Planning Board - Regular Meeting

far left. KD and Houston. Okay. Tom Ratkin, Melissa for the secretary, Greg Fagelson, chair, Elise, and attorney. Dan Dallinger. Dinger. Thank you. All right. So, let the record reflect that we have a quorum. And now, please join me and rise for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice.

Okay. So we have one item on the agenda this evening. The uh application for 86 Brimstone Mountain Road. Daniel Schwiger, I guess you're the applicant and you are present. Excellent. Um before we start with that, let me just mention that Kaden, you will be voting tonight. Okay,

we're down two members. Um so typically what we do is we let the applicant explain what it is they're looking to do and then the board during this meeting the board will just have a chance to to probe the project and ask questions about things impact so forth and so on. We have some visual aids that you can use. There's this one that you provided in your application. There's a couple that I made. So, the floor is yours. Oh, yeah. Sure. We're Well, yeah. Use the microphone so that the folks online can check. Is there a microphone? Is there a microphone there?

That won't work. Here, of course. Is there a microphone? Here we go. [Music] All right. Good evening. Yours.

My name is Dan Schwiger. I live at 86 Brimstone Mountain Road. want to thank the members of the board for being here to hear my case. Um, I'm here to apply for a variance to build a garage at my residence. Um, we're looking to build a detached twostory garage. um at the proposed location on on the map. Um we need a variance as far as I know from speaking with the buildings department because of road frontage issues. Um the way I believe it is stated it's 100 ft from the road and also a um a front yard variance. So, the reason we're looking to place the garage in said location is because of several factors. The lay of the land, um the location of the house and proximity to the lot lines, um and the road. It's in my opinion the only reasonable location on the property. It's the only flat portion of the property. It's really the only accessible portion from the road. As we go further back into what would be the allowable area, this is the area of our brand new 20 plus thousand leech field and septic system. The grade of the property runs down significantly, which would require a ton of fill, and I don't even know if that's, you know, achievable. Um, and there's also an existing driveway and carport right in the area where we would like to um, build the garage. So, I our opinion is it would be the least disruptive to the property. You know, we bought this wooded piece of land because

we want to live there and not cut down trees and disturb, you know, the surrounding area. Um, even though it's not within the 100 foot frontage, this is a wooded area, so it's not highly visible. There's one property across the road and one property to the north of us, so it's very limited in who is going to be affected by it. The design from the architect that we're using is attempting to match the aesthetic of the house and siding and color. And the intent is that it it will visibly match the house and and not stand out as an eyes saw. So that would hopefully allow it to sit, you know, in front of the house versus behind it. You know, we just couldn't find any practical other location because the upper lot line, it it would require a variance. We didn't want to build in proximity to the well or the new septic system in Leeching Field. We didn't want to have to cut out trees, bring in fill. Um so we're hoping that we would be allowed a variance um so that we could build in that requested location. So to to refresh the board um memory um accessory buildings like garages are permitted in the front yard on lots of greater than five acres if they are not in the front yard setback which is the dotted line the 100 foot oops the 100 foot dotted line shown here. So only a little bit of this garage conforms is permissible to build. The other part of 9811B says that that there even if it if you were behind that line, it shouldn't be visible from the road, but um that's a that's a different topic in terms of what the impact of the neighborhood would be. And

you you alluded to a little bit of it there, but we'll come back to that. And for those of you who have visited the site, yeah, the I one other thing I wanted to point out, the original road where we see this gate post, right,

was there when the home was the original the only house in this area and it was um on an easement road coming off of Snake Path, I believe it is. And so that would have been the original front of the house, you know, and so this would almost be sideyardage. And then when the access was changed to brimstone, it kind of forced the orientation of the house in relation to the road. And so even though it's just shy of 9 acres, we're situated in that corner and it really limits our ability to place it elsewhere without having to do massive, you know, grade changes, tree removals, driveway extensions, and it just it it's going to get to the point where I don't think it would even be cost-effective for us to put in a garage.

Well, at least you answered one question I had is why is the side of your house the front of your house? And now now it's clear. It's very interesting. Okay. Any board members have any questions about this? Tom, you were you had gone up to look at it. I I looked at it yesterday. Yeah. And like it's just like he says, it's that it all goes downhill bad. You know what I'm saying? And he's got the the circle driver right there. It's the perfect spot right there. But you know, I didn't get out of my vehicle and I could only see the side of the house. So, you know, I didn't get to look at that, but uh yeah, it's beautiful.

My my impression. So, so let me ask you a question. So, there's a a temporary garage silverish Yes. tent. So, our thought was Yeah. A we needed something to cover up bicycles and stuff like that. But if we placed it in the desired location, we communicated with all our neighbors. This is where we're intending on putting a garage. Now, they had a visual understanding of where we would want to put it. I didn't have a ton of toner in my printer, but I took a colored photo just to show sort of if I can pass it. This is a new photo. I'm sorry.

This is a new photo. I just thought I'd bring something in because, you know, so that's just from the driveway. You can see it's like already suited to place a garage there without having to do massive excavations and all. And you know, we're more than willing to do plantings to hide it further if that's an issue with neighbors, but our thoughts are, you can keep that obviously, but um our thoughts are save us, you know, if it matches the house aesthetically, we're hoping it it's not going to be any eyesore at all to the neighbors. Okay. Thank you,

Dan. Any questions, concerns? Um, no. I l I looked over the um all the paperwork that was associated and the only question I had was going to be you know it's a 9acre lot why does it have to be right there which was mentioned briefly in the application but the detailed explanation he just gave now is you know makes it clear and if you saw it you'd see that yes I guess that there does seem to be some discrepancy in the numbers however in terms of what the exact variance you're asking for maybe it was not you that could be my fault a lay person not knowing. Oh, no. Maybe maybe it's on the building permit denial. It says 33 feet. Yeah, I saw that somewhere.

I'm not sure exactly. I calculated 35 and 3/4t because as Oops. Sorry. What you want to go back to the No, no, you're fine. Right there. That was the one with the numbers on and you can't read the numbers from there, but I You had the closest corner to the front yard line at 6420. I'm sorry. I'm just going through the denial. Oh, no. No. Yeah. Do you want me to go back to this? And I was just aside from Yeah. Thanks.

Front the the front edge of that lot is curved. So, it makes it hard a little harder. Yes. Right. I could see it looked like based on my math it looked like someone took the average between the two corners but what whatever the closest point is the point that we would focus on and that's according to that uh site plan at 64.25 25 which means that you need a variance of 3575. Okay. It's not just a bunch of

like we we worked off the most recent survey which which was just prior to our purchase in January and then my architect, you know, working off of scale figured that out. You know, we know we could position it differently in relation to the house, but we thought keeping the lines symmetrical would, you know, visually make it look uniform and just kind of work with the h with the house better than making it stand out. The intention was if you drive by you, you know, from most angles, it wouldn't look like it was separate from the house at all. That's the goal. So I'm not I'm not hearing a lot of concern from the board. Is is that accurate reading? I don't actually don't see where you actually specify the the name the the extent of the variance you're asking which is which is fine. It's there. I saw it somewhere. You did there wasn't there was a number. It was on the building permit but I didn't see it in the application. As long as we get it right when we take this to the next step, it's fine. Okay. All right. There's no further questions. Uh let's go over some um I did mention several times that this was a referral from the building department dated I didn't say the date, but it was the 2nd of June of this year. Um looking for a variance to 9811B, which is got two components to it. One is the setback, one is the the visibility from the road. Um the application is by all accounts complete. Um 239M referral is not necessary. I don't think you're within 500 feet of a state park, county road. you know why you

um thinking there might be some hidden feature that I don't know what I I don't know where the county just purchased property oh um on sugar that's part of sugar mountain and I don't know which I don't know where that is exactly check I think you'd be all right I I think it's is that the Scott I think the last house is probably more than 500 feet away and that would be probably the back edge I don't I don't It's I believe there's a 10 acre lot or two 5 acre lots behind us before that that preserve that was I guess the Palmer property.

And I don't like I said I don't know what's the Palmers and where the Larus were because the Laroo owned one side of the mountain and so I don't even know if that's all right. I I mean I'm only up here since January so I don't know specifically but I do know that there's two 5 acre lots behind us. That's um the Silvers, right? Who who were the people that put uh brimstone in and I'm assuming that would cover the 500, right? The Silver property alone might cover the 500 ft. I don't I don't know. We we'll double check between now and the next. [Music] All right. So, if there are no other questions, so then the question for you now is if would you like to proceed to a public hearing?

Of of course, if that's protocol, that's what I want to try. and it will be at the next meeting. So, if someone would like to make a motion to schedule a public me a public hearing, excuse me, for the 86 Brimstone Mountain Road application for I believe it's August 14th. All right. Someone like to make that motion. Make a motion. Tom made a motion. Someone would like to second that. I'll second it. Second. I had a tie there. Moto finish. Um um commen.

But I I'll also bring up that I'm not going to be at that meeting. Okay. So I'll be out of time. Second. Sorry. Let me just make sure. Okay. Then let's just do a quick roll call vote. This is again to schedule the public hearing for August 14th. Kaden. Kaden. Simpson. Yes. Yes. And Tom. Yes, Dan. Yes, I say yes as well. All right. So, that public hearing schedule, there's a couple of things you need to do to prepare for that. This is your point person here, the expert. We've spoken about it. He's Oh, he's already been

This is the certified mailing and the public notification. Exactly. And there's some timing associated with this. Okay. If How many How many order do you know? It's not There's not a lot. I've already looked it up. Um, so if you want to come on Friday, you can pick up the list. Is it like tomorrow? Oh, yeah. What's that? Is that okay? Tomorrow. I realized I'm sorry. I was out last week. Yes, you can come tomorrow after 11:00 a.m. Perfect. Okay. It'll be ready for you. I already have it done.

Since we have a little extra time, let us take care of the SRA business, if I may. So, I'm going to make a two-part motion to declare the zoning board of appeals the lead agency for the purposes of SECRA and that for this application 86 Brimstone Mountain Road, this is a type two action because it involves an area variance for a single family dwelling. Can I get some second that second? Dan seconds. Let's do a quick roll call vote. Kitten Ken, yes. Tom, yes. Dan, yes.

And I say yes. All right. We fulfilled our obligations under secret. Anything else regarding this application that we should take care of this evening? A lot of silence, a lot of shaking heads. Any other business for the board? Okay, this is where Walt would Oh, wait. I do I have one thing, Melissa. So I did get some um uh educational um credits that people have done. Mr. Dolinger is set for I don't know how many years. This is not an award ceremony. I know. I'm sorry. Finished his training.

Um so um I I did send out an email to everybody. I I hope you got it. I know we just have to make sure that we put in the required credits for educational for the year. Okay, that's [Music] thank you members for your time. I appreciate it. You're welcome. You're very welcome. We'll see you on August 14th. Someone someone like to make a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion. That's Tom. Motion to adjurnn. I'll second it. Uh, all in favor say I. I.

I. Anybody opposed? Anybody abstain? All right, the meeting is officially adjourned.