Details from the Farmview Subdivision from meeting notes August 23rd 2005

Timothy Dunphy, Contract Vendee, and Steven Buso, Engineer for the applicant, were present, along with Neil Wilson, Planner for the Planning Board, for the public hearingfor the Farmview subdivision located on Field Road.  Mr. Dunphy said he was closing on the property in about two weeks.  

Mr. Werner motioned to open the public hearing, Ms. Veitia seconded.  All aye.  Motion carried 5-0.  Mr. Dunphy said this property was previously subdivided into a nine lot subdivision back in 1989.  A subdivision map was filed in 1991, the road was put in, and then the subdivision was abandoned in 1995 and the lots were re-merged.  He said his intention is to subdivide this back into nine lots, basically maintaining the same lot lines

TOWN OF CLINTON PLANNING BOARD MEETING MINUTES
FINAL - 08-23-05 as previously approved. 

He had to make some changes due to the wetland designation. He said he liked the way the property was previously subdivided because it protects existing agriculture and forested property, so they plan to make every effort to minimize disturbance in laying out house sites.  This property is currently used as a garlic farm by the Nosonowitz family who were the original applicants, and they have garlic in the ground right now.  Mr. Dunphy will be leasing fields back to the Nosonowitzs as we move along to keep the agricultural use going.  One of the prominent features of the property is that it slopes up significantly to the west.  There are three fields that are usedfor garlic and two ponds that are man-made as part of the original subdivision.  They are not proposing any changes to the existing road.  However, they would like to do the driveways with more gravel so as not to significantly change the run off.  They are trying to put the houses in places that will encourage agriculture and minimize disturbance, and Mr. Buso showed the proposed house locations.  There are three lots that are wooded but not with very mature trees.  They are looking at two types of houses.  Mr. Dunphy is an
architect and he will design the houses.  They would like to do authentic colonial farm
house type designs in keeping with the character of the town.  The three houses on the wooded lots will be a little more rustic.  The houses will be between 4 and 5,000 square feet.  The ponds and streams are all designated as DEC wetlands so they are required to keep construction out of the wetlands and the 100 foot buffer unless they get a DEC permit.  At the time of the original subdivision, there were only wetlands in two places. 

As a result, the road is located in the buffer as well as a couple of the driveways.  They are trying to avoid putting in new driveways which would require shifting lot lines.  They will maintain the barn and will use one existing driveway.  The lots are in a five acre district with the smallest lot being 8 acres and the largest, 17 acres.  They received sketch plan approval contingent upon putting a note on the plat that the lots will not be further subdivided.

Norene Coller, CAC chair, said she could not see the stream when she was looking at the maps.  It is a perennial stream which starts in Stanford.  Mr. Buso said it is indicated on the map, but is hidden by the DEC wetlands.  It is a solid line that runs down through the road.  It is a Class B stream, a tributary to the Little Wappingers Creek, that runs right behind there.  It is a year round stream.  Mr. Buso said the contours shown on this map were taken from the original subdivision plat.  They are not as exact as we would like so will be re-done and new boundary line surveys will be done.  It won’t look different but every two foot contour will be where it should be.  These contours are from USGS.   The wetland buffers are clearly marked.  Ms. Coller said the water protection guidelines in this town recommends that buffers should be marked during construction.  Under town law, there is a 100 foot buffer required for perennial and 100 year streams.  Both ponds are spring fed.  Both are full now and the stream is running now.  Mr. Buso showed the location of the culverts which are shown on the map.  He said all wetlands are state certified and connected.  They tried to stay out of buffer as much as possible.  Steve Marino from Tim Miller and Associates did the wetland flagging and he has begun dialogue with the DEC as far as what is required for any work within the 100 foot buffer.

He showed the area of disturbance of the driveway which is a very small area comparedto the total acreage.  They are hoping to get a certified wetlands map from the DEC so they can flag them in the field.  Jack Cleary, Browns Pond Road, said he sees a number of lots with extremely long driveways and asked if the applicant has provided the contours for those driveways.  He said it becomes a question more so with theunderstanding that the contour lines will be changed.  Mr. Buso said everything is under 10% slope or less.  Michael Hargrove who lives across the street said this is a great plan, beautiful, and he is glad to hear the farming will continue.  His only question is, is there any thinking on the part of the town to pave Field Road at this point due to higher usage.

He said he would like to keep it a dirt road.  Mr. Myers said the Planning Board has not heard of any suggestions for paving.  Barbara Seelbach, Town Board Liaison, said she does not know of any plan the town has at this time to do any work on Field Road.  Mr. Buso said he has met with Mr. Tompkins, the highway superintendent, and discussed Field Road and Mr. Tompkins said he likes the dirt road and would actually like the that will be applied but will keep discussing that with Mr. Setaro and Mr. Tompkins.  Theapplicant prefers Field Road to be dirt.  Ms. Veitia added that Mr. Tompkins has said in the past that he did not want to pave any of the dirt roads in the town. 

Hearing no further public comment, Ms. Ruzicka motioned to close the public hearing.  Mr. Werner seconded.  All aye.  Motion carried 5-0.
Mr. Buso has additional information to supply and needs to modify the EAF based on the reviews by Mr. Wilson and Mr. Setaro.  They have retained Erik Kiviat from Hudsonia for the habitat assessment which should be done next month, and they have work to do with the DEC.  The escrow is in good standing.  Mr. Wilson said he will wait to see what comes next and will look at the updated EAF.  There was no action taken at this meeting.

The board has previously decided that cluster is not the way to go.