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Okay, thank you. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Zoning Board of Appeals for the

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Channel of North Castle. Today is August 6th, 2026. And we have roll call, please.

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Ray Rodriguez. Here. John Stipo. Here. Bob Greer. Here. Scott Stopnik. Ed Leshians. Here.

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I get.

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I move to approve the minutes in the previous meeting. I'll second that. Okay, let's get started.

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We're going to open the public hearing for 430 Main Street, Neal Schwartz.

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Okay. You could go right over to that. Yeah, that's fine. As long as you talk in the...

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Hi. Hi.

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So I have a, basically I just wanted to add my phone number and my logo and the actual, what I do,

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because right now it's pretty bare on the door.

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door. There was another tenant that was basically on the other side of my wall. They left and

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they scraped everything off. So right now there's nothing on the door that really says what

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I do so people can't find me. And there's no other access other than the door. There's

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no other place to put signage or anything.

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I drove just to several businesses have lettering on the windows, walls, and doors.

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You guys are familiar with Main Street, right?

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Yes.

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How big is this thing going to be?

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15 inches.

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How much space do you need for your sign?

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Just the door, the width of the door.

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The whole door?

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Yeah.

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It's not the whole door.

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It's just...

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15 by 19 and a half.

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That's what the signs don't look like, not with the black, it's just a proof.

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It's white letters, it's just that you can't put white on white.

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So what would the actual letters be?

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What color?

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It'll be white.

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I think you said not on black, so how are you going to see it?

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No, I'm saying the picture on the glass that has to be white on glass as opposed

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to white on a sheet of paper, it's not going to...

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Okay, and you're going to go to the ARB if we give you the variance for the color and

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all that stuff.

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It's white.

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I know they like white.

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You just have to go for the, he has to just go to get it approved.

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Yeah, you've got to go to get it approved at the ARB.

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I know the previous tenant, so yeah, they did have a sign on the window or lettering.

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If you go through town, every store in town has signs on the windows.

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I don't think it's...

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I have no problem with it.

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So, you know, from what I've read, it doesn't seem like it's substantial.

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It will be self-created.

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No negative impact to the environment.

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I don't believe any impact to the character of the neighborhood.

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Any other tenants or neighbors?

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Yeah, there's room below.

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So I'm going to be this 428A and below that is where it's going to be and below that would

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be where another tenant can go.

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So I had to get that approved by the landlord.

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Okay.

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The only alternative is to not advertise your business, which I don't think is fair

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since a lot of businesses do advertise that way.

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So with those five standards, do we have a motion?

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I'll make a motion.

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Oh, second date.

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As long as you put in there that he goes to the A or B, make me happy.

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He doesn't matter.

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Can we add that, please?

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Yes, we can add that.

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Excellent. Can we close to the public hearing?

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Okay, we're going to close the public hearing.

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Okay, can we go to vote?

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Okay, John Stefa.

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Go ahead.

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Ray Rodriguez.

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Yes.

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Bob Greer.

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Yes.

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Ed Lashens.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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All right. All right. Let me hear your sign. All right. Thank you.

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Can I open it back up? You ready? Yes. Okay. We're going to open the public hearing for

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Michael Smith, 53 Windmill Road. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the

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board. My name is Mike Testa. I'm here trying to help Mr. Smith through the zoning process.

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I created a packet for you with regards to his request. He's selling his house and

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he has a closing set for the 15th of August. And during the review process with the

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building department. We found out that we were 850.58 square feet above the

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allowable development coverage that was allowed on site. We submitted

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applications to the town engineer and as a result he came up with a drainage

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improvement plan to mitigate those issues and as a result he did approve it.

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We went to the RPRC. We got an approval from them subject to getting

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the zoning variance approved by your board. I tried to address all of the

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points of appeals with regards to whether or not there'd be an undesirable change in

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the neighborhood or a detriment to nearby properties.

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And he bought the property in 2015, so for the last 10, 11 years, it's been existing.

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What you see here, there's been no issues or changes that he has done to modify

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any of these issues.

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In terms of the immediate neighbors, we did solicit the majority of the surrounding

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neighbors, and we have in your packet letters of support from the surrounding

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neighborhood.

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six in total I believe. We tried to determine if the applicant can be

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achieved by some feasible method for the applicant to pursue other than an area

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variance. In order to do that we priced out trying to remove 858 square feet of

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improvements and that cost over $10,000 and the new buyer just doesn't want

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to start ripping up things there. At the same time whether or not the variance

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is substantial I mean we believe that the variance is a minimal variance

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that we're trying to achieve to accomplish our goal here and the lastly was itself created.

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Basically he has this property he's maintained it throughout the whole years and we feel that

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this is a minor waiver and through accomplishes goal of trying to keep this property and get

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it for sale. And like I said the new buyers are pretty much adamant that they want to keep

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it that way or else it could affect the sale of the property and we're trying to get this

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through your honorable board was this the condition when the seller is selling it when he bought it

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this was the same condition that is now did he make the any change he added a patio in the back

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and that patio was what we had to go to the engineering board for and mr. Kellogg required

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a substantial drainage improvement plan which we have implemented on site already which you've

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completed that work. Yes sir. Okay. We have not gotten a building permit yet because Rob

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is not able to grant that until the board grants the waiver. So the majority of this

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was existing nonconformism. That is correct. And just the only improvement done by the

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current owner was patio. The patio. That is correct. I did go through the package.

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We have six neighbors showing support, $10,000 to rip up that little area.

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We tried to go around the neighborhood and most of them, that we know there's no objection

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that we're aware of.

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So, I saw in here it showed up on title.

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What exactly showed up on title?

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Excuse me?

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I read in your packet that you discovered this on title.

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What exactly showed up on title?

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In other words, when I do a title search with the municipality, I come up with a

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list of items that are approved.

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When they went through this process, they found out that their patios were not originally

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approved.

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Therefore, we had to get the building permit for the patios, which we submitted for.

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We were denied by Rob, and as a result, that's what we were appealing.

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Okay.

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And there was something to hear about our driveway also?

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The driveways are existing.

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There's been no change to the existing driveways.

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We resurfaced them years ago, back in 2015, with no change at all.

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Got you.

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Good.

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Any questions?

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How about it?

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Okay.

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Can we close it please?

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Do you want to add?

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Oh, I'm sorry.

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Do you have any questions?

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I forgot you up there, my bad.

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No, no.

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I know that there were a number of neighbors who wrote in favor of it.

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I assume that there are no neighbors who are opposed to that.

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Is that correct?

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Sir, there was none that I'm aware of.

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I believe there was a neighbor in the audience right now.

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Who was an immediate neighbor across the street.

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Yeah, it seems like the neighbors are okay.

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Takes the village.

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Thank you.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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I'm okay.

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All right.

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All right.

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Can we close the place?

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All right.

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We're going to close the public hearing.

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Okay.

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I'll make a motion to approve.

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I'll second it.

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Okay.

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Let's go to vote.

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All right.

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We're going to roll call.

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Ed Lashens. Yes. Bob Greer. Yes. John Stipo. Yes. Ray Rodriguez. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

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Just making progress tonight.

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Okay. All right. I'm going to open the public hearing. Well, I'm not, but we're going to open the public hearing for one windmill court.

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So, never done this before, never lived in a house, never moved into windmill in 2017.

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Can you start with your name, sir?

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Keith Arner.

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Thank you.

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Thanks for the camera.

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So, wasn't sure if my architect was going to be on Zoom, but unfortunately he is at

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a meeting.

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So, there we go.

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We put a sport court in during COVID.

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We talked to somebody that we thought was going to advise us on the proper ways

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of doing it.

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We believe them. That company is now out of business, unfortunately.

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I think we are looking for a variance of what is the exact amount of feet. I think it's 17.

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It should be 30. It is 12 feet off of...

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17 feet 10 inches.

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So we're looking for a variance of 17 feet 10 inches.

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We've had the sport court for five plus years.

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I have two boys. They love it.

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We are putting in drainage for the sport court.

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We have never had an issue thus far.

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We're renovating our house, similar to what Ray did in others Jeff Blum around us, so we

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are invested into the community and we plan on starting forever.

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I'm sorry, you said you were what?

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Renovating?

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We're renovating our house.

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Yeah, I sold a lot of them.

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Yeah, yeah, hopefully we can move back.

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Lot of trucks, floors went in today, tiles being laid, we're hoping we can move back

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in September.

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It's been a long year.

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I'm sure.

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Yeah.

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So just as you get a building permit for this court, we, I think we're approved

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And if the variance was approved talking about when you put it in no, we're legalizing it now

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So the person that we used advised us that we did not need that during COVID. This was in the heat of COVID

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I think it was September or July

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And that was the company that actually made that was the company that put the basketball court in that's why he's here

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That's why I'm here. So yeah, he got some bad advice from a company

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She's got bad advice from the companies that don't load around.

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Correct.

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A little history.

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When the court has three, you're at number one.

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Number one, yes.

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My first house was number three.

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Is that across the street?

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Directly across the street.

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Yeah.

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I bought that in 1968.

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Did you really?

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Did you sell it to the woman who's there now?

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Oh, I...

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Oh, I don't even know.

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she's she's older husband passed away in 2015 yeah I'm long gone from that but

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the court is so cute it's great I have three boys that grew up on that plane in

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that I love it I love it I think you mentioned your neighbors any concerns

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have any of your neighbor's voice concerns.

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Yeah, nobody has.

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I had, I got nothing.

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Did you said you put in drainage?

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We're going to.

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I just got a quote.

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I'm going to have somebody do that.

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But what is that required by any town or you're just doing that anyhow?

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No, it was retired, it was required by I think Rob or the building inspector.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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But is it, is it defined amount of work?

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It is just to do.

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Correct.

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Yes.

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There's four Coltex that go up there.

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Okay.

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And the drain is going to cost about a hundred thousand dollars. He's told you what to do and you know how to do it

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Yes, okay, and you got a permit. We have yes everything the important thing as a new home

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Fairly new

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Always get permits or at least inquire because it's going to cause you all this trouble

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Where you could be rejected? I know so it's not worth not getting a permit

249
00:13:42,380 --> 00:13:46,200
agree with you a double when you get caught with it, so

250
00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:55,740
learn from experience. Just a little more. Yeah, I appreciate that. It's not even a slap on the wrist, it's just a warning. I got it. Thank you.

251
00:13:56,100 --> 00:14:05,320
Yeah, please inquire about permits should any future work be done. Okay, make a motion for me. That's sad. And after this we're not doing any more building.

252
00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:14,280
I just want to make sure. Add any questions. No, no. Obviously there's one neighbor that's affected more than any other.

253
00:14:15,260 --> 00:14:24,020
The one whose neighbor brought us on to the side yard where the court is located, and that

254
00:14:24,020 --> 00:14:32,380
neighbor is aware that you're applying for this variance and has no objection.

255
00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:33,300
No objection.

256
00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:34,440
Okay.

257
00:14:36,340 --> 00:14:37,980
I visited it.

258
00:14:38,100 --> 00:14:44,260
I don't know if your wife told me, told you, but I was there.

259
00:14:44,260 --> 00:14:48,640
In fact, if I knew that he had pickleball courts, I would have brought my paddle.

260
00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:54,720
But anyway, it's a nice court that you have there.

261
00:14:54,900 --> 00:14:59,180
We actually put, you saw, if you walked up there, we put trees up there to block the neighbors.

262
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:06,540
Okay, all right. We're going to close the public hearing.

263
00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:11,340
We have a motion. I'll make a motion

264
00:15:11,340 --> 00:15:21,140
as a former Wimbledon court neighbor. Yeah, I'm on north late now, but not there. All right.

265
00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:27,440
Do we have a second? Go ahead. I'll second it. Okay. Let's go to vote. Okay. We're going

266
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to do a roll call. Ed Lashins. Yes. Bob Greer. Yes. John Steepo. Yes. Ray Rodriguez. Yes.

267
00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:41,040
Thank you guys. Okay. See you didn't need to. Good luck with the renovation. You did a great

268
00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:45,400
job. Thank you. Have a good night. Thanks. I'll see you at the camp.

269
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You're doing a driveway. Am I? Yeah. No, I'm going to redo it, but not just I'm

270
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not going to add anything. Jamie at the highway department.