhill Road.

A. Dulgarian: But you don't own the access to Second Street?

A. Fusco: It's a Town road.

D. McGoey: The Highway Superintendent says it's not a Town road.

A. Dulgarian: Then who owns that road?

G. Barone: That's why I want him to research through a title search.

A. Dulgarian: So, he may not even own that road and he's looking for Preliminary Approval?

G. Lake: If you go out and look at the tax maps, Second Street is very clearly on that. We looked at it before we can into the meeting to double check.

A. Dulgarian: Something doesn't make sense about this.

G. Lake: It's a definite paper street.

A. Dulgarian: And owned by?

G. Lake: If you look at our tax maps . . . but I think Mr. Barone . . .

A. Dulgarian: Has a resident or property owner been paying taxes on it?

G. Lake: That's what Mr. Barone is trying to straighten out.

G. Barone: It's on the tax map as a separate tax lot but the issue that comes up is if it was abandoned by the Town, the State Town Law provides the method for the abandonment of a Town road.

A. Dulgarian: For somebody to seek ownership?

G. Barone: Correct and if that is the case . . .

A. Dulgarian: Who has the right to do that, this applicant or is that all the properties adjacent to that?

G. Barone: That's where the report of the title examiner would show a snap shot of the status as to the ownership of that road. And then from that, there is a method for them to acquire rights to use it.

A. Dulgarian: Now, what is your legal opinion as far as (not clear).

G. Barone: It's an obstacle and it may change how they get into the site.

A. Dulgarian: And the wetlands.

G. Barone: Correct. It's something which I believe needs to be looked at before we can sign off on a Negative Declaration.

A. Dulgarian: So, nothing can be done.

G. Barone: That is correct.

A. Dulgarian: I have serious issues with that. Dick started explaining briefly but we didn't have any time, in the memo from Mr. Smith it says must be determined if sufficient capacity of the existing sewer main exists and Dick said there is an alternative?

A. Fusco: Absolutely. We will be using the existing that goes through the property which is an easement of a existing line. Investigating the capability of that line as per Mr. Smith.

A. Dulgarian: It may or may not.

A. Fusco: That's correct. The alternative is to go through the neighboring property which is the Kabro previously approved and has been submitted to the Department of Environmental Conservation. We have two alternatives in one form or another.

A. Dulgarian: The sewer from Kabro is that contracted by Kabro?

D. McGoey: So we can construct, if they are before Kabro, they will construct the sewer line to Kabro.

A. Fusco: It will be a contract for Kabro.

A. Dulgarian: That's all I have at this time. I will leave the parking up to Mr. Hamilton.

P. Owen: My main concern is with the road, Second Street. I would have a hard time giving Preliminary Approval even given the ownership of that and possibly the entire project and the entrance to the project is just up in the air. That's something that needs to be cleared up before we move forward.

A. Fusco: That's one of the reasons why we had discussions was to talk about those issues. We been on this for a considerable amount of time. In the beginning we had the access on Third Street and then went back to Second Street with the complete understanding from everyone at that time that the Town owned Second Street from Silver Lake Scotchtown Road into our property. That was the premise that we all worked under including this Board.

A. Dulgarian: That is questionable now but we're not faulting you.

A. Fusco: What has come up and I think what Mr. Barone has requested is that we have a title search done to see where that stands. It was one of the things that we had access off of Third Street but the Town road had a twenty five foot right-of-way and we could not secure the other twenty five feet because we needed a fifty foot right-of-way. That's when we moved back to Second Street with the understanding that the Town had control over that from Silver Lake Scotchtown Road to our property. It wasn't until a letter from the new Commissioner of Public Works who's saying that he doesn't think. The road is not owned by either party on either side. There is also a property immediately adjacent to that as well and if we can secure the property and if in fact we are able to use that portion we can show another twenty five feet and we would still have the fifty foot access.

P. Owen: Next door?

A. Fusco: Across the street. Showed Mr. Owen. This is the property in question.

P. Owen: Does that go through the wetlands?

A. Fusco: Some of it.

G. Lake: I realize that but you've already been down that road with the Army Corps and you may have to go down that road again if you shift it twenty five feet.

A. Fusco: It would not impact the footage but obviously it would change by twenty five feet.

G. Lake: Mr. Owen, anything else?

P. Owen: That's all.