by David Flint
The Stephentown Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) has been deliberating on Howard Commander’s proposal for a Motocross park in the south end of town since May of 2010. The regular meetings on this topic usually draw a sizable crowd from both the pro and the con side and the meeting on Tuesday of this week was no exception. It may be, however, that the ZBA is now actually approaching decision time. With the public comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement concluding on Tuesday, the project now moves to the final EIS stage.
[private]Craig Crist, the ZBA’s attorney, said that the ZBA as lead agency is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the final EIS and the Board must respond to all substantive comments received in the public comment period. The Board decides which comments are “substantive” and that is based on how relevant they are to identifying impact, mitigation and alternatives or whether they raise important environmental issues not previously addressed. The Board has 60 days to produce the final EIS, but that can be extended if necessary. There will be no public hearing on the final EIS and no comment period. The Board must just wait at least ten days after filing it before rendering their findings and decision on whether to grant a use variance to permit the Motocross park in a residential zone.
ZBA Chairman Roland Barth said that a “pile” of comments had been received, and he handed out thick packets of them to Howard Commander’s engineer, Pat Prendergast, his attorney, Francis Roche, and the attorney for opposing neighbors, Lewis B. Oliver. Comments were received from Oliver and from about 30 individuals as well as from the Mayor of East Nassau, the Supervisor of the Town of Chatham and Nancy Baker at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.
Expensive Fees Still Not Paid
Oliver protested that any consideration of Commander’s application be suspended until he has paid what he owes the Town for engineering and legal fees. Following up on comments made by Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt at the October Town Board meeting, Oliver said he had submitted a FOIL request and found that Commander has been billed $63,648 by the Town to pay for services rendered by CHA (Clough Harbour Associates) and by the Dreyer Boyajian law firm. According to the records the Town provided, he has paid only $27,934 of that and the last payment was made in December of 2011. If bills for the last two months are included, Oliver calculated that Commander now owes about $40,000. He was concerned that the Town would not be receiving the services necessary to properly assess environmental impact if these bills are not paid. ZBA members said this was a matter between the Town Board and Howard Commander and the ZBA has no jurisdiction to take any administrative action on it. They gave assurance, however, that Michael Bianchino at CHA is still working with the Board.
Oliver also took issue with a letter sent to the ZBA by Code Enforcement Officer Dean Herrick. In the letter Herrick reiterated his position that no set-back variance is required or needed for the access road to the proposed Motocross park or berms alongside it despite the fact that it is within 25 feet of a neighboring property. Herrick had previously argued that Town regulations make an exception for necessary driveways. Last June Oliver filed an Article 78 proceeding challenging the ZBA’s decision to support Herrick on this. A judge later ruled that the challenge was premature since the ZBA had not yet decided to grant a use variance permitting the project at all. Oliver said now that if the Board decided to consider this recent unsolicited advice from the Code Enforcement Officer he would immediately file another appeal.
The Board passed a resolution authorizing CHA to review and categorize the comments received on the Draft EIS, make recommendations to the Board on their “substantive” nature and forward this information to Commander’s team to assist in preparing the final Environmental Impact Statement.
Crist said the comments would be sent immediately to Bianchino for his review. The Board will meet again in January at their regular time, 7 pm, on the first Thursday, January 3.
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