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Dover planning board rejects private family cemetery at 209 Cricut Hill Road after 3-2 vote
Summary
After extensive debate about screening, timing of landscaping and long‑term maintenance, the Town of Dover Planning Board voted 3-2 (with one absence) to deny a special use permit and site plan for a private family cemetery proposed for a 40x80 plot at 209 Cricut Hill Road.
The Town of Dover Planning Board on June 1 declined to approve a proposal to establish a private family cemetery on a 3,200‑square‑foot (40 by 80 foot) area of a larger lot at 209 Cricut Hill Road. The resolution failed by a 3‑2 vote; a seven‑member board requires four affirmative votes for passage.
Proposal and consultant recommendations: The applicant (209 Cricut Hill Road LLC) proposed a private family burial plot and provided a planner’s memo recommending a layered, naturalized screen (understory shrubs, small trees and a groundcover layer). The applicant’s representative (Garrison of Grand Alliance) told the board the applicant would accept low‑profile headstones (flat or slanted) and provided a draft corrective deed and draft landscaping recommendations.
Conditions debated: The board debated several conditions before the vote: a requirement that headstones be low profile (flat or slanted, generally 16–18 inches), a requirement that landscaping and screening following the planner’s recommendations be installed and maintained, and a corrective deed with metes and bounds and third‑party enforcement rights in favor of the town that would be recorded with the Dutchess County Clerk. Board members also discussed whether screening should be installed immediately or only when the burial use is triggered and whether any perimeter fencing should be allowed without returning for amended approval.
Dissenting concerns and vote: One board member argued the location (near the crest of a hill) could draw attention and represent a private nuisance to neighbors and said they could not support the finding that the project would not create a nuisance. In the roll call the secretary recorded Member Williams: yes; Member Vano: no; Member Palmer: yes; Member Lorobier: yes; Chair Cine: no; the resolution therefore failed 3‑2 with one absence and did not receive the four votes required for approval.
Next steps and implementation items discussed: The draft resolution included a corrective deed requirement, a condition that landscaping/screening be installed prior to the first headstone placement, and a requirement that landscaping and screening be maintained in good condition (applied to the delineated 40x80 burial area). The board discussed how to record restrictive language and metes and bounds in a corrective deed and asked staff and counsel to prepare the deed form for review; however, without a majority vote the board declined to adopt the resolution at this meeting.
