ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/PLANNING/PUBLICITY
COMMITTEE
Monday,
May 8, 2023 - 10:00 AM
Ike
Tyler, Chairperson
Roy
Holzer, Vice-Chairperson
Supervisor
Tyler called this Economic Development/Planning/Publicity Meeting to order at 10:00
am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton Barber, Robin DeLoria,
Stephanie DeZalia, Shaun Gillilland, Charlie Harrington, Roy Holzer, Noel
Merrihew, Jim Monty, Tom Scozzafava, Matthew Stanley, Ike Tyler, Joe Pete
Wilson, Davina Winemiller, Margaret Wood and Mark Wright. Derek Doty and Steve McNally
had been previously excused. Ken Hughes was absent.
Department
Heads present: James Dougan, Mike Mascarenas, and Anna Reynolds. Dan Manning was
absent.
Deputies
present: Dina Garvey
Also Present:
Megan Murphy - Housing Assistance, and Laurie Davis - Cornell Cooperative
Extension. Carol Calabrese and Jody Olcott - IDA were absent. Aurora McCaffrey
- Essex County Historian, Jim McKenna and Mary Jane Lawrence - ROOST and
Elizabeth Lee - Cornell Cooperative Extension had been previously excused.
TYLER:
Economic Development, Carol and Jody are excused, I believe. So, Anna Reynolds,
happy Monday.
***************************
The next item on the agenda was Community
Resources with Anna Reynolds reporting as follows:
REYNOLDS:
Hello, I have five referrals, today. They’re really adding up.
DELORIA:
Any from Newcomb?
REYNOLDS:
No
DELORIA:
Okay
REYNOLDS:
The Town of Chesterfield, Auger Lake Road. They’re requesting a permit to build
a new home. It’s a County road, so the no impact letter maybe issued, but make
sure a DPW permit is acquired.
ACTION OF THE ESSEX
COUNTY PLANNING BOARD
ON REFERRAL RECEIVED
FROM THE TOWN OF CHESTERFIELD
The following motion was made by
Supervisor Merrihew.
Where, the Essex County Planning
Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on May
8, 2023.
REFERRAL PROPOSED
ACTION
Town of Chesterfield - Auger Lake Road Special
Use Permit for new home construction
Whereas, the referred, proposed
action directly impacts a county road or county property.
Be it adopted by the Essex County
Planning Board that the applicant will be required to obtain a County right-of-way
permit for work within the road right-of-way, including driveway and utility
improvements.
This motion was seconded by
Supervisor Holzer and passed on a vote of 7 in favor, 2 excused and none
opposed.
TYLER:
Questions? Concerns? All in favor? Opposed? Carried.
REYNOLDS: There’s three in the Town of
Ticonderoga. The first, 325 Black Point Road, it’s County Rte. 3 and an area
variance and site plan is required for the construction of a new single family
dwelling. A DPW permit should be acquired and a no impact letter can be issued.
ACTION OF THE ESSEX
COUNTY PLANNING BOARD
ON REFERRAL RECEIVED
FROM THE TOWN OF TICONDEROGA
The following motion was made by
Supervisor Merrihew.
Where, the Essex County Planning
Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on May
8, 2023.
REFERRAL PROPOSED
ACTION
Town of Ticonderoga, 325 Black Point Road area variance and site
plan review
Whereas, the referred, proposed
action directly impacts a county road or county property.
Be
it adopted by the Essex County Planning Board that the applicant will be
required to obtain a County right-of-way permit for work within the road right-of-way,
including driveway and utility improvements.
This motion was seconded by
Supervisor DeZalia and passed on a vote of 7 in favor, 2 excused and none
opposed.
TYLER: Any questions, concerns? All in favor? Opposed?
Carried.
REYNOLDS: An applicant is requesting the
construction of a garage, adjacent to their existing home on 315 Baldwin Road,
which is County Rte. 5. If there are no changes to the existing driveway a
permit is not required, but if there are changes to utilities or the garage
please submit a permit to DPW.
ACTION OF THE ESSEX
COUNTY PLANNING BOARD
ON REFERRAL RECEIVED
FROM THE TOWN OF TICONDEROGA
The following motion was made by
Supervisor Holzer.
Where, the Essex County Planning
Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on May
8, 2023.
REFERRAL PROPOSED
ACTION
Town of Ticonderoga, 315 Baldwin Road site plan review for
construction
of new garage
Whereas, none of the referred,
proposed actions directly impact a county road or county property.
Be It adopted by the Essex County
Planning Board that no recommendation or comment on the said referrals, so long
as there are no changes to the existing utilities or garage, if such changes
are required a County right-of-way permit will need to be obtained.
This motion was seconded by
Supervisor DeZalia and passed on a vote of 7 in favor, 2 excused and none
opposed.
TYLER: Concerns, questions? All in favor? Opposed? Carried.
REYNOLDS: 19 Windy Point Lane, for the construction of a new
single family dwelling, site plan review is required. It’s within 500 feet of a
County road, but it’s not on the County road, so a no comment letter can be
issued, as there’s no County impact.
ACTION OF THE ESSEX
COUNTY PLANNING BOARD
ON REFERRAL RECEIVED
FROM THE TOWN OF TICONDEROGA
The following motion was made by
Supervisor Wood.
Where, the Essex County Planning
Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on
May 8, 2023.
REFERRAL PROPOSED
ACTION
Town of Ticonderoga, 19 Windy Point site plan
review for construction
of new single
family residence
Whereas, none of the referred,
proposed actions directly impact a county road or county property.
Be it adopted by the Essex County
Planning Board that no recommendation or comment on the said referrals shall be
or hereby is made, and the respective referring bodies may take such final
action as they deem appropriate.
This motion was seconded by
Supervisor DeZalia and passed on a vote of 7 in favor, 2 excused and none
opposed.
TYLER: Question, concerns? All in favor? Opposed? Carried
REYNOLDS: The Village of Saranac Lake is amending their
Village Development Code to incorporate local laws for the short terms rentals.
The code will incorporate special use permits for each STR that’s going to be
permitted through the Village. So, we will received those permits through a
239M referral process. There’s a no comment letter at this time, so that may be
issued, but in the future we may need to create an exemption request for those
referrals, but each apartment that could be rented could be ten per month, I’ve
been told. So, just keep that in mind.
ACTION OF THE ESSEX
COUNTY PLANNING BOARD
ON REFERRAL RECEIVED
FROM THE VILLAGE OF SARANAC LAKE
The following motion was made by
Supervisor Merrihew.
Where, the Essex County Planning
Board has considered the following GML 239 referrals at its regular meeting on
May 8, 2023.
REFERRAL PROPOSED
ACTION
Village of Saranac Lake
Development Code amendment
Whereas, none of the referred,
proposed actions does not directly impact a county road or county property.
Be It adopted by the Essex County
Planning Board that no recommendation or comment on the said referrals shall be
or hereby is made, and the respective referring bodies may take such final
action as they deem appropriate.
This motion was seconded by
Supervisor Wood and passed on a vote of 7 in favor, 2 excused and none opposed.
TYLER: Any questions, concerns? All in favor? Opposed
carried.
REYNOLDS: That’s all I have today. We haven’t heard from
Restore New York, yet. We thought we were going to hear by the end of the
month, but we’re still waiting. We have a few applications in for some of the
towns and the County and we’ve got CFAs on the rise, we’re thinking by the end
of the month, we’ll hear about those.
TYLER: I would just like to add, you guys do a great job
over there, I don’t know what the Town of Westport would do without you.
REYNOLDS: Thank you.
TYLER: Anything else? Nothing? Thank you, moving on.
***************************
The next item on the agenda was the
Essex County Historian, Aurora McCaffrey having been previously excused.
*****************************
The next item on the agenda was
Cornell Cooperative Extension, with Laurie Davis reporting as follows:
DAVIS:
Good morning, I have our report. I don’t really have much more, but I wanted to
highlight a couple of things. Let you know that we’re still, I know people have
been concerned, because the 4H program seemed to be getting smaller and smaller
over the years, but it is now growing and growing and we had a big spring
frenzy over at the fairgrounds. We had 65 attendees, had a lot of new 4H
signups. So, we’re going to try and do one in the fall, as well. Try and do
those twice a year just because I think in this day and age a lot of people
don’t know what 4H is anymore and so we’re just trying to get that out there in
the public.
Our
environmental field days which we hold every year with Essex County Soil and
Water is coming up on May 16th. That’s for 5th and 6th
graders, going around to different educational stations at the fairgrounds, but
anyone is welcome to stop in, go around see what we’re offering. I believe that
starts at, I don’t have the time on here, but it’s at least up and running by
10:00 AM on the 16th, at the fairgrounds, if anyone wants to stop
by.
The
Master Gardener’s volunteer plant giveaway, sale, swap is scheduled for June 10th,
Saturday June 10th and that’s at the Lewis CCE site. That usually
starts around 10:00 and everything is usually done by about 10:30. It’s getting
crazy over there, so we’re going to try and beef that up a little bit.
Also,
just wanted to mention that our range of motion classes that we’ve been
offering for years in Ticonderoga and AuSable and we’re now going to have a
trail class in Schroon Lake on Thursdays. I know we’re going to give it a shot
and hopefully if enough people show up, that will be another class for us for
seniors.
And
that’s really it. Any questions on any of that? Thank you.
TYLER:
Thank you
****************************
The next item was the Regional
Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST), with Jim McKenna and Mary Jane Lawrence
having both been previously excused.
***************************
The next item was the Housing
Assistance Program with Megan Murphy reporting as follows:
MURPHY:
Good morning, everybody. You have our report, so I just want to add one thing.
On the rental assistance line of business, when we were, I attend the affordable
housing task force, I believe it’s called and we were asked about how many
people were on the waitlist for Section 8, so I added it to this report,
because I thought it would be good for everybody to know.
MASCARENAS:
That’s a good idea.
MURPHY:
So, we do have a 120 people, currently on the Essex County waitlist.
MASCARENAS:
Wow
MURPHY:
And of those six have been deemed homeless and for those who don’t attend the
housing task force, if someone is deemed homeless they rise to the top of the
list, immediately. They don’t have to wait for a voucher, but what they do need
to do is wait until one is available. So, we have a limited number of vouchers
that are available to us. So, when somebody is deemed homeless they go on the
list and they go to what is called the top of list and then as soon as a
voucher becomes available it does become available to them and then this is the
time of year, spring, when we do have a lot of movement in rental assistance.
So, we will see our numbers go up and down. We have a lot of folks that move
out of apartments and then folks that we’re going to try and place in, plus
we’ve had a lot of movement due to McKenzie Overlook. So, it’s been pretty
dynamic, so we’re really hoping to get those people vouchers as quickly as possible.
I think that’s it, does anyone have any questions?
MONTY:
Megan, on your Section 8, going back to a question Tommy asked, for years,
about deadbeat owners that rent properties, those Section 8s have to be
inspected, am I correct?
MURPHY:
They are.
MONTY:
Once a year?
MURPHY:
Well, so when someone receives a voucher, so a voucher goes with the person and
so when that person finds an apartment then they, what we do is we go out and
inspect the apartment prior to giving out the voucher to that person for that
apartment and so that’s when the apartment may or may not pass inspection and
if it does, then that person can move right in, if not then we give the
landlord a certain period of time to make, to fix the things that we found need
to be fixed and to meet the housing quality standards that we have. There not
the same standards as code enforcement. So, we have very specific standards by
HUD.
MONTY:
Are they less or more?
MURPHY:
We’re not going to look at all the things that code enforcement officers have
to look at.
MONTY:
So, they’re less.
MURPHY:
Yes, you can look at that way. They’re about housing quality and so if we see
things that we know won’t pass from a code enforcement perspective, we will let
the landlord know first, but if we have someone that’s in an apartment, so then
every year, when their recertification comes up, we send an inspector the
apartment and so those quality standards could be anything from some code-like
standards, you know for the operations of the actual apartment, but they could
also be for cleanliness of other quality of life issues there. So, then we
would, we have in the past, we’ve given then time, again, we try and work with
both landlords and tenants. We also sometimes work with other community based
organizations, such as Mental Health Association. We worked very closely with
them, with DSS or Adult Protective and others. Actually, one that we work a lot
with is Office for the Aging, so we try and engage them to see if there’s
something going on that’s not a code enforcement in there to try and work with
that individual to keep them housed and to improve their living conditions. So,
we will do that before we call code enforcement.
MONTY:
So, say there’s illegal activity happening in a home, being rented as a Section
8 by the renters, does that disqualify them from that home?
MURPHY:
I would have to look at exactly what the process is, I don’t know. I’m not
going to say. I have not worked in Section 8, so I’m not going to, I can’t
respond to that, because I don’t know the answer to that question, but I can
find out.
SCOZZAFAVA:
Yeah, I received a call on Friday, I can’t remember what the young lady’s name
now, from HAPEC.
MURPHY:
You talked with me.
SCOZZAFAVA:
That was you?
MURPHY:
Yup
SCOZZAFAVA:
Okay, anyway, great explanation on how the program works and we do have a full
time inspector, right now and they did get a little stack during Covid.
MURPHY:
Yeah, during Covid there was an issue with getting into apartments.
SCOZZAFAVA:
So, I have a better understanding of how the whole system works now.
MURPHY:
And Mr. Scozzafava did ask about a list of landlords and what’s why I called
him, because there is a disclaimer right at the top of our contract with
landlords. Our data and information can only go to HUD, it can’t be shared with
others, at all, with anyone else.
SCOZZAFAVA:
So, the one thing I did request, though, if you have an empty apartment and
you’re looking into that, before that apartment is rented out and if it is a
Section 8 that you ask to see the certificate of occupancy.
MURPHY:
Yes and that is something that I do need to find out whether that’s a standard
practice.
SCOZZAFAVA:
Because that would go a long way, right there, because you get them in, Mike
and I did this dance for year, once you get them in, it’s very difficult to get
them out, because of the housing storages if there are code violations.
MURPHY:
Right
SCOZZAFAVA:
And the other thing that I just wanted to mention and I’ll bring it up at the
housing task force is that the Republic Steel Office Building maybe available
once again. the individual that purchased it, he was going to do housing, I
think he’s from St. Armand or Wilmington, I’m not certain, but, anyway, he’s
not going to be able to get it together, because of health reasons and so on.
So, the County originally owned that building and we talked about moving
offices down there, we talked about doing a lot of different things with it
that never panned out, so we decide, the town used it for a while, it was out
health center for a while. There are, the County paid for an engineering study
was done on the building, structurally it’s very solid and then I believe at
that time, Dan Palmer was manager at the time, you could do 12-15 units in
there, of single family or 1-bedroom, 2-bedrooms. I’m just bringing it up, that
you know the individual, you can follow up on what the individual had to say to
you, but there’s a definite need in that hamlet of Mineville and Witherbee and
that building could be put to good use, finally.
MONTY:
Is that something that could go to the Housing Trust?
MURPHY:
Yeah, that would be a possibility. I also brought up the BHSN project with that
person.
MONTY:
Because they more money than we do, at the task force.
SCOZZAFAVA:
Exactly
MURPHY:
And also the BHNS project. I thought that that might be something that would if
that BHNS project is able to switch over to scattered sites, because it’s not
large enough to fit 40-units and then 14, which was their mandate from their
funding, so I did mention that and the individual that owns it was very
interested in that. So, I was going to give them a call this week just to see
where they are with that and see if this might be a possible location that they
would be interested in, because they would be able to get the capital funding.
That sounds like that building, isn’t not apartments, currently and so it would
need quite a lot of renovation to create apartment units there, is my understanding.
MONTY:
Did you get your phones fix?
MURPHY:
Yes, we had a problem.
MONTY:
Because I called twice in the last ten days and never got a return, left
messages, nobody returned my calls.
MURPHY:
Yeah, Friday morning a server went down and now the phones are like computers,
so we had some issues, Twin State got that fixed.
TYLER:
Thanks, anything else to come before this committee? We are adjourned.
AS THERE WAS NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME
BEFORE THIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/PLANNING/PUBLICITY COMMITTEE, IT WAS ADJOURNED
AT 10:17 AM.
Respectfully
submitted,
Dina
Garvey, Deputy
Clerk
of the Board