Town of Huron Planning Board Minutes - approved.
Regular Meeting 1 December 2008
Call to Order: Larry Lockwood called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
Members present: Larry Lockwood, Joe Snyder, Jack McGuire, Chris Kenyon and Charles Boorgaard
Other Officials present: David Buisch - Councilman, Roger Gallant - Building Inspector and Dave Scudder - Assessor
Guests: Two students from government class: Chris VanFleet and Sarah Eisenmenger
(Joe Snyder spent a few minutes explaining the role of the Planning Board in the Town of Huron to the student guests.)
Correspondence: The only correspondence was from the Assessor's office which would be addressed as an agenda item under New Business.
Minutes: Joe Snyder moved, seconded by Chris Kenyon to accept the minutes of the Nov. 3 meeting as submitted.
Old Business:
1.) Comparison of Central Boiler Ordinance and Building Inspectors draft of the Outdoor Furnace Law done by Charles Boorgaard.
Charles called the EPA and inquired about someone coming to talk to the board. The EPA felt that they offered sufficient information on their website. They also directed him to an individual in Albany but that did not prove helpful. He then contacted a retailer in Oswego and spoke with them about the differences in stack heights between indoor and outdoor wood burners. The retailer stated that you would have to use common sense when placing the outdoor furnaces since putting up a very tall stack would be expensive and require a lot of bracing to withstand wind, etc. Charles also referred to Andrew Cuomo's report which talks about the health issues related to the outdoor furnaces and to another gentlemen's website which he had provided to board members that contains stories about the negative aspects of the outdoor furnaces.
Joe Snyder questioned whether the State was planning any action on the furnaces and Charles said that it is on the agenda for the state for next year.
Charles also reported that he had asked the retailer in Oswego about the "tagged" models and the retailer said that the models with the tags are generally the most expensive so they are probably not the ones most often purchased.
Joe said with the information that has been gathered, he felt that the board needed to go forward in making changes to the original proposal or drafting a new proposal.
Charles thought that the acreage and setback issue needed to be discussed.
Joe said that the setbacks proposed originally were not received favorably so to change those to a lesser amount would probably not be prudent. He thought that the lot size wasn't going to be as important as the setback from the residence of the adjoining property and then stack height if the setback distance wasn't possible.
Joe asked Councilman Buisch if he thought that not doing a good job the first time around in educating people caused some misconceptions about the first proposal. Joe wondered if the board gathered recommendations from various sources and then made a proposal of 500 feet or 300 feet, would that automatically be "dead in the water?"
David said that he thought everyone would be open to a realistic and reasonable proposal that they felt would fit the Town of Huron.
Joe suggested that the Board focus on the setback issue. He thought that perhaps a table showing the different recommendations for setback from a variety of sources (manufacturers, other towns' proposals or regulations, etc.) so that people could see what others have done with setback as compared to ours. Joe felt that it would make the case better as to why the number the board chose might be sound. Joe suggested that the table could include setback and stack height.
Charles asked about including the efficiency of the furnace in the table.
Joe said that issue could be addressed later in the board's proposal. It could become part of the consideration for amount of setback. If the furnace had a higher efficiency rating, then it might require less setback; a lower efficiency rating - more setback. Discussion took place about the setback being based on property line or distance from residence. It was decided that further discussion would take place at a later time on that topic.
Dave Scudder asked questions about the relationship between the NY State building code regulations on flue height and the stack height for the outdoor furnaces. There was discussion about the amount of emissions from indoor as compared to outdoor furnaces. He also wondered if any of the manufacturers suggested spark arresters on their stacks.
Charles said he had not seen anything about those in his research.
In discussing the comparison table to be created, Jack wondered if the table would compare towns or areas similar to Huron. Jack thought that people at the meeting he attended felt that regulation was not necessary for an area like Huron. Joe thought that the board had decided not to go in that direction, that the distance from property lines, no matter where the property is located would be the determining factor.
Charles said he would extrapolate data for the next meeting. It was suggested that it be put into tabular form focusing on setback and stack height.
2.) Meeting dates of Zoning Board
The Zoning Board agreed to move their meetings to the 2nd Tuesday of the month so the Planning Board meetings will continue on the 1st Monday as in the past.
New Business:
1.) County Planning Board
There was no meeting in November. The County will have a combined meeting in December.
2.) Calendar for 2009
The dates for meeting in 2009 are as follows:
1/5 2/2 3/2 4/6 5/4 6/1
7/6 8/3 9/14 10/5 11/2 12/7
3.) Election of Chairman for 2009
Larry Lockwood will remain as chairman for 2009
4.) Tax Issues for Townhouses and Condominiums
The Board had been given information on the topic prior to the meeting.
Dave Scudder said that the issue had been brought up at the NY State Assessor's Association Conference in September. Condominium form of ownership gets a very favorable tax treatment (assessment treatment) because of a loophole (by design) in NY State law. This was originally designed for downstate where there are a lot of high rises and tenement-type buildings. In Amherst, near Buffalo, there are several sub-divisions of patio-homes which are being handled in the same way due to shared common areas. Dave stated that the laws of a town can be altered so that anytime a condominium form of ownership is proposed it needs to come before the Planning or Zoning Board for review to reduce the likelihood of the loophole being utilized. The attorney for the State Assessors Association recommended that local Planning Boards or the town attorney start preparing for the possibility.
Joe Snyder felt that the Assessor's office would be better able to propose what changes would need to be made so that they would be able to fairly assess a property at fair-market value.
Dave Buisch said in the Flushing area, there are patio homes that were built and taxed as individual units and then formed a condominium corporation and received the lower tax rates.
Dave Scudder said that the Assessor's Office will contact the town attorney for initial information about what can be done locally.
5.) Other issues
Roger Gallant reported that a board member had asked him to look into D& L, to review the special permit. The issues were that they were leaving out dumpsters and parking trucks outside. Roger sent D& L a letter and they have agreed to take care of the issues.
Dave Buisch wondered about the status of the properties under the Abandoned Building Law. Roger reported that there are 4 properties and 3 have responded positively and will take corrective actions. One had not responded as of meeting time.
Dave Scudder brought up "keyholing" to be considered at a future meeting. He explained what keyholing involved. It becomes an issue when waterfront property becomes limited. Developers may then buy upland parcels, a waterfront parcel and put in multiple docking facilities on the waterfront parcel to serve the upland lots. If "keyholing" were to continue to be developed on the bay, we would eventually exceed what the bay can handle.
Joe Snyder felt that the Docks & Moorings Law will somewhat control this situation but there could be situations which could circumvent the law.
Dave said that the Assessor's office would bring further information to the board for consideration and asked that the board members read whatever they could about the issue and if they had any questions, they could email him.
6.) Email communications
Joe Snyder asked that email communications be copied to the clerk and a list of those emails would be available in the minutes for future reference.
Adjournment:
Joe Snyder moved and Charles Boorgaard seconded and the meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m.
