I was reviewing the old Varna II environmental impact statement, created by Lucente Development for an earlier iteration of this project in 2000. I was a little startled to find, on page 22 of Volume I, this statement:
"[Section 803.5 of Town of Dryden Zoning law states that...]... In no case shall density exceed 10 units per 30,000 square feet."
Given these criteria, the allowable number of units was calculated as follows -
[(12.317ac x 43,560 sq. ft) / 30,000 sq. ft ] x 10 units = 178.8 units.
I stopped by Town Hall for a fresh packet of current zoning material, and it looks like Section 803.5 is still active. It's possible that his additional purchases of houses in Varna have increased the total acreage to some extent (to 16.25 acres?) - but they were clearly talking about 16 units per acre last night, and the formula above gives 14.52 units as a maximum legal limit per acre.
All I can figure, though I do plan to read the whole zoning packet again to see if I'm missing something, is that Lucente decided to start with a higher number to increase his chances of getting to a high number through negotiation. It may not matter that 260 units was never legal in the first place - it just gives him more ammunition for saying that any reduction is too dramatic.
Posted by simon at February 19, 2010 1:55 PM in Varna , Varna II , planning and zoning
I know you don't post as much as you did pre-baby, but just want to say thanks for the time you spend making the posts you do. Have subscribed for years and it saves me a lot of time in searching for local news.