Okay, we'll call this meeting of the North Salem uh Town of North Salem Board of Appeals to order.

Excuse me, any members of the public with green cards, please turn them into the Secretary.

And uh can I have a motion on the minutes of the July 9th

meeting?

So move.

Second.

Aye.

Cindy.

And the chair votes aye.

Okay, first we have BA twenty twenty-six.

Oh, wait a minute.

Oh,

this is started, right?

Uh yeah, hit the re um recording paused.

Yeah, let's unrecording the

bat.

Right.

Recording in progress.

Yes, good idea.

All right.

So before we take the first one, I'll just say that um because there's only three members of the board uh this evening, the three board members, um the any vote will be required to be unanimous.

Uh so any um applicant who wishes um to not depend on a unanimous vote uh may um uh put their the application towards next month um with no prejudice, no no extra fees or anything like

that.

Okay,

good.

All right, so BA twenty twenty-six is uh Michelle Benny Harkins three thirty-eight Heart Scrabble Road, uh special permit to allow the keeping of livestock for personal use.

In an R4 zoning district consisting of approximately eighteen acres per Article 13, section two fifty-seventy-two.

Uh for good cause shown, the Board of Appeals may reduce the setback requirements to no less than minimum required setback of the principal use.

BA 0728 was granted to previous owners for keeping of animals in an existing barn less than 150 feet from the property line.

Okay.

And for the record, just your name and address.

Um Michelle Berkins, 338 Hard Scrabble Road.

Okay.

So just quick synopsis of your application.

Well, yes, so the reason that I'm putting the the proposed barn there is so that we would have access to the existing barn that's already there, which will um have the hay and straw and the the non-living things and will be much easier for the people who come and clean and feed them to get to them, including me.

Um, specially net it would be very useful to have it nearby.

A so that all the buildings are sort of in one grouping, so it disturbs less of the sort of general beauty of the property.

And the other reason is that um uh for uh the man Freddie's property next to us, they have their barn sort of grouped pretty close by so that all both of us are gonna have a sort of section with all the barns, all the same color and the same style.

Um these Amish barns that that that uh so they all they're going to look very harmonious and all be clustered, so not spread all over the place.

So I think that it's the best place for practicality and for looks.

Okay, good.

Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense.

Buildings group together, it's more efficient, makes for a better operation.

Right.

It looks better, looks more natural, like a barnyard type of situation.

Um I'm gonna I had one question.

What I mean the application is just livestock.

What uh what what livestock is planned there?

Is it horses or is it something else?

I don't have horses.

I have uh I I rescue donkeys, so I've got donkeys and goats.

Okay, miniature goats.

Okay.

And uh so that's what we plan.

I mean if one day there might be a horse, or if my grandchildren would like to ride, or if my daughter decides she's gonna take it up if I get brave enough to go back in the saddle.

Um I would actually I really would like to.

So there may be one horse or two horses, but unless my daughter's granddaughters become you know horse mad, and that that could change in the future.

But at the moment it's just um the the bond that I have is not really adequate for keeping them.

We've had really rough winters, and um they're all getting on.

So uh I just want them to be comfortable and I want a properly insulated barn and uh one that would be easy to clean, easy to maintain, give them all