NEW SCOTLAND — The planning board here is inching its way toward approving a special-use permit that would  allow Cynthia Elliott to run a party pavilion on the Brownrigg Road property where she lives.

Tuesday night, the board deliberated for well over an hour, reaching consensus on more than a dozen conditions but, in the end, Elliott said several of those conditions — like cutting the number of guests or cutting the number of events — were arbitrary and could make the business not viable.

The four board members present agreed to vote on the permit at their next meeting, on May 2.

“We’ve got quite a list,” said the board’s chairman, Charles Voss.

“And consensus,” added board member Christine Galvin.

Voss said the next step would be for the board’s attorney, Crystal Peck, to formalize the stipulations for public review.

“The board is in favor of moving forward and approving the application,” said Voss.

Elliott and her lawyer —  Genevieve Trigg with Whiteman Osterman & Hanna — then raised three objections to the conditions.

A local surveyor and former planning board member, Elliott had applied in 2015, as Triple S Farm, for the permit to allow her to sell wreaths, boughs, and trees at the farm’s existing pavilion in the winter and, in the off-season, to hold banquets in the facility. Elliott had proposed holding 15 events a year, each with no more than 200 people.

Elliott’s property is in a residential-agricultural zone in which a long list of uses are permitted, including airports, motels, and clinics as well as “restaurants and taverns.”

Neighbors near the venue have complained about traffic, noise, harm from drunk drivers, and decreased property values. Many of those supporting Elliott’s plan have spoken of the need for both business and open space in New Scotland.

At the close of Tuesday’s meeting, Timothy Stanton told the planning board that New Scotland, as a town, values open space and small businesses, but that the planning board is going down a path putting both at risk. Stanton elaborated for The Enterprise afterwards, “People like me are caretakers of the land,” he said; Stanton is a farmer and large landowner whose family has a farm stand next to New Scotland’s town hall.

He is also a member of the town’s Republican Committee, which he formerly chaired. “It’s definitely going to become a political issue,” he said. “A lot of landowners are getting fed up.”

Stanton went on, “Cindy wants to use her land for something allowed in her zone. It’s cost her tens of thousands of dollars and taken a year and a half, so she’s lost an entire season. If people like her can’t generate money to pay taxes, the next step is you sell the farm to developers.”

In February, after an extended hearing was closed, David Everett with Whiteman Osterman & Hanna, representing Elliott, told the planning board there have been seven engineering reviews of the project and there have been eight independent government agencies who have looked at the proposal. “None of them had an issue,” said Everett. He also said hundreds and hundreds of pages have been submitted over the course of more than a year. “It’s time to make a decision,” Everett concluded.

Setting conditions

Board members on Tuesday had preferences ranging from five to 10 events a year and settled on eight. They agreed there could be just one event per weekend, and events on Monday through Thursday could run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; on Friday, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.; on Saturday from from noon to 11 p.m., and on Sunday from noon to 8 p.m.

They also agreed that events could run from May 1 to Oct. 31 and that no more than 150 people could be at any one event. No deliveries are to be made between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. The board members agreed, too, that an electronic sound eliminator must be used that cut off amplified sound inside the pavilion at 95 A-weighted decibels after 10 seconds, and also that no amplified sound could be used outside of the pavilion.

Further, the board agreed there is to be no on-street parking on Brownrigg Road or on Route 308 and that lighting at the venue has to comply with town law. Bathroom facilities have to be supplied to accommodate people with handicaps, the property owner or her agent must be on site for events, caterers must be licensed, and fireworks are prohibited.

The board has no say over how Elliott runs the tree farm as that is an accepted agricultural use.

Objections

Elliott’s first objection on Tuesday was the board’s reduction of the number of events she could hold to eight a year.

“The applicant has already had three private weddings...There have been no issues,” said Trigg. “It’s arbitrary for the board to slash the number n half….All the evaluations and studies show no impact on 15 per year.”

Elliott told the board another way to look at is, there are 350 days each year “where you don’t have an event.”

Cutting it in half, she said of reducing events from 15 to eight a year, calls into question the viability of the business. Elliott said she had already spent money on landscaping, privacy fencing, and an exit driveway to meet the board’s expectations.

Elliott’s second objection was limiting the number of guests at an event to 150. “All of the analysis was based on the original proposal of 200,” she said, calling it “arbitrary” for the board to reduce that number.

Her third objection was to the board’s sound requirement. Elliott would like to see the cut-off level raised to 100 A-weighted decibels.

“The other items I certainly can live with,” Elliott said. She added that it was her prerogative as “the cleanup committee” to clean up after events when she wanted to, not on any board-set schedule. She also said her family would continue to use the pavilion themselves as they saw fit.

“We’ll take that under advisement,” said Voss. The list will be circulated, he said, concluding, “At the next meeting, if we need to change anything, we can certainly do it.”