Zoning Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening. My name is Peter Malis and I'm the chair of the zoning board of appeals for the town of Bedford. Uh the other members of the board are from my far left, Howard Stern, Rosemary Von V, Rosemary Vaughn, Rosemary Lee Von something,

Roger Van Loverren, and we're missing Meredith Black, but she should be here very shortly. Um, we also have in attendance our building inspector, Al Sharco, our office manager, Kim Kowalsski. Um, and tonight we do not have our town attorney. Um, I'd like to call to order the Bedford zoning board of meeting for uh of Bedford for Wednesday, May 6, 2026. If this is your first time appearing before the town zoning board, I'd like to just briefly tell you what we do. Uh we're responsible for reviewing and deciding on appeals and variances related to our town's zoning regulations. In short, when someone wants to do something that doesn't fit our zoning rules, they come to the ZBA for a variance or appeal. We carefully consider each request, weighing the applicant's interests against the potential impact of the community's health, safety, and welfare. And to help us better understand your neighborhood and situation, we've had the opportunity to go visit your site. This is a public hearing. When your application's called, please come to the podium right here. State your name and make a brief presentation so that everyone will understand what you're requesting. If you want to comment, um you just raise your hand and we'll let you come up here to to uh to do that. If you're on the Zoom call, please raise your hand so that we know to let you in. Um we are committed to making an informed and fair decision that reflects Bedford's unique needs and values. Our decisions are not personal. In fact, they run with the land and not with the homeowner. With that said, we'll go on to our first application. Guy Wiser Pratt is seeking a variance of article 8 section 125-79.1 of the zoning ordinance for 333 Beverford Center Road, Beverford Hills designated as section block and lot 72.12-2-4 to permit the conversion of a loft into a cottage into pre-existing accessory structure being used as garage and home office where the total floor area to be

occupied as a cottage within the accessory restructure did not exist prior to 1989 in the adoption of the town code for cottages in the residential 4acre zoning district. Now, if I'm not mistaken, we're here because of notice. Yes. So, I was here back in March and presented the project and we discovered first of all my mailings didn't go out early enough and then secondly, we had to change the language in the uh I'm sorry I didn't interrupt you. Are you Darren? I'm sorry. You're Are you Darren? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Um, so we had to change the language of the, uh, the notice and so, um, back here to finish the process. So, Gotcha. Did we have any, um, anybody have any issues on this or

No, if I recall, everybody was perfectly fine with it. And the only thing he's really looking is to that five-year rule that the cottage must be in existence. Yeah, we don't have a problem with that. That seems to have kind of gotten amended in the current uh, town comprehensive plan. Uh, does anybody have any asked questions or anything? No. Anybody in the audience or on the Zoom call wanted to ask a question? Please raise your hand on the Zoom call. I don't see any hands. Okay. Um, with that, I'll close the public I'll ask for a motion to close the public hearing. I'll make it. All those in favor?

I I public hearing is closed. Um, let's make a um I'll put forward a uh uh I propose that we uh uh grant a variance um as noticed um to um to uh E. Wiser Pratt and uh doing so we believe um will not uh ch uh create an undesirable change in the character of the neighborhood or detriment to nearby properties. The benefit sought by the applicant cannot be achieved by any other means feasible to the applicant. Um the variance requested is not substantial. Um we believe and the variance requested will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects on the neighborhood or community. Uh while the alleged difficulty is self-created, uh that's only one of the f one of the factors to be considered by the board in making its decision and is not determinative. Um I think you've already sought the building permit.

Oh yes, that the building's already there. It's already there. Yeah. So I I can ignore that. Um Well, there's work you're doing interior. Yes. Yes. So he needs a building per Oh, you need a building permit for that. Okay. Okay. So and then complete that within a year's time to you know to do due diligence and then upon completion we will need a new um certified uh asbuilt survey including the building and impervious coverages calculations of the building department prior to the cert you know to the issuance of a certificate and that I and that um I believe is all sounds Second,

Mr. Stern. Yes. Miss Lee, yes. Mr. Van Loverren, yes. Mr. McCallis, yes. You got it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay. Next, Edund Simony is seeking a variance of article 3 section 125-11 125-15 and article 5 section 125-50 for Ningham Road Kona designated as section block and lot 60.10-2-39 10-2-39 in the residential halfacre zoning district to permit the construction of a new residence on a pre-existing legal non-conforming lot where the lot does not meet the minimum 100 foot effective square requirement in the residential halfacre zoning district and where the front yard setback results in 31 ft to the covered porch where 35 ft is required and where the rear yard setback results in 33.6 6 ft where 50 ft is required in the residential halfacre zoning district and where the retaining wall is greater than 6 ft in height and where the rear yard setback results in 21 ft where 50 ft is required for a wall that exceeds 6 ft in height in the residential halfacre zoning district.

Mr. Chairman, I was wonder if I could table this to the next uh applicant. My my owner is on his way but he's a little late. Sure. Absolutely. We can do we can move up. Yeah, we can scoot. We can move hold you up. Let's go to the next one.

Eric Queen is seeking a variance of article 3 section 125-1. Hold on a second. I'm sorry. Mr. Chair, I just have a question uh for local residents on this particular issue. Yeah. Do we have an opportunity today to voice our concerns? Absolutely. Yeah. May I do so? Yeah. Can we do it when once he's made the presentation and the owner the other the owner of the propertyy's here? Oh, yeah. That that's on their way here. Yeah, that's why it's just post postpone. Yeah, thank you.

Yep. Sorry. Eric Queen is seeking a variance of article 3 section 125-11 and article 5 section 125-50 for 92 Brundage Ridge Brundage Road Bedford section block and lot 84.19-1-12 in the residential 2acre zoning district to permit an already built swimming pool where the pool equipment resulted in a sideyard setback of 22.82 82 feet where 40 ft is required and where the pool resulted in a sideyard setback of 38.61 ft where 40 ft is required in the residential 2acre zoning district. Somebody here on this application

Eric is on Zoom. Oh, so we will need to um figure out how we make him a remote house. There you go. Okay. He should be a panelist. Mr. Queen, you can speak.

Thank you. I actually thought that um Chris McCarthy was going to be attending or speaking, but um I suppose I can answer any questions that the board may have. Is is he expected? I thought he was, but um I don't see him in your audience. Do you want to wait on him or give him a chance to show up? Yeah, I guess. I guess you want to just give a little explanation as to why you uh what happened here and why you need the variance?

Well, I think he he is more knowledgeable as to why it happened as to why we need the variance. My understanding is that um one edge of the constructed pool is about a foot and a half too close to the setback line and uh the pool equipment in the back of the pool where there's some woods is about 18 ft too close to some I'm not sure which one some setback lie. Okay, this is the one we gave a variance on before just that it was the it was the difference in our um calculation

50 ft and our 30 ft. Yeah. And and one of your members I believe came out to look at the property earlier today. Yes. Yeah. Rosemary wasn't the issue anymore. No, what happened was it was I don't know if we got a variance before. I think they thought that they were going to be meet the setbacks, right? You you never you never came before us to get a variance. Not to my knowledge. I'm not certain. My god. What are they looking for? It's 38. We're 40. It's a 38.61 from the that corner of the ingground pool to the property line.

We're and that's where 40t's required. So they're, you know, they're 3 ft shy of being able to meter it, which is a foot and a half. Foot and a half. Yeah. And then thumb was not being Is there anyone in this audience or on the Zoom call that was here to speak on this application? Please raise your hand on Zoom. If you are there or Kim, I do not see any hands.

Do we have any discussions or questions? No, I I went out and saw it. The pool is, you know, fully constructed fencing. The the uh mechanics are off in a far corner. They're not anywhere near either neighbor. And it was a kind of dimminimous with no apparent objection by by the neighbor that's nearest to him. Okay. So, I have a question, Al. Does this wouldn't be a necessary structure than could be closer to the sideyard for the equipment? No, that's equipment is not the issue. No equipment. The equipment equipment is what's the uh

what is it? A quarter acre. They are the um 2 acre. So actually could be a third of 40. Yeah, it's a two acre. So the pool equipment is at the far back corner and then the sideyard is was was a a very small pad. has got 22. So he's good there. So he's good there. He can't he what what the issue is is the pool. So just so Okay. So So the equipment is listed here. It's just for the pool. Yeah. It's it's it's a third of that. So it didn't really need You want to make a motion? Thank you. Okay. Make sure you don't pay whoever didn't show. Um the uh do is cited

zoning board, the Bedford zoning board has reviewed the application of Eric Queen at 92 Brundage Road as noted in the uh appeals of this evening and uh decided that uh we found that the benefit to the applicant by granting this variance outweighs any alleged detriment to the to the community and we've deserve deter determine the following. That the benefit sought by the applicant cannot be achieved by another means feasible to the applicant. There will be no undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood or a detriment to the nearby properties. And that the variance requested is not substantial. The variance as requested will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects on the neighborhood or community. And as noted at the meeting, there were no objections by near near neighbors. The difficulty alleged is is self-created, but that's one of the factors to be considered by the board in making this decision and it is not determinative and approval of this proposed variance would be subject to um what are the conditions for this? They've they already have a building permit, right? And is there an asbuilt survey required then?

Yes, an asbuilt survey shall be submitted by the g as survey. They have the asbuilt. Oh, they have it. So, uh, there any other specifications on this? No. None. The variance is granted in accordance with the plan submitted to the board. Dated surveyed December 2nd, 2024 with the map prepared December 3rd, 2024. Thank you, Mr. You're welcome. Third, I'll second it. August 20, 2024. I'm sorry. A second. Was that you, Peter? I'll second it. Yeah, Mr. Stern. Yes. Miss Lee? Yes. Mr. Van Loverren? Yes.

Mr. Malis? Yes. You've got it, Mr. McQueen. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, are we ready to go back to No, you're ready. Okay. Good. Let me get the microphone. Yeah, just grab that one. It pops out. There you go.

Evening. Uh my name is uh Peter Scott. I'm an architect and engineer representing the applicant. Mr. uh Edmonds Simone is right next to me and his lovely wife is in this is watching as well. on the project itself. Uh we've been working on this project uh with numerous agencies in the town uh and in the county. Uh and to give you tell you where we're at, we have a septic permit for the site from West County Department of Health. Uh we received a uh steep slope u permit conditional upon addressing some minor items with the town engineer. uh and uh basically uh we're moving forward again uh with a variance uh before you I have a simplistic uh uh plan uh called P1 which is a preservation uh uh it's a it's a presentation site plan where I turned off a lot of layers that the engineers love but this is basically a simple uh depiction of what we're proposing on this plan before you there's a scion uh blue uh line which defines the setback backs of the property uh and they're defined uh as shown a 50ft front and rear and I think it's 30 on the side.

The property uh basically uh as depicted

uh is uh somewhat truncated in the middle uh in the rear where it sweeps in a big arc. Uh and that's the reason uh one of the major reasons why we need a variance because if you notice that the the setback lines get pretty close in the middle of the property. In fact, they're uh 10 ft apart when you look at the the the developed area for the property. Uh what we did with the the project itself is uh we first went to the health department to get uh feasibility approval. Uh and we have a three-bedroom septic approved. Uh but it requires us to have a primary on the west side and a reserve uh on the east side. Uh a reserve septic system. We don't build it. It just remains in place uh if ever needed. So uh when we looked at the project itself, uh we had to meet a bunch of criteria with a town engineer for driveway sizes. And so we uh ended up placing a driveway at this location. I can go into it further with grading and such, but what what happened is uh we have to go very very flat off the roadway and the the site is somewhat hilly. Uh it's um 8% grade on both sides and in the center with this big contour line uh there is a um a piece of rock. Uh and so basically uh we've we've evaluated that with a town engineer worked out some plans uh to mitigate that. And what we came up with is uh we have a uh house uh it's a 1500 ft² uh we have a garage attached uh because we couldn't go underneath the garage. The garage could not be underneath the house because we've depressed the house into the ground as much as we can to eliminate uh sight impacts with the neighbors. And also we have we have two walls proposed in the back of the driveway uh which basically is uh utilized uh to

mitigate this this hillside which we're cutting into to make the make the site. Uh and uh the first wall is 8 ft tall. The second wall is uh 10 ft tall and they're stacked. So you see and I got 3D models of all this I can show you in a second. And so uh when we place a house also we uh we have the house located on the uh east side uh meet conforming with the front and rear setbacks because if you can see this line the the set front setback is here. The rear setback is here. We we started the house fully complying with front and rear setbacks. We also are fully complying with the sideyard setback to the east. So, that's how we we established where the house would go. And we kept the integrity of the front a front setback uh intact uh except for a small little overhang in the front of the house, which I'll show you on a model. And that's just covering uh a um uh a walkway to the front door. Then, uh so our variance is basically we're conforming on east side and as we move to the west, uh we need a variance for the house. uh and that and we're basically uh 35 ft approximately from the rear setback line at this location. Then we jump the house back into a garage and that's 34 ft away from the setback. Uh because we can't go with a straight line, we're dealing with a with a with a included angle rear setback line. So So we're we're trying to follow as best we can the setbacks. We're far away from the western property line and all we proposing on the western property line is a grass lawn which will be the primary septic area. What we have before you is what the houses look like in the neighborhood. And what we did is we we designed a house which emulates our neighbors on

the east and west side. Uh they both have um a uh a covered porch area. covered porch area. The neighbors have their garage under underground and we couldn't meet that criteria, but it's similar to other houses across the street which have their um garages uh attached to the house. So, we're not trying to change the character of the of the property whatsoever. And in terms of what the house looks like, uh, basically, uh, I can show you some models. So, so what we have before you then, uh, this is the house sitting on the site. As you can see, we've pushed it into the ground as shown. We have an attached garage with a deck above it. Uh there's no deck in the rear uh because of the uh setback issue. And these are these two walls. You can't see the line between them. But in between these two walls, we're going to put plants in. We're putting it's a it's a stepped wall. And in between the wall, we're putting in plantings. So the front of the property kind of looks like this. This is the driveway entering into the into the house in the garage. I'm moving around the house in a um counterclockwise direction with the pictures. This is straight on at the house itself. Uh this is uh to the uh uh east and the summit at the rear. This is a rear uh view of the house itself. We can't have a deck again as I spoke about. And then we move around to the um to this is uh looking uh where the wall starts from the rear. And this is how this sort of assembly looks looking down at the two stepped walls as you can see with plantings in between. I can bring this forward if you want to look at it closer. And then and then this view kind of puts it all in perspective how the whole site is situated uh in a uh aerial view.

So we we acknowledge the fact that we are basically um uh you know encroaching in the setback. So we propose mitigation devices for that. uh because we're conforming uh with the east side, what we're doing is we're not touching any of the trees that exist. And again, we're not building a reserve system right away. And there's numerous existing trees that will remain on the u east side of the house. In the rear of the property, we're putting a uh green giant arborites all along the back of the property. Even though this this building uh is about 16 17 ft below uh a vacant lot behind us, we're still putting at the top of the hillside a double row of arborites for a buffer. Uh we we we included with our submission a tree planting plan and you'll see in the a tree planting plan uh we're keeping the trees here and most of the trees in the front. But even still, with that in mind, we're adding additional uh plantings of trees along the front uh because um the trees that are remaining are like 40 to 50 ft tall. All you see is a trunk sitting there. So to provide mitigation for the neighbors uh impacts, uh we're putting more of a human scale plantings along the front. They're 3-in caliper. Uh they're about um they'll be planted at about 8 to 10 ft tall. Uh but they're basically strategically located to block all the front of the house from the street line. So we're supplementing trees that remain in the front with smaller scale trees for pedestrians on the street uh and the neighborhood. And that uh is all depicted on a uh tree planting plan.

This is a tree planting plan that we talk about SY2 and we have a whole list of trees and I believe we're planting the total tree count uh it's like uh 33 trees we're planting around the property to mitigate what we're proposing. The other thing to talk about is uh in terms of scale, what what's the scale of this project relative to the neighbors. So I I took a plan and I I located all the house sites uh uh from um GIS data. Uh and we created the envelope of what's happening in the neighborhood. And this is our uh this is a neighbor to the uh uh east. Uh this is the building we're proposing here. You can see the relative scale is similar like this is actually slightly smaller. And then we have another the other uh neighbor to the west. And you can see how this whole thing fits in with the realm of things. Again, while the back property is vacant behind us, we're putting a big buffer here and here uh just to basically uh assist with the u with the building itself. The other neighbors in the rear are um off far to the east right here. And there's another neighbor this property. There's a house way up here uh off of Harris Road uh which can't even won't even be able to see what we're proposing. And so our variances in the rear, we've mitigated them. Uh we basically have depressed the house as much as we can into the ground uh to the tune of like u uh 1500 yards of material. Uh and so we're just pushing it in so it fits within the property itself. Uh yardwise, we're we have we have a yard proposed in this little area here. uh it's graded on our plans for that and this becomes an open grass area but we're not doing really much with it. This is going to be a grassy area.

We looked at various options how to develop it. We tried to develop it without the variance and trying to stick it into this little triangle thing. And I have a peepod looking uh little uh uh plan we put together to try and make it work conforming. I have it with me. But the problem with that is uh because the septic uh is required the health department requires two bedroomedroom septics as a minimum and we can't fit a twobedroom septic here and another reserve in this location. So no matter what we do with the count we have to put septic over here and then from a septic uh we have to be 20 foot away from a footing drain and 10 foot away from a house. So basic as you can see the setback is encumbered with an approved septic plan which ends here and we have to we we're we're basically setting our house at the 10-ft minimum in this one corner to make it work and again the health department has reviewed all this and approved it. Um I think that's pretty much I can add to this. Um and can I answer any questions? Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience that wanted to speak on the application? If you could come up to the microphone. No, not that mic. If you could actually come up to that one,

just introduce yourself, please. And in and I'll just say in a general statement, you know, you're addressing your comments to us, not to the applicant. So, yeah, sure. Yeah. Thank you. Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah, we

Oh, great. Um uh sorry I have a terrible memory so I'm going to read from my notes a little bit. Uh my name is Jim Benner. I live uh across the street uh from the proposed property. Thank you so much for the presentation. I admittedly I'm not an architect and I haven't seen that until just now. I just saw like kind of the request for the variances. So some of this might not be too applicable but I'll try to make it fit as well as possible. Um the neighborhood's a a wonderful neighborhood. It's kind of a strolling community. We have a lot of dog walkers, people walking in the evening. very safe, very uniform. Um, we just moved in 5 years ago. Our property value has gone up a couple hundred grand in 5 years. It's doing very nicely and it has a very nice aesthetic character to our neighborhood. So, we're, you know, concerned. We have interest in making sure that the variances uh don't uh dramatically impact the uh the way it looks. Um, so it seems that a lot of construction uh impacts are, you know, controlled by plot terrain limitations, which is natural. Um, I just want to make sure that the the variations make sense and they're not too uh extreme or if they're limited as much limited as much as possible. Um, it seems like most of the prepare uh proposed variances uh are related to fitting the house close in the front, close in the back, close to a street, close to neighbors houses. Um, and these are also these are all very important to maintaining the look and feel of of the character of the neighborhood. So, we want to make sure that it's done in the right way. Um, we're also downstream and uh, so we're impacted by potential for flooding. I imagine that'll be covered by a storm water permit. So maybe not directly from the variance. I also didn't see reference to the permanent perennial creek that's at 44 Noddingham Road, which is right adjacent to the septic tank, septic field. So I imagine that's uh, addressed somewhere. And the cemetery right on the other side, too. So I imagine that there's some social concerns there, too. Um, and I'm not

sure if blasting is going to be required as well. Um, just to kind of wrap up, uh, there's the large retaining wall is a particular concern. Um, it seems quite large. Uh, I drove up and down Nottingham Road and they're around 31 houses and there are only a couple with retaining walls and at most they're like 2 or 3 ft high and this one looks enormous. Um, so I have concerns with making sure that doesn't hurt the aesthetic of the neighborhood. Uh, that's it. Uh, I just want to thank you all for the time and thank you for the presentation. Cheers. I'm sorry, Jim. What was your address? Uh, 47 Noddingham Road. 47. So, just across the street. Could you put the uh plan up that shows the the houses? Yeah, we weren't shown there. We were across the street. Across the street.

Is your house in any of these pictures, sir? Uh, yeah, it was. Um, his house is right across the street. Across the street. That's what you're looking right. He's right across the street. On the other side. On the other side. Yeah. Right over there. Exactly. There we go. Uh, which one are we? Oh, we're the top right. There you go. There's my car. Yeah. Yeah. Little car. The blue. The little blue car. That's right. It's okay. Thank you. Thank you. So, you mentioned a stream in the back. Yeah. Ours is, but um, Bill, is that considered a wetland? It's not. It's It's not on your wetland map, but it is a perennial stream, so it's always there. Mhm.

I imagine it will be explored sometime. And it goes right underneath our our property. That's why there's a a man there's a a sewer right in front of our house and it comes from the creek across the street. Yeah, I can address it. It's it's encapsulated basically a pipe here from the back here that discharges to daylight right before the property line and then jumps right back into another pipe which goes into a huge system. Well, it's around uh 20 30 feet exposed on 44 Nottingham Road. So, it's a pretty big knot pipe area. Yeah.

Anybody else? Please come up and introduce yourself. Tell us where you live.

Jonathan Lucas, 51 Noddingham Road. I have extreme concern over this project. Uh, I believe the project, the property has not been developed for over 60 years. I've been told by a number of builders that it's not a buildable lot. It would appear to me that although the drawings are wonderful, that you're trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Just my opinion. I'm very concerned about drainage. We have a lot of water problems that come off of that property running down my driveway. I fear that this project will exacerbate the drainage issues that I already have. And you can take a look at my driveway. Drive by anytime you want. It's got moguls in it that need to be fixed and that's been caused by severe water drainage issues on that area. Jim mentioned there's a cemetery on that property. I don't know if that's on the drawings or not. I have not seen that. Um, I'm concerned also about blasting. I don't know how in the world you're going to dig that deep. And if you've seen the property, I've walked it several times. There's a lot of rock. There's a lot of big trees. And as I said, I've been told it's not a buildable lot. The the retaining walls, serious concern. Why do we need retaining walls? We don't have retaining walls like that anywhere in the neighborhood. It's clear to me that the retaining walls are needed to make an unbuildable lot a buildable lot. Hence my concern septic uh right they found uh that they got the permit. I'm concerned. I'm sure

the Macintoshes who live at 44 are very concerned because that septic is right next to their property and as Jim pointed out there is a stream that runs off and back and he has severe water problems. He's in Hana uh Hawaii and can't be here but I do know that he sent in an email which I believe the board has. Yes. Um, so I I have I have grave concerns over the over the project in general, and I just wanted to make those concerns uh noticed to the board. Thank you. Can I ask you a question? Yes, sir. So, you're saying water is running across the road into your property?

Well, kind of roll Yeah, it roll and it runs down my driveway. Have Have you asked the town about that? Yeah, I have a little bit of a I have a little Well, you can go up and see it. The guys in the town built a little bit of a wall. It's maybe this high to to to the water. Okay. Which works unless we have a significant storm on your side? On on at the end of my driveway, preventing the water from coming down. Have they done anything on the opposite side where according to you as Not to my not to my knowledge. Okay. Not to my knowledge. And I know my neighbors in the back, the de Mikos, I don't know what their address is. Yeah.

But they're always concerned about water running off of my property onto their property. So So this is maybe a question goes to neighbor neighbor familiarity with this property. Can you go back to the the big tobo plan? Yeah. Hold on directly with you. No, no, hold on. I want to No, there's another tobo. You see how and you would you would know how to read that. You see how there's that curve with a where there's a zigzag in the Nope. Across the property in a curve there's a zigzag in the tobo lines. Nope. This is the edge of the This is

going up a little more. This suggests to me that could have been road. Yeah, there is there is a road that runs up there. It looks like an old road. Like the water is coming off of that. I can't say. Well, I can address if I may. Um yeah, we uh we we acknowledge that with the town engineer and so we're proposing swailes that one reason we're putting the walls in. We're using them to hold a swale system. Yeah. Which then goes through a catch basin down here. Okay. It then goes into a catch basin which collects all the runoff on the road and all this sight runoff from the house construction. Yeah.

And goes into a pipe and drops into that existing drop manhole. This manhole actually is 3 ft deep and it drops like 9 ft. Yeah. into a super low pipe system that runs off the property toward the highway and then disperses through a wetland area. Okay. That's a lot of infrastructure, but that Yeah, we basically address it. Yeah. And when you all the all the roof leaders and everything else tied to them as well. So no impervious uh is not collected by the whole system and the systems have big sumps in it to trap any sediments that might come off the property by the town engineer. Okay.

So when you receive the steep slopes permit which you have you what provisions were in there? Um everything all of what you're describing was we didn't have any we didn't have to make any amendments. We spoke earlier. Okay. Could you address the possibility of blasting? Thank you.

Yeah, we uh don't anticipate blasting. We um we have a piece of rock right here on the property. It's sort of in the middle of it. Uh there's 8 ft of soil on the sides of the property and in the front we're basically found about four to 5 ft of overburn regular soil. If you dig down deeper than that, you get rot. And basically our intent is because we have an open face and we did testing along the roadway to figure out what's going on with the rock. We did that when we started. Uh we we have we're going to use a driveway to go to the top of the hill and and and hammer the rock face rock. It's a heavily degraded rock. Uh and we've had people look at it, construction people who indicate that it's definitely feasible because it's open fix.

We're just we're just cutting back. It's like a piece a loaf of bread. We're cutting slices off the bread to move it back onto the hillside. We're proposing two walls, but the upper wall may be able to be removed if the rock is solid enough, but it's so weathered that we're we are proposing a stepped wall just in case the rock face that we end up exposing is not is not rigid enough.

Yeah. I mean, I I have to tell you, I have concerns about that wall aesthetically. Um I think you know we're giving a variance if we're giving a variance for the setbacks in the rear we should also really consider that wall as part of the the structure. It's a it's a major piece and I think that that left rendering is not flattering. Um

no this is probably a better one to look at. Yeah. But what's happening is we're going to put plants along between the two walls to put a green screen to the upper one. And the upper one basically is being adjusted to whatever uh we have to get to a stable uh form of of the hillside. Uh and they're stepped back from one another. And so they're really just uh one wall step back another wall. But the other option would be to leave this as a rock face. And we like I can't tell you what we're find.

Yeah. cuz all that planting on top of the hill. I much rather see you do that planting in the front at the at the mouth of the of the driveway to to screen the front of the house front of the at the road much better. I think that would Yeah. make the neighbors a lot happier.

Yes. So, um even though we meet the front yard setbacks except for the driveway, we are putting those plants in the front. just to go back to this if I may very quickly on that planting plan. Uh we're cognizant of that issue and so we put a whole array of trees in front in among the existing trees. So I have a frontal tree arrangement and then we have the driveway and then we have a slope going up to the uh to the septic areas. Uh and this this is just basically creating that this this this cut is just able to get the driveway into the hillside to meet the grade requirements of the town which are 4% for 100 foot. So we basically have a weapon plant at the front and and again because this is where our variances are are are basically biased towards the rear on purpose. We kept the front setback compliant

but even still uh we are putting the plants in the front of this. to acknowledge that again to planting in the front. These are more decorative trees. These in the background are are kind of they grow fast and they're evergreens. They're called the green giant arborites. They're deer resistant. And what size would you be installing in the initial planting? 10 to 12 foot. And the arborites are 10 to 12t tall and the trees in the front are 2 to three inch caliber depending on the species. Trees are about 12. So ultimately when they're fully grown the height will be well the trees in the front we we pick a bunch of species which we're not we don't want to grow hops again

have a telephone pole in the front yard. So what we what we proposed on that uh is the a dogwood some tulips a hawthorne so they're like 12 to 12 feet 15 feet something like that. Yeah, they're all they all grow, you know, 20 ft one's fully grown

20 to 25 20 to 30 footers. We got eastern red bud and American bean and a pillow tree which are they're all decorative trees or like we use them uh in buffers for for buildings all the time. Well, I equally am concerned about the drainage with the slope of the property and I I realize all your engineering and design is designed to capture runoff. Do you feel it's going to cure the problems that people already have by your

construction? Because uh we did a we did a pre and postdevelopment analysis of the drainage. We we are not exceeding the pre-development training report was prepared and the way we did that is we basically are cleaning and putting grass across the site. Uh so we basically are uh planting uh specialty grasses and brush uh areas to basically uh mitigate any uh exposed rock etc. But I don't think you're saying that you're going to be able to cure other drainage problems that people are describing on their uh we'll have no drainage discharge on the property

from from your property. This property will not be will not be contributing to any drainage problem because the only thing that's not being collected is a little area in the front of the house uh which measures happens to be 31 ft which nature of the variance and that's all that staying is trees with supplemental trees but we're but we're collecting about 70% of the overall site drainage on the property. Okay. One other item. Uh the cemetery. It was mentioned. Uh I am I am uh on the cemetery committee in town and there is a small cemetery back there and I didn't see it on the plan be behind the property. Not on the property, but behind the property on another lot.

I walked that site and I didn't see any evidence of it, but basically it's a very large site and I I didn't want to trespass. Well, even the wooded lot, it's hard to even see the wood get through the wooded lot because there's so much growth on that. But there is a cemetery on Nottingham. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no. You know where that is? I for the property. I didn't see a cemetery.

Yes. Thank you, Roger. Have you gotten back there? I didn't walk. Okay. So, one thing is cemeteries in the town are very old. Some the 16 1700s. That one is listed as a town's a bed of cemeteries. It's owned by the town essentially. It used to be a private cemetery and uh the in some of the cemeteries the the lines are not very well documented. So we need to make sure that any connection with your lot to that lot. I don't believe it's connected only on that on that one corner. But to just make sure that's noted um that it doesn't incur on any any aspect of that cemetery. We

more than happy to add that note plan. I did walk the entire neighbor behind me and again it was just rock and clear land. After this we're going to take another walk in there. It's offset. Yes. I mean I I spoke to the town today touching the property but still sometimes the lines are a little blurred with the with the cemeteries but as long as it's stated on on the construction. No problem. And also if I may we're not doing we're not to serve in that area. Our limited service is here. We're not touching this area. which I want to add as adding as possible. Yeah, just as you said noted on the plans when the road work begins because the borders are sometimes vague.

We can put any sort of construction fence you want to prevent any uh incursion in that area. Now the when you mentioned that I think one of the problems for the neighbors is the ongoing construction and right

naturally if any house is built there's going to be a period of time where trucks and soil uh and construction is going to happen. Do you have any consideration about an estimate of how long this construction will take place and when it might begin? Yeah, our our our uh our our proposal for this project is basically is to get the uh take uh excavate this one area. That's where excavation takes place. Some of the material goes in the front of the property. We're filling in in front of that. So, we're trying to get a balance, but any truck traffic that we have, we did a study with the town engineer, you know, talk about where things go and that's how we we we received the steep salt permit from town. Uh and we have a we have a truck route uh anticipated uh and we looked at estimating about four weeks uh to remove the material depend depending on how quick we can dig it up and rain conditions. Once once this is all cleared out uh the the retaining walls will be poured uh right as the building foundation is done. So we always keep the foundation start to finish. We want to finish up all the concrete work. So that's the next thing that will take place. If our if our cutting of the rock reveals uh some solid rock, we will be reducing the height of this wall because it is an expense and it's better for us not to have a wall. But I can't I have to I I'm I'm I'm very conservative in how we design things. I'm showing you the worst case scenario with the walls itself. And that construction if everything goes through would start we're in in May now would be starting in June July or you know what what do you estimate in terms of time timing for that?

Um well I'll be with you actually working drawing still. Yeah. Uh so we're about month and a half away from getting a building permit at that point in time. Our goal would be to get the site cleared and the foundation poured and then we could work on that in the climate leather in the fall. Okay. And you have to go back to the planning board anyway, don't you? Uh I I I have an out I have a a very minor items that were addressed with the town engineer. I had it with me. It's nothing but u the biggest thing they asked for was a u a viewshed anal we did a viewshed analysis. I personally did it or wheel but they want to do a profile and that's about it. Everything else is very fine. But you don't have to go back to the planning board.

Steep slope. We have approval for steep slope. Yeah. Uh, but basically I have to address a letter I just received today from the town. Town engineer has to sign off on it. Gotcha. Okay. We'll have to see Hans. Yeah. Sign off. One more question. Once you strip the site of all the trees

and the bushes and the weeds, I'm sure you once you do that, how will you stabilize the site in the meanwhile to keep the runoff down? Well, um actually we have a restricted uh development proposal and what we we are we are we've marked off the trees for movement and they're showing the trees have to stay. So we we have we have a set a tree preservation plan which is required uh with the steep salt permit. Basically that what that says is uh we located the trees that are being removed and we and we also show the trees a couple of rain and basically uh in the area disturbances here and we're keeping everything else around it including the front and so and we're not taking down any trees where the reserve septic is to maintain the buffer east. So, so what hap what how we do this is we we stump the project uh and then basically we have erosion control devices in place. Next thing we do is we uh we we remove the stuff and then we we're we're seeding the area we're removing the stumps because basically this becomes the stuff we're removing is basically on this side and uh there's only a few of them in this area here and so the these aren't being removed but these as are marked up we would stump it and then put in road control fence during the course of

okay so stable while everything else is going on because of this, you know, a lot of steep slope and runoff coming off that property and other water problems. Yeah. Putting the diversion swell in cuts all that up up above water and then we we bypasses our disturbed areas. So, we're eliminating all this runoff coming back. Okay. So, you're hitting it from the top again. We're grabbing it from the top. Okay. And it's it's actually a three tier system. Again, the top all the middle and the house and the one along the front of the driveway as well. for picking it up three different places with the catch basins and infiltrators. Okay. Is there anybody else that wants I just have one final comment if I may.

What asurances do we have as a community given any unforeseen issues with that property to make sure that this project is completed? The last thing I would want is the the project to not be completed because of unforeseen complications to the project. So what assurances do we have? Is there will will the bond be pro posted as an example to make sure that the financial resources are available to complete the project? What assurances will the uh particularly me and Jim who are downstream, pardon the pun, from the property, what assurances do we have that uh we won't be negatively impacted?

I was going to say doesn't planning in uh with steep slopes, they usually require a bond. Yeah, we're going to have an erosion control bond. What what they basically consist of is uh is a project is permitted in any way, shape or form a uh a bond is provided to take care of maintain installing and maintaining erosion control devices until the site is totally seated and uh and grass is blowing. Okay, that's that's control required for and I put that on the plant. I'll go over that with you, but they'll have to show us all the uh that they were approved by town engineer. If we don't get that, we're not going to out.

Also, your septic, we'll have to see your septic approval. Yeah, we have the layout page and everything. And we're going to need your your final sign off from the uh planning board, correct? With the town engineer sign, it was approved by them. Conditional condition. All right, no worries. We'll we'll have them do it. Mr. Chairman, I have some questions. Yeah. Can you hold on one specific? You want to I can only just get the public hearing. You you wanted to speak

if you could just come up to the front. While he's coming up, I'll also mention that um we have two letters here. One from Kim and Chris Lando at 43 Noddingham and the other from Gan and William Macintosh from 44 Nottingham who I gather are on either side of the uh of the project area. they've are basically expressed a lot of the same concerns that I'm already hearing. Um, and so but they will be part of the record and uh put we'll put that in.

Andrew Kaplan, 10 Lockxley cemeteries in my backyard. Um, it's pretty well defined. There are stone fences and a a wire mesh fence across the back. Um, Monday I had my fourth attempt at fixing my septic fail again. Um because there is non-stop groundwater coming through my property. I have a curtain drain that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through my backyard and I have another curtain drain in front of the house between the house and the septic field and that runs non-stop. Um and my septic is failing. Um, on Monday I tried to put another new curtain drain uh between my property and the neighbor uphill from me on Lockxley and all we hit was bedrock. Um, and we couldn't get the drain in. Um, so not sure what I'm doing next, but that's uh I'm looking at both of these septic plans, which are right on edges of property, and when you walk by it, all you see is rock.

Um, I can't imagine you're going to be able to get a decent perk test u out of a septic field on all of that rock. Um if I may um hi it was inspected by the county department of health during testing was tested in New York City DP and basically uh we were we received satisfactory results need the microphone please.

Yeah. So we uh we had tests uh inspected with the D and then we we had separate tests inspected with the West County Department of Health. Uh at all these locations uh we had 6 foot here uh to uh rock and we have a foot of fill proposed on this side. On this side of the property we had 8 ft uh plus of u uh granular material. Uh one advantage of being elevated like we are on our property is the water doesn't get to us. It's all below. And yes, uh, Noddingham has a gigantic whed over here, which we did a study for with the town engineer, and all the water kind of flows down through various, uh, areas, uh, to u to Ningham. Uh, but we're passed where all that takes place. And again, we we have a West County Department of Health permit, which was approved by both New York City D, uh, and by West County Department of Health. We did it the first day we saw the property. We did that first. So there's no guesswork about that in the future.

Second house.

Okay. Um I thought I was dressing bored. My apologies. Um I forgot my second point. Take your time. You mentioned that when I first walked in. Sorry, I was a little late. Um that you're setting the house into the ground 8 to 12 ft. Yes. Um is that going to you you mentioned also no blasting. Is that going to be hammering or jackhammering or hammering? Yes. Um as it's all bedrock around. How is that going to affect the propagation of those shock waves?

Well, hammering basically is it's not like a waste. microphone with you for a while.

Yeah. Uh so so uh hammering is not of the intensity of blasting. Uh hammering is uh we use either a seven or a 10 ton hammer. Uh and we just literally bang through the rock. Now luckily for us, the people we've had look at the site indicate that we have highly fractured rock on the site. It's weathered and that's why it's a it's it's a remnant of an exposed uh prow of a hill or something. going back to Monday where they tried to break it up with a um a hammer on the back of the backhoe um and did not get through it. Um right although there's a lot of fracture, there's a lot of very solid underneath.

We are familiar with this and if we can't anytime there's a hammering issue that takes place, we can always core drill it and put in uh expansive devices which uh uh break up the rock as well. It's not explosive. It's Thank you. I'm right around the corner. Was there anyone else that wanted to speak? If you can come up. No, just go behind you. And you in a minute. Behind you.

Hey, good evening. Good evening, Grace Coori. I'm at 60 Noddingham Road, which is to the right of the property. 16 60 6 6

Mhm. Um I'm uh seriously concerned about um the placement of the house um that it is very close to my property, my house and um kind of breaks up the privacy of what we had before. And um I know I have an easement and I believe that easement goes onto that property as well. So I don't know how far this house can be set back to from our house.

An easement for for the cemetery. I have the cemetery behind me. Yeah. It's on the other side. Yeah. But I think the easement is on your property is on my property as well as theirs. Right. Yeah. Neighboring property actually. Yeah. It's looking at the the back here. That's only there. Yeah. Yeah. The surveyor located is right here between the house and the property line. So, in other words, access to the cemetery comes through your property. Correct. Correct. We have the entrance to the cemetery from our house.

Thank you. Well, that's part of the that's part of the distance that they had to to where they put the uh building envelope. So, I'd like I mean I don't I can't see from here, but how how far cuz the the house is being built mostly to the east, which is puts it very very close to my house.

Yeah, I'm I'm 40t off the property line with the house proposal. And again, as we mentioned to you, we're keeping all the trees intact in that area. That's why we strategically made the reserve here and kept the tree buffer in place and we biased the uh green area to the west because it's uh past this the uh topography rises. So this old driveway remnants will be screening the house from the west and we're using the trees to the east to to uh to nestle it in there without uh impacting the neighbors. And you're not there's you're not seeking the the var there's no variance between the No, we're double what the what the setbacks are. It's it's the up and down part.

Yeah, we we actually pushed everything to the rear. Gotcha. Uh and only the only a little um covered uh uh walkways in the front. Yeah. The right side you're at the minimum, correct? 40 or 40 ft. Y you're two acre. Yep. They're halfacre. I know it's a halfacre. It's a halfacre. Yeah. So you're 21 and 1/2 ft from the dividing line. The new house will be 40t. So 61 12 1/2 ft. Twice as much almost than what you have to your property line. So can we not put a a window on on the facing to the house to my house? Uh I think we did that.

Is that a possibility? Hold it. I think I might be able to the privacy. Yes. Hold. I have I think we did that already, but I can check that for you. Hold on. I actually have a couple I have a couple windows facing that direction. What they are is uh there's a chimney and there's two little windows here, a little room here, and these are in bedrooms. Uh we could maybe look at removing that one and we got window for that bathroom in the rear if we had to. We'd help out. We could we could do that for you. Let's get the bathroom out of there. Yeah, that counts. Yeah.

Thank you. Any other everything else everybody's already said. There's no point in appreciate. Yeah. Thank you. Go ahead. Good afternoon. My name is Edmond. Good morning. Can you get make sure we get close to the mic? Yeah. We've been uh two years working through with this property. We appreciate your time. We're here. I promise you I'll be a good neighbor. We'll be happy everybody together. That's all. Thank you so much for your time, guys. Okay. Thank you.

Um heightwise, this house in I know you showed the comparison of the other houses. out once you do the excavation, how does it stand in terms of the rest of the houses? Well, uh we uh we got as low as we could with the house itself. It does sit about 10 to 12 ft above the neighboring homes just because of the great we start low. They start low, we start high, but the house same scale. Pardon me. That sounds familiar. Quote, but it's a standard house. It's a standard height. And um

they go lower, we go high. Um, okay. So, I think that's a big issue about why you have to excavate because if you put if you don't excavate, the house is going to be, you know, taller the structure than the rest of the neighborhood. And I guess you have to excavate just to do the exactly why we did it. We push it in the ground as much as we could. Yes. It's all been It's all It was all governed to make the driveway conforming and we just built it as low as we could in the ground. In fact, the house is lower than the the top of the garage. So the garage is is one height and we're two foot lower with the house just to keep it. We pushed it as far as we could.

So with this um the restrictions that you have, how and you have the balcony in the garage which is you know an outdoor space. Yes. How do how would you see the owner having any outdoores or

you know what kind of area is the outdoor enjoyment area? Yeah, the outdoor area is on the rear and it's basically on it starts at these out uh back door and extends off to the uh uh east. And so looking at the site plan, what we did is uh we did we uh I hope this all stays. So what we did is we we opened up a little area in the back here. It's about 20 ft deep. It's kind of a cutout into the hillside. a swale picks up the water and we bring the water out out out away from this area with with the uh drains next to the foundation. But our our our outside area is in this in this location here. But cuz we're we're we decided it would be best to have the um the location for the outside activities and festivities are in the center of the property away from the neighbors. And that's why that's why we uh we um we pushed the house lower than the garage, kept the garage about 2 ft taller to make it all fit vertically. Uh and we this is now it's outdoor deck area and that's what we we we are proposing that as the entertainment location of the site itself of the property,

right? But you can't use the grass area because it's a septic field, right? Yeah. There's septics here and that's and this is we're keeping we we're not touching the slope. So we basically leaving it's all trees. This will all be treed up in here. And so basically a little grass area here, but entertainment area is right there. That's why we put the deck away from the neighbors. Any questions? I have a few questions. The original application indicated it was a four bedroomedroom home. Yes. The plan show three bedrooms. Yes. We reduced it. We reduced it to three. Yes. Um secondarily, you indicate that the garage entrance is into the basement. Correct. Yes. Step down two steps.

Okay. But there's no basement plan. You've got a first floor, second floor, and front elevation and roof plan, but you don't have the basement included in your plans. It's just going to be a a footprint for the same size as a room above unfinished. There's no walk out. It's just a and and last, what's going to be the overall height of the chimney? The chimney depending upon which view you look at. Yep. It seems to well by by by law it's got to be higher than the the closest three feet any roof with intention right but you've got 32 and a half feet uh to the roof and how much higher will the chimney be in over the top of the roof

there's no there's no indication on the plans uh it it's equal to the top of the roof we when we measured it off on this plan of elevations uh we basically measured over 10 ft went up the code minimum and that's it's approx approximately the top of the ridge cuz we we put a flat roof on this house. The roof is in a steep pitch. We we we reduced the roof pitch to the minimum so we wouldn't go so high. I'm looking at the front elevation plans and it seems to indicate that the chimney is above the the roof line. Might be a foot taller than than the ridge. Okay. Uh but that's a very we made a very flat roof out of this. That's how we did it.

It's flat. the well a the plans indicate otherwise. Pardon me. We uh uh we reduced the pitch of the roof uh so it wouldn't be so tall a building. So I flattened the roof out to like a that's a it's like a a five on 12. You reduced the pitch. Yep. Thank you.

And that's why it's uh that's how we did it to to to um to reduce the over height of the building. Uh we um incorporated anything we could do to make it lower, we did on the plans. That was the intent of it. Again, the the basement just holds um no walk out. It just holds the uh mechanicals basically. And it might even be a crawl space and part of it depending on how things go. Anyone else? Uh, was anyone else raised their hand on the Z on the Zoom call? I don't have any hands.

I just want to say one last thing. Sorry.

Hi, I'm Adrienheim Benner. I live at 47 Nottingham directly across. I'm not against anybody building their dream home and I know we have met. Um, I did not know the plans were this far along. I truly cannot imagine looking at that retaining wall, even displayed the plants. I'm actually emotional about this. I know when we bought the property a couple years ago, we asked the realators, can they build on that property across the street? They said no because the owners on Harris Road had 7 acres. Little did we know they were going to sell that property and then subdivide that property. And then even then we were told that the bedrock it was not a buildable lot. And I know that you guys have worked so hard at putting these plans in place and I know I've seen you at the property. Um it's just it's really upsetting to imagine a lot of construction with my kids, with our dog, the lifestyle we have. Um not that they're not I I'm just I'm I'm kind of in shock. This is the first time I've seen these houses and and the plan and knowing that it's this beautiful little hill with owls and foxes and that it's just going to become this concrete thing. I honestly probably would not have bought this property and I feel really like I'm going to go home to my husband and be like, "What are we going to do?" That's all I have to say. I'm sorry.

Don't be sorry. Uh no more public comment then can I have a motion as a final statement?

Um yeah really short. So as everyone has indicated we took our time doing the project and we started uh we worked from the uh most we worked through all the constraints. We started with the health department. We worked with the engineer on the drainage. uh we took care of the u uh of the grading plans and the uh uh design of the project to make it as low as possible. Uh we had to put the wall in because again the soil constraints. What we could do with the wall is we could basically it doesn't have to be uh exposed concrete. Uh we have various finishes we could put to it. We can pour uh we could we could put u imprints within the formwork to make look like stone stone or block. uh we can do that for you. Uh we can also basically serrate the uh the walls to give it some vertical variation versus the uh the concrete surface of a typical wall. We've got examples we've done in numerous projects. We we're actually showing that already in the on and how we designed the uh the garage. That's that's a concrete wall in the garage. We we cl that with stone to make it look less innocuous. We could do the same thing on the walls here and tone it down. And again, my CAD guys didn't put the plants in between the two walls, but that's why uh in this one view, there's a 5-ft separation between the walls where we grow plants. And that's that's why you stagger the the walls that we have to break up that uh and we can we can grow uh plants up to about 3 or 4 feet tall very easily within a it's 5 foot wide space. Uh, and it's and it's accessible from our um from our porch. So, we can go out there and and maintain it anytime we want to because we have a staircase that leads right to that to sort of maintain it. Um, we one more thing we didn't mention is we did put a some little steps on the property so

that so so we can get to the top of the hill. And uh, you know, we didn't want to we didn't have I didn't want to have our clients stuck here uh looking at their parking lot. So what we did is we uh we also had we put some steps in here uh in a little uh little very short wall so they can walk up through a pathway we created to go you know they can they can actually move in this one particular area and get onto the grass there if they so so feel fit. So we're giving a pedestrian access uh to areas which are cleared just to give them you know outside amenities and that's about it. Um Edmond's been very patient, been working through all the agencies with me, been to all the meetings. Uh again, he wants to put a house in there for his family. Uh and uh their kids would uh I think they'll be a a great u addition to the neighborhood. Uh and we're going to we're we because it's he's we're bu he's building it for himself. We'll take special care with the neighbors and relationships with everyone else. again, uh, they want to be part of the community and they'll do whatever they can to make that happen. Thank you.

Thank you. On the the comments about the elevation, close the public hearing. Yeah, I'm wondering if if we want to do that,

uh because I'm I'm deeply concerned. I think the engineering the the the way that the house is situated works fine. My my sticking point is the wall and and the architect started to address some of that. I'm also concerned with with our full board that it's it needs to get the review um full review. I think we need to see more in detail on this wall as to how it could look better, how it could be stepped more. I I I'm I'm deeply concerned about approving it as is with the walls like that.

Well, what about the suggestions that you was just saying of putting imprints or rocks into it? I think I would like to see that. I think the neighbors need to see that. How how do you want to see it? And rendering specific rendering that could dress that up that the neighbors are I read the bottom. I could render it anyway. Yeah. I think that the neighbors are deeply concerned about this as they should be. That's 19 ft of of concrete that uh I would be very upset if that was across the street from me. Okay.

And it goes to the the whole points about how it project impacts the neighborhood uh and the the aesthetics. The house the setback you know the engineering if it wasn't if it was just without this wall be no brainer. Well the wall my understanding was for to help the water. Well, it's to to to make it to make it fit because there's a big big bump in there.

Yeah. So, and it's if that can be manipulated better, if that can aesthetically be uh treated with landscaping, if the approach as I was saying earlier, if the approach could be addressed with taller taller trees, I think I think we can neighbor can the neighbors can see this in a better light. I think right now this is not not good. I would agree with Roger. I was just going to ask the question again about the front wall. What, you know, are there alternatives? Are there methods that could be made to improve that front view? The rear walls are necessary. They're not as so prominent as as this front uh portion of the property. And then I I think the concern about septic and water is just universal throughout the whole neighborhood. And you know, you can't guarantee this property, the building is not going to guarantee there's not going to continue to be water problems because they, you know, I don't think you can cure that whole neighborhood. I really think that the neighbors need to maybe look at what's causing all this damage to houses and and runoff. So, if you're able to cure the runoff on this house and then the neighbors properties, he can't even get uh his his his runoff captured in a in a system. It's, you know, it's going to continue. So,

but Rosemary, aren't we aren't we relying on on state and local engineering and agencies for this property? Yeah, I can't I don't think but this property is not going to cure anybody else's problem. No, but I don't think we can second guess that if it's going through all those steps and all those agencies.

No, I'm I'm not. What I'm saying is this property, I just want to be clear, is not going to cure any water problems in the neighborhood and the neighborhood may have to deal with the town in terms of what whatever runoff and the highway, you know, the sources of all those problems. And I think with the approval of the agencies, I think what what the neighbor neighborhood should realize is that that project alone is not going to cure or is not going to it's not going to worsen because and state and state by by law, state engineering now is all about not making it worse for the neighborhood, containing it on property.

Yes. Um, I think it's your call as to whether you want to do a public hearing, but I would certainly would like or I can vote. I would like to see more information.

Okay. Well, can we be specific so that they know what I mean if we hold this off till the next meeting in June um what um what they need to bring back? Well, I think they need to have a rendering that shows from the street front what it could look like with with a better sculpted wall or perhaps even variation where the best case like you said there is no second wall. It's it's rock and natural landscaping. I think that needs to be visualized and yes a color rendering would go a long way to that.

Yeah, we'd be very happy to address that. Sorry. Again, it's we can manipulate 3D models. Show these are these are exact 3D models we're dealing with here. So, uh we could basically manipulate and show you any angle you want and direction. Uh but if we could uh if I could just limit our next presentation to addressing the walls, uh that would be uh like if I could do it that way, that would be great. Yeah. Could you also supply I don't think I saw the tree planting plan in in the paper SY2 you may not have that I had the No, we don't have it on our

second set of drawings that you provided me which was the elevation and stuff is what they got. I think I have one in the set and again I can quickly I can give you more I can send it to you Rosemary. I want to show you. So you can get some more res. Thank you. Is that a full size? Yeah. If that can plan can be pulled open into the full drawing. Yeah. Specifically colored in the area. That would just communicate.

No, I know. I would ask that the 3D rendering also show the house in connection with the neighboring houses so that we can see what that final house will look like visa be the house to the east and the west or north and south whichever is into the model a photographer scale show that the model would be kind of tough no no that's yeah

that relates it correct This is fine if this is the way you prefer. You if you can if you I don't know if you I don't know if you do it on a computer, but you can plug it in so it can be seen on the TV. I just whatever you just want to work right next to I hear you. We'll provide that model for you. Again, uh we want to be a good neighbor. We want information everyone. Uh, and if that's a concern, we'd be very happy to do that. And we would manipulate these just I can rotate anywhere you want. So we can rotate them around and get every view with the trees added to it and make it we have no problem.

Yeah. Okay. I think street level is what the neighbors relate to the most. We'll bring that view down to like 4 and 1/2 ft and show the view from the side. I I don't know if you can do this, but like most people will put trees in, you know, smaller plants and then they're going to grow over the years. Yes. That no guarantee that they're all going to survive, but it would be great if you could import that at people are going to see the house because whatever there is a barrier on one side, but the plants will be growing and the view will will change over time. So, I don't know if you can incorporate that into the setting that you're going to present us. Oh, the presentation. Yes.

Yeah. as you as you turn those off because it blocks the view. And then what we did on the elevations we gave you uh uh on the front is if you see a slight dark line what we did on the plans we showed you what the trees would be the scale using here. Yeah. Right there. See the black outlines in front of the house. In front of the house right in front of the house. I'm having trouble with the dark scale. Oh, I see it now. would be initial planting stick the way I would do it stick little stick figures with trees I didn't even see that because this in a in a dark

yes I showed them they're actually the scale but what we did is we made them just an outline so you can see the house see through but those that's that's what they look like and they that's the initial planting the height yeah they're they're two and three inch yeah that that would help to see what the vis because it obviously people are looking at a lot in the last 40 years covered with you know brush the trees. It's going to be changed so they should see what it's going to really look like when when it's finished. Yeah, we'll put we'll put them in there. We'll put them as as they naturally grow and you'll see what it looks like how it blocks the view. Great. And then as architects, we hate showing trees. We like to show off. Oh, feature. Excellent point.

And then just the note that the cemetery is not on your property, but on the neighborhood. We'll put a note on the on the plans indicating that will there will be disruption fence across that area to prevent any potential accidents. They'll be under most control. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And uh if anything else uh any other interest comes from the board uh we'd like to incorporate everything we could. Yeah, we'll put you on it for the for June. Yeah. Next and neighbors. Thank you. June 3rd. Yeah. June 3rd. June 3rd.

Just want to thank the neighbors for coming and expressing their concerns. Um, no, no land. I I I I know where you're coming from. It's not the first time we've seen this, but land changes. Plan changes hands. It's going to, you know, growth is going to happen at some point. But u, I think you've got someone who wants to do the right thing. And certainly, I'm telling you, it's no easy no easy feat going through all of the uh county and agencies that you've already gone through at all. I I don't envy you one little bit, but this is the way things get done properly. And uh this back. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for coming in.

It's disturbing that people would say no. Nothing can ever be built there though. Yes. Don't listen to brokers. Is there a way of getting them prior to? Yeah, it's online. They're posted on the website on the agenda. It's on the agenda. Yeah. I I got a piece of paper in the mail

on the on the agenda. There's a there's a a click on that you can click on and see the the plans. No, the town's website. The town's website. Is it too late to follow up with like a quick email after I take a look at No, you can absolutely follow up. The public hearing is still open. It will be up open through the January or through the June 3rd meeting. So you can come back and talk again and uh take a look at it. But take a look at the stuff on the website and see, you know, we've asked them to try to take your your concerns into consideration and so hopefully that will happen. Thank you. Yep. Good night. Shall I move on?

Risa Lambman is seeking a variance of article 3 section 125-15 for third 93 Blackbrook Road, Pound Ridge. section block and lot 80 62.18-1-6 to permit already constructed peers which resulted in a height of 7'4 in where 6 ft is the maximum permitted height for peers in the residential 4acre zoning district and for an already installed fence that is 7'6 in at its highest where 6 feet is the maximum permitted height in the residential 4acre zoning district. Hello. Hello. Um, hello.

Hi. So, I purchased this property in the fall of 2021. This gate was existing when I purchased it, as well as the fence surrounding the property. Sorry. Uh, my name is Rhys Land and I'm the homeowner. Um, and so we purchased it, the gate was there with the fence around the property. Um, we replaced the back part of the fence at which time it came to our attention that none of the fencing or the driveway gate was permitted. Is this the black fencing? Yes. Yeah. Blackbrook. Blackbrook road. Yeah. And you have a you you kind of come in. There's a there's a house.

Take photos if you want. House is up. So, this gate is back 75 ft from the property. Yeah. I think I think I have remember this property, but the the posts of the gate are too high. Gotcha. Oh, take him down. Right here. So, I am retroactively trying to legitimize the driveway gate and um we are planning to swap out the fence. Is that Is that all You're just here for the You're just here for the posts.

I'm here for the posts, right? I we did ask for the fence, but we are planning on switching that down to be compliant to the six foot height anyway. So, I'm not as worried about that. It's really for the the peers is like a mesh metal and and that's over that's higher than the gate. But they're talking about making a change. Yeah. But she's not in a she's not in an area that's I mean there's nobody really around you. Uh no, I I don't think that we are we have neighbors. It's recessed back the seven point this the the the what's the point of the fence? I'm assuming it's to keep deer out.

To keep Well, yeah, to keep Well, we also have dogs. So, I think it was originally put up as a deer fence. Um, we do have deer that's get over it um still. So, I'm very tempted to just take the whole thing down, but we do have dogs that I would like to keep. Is there anyone here or on the Zoom call that wanted to speak on this application? Please raise your hand on Zoom if you do. I don't see anybody here. Okay. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? I'll make it. All those in favor? I public hearing is closed. Um I have no problem leaving the fence the way it is. Um and just giving a per, you know, giving her permission for the for the for both those things.

I in in going there and speaking with you, it's pre-existing. The previous owner put all this in. Yes. So, uh it's you're just trying to legalize it. Yes. And the the gate is correct, but the the fence comes up somewhat higher than the gate. But you're talking about re, you know, doing some switching out of that in portions of the fence anyway. Yes, we're we're planning on uh updating the front portion of the fence. So, at that same time, we'll lower it to a compliant 6 foot height. Do you want to do that? I'm fine with that. I mean, I you know, I Is that that Al's not here. Is that a new permit then to change the existing fence or

So, I have a permit in progress now that just got wetland approval. you would if you swap out and change the fence down the road. Then yeah, you have to file another fence. Are you are you doing the cedar post with the with the netting and all that stuff or um it's going to be metal posts with the black netting and especially if it's for dogs, keep the dogs in. Well, and we're planning on the wetland portion leaving a portion underneath that animals can get through. I mean, we we have plenty of movement of animals coming through. Um and so we're not trying to stop that. We're just really trying to keep finding out.

It would be up to you. I mean, the the the g the gate separate from the fencing. The fencing is such a large section that it would be up to you if you wanted to replace it. So, I don't know where you want to go with approving the fence and the gate or um I'm well as far as the gate and the post. I mean, so far back to Cleveland. They're not massive peers. The only thing I mean if you're going to I mean if you want to do this um with the fencing we've usually asked people who at least the front of the property is done with cedar post as opposed to metal posts. Okay. Just so that it makes it look a little less obtrusive. Um then you know on the sides and stuff people put use the metal posts. Okay.

Um you know how far out you want to go with the cedar posts I would leave up to you but I'm just mentioning it if it's possible. If not, you know, like I said, I if you if you want, as far as I'm concerned, if you want to leave it the way you have it now, it's it's fine with me as well because you're far enough back that you're not really being seen from the road or anything. Right. Correct. I think it's not in anybody's way. I mean, yeah. I mean, this is a personal, you know, you want to change it. That's up to you. That's not what the variance uh posting is for. What's that? But the the variance posting is to it's for the height of the the the posts as well as well the fence says and the already installed fence is

one portion of one portion of the fence is too high another yeah at the end. So this section here this yellow part here is oversized. The rest of this here is actually under six feet. So, so let me So, it's just a small section right there. I I would leave it up to them if you want. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if we Well, no, but we have to give them a variance,

right? But I know we have to give them a variance, but um in terms of the remaining fencing, that would be up to you if you want to choose to do that. But I think we're talking about giving you a variance for the for the gate and the fence if you would look better if you brought it down. I I agree. And that's kind of what why in the while we were doing this application that came up and we looked at it and we said well this would work better anyway but I'd already turn whatever you guys got

what would what would be easiest if they if we gave them the permit for the gate in the fence gate and the fence at uh with the variance and she chose she was making alterations in lowering the fence or putting these new posts in. Does she need a building permit for that? No. Well, well, if she's modifying Yeah. If she's replacing the fence, she needs a building permit. You can grant the variance. Is there any way to bring that down without replacing the whole fence? But the point is, if she's bringing if she gets a building permit to bring the fence down, she's bringing it down to where she doesn't need a variance. Oh, except she's currently But she still needs a variance for the peers, right? Yes. Yeah. No, no, I get that part. I get that part. So, we could do this in two parts.

The varian say except, you know, fence like the fence. It's too bad you couldn't post cuz it is jagged. They're going to replace it. They're going to replace it. So, they're going to need a fence permit. So, it's okay. I mean, you give them and if they lower it, they go with 7 foot4, whatever it is. Okay. So, um let me let me make a Everything that seems simple. I'll make a motion to close the new.

No, let's let me make a motion to to approve the um the granite variance. Um I'm going to do this in two parts. Um the first for the um gate peers uh which um exceeded the um which are at 7'4 in. You need a variance for that. So we're going to grant you a variance for the 7 foot 4 in peers. Um, again, doing so, you know, they've been there for x near time. That's not going to change anything. Nobody can see it. Um, it's really not that substantial where you are. Variance request, it's not going to result in any physical physical or environmental effects. And while it was put in erroneously, I'm glad you're here trying to correct it as a new owner. uh as far as the fences and that's that would be my first uh granting variance. Uh the second variance would be for the that section of fence that you showed me that exceeds the 6' high that's 7 foot 6 in tall. Um we will grant you that variance. Uh forget what I said about the um cedar post because it's again it's just a it's just a very small area looking at your fence from the road. It's to the left hand side is what you showed me

from the road. If you're facing into the property from the road, it's to the right running from the Okay, it's on the right. From the from the road looking at your fence, it's the right hand side. The right hand side. So, it's that section. It's not the whole fence. It's just that section. Um, I think we I mean, again, my position would be that we give you a variance for that as it exists now. If you want to change it, you need to get a building permit to bring it down to the six foot high. Yes. Which which would then be meeting code. And I and I leave that up to you. Okay.

Um again, doing so again, it's not going to change the character of the neighborhood or, you know, and it's not very substantial. Again, it's not going to have an in adverse physical or environmental impact. And again, it's self-created, but that's just one of the one of the uh things that we consider. And it's not very determinative. Uh but you do understand that if you do do the fence, you're going to have to get a building permit. Yes, I we have one in process. So, and then once that's all done, I don't think you need the um the asbuilt permit. Um because you must already have a a survey. There's a permit in process for the driveway. Survey open. Yeah, we have a survey. It's attached. It's right here. Yeah. So, they have a survey. Yeah.

Yeah. So, we don't need to know the survey. Okay. Yeah. Insight. Second. What's that? Second. January 7th, 2025. Okay. Second. What's that? That's the date. January 7th. And and uh Mr. Van Lover here. Just seconded. Mr. Stur. Yes. Miss Lee. Yes. Mr. Van Lover. Yes. Mr. Melis. Yes, you got it. Thank you, Miss Lman. You take it. You won't need it. The extra one. Thank you.

Thank you. You'll hear from me when the permit's issued.

Okie dokie. It's okay. I'm holding holding my own. All right. So Eric Kaine is seeking a variance of article 5 section 125-50 for 378-384 Croin Lake Road Mount Kisco section block and lot 59.7-1-7 on the town tax maps in the residential 4acre zoning district to permit a pre-existing 20tx 25- ft shed being used as a home gym where the sideyard setback resulted in 12.2 2 ft where 50 ft is required in the residential 4acre zoning district. Oh, there they are. Hello.

Yeah. Hi there. Sorry we couldn't be there in person. We got two little kids asleep right now. Um but uh yeah, there's my wife Angie. Hello. Hello.

Hi. Uh so uh I met with Rosemary today who came by the property um and explained a little bit about this, but we purchased the home about a year ago uh and moved in. Uh our property is a little bit strange in that it has a couple of different structures on it, including um our main house, a guest house, and a standalone garage. And then also when we purchased the property, there was a shed uh pre-existing on the property uh at the location that's noted um on the survey and in the variance application about 12 1/2 ft from the property line that's sort of on the interior of the property. Um so about a few months ago, we noticed that the uh shed was had some structural issues. It was sort of falling down. Um, and so we did some work to sort of shore up the structure um and and make it a little bit more um structurally sound. Through that process, we discovered that the shed was uh not legalized. Um, and so then this began this process. We had already done some work on the property in order to just make it um not dilapidated essentially, but we're not really planning on making it habitable. Um, it's it's really going to be used as a gym. uh and storage if needed. So, we hired an engineer. He noticed some structural issues um with the with the structure that still exists. Um and so, as part of this legalization process, we're hoping to just sort of make it even more structurally sound uh make it not fall down and um not as like a livable structure, but just to use as a gym.

Great. Looks good to me. Yes. Your survey is wrong. It's Croin Lake Road. No lakes. We got the reservoir. Yeah, it's just one. Um, is there anybody that wanted to speak on this application? If so, please raise your hand. There's nobody there. I just want to know. What's that? What's that little thing doing on the bottom there? Something town clerk talking. I'm talking. Oh, what? I'm talking. Oh, you're talking. Um, I just want to mention that one of the neighbors nearby um on Crowley Road emailed that they Yeah,

at first they were a little concerned what was going on and then when I sent them the plan they said, "Oh, I didn't even know there was a shed there." So, they're a okay with it. Good. This looks like a great baseball diamond. There's an orchard there. Yeah. Very, very interesting house. Even though I I visited and the shed is I couldn't even spot it. was far behind the house up in a corner intersection where it's not not at all near one neighbor on the left and I couldn't even see the house straight ahead. So, it was appreciate you legalizing it getting that done. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? I'll make it. All those in favor? I I public hearing's closed. Uh Harry, can you make a motion?

Certainly. I propose the following motion. The board found that the benefit to the applicant by granting the variance outweighs any alleged detriment to the community and determine the following. The benefit sought by the applicant cannot be achieved by any other means feasible to the applicant and we thank the applicant uh for coming forward to legalize the structure when she realized it was improper. There will be no undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood or detriment to the nearby properties and the variance requested in my opinion is not substantial being uh a small structure on a large piece of property. The variance requested will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects on the neighborhood or community. And while the alleged uh difficulty is self-created, you purchased it that way, but it it is yours, but that is only one of the factors to be considered by the board in making its decision and is not determinative. Uh approval of the proposed variance would be subject to the following conditions. The applicant shall use their best efforts to ensure that a building permit is issued within one year of the board's approval of this variance and then diligent diligently pursue such construction to completion.

It's already there. It's just Well, they're they're rehabbing. Okay. Yeah. Okay. You were doing some rehab uh insulation as I recall. Yeah. Rehab. Um I don't believe we need an asbuilt survey because the property is already indicated. Are you increasing the size at all? No. No. the footprint, everything's basically the same. Okay. Then what we would do is instead of asking for a total new survey, is it possible to get just that little area surveyed um of you know that you're doing to um indicate that it's all stated within the same in the same parameter?

Do you understand what I'm saying? A surveyor would just look at that one little area and make sure that nothing's moved or changed or gotten larger. Not redoing the entire not not redoing the entire survey. Yeah. I'm just thinking because it basically there's no like the out exterior walls and the foundation are are staying in place. It's really only the ridge line and insulation that's being changed. So Okay, I take I'll take it back then. I'll take it back. Never mind that. I have to have a survey. Yeah, we don't have a survey. We have a site plan. A survey? Yeah. All I have is a site plan. If you don't have a survey, we need a survey. Oh, okay. The survey of the house when you

And if you have a survey, an actual from a survey. Yeah, we do. We had one done when we purchased the house. That would be December 2024. That I I sent it into I want to say his name was Jeff. I think he maybe worked for Al. Um, but he came by the house at one point and asked for the survey. Okay. If you have the survey, we just need the survey at the end. Yeah. Okay. If not. Yeah. All right. And and I and I neglected before I do anything with um Howard's motion is to um indicate that Ralph Fletcher, who I guess is your neighbor, uh wrote a letter in favor of your putting allowing you to do what you want to do.

Oh, great. Saying that I believe that was a neighbor Kim was speaking about that said, "I didn't even know it was there." Saying that he's lived there for 40 years and didn't know that it was there. Yeah, that's when I was actually. Okay. Good neighbors. That's right. And that the uh variance is granted in accordance with the uh application. Agree my motion. I'll second that. Um just want to make sure they're in. So what are we okay with? Just put an update. As long as we get serial survey with the army, we're good. And if not, what? Come on up.

Just in time, Mr. Stern. Yes, Mr. Ms. Lee. Yes. Mr. Van Loverin. Yes. Mr. McCallis. Yes. You got it. Enjoy the shed. Thank you so much. Thank you. Welcome to the neighborhood. Thank you. Did you go into that one? Okay. Did you check? What's that? I did not.

Where am I? Omar Pom is seeking a variance of article 3 section 125-11 and article 5 section 125-50 for 67 Park Avenue Beverage Hills section block and lot 6010-4-9 in the residential quarteracre zoning district to permit an already built two-story addition to a pre-existing legal non-conforming residence which received a variance on January 6, 2022. 2. Resolution 01-22 for a sideyard setback of 8 ft to the enclosure for the fireplace and a combined sideyard setback of 23 ft which resulted in a sideyard setback of 7.5 ft to the enclosure for the fireplace where 15 ft is required. And the combined sideyard setback resulted in 22.4 ft where 35 ft is required in the residential quarteracre zoning district. Good evening.

Yeah, good evening. Um, my name is Omar Pulma. I'm the home homeowner.

Okay. So, basically the reason why I'm seeking a variance is because uh uh I just finished renovating my house. I got a variance uh back in January 2022 for a side yard setback of 8 ft to the enclosure of the fireplace. Um but then when construction was finalized um the size setback was 7.5 feet that's like a half foot short

and um uh mostly the reason for this is when I got the permit I use an old survey all property survey that they show a setback of 10 ft from the property line to the house and when I got the as build survey actually show a the difference. So, I'm sure like a 9.6 or 9.7 which is was a little off like close to 6 in. So, now I have this issue that I'm trying to fix. You see, he went off of the old uh survey and then when a new survey came out as we've had this before in the past,

it turned out that there was an error, you know, what you still need to come before you make it official. So, is this an amendment of a of an exist of a of a variance? Um, it was a variance that was granted and it's a different number. So, yeah. So, we can get rid of the old one and make this a new one. We could do that or we could make it. This is incredibly sensitive in the sense that I'm look I'm looking at this 7.5 and the lines which to me don't look any different but the next line down says 9.9 which is you know I mean just

it's like oh my god this is why we also when we do it we always say we want the survey at the end again after work because there's stuff that comes in and if you're the person doing the work then you're responsible for it but also things happen and so it's better if it gets cleaned up right away than someone trying to come 20th 30 years later to clean clean it up, you know, even if it's an oversight or an inadvertent error, which clearly in other words, the original survey.

Yeah, I that happens all the time. Surveying tech, you know, have gotten better in the calculations tools and stuff. Before we move on, I'll just pass on that um your neighbor Elizabeth Fry um at 63 Park Avenue um in Bedford Hills wrote saying that she thinks she's the one most affected by what you're doing and she has no problem with us approving this variance. Good. Anybody Anybody else have any questions? No. Anybody want to talk on the application? No. I have a motion to close the public hearing. I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. Second. All those in favor? I I public hearing is closed. Um Mary, do you want to make a motion?

Sure. I would move to approve the variance as requested. The benefits off by the applicant cannot be achieved by another means feasible to the applicant. Um as stated, he came in to get a variance to begin with to do the do the construction and work due to discrepancy in the uh original survey to now. There's now been a adjustment in calculations that essentially are causing the need for this variance. There will be no undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood or detriment to any of our properties. Again, this is consistent with the previously proved variance. None of the factors have changed other than the fact it's uh half a foot closer to the property line. Again, that that in itself is not substantial. The variance requested will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects to the neighborhood or community. The alleged difficulty um I would say is not self-created in that the applicant did seek a variance to do the work. There's with the updated survey that we are requiring it showed a change in terms of the sideyard setback and that resulted in in a different calculation as to the asbuilt condition um that had been constructed pursuant to the previous variance. Um the approval of the variance is subject to the following conditions. In this instance, I believe though the applicant has uh completed the work, the building department may issue those necessary certificate back and see our closure with regard to the construction particularly since we already have in fact a certified asbelt survey. That's what's prompted fact the variance to come before us. So that condition is not does not need to be reiterated here. The variance itself is granted in accordance with the updated um survey

survey 121325 received by us April 10th, 2026. All right. And this variance will in fact supersede the previously issued variance with regard to this setback in this property. I'll second that. Mr. Stern, yes. Miss Lee, yes. Mr. Van Loverren, yes. Miss Black, yes. Mr. Yes, you got it. Thank you, Mr. Take the extra set of plans. Yeah, the surveys. You're going to want that. Wait, where's my need? Hold on. Good luck. Thank you.

The cemetery. Could I get your contact for the cemetery? I need to take a walk over here. forward. Yeah. Good to know. One more when I think we have one more, but if you want to pass it to me, it's fine. So cool. Oh, you like it. Do we have one more? We have one more. Can I get your contact? Where's the person on Zoom? So, we need to make him a panelist. No, I'd like to get in touch with you.

Okay. Firesteam Management, Inc. seeking a variance of article 1, section 83-6 and 6 for 262 Kona Avenue, Kona, section block and lot 49.19-2-9 on the town tax map in central business zoning district to permit overnight construction activities for the purpose of refurbishing the interior of an existing bank between the hours of 5:00 p.m. through midnight for a period of approximately 4 weeks where noise produced by construction activities is prohibited on holidays in between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. Good evening.

Good evening everyone. Uh thank you for staying. Uh I'm still here at work and I appreciate you guys staying here and uh listening to this for me as we start uh June 15th. Um this refurbishment project is predominantly marketing removal and replacement. Uh so the reason that we uh we do these projects at night is so the bank can maintain day-to-day operations without any sort of interference. Um regarding noise, very very minimal noise. And as far as the uh working on holidays, we will not be working on any holidays. That's good. It's our birthday.

Uh there there won't be any uh dumpster on site. Uh we're removing old furniture uh such as chairs and adding new furniture such as chairs, desks, and uh those line stansions. Uh we do have carpet removal and replacement. Uh there will not be any new lighting in the branch. Uh like I said, very minimal noise. uh only hand tools and paint brushes. Um no jackhammers or anything like that. Uh this is set for a 4-week project, but we imagine it will be less than that. Um we will only be working from 5:30 p.m. when the bank closes until midnight. And like I said, we won't be working on holidays. And our intended start date is for 6:15 2026.

Have you notified your neighbors of the plans that could do this uh work? Yes, we have. Well, we sent out letters uh to whoever um Miss Bolski gave us the um the addresses for. Um, I did look on Google Maps and it shows that the only resident in the area is 450 ft away. That's the closest one. Everything else is uh commercial from what I've seen on Google Maps. Um, you mentioned here that you're doing mill work as well in the break room. For the mill work, are you using saws and the like for that or is it being cut and prepped and brought out to the site and just installed?

Yeah, so it's uh cut to measure. Uh the mill work is uh two cabinets I believe and uh that that would be um already installed. It's it's going to be fit already. So the only installing we'll be doing uh is you know a drill. Okay. Um okay to just to get it fastened into there. Okay. Got it. Is there anyone in the audience on the Zoom call that wanted to speak on this application? Nobody left on Zoom but Mr. Steble. No one's there. I have a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. All those in favor?

I public hearing is closed. So this application does not have to go to planning. It's just through zoning. It's just hours. It's really the first one I've seen through construction. Want to make a motion? Roger. I mean, my concern always is not what happens inside, but all of the back and forth, inside and out, and slamming of doors, but this downtown. Yeah, it is. And it'll be over by midnight. So, I I think maybe the only thing that I would make note of is to the extent there is large removal like we're do you're doing dump putting stuff in dumpsters and the like and that that type. No, you said no dumpsters.

Yeah, I sure dumpsters. Um, as for any doors, uh, we will do we've done five per week. for the last seven months. Um so our workers are very aware uh working at night means to be more than careful with uh um noise levels. Okay. And then the disposal of the carpeting and flooring and any substrate materials. What is the plan for that? Uh that will not go in any uh bank uh I'm sorry, Wells Fargo dumpster. We take all of that away um daily.

Okay. Uh when I when I get to work uh at 7:30 in the morning, I have my guys um unloading the truck in the parking lot. So Okay. Okay. I I think the only not notice that people will have is there will be lights on in the building, you know, and so not the norm lights. Yeah. That's correct. Yes. I I don't have any problems. I don't have any problems. Roger's going to do something. All right. I'm going to give it a try. Um, I'll make a motion to approve variant seat uh for um the uh what who is it? Who is it actually for for the Wells Fargo?

Wells Fargo Bank uh 262 294 Katona Avenue in the zoning district um CB. Um the benefits sought by the applicant cannot be achieved by another means feasible to the applicant. Um this this kind of work needs to be done in uh off hours as it is a bank that needs to stay open. Um there will be no undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood or detriment to the nearby properties. This is action not not change of the exterior or of the or the neighborhood um appearance. The variance requested is uh not substantial and the variance requested will not result in any adverse physical or environmental effects to the neighborhood or community and the alleged difficulty is not is self created um as the work is being done by choice but that's is only one of the factors to be considered by the board in making its decision and not determinative. Approval of the proposed variance would be subject to the following conditions. Neither neither of those is applicable, but I think that the applicant will abide by the variance granted as far as the hours work and the time frame provided by the applicant for the variance. He would refer to the timing hours there.

What she says, I'll second that.

Mr. Stern, yes. Miss Lee, yes. Mr. Van Loverin. Yes. M Black, Mr. Macallen. Yes, you got it. Good luck. I appreciate everyone's time. Uh, if I could say one other thing, uh, the eggs benedict at Bedford Diner when I dropped off the application, 10 out of 10. Thank you very much, everyone. Where was that one? Bedford Diner. Diner. Thank you. Have a good day. Thank you so much. Everyone get home safe. Enjoy enjoy their night. Thanks. Any other uh any other uh discussion on anything? I just have a a point. We all got an email about going to a meeting on May 24th or something.

Oh, there's a there's a an appreciation day for people who serve on board. It sounds like they want to have an opportunity to share and I know we have some issues that were share what it sounded like to me like it was a sharing discussion between boards that that's that several board members have asked for and I thought that might be the opportunity if that comes up to talk about some of the issues that keep coming to us. It's with you know the board will be there. We have the four or five issues that keep returning that we were talking about potential zoning revisions. You know what I mean? Yeah,

to to improve the let's say efficiency of our board. So, um I think we should just have a short list of the kind of things that you know we talked about signage. Uh there are several recurring and um so I I just got that the other day. I didn't I think it's just appreciation days. There was also something about training. Yes, there were there was after the meeting there was going to be some training for the board in secret. Well, there there are training that you have to do for um sexual harassment and workplace violence and other stuff like that is this is about seeker program. This is all New York State stuff now. So, and some seeker stuff. Yeah, they said they want to do seeker record. That would be good, too.

Sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I just uh I don't You can come up with a list of stuff. I knew you were going to ask that. Yeah. No, I I know what you want. Um I know what we want. The the uh item that was supposed to be on the agenda tonight has been postponed. So we are we expecting that today? Oh, I can bring up a little date on that. Um come again. The um I was I I I uni uh unilaterally decided that we would postpone that discussion because there were people I asked to get involved to try to get the neighbors to talk to each other and this go away. I'm my understanding is it looks like it's a very good chance they're going to deal with it themselves and withdraw the application. Salem.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was going to ask, you know, because they still have to be neighbors at the end of all of this. And so my my analogy is a little bit like I mean the way that the Pope's resolution was written, it's like okay or we're going to tell the neighbor uh that there are speed limits, but we're not going to exactly say how fast. Use your own judgment. In other words, is it going to have enough meat if we if we even impose? Well, the way I it was left the way my understanding it's been left is they're going to talk and if and if one side or the other is not happy, then it will be back before us. And I'm assuming they're going to try to resolve it

and then we we have extensive analysis of that that was provided. And so that that was interesting as well. and and that would be potentially a solution on the board. But we don't if they resolve it themselves, we don't have to do any. Do we still have to vote on Al's decision? No, that'll just it won't go away. It won't hit what Al decided won't go away, but we we're not going to be asked to appine on it because the application will have been withdrawn. Oh, okay. Great. I think that's

a good solution. Okay. You should run for a polit. Can I have sorry can I have a motion? We're going to adjourn now to Wednesday, June 3rd. And Roger had something. No, that was the same thing. I was going to ask why. He may or may not be able to be on Can I have a second? All those all those in favor? Hi. See you guys on June.