ALTAMONT — John Polk, who wants to keep chickens on his nearly 20-acre village property, agreed to the mayor’s request on Tuesday to try to get the village board to amend the law.

The recommendation was first made a month ago when Polk applied for a use variance, which is difficult to get. Polk decided to proceed with the variance hearing to raise awareness of the issue.

He spoke early at the Feb. 1 meeting, asking that trustees allow residents to be able keep chickens on their properties. A young resident named Bianca — dressed as a chicken — also asked the board to consider allowing chickens in the village. 

Polk’s current application before the zoning board seeks a use variance to allow him to keep six chickens at his Bozenkill Road property. 

Village attorney Allyson Phillips explained during the Jan. 11 zoning board meeting, “Under the New York State law and the village code, it’s a very high standard for a use variance because you’re essentially coming to the zoning board of appeals, [and] asking the board to allow a use that is otherwise prohibited under the village’s local laws. And that means it’s prohibited for everyone in the village.”

For a use variance, it’s very different than an area variance,” Phillips said last month. “Where with an area variance, you’re kind of balancing the benefit the applicant is seeking to achieve versus the detriment to the community. And your inability to satisfy any one factor of the area variance test doesn’t kill the application.” She continued, “That is not the same for a use variance. For a use variance to establish that unnecessary hardship, you’ve got to show you can meet each of the four factors in the test under your law.”

It was recommended to Polk during last month’s zoning meeting that he try to get the village board to change the law through an amendment process laid out in the zoning code.

Federal funds 

Early in Tuesday’s meeting, Altamont resident Harvey Vlahos had asked the mayor how much the village received from the federal government in American Rescue Plan funds, and what it intended to do with that money. 

Dineen told him the village had been allocated approximately $150,000 of which $82,000 had been received with the remaining balance due sometime this summer. New York State, which administered the program to municipalities with fewer than 50,000 residents on behalf of the federal government, states the village will be receiving about $172,000.

“We didn’t make a decision to do anything right now,” the mayor said about the federal funds. “Our thought was we have such needs in the sewer department, and we have equipment needed down there. That’s one of the items — that’s one of the areas that we’re looking at.” 

Dineen said the village still needs to “get some numbers in” on the equipment to determine if the government funds will cover those costs. The mayor said using the rescue plan money on sewer plant fixes “would be the way to go because we don’t have that in our reserve to pay for it.”