Permanent pit stop for go-cart proposal?

NORTH EAST — The bid to establish a go-cart track in North East’s Boulevard District has run out of gas. The issue was “permanently tabled� by the Town Board at its business meeting July 8.

“As we heard from the Town Board members, there seemed to be a great deal of reluctance as far as wanting to proceed further at this point in time,� town Supervisor Dave Sherman said the day after the board’s vote. “There’s mixed emotions. But rather than having the matter come back to the table every month and having old business keep returning to our agenda from one month to the next, and have people interested in the issue who don’t want to attend every board meeting to see if it will possibly come up, [we tabled it].�

The application ignited opposition from residents and business owners concerned about environmental, noise and light pollution, as well as loss of rural character and property values (both residential and commercial) — all of which encouraged 182 people to sign their names to a petition that was submitted to the Town Board. The petition urged the board “not to support a zoning change or special use permit to include go-carts anywhere on Route 44.�

Resident Jim Murphy, who presented the petition to the board at its meeting on June 10, read a letter at that time that accompanied it.

“The go-cart idea has been proposed a number of times in the past,� he said. “Every town body that has ever considered the go-cart idea, including the Planning Board, the Town Board and the Zoning Review Committee, has rejected it, more than once.�

The steady pressure from the public, along with the growing absence of the applicant, both likely played a part in the board’s decision. Sherman said the applicant for the zoning change that would have to occur in order to make the go-cart track a possibility in the Boulevard District “should demonstrate some further interest in this.� That applicant is real estate developer and local attorney, Robert Trotta, who has brought the go-cart proposal before the town numerous times during the past decade.

Trotta appeared April 29, before the Town Board, seeking approval for the project in the BD-3 zone, the BD-6 zone or both. Ideally he wanted the OK for the track to be built in the BD-3 zone, next to his existing driving range operation. Those zones are all in the Boulevard District, which stretches along Route 44 on the way out of town toward the Connecticut border.

The board discussed the proposal, and the petition, at its meeting last month, but tabled the issue as town Councilman Dave McGhee was absent. Its members said they wanted to discuss the issue with a full board present. It had that opportunity last week.

Board talk

“I guess the board members need to decide what they want to do with the proposal they have from Mr. Trotta and Mr. Brod [Trotta’s planner],� Sherman said at the meeting.

“I’m not going to just turn a blind eye on the man,� town Councilman Carl Stahovec said, reiterating what he had said the month before. “Not until he gets a fair shake.�

“I didn’t realize that many people were opposed to it, with good reason,� town Councilman Tim Shaffer said. “At this point I’m opposed to it.�

“If the board is still undecided at this point we can table it until some other time,� Sherman said.

“I’m surprised we haven’t heard anything from the applicant,� Stahovec said.

“He [Trotta] said if another business came in he would get rid of it right away,� Shaffer said, referring to a past comment. “So how important is it?�

“We’ve been going back and forth,� McGhee said. “We have other boards in town and I would like to see them figure out the zoning thing .... We have to set up the rules and decide what we want to do.�

“I know everybody is upset about noise and pollution. We’re going to have a transfer station right next door [in Connecticut] that we have no control over,� town Councilman Steve Merwin said.

At that point McGhee made a motion to extend the application, which Shaffer seconded; the motion did not go any further.

“We should do something, it’s been going on for years,� Sherman said. “I don’t see much appetite for going on with this. I will say off-hand that it will be appropriate for us to table this until the applicant comes back before the board and public and convinces us that it would be something worthwhile. I think we should table it and see if there’s any further interest by the applicant.�

Stahovec made a motion, which did not get seconded.

Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky spoke up about his unease.

“I’ve always been concerned about changing zoning in this manner,� he said. “I think the time has come to reactivate the Zoning Review Committee. It would be very helpful if that committee could look at the proposal and the proposed zoning and the boulevard zoning and get back to the Town Board with recommendations, and then it becomes a planning process if you decide to change the zoning. It’s a more sound way of proceeding and you have some real meaningful input on which you could base your decision.�

Stahovec then made his motion again, this time to “table the go-cart rezoning request permanently.�

The board voted unanimously in favor of the motion.

Sherman defined that motion the following day.

“When we say ‘permanently,’ it means we’re not going to bring it up ourselves until outside stimulus for this purpose has an outside request from the applicant to discuss this further,� he said. “So it removes the item off the table.�

Resident and petitioner Ellen Adler said she could not be more pleased with the board’s action.

“I think it’s great news and I’m especially pleased that it was unanimous,� she said. “I think it was an example of town government at its best — they really listened to neighbors and residents and I think it was really a great decision. I think a lot of people are going to be very happy when they read about it.�