TOWN OF NORTH HARMONY
PLANNING BOARD
TUESDAY, 11/8/2022, 7:00 PM
MEMBERS PRESENT: PAT RICE PHIL STRAND
GARY WINGER JOHN WARNER
DICK JOHNSON
Brad Lawson – Zoning CEO
OTHERS PRESENT: Kelly Johnson, Attorney; Stephanie Gibbs, Deputy Clerk; Jody Sheldon, Clerk; Dick Sena
- PAT RICE OPENED THE MEETING AT 7:00 PM.
- MR. SENA GAVE TOWN REPORT.
Mr. Sena said this month the Planning Board meeting is before the Town Board meeting so there isn’t anything to report from the meeting. He said the Budget Public Hearing will be held 11/10/2022 at 6PM and the Town of North Harmony and the Town of Harmony will hold a joint public hearing on 11/29/2022 at 6PM on the Court Merger.
- MR. LAWSON GAVE ZONING REPORT.
Mr. Lawson said the town is up to 82 permits right now. He said he met with a representative about the old Mitchell Property that the town sold, and they are discussing a subdivision with single family homes. Mr. Lawson said their original plan had too many homes on it and it wouldn’t pass but the TC-2 district does not allow single family homes and that property is in the TC-2 district. He said a project like that will have to come to the Planning Board for a site plan review and be recommended to the Town Board for a Special Permit or they will have to come up with something different. Mr. Lawson said Sunshine Village has 3 new homes being installed and there is a large addition project going on in Quigley Park.
I-86 INTERCHANGE – TC DISTRICTS
Mr. Rice asked Mr. Lawson what changes he felt the board needs to take a look at for the TC districts.
Mr. Lawson said TC-1 is the area in Stow, TC 2 is the area around the Town Building, TC-3 is where the gravel pit is and TC-4 is the Hadley Bay area. He said he thinks everything looks good in those areas it just needs looked at with sewer coming into those areas and what we think will be a good fit in those areas. Mr. Lawson said in TC-2 you cannot have a single-family home, but a nursing home/rest home is allowed but senior housing is not allowed. Mr. Lawson said he doesn’t remember why a nursing home or rest home was allowed but not senior housing. He said multiple dwellings 2-5 units and 6 plus units, efficiency apartments, above commercial storefront are all options in the TC-2 area.
Mr. Strand said he feels in all four of the TC areas it should be required to have an architectural overview.
Mr. Lawson said section 404 talks about Tourist Commercial Development. He said it was put in as a guideline for developers to prevent a box structure. He said there are quit a few uses in the TC-2 district that are general businesses.
Mrs. Johnson said they will want something specific in the plan about how you want the business structures to look.
Mr. Winger said the Hadley Bay area already has commercial guidelines because of the entrance into the neighborhood. He said if other areas don’t have that they should be working on creating those
guidelines. He said maybe we can speak to someone that isn’t just a Planner but has an architectural back round.
Mr. Rice said he thinks Chautauqua Institution has some strict architectural guidelines.
Mrs. Johnson said they have more of an architectural history guideline that they follow.
Mr. Rice said towns like Lake Placid, Lake George, Saratoga Springs, and Cooperstown are nice areas and a good start to look at for guidelines.
Mrs. Johnson said some of those are still historic but Lake Placid leans more toward restoring their small businesses so they would be a good place to start looking.
Mr. Rice asked if we need to look at basic changes in the TC areas such as side setbacks and lot size.
Mr. Lawson said he doesn’t think a lot needs changed except for what they want the buildings to look like as in design which is discussed in section 404. He said they can just make changes to that section. He said the Fire Department and the Town Building can be examples of what they want the businesses to look like. Mr. Lawson said maybe we can get an architect to come in.
Mr. Rice said we can pull Lake Placid and Lake George as examples.
Mr. Strand ask if we could come up with a model on what we are looking for in each area just as a reference.
Mr. Lawson said you must take into consideration what properties are available. He said there isn’t much in the TC-1 area available and in Stow there isn’t many available properties either. He asked what the biggest complaint was from the Hadley Bay residents about the hotel coming into the neighborhood.
Mr. Sena said he thought the biggest complaint was people driving in and causing traffic. He asked if we could make Hadley Bay a gated community.
Mr. Lawson said a developer could. He said they were also concerned about people walking down and robbing their homes.
Mrs. Johnson said another complaint they had was looking up and seeing a hotel sitting there.
Mr. Strand said there are so many trees around the area he didn’t feel they would see to much of the hotel.
Mr. Warner asked how a hotel will maintain a residential character.
Mr. Lawson said you can make it look residential. He said if it was a serious concern the developer would make it look like what the town wants it to look like.
Mr. Warner said he knows an architect he can call and get some architectural thoughts for some direction.
Mr. Lawson said another topic we need to look into is lighting regulations. He said he has had some complaints about lights being too bright and has been asked if there were any regulations. He said right now we don’t have any regulations and we should look at it especially commercial lighting. Mr. Lawson said the Town of Ellicott has a regulation about lighting we can reference.
Mr. Strand said it is becoming a trend for the lights to be directed down, so it doesn’t affect the night sky. He said he feels it is something important to look into.
Next regular meeting scheduled December 12, 2022, at 7:00 P.M.
- MOTION
ON A MOTION MADE BY MR. JOHNSON, SECONDED BY MR. WARNER AND NONE BEING APPOSED, THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED AT 8:05 PM
Stephanie Gibbs
Deputy Town Clerk
