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MINING OPPONENTS STATE CASE
DAILY FREEMAN - Tuesday, September 11, 2001 (front page)- by Ariel Zangla, Correspondent
Two appeals made by foes of a proposed project to mine bluestone will be decided on
by the Saugerties Zoning Board of Appeals by November.

SAUGERTIES - The Zoning Board of Appeals will have 62 days to make rulings on two appeals regarding a proposed bluestone mining operation in a residential area of Veteran that will use blasting and a small stone crusher to process the stone.

   The appeals, discussed during a public hearing at Monday night's meeting, include a request that the board overturn the decision of the town building inspector regarding the completeness of the special-use permit application submitted by Shott Rock, Inc. for the proposed mining. The other appeal requests the board give an interpretation regarding whether the decision of the Planning Board to forgo lead agency status is an official action of the board and whether that action requires a vote.

    During the public hearing, March Gallagher, representing the anti-mine group Citizens Action for Residential Environments in Saugerties, said a request for a special-use permit requires an applicant to submit a site plan, which, in turn, requires a pre-submission conference with the Planning Board. She said Shott did not have the conference prior to the building inspector deciding the application was complete and that an appeal of the building inspector's decision should have stayed all action on the proposal but did not.

    Gallagher said the Zoning Board of Appeals should reverse the completeness decision and return the application to the building inspector to determine if it is now complete. She said the July 17 meeting of the Planning Board could be considered the pre-submission conference, but the application cannot be considered complete until the building inspector reviews it again.

    In addition, Gallagher said the Zoning Board of Appeals should interpret the zoning law to include lead-agency status decisions in the definition of an official act of the Planning Board requiring the board to vote on the decision in the future. A decision made by the Planning Board's chairman to forgo lead agency status on the Shott project was done unilaterally and without a vote of the board, she added.

    Michael Moriello, an attorney for Shott, said Shott's representatives are willing to go before the Planning Board again and give it any additional information it requests. He added the appeals are a technical move to stay the application process until changes to the town's zoning laws that would prohibit the mining can be made.

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