[Amended 6-10-2002 by L.L. No. 8-2002; 7-8-2019 by L.L. No. 3-2019]
A. Planning Commission authorization to approve. Pursuant to § 7-725-b of the Village Law, the Planning Commission is authorized to approve the establishment of special uses specified in this chapter, and a building permit shall not be issued until the Planning Commission has granted such approval. The Planning Commission may adopt such rules and regulations as it deems necessary, consistent with Article 7 of the Village Law, to exercise the powers granted herein. Among such rules and regulations, the Planning Commission may require the submission of a site plan depicting some or all of the items of information identified in §
185-50F(12) of this chapter based upon consideration of the particular special use proposed.
B. Procedure and conditions; application for special permit. Application
for required special permits shall be made to the Planning Commission.
A public hearing shall be conducted within 62 days of the date a complete
application under this section is received, unless otherwise set forth
in this chapter. Public notice of the hearing shall be printed in
a newspaper of general circulation in the Village at least five days
prior to the date of the public hearing. The Planning Commission shall
decide upon the application within 62 days after the close of the
public hearing. This sixty-day period may be extended by mutual consent
of the applicant and the Planning Commission. Failure to act within
the specified time periods shall not result in approval of the application
by default. The decision of the Planning Commission on the application
after the holding of the public hearing shall be filed in the office
of the Village Clerk within five business days after such decision
is rendered and a copy thereof mailed to the applicant.
C. Referral to Westchester County Planning Board. Prior to taking action
on the application for special permit approval, the Planning Commission
shall refer any matter involving any of the areas specified in § 239-m
of the General Municipal Law to the Westchester County Planning Board,
pursuant to the provisions of such section.
D. Referral to neighboring municipalities. Prior to the holding of a
public hearing, the Planning Commission shall refer any matter involving
any of the areas specified in § 277.71 of the Westchester
County Administrative Code to neighboring municipalities, pursuant
to the provisions of such section.
E. Compliance with SEQRA. Prior to taking action on the application
for special permit plan approval, the Planning Commission shall comply
with the provisions of the State Environmental Quality Review Act
(SEQRA) under Article 8 of the Environmental Conservation Law and
its implementing regulations.
F. Conditions and safeguards. The Planning Commission shall attach such
conditions and safeguards to an approved use as are, in its opinion,
necessary to ensure initial and continual conformance to all applicable
standards and requirements and to ensure the accomplishment of the
following objectives:
(1) All proposed structures, equipment and material shall be readily
accessible for fire and police protection.
(2) The proposed use shall be of such location, size and character that,
in general, it will be in harmony with the appropriate and orderly
development of the district in which it is proposed to be situated
and will not be detrimental to the orderly development of adjacent
properties, in accordance with the zoning classification of such properties.
(3) The location and size of such use, the nature and intensity of operations
involved in or conducted in connection therewith, its site layout
and its relation to access streets shall be such that both pedestrian
and vehicular traffic to and from the use and the assembly of persons
in connection therewith will not be hazardous or inconvenient to or
incongruous with the district or conflict with the normal traffic
of the neighborhood.
(4) The location and height of buildings, the location, nature and height
of walls and fences and the nature and extent of screening and landscaping
on the site shall be such that the use will not hinder or discourage
the appropriate development and use of adjacent land and buildings
or impair the value thereof.
(5) The site plan for such use shall be designed to ensure the accomplishment of the objectives set forth in §
185-50E of this chapter.
(6) In case of review of the nonconforming use of open land under §
185-46D(1) of this chapter, the Planning Commission's power shall be limited to the imposition of such reasonable conditions, such as but not limited to the placing of fencing and screening in such places as will minimize the impact such open use has upon surrounding residential properties. In such cases, the Planning Commission may also permit reasonable changes in existing structures on the land, within the limitations of the zoning district in which said use is located, for the purpose of reducing the open use of the land.
G. Renewal. The Planning Commission may require that special permits
be periodically renewed. Such renewal shall be granted following due
public notice and hearing and may be withheld only upon a determination
by the Planning Commission that such conditions, as may have been
prescribed by the Planning Commission in conjunction with the issuance
of the original permit, have not been or are being no longer complied
with. In such cases, a period of 60 days shall be granted the applicant
for full compliance prior to the revocation of said permit.
H. Fee. There shall be a fee for a special permit as set forth by resolution
of the Village Board of Trustees in the Master Fee Schedule, which
may be amended from time to time.
I. Existing violations. No permit shall be issued for a special use
for a property where there is an existing violation of this chapter.
[Amended 11-22-1999 by L.L. No. 12-1999; 9-29-2020 by L.L. No. 3-2020]
A. Findings and purpose. The Village Board of Trustees
hereby finds that poor quality of materials and/or inappropriateness
of design in the exterior appearance of buildings or signs erected
in any neighborhood adversely affects the desirability of the immediate
area and neighboring areas and by so doing impairs the benefits of
occupancy of existing property to such areas, impairs the stability
and value of both improved and unimproved real property in such areas,
prevents the most appropriate development of such areas, produces
degeneration of property in such areas with attendant deterioration
of conditions affecting the health, safety, comfort and general welfare
of the inhabitants thereof and creates an adverse relationship between
the taxable value of real property in such areas and the cost of municipal
services provided therefor. It is the purpose of this section to prevent
these and other harmful effects of such exterior appearance of buildings
erected in any neighborhood and thus to promote and protect the health,
safety, comfort and general welfare of the community, conserve the
value of buildings and encourage the most appropriate use of land
within the Village.
B. Creation and organization. The Planning Commission
is hereby designated as the Board of Architectural Review. All members
of the Planning Commission shall also be members of the Board of Architectural
Review who shall serve without compensation and shall be residents
of the Village. All new members of the Board shall be specifically
qualified by reason of training or experience in art, architecture,
community planning, land development, real estate, landscape architecture
or other relevant business or profession to judge the effects of a
proposed building upon the desirability, property values and development
of surrounding areas, and at least one member of such Board shall
be a registered architect of the State of New York. The terms of office
for the Planning Commission and the Board of Architectural Review
shall run concurrently. All appointees to the Planning Commission
shall be deemed to be concurrently and simultaneously appointed to
the Board of Architectural Review. The Village Board of Trustees shall
have the power to remove any member for cause after public hearing
pursuant to § 45-3 of the Village Code. Vacancies shall
be filled for the unexpired term of any member whose position has
become vacant pursuant to § 45-2 of the Village Code.
C. Procedures and powers.
(1) The Building Inspector shall act as Secretary to the Board, and it shall be his or her duty to refer to such Board of Architectural Review plans for any building for which a permit is sought and which, in his or her opinion, requires such referral in conformity with the purposes set forth in Subsection
A herein, but not for detached single- and two-family residential structures, except those that are developed as part of a subdivision approved after the effective date of this provision. All applications to the Planning Commission shall be deemed to be simultaneously referred to the Board of Architectural Review, and the approval of the Planning Commission shall be deemed to be an approval of the Board of Architectural Review. Meetings of the Board of Architectural Review shall be held no less than monthly and/or at such times as the Chairman of the Planning Commission may determine for the purpose of acting on any application for building permits referred to them, as hereinafter required. A majority of the Board of Architectural Review shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The Board shall keep minutes of its proceedings, showing the vote of each member upon each question or, if absent or failing to vote, indicating such fact, and shall also keep records of its examinations and other official actions. The Board of Architectural Review shall have power from time to time to adopt, amend and repeal rules and regulations, not inconsistent with law or the provisions of this section, governing its procedure and the transaction of its business and for the purpose of carrying into effect the outlined standards.
(2) The Building Inspector shall promptly refer to the
Board every application for a building permit within the purview of
this section, together with all drawings and material samples necessary
or required to clearly indicate the design intent. Such Board may
disapprove any building permit referred to it, provided that such
disapproval shall be by the vote of at least three members of the
Board, and provided that such Board finds the structure or building
for which the permit was applied would, if erected or altered, be
detrimental to the desirability, property values or development of
the surrounding areas due to:
(a)
The repeated and adjacent use of identical or
near-identical facades or structures arranged without respect to natural
features of terrain or other existing structures; or
(b)
Inappropriateness of a structure or land development
in relation to any other structure or land development existing or
for which a permit has been issued within 500 feet of the subject
premises or to any other structure or land development included in
the same application in respect to one or more of the following features:
[3]
Height of building or height of roof.
(c)
Other significant design features, such as material
or quality of architectural design, roof structures, chimneys, exposed
mechanical equipment and service and storage enclosures, signs, landscaping,
retaining walls, fences and lighting posts and standards, provided
that a finding of inappropriateness shall state not only that such
inappropriateness exists but, further, that it is of such a nature
as to be expected to provoke, by a preponderance of the evidence,
one or more of the harmful effects set forth herein and that the finding
is not based on personal preference as to taste or architectural style.
D. Appeals and enforcement.
(1) The Building Inspector shall deny any building permit
application disapproved by the Board of Architectural Review. He or
she may approve any application conditionally approved by the Board
as soon as the conditions specified in such conditional approval have
been fulfilled. If the Board shall have approved any building permit
application, then the Building Inspector shall thereafter issue the
building permit, provided that all other requirements have been met.
(2) Whenever the Board of Architectural Review shall deny
approval of a submission or approve with such conditions as the proponent
feels are unacceptable, the proponent and/or his or her architect
shall have the right to appeal to and be heard before the Village
Board of Trustees.
(3) Whenever the Board of Architectural Review shall approve
a submission, either wholly or with conditions, any interested person
or group of persons shall, within 30 days after the filing of said
decision in the office of the Village Clerk, have the right to appeal
to and be heard before the Village Board of Trustees. The Village
Board of Trustees may, on appeal, affirm, affirm with conditions,
reverse or remand to the Board of Architectural Review with instructions.
(4) The Village Board of Trustees shall hear and decide
any appeal within 30 days after the notice of appeal, in writing,
is filed with the Village Clerk. Thereafter, any aggrieved party may,
within 30 days after the filing of said decision in the office of
the Village Clerk, appeal from the decision of the Village Board of
Trustees to the Supreme Court, Westchester County.
E. Fees. All referrals made by the Building Inspector
pursuant to this section shall be accompanied by a fee as set forth
by resolution of the Village Board of Trustees in the Master Fee Schedule,
which may be amended from time to time.