NEW SCOTLAND — The planning board this month heard more comments from Cynthia Elliott, who wants to open a wedding venue at her Feura Bush home’s pavilion, and from her neighbors, some of whom support the use and others who oppose it. Elliott returned with studies on sound and a new driveway plan. The board will continue a public hearing on her application in April.

Also, planning board members discussed the extension of term limits for both themselves and zoning board members.

Drunks and decibels

Elliott asked to be heard by the board in March to share results of sound studies on her property off Route 308, but is scheduled to appear in April.

Elliott is seeking a special use permit to replant her mother’s tree farm, formerly known as Scotch Hill Acres, on property she now owns and lives on at Brownrigg Road in Feura Bush. The property, known now as Triple S Farm, is in a residential agricultural zone.

Elliott wants to use the property’s enclosed pavilion, which has kitchen and bathroom facilities and water, as an outdoor banquet facility during the tree farm’s off season, as she has done for family weddings and political fundraisers.

After the board asked her, in February, to complete a sound study, Elliott said she could try to get the noise level inside the pavilion up to 110 decibels, and step outside to hear and measure it.

Supporting neighbors previously said that noise from chainsaws, fireworks at holidays, and snowmobiles are louder than music in Elliott’s enclosed pavilion. A chainsaw is 120 decibels.

At the board’s March meeting, Elliott said that she used four decibel meters to perform 10 hours of a sound study.

She also noted she had changed plans for the farm’s driveway to include a second driveway that would provide one-way access in and out, which “allows for a traffic flow I like very much,” she said. “It’s going to cost me about $5,000, but that’s all right.”

She said that the new driveway design provides more room for emergency vehicles.

“I think it’s a win-win,” she said.

Her neighbor, Timothy McCann, said that he works late and worries about drunk drivers from events on Elliott’s property on the road at night when he returns.

Elliott noted that ambient noise in February was reduced because of a lack of snow for machinery like snowmobiles, but that the neighborhood often has sounds like rototillers and chainsaws.

“We live in the country,” she said.

McCann’s father, Tom McCann, echoed concerns about drunk drivers, and questioned the credentials of Elliott’s engineer that performed a sound study, which Elliot turned over to the town’s engineer, Stantec.

Planning board Chairman Charles Voss said that the results of the study were OK, “regardless of the source, as long as our engineer is comfortable with it. We’ve got it covered.”

Planning board attorney Jeffrey Baker said that the town does not have specific municipal standards for noise, nor are there state or federal standards, but that the town decides on a case-by-case basis if noise is inappropriate for an area.

Term limits

Town supervisor Douglas LaGrange discussed with the planning board the proposed Local Law A of 2016, which would allow “increased flexibility” for zoning and planning boards if the current limit of two terms of five years each were extended, he said.

The limits were first proposed in 2010 to end automatic re-appointment of board members — a process that led to members serving for decades — and to remove board members who were absent for up to five months per year, LaGrange said.

Since that time, he said, “You find things you might have done differently.”

He said that the town had been disappointed to lose zoning board members Robert Parmenter and Adam Greenberg due to term limits, while the town has difficulty filling seats.

“I don’t, per se, see an issue with this change,” Voss told LaGrange. “Some people will decide that, after two terms, they’re done.”

Resident John Dearstyne said that term limits are in place “to be darned sure we don’t end up with a repeat of what we had before” with a dominant planning board chairman.

He suggested that the town consider appointing members in a third term for shorter periods than the current five-year position.

He also suggested that the town “have a real goal,” if a third term is deemed necessary, such as if the town faces a big project.