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Stuyvesant resident Will Pflaum, the owner/operator of Glencadia Dog Camp, has received a decision from acting Columbia County Supreme Court Justice Patrick McGrath in the first of his five lawsuits against officials in the Town of Stuyvesant—and it looks like he’s won a solid victory in this round... The decision can be read in full as a PDF by clicking here.
As part of his long-running dispute with the Town, Pflaum filed a lawsuit challenging the local Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) and its Enforcement Officer’s “determination to revoke his Class 2 Home Occupation permit.” McGrath’s decision finds:
As a matter of statutory construction and based on the case law cited above. the Court finds that the ZBA’s determination was made in violation of lawful procedure and was affected by an error of law.
Based on procedural errors, McGrath then orders and adjudges that
the [ZBA’s] determination is annulled and the permit to operate as a Class 2 Home Occupation shall be restored.
The ZBA is further instructed, if it still wishes to pursue the noise complaints, to address only those narrow complaints filed against Pflaum which the Board had skipped over in its eagerness to overstep its mandate and revoke Pflaum’s permit entirely. (If ZEO Gerald Ennis had wanted that done, he would have had to go to Town Court, where the burden of proof for him probably would have been a lot higher than before the ZBA, which Pflaum has characterized as highly politicized.)
“One down, four to go,” commented Pflaum in an email, adding:
The four other cases Pflaum alludes to above are:
Noted architectural photographer (and Greendale resident) Peter Aaron has a must-see suite of photographs of the Olana landscape on view at their Coachman’s House gallery through late October.
Aaron spent some three years on the project, “wandering Olana’s hills and surrounding landscapes” to capture the site during different seasons, weather and lighting conditions. He writes that before becoming a Hudson Valley homeowner, he
... considered Frederic Church an almost expressionist painter who exaggerated all he saw. Now, having lived down the hill from Olana for twenty-five years, I recognize that Church’s swirling, flame-colored clouds, twisted trees, river reflections, God-rays, fog, and deeply saturated colors are in evidence for every visitor to see.
Walking the landscape at dawn or dusk is an experience that’s always full of surprise and beauty. There are moments when a light snowfall blankets the carriage trail but not the woods, creating serpentine shapes through the trees. In the fall, a tube of fog forms over the Hudson River at dawn, disappearing before full sunlight comes.
“I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a modern perspective on Olana,” said Joan Davidson at the opening which coincided with the region’s Heritage Weekend, a concept with which she is credited.
