The Board of Trustees hereby finds that inappropriateness or
poor quality of design in the exterior appearance of buildings or
land developments adversely affects the desirability of the immediate
area and neighboring areas and by so doing impairs the stability and
value of both improved and unimproved real property in such areas,
retards the most appropriate development of such areas, produces degeneration
of property in such areas with attendant deterioration of conditions
affecting the health, safety, morals and general welfare of the inhabitants
thereof and creates an improper 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 chapter to prevent these
and other harmful effects of such exterior appearance of buildings
and land developments and thus to promote and protect the health,
safety, morals and general welfare of the community.
The Planning Board of the Village of Walden is hereby designated
as the Architectural Review Board. All members of the Planning Board
shall also be members of the Architectural Review Board. The terms
of office for both Boards shall run concurrently. All appointees to
the Planning Board of the Village of Walden shall be deemed to be
concurrently and simultaneously appointed to the Architectural Review
Board.
The Board shall base its recommendations on the following criteria: No building or structure or land development shall be so detrimental to the desirability, property values or development of the surrounding area as to provoke one or more of the harmful effects set forth in §
13-1 by reason of:
A. The repeated and adjacent use of identical or nearly identical facades
or structures arranged without respect to natural features of terrain
or other existing structures.
B. Inappropriateness of structure or land development in relation to
any other structure or land development existing or for which a permit
has been issued or to any other structure or land development included
in the same application with respect to one or more of the following
features:
(1) Total volume in cubic feet.
(3) Height of building or height of roof.
(4) Other significant design features, such as material or quality of architectural design, roof structures, chimneys, exposed mechanical equipment and service, service and storage enclosures, signs, landscaping, retaining walls, parking areas, service and loading docks, dividing walls, fences, lighting posts and standards, provided that a finding of inappropriateness existed to provoke beyond reasonable doubt one or more of the harmful effects set forth in §
13-1.
Any person or persons jointly or severally aggrieved by any
decision of the Architectural Review Board shall have the right to
review said decision by a public hearing before the Zoning Board of
Appeals and by a proceeding under Article 78 of the Civil Practice
Law and Rules, which proceedings must be commenced within 30 days
of the filing of such decision with the Village Clerk.