Yorktown Town Board Work Session - August 13, 2024
Yorktown Town Board Work Session - August 13, 2024
The Yorktown Town Board held a work session on August 13, 2024, starting with a moment of silence for former board member Tony Grasso, who passed away that morning at age 96. The meeting included presentations, discussions on housing policy, land use permits, and several resolutions.
Discussion Items
- Support Connection Presentation: Catherine Quinn, executive director, requested permission to install pink and teal ribbons on town poles from late August through October 6 for the organization's 30th annual walk. The board agreed. Quinn also promoted a golf outing on September 9, 2024, honoring Police Chief Noble.
- Community Housing Board Presentation: Chair Ken Belfour and Sarah Wilson presented an in-depth history of Yorktown's affordable housing program, current inventory (less than 3% of housing is affordable), and Alice household data (25% of Yorktown households are below the Alice threshold). Belfour recommended reinstating a density bonus, improving accessory apartment laws (including an amnesty program and allowing seniors to occupy the smaller unit), and adopting a set-aside law. Discussion covered income eligibility, Section 8, and the legality of set-asides. The board thanked Belfour for his 30 years of service as chair.
- 2145 Hunterbrook Road MS4 Permit: Property owner John Bartellini had cleared brush on a 10-acre parcel, triggering a stormwater permit requirement. The board referred the application for a public hearing, noting the clearing was property maintenance.
- 2991 Hickory Street MS4 Permit: A single-family home project exceeded the administrative permit threshold. Referred for public hearing.
- 3266 Lakeshore Drive Land Donation: Joyce Gravanos offered to sell four dock lots on Mohegan Lake for $1. The board referred the proposal for departmental review, with intent to preserve the land as open space.
- 1700 East Main Street Rezoning Pre-Submission: David Steinmetz and team presented a concept for rezoning a 21-acre site from R-120 to RSP2 for a 144-unit age-restricted senior rental complex with a wellness center. Discussion focused on traffic impacts on Route 6, the potential bypass road, and the need for a holistic corridor traffic study. The board asked the applicant to coordinate with neighboring municipalities and state DOT.
- Field Home Reuse: The board discussed options for an historic building being donated by Toll Brothers. Two reports (by Stephen Tilly and Gregory Dietrich) suggested adaptive reuse as live-work spaces, light industrial, or a hotel. The board authorized drafting a Request for Proposals (RFP), with a target release in September or October 2024.
- Battery Storage Moratorium: The board referred a proposed moratorium on battery energy storage systems for referral and requested a future work session on fire safety.
- Solar Law Amendments: The board referred proposed revisions to the solar law for referral, with discussion on setbacks, tree value, and screening. Supervisor Lachterman noted the existing moratorium expires September 30, 2024, and the board may need to extend it.
Key Outcomes
- Votes: All three referrals (2145 Hunterbrook, 2991 Hickory, and 3266 Lakeshore) passed unanimously. The battery storage and solar law referrals also passed unanimously.
- Resolutions: Accepted resignation of Kevin Harrigan (Sewer Department) effective August 16, 2024. Accepted Ken Belfour's resignation as chair of the Community Housing Board; appointed Sarah Wilson as chair effective September 1, 2024. Belfour will remain a member. A proclamation was presented honoring Belfour's 30 years of service.
- Next Steps: Staff directed to draft an RFP for the Field Home building. The board will continue discussions on the Route 6 corridor traffic study and consider extending the solar moratorium if needed.
Meeting Transcript
For our work session of August 13th, 2024. We could all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Patrick. Robert, if you can remain standing for a moment of silence. And today it is with a heavy heart that I announced that we lost a great American, a great patriot, a great Yorktown resident who served on this board, and a great friend, Tony Grasso passed away this morning at 96 years of age. Yeah, it's uh a great loss, and our our hearts and prayers are with the Grasso and Menton families at this time. So if we could have a moment of silence for Tony. Thank you. God bless yes. So we'll start with our uh presentations uh with uh support connection, Kathy. Oh let me just share also uh anyone that's interested, the arrangements are Sunday from one to five at Yorktown funeral home for Tony, and there will be a uh a massive Christian uh burial at St. Patrick's Church at 10 a.m. on Monday. So Sunday 1 to 5, Yorktown Funeral Home for the Wake. And uh funeral service, 10 a.m. St. Patrick's. Okay. Sorry, Kathy. Good evening, everyone, and thank you very much for inviting me to come to the town board meeting. Um for those of you who don't know, I'm Catherine Quinn. I'm the executive director of Support Connection. And for the past 30 years, the town of Yorktown has greatly supported our efforts to offer free breast, ovarian, and other gynecological cancer support services to women and their families dealing with these cancers. What makes us unique is that all of our councils have had cancer. Um we are very excited to announce that we have our 30th walk coming up on Sunday, October 6th, and we welcome everyone in the town to join us, and we just want to express our gratitude for being there for us all these years. We would ask at this time, as we've done the I guess the past five or six years, if we would be able to put up some pink and teal ribbons, which are our colors on the uh polls in town, if possible, if we could do that the last week of August, and we will take them down the day after the walk. Um so I'm just coming here to ask for your blessing, hopefully. And you also have a golf outing coming up too, correct? Yes, we do. I will I will tell you I'm very proud to say that on um September 9th, we will be having a golf outing at Salem Golf Club, and I'm very proud also to say we will be honoring Chief Noble. So he and the members of the police department are great community-minded people, but they have been very, very supportive of our work. So we thought it would be appropriate to honor him. And if anybody's interested in finding out more, you can go on our website, support connection.org or call our office at 914-962-6402. So we've got a lot going on, and we're here for everybody in Yorktown who might need us and beyond, because we now do talk to people throughout the country. So if anyone knows anyone who needs our help, please feel free to reach out. So, Kathy, I do have uh a question on on signing up for teams, but I was remiss in not uh letting everyone know. Uh we are also joined on Zoom by Councilwoman Luciana Hawat. Uh I fortunately I was sitting far enough away from Diana that she couldn't kick me because she did tell me I was supposed to announce that earlier. Uh so uh if I wanted to uh have a team to walk, how do I how do I do that? Okay, so you could just go right on our website, and there's a banner on the website for the walk, and if you click on that, it will take you to everything there is to know about the walk, including how to form a team, um, or you could call our office. It's really quite easy. You could create a team captain if you want and get uh different family member friends, people to join you. Also, even if you cannot walk with us at the park at FDR Park on Sunday, October 6th, we invite people to walk in communities throughout the nation, actually. Um, and you we always appreciate um a donation if someone cannot walk as well. And I'm also let all the proceeds go to our free services. But if you call our office, we'll be more than happy to help too. And I assume if uh Kathy, I have oh, sorry, supervisor. Kathy, I have a lot of friends who are survivors. Oh, don't you? And they're oh, here you are, okay.
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