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(Whereupon, at this time Supervisor
Feiner led the Pledge of Allegiance.)
(Whereupon, at this time there were presentations
by Jamie Kramer, who was the 1st Place Winner in the
Westchester Science and Engineering Fair, Brian Field/Louis
Herena from the Elmsford Little League, and Professor
Pauline Mosely for the Cybercamp at Pace University.)
SUPERVISOR FEINER: We'll start the public
hearings. The first public hearing is to consider text
amendments to the Code of the Town of Greenburgh, Section
285-5, entitled "Definitions", Section 285-34, entitled "PD
Nonresidential Planned Development District", and Section
285-38, entitled "off-street parking, loading, and
landscaping requirements", as they relate to
Micro-distillery and Micro-winery Uses in the PD District.
Let's do the roll call.
(Town Clerk Judith Beville called the roll at this
time.)
THE TOWN CLERK: Do you want to move to open the
hearing?
SUPERVISOR FEINER: I would like to make a motion
to open up the public hearing. Does anyone second it?
COUNCILMAN MORGAN: Second.
SUPERVISOR FEINER: All in favor?
COUNCILMAN SHEEHAN: Aye.
COUNCILWOMAN JUETTNER: Aye.
COUNCILMAN MORGAN: Aye.
SUPERVISOR FEINER: Aye.
MR. DUQUESNE: Good evening, Supervisor Feiner, and
members of the Town Board.
For the record, Garrett Duquesne, Commissioner of
the Department of Community Development and Conservation.
As you noted, this public hearing is associated
with the PD District and a local law which would remove a
prohibition against distillation, and permit
micro-distilleries in the PD District.
Just a couple of quick notes about the PD District.
The PD District is located in the Town of Greenburgh, north
of the Village of Elmsford, on both sides of 9A; Saw Mill
River Road. That's the primary large contiguous area of the
PD in the Town. In addition, there's a pocket of PD. It's
actually one sole property off of Benedict, and that's the
Siemen's property, close to 119, in the Tarrytown portion of
the town.
This local law emanated from a private petition
from Captain Lawrence, and owner Scott Vaccaro here. And
what I'd like to do in light of that is turn it over to
Scott, who is the expert here in this field. And he's here
with Zachary Mintz, an attorney with Zarin & Steinmetz.
So, I'll turn it over to the petitioner, and I'll
stick around in case there is any other questions. Thank
you.
MR. MINTZ: Thank you, Garrett. Thank you,
Supervisor Feiner and Members of the Town Board.
I am Zach Mintz. I am an attorney with the law
firm of Zarin & Steinmetz. I'm here tonight with Scott, who
also already has been introduced.
As you've heard, we are making this application
because Captain Lawrence would like to open a
micro-distillery in conjunction with its already operating
brewery. Currently distillation is prohibited, as Garrett
explained, so we made this application. All I intend to do
at this point is give you a little bit more of a procedural
background so that can lead into Scott explaining the more
exciting stuff, which is how this micro-distillery will
actually function, and what it means to have a
micro-distillery in this space.
So, just as a little bit of a procedural history,
we made our application back in February. Your Board
actually referred to us back to the Planning Board back in
February as well. And at that point, you declared your
intent to be lead agency for the purpose of SEQRA, and asked
the Planning board to make a report and recommendation back
to this Board.
We were in front of the Planning Board in April.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of snow in March, but we got
there in April. During that time, there was some minor
tweaks made to the language of the amendment. As I'm sure
you saw, micro-wineries was added as well. At this point,
Captain Lawrence does intend to go forward with the
application as it is, and is doing this with the intent of
opening a micro-distillery at the brewery.
So, just so get a little better sense of what it
means to have a micro-distillery in that space, I'm going to
turn it over to Scott so he can explain it a little bit
more.
MR. VACCARO: Thank you, Zach. Thank you very
much.
So, ultimately what we're trying to do is open up a
business very similar to what we already have; a small scale
manufacturing facility that's going to take some of the
product that we currently brew at the brewery and refine it
and turn it into distilled spirits.
The distillation process starts with actually the
brewing of beer if you're going to make whiskey. If you're
going to make brandy, it starts with the production of wine
or some kind of fruit based wine. And so, we're ultimately
just taking what's already there, which is our brewery, and
utilizing it to then take one step farther and create
another product through the process of distillation.
Our particular use of this space is ultimately
going to be a lot more efficient, I guess, than if somebody
else were to come in and do the same thing. In that, we're
not going to need to add a boiler. We're not going to need
to add a brewery. We're not going to need add a lot of the
things that are associated with opening a distillery. We're
able to then utilize; to cross utilize what we currently
have and create a small 1500 or so square foot distillation
space with a small tasting room for people to come and see
the process.
The process of distillation is really just
concentration. So, we're taking beer. We're running it
through our still. We're removing some of the water, and
thus creating a stronger product, which the spirits are.
And basically aging that in barrels and/or packaging it into
clear spirits.
All spirits get their color from being aged in oak.
So, we'll make a blend of clear spirits, which are such as
vodka, which is available immediately, and whiskies, which
sit -- age for years and are not ready for years to come.
We ultimately want to emulate the same experience.
In that, we want to be able to invite customers in to see
what it is we're doing with a small tasting room, a tour of
the facility, and cross utilize a lot of what we already
have in place.
We love being here in Greenburgh. The Town has
been great to us. Our customers continue to come and enjoy
themselves, and we just really want to have the ability to
grow our business based on what makes sense.
And, you know, micro-distilling --
Micro-distilleries are popping up around the country. Not
just -- You know, there's one in Port Chester. Actually, I
think there is two in Port Chester at this point. Beacon,
in the Hudson, New York. And a lot of them are popping up
because of the craft brewing phenomenon. So, there's a lot
of craft brewing. When I opened up our brewery 12 years
ago, there were 1500 breweries in the country and 40 in New
York State. There's now 6,000 in this country and I think
450 in New York State. As the breweries have popped up,
distilleries have kind of popped up around them because
ultimately it's a symbiotic relationship.
So, we had worked with a local distillery down in
Port Chester, which we had produced for them Wash, which is
basically beer. Which then got trucked to Port Chester;
distilled, aged and packaged. Not very efficient. Not very
efficient of anything really; trucking, brewing, etcetera.
So, we figured we'd try to bring it inhouse and create
something new and special and exciting, and put our unique
brand twist on it. And that's why we're here for you today.
MR. MINTZ: It maybe worth adding just a little bit
about it being a close-knit process, I believe you described
it.
MR. VACCARO: Yes. I think one of the most
important things when it comes to, you know, thinking about
it from an environmental standpoint, distillation is a
closed-knit process by definition. We are heating it up in
a vessel. We are then collecting the vapor and condensing
it into liquid. So, nothing escapes. There is no odors
involved in the production of distillation. I mean, that's
just by definition. If you allow the vapor to escape,
you're wasting product and you're probably losing money.
So, that is the definition of distillation.
So, we intend to utilize beer as our sub straight,
which is the Irish method of making whiskey; making it
clean. Where in the States bourbon and all that is made
with a mash of corn, wheat and rye. We don't plan on doing
anything like that. We're going to take our beer; our pale
ale, our IPA, our Belgian style ales, and put them in the
still and make something unique and interesting; what's
unique and interesting to us.
SUPERVISOR FEINER: That's great.
COUNCILMAN SHEEHAN: How much do you expect to make
in a year, and will you have enough storage space in your
own facilities?
MS. PREISER: I can't hear you. Can you speak up?
COUNCILMAN SHEEHAN: How much do you expect to make
in a year, and do you anticipate you'll have enough storage
in the facility you have, or will you then need to expand
that facility on site or will you be using offsite
facilities?
MR. VACCARO: So, our intention is to apply for a
permit, which limits us -- New York State permit, that is,
which limits us to 75,000 gallons a year. Which is
actually, you know, when I sit here now thinking about it is
a lot. You know, we don't intend to produce much more than
-- I can get out my calculator. Maybe a barrel a week,
which is 5300 gallons, which is fairly small.
As far as onsite storage versus offsite storage, we
anticipate we'll be able to store in the facility we have a
couple hundred barrels, which is a couple of years worth of
production. And then ultimately emptying that stuff as we
see fit. I mean there will be some obviously, like as I
said, some clear spirits which don't need to age. We don't
anticipate the need for offsite storage currently, but
should we grow and need it, I guess that would be a good
thing. But we don't anticipate it currently. We anticipate
to open this as a smaller piece of what we do overall.
I mean, currently our brewery has grown for 12
years without the need for any offsite storage. We still
live within our footprint.
COUNCILMAN SHEEHAN: Just out or curiosity, you
know this takes years before you actually have a product
that you can do. Is there some kind of ribbon cutting on
that first barrel? How do you handle that?
MR. VACCARO: Well, we will have some stuff
immediately. So, we will do possibly a gin or something.
You know, a clear spirit like I mentioned. Hopefully, in 12
years, we can cut that ribbon on that first 12-year-old
bottle of whiskey. It's definitely one of those -- It's a
business that definitely takes a lot of patience.
COUNCILMAN MORGAN: Garrett, was the Planning Board
a positive recommendation?
MR. DUQUESNE: The Planning Board's recommendation
was positive. And I'm glad you asked. There is a couple of
certainly some noteworthy aspects of their recommendation
and their consideration and their report.
I think -- Let me focus on the report first. One
of the most important aspects of any local law is how
consistent is that local law with our recently adopted Comp
Plan. Recently -- I guess we're close to two years. So,
I'm going to stop saying that.
The Planning Board in my opinion definitely cited
very applicable portions of the Comp Plan. Specifically,
Policy 11-214; a policy that reads retain and stimulate
small businesses and mature industries such as distribution,
financial, and professional services, food and beverage, and
healthcare.
Objective 12-21. Update zoning district and/or
zoning criteria consistent with the plan.
Policy 12-216. Review permitted special permit and
accessory uses to insure that viable uses consistent with
the environmental economic development goals of the plan are
not precluded.
In that sense, what's happening here is we are
broadening the range of uses in PD District in a manner
which won't have any negative impacts on surrounding areas.
The Planning Board also in its positive
recommendation, and this will be a discussion for subsequent
Town Board work session perhaps. But the Planning Board in
its recommendation asked the Town Board to consider a
subsequent local law that adds distillery uses to the HC,
Hartsdale Center District, East Hartsdale Avenue; and the
CA, Central Avenue District.
So, that is something we perhaps should consider
thinking about in the future; restaurant distillery type
combo. It could be a good thing for Central Avenue.
Ultimately, that's not a quick type of local law. I think
that would be a special permit type of consideration because
there is much closer proximity to residential areas, as
opposed to the PD District.
So, to answer your question, definitely a positive
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