Special Planning Board Work Session

Planning Board Special Work Session Wednesday Sept. 17, 2014
Report from notes taken by JDS

About six members of our group attended this review by the Planning Board of “changes to the substance and procedures “of the DF Code “related to the Architectural and Historic Review Board (AHRB) and related issues” was attended by six members of our group, a Rivertowns Enterprise reporter, and a developer-factotum. The work session was open to the public but not available for public comment.

Ed Plotkin, chairman of the Planning Board, presided over the workshop, which was held around a table in the Board Room. Village Attorney Darius P. Chafizadeh also contributed heavily to the approximately 65-minute discussion. Also present at the table were Robert Lane, a member of the Planning Board; Brian Cook, Building Inspector; and four others unknown to this reporter (presumably members of the Planning Board).

Plotkin explained that the issue under review was intended to clarify issues that would lighten the burden on applicants, who must now appear before a series of boards described as “the Roundtable” (apparently the same body subsequently described as the TAB or Technical Advisory Board) comprised of the Building Inspector, Department of Public Works, Fire Department, Police Department “etc.”) before appearing in sequence before the Planning, AHRB, and Board of Trustees in order to get final approval.

Consideration had previously been given to the possibility of abolishing the AHRB and blending its responsibilities with those of the Planning Board. “Single-family houses are pretty simple, but 66-68 Main Street is complicated, and a lot more like it are coming. Planning and the AHRB have to be on the same page for the wave of development that is coming,” Chafizadeh said. Lane stressed that “both boards are necessary,” and that the sequence in which an applicant submits plans must be established. Chafizadeh explained that the Planning Board addresses the site plan and can change the scope and massing of a project, and that the AHRB can affect the appearance (for example, ruling out either excessive similarity or excessive dissimilarity with nearby buildings; choice of exterior cladding and placing of windows, etc.). Upon being recommended by both boards (and by the ZBA, if any variance is required), the application goes to the Board of Trustees for final approval.


Workshop participants determined that the TAB will be abolished, and the Building Inspector will provide applicants with pertinent information regarding the building code, including the dimensions of the “envelope” (front, back, and side setbacks and the “sky exposure plane” or SEP--roughly, the height and shape of the roof, which is determined by a formula), ; the envelope defines the permissible space that may be enclosed on a given site. Applicants may then elect to proceed with a building that fits the code and therefore may be developed as of right, or they may request variance(s) from the Zoning Board of Appeals. If recommended by the ZBA (or if no variances are required), the application proceeds to the Planning Board, then to the AHRB, and then to the Board of Trustees for final approval.

Chafizadeh summarized the discussion: “The consensus is that we do want to keep the two boards (Planning and AHRB). The solution [to keeping both boards “on the same page”] is that one member of the AHRB will attend every meeting of the Planning Board, and one member of the Planning Board will attend every meeting of the AHRB.”
It was also agreed that small matters such as erecting a fence could be decided by the Building Inspector without going before a board.

In conclusion, Chafizadeh noted: “This session was to address the SEP. The next workshop will take up some other issues. Brian [the current Building Inspector] has certain dictatorial powers because he is…”—your reporter was unable to understand the words that followed. A date for the next workshop will be set either after the next Planning Board meeting, or at 7pm before the beginning of the next scheduled Planning Board meeting [Thursday October 2].

Lane expressed a lingering concern about the SEP: “How do we measure roof height, especially of a mansard roof? How do we measure average grade?”