Snow Removal. (See Town Board, April 15, 2025.) The Board repealed the law that limited the sidewalk snow removal requirement from streets only in the “snow removal district,” and voted in favor of a second revised law that will require sidewalk snow removal on ALL streets 12 hours after the end of the snow event.
Battery Storage (BESS). The Board opened and closed a hearing on a proposed law that would ban commercial BESS systems but left open a 10 day period for written comments. There were speakers on both sides of the issue with residents citing the dangers the systems presented and supporters explaining the system’s safety features and why the systems were needed.
Accessory Dwelling Units. The Board opened and closed a public hearing on six changes to the existing law but held off on a vote in order to accommodate a slight revision in the law dealing with ADUs in existing detached structures. (See the video link below for an explanation of the six changes.) The change will require the detached structure to have been in existence for five years instead of two as in the existing code. (Note: When the Board makes a slight change to a proposed law, the revised version needs to be on the desk of Board members for seven days before it can be voted on.)
In response to comments about the potential negative impact ADUs might have on a neighborhood, there were other comments that highlighted the provisions in the existing law designed to protect neighborhood character, including the ability of the Zoning Board to deny a special permit for an ADU if it felt the ADU would negatively impact a neighborhood.
Route 118/Underhill Avenue Improvements. (See Town Board, April 15, 2025.)
In a series of votes approved mostly in a 4-1 vote, the Board:
- Awarded bids for the reconstruction of the intersection ($1,053,221) and traffic light upgrade ($315,526).
- Authorized the supervisor to sign an Agreement with Underhill Soundview LLC that shares the cost of the project. The town will contribute $543,032 and the developer will pay the balance of the cost. The agreement includes a provision that if Senator Harckham is able to obtain state funds for the project, the first $75,000 of any grant would go to the developer; anything over $75,000 and up to $200,000 would be split evenly between the developer and the town.
- A budget transfer of $551,166 from the General Fund fund balance to a capital project line to cover the town’s share.
Councilwoman Siegel voted against, or abstained from some of the votes as she had concerns that without any Board discussion, the Agreement did not include two options in the initial bid: reducing from four to two, the number of pedestrian crosswalks and traffic light controls on all four corners of the intersection for a savings of $96,000, and the omission of the option that would have required milling and resurfacing for a portion of Underhill Avenue opposite Town Hall. She also questioned why state grant money would be given to a private developer.
Solar. The Board set May 20 for a public hearing on amendments to the Solar Law that would limit large scale solar farms to commercial properties as an accessory use. During the Public Comment portion of the agenda, speakers spoke and against the proposed change.
Transparency of fiscal records. In her opening comments, Councilwoman Siegel expressed concern that the town has ended a 16 year practice of uploading its monthly expense and vendor reports to the town’s website. She said that while the information was available by FOIL, making it available online was easier for residents and more efficient for town employees. In response, Supervisor Lachterman said one reason for the change was that someone had improperly used information from the vendor file.
In a second transparency issue, she explained that the actual percentage increase in the 2025 tax rate was 7.4%, not 6.6%, as shown in the April tax bill and in the 2026 budget adopted in December. The mistake, she said, stemmed from the town using the wrong assessed value figure when it calculated the tax rate. She asked the supervisor to explain why the wrong number was used. No answer was forthcoming.
A video of the almost five hour meeting is available at
https://yorktownny.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1958