Zoning Board of Appeals
Village of Tarrytown
Regular Meeting
January 12, 2009
Present: Chairwoman Lawrence; Members Brown, Jolly, Maloney, Merrill-Verma; Counsel Shumejda; Village Engineer McGarvey, Secretaries Bellantoni, D’Eufemia
PUBLIC HEARING – VILLAGE OF BRIARCLIFF MANOR – 399 NEPERAN ROAD NEW PUMP STATION
Mrs. Bellantoni read the following Notice of Public Hearing:
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Village of Tarrytown will hold a public hearing at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, January 12, 2009, in the Municipal Building, One Depot Plaza, Tarrytown, New York to hear and consider an application by
Village of Briarcliff Manor
1111 Pleasantville Road
Briarcliff Manor, New York 10510
for variances from the Zoning Code of the Village of Tarrytown for property located on Neperan Road, Tarrytown, New York, to allow for construction of a pump station requiring the following variances:
1. Variance from the requirements of Tarrytown Village Code Section 302-B.(3), which prohibits the placement of aboveground or underground chemical storage facilities of bulk petroleum storage tanks within a wetland, watercourse or adjacent buffer area.
2. Variance from the requirements of Tarrytown Zoning Code Section 305-22H, steep slopes provisions, if a waiver from said provisions is not approved by the Planning Board.
Documents are available for inspection in the Planning and Zoning Office at Tarrytown Village Hall. The property is shown on the Tax Maps of the Village of Tarrytown as Sheet 5, Block 117, Parcel 47 and is located in an R-80 (Residential) zone.
All interested parties are invited to attend and be heard. Access to the meeting room is available to the elderly and the handicapped. Signing is available for the hearing impaired; request must be made to the Village Clerk at least one week in advance of the meeting.
Certified mailing receipts were received.
The Board visited the site.
Ms. Lawrence read the following two letters:
From Lynn E. Weinig of Wormster, Kiely, Galef & Jacobs, dated January 12, 2009:
“At the Tarrytown Planning Board’s meeting on January 5, 2009, site plan approval, wetlands permit and steep slopes waiver were granted to Briarcliff Manor for construction of its pump station.
Since the steep slopes waiver was granted by the Planning Board, a variance from the steep slopes provisions of the Tarrytown Zoning Code is no longer required. As such, please consider that portion of our application withdrawn.”
From Michael Blau, Tarrytown Village Administrator, dated January 12, 2009:
“Please be advised that the Villages of Tarrytown and Briarcliff Manor commenced negotiations in 2001 for the sharing of a tap to the Catskill Aqueduct in Greenburgh, the sharing of the transmission main from the tap along Neperan Road to the pump stations and a long term easement for property along Neperan Road (adjacent to the Tarrytown pump station) for the construction of a Briarcliff Manor pump station. Briarcliff Manor had reached an agreement with the Village of Sleepy Hollow for the sharing of the tap and transmission main prior to the commencement of negotiations with Tarrytown. An agreement was reached and approved by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Tarrytown on July 16, 2004, relating to this project. In that agreement it states Tarrytown would provide an easement for the construction of a
Briarcliff Manor pump station adjacent to the Tarrytown pump station as well as a 1/3 interest in the tap and transmission main. The Village of Briarcliff Manor will be providing to Tarrytown $2,000,000 as a” buy-in”; $1,000,000 once the system is operational; $40,000 over the next 25 years with annual CPI increases. Briarcliff Manor will reimburse Tarrytown’s engineering costs; they will provide an additional storage facility for Tarrytown to address issues relating to chlorine contact time; they will construct a new tap and will upgrade the Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow tap thereby providing redundancy in the tap.
Based upon this agreement, the Board of Trustees made the decision in 2004 that Briarcliff Manor could build a pump station on Neperan Road. The issue as to whether it could or could not be built rested fully with the Board of Trustees and was ultimately made by the Board of Trustees.
The Villages of Tarrytown and Briarcliff Manor executed a new agreement in November 7, 2008, which established an expedited process for the Planning Board and Architectural Review Board review of the Briarcliff Manor pump station (site plan and the design appearance of the building). The issue as to whether this building can and/or should be built had been made by the Board of Trustees and was not an issue for these
two Boards. Per the agreement, the Planning Board and the ARB would review and decide upon the application by January 21, 2009. In exchange for receiving approvals within the time specified in the agreement, the initial funds to be provided by Briarcliff Manor to Tarrytown would be expedited.
At the time the agreement was reached, it was the understanding that the Briarcliff Manor pump station application was fully zoning compliant. It was later determined that the application was not fully zoning compliant and a variance was required from the ZBA. As of the date of this writing (and your meeting), the Briarcliff Manor pump station has received site plan approval from the Planning Board and it is expected that ARB will grant final approval for the architectural design of the building on January 14, 2009.”
Lynn Weinig of Wormser, Kiely, Galef & Jacobs, addressed the board with an explanation of the project. The Village of Briarcliff Manor proposes to construct a pump station building directly adjacent to the existing Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow pump stations located on Neperan Road, which will be used to treat and provide water to Briarcliff Manor as well as parts of Mt. Pleasant and Ossining. It will also enable Briarcliff Manor to utilize a connection from the Catskill Aqueduct; one will be a shared connection and two will be a new tap which they plan to install. Briarcliff Manor’s primary source of water supply is the Croton Aqueduct, which supplies unfiltered water. The need for the connection to the Catskill Aqueduct is to enable Briarcliff Manor to comply with the requirement of the EPA and the DEP, which
require higher drinking water standard and ultimately the filtration of the Croton Aqueduct. Based on engineering studies, the Catskill Aqueduct was chosen as the most viable option for Briarcliff Manor to follow since the Department of Health has mandated that the Croton Aqueduct be eliminated as a primary water source for Briarcliff Manor’s water customers unless it is filtered. Briarcliff Manor has entered into a Stipulation with the Department of Health to replace the existing Croton Aqueduct water supply with a water supply from the New York City Catskill Aqueduct system to bring Briarcliff Manor into compliance with the Surface Water Treatment Rule. The construction of a pump station is one part of the larger water project that will span through five communities and will include the transmission line which will travel approximately 4 miles through parts of Mt. Pleasant, Sleepy Hollow, Briarcliff Manor, Tarrytown and Greenburgh. This project will
also include improvements to the existing Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow meter buildings.
The chemicals necessary for the treatment and transmission of water, which are substantially the same chemicals which are presently stored in the existing Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow pump stations, are proposed to be housed in the pump station building, which is to be constructed in a wetlands buffer. The construction of the proposed pump station building will be within the 150-foot wetland buffer of both of the small wetlands on the property as well as within the Tarrytown Lakes watercourse.
Since chemical containment in wetlands is prohibited by the Village of Tarrytown’s wetlands ordinance, Briarcliff Manor is requesting a variance from this ordinance on the basis of extraordinary hardship, since without this pump station there will are no other alternative to supply safe and potable water to the Briarcliff Manor water system.
Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow will benefit as well since Briarcliff Manor will replace their existing aged vacuum priming pumps with two new high-capacity vacuum pumps. All three communities will jointly own the equipment, which will result in decreased maintenance costs.
The Briarcliff Manor Pump Station Property abuts the site of the Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow Pump Stations, and this location is a natural extension of the existing municipal uses in this area. In addition, water transmission pipes in this location will be shared by the three municipalities. Significant effort was made to place the building and pavement so as not to directly impact the wetlands; and at the Planning Board’s request, substantial landscaping is also proposed to minimize the visual impact of the Briarcliff Manor pump station from views from Neperan Road and the Tarrytown Lakes.
Wedy Sperduto of Hazen and Sawyer pointed out the locations of the existing pump stations and the site of the proposed pump stations and showed the board where the wetlands, watercourse and steep slope areas lie. She explained that the steep slope at the back of the pump station will be re-graded for safety purposes. She also pointed out the access to the site and parking area.
Ms. Sperduto then gave an explanation of the three chemical containment rooms: the first room, at the east end of the site, will contain sodium hypochlorite, a.k.a. chlorine, which provides disinfection to the water supply; the second room, at the west end, is a corrosion inhibitor to control levels of lead and copper; and the third is sodium hydroxide which increases the pH for optimum performance of the corrosion inhibitor. Each chemical will have bulk and day tank storage. Day tanks store approximately 100-350 gallons, depending on the chemical, (approximately 1 day’s usage) and prevent accidental injection of an excessive volume of treatment chemicals. Bulk tanks store 30 days (approximately 1,000-2,000 gallons, depending on chemical) of each treatment chemical as required by Ten States Recommended Standards
for Water Works. There is a concrete containment area, which is painted with a chemical-resistant barrier, which does not contain drains; so should any chemical spill or overflow into the area, it cannot drain out of the area. The chemical will remain in the containment area until it is pumped out by the operator. Each room also has critical alarms and level sensors so that if anything were detected, Briarcliff Manor would be notified immediately for response. Each of the bulk and day storage tanks will have vents to the outside of the building and contain level gages so that operators can see the level of chemicals at all times. Chemicals are delivered about once a month. The truck (less than 5,000 gallons) would come into the one access area and sit on the chemical containment area at the chemical fill station and fill the tanks through the appropriate cabinet (chemicals that are not compatible are filled through separate
cabinets).
Ms. Merrill-Verma inquired as to the personnel staffing at the site and what sort of safety measures there were to prevent tampering with the building. Ms. Sperduto explained that the pump station would be staffed with an operator, just as the Tarrytown station is staffed; and Mr. McGarvey explained that all the pump stations were locked so that no one could enter and tamper with anything.
Mr. Maloney asked about the redundancy with the three pump stations. Ms. Ingrid Richards, Briarcliff Manor’s Village Manager, stated that they are looking into submitting a grant to find ways for the three municipalities to work together to operate their pump stations more efficiently. Ms. Sperduto said that the Briarcliff Manor pump station was designed so that in the future, if needed, there would be provision for Tarrytown to add on.
Mr. Jolly asked Ms. Sperduto to clarify the use of the 100 gallon day tanks; and if there were a spill, would the chemicals cause harmful fumes or odors. She explained that the 100 gallons is not normally used in one day but the tanks were designed for the worst case scenario. She stated that these chemicals are no known to fume and that each of the rooms were ventilated, as are the other two pump stations.
Mr. Maloney asked if the chemicals were induced manually or automated. Ms. Sperduto responded that they were automated.
Ms. Lawrence asked about the timeframe for the construction and the traffic control during the construction. Ms. Sperduto said it would take about a year and a half to build and that the road would never be shut down. Mr. McGarvey explained that all trucks would have to come in from the east because there is a weight limit on the causeway. He also stated that in the Village of Tarrytown work can be perform from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday; 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays; and no work is allowed on Sundays and holiday. Ms. Sperduto stated that they would be working on the pump station from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. She then asked about blasting, to which Mr. McGarvey replied that no blasting is allowed in the Village of Tarrytown.
Ms. Lawrence asked that the public be very well informed about this project to prevent any undue complaints.
Mr. Jolly asked if the transmission line was large enough to service another pump station. Ms. Sperduto said in order to accommodate Briarcliff’s demands they are doing
Pageubstantial amount of work in the Town of Greenburgh to expand the structure including a second parallel tap to the Aqueduct with a parallel pipeline and an additional 1,000’ of pipe so that the hydraulic capacity can accommodate all three municipalities’ demands.
Ms. Sperduto stated that the landscape plan is substantial to alleviate concerns of the visual impact from the Tarrytown Lakes. Working with the Planning Board, the design has been modified to one single entrance to the site rather than a drive-thru, and they have extended the landscape buffer to the front of the Tarrytown pump station property and the Sleepy Hollow pump station property, contingent upon Tarrytown agreeing to pay for this additional work. There will be substantial planting on the back side and re-grading along the slope in the rear of the building and along the storm water detention basin.
Mr. Shumejda stated that the Planning Board made the landscape plan subject to the review and approval of Steve Yarabak; so if there are any changes, he will have to sign off on it.
Ms. Sperduto explained how the run-off from the back slope is channeled over to the existing wetlands and anything from the site development gets redirected into the storm water detention basin for both water quality and quantity before it’s discharged through a pipe into the Tarrytown Lake.
Mr. McGarvey asked if Briarcliff Manor is responsible for cleaning out the wetlands. Ms. Sperduto responded yes that it would be part of the request for permanent easement.
Chairwoman Lawrence questioned whether anyone wished to address the Board on this matter. No one appeared.
Briarcliff Manor was lead agency on this application and made a determination that the proposal would pose no adverse environmental impact.
M. Maloney moved, subject to the approvals that the Planning Board had and the Board of Trustees had prior to that, seconded by Mr. Jolly, and unanimously carried, that the hearing be closed and the Board grants to the Village of Briarcliff Manor:
Variance from the requirements of Tarrytown Village Code Section 302-B.(3), which prohibits the placement of aboveground or underground chemical storage facilities of bulk petroleum storage tanks within a wetland, watercourse or adjacent buffer area.
Subject to:
• Approval of plans by the Building Inspector.
• Approval of the plans by the Planning Board.
• Obtaining a building permit within two years.
ADJOURNMENT
Ms. Brown moved, seconded by Ms. Merrill-Verma, and unanimously carried, that the meeting be adjourned – 8:55 p.m.
Dale Bellantoni
Secretary
| 
