Two business owners requesting zoning changes will be assessed a brand-new fee if their requests are granted.

Rooney Management, Inc. and Phil’s Tire Service would be the first businesses to be required to cover the cost of updating the town’s e-code, an online version of the zoning code that runs to 137 chapters. The town board set the new fee at $500 during its December 19 meeting.

Supervisor Charles Carnes said that the general public should not have to pay for publishing zoning changes that favor a single property owner.

General Code of Rochester maintains the e-code website for Crawford, Town Clerk Jessica Kempter said. She said e-code updates appear twice a year, in January and June. In 2024, the town paid General Code roughly $3,000 for the changes, Kempter said. General Code also provides the town with 11 hard copies of the zoning code twice a year and makes timely updates for the town’s building inspector.

Rooney Management first approached the planning department last January about its plans for a 70.8-acre parcel in the residential/agricultural zone at 2962 Route 17K, east of the hamlet of Bullville. The plans have evolved over the past year and now Rooney is requesting the town approve a four-lot subdivision of the property.

Brian Rooney is building a home for himself on what would become one of the four lots. He also wants to rezone a second proposed lot of 20.8 residential/agricultural acres to allow a business park, where he will operate a landscaping business. The two other lots would remain residential/agricultural – suitable for single-family homes, although there are no plans to build on those lots at this time. All four lots would be reached from a private road of off Route 17K.

Connor McCormack of Collier Engineering explained Rooney’s intentions at the December 19 board meeting. The board scheduled a public hearing on the request for the board’s January 16, 2025 meeting.

Phil’s Tire Service, also known as PTS Race Tire & Wheel, is requesting a more involved change that is now being reviewed by the town’s attorney, Kempter said. Phil’s now operates out of a building in a residential zone on Center Street in the hamlet of Pine Bush. The building has long been used for commercial purposes, most recently before Phil’s by Mobile Media, Inc., a manufacturer of mobile shelving, and is allowed to operate as a pre-existing non-conforming use in the residential zone.

PTS wants to rezone the lot where the building sits, a parking lot across the street, and a third contiguous lot to be classified business park-hamlet. PTS also wants to erase lot lines to create a single large lot, according to the planning department. Like Rooney’s, PTS is tentatively on the January 16 board agenda.

A third zoning-related item is up for a public hearing on January 16, this one to correct an oversight in the code. Although car washes exist in Crawford, the zoning code never mentions them. And in Crawford, if it ain’t in the zoning code, it ain’t allowed.

The situation was exposed at the December 11 planning board meeting when Zass Boniface Drive, LLC, revealed plans for an automatic car wash, not far from a car wash it already operates. The board attorney then discovered that car washes are never addressed in the code. The fix is up to the town board, and it is proposing to add car washes as a special use permit in certain business and industrial zones. In this case, no individual is being assessed the new $500 fee.

Town Accepts Grants

The town board accepted grants from the Orange County Youth Bureau for four programs run by the town’s Community Services Department. All the grants are for 2025. The Family and Friends Pickleball program was awarded $1,462; Family and Friends Yoga, $1,424; Back to Your Future, $2,237; and Express Yourself, $2,155. Carnes thanked Community Service directors Joan Miller and Mary Licardi-DeVliegher for putting together the successful grant applications.

Environmentally Sound

The North Street Pedestrian Safety Project “will not have a significant adverse impact on the environment,” according to a declaration by the town board, the project’s lead agency for environmental review purposes. The project, a sidewalk connecting downtown Pine Bush to Castle Park, long in the making, is expected to break ground in 2026. The board acted to comply with the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act.