Planning Board - Special Meeting

Okay, good evening, everyone. I'd like to call the Town of Rochester Town Board special meeting to order. It's Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026. We're getting started a little bit late at 5.42 p.m. If you could all stand.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Councilwoman Alba. Here. Councilman Coleman.

Here.

Councilman Sapson. Councilman Nguyen. Here. Supervisor Nguyen.

I'm here. Our first item on the agenda is the acceptance of the agenda. Just want to make sure the board's okay with the agenda. I added two more items than what we originally scheduled, but it should be pretty quick.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion carries. Okay, just for future reference, when we're scheduling right after after school, we should not ever start at 530. So that's why we're a little late because the after school was still going on and we don't enter the room when they're still doing that. So apologies for that. So we convened this meeting tonight because we were having a discussion about the Verizon cell tower project at our last meeting. That was on our agenda because I had received correspondence from the planning board secretary regarding the secret determination that was issued by the planning board. And in that communication I received, it talked about involved agencies commenting by June 8th. And at our first May meeting, I had just gotten that correspondence and was a little confused by it because I didn't remember that we were an involved agency. And at our first May business meeting, I said, I'm going to get clarification on this because if we're being asked to comment, then we have the opportunity to comment on this. The clarification on that I discussed at our last meeting, which was last Thursday, May 28th, which is that we received that correspondence because in the law, the town supervisor is to receive that correspondence as a informational correspondence, not as an invitation to comment. When I did describe that to the board, some board members expressed an interest in commenting because the public comment, the public hearing for the Verizon cell tower project is still open. So first, I wanted to, I guess, open with that and see how everyone is still feeling about this thing.

I think that issuing a comment for this now, first of all, I think that the amount of public I THINK THAT MOST OF THE POINTS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE IN TOWN BOARD MEETINGS HAVE ALSO BEEN MADE DIRECTLY TO THE PLANNING BOARD, BUT I THINK WE WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE, ACTING RESPONSIBILITY TO PASS ON THE WRITTEN COMMENTS THAT WE'VE RECEIVED TO THE PLANNING BOARD. I DON'T THINK THAT IT'S APPROPRIATE FOR US TO COMMENT OR TO UNDO ANYTHING THAT IS SUBJECTIVE. giving an opinion of what we think they should do, nor should we give them anything that even hints at any sort of instruction, because that is a violation of their independent rights as an independent body. I would think that it could be useful for us to send a note along the lines of we would like you to make to the planning board saying that we would like to make you aware of the comments that we have received from the public. And here is what we received without any comment or instruction or anything else. Further, I think that the if we were to do anything further than that, I think would be counterproductive in terms of potential litigation. And it could be construed as sort of command authority over a decision that we technically have the ability from time to time to point members to.

Yeah, I think it's important to Maybe a distinction between what we may feel personally about the cell phone tower and about what is appropriate for us to comment as a board and not to create to money that because that could end up being damaging to any possible future litigation. I just kind of want to make that clear to the public, but I would like to underscore what's always says.

yeah i agree with what everyone's saying um the secret determination is under the purview of the planning board this has been an application they've been working on for over a year at this point um so i trust that they've gone through each They've received extensive comments. They've done a lot of studies on this. So I think they have the background to be able to make the determination. And this isn't a final determination on the project either. This is a determination on safety. So there's still additional site plan review that's happening. There's still possibilities that this will change. But I agree with everyone that I don't think this board should be weighing in on a decision by an independent board that we've established in town that we appointed members to.

Okay. I agree 100% that we shouldn't weigh in. I was going to suggest that if the board did want to issue anything that we should be issuing a response to the public outreach we've received not to the planning board. Because I think a lot of the onus for this is on us to be more aware of this type of use, the proximity particularly to residential dwellings. So I think to me, making it clear that that is our purview not the planning board um you know i've tried i said that at the last meeting but um so i do agree that we should not be weighing in um so i guess the question is is that does the board support sending a simple correspondence of exactly what council member when suggested

So does that mean not taking like a summary of received comments like we were discussing or but just generally giving like that summary. I think what Councilman when we're going around forwarding what we received.

Yeah. Are you okay with that? Okay, so I'm too likely to give you the draft minutes from the last meeting. All in common. Yeah. And we have until June 8th. So I can. Oh, is that Monday? Yeah. What? Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. I can work with you on it too.

So do you need a resolution? Yes. Yeah. So I move that we authorize the town supervisor to draft a cover letter accompanying comments that we have received at town board meetings and

the planning board related to the verizon um cell tower application any discussion um i will probably just verbatim say what you said um all in favor aye opposed 15 motion carries any further i would just like to say first off i think the location is

last meeting that we do need to do a thorough review to prevent future applications of this engine.

Yeah. Any industrial installations, for example, data centers was something that we talked about addressing possibly. I think we've already requested.

PB, Peter Vitale PB, Peter Vitale Q&A to ask us. PB, Peter Vitale Q&A to ask us.

PB, Peter Vitale Q&A to ask us. So we have two more agenda items. The next one is the bid advertisement for the voicemail bridge replacement project. We received the approval from the Department of Transportation on Monday. The schedule for this is incredibly tight. So if the board is comfortable, we can issue the opening and closing dates Um, that I have listed, if you're not comfortable, if you wanted more time to review that 83 page document, um, we can do it at the next meeting. It just pushes everything, uh, like a week later.

So yes, I am comfortable with the dates.

I reviewed them with, um, Kate to make sure she's comfortable with them. This was the recommendation of our engineering consultant. And in the document, the 8762.64 proposal, the only change to that document would be inserting these dates.

Move that we adopt the resolution to be presented. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. With that, I'll make a motion that the Town of Rochester Town Board enters into executive session at 5.53 for the purpose of matters pertaining to the litigation of the Town of Rochester versus Richard S. Miller. Any discussion? Second. All in favor?

Oh, sorry. Second. I think I need the motion and Michael.

Okay. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. I've invited Faith, who is part of this, to say a few words.