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Aberdeen board appoints two to Board of Adjustment and directs UDO text amendment to shift some historic reviews
Summary
The board appointed Janet Pill and Roger Bon to vacant Board of Adjustment seats and instructed staff to draft a UDO text amendment to move final review authority for some historic commercial certificates of appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Commission to the Planning Board, with appeals to the Board of Adjustment.
The Aberdeen Town Board voted June 10 to appoint two applicants — Janet Pill and Roger Bon — to vacant seats on the Board of Adjustment and directed staff to prepare a text amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to reassign certain historic‑district review authority.
Staff said the Board of Adjustment has not met regularly in recent years and the town is seeing variance applications tied to signage and DOT projects. "We'd like to present Janet Pill as an applicant for vacant post number one and Roger Bon as applicant for vacant post number two," a staff member said; the board approved both appointments by motion.
Following the appointments, members discussed chronic difficulty filling BOA seats and considered a UDO text amendment that would move review and final decision‑making for commercial and office historic district certificates of appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) to the Planning Board, with appeals to the Board of Adjustment. Staff said the change would leave most residential historic applications with the HPC but would create a clearer process for commercial reviews. "This would be a final decision making subject to an appeal," a staff member explained.
Board members emphasized the need to preserve quasi‑judicial standards and consistent guidelines so appeals are limited to statutory grounds. The board moved and seconded a direction for staff to draft the text amendment and return with proposed ordinance language in August after Planning Board review; it also set a public hearing date on related items for June 24 in packet items where applicable.
Why it matters: the change would alter which local body makes final determinations on certain historic downtown commercial developments and could speed or change review outcomes for downtown projects.
What’s next: staff will draft the proposed UDO text amendment to bring back to the board, with the Planning Board reviewing recommendations beforehand and an advertised public hearing to follow.
