Zoning Board Decision Sheet 7-14-03 Page 1 of 5

TOWN OF WALLKILL ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

July 14, 2003

MEETING OPENING:

Present:
James Mattatall
William Morgan
Ellis Oster
James Owen
Oral Smith, Chairperson
Priscilla Thompson

Joseph A. Owen, Esq.

Excused:

J. Cieslewitz

The monthly meeting of the Town of Wallkill Zoning Board of Appeal opened with the pledge to the flag, followed by the roll call and presentation of the June 9, 2003 Meeting Minutes.

Mr. Smith: The Motion is made to accept the minutes as written; Seconded; All in favor; Motion carried.

The following Hearing Reviews were conducted and Public Hearings heard, discussed and voted upon as noted.

HEARING REVIEWS (August 11, 2003)

ERIC HOSDAGHIAN: Sign variance.

Mr. Smith: This is a re view of your application. You wish to install a main sign at the entrance of the mall.

Mrs. Thompson: How big is it, is it free-standing?

E. Hosdaghian: The sign going over there is a little higher than the Code.

Mr. Oster: Do you know at this time so when we inspect we know what height? What height do you want it to be?

E. Hosdaghian: Its there on the drawing.

Mr. Oster: The drawing I have is just a little RED mark on your plot plan; I don’t see any numbers for the sign.

E. Hosdaghian: I have that – it is first to be in front of you.

Mr. James Owen: We don’t have that.

E. Hosdaghian: You don’t have that?

Mr. Oster: This one, we do not have.

E. Hosdaghian: It is 20 feet from the ground.

Mr. Oster: I thought you said 35 feet height?

Mrs. Thompson: If its going to be 15 feet from the property line I believe.

E. Hosdaghian: Its 20.

Mr. Oster: It has to be the height of your sign or 15 feet which ever is greater. So if sign is 20 feet you have to be 20 feet off.

E. Hosdaghian: That is what I did in the drawing there.

Mr. Oster: Your only problem is the height?

E. Hosdaghian: Yes; I do have room for it.

Mr. Oster: Who directed you to come here on the 25th “a free standing sign shall be no more than 35ft in height above the finished grade”.

E. Hosdaghian: When I applied the building inspector said I had to come here for the height; if I don’t need it, fine.

Mrs. Thompson: This is the height from the ground to the top of the sign we are talking about.

Mr. Oster: If we had had this we could have reviewed – I thought you were….

E. Hosdaghian: …it came with my application, I did put. This is what it is 20 feet from the ground to the top of the sign.

Mr. Oster: And you are 20 feet from the road?

E. Hosdaghian: Yes.

Mr. Oster: And 20 feet from either side.

E. Hosdaghian: Correct.

Mr. Oster: I am seeing it 249-11 Page 249-32. “shall not exceed 35 feet in height…” the design shall be designed with 100 mph but that – there is no bearings on that.

Mr. Smith: Correct.

Mr. Oster: That’s an engineering problem.

E. Hosdaghian: Which we have done according to…

Mrs. Thompson: Double side?

E. Hosdaghian: Double side, yes.

Mrs. Thompson : What is the square footage?

E. Hosdaghian: Its greater than what it is – was before. The only problem I have is the height.

Mr. Smith: The signage on the building as well.

Mr. Oster: He said he was here for the height only.

E. Hosdaghian: For the height.

Mr. Oster: All your square footage on the building by Code, you still have enough for this?

E. Hosdaghian: Yes. And this the reason I am showing I am 20 feet from the – you know.

Mr. Smith: It says 90 mph.

Mr. Oster: I am not giving a variance for that.

Mr. Smith: I know that.

Mr. Oster: Why don’t we look into it and be in touch with you.

Mr. Smith: That is what we are going to have to do.

E. Hosdaghian: Okay.

Mr. Oster: To make sure that is why you are here.

Mr. Smith: Can we keep one of these?

E. Hosdaghian: Sure, by all means.

Mr. Oster: If this goes up, will that ugly temporary sign of yours go down.

E. Hosdaghian: Yes sir. Because nobody sees me inside. They always tell me ‘where are you, where are you?’, you know. One is enough Mr. Chairman?

Mr. Smith: Yes.

Mr. Oster: Do you have one for each of us?

Mr. Smith: He only has two (2).

Mr. Oster: You feel the others are in the mail to us?

E. Hosdaghian: Yes. But only one like this.

Mr. Oster: Do we have your number on file there?

[Review was made of the Code by the Board Members]

Mr. Smith: If what you gave us is correct, I don’t see why you need a variance. We will look into this and we will contact you either way. We have your contact numbers.

Mr. James Owen: It says ‘main sign’.

Mr. Smith: There is signage on that building I thought it might have to do with the total amount of signage.

E. Hosdaghian: The building inspector sent me because of the height.

Mr. Oster: Its on 211 where the bridal place is, Olympus Gym.

E. Hosdaghian: We want to put it right at the end so people can see.

Mr. James Owen: Okay.

Mr. Oster: We don’t want to hold you up a month either. Are you familiar with how to mail out the mailings to go forward.

Mr. Smith: In the event there is a variance needed – I will explain what you have to do at that time. You have to mail out by certified mail to all your neighbors but will explain that to you in detail at that time.

ANTHONY R. FLYNN, SR.

Applicant’s representative: I am here for Tony.

David – I am buying the house from him.

Mr. Smith: You are asking for set back from 5.0’ to 0.0’ feet.

Mrs. Thompson: Is the property 232 Highland?

David: Yes. I don’t live there I am purchasing the house from him – the Highland Extension, yes. He is in the Marines and he is going back so.

Mrs. Thompson: We just said the location was on ‘Highland Avenue Ext’.

Mr. Smith: “323” is what we have.

David – Yes.

Mr. Smith: Do you know how long the garage has been there?

David – ’73. The house has been sold three (3) times since then and never caught. When we did the title search this time we saw there was no CO on it so we started this process so we could do everything right so when I had the house I don’t have any problems when I rent it or what ever we end up doing with it. I went with Tony and spoke with the Town / building department. They show it – its been on the tax maps since ’73 or ’75 so it was done prior to that. Its been on record. It was done at same time the addition of the house was done.

Mr. Oster: Will Mr. Flynn be here a month from now or will you represent him then too?

David – I thought it was going to be done tonight. I did not know exactly where we were at with the situation.

Mr. Smith: If this is no problem we will go ahead with it. I’ll give you instructions on mailings .

David – whatever has to be done. If it has to be the fact he has to come out of there and get a leave for a couple of days to come back up.

Mr. Oster: It’s the ZBA’s purpose to make the application and then next month hold the hearing. I feel you might need something signed by Mr. Flynn considering he is the one who signed the application. He can mail something to saying you can represent him here.

David – he called the building department and told them I was coming and he gave his attorney power of attorney for the house, so but he can fax me a letter.

Mr. Oster: There may even be a FORM in the building department there that you are representing him.

Mrs. Thompson: Can he come himself?

David – he is in the Marines. They just brought him back to Florida I know he was in Hati or something.

Mr. Smith: I Move to hold a Public Hearing for Anthony R. Flynn, Sr on August 11, 2003 at 7:30 pm or as soon thereafter as the matter can be heard; Seconded; All in favor; Motion carried.

Mr. Smith: It is necessary to notify everyone within 300 feet of your property. You can obtain the list of names from the Town Tax Office. The notice of the Public Hearing will be in the Times Herald Record’s Public Notice Section within the week. Take that notice, copy it and mail it to everyone on the list at least 10 days prior to your scheduled hearing date. Mailings can be sent either by certified or registered mail. Bring proof of mailings with you to open your public hearing.

Mr. Smith: This will be in the Times Herald Record’s Legal Notice later in the week.

David – how soon can we get this resolved?

Mr. Smith: The public hearing is next month. A decision is made that night and its on record the next day. The Tax Office has the list of names.

TECTONIC ENGINEERING & SURVEYING CONSULTING, PC.

Michael Bluestein, Esq. and Don Smallick, Tectonic Engineering: We are here to represent 751 Rt 211 East LLC. We are looking for use variance. It is somewhat of an unusual request. You know where the old Archie’s is…?

Mr. Oster: …you are taking off too much dirt aren’t you?

M. Bluestein: That is the problem. The applicant did not realize they were using the dirt for some other locations they own and got a stop work order from the Building Department and said we had to get a mining permit. Most people think of a mining permit dynamite blasting and blasting out rock – all they are looking to do is level the site to bring it down to the Rt 211 level which is what the rest of the 211 corridor is like so that when used for commercial purpose – no one wants a strip mall or building 25 feet above the highway. What we are looking to do is bring the road down to a level consistent with the rest of Rt 211.

Mr. Oster: And you are kind of filling in that lower spot, right?

M. Bluestein: We have other sites in town, we are looking to move the dirt.

Mr. Oster: I have seen that hill go down but also seen loose dirt over to the side. So some of this is coming down the hill – is that yours?

Don Smallik: What ever we do it has to be consistent with the DEC mining permit.

Mr. Smith: This is a temporary activity?

M. Bluestein: Correct. What we are really looking to do is get temporary use variance to basically allow us to get a mining permit because mining is not allowed in this part of town. Again we are not mining it for commercial purposes just level it to the roadway to make it more consistent with the rest of the area and we can’t do anything without the DEC mining permit and the application asks if mining is allowed under the current zone – we check off NO and they send the application right back and say ‘come back when you have an approval’. We need something temporary to bring the road back down to level after you get that permit within ‘x’ amount of time, we are not selling – we are using the fill ourselves for other places, not blasting or selling. We are just bulldozing and machinery and bringing it down to what ever the DEC permits lets us and then we are done and it will be nice piece of property for someone to develop for commercial purposes.

Mrs. Thompson: If we give you a use variance you still need DEC permission?

M. Bluestein: Yes, entirely. We have to conform to all their regs and from this Board we are seeking a temporary variance to allow us to go to the DEC to get that to bring it down so it makes it all look nice.

Mr. Smith: I Move to hold a Public Hearing for August 11, 2003 at 7:30 pm or as soon thereafter as the matter can be heard; Seconded; All in favor; Motion carried.

WILLIAM MORRISON (not present)
CONTINUATION:

RICHARD & JOANNE GAGLIANO (Interpretation)

Asa Lennon: RJ Smith Realty and represent M/M Gagliano, 64 Decker Lane.

Nancy Durey: Representing Joseph Cidoti who is the purchaser of the property, Mr. Gagliano can’t be here this evening.

Asa Lennon: What we did was we found the after going through the zoning book, went to RA zoning and found multi-family is permitted and specifications are in here.

Mr. Smith: We know that but that was not the question.

Mr. James Owen: The question was if the property used legally.

Mr. Oster: You were looking for an interpretation.

Nancy Durey: What we need is – Mr. Cidoti is purchasing the property as it is currently a 2 family home the way it is constructed and set up. We want to be sure if he purchases this that he is able to continue the use of what he is buying right now. Not come back later on and say ‘ you have to take it apart’. I have copy of the assessor’s property card that shows in 1977 they went in and verified this was existing 2 family back then.

Mr. James Owen: Exactly.

Mr. Smith: There was a question if it has been used continuously as a 2 family.

Nancy Durey: Yes, its always been and Mr. Gagliano lived there and the tenant lived in the apartment.

Mr. Smith: Can you up-date us on what you were going to do with the trailer?

Nancy Durey: The trailer was not an issue as far as the Town was, that’s always been there.

Asa Lennon: They had no problem with that they notified the Gagliano’s attorney that that was a fine use for it.

Mrs. Thompson: Has it always been lived in?

Nancy Durey: Yes.

Asa Lennon: Please understand this, the only reason we are doing this is because…no one ever said no you can’t do this, we are doing it on behalf of both clients to make sure there was not an issue at any point.

Mrs. Thompson: We ask these questions so we know what the situation is.

Asa Lennon: We understand.

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