For Immediate Release: July 12, 2006
Contact:
Keith P. McKeever | Public Relations | Adirondack Park Agency
contact@apa.ny.gov | (518) 891-4050
RAY BROOK, NY – The Adirondack Park Agency will hold a public hearing, starting at 6 PM on July 25 regarding Ticonderoga Property Development, LLC’s request to vary the Agency’s sign standards. The hearing location is the Community Center (the “Armory”) located on 123 Champlain Street in the Town of Ticonderoga. A public hearing is required to either grant or deny a request for a variance. There will be a public comment session as part of the public hearing process required for variance requests.
The variance was requested by Ticonderoga Property Development, LLC which has contracted to purchase property adjacent to the Wal-Mart store and NYS Route 9N (Wicker Street) in Ticonderoga. They propose to construct a 153,000-square foot retail facility to be leased in future to Lowe’s Stores, Inc. for a retail business. The project as a whole is subject to Agency jurisdiction because the building exceeds 40 feet in height and due to a proposed wetland fill. However, the hearing will be limited to the issue of the need for the variance for the requested sign.
The project sponsor proposes a building sign reading “LOWE’S” which will be 30 feet, seven inches in height, 245 square feet in area, and internally illuminated. Additionally, a free-standing “LOWE’s” sign 20 square feet in size, is proposed at the intersection of the access road and Route 9N.
Agency regulations limit signs on jurisdictional projects to 40 square feet (15 square feet for luminous signs) and limit the total sign area of two signs on a project site to 60 square feet. Section 809 of the Adirondack Park Agency Act allows project sponsors to request variances, but a public hearing is required before a decision is rendered.
Agency staff may make a recommendation as to whether the variance should be granted based on the facts and law, and will be subject to cross-examination as to the basis of such opinion. The Agency Board is not bound by any staff recommendation, and will make its own determination based on the hearing record.
A copy of the variance request can be inspected at Agency headquarters in Ray Brook or at the Town offices in the Community Building in Ticonderoga. The public hearing on the variance request will have two separate components: an informal public comment session and a formal adjudicatory proceeding. At the informal session, scheduled for July 25 at 6 PM, any member of the public, including public officials, may comment on the variance request. A transcript of the comments will be made by a court reporter for the official hearing record.
At the adjudicatory proceeding, only persons who are “parties” are eligible to participate, although this proceeding is open to the public to observe. The rights of parties include offering sworn testimony and exhibits, cross-examining witnesses, and submitting written arguments.
The parties in this proceeding include the applicant, owners of properties within 500 feet of the project site, the Town of Ticonderoga, and certain other public officials named in the law. Agency staff members designated as the hearing staff are also entitled to participate in the hearing. Persons or entities who seek to become a party may submit a petition for intervenor status to the hearing officer, who will decide on the petition.
The hearing officer will set the date for the adjudicatory proceeding, after a pre-hearing conference scheduled for 1 p.m. on July 25, at the Community Building in Ticonderoga.
Written comments will be accepted until the public hearing record is closed. The record is considered closed when the adjudicatory proceeding ends. Please send written comments to John L. Quinn, Adirondack Park Agency, Box 99, Ray Brook, NY 12977.
Presiding at the public hearing will be P. Nicholas Garlick, an administrative law judge in the Office of Hearings and Mediation Services in the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. Agency regulations require him to conduct the hearing “in a fair and impartial manner” and authorize him to make decisions relating to scheduling, testimony, exhibits, and motions. He will not make a recommendation to the Agency, nor make the final decision.
After the close of the hearing the full Agency Board will decide this variance request at a regular scheduled monthly agency meeting, date to be determined. The Agency decision must be based on the record of the hearing.
“It is important to understand that a public hearing is a legal requirement when a sign variance is requested,” Executive Director Richard Lefebvre said “Park Agency Commissioners will rely on the full hearing record when rendering their final decision.”
Individual notices of the hearing have been sent to all known parties and to public officials who have expressed an interest in the proceedings.