Cazenovia Pilot

Well-Attended Zoning Board Meeting Focuses on Proposed Development

Tonight's Village of Cazenovia planning board meeting featured a packed house of about 80 citizens. The crowd was there to hear developer Patriot Enterprise's presentation on changes to the proposed building of 26 homes on 5 acres on Chenango Street, between Old Farms and the East Road split with Nine Road. The proposed development is known as Chenango Crossing. The Post-Standard's article about the meeting can be found by clicking here.

The developer's engineer explained a revised proposal in which the number of lots had been reduced from 26 to 24, and with the lots backing up to Chenango Street showing an expanded buffer of trees as a screen from the street. The proposal still includes two entry points - one just south of Old Farms, the other just north of the fork where Chenango Street splits into East and Nine roads.

One resident at the meeting expressed her support for the development, stating the need for more single-level homes with varied designs and colors and their appeal to older homebuyers.

The rest of the assembled group, with the exception of Patriot and the landowner, Mr. Ernie Koglmeier, voiced various concerns about the project. These included:

• Density. Speakers were concerned about the sheer number of homes on a five-acre space in a neighborhood that primarily consists of small homes on medium-to-large size lots.
• Orientation. The street of the new development will run roughly parallel to Chenango Street, with homes in the eastern side of the development having their backs to the existing road.
• Safety. About five residents of East Road who live near the proposed road's appearance near the East/Nine fork said that the intersection is already dangerous, especially the turn from Chenango on to East.

Resident Roger Demuth presented a scale 3-D cardboard model of the 26-lot version of the proposed development to illustrate the possible impact on the streetscape.

Toward the end of the meeting, Patriot and Mr. Koglmeier attempted to provide their perspectives on these concerns. Their position was that the village zoning regulations provide for the type of zoning the proposed development will require, and that other local projects (Old Farms, South Village) are similar enough to Chenango Crossing that the village must approve their requested rezoning to R-6 (minimum 6,000 sqft lots). Mr. Koglmeier further explained that he offered to seel a 100-foot-wide buffer to the Old Farms residents a few years ago for "$2,800 per household". He later explained this was based on all 28 units being built there; my calculations show that to be $78,400 for that land.

Since several documents required by the Zoning Board were not yet available, the board agreed to adjoun until their next scheduled meeting on October 24 at 7:45 PM.

Posted by jimj at October 11, 2005 12:14 AM | TrackBack