ZBA reverses auto shop cease and desist order

MILLBROOK — On Tuesday evening, Nov. 16, the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) of the town of Washington, in a unanimous vote, reversed the cease-and-desist order given to Jean and William Meyer, owners of the Mabbettsville building where Wes Auto Body Works is located.

The cease-and-desist order was issued on Sept. 10 by town Building Inspector Jack Neubauer after the building’s owners did not comply with a town Planning Board request to apply for a new special permit. This means that Wes Burlinghoff can continue to run his auto body repair shop, including spray painting cars, over the aquifer of the village of Millbrook.

Jerry Baker, chairman of the ZBA, told The Millerton News that the ZBA’s attorney had instructed the board that it must vote yes or no on the appeal of Neubauer’s cease-and-desist order. In other words, the ZBA could not place specific restrictions on the shop. The board had to simply decide whether the activities of the current auto body shop, with newly installed spray-painting rooms, constituted a change to the original special-use permit issued in 1986 permitting a vehicle repair shop to operate on the site.

The entire town of Washington is zoned residential, so any business requires a special-use permit unless grandfathered in. Baker said it was up to the village of Millbrook, not the town, to assert any limitations on the auto body shop’s activity since its location is within the 1992 district established by the New York state commissioner of health to protect the village’s watershed.

“It’s up to them to decide how to institute proceedings for inspection, storage and disposal of toxic materials,� Baker said.

The decision by the ZBA was the result, according to Baker, of the ambiguous description of vehicle repair shop under New York state definitions, which are unclear about whether painting is included or excluded. Even before the shop opened this summer the Planning Board questioned whether painting was outside the original intent of the 1986 permit and notified the building’s owners that they needed to seek Planning Board approval, which they did not do.

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