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1996-06-24 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING JUNE 24, 1996 4:30 p.m. MTG. #25 RES. 279 TOWN BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT SUPERVISOR FRED CHAMPAGNE COUNCILMAN BETTY MONAHAN COUNCILMAN THEODORE TURNER COUNCILMAN CONNIE GOEDERT COUNCILMAN CAROL PULVER Supervisor Champagne-Opened the meeting 1.0 RESOLUTIONS - NONE 2.0 COMMITTEE REPORTS 3.0 PLANNED DISCUSSIONS 3.1/3.02 AMTEKREPORT Ronnie Travers from Amtek reported to the Town Board regarding the 1996/97 contract Board agreed to have a request before the Board sometime in August for the 1997 budget.. 3.3 HARRON CABLE Cable Committee - Cullen O'Brien, Jim McCarthy, Paul Arends, (unable to attend Chris Norton and Garry Gifford) Supervisor Champagne-Contract with Harron Cable expires November...we have an opportunity to re-write the contact... Cullen O'Brien-(Review of the draft document) The current 11 year agreement with Harron does end in November if for any reason we are unable to have a new agreement in place by the day the contract ends nothing happens. Harron is still in business, there is no penalty to the Town there is no penalty to Harron...we can continue past the expiration date if we cannot agree to language for the new agreement. There are certain areas in the franchise that this town has no say in, they are technical standards, they are operating standards that are set by the FCC and the State Cable Commission. The Task Force focused on customer service, the franchise fees to the Town, we touched on local T.V facilities and studios, and that is the focus we went at in coming up with this draft document. Councilman Monahan-Questioned the lack of competition? Mr. O'Brien-Currently there is no competition, to have another cable operator come in an acts and walks just like Harron, 99% sure that will not occur because of cost of putting in the wire ...$40,000 a mile ... there is competition from satellites..telephone companies are launching a wireless service...noted that there is no franchise fees with the satellites or wireless services... Supervisor Champagne-Concerned that there will not be another ten year contract being fulfilled... Councilman Pulver-Questioned if you could get paid pre-view on the disks? Mr. O'Brien-Yes. Currently if you buy a satellite you cannot receive the local stations... Councilman Goedert -Questioned if you can have a dish and cable coming into your TV? Mr. O'Brien-Yes Regarding the ten year contract, I do not think Harron will be here for ten years...! think at the Federal level franchising will be shut down because it impedes cable to compete against telephone against satellite, the other vendors that are not required by law to pay the Town a franchise...! think we should give Harron the ten year franchise, they will not get funding from the banks to rebuild wires if we do not give them ten years, the Town does not lose by granting a ten year contact and the town will gain by granting said contract... Supervisor Champagne-Questioned the status of the contract if Harron sold to another company? Mr. O'Brien-It carries over...noted they could negotiate the fees... Supervisor Champagne-Harron has the right to go to the Public Service Commission and to say we do not want to pay franchise fees? Mr. O'Brien-Yes If for any reason Harron successfully proved that they have competition and they are deregulated or sue to be relieved of franchise we thought of some early termination payment that would be X dollars against the outstanding franchise fee times the years left in the agreement, I have not found anything that prohibits us from asking for it. Supervisor Champagne-Do we have any leverage to force them into that? Mr. O'Brien-We have the leverage that we do not have to renew, we could solicit new vendors, also agree to six month or one year renewals... Paul Arends-There is pressure for Harron to renew contract so that they can get on with their re-build... Councilman Goedert-If we do not agree by the cut off date is there a chance that Harron will take that as a message that we are not interested in the franchise and we want to bring in another company? Mr. O'Brien-Yes and No Noted we have had very open contract with Harron...unless the discussion were very heated they could assume that but if they are cordial and everybody understands I do not think it would be an issue... Councilman Monahan-Questioned why we are going through this we are not going to get a better deal than the $150,000 and the 5% I think Cullen has a good idea if they break off early... Councilman Pulver-Have we always had the $150,000 or is this new? Mr. O'Brien-This is new... Is it a fair statement to say that we are going with all items as detailed in item # 1 Supervisor Champagne-Yes. Mr. O'Brien-Item #2 to protect Harron and the franchise fees for the town... Agreed to by the Board... Mr. O'Brien-Preserve the franchise fees and put on an early termination payoff and seek the $150,000...spoke about customer service, questioned if we want to focus on the money, do we want to come up with penalties...do we want to push for this? Councilman Monahan-I think it is important...ifthe service is out for a week I want the credit for that... Mr. O'Brien-The ten year term? Supervisor Champagne-Yes leave it in... Mr. O'Brien-..two items: do we want to come up with a figure that is used for early termination? Suggested that whatever franchise fee is at the time that the franchise goes away is multiplied against the outstanding years of the franchise. Councilman Pulver-Suggested 5% of the franchise fee for every remaining year. Mr. O'Brien-Requested that the Board think about that...#2 How does the next step in negotiations occur? Supervisor Champagne-Send the task force to Harron ... Councilman Pulver-Suggested that early termination figure be suggested to Harron and see what they come up with... Mr. O'Brien-We would place that as item 6 a negotiated early termination of the franchise... Supervisor Champagne-Requested that the changes be made in the agreement and reviewed by the Town Counci1...and then take it to Harron. DICUSSION HELD ON INDIAN RIDGE John Goralski-As soon as we get the Clerk's minutes we will make a list of the issues that were raised at the Public Hearing, Jim is reviewing the PUD agreement that was submitted and we will also review those comments and report back to the Board. Councilman Goedert-Requested time lines on these projects, noted that the committee may have to meet daily ... questioned if all development should be stopped until the Comprehensive Land Use Plan is done... 3.6 FULLER ROAD Supervisor Champagne-I met with Mark, the Rowlands and myself at the site and we saw where they had marked the new trial, to the west of their house, Mr. Naylor has seen the trail, he said it could be graded off and is willing to do it. Mr. Abbess was notified of the site, he and some other people would like to meet on July 11th at the site.. . Mark is looking into the legal aspects of this site... 3.7 BAY ROAD SEWER Supervisor Champagne-I have had the Planning Office pull together all the property owners that are within that corridor, I would like a public information meeting explaining to them at $1350. a year to pay off the bond is far too expensive and therefore the town cannot do what some people would like to have done. However, if Guido Passarili and Michael Woodbury as developers want to put in their sections which they may be forced to do if they want to develop that, then maybe the Town could come in and pick up another portion of it and there may be enough...discussion held regarding the possibility of Valente's area being included... Requested a public information meeting in mid July... 3.09 HEAVY EQUIPMENT OPERATOR'S PROGRAM Councilman Monahan-That is fine, the payroll have to figure into a few more costs, social security... That is a go. 3.10 COMPTROLLER INTERVIEWS Town Board turned in their lists that they wish to interview... Limit the interviews to the top six, July 2nd. at 3 :00 P.M. 3.4 CHARLES WOOD-REZONING Attorney John Lemery-This is a parcel on Aviation Road zoned SFR 10,000 square feet, allowing fourteen single family houses. Past rezoning proposal for HC (Red Lobster) Town Planning Board recommend the rezoning, the County Board recommended against it, 20% of the homeowners in the area signed a petition against it and the Town Board elected not to review it. Argued that the land was inappropriately zoned in 1988, Mr. Wood has owned the land since before the new Aviation Road was put into place and owned it before Pyramid Mall was built, in 1967 it was zoned commercial, it was rezoned in 1982 and then in 1988 it was zoned residential. Joe Carusone spoke at the meetings former Chairman of the Planning Committee when the zoning statute was amended in 88' the committee said it cannot be used for residential purposes we recognized that it ought to be commercial however we recognized that there needed to be a buffer but we did not know what to do with it so therefore they zoned it residential. Spoke to the Board regarding the development in the Town...Walmart, expansion of Aviation Mall etc...Mr. Wood has deeded this property to the ranch and as part of his intent now to divest himself of some of his properties we are back before you. We have submitted an application to the Planning Dept. for referral to the Town Board which originally called for a hundred foot buffer zone at the rear of the property, the last time we were here we offered the Town a one hundred foot strip of land at the rear of the parcel which we would have deeded to the Town or which the town could have taken by the way of easement, conservation easement or a fee so the residents of Greenway North would have been permanently protected by a one hundred foot buffer. At that time it was turned down by the Town Board. After submitting this application for the 100' buffer Mr. Wood noted that Old Aviation Road is a natural buffer for those in Greenway North and in addition if they put a new road in there that connects to Route 9 they are going to reconfigure Old Aviation Road in any event that already provides a buffer. I am willing to give the town fifty feet at the rear end of the parcel for a buffer, I am not asking them for anything for it other than this land be rezoned Highway Commercial. The way the land is zoned now there is no buffer required, noted that if a subdivision of houses you could clear cut the land and there is no requirement for a buffer. Supervisor Champagne-lam all in favor of rezoning this commercial the only issue that I am trying to protect is can we with this fifty foot buffer can we still go back to the original design where an arterial was planned to take the heat off from Route 9 and Aviation Road in order to relieve an overburden intersection.. . Attorney Lemery-I would think the residents of Greenway North would be a whole lot more upset about turning this into a major aterery than they would about whether or not they have a fifty foot stand of trees there. ..1 received a memo that said before this would be brought before the board they wanted the re- working of questions seven, eight and nine, which the committee feels is not adequately answered now that the buffer is fifty feet. I was told that we want a study of noise, and light impacts and thirdly a statement of what commercial uses are proposed. The commercial uses that are proposed are whatever is consistent with the Highway Commercial Zone. The study of noise and light impacts is impossible that is in site plan review, who ever buys the site or takes an option on the site and decides to come in with a plan has to meet planning board requirements so that the lighting does not shine up and all that. Councilman Monahan-How would the buffer playas far a noise and light pollution that is really the question that was asked. There are uses in the Highway Commercial that are not compatible with the way that road is. Mr. Charles Wood-In 1965 I bought the Griffin property, when I bought it, it was all zoned commercial and you and you and you know that there was all commercial property. Someplace along the line maybe in 1988 it was rezoned without notifying me because in those days you did not have to notify me, I never new it and then I go to sell it and find out it is residential. I bought that land and paid big dollars for it and it was all one piece that was before the new Aviation Road. After I had it and sometime after 1965 the State came in and condenm this land for the new Aviation Road. Up to that point everybody in this area had lived on Aviation Road and if the State hadn't built this road in here they still would not have had all the traffic up and down there they had when they bought those homes. There was never a home built after this road was built they were all there when this was a commercial road and they had all the traffic. I want to tell you how cooperative it used to be with the Town Planning Board. I had a chance to sell all this property to Pyramid I drove down Aviation Road one day and I saw a big back hoe and a thirty inch water pipes alllayed out there was a road through the present Aviation Road property I went into shock if they put that pipe line in, the pipe is all there the backhoe is there I call Glen Caffrey in four hours time, you could never do it today, they made a deal I gave them the land next to the Howard Johnson to put the pipe line through they changed the deed I got the road deeded to me where they are going to put the pipe line the back hoe picked the pipe up moved it started to dig and four hours time they got the Politicians together and it was passed. If it hadn't been you never would have Pyramid Mall you know what Pyramid Mall means to you in taxes and sales tax, do you know what the Great Escape means to you in taxes and sales tax, why are you beating me to death? Until I tried to sell the land I had a contract with General Mills for $950,000 and you killed me on it, how would you like and that was politics. I have got a chance now to sell it for $750,000 4.437 acres and buffer zone takes one half acre it figures about 66,000 an acre I am giving you 66,000 dollars. Spoke to the Board regarding the amount of money it will cost to have an arterial road .... Supervisor Champagne-We have an intersection that is failing, my job is to try to eliminate that failure if we can...we have looked at overpass and underpass scenarios which would cost more than four million to do that...one option Mr. Wood-You have to get True Value to change their whole entrance, to build a new entrance on this side, change their offices over here, buy Mr. B's and you have got to buy my property ... Councilman Monahan-I think the long range thing is if we do not solve that intersection we are going to kill every business along there because people just will not come there anymore. Discussion held regarding uses in Highway Commercial... Attorney Lemery-Reviewed with the Board the dates of submission of the proposed rezoning along with the dates of the change from 100' buffer to 50' buffer... Councilman Goedert -Questioned how you can ask for more buffer than what the Zoning Law states? Councilman Monahan-Because this is often done in developments... Attorney Lemery-Requested that this be brought before the Town Board at the next meeting. You cannot keep the land this way ... Councilman Monahan-I agree with you John, this land is going to be commercial. Discussion held regarding new road... Councilman Goedert-I object to the fact that you are looking at a planned possible road on whether or not they get their rezoning, that has nothing to do with this piece of property. Councilman Monahan-Requested that Jim Martin take a second look at this to see if switching those roads have we got the problem solved... Supervisor Champagne-To take Old Aviation Road scrape it up and plant trees and still allow the fifty feet that Mr Wood is deeding over... Councilman Goedert-That is ridiculous that he has to pay the price for the intersection... Discussion held that the Board will send the proposal to the Planning Board ... 3.05 FOREST PARK Discussion held regarding the removal of a shed from that back of a garage... DISCUSSION HELD REGARDING PURCHASE OF LAWN MOWER DISCUSSION HELD: Would like to have all equipment in one central place and have one person schedule the equipment out...suggested that the Building and Grounds Dept. contact the Recreation Dept. for sharing their equipment...spoke about using private firms to take care of the lawns... 3.12 MMAREPORT RESOLUTION CALLING FOR ADJOURNMENT RESOLUTION NO. 279.96 INTRODUCED BY: Mrs. Carol Pulver WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mrs. Betty Monahan RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns its meeting. Duly adopted this 24th day of June, 1996 by the following vote: AYES: Mrs. Monahan, Mr. Turner, Mrs. Goerdert, Mrs. Pulver, Mr. Champagne NOES: None ABSENT: None Respectfully submitted, Miss Darleen M. Dougher Town Clerk-Queensbury