Planning Board Public Meeting Minutes 01052016

The following minutes are a summary of the Planning Board meeting of January 5, 2016. Interested parties may request an audio recording of the meeting from the Board Secretary for a fee.

Call to Order & Statement of Compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act: Chairman Nalbantian called the meeting to order at 7:39 p.m. The following members were present: Mayor Aronsohn, Ms. Bigos, Mr. Nalbantian, Councilwoman Knudsen, Mr. Thurston, Mr. Reilly (he arrived later), Ms. Altano, Mr. Joel, Ms. Dockray, and Ms. Patire. Also present were: Gail Price, Esq., Board Attorney; Christopher Rutishauser, Village Engineer; Blais Brancheau, Village Planner; and Board Secretary Michael Cafarelli. Mr. Abdalla was not present.

Correspondence received by the Board – Michael Cafarelli reported a letter was received from James Turteltaub asking the Board to consider allowing gas stations and retail services on Route 17 corridor. Mr. Turteltaub gave an overview of the changes that have taken place with gas stations adding convenience stores and he asked that the Board recognize the change and incorporate it into Zoning ordinances.

Public Comments on Topics not Pending Before the Board – Mr. Turteltaub came before the Board to discuss his letter. Mr. Brancheau provided background on Mr. Turteltaub's letter.

Continued discussion of the reexamination of the Master Plan and development regulations – Non-Residential Land Use & Non-Residential Zones – Mr. Brancheau discussed his report.  He talked about the existing master plan and land use ordinance provisions concerning nonresidential uses and zones, the status of the 2006 reexamination recommendations, and proceeded to present his current recommendations for the B-1 Zone, B-2 Zone, C Zone, P Zone, P-2 Zone, H Zone conditional uses, signs, and special regulations including awnings, and exterior air conditioning. Mr. Brancheau asked the Board for authorization to allow him to include his recommendations in the draft report. The Board agreed.

Board members had questions about combining all the various master plan documents into a single document. Mr. Brancheau said that doing so is recommended, but that it made sense to move forward with separate plan amendments that will eventually be combined.

There were questions on houses of worship, drive-in uses, signs, and if it was permitted for business to have a sign on the awning flap, and if the Village had any ordinance for “Air bnb,” i.e., the practice of transient rental of rooms or dwelling units. Mr. Brancheau responded to the questions.

There was a suggestion that the Board set aside one meeting per month to discuss the master plan.

Approval of Minutes – The minutes from August 5, 2014 were adopted as written.

Executive Session – 9:10 p.m. The Board went into executive session at 9:10 p.m. to discuss pending and threatened litigation and returned and meeting adjourned at 11:20 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                                Michael Cafarelli

                                                                                                Board Secretary

Date approved: January 19, 2016