ZBA Minutes – April, 2014 | Town of Rochester

ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS
TOWN OF ROCHESTER
ULSTER COUNTY
ACCORD, NEW YORK

MINUTES of April 16, 2014 the Town of Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals, held at the Town of Accord Fire Hall, Accord, NY.

Chairperson Haugen De Puy called the meeting to order at 7:00PM

PRESENT: ABSENT: Beatrice Haugen- De Puy, Chairperson

Cliff Mallery, Vice Chair

Charlie Fischer

Steven Fornal

Troy Dunn

Also present:

Mary Lou Christiana, Attorney for the Town. Rebecca Paddock Stange, Secretary.

Chairperson Haugen De Puy introduced the Board Members to the public.

APPEAL OF CEO DETERMINATION

Robert Rominger, Appeal of CEO Determination requiring a Miscellaneous Permit as per Zoning Permit #10 of 2014 for indoor riding facility for Diane Schoonmaker located at 235 Airport Road, Accord

Chairperson Haugen De Puy noted that Mr. Rominger was not present at this meeting and asked that she read a statement into the record that he had emailed to the Secretary. It is dated April 16, 2014. He was sorry that he was not able to attend as the meeting date was changed because of a conflict for Mary Lou Christiana, Attorney for the Town as this evening he had an out of town obligation that he was unable to change. He has authorized people to represent his appeal.

Before the meeting progressed, Chairperson Haugen De Puy wanted to let everyone know that this wasn’t a Public Hearing tonight and they were just here to set up the Public Hearing. If the applicant had any additional information to pass onto the Board that was fine, but they were here to schedule when the hearing would be. The Board was going to have to change their meeting date as Mrs. Christiana had an ongoing conflict with the Town of Wawarsing where she was also the Attorney.

Mr. Fischer motioned to permanently change the ZBA’s monthly meeting date to the 3^rd Thursday of each month for the remainder of 2014 and for the Secretary to advertise same in the Shawangunk Journal. Seconded by Mr. Mallery. No discussion.

VOTE:

Haugen- De Puy, Chairperson- Yes Mallery, Vice Chair- Yes

Dunn- Yes Fornal- Yes

Fischer – Yes

Motion carried- 5 ayes, 0 nays, 0 abstain, 0 absent

Mr. Fischer motioned to schedule the Public Hearing for this application for Robert Rominger, Appeal of CEO Determination requiring a Miscellaneous Permit as per Zoning Permit #10 of 2014 for indoor riding facility for Diane Schoonmaker located at 235 Airport Road, Accord on Thursday, May 15, 2014 at 7PM at the Accord Fire Hall. Seconded by Mr. Fornal.

VOTE:

Haugen- De Puy, Chairperson- Yes Mallery, Vice Chair- Yes

Dunn- Yes Fornal- Yes

Fischer – Yes

Motion carried- 5 ayes, 0 nays, 0 abstain, 0 absent

Dave Everett, from Whiteman, Osterman, & Hanna LLP. He is a land use and environmental Attorney with about 25 years of experience. He is also a Chairman of the Town of Chatham ZBA and on the Board of Directors of the NYPF and he trains municipal officials on a variety of land use matters throughout the State.

Also present was Doug Naydo who was the President of a Fire Protection and Engineering Firm. He has his Bachelors Degree in Physics, a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, and a Masters in Fire Protection and Engineering. He has been doing building consulting for about 20 years. Over the last year he has taught over 750 Code Enforcement Officers here in NY State on the application of the Building Code. One of the things that they specialize in is the design delegation process and the issuance of permits.

Mr. Everett noted that they are representing Mr. Rominger who lives across the street from the Diane Schoonmaker property. Ms. Schoonmaker has erected an indoor riding arena and Mr. Rominger is concerned that the riding arena does not meet the NYS Building Code of Fire Code or sections of the Town of Rochester Code, so he is appealing to the ZBA to consider the Building Permit as well as some other determinations that the Building Inspector made in connection to this application. In the letter dated April 8^th that they sent to the ZBA, they basically outlined the appeals with four sub parts. The first appeal deals with the characterization of the facility as an agricultural barn. Mr. Everett read part one of their mentioned letter:

This was basically their first appeal—that this should not have been characterized as an agricultural building, it should have been classified as ‘assembly use occupancy’.

Mr. Everett submitted a letter that the Town received from the NYS Codes Division dated March 26, 2014. This was addressed to the Planning Board, but it was relevant to these proceedings.

Chairperson Haugen De Puy noted that it may behoove the applicant to hold presentations of information until the Public Hearing.

Mrs. Christiana, Attorney for the Town, agreed, noting that if they wanted to present something it should be at the Public Hearing.

Mr. Everett would be happy to do that. His thought was that it would be better to have this in the record for the Public to view prior to the Public Hearing. If he presents this at the Hearing they aren’t going to have a chance to have taken a look at it.

Chairperson Haugen De Puy noted that they may not have had an opportunity to view it, but she would read it into the record at the Public Hearing so they could hear it.

Mrs. Christiana, Attorney for the Town, suggested that the applicants mail any submittal.

Mr. Everett noted that the letter supports their position. The Code Dept. has basically offered an opinion that this was not an agricultural building according to the Building Code. It is an assembly building.

The second appeal is as follows:

A big concern of the applicant’s was that because this building was going to be used by children, they want to make sure that it was safe.

The third appeal is as follows:

The fourth appeal is as follows:

The applicant would be happy to entertain any questions that the Board had.

Chairperson Haugen De Puy noted that they won’t be doing that this evening. That will be done at the Public Hearing.

Mrs. Christiana, Attorney for the Town, noted that the next two appeals that they have on the agenda are different sides, but they are on the same decision. The Board was wondering how the two applicants, Diane Schoonmaker and Robert Rominger felt about holding a joint public hearing?

It was fine with Mr. Everett and Mr. Moriello (Ms. Schoonmaker’s Attorney).

Mr. Everett noted that one of the things they would ask would be that NYS Town Law requires CEO or Building Inspector’s a copy of the file and they would like a copy of that as the applicant.

Mr. Moriello would like a copy as well.

Mr. Fischer motioned to hold a Joint Public Hearing on Thursday, May 15, 2014 to be held at the Accord

Fire Hall on the following appeals: Applicant #1: Robert Rominger,

Applicant #2: Diane Schoonmaker and Patrick Williams: Appeal of CEO Determination requiring Site Plan Approval as per Zoning Permit #15 of 2014 for indoor riding ring for riding lessons and educational spot for year round teaching for Diane Schoonmaker located at 235 Airport Road, Accord. Motion seconded by Mr. Dunn. No discussion.

VOTE:

Haugen- De Puy, Chairperson- Yes Mallery, Vice Chair- Yes

Dunn- Yes Fornal- Yes

Fischer – Yes

Motion carried- 5 ayes, 0 nays, 0 abstain, 0 absent

Chairperson Haugen De Puy questioned if Mr. Rominger’s representatives wanted to make any additional statements for the appeal on the site plan?

Mr. Everett noted that they filed one appeal with four different parts.

Mrs. Christiana, Attorney for the Town, noted that it’s on two different decisions. They will be listening to them as two separate appeals on May 15^th.

Mr. Everett noted that was fine, but they would be making one presentation on all of them.

Mrs. Christiana, noted that for the record she thinks that the applicant would want to have a record of the presentation at both separate public hearings.

Mr. Everett questioned if they were going to have two public hearings or just one?

Mrs. Christiana noted that the first decision is to issue the building permit, which Mr. Rominger appealed. That was going to be one public hearing. The second decision requiring Site Plan Approval which both Mr. Rominger and Ms. Schoonmaker appealed, and the ZBA would be holding a joint public hearing on that. Mr. Everett may want to make two separate presentations if they want them on both records.

Mr. Moriello, Attorney for Ms. Schoonmaker & Mr. Williams was present along with the applicants. Mr. Moriello noted that he didn’t have a lot to say. The Board has his submittals, they have their appeal of the CEO’s determination of the Site Plan requirement and their response to the appeal of the appellants and current issues in front of the Board for the Building Code and zoning issue. He just wanted to say for the record, preserving all procedures, that his clients are farmers. They aren’t commercial entertainment people, they arena’ an amusement park , they aren’t a super riding place where people come to go on other than horses, which are given to students. Their use is agricultural. From a zoning standpoint, what they have submitted clears all of that up. They are also looking into more fully the Building Code issues with the help of a licensed Engineer and licensed Architect. He would say that the idea that this is about the children and would some how be more flexibility for his client- he takes issue with that. He thinks this is about not wanting to see an agricultural use from a person’s house. That’s where the appeal derived primarily from. He believes that Mr. Rominger finds the use to be intrusive to his view shed. They will be here the night of the hearings and are willing to submit any additional documentation and answer any questions that the Board may have. He questioned if the hearing would be taped? How did they take the testimony? Both sides first and then the public?

Chairperson Haugen De Puy noted that yes, the meeting would be taped. In the past they have heard both sides and then opened it to the public.

Mrs. Christiana noted that they could speak in any order, it wouldn’t be like hearing people for or against at separate times. The Chairperson would also be swearing them in.

Mr. Moriello questioned if they envisioned closing the Public Hearing that night or would they see how it goes?

Chairperson Haugen De Puy noted that the Board had no way of knowing that.

Mrs. Christiana noted that it may very well be that after they hear both sides and see the submittals that the Board may need more information, so they may ask for more dependent upon what they get. They may keep it open or close it. If it were closed, she would anticipate that a decision would not be made that night as there is a lot to digest.

Ms. Schoonmaker noted that they started this process in October and wanted to clarify for the record because it doesn’t seem to come through in any of the letters from Mr. Rominger that they did come to the Town and they trusted that they were being led and guided to get what permits they needed because they were in an agricultural district it was handled a little differently, but they followed the protocol by the Town Officials that they were led to believe.

Mr. Moriello did spell that out in the submittal. From a zoning standpoint he thinks that Mr. Davis, CEO made the right determination in the first place as this is agricultural. He thinks this is smart that there are two issues here- zoning and Building Code. They were looking into the Building Code more diligently.

Ms. Schoonmaker added that none of this was done haphazardly. They did contact the Town prior to putting up the building. They asked what they needed and Mr. Davis made the right call and they did nothing wrong.

Mr. Dunn motioned to ask Mr. Davis, CEO to attend the Public Hearing on May 15, 2014. Seconded by Mr. Fornal. No discussion.

VOTE:

Haugen- De Puy, Chairperson- Yes Mallery, Vice Chair- Yes

Dunn- Yes Fornal- Yes

Fischer – Yes

Motion carried- 5 ayes, 0 nays, 0 abstain, 0 absent

Mr. Everett questioned if they were going to make additional submittals should they make them in a determined amount of time in advance of the public hearings?

Chairperson Haugen De Puy noted that it would be good to get them as soon as they could so that the Secretary could distribute them in a timely manner- about a week would be good.

Mr. Everett questioned if they could have an agreement between the parties that submittal get copied to the other party? This was the first time that he learned that Mr. Moriello responded to his letter dated April 8^th.

Mrs. Christiana noted that she didn’t think it was so much of a response as it was Mr. Moriello’s own appeal.

Mr. Moriello agreed they could copy each other on submittals.

ACTION ON MINUTES:

Mr. Dunn motioned to table the March 18, 2014 Minutes till the May Meeting as not everyone has had a chance to read them. Seconded by Chairperson Haugen De Puy. No discussion.

VOTE:

Haugen- De Puy, Chairperson- Yes Mallery, Vice Chair- Yes

Dunn- Yes Fornal- Yes

Fischer – Yes

Motion carried- 5 ayes, 0 nays, 0 abstain, 0 absent

OTHER MATTERS:

Mr. Fornal presented the Board with a letter regarding the Marano Decision that the Board had rendered at their last meeting.

Chairperson Haugen De Puy noted that the Board would read the letter and then they would schedule a meeting with the Attorney for the Town and consider it a training.

ADJOURNMENT

Mr. Dunn motioned to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Fornal. All members present in favor.

Since there was no further business, at 7:45PM Chairperson Haugen De Puy adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Rebecca Paddock Stange, Secretary

DRAFT