Plan for event permits prompts caution

PORT EWEN, N.Y. >> The Ulster County Planning Board has recommended the town of Esopus identify specific properties that would be required for special-use permits under zoning amendments that would allow existing commercial sites in rural areas to be used as event venues.

Esopus Supervisor Shannon Harris said the county board’s recommendations were extensive.

“If we can make amends that are satisfactory to us and our attorney by the next ... workshop, [on] Nov. 4, then we can put it before the Town Board for discussion, then at that meeting we can set a public hearing,” Harris said of the advancing the zoning amendments.

The recommendations from the county Planning

Board said hotels, motels, places of worship, public buildings, resorts, restaurants and taverns should be exempt from event permit requirements but still need to provide information about parking needs and plans for any health and safety matters that might arise.

The law would only apply

to properties in the town’s R-40 residential zoning district, which covers the majority of Esopus and has a minimum lot size of 40,000 square feet, or roughly 1 acre. The law, though, would require that properties have a least 3 acres to qualify for an event permit.

The county Planning Board also said the proposed events law does not sufficiently take into account potential impacts on adjacent properties.

The board said it “recommends a closer look at where the use is allowed in a more precise manner, as well a focus on quality[of]-life issues and how such venues may impact neighboring parcels given the lack of standards currently provided in the proposed law.”

The board also said event venues should be designated as accessory uses on properties and have clear limits imposed on them.

“Greater specificity with

respect to the types of events allowed should be stated,” the board said. “The number of persons allowed at one time should also be made clear, as should the hours of operations, including set-up and dismantling time, to limit noise at undesired hours.

“It is also recommended that regulations to remove temporary structures within a specific ... time frame should be instituted to clean up a site after an event has completed.”