Town of Putnam Valley

PUTNAM VALEY BOARD REFUSES TO REVIEW ANY MORE SUBMISSIONS:

Members of the town's Advisory Board on Architectural and Community Appearance are folding up their blueprints and taking their slide rules home.

They have advised the Town Board they will no longer review submissions because no one is heeding their advice.

"We reviewed everything going on in town and yet got no responses," said Chairwoman Jacqueline Lynfield. "We don't have any clout."

"Since we have no legal standing to date, and no other board seems to be acknowledging our concerns, we have decided as a board to temporarily suspend reviewing submissions," the members wrote in a letter dated June 17. "When the (Town) board has given us some legal clout, we will re-convene."

The letter is signed by Lynfield, Secretary Dell Jones and members Zachary Cosentino and Natalya Palevski. Annette Lindbergh, an inactive member, didn't sign it.

Town Supervisor Sam Davis said he agreed with them.

"They should be part of the conversation all through the project-review process," Davis said.

The town supervisor said he would like to see if there was a way to bring them and another advisory board, the Committee for the Conservation of the Environment, into the inner circle of the town's development review process, which focuses on the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Building Department.

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The advisory board was created in 2002 by town law and any changes would require an amendment to the law, said Eamon Moynihan of the state's Department of State.

The power of an architectural board varies from town to town.

In Carmel, the panel is charged with approving or denying projects, but it is limited to considering if designs fit in with existing buildings within 500 feet of a project.

In Yorktown, the body is also solely advisory. Chairman Anthony Romano, an architect, agreed with his Putnam colleagues.