Minutes of the Town of Lake George Planning Board held on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at the Town Center, Old Post Road, Lake George, New York.

Transcription

1 Minutes of the Town of Lake George Planning Board held on Tuesday, at the Town Center, Old Post Road, Lake George, New York. Members Present: Also Present: Chairman Keith Hanchett Charlie Portes Jack Abrahams Linda Varley John Carr Charlie Portes Joe Mastrodomenico Ed LaFerriere Patty McKinney Adele Behrmann Robb Hickey Sean Quirk Tom Jarrett Tony Casale Tom Hutchins Lucas Dobie Bernice McPhillips Chris Gearwar Tom Andress Kurt Koskinen Dennis Phillips Burt McCormac Joyce McCormac Chairman Hanchett opened the meeting at 6:00 p.m. PUBLIC HEARINGS 1. Site Plan Application # submitted by French Mountain Forest, LLC, to request permission to conduct commercial timber harvesting, for property located on Bloody Pond Road ( , and ). Chairman Hanchett read the timeline of the above project. Attorney Dennis Phillips stated that changes have taken place in their project. He brought the board up-to-date on these changes. This is a 318 acre parcel on the east side of Bloody Pond Road which spreads up the hill into Queensbury. This is surrounded by other forest land. This project has been modified significantly and downsized from the originally submitted project. This modification was as a result of a recommendation from Dick Sipperly, the Town Forester hired to review this project. The landing has gone from about two acres down to almost ½ acre. 1,514 feet of road frontage exist on the east side of the road and on the west side of the property there is 990 feet of undeveloped road frontage. There is a lot of open space in this neighborhood. He pointed out the two areas of harvesting that will take place. The area that overspreads Queensbury and Lake George is proposed for a 15 inch dbh harvest. In the smaller area, which is closer to the road, the timber proposal is for a 22 inch pine harvest and a 20 inch hardwood harvest. There will be a very light harvest for the area visible from the 1

2 road. This property has been owned by this family since In 1974, this property was enrolled in the Fisher Tax Act Program, which is a program that devotes land to forestry. DEC issued a Certificate of Eligibility for Forest Land which has been filed in the Warren County Clerk s Office. He stated there are areas that are labeled non-commercial areas and no cutting will take place in these areas. They have agreed to do a 35 foot buffer along the stream. If they cross the stream, they will need to apply to DEC for a permit to do this. They have also agreed to do a 50 foot buffer along Bloody Pond Road and a 50 foot buffer from their property line to the residences near the timber harvest. In the area closer to the road, they will harvesting 8.9% of the trees and in the area as you go up on the slope, they will be cutting 7% of the trees. This is a thinning cut and a cut that is going to be an aesthetic cut and they will be following Best Management Practices. There are approximately 60,000 trees in the upper part of the area and of that 60,000 they will be cutting 4,242 trees and in the lower area, they will be cutting approximately 500 trees. The landing will be ½ acre and using an existing road for access. The landing is up on an elevation and is not visible from the road. The landing area is approximately 600 feet from the residents to the south of it. Kurt Koskinen discussed the landing area. He stated there will be a loader. ½ the landing will be for pulp and firewood and the other ½ will be for logs. There will be no chipper. There is a possibility that there will be a slasher. He stated there will be one or two skidders, and since the project will take quite a bit of time to do, machinery coming into the landing would be one skidder coming in every hour or so and two to four trucks leaving the landing every day on the average. Ed LaFerriere asked when the last harvest was conducted. Kurt stated he believes in the early 50 s. Chairman Hanchett opened the comments to the audience. Chris Gearwar: Any reference to diameter should be based on the stump diameter, not dbh because after a tree is cut there is no way of telling what the diameter is. Any reference to that from a legal standpoint or a contract standpoint should be on the stump. Burt McCormac: I m representing our family which has three properties around the property in question. We are adamantly opposed to any cutting in the 32 acres that is zoned residential. We disagree with the 50 foot buffer and feel that is woefully inadequate to protect the properties and the areas around the road and the housing areas. Most trees that they are taking down are taller than 50 feet. We re concerned about erosion. We re concerned about traffic. We are not opposed to good logging in the other areas; we are concerned about the duration of their project. This is going to be a four to five year logging project, which I think is a lot more than anyone anticipated. The road is an issue with the school and the summer time traffic. Their terminology has changed to appear to shrink everything and while in some cases that is true, I think they are really trying to hide the scope of the project overall. This will change the look of the southern basin for your lifetime and your children s lifetime. Regardless of 10% of the trees, 15% of the trees, 5% of the trees, that mountain will never look the same. That s what everyone sees when they come to Lake George to spend their money, to enjoy their time, to sit on the beaches and look at the mountains. Please keep in mind that this is our heritage and be judicious in your allowances and diligent in keeping an eye on this project as it proceeds. Thank you. 2

3 Chairman Hanchett stated he has received a copy of letter from Charles Wheeler. A copy of this letter is on file in the Planning and Zoning Office. Dennis Phillips read the definition of Commercial Timber Harvesting in the Zoning Ordinance. He stated that Dick Sipperly will be marking the trees with the applicant s forester. Therefore, this will be monitored by a forester hired by the Town of Lake George. A motion was made by Jack Abrahams and seconded by Linda Varley to hold the Public Hearing open. Ed Yes The board requested that the SEQRA Form be updated to reflect all of the changes made since the original submittal. A motion was made by Charlie Portes and seconded by Joe Mastrodomenico to request an updated SEQRA Form to be submitted and placed on the July 6, 2010 Planning Board Agenda. Ed Yes REGULAR MEETING 1. Site Plan Application # submitted by Dale and Hildy Monroe to allow an agricultural use/ retail stand, for property located at 292 East Schroon River Road ( ). There was no one present representing the applicant. 2. Lot Line Change submitted by Thomas W. and Isis Varney to request permission to merge two continuous lots owned by them in the approved Sunnywest Subdivision creating a 1.17 acre lot ( and ). 3

4 Thomas Varney was present. This would help the Sunnywest Subdivision in that there would be one less lot to be developed on. He stated that this has already been filed with the County as he was unaware that needed to come to this board and stated his lawyer did not realize it either. Jack Abrahams read a letter from Attorney Mark Rehm. A motion was made by Charlie Portes and seconded by Jack Abrahams to approve the merger of Lots 25 and 26 with the condition that there be no further subdivision. Ed Yes 3. Site Plan Application # submitted by Peck Properties LLC to request permission to conduct forestry use, for property located on the south slope of Black Spruce Mountain ( ). Chris Gearwar was present representing the applicant. This is a small parcel of a large property purchased by Peck Properties from McPhillip s Properties. It is in three townships. The only portion that is in the Town of Lake George is a small southeasterly corner of the large parcel (319+ acres). It faces south away from Lake George. Nothing will be visible for anybody. There are acres in Lake George. The landing will be in the Town of Warrensburg. There is no landing area on the Town of Lake George property itself. The Town of Warrensburg and the Town of Lake Luzerne do not require any permits for timber harvesting. Jack Abrahams stated that he would like to see an inventory of the trees that are being cut. The board stated they would review this as a sketch plan and requested that the applicant show an inventory of the trees being cut, the roads, the percentage of trees and what trees will be removed in Lake George. 4. Modification to Site Plan Application # submitted by Anthony Casale to construct a 1,737 square foot, two story, three bedroom single family dwelling for property located on Hubbell Lane Extension ( ). Tony Casale stated he has put up two more layers of silt fence; rocks around the catch basin because the road is coming off the road, over the catch basin, around the building, washed out the blocks and knocked down the silt fence. There are now 4 layers of silt fence and hopefully the rocks around the catch basin will slow down the water coming off the road. Chairman Hanchett confirmed that the catch basin is a solid catch basin with a drainage pipe going into the system. He stated that when they were up there, one of the things asked was for 4

5 a double bee hive and have the access go down the side of the property to a swale. Mr. Casale elected not to do this. Mr. Casale stated he would refer this to his engineer. Tom Andress with ABD Engineers and Surveyors stated Mr. Casale did speak to him about the suggestion to remove the catch basin and pipe it down along the north side. He recommended against this and his suggestion was to hard pipe the catch basin down to the eastern end of the property, add the dry well and then put a pipe out from there. Tom Jarrett stated he agrees with Mr. Andress that this would be a preferred location rather than put the drywell up near the road. Jack Abrahams stated he objects to the whole thing. He wants new plans submitted as to what stands up there and come before the board and start over again. John Carr asked if this was under litigation at this time. Tony Casale stated it is not under litigation. They did file a Notice of Claim. Tom Jarrett stated Tom Andress provided a concept plan to this board and the modifications were shown in this plan. Tom Jarrett has reviewed the concept plan and sent a memo to Tom Andress who has not yet responded. Charlie Portes asked if the two engineers could work out the plans and put it back on the agenda when it is complete. Chairman Hanchett asked what the plans are for the retaining wall. Tom Andress stated there was a suggestion to add another block to the wall height. It is at 4 blocks high right now and they would add another one up so the road behind it could be leveled. This has been reflected in his plan and stated that if that did go up higher, he had some concerns with the wall going up to that height. He has since had conversations with Mr. Casale and did go back to the site and stated it makes sense to remove one of the blocks and stabilizing the slope coming down to the wall height. This would be the wall along Hubbell Lane. Chairman Hanchett stated that Hoddy Ovitt had a concern with black ice on the hill and some sort of guard rails would be needed to stop anyone from going over. John Carr stated frankly that he is opposed to the wall in the front that is visible from Exit 22 and the radical modification to the original plan that the public commented on for two years. He does not see the engineering grounds for the wall and it has already been admitted that it is not there to support the house. He stated he specifically asked Mr. Casale during the planning process noting that this was a passive solar house if the angle of the house was correct and did he need to cut trees down to do it and his answer was no. He then finds out that the house was built and modified and put in a different position to accommodate better passive solar angles. Mr. Casale should have brought this to us in the beginning, not after he placed the footings and built the house. 5

6 A motion was made by Charlie Portes and seconded by Linda Varley to have Tom Jarrett and Tom Andress work out the plans and be placed back on the agenda when Tom Jarrett is satisfied with the plans. Ed No A motion was made by Joe Mastrodomenico and seconded by Charlie Portes to adjourn the meeting at 8:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Patricia McKinney Planning & Zoning Clerk 6