[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the Town of Orangetown 3-8-1965 by L.L. No.
2-1965. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The Town Board hereby finds that inappropriateness or poor quality
of design in the exterior appearance of buildings or land developments
adversely affects the desirability of the immediate area and neighboring
areas and by so doing impairs the stability and value of both improved
and unimproved real property in such areas, retards the most appropriate
development of such areas, produces degeneration of property in such
areas with attendant deterioration of conditions affecting the health,
safety, morals and general welfare of the inhabitants thereof and
creates an improper relationship between the taxable value of real
property in such areas and the cost of municipal services provided
therefor. It is the purpose of this law to prevent these and other
harmful effects of such exterior appearance of buildings and land
developments and thus to promote and protect the health, safety, morals
and general welfare of the community.
A.
There
is hereby created an Architecture and Community Appearance Board of
Review which shall consist of no less than five members but not more
than seven members. All members of said Board shall be residents of
the Town and shall be specifically qualified by reason of training
or experience in architecture, land development, municipal planning,
real estate, landscape architecture or other relevant business or
profession or by reason of civic interest and sound judgment to judge
the effects of a proposed building or land development upon the desirability,
property values and development of surrounding areas, and at least
one member of said Board of Review shall be a registered architect
in the State of New York. The members of said Board of Review shall
be appointed by the Town Board. The Chairman and the Secretary of
said Board of Review shall be designated by the members of the Town
Board annually. The term of office of each member shall be three years,
except that the initial appointments of one member shall be for one
year, of two members for two years and of two members for three years.
Additional members, if any, shall be appointed for a term of three
years. The Town Board shall have the power to remove any member for
cause. Vacancies shall be filled by the Town Board for the unexpired
term of any member whose place has become vacant.
[Amended 2-14-1984 by L.L. No. 1-1984; 6-22-1998 by L.L. No.
7-1998]
B.
The
members of the Architecture and Community Appearance Board of Review
shall serve for such compensation as the Town Board shall from time
to time provide for by resolution duly adopted.
[Added 11-28-1983 by L.L. No. 11-1983]
[Amended 3-28-1966 by L.L. No. 2, 1966; 11-23-1970 by L.L. No.
13, 1970; 10-12-1976 by L.L. No. 12, 1976]
Regularly scheduled meetings of the Architecture and Community
Appearance Board of Review shall be held monthly and at such other
times as the Chairman may designate. A majority of said Board shall
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The Board shall
keep minutes of its proceedings. Any report, recommendation or decision
made by the Board of Review must have the approval of the majority
of the Board and shall be officially filed with the Town Clerk and
the referring board or department, hereinafter cited as the "referring
agency," within 30 days. Where changes or modifications on any submission
are recommended, there shall be set forth the specific changes and
the reason(s) for the same. After having referred an application for
a building or land development permit to the Board of Review, the
referring agency shall not take final action prior to receiving the
decision of the Board of Review. The referring agency shall provide
a full set of plans and accompanying data to the Board of Review for
its use and permanent file. The applicant may be requested to appear
to review with the Board any submission to it. The referring agency
shall not finally approve any application unless the Board shall first
approve said application or unless the Board shall not file its decision
within 30 days of the meeting at which it was considered, in which
case the application shall be deemed to be approved.
A.
Every application for a building permit for the construction, reconstruction or alteration of any structure in excess of 1,000 cubic feet of cubical contents proposed for construction, and every application for the development or subdivision of land, and any such application for a building permit, land use or any other development with the Town of Orangetown filed with the Town Board, Planning Board or Building Inspector shall be referred to the Architecture and Community Appearance Board of Review within seven days of the submission of the application, provided that it conforms in all respects to all other applicable laws and ordinances. This law shall not apply to an application for a single- or two-family residence or residential accessory structure on individual property, except that the Building Inspector, in his discretion, may refer such an application to the Board of Review if it appears, in the light of the standards set forth in § 2-5, that there is a need for such referral.
B.
Each
application for review shall be accompanied by a nonreturnable fee
as established by resolution of the Town Board.
[Added 6-26-1972 by L.L. No. 11, 1972; amended 10-12-1976 by L.L. No. 12, 1976; 9-10-1991 by L.L. No.
16, 1991; 10-16-1995 by L.L. No. 11, 1995]
The Board shall base its recommendations on the following criteria: No building or structure or land development shall be so detrimental to the desirability, property values or development of the surrounding area as to provoke one or more of the harmful effects set forth in § 2-1 by reason of:
A.
The
repeated and adjacent use of identical or nearly identical facades
or structures arranged without respect to natural features of terrain
or other existing structures.
B.
Inappropriateness
of a structure or land development in relation to any other structure
or land development existing or for which a permit has been issued
or to any other structure or land development included in the same
application with respect to one or more of the following features:
(1)
Cubical contents.
(2)
Gross floor area.
(3)
Height of building or height of roof.
(4)
Other significant design features such as material or quality or architectural design, roof structures, chimneys, exposed mechanical equipment and service, service and storage enclosures, landscaping, retaining walls, parking areas, service and loading docks, dividing walls, fences, lighting posts and standards provided that a finding of inappropriateness existed to provoke beyond reasonable doubt one or more of the harmful effects set forth in § 2-1.
[Amended 3-23-2021 by L.L. No. 2-2021]
Any person or persons, jointly or severally aggrieved by any
decision of the Architecture and Community Appearance Board of Review
shall have the right to review said decision by a proceeding under
Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules, which proceeding must
be connected within 30 days of the filing of such decision with the
Town Clerk.
If any part or provision of this law or the application thereof
to any person or circumstance is adjudged invalid by any court of
competent jurisdiction, such judgment shall be confined in its operation
to the part, provision, or application directly involved in the controversy
in which such judgment shall have been rendered and shall not affect
or impair the validity of the remainder of this law or the application
thereof to other persons or circumstances. The Town Board hereby declares
that it would have enacted the remainder of the law even without such
part, provision or application.
This local law shall take effect immediately.
[Added 9-22-2008 by L.L. No. 5-2008]
A.
Any
public hearings on applications or referrals for approval by the Board
pursuant to this chapter must be advertised at least once in a newspaper
of general circulation of the Town at least five days prior to the
date thereof.
B.
In
addition, all applicants, at least 10 days prior to any public hearings
pursuant to this section, shall send written notice by first-class
mail to all owners within 200 feet of the property as measured from
the front, side, and rear lot lines of the subject parcel (excluding
public roadways, rights-of-way, and property owned by any public utility
or public entity in measuring the 200 feet), as well as all properties
within 200 feet of the subject parcel along both sides of any street
or roadway on which the subject parcel abuts, at the applicant's expense.
Prior to mailing the notification, the applicant shall be responsible
for generating a list of all property owners required to receive notice
pursuant to this section. The written notices, in properly addressed
and stamped envelopes, shall be returned to the Clerk of the Board
for the purpose of mailing from the Clerk's office. Property owners
entitled to such notice shall be those listed as owners on the record
in the Town of Orangetown Tax Assessor's office as of the date of
the mailing. The written notice shall contain information on a form
provided by the Clerk of the Board and shall include the date and
time of the hearing and to be continued as necessary, the name and
address of the applicant and the applicant's attorney, if any, the
street address of the property, the Tax Map designation of the property,
the nature of the application, and an indication that further information
on the application is available at the Office of Building, Zoning,
Planning and Enforcement. Failure of a property owner whose name appears
on the affidavit of property owners to receive the notice shall not
affect the validity of the public hearing or any action taken thereat
by the Board.
C.
All applicants are further required to erect signs containing information regarding the public hearing, as set forth in Subsection B of this section, at each corner of the lot and at least once every 100 feet thereafter, facing each public street on which the property abuts, giving notice that such application has been made and that a public hearing will be held. Such signs shall be obtained from the Clerk to the Board. Such signs are to be displayed for a period of not less than five days immediately preceding the hearing date or any adjourned hearing date. The sign shall not be set back more than 10 feet from any property or street line, shall not be less than two feet or more than six feet above grade at the property line, and shall be clearly visible from the property line.
D.
At
the commencement of any public hearing, the applicant must file an
affidavit, with the Clerk of the Board, which states that the aforementioned
notices have been complied with, and said affidavit shall include
a list of the names and addresses of all property owners to whom notices
were sent pursuant to this section and a statement that said properties
are the only properties required to be notified pursuant to this section.
The Board shall not proceed with the hearing unless the affidavit
has been filed.
E.
In addition to the notice requirements contained herein, any applications with respect to the following projects shall require that written notice by mail be made pursuant to Subsection B of this section to all property owners within 500 feet of the proposed project:
(1)
High-tension transmission lines.
(2)
Railroad and bus terminals.
(3)
Satellite dish antennas.
(4)
Public utility substations.
(5)
Hotels and motels.
(6)
Radio and television towers.
(7)
Public parking garages.
(8)
Airports and heliports.
(9)
Elevated standpipe and water tanks.
(10)
Sandpits, gravel pits (mining), and topsoil, landfill and excavation
operations, all of which are not in accordance with the construction
of buildings, structures or roads.
