By Peter Calvert
Present: Planning Board: Frank Winkler, Chair, Joanne Callahan, Alex Adelson, Art Reed, Jim Darling, and Bill Palmer. Assisted by Kristen Janke Schneider, County Planning Board and Jo Ann Boerner, Clerk.
The Planning Board met Oct. 13th at 7:34 pm. Public Hearings on Minor subdivisions and Boundary adjustments and a Special Use Permit. One new Special Use Permit application was presented. Dean and Irene Marchetto were approved to subdivide properties they own at the end of Coulter Road behind the Post Office and near the Andes Cemetery. Kay Winner and Asa Winner requested a minor subdivision and boundary line adjustment on their Shaver Hollow Road properties and it was approved.
Special Use Permit Applications: Roger Casas purchased the property at 40 Lee Lane, a private road, just behind Two Old Tarts and he will convert the house into three units: two apartments above and one living unit below where he will dwell and will create three parking spaces side by side within his land to accommodate the additional occupancy. A neighbor, Dan Redden, spoke requesting the right of way to his property be respected. Following discussion it was determined the right of way would indeed be respected and the Special Use Permit was approved.
New Application: Photographer Joe Damone presented a Special Use Permit application to transform his garage next to his house on Delaware Avenue in the Hamlet into a Photo Studio. He has ample parking spaces for the occasional visitor that might use his services. The town code enforcement officer needs to rule if the adjustments to the building’s use are defined as “minor” or “major” Home Occupation. If the ruling favors this project, the Planning Board will waive the Public Hearing. They provisionally approved Joe Damone’s Photo Studio.
A case from the September meeting involving a foreclosed property at 626 Jones Hollow Road that was brought by Bill Walsh, Attorney, on behalf of the Delaware National Bank, will now be sent to a Public Hearing in November. The original property of 2.6 acres was secured by a mortgage by the Bank but the property owners applied and received a boundary line adjustment connecting 5.2 adjoining acres to the mortgaged property. As it is not on the bank’s deed following subsequent foreclosure, the bank is now seeking to disengage the 5.2 acres from the 2.6 acres to allow a clean title on the original 2.6 acre property.
Following these actions, the Planning Board heard a complaint about Joshua Brown’s potentially unauthorized commercial operation on Lower Dingle Hill Road. Three of his neighbors, David Levesque and Mark and Debbie Marciano, have observed Mr. Brown advertising online through “Joshua Brown Photography” for an unregistered camping site and “photo shoot and wedding venue.” They have observed fee-paying campers coming without local supervision or his presence onsite. They reported that he provides neither off-road parking nor a septic system for bathroom use within his property on a steep, wooded site bisected by a stream that feeds directly into the Pepacton Reservoir. Mr. Brown has shown them plans that he intends to expand the camp sites offered to 9 sites and has received visits from DEC investigating his cutting of trees that then fall into the stream. He has had his soil perked by DEP for a potential septic system as he exists with a buffer zone for the reservoir and it is unsure as to result of that soil test. The Planning Board listened to and understood the concerns and recommended as a next step that the Town Code Enforcement Officer, Artie Short, be notified as unauthorized commercial operations are under his jurisdiction.~