Planning board schedules July public hearing on four-lot subdivision with private road tax issue

Residents and applicants presented a four-lot subdivision issue in which the private access road was recorded as its own tax parcel, leaving the four residential lots without ownership to the centerline. Peter Feny spoke for the homeowners, noting the concern that buyers do not want to lack ownership of their access. Staff explained that under Cornwall code the lot-line change is treated as a subdivision and therefore requires a public hearing.

Dominic, speaking for planning staff, recommended scheduling a July public hearing and advised the property owners to prepare new metes-and-bounds descriptions and deeds to transfer the road parcel into the individual home lots. Board members asked staff to confirm that the existing road-maintenance agreement and HOA provisions will continue; staff said the HOA remains in place and the lot-line change only alters parcel boundaries, not maintenance terms.

The board voted to set the public hearing for July and instructed applicants to submit deed and survey documents to Gary's office for staff review. The board noted that the change is primarily administrative but must follow the town code's public-hearing requirement.