https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Neighbors-seek-to-remove-board-chair-from-13024515.php
Neighbors seek to remove board chair from DeMaranville Farm decision
A number of couples cancel plans for fall wedding at town of Saratoga venue
Published 2:57 pm, Monday, June 25, 2018
DeMaranville Farm and Gardens, Saratoga Springs. The site has wedding barns, a Victorian farmhouse, carriage house, pond and 5.2 acres of gardens. Go to the website. (Tracey Buyce)
DeMaranville Farm and Gardens, Saratoga Springs. The site has wedding barns, a Victorian farmhouse, carriage house, pond and 5.2 acres of gardens. Go to the website. (Tracey Buyce)
Exterior view of the DeMaranville Farm and Gardens Monday June 4, 2018, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)
Exterior view of the DeMaranville Farm and Gardens Monday June 4, 2018, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)
SARATOGA - Neighbors of DeMaranville Farm and Gardens who oppose plans to convert the former antique and garden shop into a wedding venue are now calling for the town's Planning Board chair to recuse himself from voting on the scenic farm's fate.
In a letter to the Planning Board, Louis and Alicia Farone say that Chairman Ian Murray's daughter, Aissa Terry, is a wedding planner who has already staged two of the five weddings held at the venue.
"Because this is a huge conflict of interest with Ian Murray leading the Planning Board, we are calling for a full and honest and impartial review of this project by the Board with an explanation and a full recusal from Ian Murray," their letter reads.
Murray, at Wednesday night's Planning Board meeting, called the letter "slanderous."
"My daughter has worked for many people including myself," Murray said. "She was offered no job there and I will not recuse myself."
The neighbors says Murray's involvement is a breach of the town's code of ethics which states "no municipal officer or employee may participate in any decision or take any official action with respects to any matter requiring the exercise of discretion, including discussing the matter and voting on it, when he or she knows or has reason to know that the action could confer a direct or indirect financial or material benefit to himself or herself, a relative or any private organization in which he or she is deemed to have an interest."
The letter is the latest in the ongoing debate swirling around the former Schuyler Pond on Route 29, which was purchased by Mary Maranville and Kevin Dott in late 2016. After purchasing the property, Maranville went in front of the Planning Board in November 2016. She told the members that she was going to transform the barns and grounds in to an agricultural education center where school children could learn about farm-to-table sustenance.
In order to make the business viable, Maranville also said that she would need to host some events, including weddings, that she described as "very limited." The Town Board granted DeMaranville a special use permit with stipulations to hold down the number of people at events to 80 and the number of cars to 40.
But the guest lists for weddings booked for the fall exceed that number, DeMaranville Farm's attorney Stephanie Ferradino said at Wednesday's meeting. That's why she was back at the Planning Board meeting last week asking for the board to reverse its decision and allow a special use permit for 200 guests. She said the weddings planned for the fall were intending to bring 100 to 200 guests to the property.
Ferrandino said the restrictions on the venue, the subject of a Times Union article on June 7, have led six couples to cancel. Another four wedding couples, she said, are holding off on canceling to see if the Planning Board will change its mind.
Planning Board member Chris Koval said "it doesn't look like you will get the approved before we see a firm business plan."
Gil Albert, the town's building inspector, repeated what he has said in the past: Until the owners meet fire code requirements and install plumbing, he can't provide a permanent certificate of occupancy. And the temporary one allowing for 80 people at events still stands. The last approved wedding was June 23.
The Planning Board is split on the project with some willing to modify the use permit and others insisting DeMaranville needs to start its application over, not as an education center, but as a wedding venue. All of the members were encouraged, however, that DeMaranville plans to bring in Longfellow's President Steve Sullivan, who has 22-years of experience in hosting weddings, to manage the venue.
Ferradino said owners Maranville and Dott still want the primary function of the farm to be the education center, but to make it fiscally feasible, the owners will need to host weddings and other public events.
Ferradino blames the Planning Board for wedding venue's woes. She feels the requirements for the venue are always changing and that the owners cannot keep up.
"They were not aware of this when they purchased the property," she told the board. "This is my client's business and the changes to the property have come at a cost that is not insignificant to them personally and professionally."
