ZBA Considers Special Permit Request for Competition Carting Garbage Trucks

Citizens for an Informed doesn’t routinely attend Zoning Board of Appeals meetings.

 However, because the April agenda included a public hearing on a major town-wide issue  – a special permit for Competition Carting, the Town’s new residential garbage collector, CIY viewed a video of the meeting and offers the following summary.

The application is to permit the outdoor storage of up to 12 garbage trucks (for collecting kitchen waste and recyclables), containers, and a temporary trailer used as an office on a parcel located off Richard Place which is off Front Street, roughly across the street from Yorktown Auto Body. Truck drivers arrive at the site at approximately 5:30 a.m., park their cars on the site, and then leave in the garbage trucks, returning to the site at 3 p.m. The trucks are washed once a week. According to the applicant, no one is on the site between 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Note: the applicant is currently using the site to park garbage trucks.)

In response to issues raised by the Building Inspector, the applicant will need to submit a formal site plan for the intended use and the application will have to be referred to the DEP because the site is located in the New York City watershed. The site is also in a FEMA designated floodplain. The application has already been referred to the county Planning Department as the site is adjacent to the Northern Westchester Trailway. 

Given the environmental issues associated with the application, in February, the ZBA told the applicant that a long form Environmental Assessment Form (EAF) would be required under the SEQRA law.

ZBA members and two adjacent property owners expressed concern about the truck washing and the resulting odors, especially during the summer. Concerns were also raised about the water from the truck washing getting into the wetlands as well as traffic on Front Street although the applicant said that there wasn’t much traffic at 5:30 a.m.

Referring to the site’s previous special permit (that expired in 1998) for outdoor storage for construction materials, the applicant said that the new use, storage of trucks, was a lesser use as the site was not actively used. In response, ZBA members noted that the issue was more a “different” use than the “intensity” of use and that because the proposed use involved garbage, there was also a health issue.

The hearing was adjourned to May 23.

Citizens for an Informed Yorktown, a non partisan grassroots organization whose goal is to inform residents about what's happening in our community and to increase the level of resident participation in town affairs.

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