Navajo Fields/Hidden Valleys. After the applicant notified the town on Sunday that he was withdrawing his application, the Board pulled from the agenda a planned resolution that would have denied the applicant’s request to be included in the Lake Osceola Overlay District. There were no comments from Board members.
In a related issue, the Board voted 4-1, with Councilwoman Siegel in dissent, on a resolution addressing what appeared to be the applicant’s failure, to date, to reimburse the town for a $6,000 expense related to the town’s review of the development’s traffic study. The resolution authorized the supervisor “to recoup the cost from the applicant at a later date through appropriate measures available to the Town.” The supervisor did not elaborate what those measures might be.
Solar Law. The Board referred out for comment a new version of the law that would ban large scale ground mounted solar installations in residential zones, set criteria for large scale systems allowed as an accessory use in nonresidential zones – and – grandfather in the two pending projects.
While Councilwoman Siegel had several comments about textual problems in the proposed law and suggested the Board fix them before referring out the draft, the Board decided to refer out the current version and consider text changes once all the comments come back and the Board sets a public hea4eing on a possibly revise version of the law.
The major text issues raised by Ms. Siegel dealt with the grandfathering clause. Specifically, what criteria would apply to the grandfathered projects: those in the existing law or the criteria in the proposed new law. While the text did not address the issue, Councilwoman Haughwout said it would be the new criteria. The new criteria changes setbacks, height of panels, screening and lot coverage.
A second issue that applied to the grandfather clause dealt with the provision that there could not be any future development on the remainder of the property. Here again, Councilwoman Siegel asked for clarification: Did the restriction apply just to battery storage facilities or any type of development. The attorney said the former.
Other text issues included the need for a definition of the term “mature tree” and suggestions on formatting that she said would make for more clarity.
Both Councilwoman Siegel and Councilman Esposito said they were against grandfathering. Councilwoman Haughwout supported grandfathering. Supervisor Lachterman and Councilman Murphy were silent on the issue.
Recreation Fee (See Town Board, August 12, 2025.) The Board decided not to refer out a proposed local law after it became apparent that Board members had not received a copy of the proposed law. Councilwoman Siegel said she would reserve her questions until she had a copy of the proposed law to review. The Board may discuss the proposed law at next week’s work session.
Veterans/Downing Streetscape. The Board postponed a vote to advertise an RFP for the design of the long delayed streetscape project until the Planning Department completed the text of the RFP and the Board had a chance to review it.
Recycling. Phil Marino, head of the Refuse and Recycling Department, advised the Board that the town is losing money on several of its recycling activities when it should be providing those services at cost. He recommended the following changes based on his department’s current costs. The changes will require a Board resolution in the Master Fee Schedule.
- Leaf bags. From 40 cents to $1.05
- Recycle bin: From free to $4 to replace a damaged bin and $8 for an additonal bin
- Special bulk pickup: From $60 to $90.
Tanto Irrigation. The Board referred out an application to amend the approved site plan for a development on Front Street across from UPS that was never built. The initial plan called for a one story building for commercial use and a two story building with commercial use on the first floor and five apartments on second floor. The new plan eliminates the one story building; the site will now be used as a parking lot for the owner’s trucks. The second building will be for storage and the business’s office with no apartments.
Sensory Garden. (See Town Board, April 8, 2025) Councilwoman Siegel raised questions about the apparent lack of progress on the plans for the sensory garden and suggested that it might be time for the Town Board to get more involved, specifically to decide whether it supported including a splash pad water feature in the plan and to what extent the Board was ready to spend town funds on the project if an anticipated anonymous donor was not prepared to cover the cost of the project – with a partial budget currently estimated at about $250,000.
Steep slopes. Councilwoman Siegel, following up on a memo she sent to the Board, asked her colleagues to schedule a work session discussion on her suggestion that the Board consider adopting a law regulating development on environmentally steep slopes.
Emergency Alert Systems. In a follow up to July 15 discussion about the town’s emergency alert procedures, Councilwoman Siegel raised the issue of should the town add a voice alert capability to its current Nixle text and email alert service. She pointed out that some residents turn their cell phones off at night. While the town can use the county’s system to send out voice alerts (unlike the town’s Nixle program, the county’s system has both cell and landline numbers), for an extra $2,000/year the town could control the voice alert system. She suggested to Board discuss the issue at a future work session
Public access TV channel. Optimum residents were reminded that Channel 20 has moved to Channel 1313.
A video of the meeting is available at
yorktownny.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1994