Planning Board would notify merged lot owners
The Planning Board Tuesday night took a somewhat different approach to a law that has resulted in some lots being merged without notice to property owners.
Planners want clear notices sent to those property owners that undeveloped lots they thought were separate are being merged in order to give those owners time to take action.
In one case, a property owner of two adjacent lots had a pool installed that crossed over lot lines and that resulted in an automatic merger of the lots. But in other cases, lots were merged because they were listed on the record as belonging to the same owner. To subsequently divide them could leave one of the lots too small to build on without obtaining a variance.
Zoning Board members last week thought that the few cases where the lots were merged without notice to the property owners might result in a some extra applications for relief should anyone want to do build.
Now it will fall to the Town Board to either let the law stand or to amend or eliminate it.
On another issue, Planning Board members are concerned about changing the wording in agreements between the town and developers that affect bonds taken to assure completion of roads in subdivisions.
In most cases, developers are required to post a bond that would provide money for the town to install roads should the developer fail to do so.
But missing in the language affecting the bonds is a requirement that developers provide proof after the first year that they have renewed the bond and that they return to the Planning Board at the end of the second year so that board can determine if the bond should be increased to cover what could be increased construction costs.
In many cases, projects are completed within a year or two, but there are at least a couple that are still open after several years.
