Special ZBA Public Hearing for Rick Shafer and Dennis Morgan variances.

Frank Hogg 7/19/2001

Present at the meeting, for the board Dan O'shea, Del Knapp, Bob Lieber and Sharon Flint. Public in attendance were Dennis Morgan, Jim Millis and Rick Shafer. Betty Ann Pitman and Doug Staley are sitting together at the back of the room. And I of course am sitting at the back corner desk with my trusty Mac iBook laptop.

Dan had already started with Shafer when I showed up 5 minutes late. Staley made a no-comment on Shafer’s addition. There was some discussion on passing Shafer’s tonight although it still has to go to County Planning for approval. Dan said they could do that tonight, vote that is. Shafer said he would check with the county so that he could start sooner. Shafer then left for home.

Dennis Morgan Public Hearing for frontage for Mountain View.

I first thought it odd that Staley would be here but he had all the paperwork for both and answered questions from the board. Dennis Morgan talked about doing his deck and landscaping the area in front of that. Then he would have driveways on the sides for in and out. A much improved setup because people would not be backing out into 281 and causing a potential danger. The building is 75 feet from the road and the current law is 83 feet. That means that anything done to improve his business would require a variance. However this change would be much safer and a vast improvement to the looks. As the Mountain View is the first thing people see when they are coming in from the south on 281 I don’t see why he was delayed. Staley did say that he had no problem with this (now) and that it was just procedure. After about 10 minutes Dan closed the public comments and then went on to the official stuff.

Dan now starts on the details of the Shafer variance.  Bob Leiber talks about the change being good because people would not be backing out into the road. Song Lake Road is where Shafer’s new place is and most of the existing parking is 90 degrees to the road. Del is off and running about kids in the road. He asks me if I am getting this down, (his comments) I tell him I'm playing solitaire (not true but then I'm not a great ad libber). Everyone laughs. Dan and company do the short form environmental form, which Doug Staley conveniently provided for the board. They go thru the form and discuss the details. (This is the part of these meetings that are very dull, sometimes I think I could have read War and Peace several times at these moments, like watching paint dry and cliché after cliché, yada yada) Long discussion about the parking problem Shafer has, basically not enough room to do anything that could be called good, just trying to figure something that is the least objectionable. In case you haven’t been to one of these here is a feeling about what is happening. They have a short form environmental impact statement and Dan reads each question and waits for a response from the other members of the board. If not he checks off that question and moves on. Most of the questions do not apply but they have to go through them and it takes time, lots of time. They have been at this part for about 10 minutes but it seems longer. Dan says he will refer to county planning and Doug asks if they are going to vote on it. Doug sure is concerned that this be done tonight. Dan says they will vote tonight, which pleases Doug and Betty Ann, they laugh, or perhaps it was a giggle. More paperwork as Dan et all wade through more forms. Tick tick as the clock moves in slow motion. Reminds me of study hall in school. Dan needs the date Shafer acquired the property and Staley says 1999. Dan and company are busy studying the paperwork. They finish up at 8:25.

8:25 they start on Dennis Morgan’s environmental statement. Doug Staley has also provided paperwork for the board for Morgan’s application. This is for a set back variance for the Mountain View. Same thing as before. Dan reads the questions and waits for the board’s response. Mostly they answer no to the questions. Goes pretty fast and in less than 5 minutes they are working on the details that would allow them to grant the variance. They use the fact that it would remove parking from the front and move it to the rear with the entrance on the side and a handicap ramp. He always had a handicap ramp but it has been temporally covered up while waiting for this permit. Dan writes that this change would improve the character of the neighborhood and sites several reasons. One of the questions they have to deal with is if the applicant has a better way to do it. This takes several minutes to come to a conclusion and they finally find no adverse impact. Doug seems very helpful and he and Morgan seem to be friendly. They finish up at 8:50, do some minor details and adjourn at 9:05.

Sounds short and sweet but it was long and heavy, as usual. Nothing really happened tonight to warrant this report but I wrote it while waiting and thought you might find it interesting. Especially useful if you haven't been to one of these before. It might also be useful in case you are ever faced with this yourself. Now you know what it is like. One thing though, this public hearing was nothing like the one before the Town Board last month. Different subject matter and a different board. It makes a difference.

Frank Hogg