Webster's zoning agenda for Tuesday lists Waterview Phase 3 as tabled to September

The agenda for Tuesday's Webster Zoning Board of Appeals meeting states that Waterview Apartments Phase 3 is tabled to the September meeting. The application is listed first, under tabled matters. The agenda does not give a date for the September meeting. Waterview Phase 3 is a 56-unit project the board tabled in July.

The variance requests on the agenda are the same ones the board had in front of it July 14. Legacy Development Co., Inc. is asking for a front setback of 18.7 feet where 75 feet is required, and a buffer of 38.5 feet from the adjacent single-family district where 100 feet is required. The front setback sought is roughly a quarter of what the code requires. The buffer is under 40 percent of the required distance.

The plan is six buildings plus a community center, each building two stories, at the northwest corner of Willow Point Way and Nautical Mile Drive. The agenda describes the site as a proposed 13.15-acre parcel. The parcel is in the MHR Medium High Residential district, and the agenda cites Section 350-14 of the town code.

The application was on the board's June 9 docket as well. That agenda carries a similar note, recording the application as tabled to the July 14 meeting. Before any public business that night, the board chair announced that it would be tabled until July. The Ledger's account of that meeting records no reason for the announcement and no vote by the board on the application.

The board did not vote on the variances July 14. A member drafted a motion to grant them with conditions. Those conditions included specific building shifts, buffer plantings and a recommendation that the town study traffic control at two nearby intersections. Before the board could vote, a dispute arose over whether the motion had a valid second, and the member who had seconded it withdrew. The applicant's attorney, Chris Nadler, asked the board to table the matter rather than risk having the motion fail outright. The board voted unanimously to table it until further notice.

The application has been on three consecutive ZBA agendas. The board has not voted on the merits at either of the first two.

The July 14 requests were renewals. The board granted the same two variances roughly a year earlier, and those variances expired before the developer acted on them. Nadler gave the board an account of the delay in July.

Nadler told the board July 14 that finalizing the plans had been stalled by a state court order out of Albany. He said the order had frozen the state Department of Environmental Conservation from issuing the wetland jurisdictional determinations the project needs. That was his account to the board four weeks ago. The Ledger has not confirmed the current status of that order in either direction.

Neighbors along McEwen Drive opposed the renewal in July. They disputed the applicant's account that the new buildings would match existing setbacks. They also objected to the project's density and its proximity to nearby single-family homes. Letters from other McEwen Drive residents were referenced at that meeting.

Three residential requests, and the July minutes

The agenda lists three scheduled matters.

An application on Cardile Drive seeks a 6-foot privacy fence in the front yard of a corner lot. The parcel is 0.41 acres in the R-3 Single-Family Residential district. The agenda cites Sections 350-12 and 350-79. The board approved similar relief on Bright Stream Way on July 14, citing an existing tree line.

A second application, on Hailey Drive, asks to park a 20-foot commercial food truck on a crushed stone pad in the backyard. The parcel is 0.66 acres, also in the R-3 district. The agenda cites Sections 350-12 and 350-44.

The third, on Vosburg Road, seeks a front setback of 41 feet where 50 feet is required for a new single-family home. The lot is 0.57 acres in the R-2 Single Family Residential district, and the agenda cites Section 350-11. David Cox, P.E., is listed as the representing agent.

The board is also set to take up the minutes of its July 14 meeting.

The Zoning Board of Appeals meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11, in the Town Board Room at 1002 Ridge Road. The three scheduled matters are the applications the agenda has set for Tuesday. The Ledger's guide to the Zoning Board of Appeals explains how residents can participate and what the board does.

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