Board sends project back to square one

Tusten Planning Board meeting spirals out of control

By KIMBERLY M. WEYANDT

NARROWSBURG, NY — When trooper Barry Falk arrived on the scene the damage had already been done. The call to the state police had gone out as Laura and Nick Santana’s Narrowsburg Mews project was tabled by the Tusten Planning Board for the second month in a row and tempers rose to a shouting and menacing level. The frustration, as exhibited by Mews contractor Ron Barille, was due, in part, to the board’s unilateral decision to take the discussion about further requirements for the project behind closed doors.

Emerging from the back kitchen following a 15-minute executive session that violated the New York State Open Meetings Law, chair Ed Jackson simply told the audience that it had decided to require 12 layers of action, virtually throwing the project back to square one.

“The board has decided that we’re going to ask you to comply with items A through L and we are going to require a new survey. Once you have complied with this, let us know and we will schedule a new public hearing,” Jackson said.

Items A through L had been outlined in a report submitted that morning by Tim Gottlieb, P.E., P.C., of Monticello, who had been hired by the board to review the project that had begun in 2003. His recommendations for the issuance of the special use permit for a second-story restaurant included the need for an “as-built” drawing of the building, the location of any business signs and a public hearing. The report also recommended that the board consider building design, location and environmental impacts to both the town and the National Scenic and Recreational River.

Buck Moorhead, an architect from New York City and Callicoon who designed the renovation, questioned the need for the new survey, and passed out copies of a letter by then town engineer Robert A. Meyer, P.E., P.C., which had only requested information about the capacity of the building’s sewage demand. Moorhead also informed the board and Gottlieb that the project had received preliminary approval. Gottlieb said that he was unaware of the approval and the previously held public hearing.

“The nature of this application has not changed in the two-year period,” Moorhead said.

“In the six pages describing what is required to receive a special use permit, not once is a survey mentioned,” he said.

Despite the Santanas’ requests for the board to simply consider the restaurant, the board held firm to Gottlieb’s 12-step requirements.

“This is a building that is already existing and an application that is in process, and the document that you’ve requested throws it back,” Moorhead said.

“The board knows what their responsibilities are and, in order to properly carry out those responsibilities, they need adequate plans, surveys, drawings and information which they have not gotten,” Attorney for the Town Jeffrey Clemente said.

“This is not New York City,” he said. “We do not have anything that I know of to deal with second floor fires. Nor do we train the firefighters to deal with second floor fires.”

This came as a surprise to Narrowsburg Fire Chief Craig Burkle, who said, “We have already looked at it and did a walk through. It has sprinklers and fire extinguishers; I have no problem with it.”

“Then there should be something submitted to the board stating this,” said Clemente. Questioning such issues as how much steel was in the building, restaurant capacity and the flow of the grease trap, the board insisted that the “sketchy” survey the board had was inadequate and the site plan map needed more detail. It also insisted on a detailed “as-is” building plan.

The Santanas disagreed saying that the plans that had been submitted in 2003 were working plans. “I worked from those plans,” Laura Santana said.

“You have these things; you have more than half of these things,” she said.

All board members were not in agreement.

“If we set a precedent here by accepting a site plan without a survey then the next person before us will demand the same thing,” said member Jack Lang.

“My understanding is that since it’s an existing building they don’t need a survey,” said member Lisa Dowling.

Following the executive session and the board’s ruling, Laura Santana requested that Code Enforcement Officer Stephen Stuart inform the board about the building’s renovation and code compliance.

She was informed that Stuart could speak but that the board had already made its ruling.

Although the meeting moved on, those representing the Mews project could not.

“I will never support you on anything again,” Barille said, as he stood before the board and threw Jackson’s gavel across the room.

“Why don’t you just say it? ‘F*** you, you’re not opening a business in this town,’ that’s what you’re doing,” he said.

“This board is going to file a complaint,” said Jackson at the conclusion of the meeting.

When questioned by TRR Publisher Laurie Stuart about the nature of the executive session, Jackson said, “We discussed everything that was before us.”

“We were discussing what may become a pending litigation,” Clemente countered.

In other business, the board upheld its last month’s decision of approval of a three-lot subdivision that did not meet the minimum lot width of 300 feet per lot.