| Cucina seeks the proper approvals, establishes cultural ties
Howard Harris relishes his role as longstanding chairman of the Woodstock Zoning Board of Appeals. In subsequent discussion about whether the building permit under which Freedman had been operating was properly issued, the restaurant owner's attorney noted how Cucina was now working through more formal channels and processes. "We'll do whatever we have to do," said Freedman. Late last month, the Woodstock ZBA agreed to rehear the Cucina case after the restaurant's co-owner, Lois Freedman, came before them with a whole new application under the town's zoning law. At the ZBA's last meeting on Thursday, May 24, Freedman addressed a letter she had submitted to Harris and the ZBA from Randy Conti of the Woodstock Playhouse, located adjacent to the Cucina property. Nancy Schauffler, the neighbor who'd set this whole process of revisitation in motion, questioned the cultural tie-in clause, and definitions of "directly-related" activities, but was told by Harris that, "That's why this is an opinion and we have to mull it over. "I need legal opinions," he said. Harris said he and the ZBA would have a decision within two weeks, although at this point their next meeting is set for Thursday, June 14 and ZBA Secretary Michele Sehwerert said that legally, the board has 62 days from the hearing to render a decision. Meanwhile, the Cucina application for a special use permit goes before the Woodstock Planning Board on Thursday, June 7 for its initial sketch review, a process that Planning Board Secretary Therese Fernandez said will take weeks to carry out before any public hearing, let alone decision, gets scheduled or rendered. "The owner of this property has a penchant for exceeding the traffic for what the property can bear," started off David Boyle, noting his 50 years as a local resident before Harris cut him off. "And if you're unlucky," Harris quipped back.
Legal opinions only During several requests to speak by members of the audience, Harris cut statements off midway. Under a clause in the town's zoning law with regards to the Gateway District, additional restaurant uses are allowed on the Cucina property, owned by attorney and local landowner Cyrus Adler, if tied to one of Woodstock's cultural institutions. Freedman also presented letters of support for Cucina from the Woodstock Writers' Festival, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, and the Woodstock Film Festival, whose director, Meira Blaustein, was inattendance at the hearing, along with approximately a dozen other restaurant supporters - together with the neighbor who first asked for a ZBA interpretation on the building permit that was eventually determined illegal. "The key is that there is no need to have a cultural facility on the same lot. "Let's not talk about that," Freedman responded, just as fast. Loren Rose of the Planning Board, who will hear the Cucina applications in the weeks to come, asked Harris if there were any other lingering issues involving a zoning variance besides the establishment of a cultural tie-in for the proposed (and actually built) catering hall. "Enough," he said. Cucina seeks the proper approvals, establishes cultural ties |
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Cucina seeks the proper approvals, establishes cultural ties
