Tonight (2018-11-05) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls Planning Board.
Muffy finally got her answer tonight, which was good. Unfortunately, it was a no. Technically a positive declaration to the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR), but that is really a ‘yes, the answer is no’. Language can be confusing at times.
Before the Board voted, they discussed the Final Environmental Impact Statement. Focus seemed to be on how adding another lot (and the eventual house) would degrade the quality of the neighborhood and eventually ruin it altogether. Oversimplifying a long discussion here. I don’t agree with the Boards decision on this matter, but I am glad they have finally made one.
A few tidbits did come up in the discussion that I was glad to hear. First, that it’s a corner lot so it’s really a Peer street property. The majority of the Board felt that didn’t make enough difference, but I felt it important it was said. There is always a degree of subjectiveness on how much weight is placed on individual facts. I would have weighed this one higher, so was glad it wasn’t ignored.
Another was that flag lots are (apparently) undesirable, yet nothing in the code actually says you can’t make them. This might lead to a change in the code. While I happen to disagree on the worth of flag lots, there are enough other oddities in the code that I think it’s good others are looking at it with a mind towards improving it.
Precedent came up as well, and it was said that this case (yeah or nay) wouldn’t establish precedent. Which I thought was great, too many times ‘precedent’ is used as an excuse for bad rulings. A decision was about/between the parties involved. Unless another case is exactly the same, it’s wrong to say ‘in this other case we decided x, so we must also decide x here’. If it was that important then the underlying law should be changed. Until then, ‘we decided x there, but this is a completely different case, so that does not force our hand here’.
There was also discussion about having to document the findings of the case. I think this is good, as I feel the Village Planning/Zoning Boards have become poor at this. But then again, I do have different experiences on this topic. Still, good to hear they are looking at improving process. We can all stand to improve, as we can never be perfect.
I think the whole situation here can be summed up as change is hard, and it hurts.
I want to bring particular attention to Brian, the Board Chair. His third meeting (by my count) as Chair, and having to manage an unpleasant situation he was dropped into the middle of. His lack of experience shows at times, but I am impressed by how he handles it as well. There was a particular moment when the Board was deadlocked, as they were about to make a 2-2 tie vote. While no vote could have made everyone happy, I doubt a tie would leave anyone happy. Brian looked to his legal counsel for help, and used that legal explanation to keep the meeting going. Good job Brian.
The future owner of 59 East street was in to discuss expanding the barn that will soon be his. Don’t often get people in when they aren’t the owners, especially when it’s a residence (as opposed to a business). No approval was given, as there weren’t enough details for the Boards satisfaction. But they sounded like they liked what they heard, and were all for the guy enlarging his barn. Hopefully it will all go well on his next visit.
And the last agenda item was Ken about his Lemur‘s, as he puts it. Full disclosure: As said before, Ken is my landlord, therefor I am biased on this topic. Having said that, discussion was pretty straightforward. Ken requested and received permission to demolish his building. No one was happy about it, but no one had any better alternatives. The building has been neglected for too long (by previous owners). Current plan is to replace with parking, although full approval for that is still needed.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the November 5, 2018 meeting of the Honeoye Falls Planning Board.
Link to agenda on Village website, for whatever that is worth.