Grafton Planning Board Action – Can You Canoe?

by Kieron Kramer
At the Grafton Planning Board meeting on Monday, February 28, David Buckley asked the Board about the procedures for establishing a new business in Grafton. He said he would like to start an outfitting business that would sell and rent canoes and kayaks as well as selling other outdoor items. As an homage to Grafton’s tradition of outdoor activities Buckley thinks he will call it Graftondack Outfitters and Boat Livery, Graftondack being a merging of Grafton and Adirondack. Buckley’s outdoor supplier, Mountain Man Outdoor Sports, is an established company in the Adirondacks, he said in a telephone interview after the meeting. He thinks the business might catch on in Grafton because of the plans for the future use of the State Parks in the area and the awareness of the environment encouraged by the programs at the Dyken Pond Center and the activities on the Rensselaer Plateau.
Buckley will rent space on Ray Darling’s property on Route 2 where Darling’s construction company is located, the site of the former Old Partners Inn. It will be a seasonal business, and Buckley said he expects to hire two part time employees during the season and have one full time employee. He said he would give discounts to Grafton residents who patronize his business.
Planning Board Chairman Tom Withcuskey told Buckley that the Town welcomes new business and that even though a site plan review is necessary it should be a pretty simple process because the proposal is for a retail business and not for a business, like a gas station, that might involve hazardous waste. The site plan is needed even though the property has already been used for commercial purposes because there is a change of use. “It’s not a big deal,” Withcuskey said. Withcuskey suggested that he visit the site and discuss the plans with Buckley and Darling in order “to get building inspection issues behind us.” Withcuskey is also the Town’s Code Enforcement Officer.
Buckley asked the Board about the procedure for getting his proposal on the agenda for the next meeting and was told that if  an application is filed ten days before the next meeting it would be put on the agenda. Presumably, after meeting with Withcuskey, a plat, a business description and plans for signage and parking will be included in the application. The next Grafton Planning Board meeting is on March 21 at 7 pm in the Town Hall.
Another informal inquiry Monday evening was made by Wes Vars, who wants to subdivide his property to provide a 3.68 acre lot for his son to build on. Vars was told by Withcuskey that this would qualify as a simple subdivision because the property has not been subdivided before. However, because the resulting lot will be under 5 acres it will need to be inspected by the County Health Department to see if it can accommodate a septic system. This will include an inspection of slope and a perc test. The lot will also have to provide room for the necessary setbacks from abutting properties. If the subdivision were 5 acres or more, Withcuskey said, the subdivision could be approved right away and the septic and setback issues addressed when and if building plans are made. The implication is that a 5 acre lot provides enough area to accommodate these requirements. Withcuskey said that the County Health Department will not entertain doing an inspection until April 15 or so because of the weather and the groundwater in very early spring. In any event Vars will need a survey map of the new parcel.
Withcuskey suggested that Vars and his son meet with him to “go over the paperwork” and visit the property. “It should be a simple process,” he said. When Vars started bemoaning the need to hire a lawyer to sort out the survey, he was advised by Board members just to get a surveyor to separate the parcel on the original survey map, which can be done with a computer program. “You  will want to flag it eventually,” Board Member Jim Goyer said.
Other than these two informal inquiries there was only a brief update of the property on Fire Tower Road that is being subdivided. The deed, expanding the lot size to provide a 50 foot frontage, has been updated.
Planning Board Member Owen Grandjean was absent from the meeting.
The only new business on the agenda was an application by Terry Lamphere for a minor subdivision on Taconic Lake Road, but he didn’t come to the meeting because the maps needed for the application to proceed were not ready. So no official business was decided at this meeting. There were two votes taken. One accepted the minutes of the previous meeting as read to the Board by Planning Board Secretary Jessica Crandall. The other was the vote to adjourn at 7:15 pm.