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Applicant asks to move Stonehedge Farm detention pond into preservation buffer; Planning Board delays decision
Summary
Marsel Amona asked the Montebello Planning Board to approve relocating a detention basin on Lot 12 that would encroach into a 200-foot preservation buffer. Village staff said SEQR and a jurisdictional determination are required; the board continued the public hearing to August.
The Village of Montebello Planning Board on July 8 heard a request from applicant Marsel Amona to relocate the detention basin for the Stonehedge Farm subdivision from Lot 12 into the 200-foot preservation buffer.
"I wish to relocate the detention basin from lot 12 of this approved subdivision into the preservation buffer," Amona told the board and said he would screen the basin with 4-foot arborvitae and other evergreens to reduce its visual impact from Spook Rock Road.
Village Planner Max Stach told the board the submitted FEAF Part I contains an error: the Village Board’s previous straw poll (4–1) was an indication, not an approval. "This application is subject to SEQR and no approvals can be granted until SEQR concludes," Stach said, and he advised that, if SEQR is amended, the Negative Determination must be reissued. Village Engineer Martin Spence said the site infrastructure has already been installed, that the new pond location is outside the wetland buffer as shown on revised plans, and that the lot lines will not change, but he recommended the applicant provide a jurisdictional determination that the relocation is outside the DEC-regulated wetlands buffer.
Board members and staff also discussed a maintenance access road that follows the sanitary easement to the basin; Amona and Spence said the road is not in the preservation buffer and that it should be a stable crushed-stone surface suitable for light vehicles. Member Nancy Doon asked the applicant to show new easement lines on the subdivision plat and to include full site-plan sheets and revision dates on all pages to avoid confusion.
Amona asked the board to allow a third model home on the subdivision. Spence and Assistant Village Attorney Alyse Terhune said the plat note allowing two model homes before dedication remains the policy and no exception was granted.
After the technical discussion, Member Marlo Dickman moved to adjourn the application and the public hearing to the board’s August meeting; Member Nancy Doon seconded the motion and the board voted unanimously to continue the matter.
Next steps: the applicant should submit the full set of site-plan pages with revision dates, a jurisdictional determination regarding wetlands buffer limits, and SEQR Parts II and III as the board circulates a Notice of Intent for SEQR review.
