Town Board - Regular Meeting

on the meeting to order attendance, please.

Supervisor Holdridge?

Here.

Council Member Becker? Here. Council Member Casara?

Here.

Council Member Courtney?

Here. all right first of all i just want to say happy birthday to america um 250th anniversary is pretty big um since we just did the pledge of allegiance um resolution to accept the June 24th town board meeting minutes. Are there any questions or debate points about the last minutes?

No.

All right, is there a motion to accept the minutes?

I'll make the motion. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Summary of bills, the town will be paying bills in the amount of $194,123.48. All right. Now we are onto the public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan as amended in Introductory Local Law 10 of 2025. Liz, why don't you go over some of the things that were changed since the last time first?

Well, nothing has been changed since the June 24th, 2026 Comprehensive Plan. You originally amended it in May. and that was what was the subject of the public hearing the purpose of the continuation of the public hearing was to ensure that the local adjoining town clerks received notice as required by law i confirmed with clerks apollo that that notice has been received so that is the purpose so tonight is a continuation of that but the no changes have been made since that public hearing okay

to continue the public hearing.

I'll make the motion.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye.

Aye. Robert, I see that your comment here, I think you mistake this for the regular public comment.

Mr. Klein, Mr. Klein, I think you're trying to just speak about something that's not about the comprehensive plan.

Good evening, my name is Robert Klein, 9 North Huston Street, Tustin, New York. I have a very brief comment about the grant for the new playground.

So this is about the comprehensive plan?

And the zoning amendment.

Yeah, so this is not regular public comment, yeah.

Okay. John Capello?

And pens are flying. Yeah.

Good evening, everyone. My name is John Capello. I'm an attorney with J&G Law. I'm here on behalf of the owners of the VA Lake Station Holdings, their property, which is on located on town of Chester, tax map section 17, block one, lot 21. What I handed the board is what we've submitted prior actually at the beginning of the process back in September, 2025. As you can see from the map, and there is a map on my client's property, is located in the red here on VA Lake Station Road. It's surrounded by warehouses on either side of the property. It's adjacent to a 160,000 square foot warehouse that was just approved and also in the vicinity of several commercial and large industrial uses. Back at the beginning of the process, the applicants had an application in to construct a 102,000 square foot warehouse. Based upon the affidavits we submitted, they were asked to hold back until the board The then board and planning board considered the 160,000 square foot facility that was thereafter approved. We've submitted documents and affidavits from an engineer, from a planner, from the owners, documenting that given the surrounding area it would be very difficult to develop this property for any type of use other than a commercial use and specifically would be very difficult for a large lot a single family residential I know you may be saying, well, where were we during this process? The applicants were, we had met, the supervisor was kind enough to meet with us and we were, my clients were examining the possibilities of doing some type of residential, maybe some two family units that would be a great use for the area as a transition, just given the sewer and water availability, that would have been very difficult. while we believe and we have put in the record the support for a continuation of the current zoning. Recently, my clients did meet and submit a possible compromise position that would not involve a warehouse or any kind of use with loading docks, but would be more of a kind of a a flex building with space for different types of contractors or for all inside storage, storage with no loading docks to allow some types of uses. And these are very rudimentary sketches of other types of developments that they've developed. that work here, that would be in buildings that would have no one user of more than 10,000 square feet. 20,000 square feet and would be broken up into mostly 2,500 to 5,000 square foot components where a plumber or electrical contractor or someone could store inside. As you can see, it would not be tractor trailers using the site. It would be like vans in box trucks at the most using it. So it would not involve a lot of the heavy traffic that is a legitimate concern. uh raised during your comprehensive plan and during the planning process but would allow for some type of transitional use that would be in keeping with the surrounding area but yet would pose like heavy duty impacts to those residents who do use VA Lake Station Road. So I wanted to formally introduce that to the possibility to the entire board. We would request that the board maybe just table just that portion of the zoning that changed the the designation of this property and put it to large lot residential uh for the time being and keep an open mind that hopefully we could come to some type of accommodation that could arrive at a use that would address what we believe are the like i said the legitimate concerns of the neighborhood and the board regarding large warehouses on va lake station road although we think it could accommodate it but it acknowledged that we would be willing to you know to compromise and discuss that opportunity so i just requested the board uh keep an open mind and you know if possible basically just amend that one section of the law you could adopt your law just without that one uh zoning so with that i thank the board for your time i'm happy to answer any questions if you have does any board member have questions i'm good

I think the idea that you're coming up with is fairly reasonable, but I still would have concerns with condoing it out and bringing contractors in. That could be a seven-day-a-week proposal, so it would have to be limited with times and everything else. That would be a planning board issue or possibly a ZBA issue if it went that route.

i would certainly understand and you know we know we would have to go to the planning board and you know if you designated it a special use or a a site plan use that there would be reasonable conditions uh placed upon it about maybe singular management um you know to ensure that there's maintenance of the facility and reasonable restrictions on hours of operations etc thank you thank you thank you have a good evening as well here as well enjoy the rest of the summer marion holdridge is up next

hi so i just wanted to get the answers to the questions that you said you were going to look into from the last meeting we have uh okay so at this point it's public hearing component we are prepared to address comments following the public hearing but um do you have any additional public comment on the proposed zoning so you're not going to answer the question not part of this not part of the um not part of the public hearing on the zoning in the comprehensive plan

We're going to do it right after that is over.

Is that today? Yeah. Okay. So then you can add one more question or comment to this. Have you instituted any consequences into the comprehensive plan if and when the restrictions slash special permits are not abided by? What are the consequences to people's actions that don't follow the law?

I can just answer that very quickly. It's not part of the comprehensive plan. That's just general code and everything. That has nothing to do with the comprehensive plan.

So there's nothing in there.

That's not what that means. There's a detailed penalties provision in the proposal.

Is it new or is it the old one?

Some of it's old, some of it's new. But there's detailed penalty provisions.

so as history tells us if you look around orange county the population that we're discussing here does not care about restrictions laws special permits etc so if you're going to be finding them as part of this new comprehensive plan or using the old fines that are already in place they're going to have to be way higher than they are because it can't just be continued to be the laws continue to be broken and fined because either they're not paying the fines or they don't care about the quantity of the fine because it doesn't work look at the noise ordinance that also doesn't work because the fines are not high enough so they just continue to break the law and then just continue to get fined and i don't even know if they're paying fines so there should be some type of a cap as to how many times the laws can be broken and they can be fined and then pull the CO. Has that been thought about?

Thank you. As the attorney stated, there are a new set of codes being proposed as part of the zoning amendments. Those are available for public.

Where?

On the website with the rest of the documents that have been on the website.

Okay, so are they higher?

We're going to answer the rest of your questions after the public hearing is closed. That's not what this is for right now. This isn't supposed to be a Q&A. So the questions that you asked last week are going to be answered as soon as the public hearing is closed in the next few minutes.

And what about this part that I just said?

Do you have a comment on the zoning or the comprehensive zoning? Not this specific property owners. Do you have a comment on the zoning or the comprehensive?

Yes. I want there to be steeper fines for laws that are broken. Your comment is noted. Thank you.

There's no one else written on the sheets. Is there somebody? Yes. You would like, please.

Hi, thank you.

Please just state your name for the record.

Sure. My name is Melissa Zott. I live on Brookview Drive. I couldn't attend last meeting due to some prior work obligations, but I'm here to speak on the zoning amendments. I just wanted to say that I read through all of the materials that were provided to the public for the June 24th meeting. And that includes the red line zoning amendment, the response to all of the comments that the town received the final draft of the plan and probably the most important document the conclusion of the zoning and land use attorneys on the proposed amendments and i just wanted to say that i really appreciate the town board being so transparent by providing all of the documents to the public um it is a lot to go through there's a lot a lot of documents um but i think and i hope the residents agree it's a very uh important issue to the community so it's important to read through those i also wanted to thank the board for listening to us as the residents who asked for the town to bring in a specialized land use attorney i think that was very important to review the issues and the proposed amendments as well I did look at the attorney's backgrounds specifically just to make sure their experience and they both have significant experience representing municipalities in both land use cases and zoning matters as well as litigation cases. So I appreciate having experienced attorneys go over that. My understanding from reading the materials is that the town can regulate these uses through a special permitting process. And based on my research, my independent research, any property owner, really any property owner within the town can apply for a special permit process. The key here is to ensure that the town has a structured process in place, making sure that there's proper accountability and guidelines. If there aren't really any guidelines for the town to follow, the um approval and accountability just isn't there for that to me the goal should be clear and the standards should be enforceable i think that's very important it gives a town a way to separate uh specific conditions or limitations and hold these permit holders accountable um going forward i am asking the board to keep moving in that direction to continue to listen to the residents, make these types of reviews very meaningful, and make sure any approval comes with accountability. I also hope that this same approach for this entire process continues going forward. I found it to be very helpful. And if there are any other areas of the Town Code where the appropriate regulations are not in place or where accountability is not allowed for, that those gaps be identified and corrected. Again, I thought this was very helpful. That's what appears to be happening here. And I just really appreciate the board taking that very seriously. That's how the town can protect itself and its residents from where we are today. So thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anybody else that would like to speak in the public hearing? Comments?

Yes.

That's a separate thing. That's different from what we're talking about. We've had multiple attorneys including a special counsel that was asked for by the residents review this. Five attorneys we had review this and they all agreed that special use permitting is the way to go. Five attorneys. All right. Is there a motion to close the public hearing?

I'll make the motion.

I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Liz?

All right. Before we start considering Seeker, I did want to take an opportunity to respond to comments we received in this last cycle. As the board's aware, when we had our public hearing in October, we prepared a pretty comprehensive written response to public comments. We also had presentations on November 19th, as well as response through regular board meetings as well. so i just want to address some new comments we do have we are in receipt of a referral letter from the county department of planning pursuant to gml 239 the county letter does recommend approval uh it did make notations of the uh it noted a couple of corrections to which are clerical in nature uh typos um in the seeker documents that were presented to the board i have gone ahead and corrected those seeker documents So again, there's a recommendation of approval from the County Planning Department dated July 7th, 2025. In addition, you referred the amended zoning code to your planning board. They had previously responded and we had made some changes as part of our revisions that you adopt you amended the code or amended your draft uh back in may um so they they've reviewed that amendment uh just i want to go through those comments uh to provide some clarity for the board uh comment one related to the scope of land disturbance and they asked for the words clearing and grading i would just draw the planning boards to uh attention to the definition, which is found in a separate section, Section 98 , which clearly includes clearing and grading. So I think the planning board's concern is addressed by the definition of one disturbance. With respect to topography standards for part of their site plan review, they asked to modify the language. We have maximum two foot contour intervals. Sometimes applicants bring a one foot. In my experience, two foot contours are the standard. They're always welcome to review a tighter contour if they so wish. So I don't think that code, it's intended as a floor, not a ceiling. So I think they can still have that available to them situations where it's appropriate. But again, pretty much industry standard is two foot contours. They had asked for language regarding buffering and landscaping to add discretion. That section already has in it to the planning board satisfaction with standards. I think that addresses their concern. It's not entirely clear what the word discretion would alter that. I think that's already covered in the language as it is. They did raise a point about ridge preservation. You have a tree survey. In our prior version, we had diameter at breast height. In one spot, it was diameter at breast height. In one spot, it was three feet. At the time, the discussion was that we'd make everything three feet to allow for consistency and also have a set point. Most people know where diameter of breast height is, but sometimes it's up for debate. I think the board continues to monitor that. If that becomes problematic, we can revise the code. um i think they were just looking for that for clarity yeah i think they were looking for clarity um and if the diameter presented in the code is too onerous and it gets cost prohibitive we can certainly evaluate that i think when i represent planning boards when we come across this you'll find these issues arise as you review planning board applications and i encourage the town of chester planning board if they find an issue as they're processing an application, write a letter to the town board, let us know, hey, we identified an issue, something we may not have thought about. So they're the ones that will have to implement this on a day-to-day basis, so I encourage them to do that. They had recommendations on two issues regarding special use. One was religious institutions. Generally, religious institutions, things like spires, crosses, steeples, things like that are exempt from The height restriction, they ask that it not be used for any occupancy. occupancy would be subject to the new york state uniform code so it would be highly unlikely that a spire could be habitable as occupied space um so i don't know that that concerns because of the height and what you can do with the height but once you get over a certain height you're now talking sprinklers whole whole slew of issues and isn't wide enough to um it's really an architectural element if it's habitable space that takes away from the architectural elements Most times they're tall, skinny church sepals, minarets, things like that. There was a question about the 75-acre minimum. This was instituted to foster broader resort style hotel so it wasn't just lot and and hotel rooms so yes um they would only need five acres if purely built out but this is designed for a broader resort style open space style hotel um and they have two additional comments regarding the battery energy storage systems um I think for now that continues to be for the board unless the board sees otherwise that that's an ever changing, we're going to monitor it closely. I know town of Warwick just instant is in the process of similarly going through a law. We're going to have to continue to monitor this as we go. This, you know, battery energy storage systems will be constantly changing and we will be discussing this likely again soon as to changes. um I did want to address uh one of the commenters at last public hearing Veronica Mott she raised a number of minor changes that she would recommend to the board related to the comprehensive plan no changes to the zoning at these changes include reference to the Chester artillery update recommendations regarding Sugarloaf sidewalks to reference the recent sidewalk project and update references to the Sugarloaf Performing Arts Center to reflect the recent sale I think we make those as response to comments. I've drafted a resolution for the board's consideration on those and a couple of other minor issues. I don't think those alter the intent of the recommendations, the thought process behind the recommendations, and certainly don't alter your process relative to the code. We received in addition two letters from the Preservation Collective. In the first letter, they requested us consider a conservation residential zoning district. This appears to have been a consideration of the 2002 master plan. It was not advanced as a recommendation by the Comprehensive Plan Committee, and this is the first time that it was raised as part of the process. The zoning code does contain other protections, such as the Ridgeline Overlay, which was implemented in 2005 and strengthened as part of these zoning amendments. In addition, the expansion of uses in the AR3 and the recommendation, the comment relative to Conservation Residential Zoning District was related to the AR3. Many of the uses in the AR3 are further designated as special permit uses, which all require a site-specific individualized review. So certainly something for the Board to evaluate in the future, but I think a lot of the protections, that there are certainly more protections than when the proposal was first advanced in 2002. And again, it did not come out of the Comprehensive Plan Committee. There was also discussion about concerns as to multiple permitted uses on a single site and the requirement that parking for both uses be satisfied this is specifically addressed in the proposed 98-22d4 which regulates parking for multiple uses and the considerations the planning board has to make there's discussion related to i believe it's um parking for places of worship, library, and public buildings. This is a carryover from the existing code. There was a discussion about busing. Busing generally lowers parking needs. Again, parking, any impacts on stormwater and development coverage is to be evaluated as part of the planning board site-specific review of any project. The special permit criteria as it relates to religious uses also requires a parking plan for any event where parking will exceed on-site capacity. uh the comments are also um asked for additional standards and considerations to be part of the special use permit relative to religious uses educational uses and accessory uses i do draw everyone's attention to 98-31b which i believe is those are the broad statutory requirements and it's mandatory um the authorized board, which is most times gonna be the planning board, shall take into consideration, and it identifies eight very specific standards. Traffic, all those criteria, there's a broad, and that's one of the important reasons we've instituted the special permits criteria, so that's all set forth. And then lastly, I do want to address the Camp Monroe issue. Comments were raised during the public hearing, both this cycle and the first public hearing that we held regarding the operation of Camp Monroe owned by Congregation Haifa Torah. Those comments focus on the current operation of the site and not the proposed zoning amendments. To be clear, there are no zone changes specific to Camp Monroe, but rather proposed changes that affect the AR3 zoning district as a whole. The board provided in-depth response to comments as to religious uses in response to its comments published on the town's website. And that can be found starting at page 30. Thank you. In addition, as town attorney, I provided a public presentation on November 19th, 2025, which may also be found on the town's website. As I stated in that presentation, The existing seasonal camp operates as a preexisting nonconforming use and there are few restrictions applicable to the property, including restrictions as to seasonal. So a preexisting nonconforming use is something that is developed before zoning or is developed with zoning and then the zoning changes. So it becomes a preexisting nonconforming use.

Or went through a variance process.

What?

Or went through a variance process. Nope. No.

If it went through a variance process, it's not considered nonconforming.

Not at that point unless it stops being used.

So I want to separate pre-existing non-conforming from variance process because they're two discrete concepts. So once a variance is granted, it is a permitted use. If a use variance, which is granted very rarely, it's a permitted use. If a property was built in the 60s and the zoning was implemented and our zoning was 1974, and the zoning, anything built prior to 1974, provided it's continued and maintained, is considered a pre-existent non-conforming unit. It's allowed to continue. If it changes, expands, alters, it would be subject. And you also have a pretty detailed provision in the amended code as to treatment of expansions of non-conforming uses.

It's not allowed to become any more non-conforming than what it already is.

Correct. And there are detailed regulations as to that. the existing use would be permitted to continue regardless of whether the board adopts the proposed changes to the ar-3 camp monroe as with any other property in the ar-3 can be redeveloped into other uses permitted under the zoning code including year-round uses for example it could be redeveloped to single-family homes i have searched the orange county land records and i have not identified any restrictive covenants limiting the site's use The proposed zoning implements a special permit framework as authorized by state and federal law to provide clear regulations of religious and educational uses. Council for Congregational Haikal Torah has indicated that the congregation will apply for a special permit if the code is adopted. As part of that special permit, if granted, The planning board may issue written conditions that can then be enforced by the code enforcement officials.

Could you list just some examples of what those might be?

Hours of operation, traffic plans, parking plans, site circulation, various restrictions related to the use of the property.

adopted whereas before you didn't have a you didn't have a special part you didn't have a special permit they would not have been able to put these sort of restrictions on it before this process and would that include noise ordinance too the noise ordinance applies regardless okay

I guess that's already in our code.

To be clear, the proposed zoning code was not drafted in coordination with Camp Monroe, and the town has no knowledge of any proposals for new construction. Any changes to the use or layout of Camp Monroe will require a site plan, special use permit, and site-specific seeker review. That's seeker is the environmental review. In addition, buildings would need to be brought up to current New York State building code as the vast majority of the structures on the site are not constructed for year-round occupancy. To provide transparency, the Board has asked the town's building inspector to address questions raised regarding Camp Monroe at the public hearing held on June 24th, 2026, and he has submitted a written letter. That letter addresses the current status of permitting and the pending appeal to the Zoning Board of Appeals as to whether the current use represents an unpermitted short-term rental under the code. That decision is ultimately up to the Zoning Board of Appeals. The town board should be aware that the anticipated application to the planning board may render the appeal or portions of the appeal moot. Given the appeal, enforcement actions are stayed as a matter of law. It should also be noted, and this goes without saying, and this is not related to Camp Monroe, but it's related to everybody, that the town reserves all rights under federal, state, and local law as it relates to the regulation and enforcement of property use and maintenance.

So just in review for those who may not understand the legal jargon, there were was a notice of apparent violation on the property before that was appealed by the property to the zoning board of appeals sent when that happens when there is an appeal all enforcement thereafter is stayed there cannot be there cannot be enforcement while an appeal process is going on when the appeal process has been in flux since that has happened because of the comprehensive plan process. We have been reviewing the comprehensive plan and zoning amendments and the zoning board of appeals basically said, we want to wait until that process is over to see what's going to happen with the comprehensive plan and the zoning amendments before we allow the case to proceed.

Effectively, effectively yes knowing that the zoning was was in the process of changing the parties including the town after consultation with my office the zba account your cba council and again i do not represent the cba you have separate counsel for that given the flux and the zoning we held that application and held that appeal in advance because it did not make sense to go through that application and review because one of the potential outcomes would be that they would be permitted to proceed and there would not be the guardrails of a special permit that we're proposing.

And that's the second part of this at the end. And just now our town attorney just explained that through this process, we are setting up for the first time ever in the town of Chester's history, a special use permit framework. It is our belief and it's what has been communicated to us that the property will seek to go to the planning board to apply for this special use permit to go through the process the correct way to get what they need to do what they want on their property. And the planning board will be able to put on all those restrictions or some of those restrictions that I had the attorney just list as examples, perhaps in the process of applying for that So then that would render the appeal process and the Zoning Board of Appeals moot. So this is going to allow there for there to be a real, substantial process moving forward with that property for example uh with religious use for the planning board to then put the correct restrictions and uh regulations on the property that will allow for there to be better more efficient and actual enforcement if something were to go wrong in the future whereas right now there is no there is nothing governing religious use in our code and religious use in our zoning code in our zoning code

right that won't that also leave it open for public hearings for the public to speak on this so that's going to give the public a voice in what takes place on this property right now you're going to be able to go to the planning board when this is before them and voice your opinions on what you've seen or what's happening whereas right now there's literally nothing in existence that governs religious use in the town code um i do have that uh letter from the um

building inspector that i'll just read into the record this letter is in response to requests concerning the status of camp monroe with the building department our office in coordination with the town attorney elizabeth cassidy conducted an in-depth review of the building department's records as well as those of the planning board in response to various allegations that the property was being used in violation of the town zoning code that repli that review took place in march of 2025. I can advise as follows. One, Camp Monroe was generally established before the adoption of the Town of Chester zoning code and is considered to be a non-conforming pre-existing use of the property. Two, our office has identified the following certificates of occupancy relative to the Camp SBL 15-1-27.42. I'm not going to read the dates of everything, but starting in 1969, CO for a two-story home and office, a building permit for a camp office in 1993 in addition. In 1998, buildings 81 and 55. 2007, oil tank removal and replacement. 2015, two sheds. 2019, demolition of a building. 2021, a CO was issued for a dormitory building.

And that dormitory building is one that you've... and complaints about over the last few years and that CO was made under the prior administration by a prior building inspector. So that's not something that we had control over up here on the day as it stands.

Our code does not require property owners to obtain certificates of occupancy for improvements constructed prior to the institution of the town zoning code in 1974. The camp property, which was the subject of a subdivision approval granted by decision dated October 11th, 2016, that subdivision approval did not authorize any construction or change of use. Following my review and investigation, I issued a notice of a parent violation dated March 25th, 2025. By application dated May 23rd, 2025, the owners of Camp Monroe Congregation Haikotora Excuse me. Filed an appeal with the Zoning Board of Appeals pursuant to New York Town Law Section 267A6. Enforcement of proceedings are automatically stayed upon the filing of an appeal to the CBA. The appeal has been held in abeyance pending completion of the draft comprehensive planning zoning amendments. Our code defines short-term rentals as offering any residential dwelling or space therein to persons in exchange for a fee or compensation, whether monetary or otherwise, for a period of less than 30 days, including but not limited to rentals provided by such companies as Airbnb and VRBO. Excluded from this definition are month-to-month tenancies, bed and breakfast, and hotels and inns, which have a valid and approved site plans from the Town of Chester Planning Board. property owner has argued that the use of the property is not a short-term rental as part of its appeal to the zoning board of appeals as described in number five above excuse me number four above ultimately it is a determination for the zoning board of appeals As a summer camp, Camp Monroe is subject to permitting and inspections by the Orange County Department of Health. The property is subject to a temporary residence permit, children's camp permit, and regulation of the water supply system, which is considered public. That permitting is separate from the town of Chester zoning controls. Our office does not maintain inspection reports prepared by Orange County. The camp is also subject to annual fire inspections pursuant to chapter 50. As the board is aware, prior to my tenure, which started in 2024, the building department failed to conduct the required fire safety inspections. Our office has been working through the backlog of inspections for the past 18 months and will continue to do so. Camp Monroe is included in those efforts and is scheduled within the next week. At present, there are no other pending violations with my office.

So that one was a little bit more straightforward, but in review, everything that has, that has been able to be done about this has been done. It's been waiting for this process to conclude. Once this process concludes, everything will then move forward. Either the appeal will move forward to the zoning board of appeals or an application will be made to the planning board to get the special use permit approval, which will then be able to allow the planning board to put the correct, and that's a subjective term, restrictions and regulations on the property, which was not in existence before. we this town board is taking it into our hands to make sure that moving forward not just for this property but for any property with religious use and many other types of uses that was listed at the last public hearing has the ability for gives the planning board the ability to put correct restrictions and regulations on those uses in those properties So it protects the quality of life for residents in the town of Chester. This is the correct way to do it according to five attorneys. The town attorney, the planning board attorney, the zoning board attorney, the county attorney, and the special attorney that we hired. on the request of the residents of the town of Chester. So that is the full review of this situation. I see your hand is up. I will take the one question, but this is not supposed to be back and forth right now. So please just ask your question. I will try to answer it and then we need to move forward. There are two, on the Camp Monroe property there, There is only one building that we know of that is winterized for year round use.

That is all gonna be figured out. That's all the subject of an application. Yes, as I was probably just gonna say, that's all gonna be figured out in the planning board process.

So there's only one, as of right now, as of at our knowledge, there is only one building, I believe it's a dormitory building that is winterized for year round use So through the planning board process, if it is determined that that building is for a year-round use, that will be figured out in that process. And it will be legitimized and legalized and have restrictions and regulations placed on it. So there is no lack of transparency with the public as to which buildings are being allowed to use, for what are they being allowed to use, so on and so forth. The planning, yeah, it will go through the planning board process, yes. And the public will have its say, but again, this is not supposed to be a back and forth right now. I feel like we've tried to answer as many questions here as possible tonight. As I said, it will go through the planning board process and that will be figured out in the planning board process, which is the legal way for any property, Ken Monroe or not, to go through the process and get approvals or get denied for whatever approval that they are asking for. That whatever is legal is legal. Whatever is not is not. Whatever the planning board determines will be what the planning board determines and they have to follow the code and they have to follow what is being described in the special use permit framework. That is the answer to that question. That is a very direct way to answer it. That is the correct way to answer it. As I said, the appeal is being held up because of this process. It will either go forward or they will do the special use permit request to the planning board and it will be figured out that way. That is the end to that. Alright, moving forward.

No, I'm good. Yes, yes, yes.

Alright.

Whereas the town of Chester has undergone a multi-year comprehensive planning process, which included the development of a draft comprehensive plan together with draft zoning law to implement the goals of the comprehensive plan. Whereas the town board established a comprehensive plan committee for the purposes of identifying the needs of the town of Chester, to develop a comprehensive plan pursuant to section 272A of the New York State Town Law. Whereas the town retained the services of Lankan Tully for the purposes of preparing a draft comprehensive plan. And whereas the committee met on numerous occasions over the course of a year, evaluating the needs and goals of the town and solicited public input. Whereas the town board acknowledged receipt of the draft comprehensive plan as recommended by the committee on January 22nd, 2025, and directed its consultants, including Lincoln Tully and the Law Office of Elizabeth K. Cassidy PLLC to develop draft zoning ordinance to implement the various recommendations of the draft comprehensive plan. And whereas the town board declared itself to be lead agency for the purposes of the State Environmental Quality Review Act that same evening, and further determined that the adoption of the comprehensive plan and local zoning law were a type one action under Seeker. Whereas the comprehensive plan and zoning law together with Seeker documents, including an expanded long form have been referred to the Orange County Department of Planning, the respective clerks of the towns of Warwick, Goshen, Blooming Grove, and Monroe, and the villages of Florida and Chester, and the clerk of the Orange County Legislature and Palisades Interstate Park Commission as required by General Municipal Law Section 239 and sequential, and has been referred to the Town of Chester Planning Board as required by the Town of Chester Town Code. Whereas a duly noticed public hearing was held on October 22nd, 2025 and held open for 10 days, thereafter for receipt of written public comment. And whereas the Town Board is in receipt of the following agency correspondence, letter from the Orange County Department of Planning dated November 19th, 2025, letters from the Town of Chester Planning Board dated October 3rd, 2025. Whereas the Town Board, upon receiving public comments caused written responses to the comments to be prepared which is the next year too and which was published to the town's website and whereas the draft comprehensive plan and zoning amendments were amended by resolution dated may 27 2026 and a second public hearing was held on june 24 2026 and continued until july 8 2026 and whereas said amendments were again referred to the orange county department of planning the respective clerks of the Town of Warwick, Goshen, Blooming Grove, and Monroe, and the Villages of Florida and Chester, and the clerk of the Orange County Legislature and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission and the Town of Chester Planning Board. And whereas the Town Board received the following agency comments as to the amended draft, comprehensive plan, and zoning amendments. Letter from Orange County Department of Planning dated July 7th, 2026, recommending approval. Letter from the Town of Chester Planning Board dated June 24th, 2026. whereas having heard, discussed, and considered the public comments and responses thereto, together with the comments of the Orange County Planning Department and the Town of Chester Planning Board, the Town Board makes the following resolutions. Resolution number one, now therefore be it resolved that the draft comprehensive plan is amended as follows in response to public comment. Page six, add a reference to Chester Artillery and its role in the Revolutionary War. Page 31, revision to reflect purchase of the Sugarloaf Performing Arts Center by Orange County. Page 33, add Oak Park to recommendation of renovation or replacement of playground equipment. Chester Commons, which was also referenced, was found on another page. Page 60, revisions to reflect recently completed Sugarloaf sidewalk project. Page 62, revisions to reflect recent historic district designation in the Hamlet of Sugarloaf. Page 69, add as a recommendation review review overall residential zoning for compliance with state and federal regulations. See also recommendation 77. Page 70, add review the town special permit criteria and approval process to ensure consistency with state and federal regulations. Page 70, add recommendation to find data centers and codes separately from warehouses or other industrial uses. Page 74, recommendation 22, add Oak Park. The town board finds that these amendments are de minimis changes, address changes within the town since the draft comprehensive plan was first introduced for projects such as sugarloaf sidewalk project and the sale of the sugarloaf performing arts center the changes set forth in these amendments do not alter the intent of the recommendations as recommended by the comprehensive plan committee and presented to the public nor do the amendments above alter the town's environmental review and that's just those amendments we talked about is there a motion

I'll make the motion. I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. We're going to do a roll call. I'll roll call those. Supervisor Haldreth? Aye. Council Member Becker?

Aye.

Council Member Cassara?

Aye.

Council Member Courtney?

Aye.

Resolution 2. Now, therefore, be it resolved that after consideration of the Environmental Assessment Forms Part 1, 2, and Expanded Environmental Assessment Form Part 3, the public comment, the recommendations of the Town of Chester Planning Board, and the Comprehensive Plan Committee. The Town Board hereby finds that the proposed Comprehensive Plan zoning local law will not have any adverse environmental impacts and hereby declare the written negative declaration pursuant to Seeker as more fully set forth in the EAF parts two and three and negative declaration incorporated herein as set forth at length. And that was provided to the Board via email. Is there a motion?

I'll make the motion.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Supervisor Muldridge? Aye. Council Member Becker? Aye. Council Member Cassara? Aye. Council Member Courtney? Aye.

Resolution number three, be it further resolved that the Town of Chester comprehensive plan as amended is hereby adopted.

Is there a motion? Motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Supervisor Holdridge. Aye. Council Member Becker.

Before I vote, I'd just like to thank all the people that put their time into this project. And I'd like to just reference Larry Dysinger and mention that he had put a tremendous amount of work into this project. He's no longer with us, but I dedicate my vote as an aye to him for the work he's done on this project. I wish he could be here to vote on it.

Hold on, you're not done. Yes, that passes. Be it further resolved introductory local law 10 of 2025, a local law to conform the town code to the comprehensive plan as amended May 27th is hereby adopted as local law six of 2026.

I'll make a motion. I'll second.

Roll call vote please. Supervisor Holdridge. Aye. Councilmember Becker. Aye. Councilmember Cassara.

Aye.

Councilmember Courtney.

Aye.

Now the housekeeping resolutions. Be it further resolved that a copy of the comprehensive plan in local law six of 2026 shall be filed in the town clerk's office and shall be transmitted to the Orange County Department of Planning together with a report of final action. be it further resolved that the clerk is hereby directed to file Local Law 6 of 2026 with the Secretary of State, cause notice of adoption to be published pursuant to Town Law Section 265, and to cause said local law to be codified in the Town of Chester Town Code. Is there a motion?

I'll make the motion. I'll second.

Roll call vote, please. Supervisor Holdred. Aye.

Councilmember Becker. Aye. Councilmember Cassara. Aye. Councilmember Poitier.

Aye.

Okay, be it further resolved that the building moratorium instituted by Local Law 1 of 2024 and as extended by Local Law 9 of 2025 shall be lifted upon the filing of Local Law 6 of 2026 with the Secretary of State. The Town Clerk shall notify the Building Department, the Chair of the Planning Board, and the Chair of the Zoning Board Appeals upon such filing.

I'll make that motion. I'll second.

Council Member Becker? Aye. Council Member Cassara? Aye. Council Member Courtney?

Aye. Resolution seven, last one. Be it further resolved that the moratorium on battery energy storage systems instituted by Local Law 8 of 2024 as extended by Local Law 3 of 2026 shall be lifted upon the filing of Local Law 6 of 2026 with the Secretary of State. The Town Clerk shall notify the Building Department, Chair of the Planning Board, and Chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals upon such filing.

I'll make the motion. I'll second.

Supervisor Holdridge? Aye. Council Member Becker? Aye. Council Member Cassara? Aye. Council Member Courtney?

Aye.

Congratulations, you're finished.

but I wanted to say something similar to the effect of our deputy supervisor. I wanted to thank in the memory of Larry, all his work that he did as a board member and a comprehensive plan committee member. He was definitely integral to the process and provided much detail and context to what we were trying to accomplish. along with myself and Bob serving as liaisons, coming to the meetings, answering questions. And then I want to recognize the other members, one of which is here today, Richard Logothetis, Mike Mallon, Veronica Mott, Tracy Hsu, David Stevenson, and the chair, Matt Woods, for all of their efforts because of the work that they did, this board did, and our consultants, our town attorney and our planner from Lincoln Tully. Just again, a very brief Recap, we banned data centers in the town of Chester. We banned large scale battery storage facilities in the town of Chester. We instituted our first ever special use permit framework, which I went over many times today. We instituted a dramatically more detailed land disturbance permit framework. We beefed up regulatory language regarding daycares, religious institutions, bed and breakfasts, fast food businesses, solar projects, and more. We changed industrial zoning to suburban slash residential zoning. on multiple lake station road lots that was discussed today. And we reinforced the mixed residential slash business zoning usages in the hamlet of Sugarloaf, where you see all the shops. So we enforce that to keep it that way for generations to come. So all in all, this plan is definitely not perfect, but it does a heck of a lot of good for the town of Chester, for the future of the town of Chester. It cracks down and it fulfills a lot of the people who are up here right now. We made a promise to end the Wild West development and to end just the lack of ability to enforce the code. and set up our town for a future that preserves the rural suburban feel and character to it. And that's what this plan does. That's what this plan seeks to do. Like I said, it's not perfect, but it accomplishes that goal as much as we were able to. We're gonna find things in the future that we wish we could fix or go back on or whatever. In the future, we will continue. It's a living, breathing document. We will add to it. We will continue to amend, you know, certain things in the code. And we will fulfill, we will seek to fulfill all of the goals that the Comprehensive Plan Committee included in the plan. This process does not end here. We're definitely a lot of the way through, but, you know,

in the future we will continue to seek uh to fulfill those goals um and i think we'll do a good job hopefully just i'm just going to piggyback very brief on that the prior document sat on a shelf and just gathered dust this board took took the uh the that it's due diligence along with the folks that volunteer that are community members to make sure that this we got to where we want today and i know as long as i sit on this vegas and i won't speak for the rest of the members but i'm sure they feel the same way it's not going to go sit on a shelf for another 10 years 15 years before we blow the dust off and decide we're going to change it Life evolves, and that document is an evolving document. It's not a once and done. So I just, again, I want to echo the thank you to everyone who was here. Richard, I know we spent a lot of hours in that theater, sometimes heated at times, but it was in the spirit of wanting to do what was right for the residents of this town. Absolutely. Absolutely.

For those of you at home who can't hear Richard, he was just saying how Matt Woods did an incredible job as chair. And I want to highlight that this is a two and a half year process, two and a half years for volunteers, unpaid, your neighbors, your friends to come to meetings and work on this plan. they did a good job. And everybody else, paid or unpaid, also did a good job on this plan. So that really concludes that. For those of you who live in the area that has been discussed multiple times over around surrounding Camp Monroe, I plan to send out a letter including the explanations that we stated here tonight from the building inspector and uh the town attorney and the responses to comment uh basically summarize it and have it so you out there can understand what was accomplished in this plan uh in relation to that um and what is the process moving forward in terms of the options how you know things are going to get followed up on and such like that so you can expect that letter in the coming weeks i plan to personally write to the neighborhood and the neighborhoods surrounding the area so you understand and you have in writing what is happening and how this tackles that whole issue and how the building department and the zoning board and the planning board and all of it relates. So you can expect that letter in the next couple weeks. All right, moving forward. Is there a motion to head into executive session for personnel?

I'll make the motion.

second no all those in favor aye we'll go into personal we'll go in executive session after will be regular public comment and then the regular agenda for the Yeah, right. Yeah. All right. Michelle, are we good?

Yes, we're good.

All right. Motion to come out of executive session? I'll make the motion. I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. All right, regular public comment. We have Mr. Klein written first, and then I think there's another sheet. Mr. Klein, I see your comment. You're asking about the playground, about the grants and everything. I just want to let you know that the reason why we had... He said no. No?

Not about the grant, not about the playground itself.

Okay.

It's just a request or asking the board to investigate the condition of the current playground before replacing it with the new playground. The reason being, number one, my grandson is four years old, visited the playground six months ago, actually nine months ago in the fall. He felt that the playground, he's more of an expert on playgrounds than any adult in this room. He's been to the Warwick Phillips Playground, which you probably know. And he loves that playground. Built by 900 volunteers, supposedly. I don't know how they fit 900 volunteers. That's what we're planning on doing here. Anyway, the point being that the current playground, in his opinion and my opinion, first of all, is not all 25 years old. It was partially renovated 10 years ago in 2016. So I'm asking the board to evaluate and determine the condition of the existing playground and the condition of all the amenities within the playground before tearing it down and replacing it with a new playground and to simply save what is left of the old playground that is still functional and in good condition along and add the new playground to make it for a bigger playground complex rather than just tearing down and just putting the new playground in its place. For example, the springs might be still good enough to save and could be possibly repaired and modernized at a low cost with the new playground next to it. So my only point is we add, not replace. Simply that. And for the board, can investigate that at its leisure.

we we did we did have the engineer i understand uh we did have the engineer look into this um and we also had our previous parks advisory board members and now new uh playground committee who is not they're not an official committee of the town any longer but basically it's a group of residents that uh are want to uh what's the word, emulate what the Stanley Deming group did over in Warwick. We want a nice modern ADA compliance playgrounds at Carpenter, the Commons and and oak street so yeah uh if there's something to be saved uh which is already being worked out it will be saved uh but a lot of it does need to be replaced because a lot of it is old uh they definitely want to do away with the rubber mulch and switch to the rubber pour which is like a It's like a memory phone type feeling thing on the floor, and it's much easier to maintain and such. But there's a very large plan in place to to update all three playgrounds. And so we're exploring all options. But we're hoping that this committee, again, is not associated with the town of Chester officially. we'll do we'll do what the the the committee over in warwick did which is start to fundraise and then eventually uh you know gift that money donate that money to the town with their plan uh for the playground like they did in warwick uh to let the town make it happen and such uh but the grant that we just got from scufus will definitely be put towards uh those funds uh for the commons so uh we have very good things ahead for the playgrounds and such

Yes, public comment. Yes, the airplane.

It was the same thing that they did in Warwick. Well, the town of Monroe, well, the village of Monroe got off easy because the former mayor basically penned a very sweet deal with, I think it was a cell tower company or something. Yeah, and then they basically got a big payout. That way they were able to put a lot of the money towards the playground.

So they had something fall on their lap. I was tangentially involved in the Warwick process. What's happened is essentially the... they've created a not-for-profit that's separate and apart for the town. The town's not permitted to fundraise. We can't do that. That committee can then fundraise. Warwick Playground Dreams is what did the Warwick project. They did the fundraising. They did the organizing of the volunteers. That was actually pretty close. I wanna say it was like somewhere in the ballpark. If you valued it with labor, it was gonna be a $2 million playground. They raised funds and then volunteer hours. And then once it was completed and inspected, it was then donated and dedicated to the village and became a village park. But again, we have a restriction that we're not, as a town, permitted to actively fundraise. So we have to use other methods and not-for-profits and other unrelated entities to do that work and then dedicate it to the town. So I hope that answers your question.

No, no, no, I was just curious. I didn't know, I know it was in classes for years. My kids used to go there. I used to take them.

Yeah, I can.

Years ago and, you know.

The way Warwick did it is they essentially sold pieces. So the monkey bars was your company gave $2,500 and the monkey bars has a little plaque. I can tell you my office, I think I paid 750 and I got the xylophone thing on the side of the park. So that kind of gives you an idea.

That's why the members from the parks advisory board split off because technically the town, anybody who's associated with the town cannot fundraise. So these members of the community split off and made their own playground committee so then they can start a non-for-profit and do exactly what they did over in so it's not you know it's not all going to be coming from grants or town taxes it's going to be coming from hopefully a majority of it is going to be coming from uh donations from businesses and and private citizens and such obviously we want to supplement it that's why we just got this nice big grant we're going to be looking for other grants i'm going to be looking at if there's room in the budget you know for possible you know investment directly from town in the future but uh we're hoping that this We're hoping that this committee can do what they did in Warwick, where most, if not all of it was paid for by donations and such. Yeah. All right. Are there any other public comments tonight? Please step up. Yeah, you do have to get up.

I have a quick question. There's a lot of discussion. Monroe just had an issue with the dial-up bus and no town of Woodbury. And there's a whole they're not part of that anymore and they're making their own. And I see comments about Chester. booking up with Monroe or Goshen or something. What is going on with the dial-up bus? And people want to know, and what is this going to cost us on our taxes? That's the only question I have.

So we explained this at the last meeting. Right now, we have a contract with Goshen, a longstanding contract. almost 20 years or so in the making i've never seen you come through my neighborhood but that's no it's not it's not you have to do it by appointment i understand right yeah so what but the reason why you don't see it in your neighborhood is because most of the residents who actually utilize the dial of us are people who basically live exclusively in the Chester School District part of Chester, because the dial bus contract that we have right now with Goshen only transports people inside of Chester or inside of Goshen. A lot of the people from our part of the town, my old part of the town, most of their lives are in Monroe. Right. So what we are looking to see if it's worth it right now, we are negotiating a possible contract. is to enhance the service by working an IMA out with the Monroe Dial-A-Bus to provide transportation services to the residents of Chester who live in the Monroe Woodbury School District to Monroe. So it'd be a much smaller contract because it would only be applicable to areas of the town of Chester who have a Monroe Woodbury, who live in the Monroe Woodbury School District. I'm also talking to the town of Warwick about possibly doing something similar for the Warwick School District area. it's an enhancement it's not a full contract for the full town of chester um where we want to explore before we want to dip our toe in before we dive in right okay well people are just concerned about how it's going to affect what it's going to cost us you know you can't help it is much less significant cost i can tell you this it's much less significant than the current contract that we have of goshen right now um And we would have provisions in place just like we have with all of our other contracts to protect the town of Chester. Make sure to not let us get the rug pulled out from underneath us to give us proper notice if there's going to be an interruption or a cancellation of service for whatever reason. Again, we want to dip our toes in and see. I think it's very safe to say that most of the people up here, I know I have, I've seen what's gone on in other towns. I've seen the relationship with Monroe and Woodbury. I'm very well aware. I figured you were.

We're all a little concerned.

Yes, I understand. I'd like to think that we're all above average intelligence. We are doing our best and we are going to protect the town of Chester. We're only trying to enhance the service to people. I have received these complaints from residents from our side of the town since I started running for council in 2021 that there are seniors and others out there who cannot drive or do not drive. that desperately need the service because the current contract that we have with Goshen just doesn't do it for them. They can't get to where they need to go in Monroe, where all of their appointments are or all their shopping is, et cetera, et cetera. So I want to, I personally, and I know Councilman Diffley, who's not here right now, who's from that side of town, want to enhance the service. And I believe most of the other board members up here also want to enhance that service for those people who need it. They just need it. Because a lot of people just can't or won't drive. Or don't drive. Not won't.

Either that or make a great deal with Uber and that'll work.

Unfortunately, yeah. Unfortunately, people might be saying, well, why don't you make a deal with Warwick to provide service for Town of Chester residents to Monroe? Or why don't you make a deal with Goshen to provide Town of Chester residents to Monroe? That's not how it works. Everybody has their own little... If you have an existing dial-a-bus service, you basically carved out a piece of territory for yourself. so no matter what we would have to do an ima with monroe regardless in order to bring our residents into monroe uh right so either we do a very in my opinion and we will release this information when it's properly negotiated and we have the full terms of the deal ready to be released a much less costly option to do a possible IMA with Monroe as opposed to start funding our own dial-a-bus system ourselves, which I'm not opposed to looking into as well because ultimately that might increase the quality of life. But that's a conversation and a debate for another day, whereas right now this might be a very easy and cost-efficient way to get services to people who need it. people who need to get to their doctor's appointments and need to get to shopping and need to get to see family or so on and so forth. But again, I'm very well aware of what's happened in other towns with other relationships breaking down. I understand. If we do accept the contract, we will not accept the contract that does not properly protect the town of Chester. Okay?

Okay. I was just curious which way this conversation was going.

Understood.

Okay.

Is there any other public comment for now? All right. We're going to move on to reports. I'll start with Councilman Casara.

There was some communication circulating of the highway department, the parks department, all doing a fantastic job of cleaning up the parks and everything around town. And I just want to applaud them for doing that and say thank you.

yep absolutely um deputy supervisor becker okay so the recent rains that we had have uh exposed again the need for us to look into all of our sewer districts with the issues on infiltration. There was a lot of issues throughout the town and village during this storm. We actually had some power outages that were related to a vehicle accident that were unrelated, but that also caused problems because of the excessive infiltration. So that's something we really need to look at in the future. We've brought our sewer districts up with new pumps upgrades so you know we're getting our pump stations to what they need we really need to look at our districts for infiltration it's it's going to be a major problem and it's already a major problem and it's only getting worse it's not getting better if we don't start doing some repairs to the to the piping i'm also looking into grants for ms4 updates i know we just finally updated our ms4 um after years of it being behind schedule you know

from what came before us but uh it's we it's a constant thing it's not just something that you update and you uh you know leave to the wayside so i'm also looking for that as well okay sounds good also with mood to base and with the new system they put in the uh for the uh

the SEP system. They're also installing a new ventilation system. Currently they moved the bigger air compressor into a garage area and the heat is excessive in there. I had some concerns with what they did because they're leaving a garage door open that potentially is affecting neighbors in the area due to the sound. So they're looking into getting that new system in place, so they'll be able to close that down. And I also referenced for a move in the budget too, with the fencing down there to get some repairs done, because the posts are all pushing out of the ground, and also to possibly seal the fence up so it's not visual to the neighbors, because there's some unsightly things within that area that I wouldn't want to live next to. So that's something that's being looked at. So hopefully that can take place in the near future. That's being priced out right now for our future budget. We also have some water rate information here. We had some little bit discussions with the water rate increases. Neil had put together some numbers. Actually for Wall Lake Estates, in order to break even with purchasing, for the water district to break even on water rates, the rates would have to be at $20 a thousand. which is quite absorbent from the 10 we're at now. That's why we're trying to slowly increase the rate to cover these expenses. Surrey Meadows would be at 19,000 per 1,000 gallons. Lake Hill Farms would be 15, and Sugarloaf would be at 14. So once we've reached those numbers,

Well, I just want to preface. I don't know if you saw the email after all that. These are just preliminary numbers. There's a lot more research to be done before we, you know, yeah.

We have to consider the field crest and the greens of Chester, and we may be able to reduce some of the cost by moving some of the cost over into the greens of Chester also with the labor and everything like that.

Right.

an ongoing thing and i know there was a comment also about the bill of the chester and and how they you know their rate is you know six fifty seven dollars but the out of corporate is actually ten dollars a thousand and what's happened over the years with the village of chester is a lot of their infrastructure a lot of the work done with infrastructure and water main replacement was all done in-house being that a lot of things were done in-house the cost are greatly reduced to the residents of the Villa de Chester and also the amount of people that are served by the system. So that kind of answers the question, why is the Villa de Chester lower than the Town of Chester districts? It all comes down to the need in order to produce that water, what the costs are. So that's a little bit of information for the Village. And that's it for me.

Thank you.

Councilman Courtney?

I have no report tonight. For me, Congregate Dining, I attended and volunteered at. Thank you again to our Parks and Rec staff for putting it on as always. Happy belated 4th of July to everybody. Again, I held a Bagels with Brandon in the last two weeks. So thank you to everybody who came out. I spoke to a couple of residents about their issues. So that was pretty nice to see. As I already said, Merrill, It's still my spotlight. I was in talks with Monroe and Warwick about dial-a-bus situations. So there's, again, more to come on that in the future if things progress enough for us to talk about something here on the dais. I met with the Chester Preservation Plan Committee. We have all but finalized our draft of the new plan, the updated plan for all the properties that we wanna see protected and all the reasons why with the upcoming vote for the preservation transfer tax situation, which is a, just again, to reiterate, it's a, a fee that's tacked on to the sale of a property. So the buyer pays it, not existing residents. They don't pay that. A buyer of a new property pays that. So that should be presented to the board by next, it should be, I mean, you guys have already gotten the email of the updated draft, but we're waiting on the village to give us any input that they might have, which should come after the 13th, which is when they're planning on speaking about it at their meeting. So we should have something to vote, to be ready to vote on, to adopt a plan on the 22nd, two weeks from now. yet to introduce the local law, sorry. And then And then this morning I met with resident Tracy Shue and a representative from Lincoln Tully and the Highlands Trail, another representative from the Highlands Trail, to go over the 13 acres of land that we preserved off of Camp Monroe Road and Lakes Road last year. We talked about building that trail in there, so we met there this morning and went over a plan. on what kind of trail you know what the trail might look like uh for the highlands uh representative to clear for us um so at a very minimal cost i think we just need to uh help grade uh the entrance to the trail but besides that the highlands trail commission people they do all the clearing and everything so it's at no cost to the taxpayer they're just volunteers which is very nice um And that is it for my personal reports. I'm going to try to skirt around here some of the other reports just in the interest of time. We received a $10,000 grants award from Senator Skoufis. This is the third year in a row that we received this award to have our annual senior picnic. The picnic this year will be held at the Chester Carpenter Park. As of right now, that's what we're planning on, not the Performing Arts Center since we do not own that any longer.

We have a date on that.

We do not have a date on that. planning we're doing the planning uh session next week michelle yeah very good um we're gonna read into the record well it's already submitted into the record uh the building department uh empress millennium strategies grants highway department parks and rec town historian police department animal control and the water department uh there's just not enough time to go through it all. And so all of that will be included in the minutes and such and included online, correct? Yes, online. It'll be all with the documents online. All right. Are there any questions about any of that from the board members? Nope. Okay. Moving forward. Oh, gosh. Chester Preservation Plan Advisory Board terms. So we need to set terms. This is something that we forgot to do when we appointed everybody. So I'm just going to pull up. We need to do basically needs to be in descending order. There's five members on the board. One person has to be a one-year term. Another person has to be a two-year term, so on and so forth, up until five. So one lucky person gets a five-year term all the way down to one.

Are they renewable?

Yes. They're all renewable.

It's so that you don't have complete turnover in one year. And that's in the law. So the one-year term would expire in 12-31-26. Subsequently thereafter.

I'm just going to list them off in how I believe it should go, but this is a board decision. I'm just going to, at random, well, this one's not random because she's been the most... what's the word, involved in this sort of situation. I believe Tracy deserves the four-year term. I'm sorry, the five-year term. Then I'll go Mikaela getting the four-year term, Mikaela Hayes-Hodge, Simon Ziegler getting the three-year term, David Stevenson getting the two-year term, and Ivan Bonet getting the one-year term. that's mostly at at random for us how i think it should go but does anybody have any questions or debate points about that well that's fine you're renewable so right they're all renewable this is just a formality and for example ivan once he gets to the end of his term this year um at reorder you would really want him to apply your job okay okay Is everybody okay with that? Giuseppe? Yes. Yeah? All right. Is there a motion to accept the, to set the terms for each advisory board member as stated by the supervisor? I'll make the motion. Is there a second? I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Linda, did you get that? Yes. All that? Okay, good. All right. Town historian education requests. He's looking to go to the Association of Public Historians of New York State's 2026 Annual Conference. $300 plus the hotel, travel, and parking expenses. He was not able to get that additional information. So I think we... Let me see. So he has more than enough funds in his line. He has about 1,500 or so in his education line. So there's plenty of funds and such. So I think it'd be good to approve up to, if we're factoring in hotel travel and parking, let's just say up to $700 for now. And if we need to make an amendment later, we can do that pretty easily with the Comptroller and I. Does that sound good to everybody?

That's fine. I'm fine with it.

Or is there a motion to accept? I'll make the motion. Is there a second? I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Revised Local Law 284, I've already received the email on this from Donna. She just needs to revise it because we need to add in the paving for Johnson Road, which is being supplied and paid for by the $115,000 grant from Senator Skoufis that we received back in, I think it was 2021 or 2020 or something like that. So it's finally coming to fruition. Are there any questions or debate points? No, no. Is there a motion to, I will make the motion to accept the revised local law 284. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. We are going to wait. Sugarloaf Community Foundation, Voices of Liberty temporary assembly permit request. Everybody received the emails on this. They needed to change the date due to the weather. So now we already granted them the permit, but we need to just transfer it, amend it to the correct dates of July 18th or July 19th, depending on the rain. Are there any questions or debate points? Nope. Is there a motion to accept the request to change the dates?

Motion.

I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. You got what you came for, Richard?

You gotta give me the permit.

She's a very good town clerk.

Times have changed. I had wood chips. I had a lot of splinters from wood chips.

They were not fun.

I sent that that way. I think Giuseppe's putting it back. Yep, it's coming back. All right, education request from Deputy Comptroller McPhee in the accounting department to attend the NYG FOA webinar on foundations budgeting for $170. Are there any questions or debate points?

No.

Is there a motion to accept the education request? I'll make the motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. All those in favor? Aye. Annual 2026, 2027 agreement with Orange County for snow and ice control on the county road, on certain county roads. Orange County will be paying us $62,985 to perform the maintenance on these roads. Are there any questions or debate points? No. Is there a motion to accept the agreement?

I'll make the motion. I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye. Road closure request. I believe we have to table this for now. The meeting that was supposed to happen with the police department has not happened yet. So is there a motion to table?

I'll make a motion to table. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. And this is on October 3rd, so there's plenty of time to get this done. It's not the end of the world, but the meeting does need to happen, so we have a proper plan. Cabbage film permit requests. So we approved this, I think, a couple months ago, but they needed one more day of filming. on July 19th from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. off of Route 94. It's $250 that they would pay us for it. Are there any questions or debate points? No. Is there a motion to approve the request? I'll make the motion. Second. All those in favor? Aye. New business resolution to so this is for the summer camp that is starting on Monday. We have the I'm very happy to say that we have the right amount of kids that we need to make these camps happen. Thanks to the work of everybody that made it happen from our staff and our consultants and the Sugarloaf Arts Collective and such, but we do want to make sure that we have an agreement in place in order to do that. So we're waiting for comments back from the Sugarloaf Arts Collective, but we do need to have something in place before Monday. So I spoke to council. They said that we can pass a resolution as we've done in past for these sorts of situations. You guys can authorize me to sign once we have a signature from the other party and approval from our legal counsel. Are there any questions or debate points?

No.

Is there a motion to authorize me to sign once these prerequisites have been met? I'll make the motion.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Now on the off chance that those prerequisites are not met and we have to go with plan B, we can directly onboard and temporarily hire, which we have also done in the past, Andrina Wolf, Chuck Ragsdale, Katie Weir, and Emily Bueling. As I said in the agenda, this is only going to happen if option A does not work. So is there a motion to authorize this to happen in the case that the agreement falls through the floor?

I'll make the motion.

There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. All right. Are there any other new business from the board members tonight?

No.

Is there any other public comment tonight? Nothing online. Nothing in here. All right. With that being said, is there a motion to adjourn? I'll make a motion. All those in favor? I'll second. All those in favor? Aye.

We are now adjourned before 9 o'clock.