by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Planning Board currently has before it a proposal to build ten small cabins for short term rental on a site at 193 East Hollow Road in Petersburgh. The proponent of the project is named Becca Benvie, and the design so far has been done by McGiver Design Services of Cobleskill. Although this is described as luxury camping, sometimes called “glamping,” the ten units will be permanent residential structures with bathrooms, heat and electricity. A new driveway will be constructed, and a small bridge, because a stream runs through the property and four of the units are on the other side of the stream from the driveway.
The first public hearing held a few weeks ago did not have a quorum of Planning Board members present so it was not a valid public hearing. But since people came to speak, they held an unofficial meeting. There were both positive and negative comments, but the neighbors are mostly in opposition, some of them vehemently so.
A new public hearing was scheduled for Monday, October 25. This time there was a quorum of the Planning Board, but there was some confusion because the newspaper notice said that it started at 6:30 pm while the Town website and the sign outside the Town Hall both said it started at 7 pm.
Former Planning Board Chairman Tim Church came to the hearing and asked if the neighbors had been notified by certified mail of the time and place of the Public Hearing. Acting Planning Board Chair Janet Spitz said no—notice was given through the newspaper ad, the Town website and the sign at Town Hall. Church said notices to abutters are necessary, and also said that the newspaper notice must appear ten days before the hearing, but the notice in the Eastwick Press appeared on October 22, only three days before the meeting.
Then Tom Berry asked if the Planning Board had received a letter from someone at DEC about bats who may need to be protected. Spitz said no, and Berry got the Clerk Beth Dare to find it and print it, and gave it to Spitz. She said it was the first she had seen of it, and read it aloud to the meeting.
The message, apparently addressed to the Petersburgh Supervisor, was from Patrick Donnelly of DEC, who said he is usually the contact person for Planning Boards in Rensselaer County concerning SEQR declarations and permitting issues. He said a “concerned citizen” had contacted him about the project on East Hollow Road in Petersburgh. He said DEC owns land that abuts the proposed project and they would like to see the EAF and the project description in order to evaluate whether DEC would like to comment or get involved. He mentioned that stormwater or wastewater permits may be required and there may be some concern about brown bat habitat in the area and regulations protecting those bats.
Church said he thought the Public Hearing would have to be held yet again if DEC is an abutting landholder, since they seem to have concerns about the project and they have not even been notified yet.
Despite the notice problems, quite a few of the neighbors came to the meeting and once again expressed a lot of opposition to the project. They are concerned that it might affect their water or their ability to hunt in the neighborhood, or that garbage might be left unsecured and attract nuisance wildlife.
The Public Hearing lasted a little over an hour, and then the Planning Board began its regular meeting. The Board voted to wait until next month’s meeting to vote on the matter, so that in the meantime they could send out letters to abutters, consult with DEC, speak with Rensselaer County Dept. of Health Chief Rich Elder and hold another (properly noticed) public hearing.
The Board then nominated and voted in Janet Spitz as Planning Board Chairperson, and Brandon deWaal as Deputy Planning Board Chairperson. Spitz has been acting Chairperson for many months and she suggested that the Board should name an actual Chair rather than continuing for a long time with an Acting Chair.