Lloyd picks review committee for senior project

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 12/8/21

The Lloyd Town Board met on November 22 to approve the members who will sit on a pre-application conceptual review committee. They will be charged with looking at the details of a Planned Residential …

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Lloyd picks review committee for senior project

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The Lloyd Town Board met on November 22 to approve the members who will sit on a pre-application conceptual review committee. They will be charged with looking at the details of a Planned Residential Retirement Development [PRRD] project that is being proposed by Florida based developer Mark Sanderson for the upper portion of his property, above the Assisted Living Facility that is presently under limited construction on Route 9W in Highland, opposite the Bridgeview Plaza.

The PRRD, or second phase for the site, is for a Life Plan Community for seniors 62 years and older.

Sanderson is seeking to build 178 units, consisting of 150 single family cottages and 14 duplex cottages, up and across his 57 acre parcel.

The committee will consist of Building Director Dave Barton, Councilman Lenny Auchmoody, Planning Board Chairman Scott McCarthy and Zoning Board Chairman John Litts.

Supervisor Fred Pizzuto gave an update on this committee.

“As you all know when we came out of the moratorium this is part of the new way we approach PRRD. There is a pre-application conceptual review committee that’s been put in place to review the PRRD and they’ll make their recommendations to the Town Board and the Town Board proceeds,” he said.
Councilman Joe Mazzetti took issue with the proposed makeup of this committee.

“I’m looking at these names and there’s no diversity on this; its all people that are chairman or a Building Director; shouldn’t we have diversity on this committee?” he asked.

Pizzuto said the issue of diversity was not part of the discussion when this committee was formed at the January 2021 town re-organization meeting.

Councilmen Mike Guerriero and Joe Mazzetti said this matter should be decided in January by the next administration. When asked by Pizzuto, Supervisor-elect Dave Plavchak also favors doing this in January.

“If there is some imminent reason why this pre-review has to happen between now and the end of the year, then I can see us nominating this committee now” he said.

Pizzuto made it seem there is a time constraint on this matter, saying he is under the impression from Building Director Dave Barton that there is a 30 day window for this committee to make their recommendations to the Town Board concerning the PRRD.

Mazzetti asked what application has been submitted, “that we’re working 30 days on. I have not heard of that. To my knowledge I don’t know of anything [and] I would hold off on this and wait until the new Town Board takes over.”

Pizzuto insisted an application for a PRRD has been submitted concerning the Villages project.

Mazzetti said the Villages has been doing a lot of work at their Assisted Living site, “and they don’t even have an approved site plan [or] a stamped map. They’re bulldozing, they’re putting roads in and the project is contingent on us approving them as a PRRD. The [town] board has to vote on that. So by pushing it, that means the vote will be before the new town board takes over.”

The PRRD section of the town code clearly states that an applicant must meet with a pre-application committee after first submitting a Conceptual Plan of their project to Code Enforcement Officer Barton. This plan must include drawings, architectural renderings and a narrative description of a PRRD, which should include any proposed waivers, or modifications from any of the requirements of this section of the code, “including but not limited to use, density, or area requirements that would be needed for the proposed PRRD, with justification for the relief sought.”

After 30 days the committee then makes their recommendations to the applicant and to the Town Board and only after this happens can a developer/applicant submit an application for a PRRD to the Town Board.

Pizzuto failed to mention to his fellow board members that Sanderson’s attorney John Furst submitted a letter on November 19, prior to the Nov. 22 meeting, stating that his client is willing to extend the mandatory 30 day review period by the pre-application committee to January 29, 2022. This letter was sent to Building Director Dave Barton and copied to Lloyd’s Land Use Attorney Paul Van Cott and town engineer Andrew Learn.

Despite being urged by two sitting Town Board members and the incoming Supervisor to allow the next administration to appoint the committee members, the current Town Board filled the committee seats with Barton, Auchmoody, McCarthy and Litts by a 3-2 vote, with Supervisor Pizzuto and Councilpersons Winslow and Auchmoody voting yes and Councilmen Guerriero and Mazzetti voting no.