ZBA Examines If Process Followed

The Town of Marshall Zoning Board of Appeals is reviewing the process involving permits for a bed and breakfast on Van Hyning Road.

The ZBA had a hearing last week based on an appeal filed by Van Hyning Road resident Deb Turner.

Her appeal questions whether permits for work on the property owned by Dan Williams were properly provided.

Williams, who attended the hearing as did Turner and other neighbors, said his plan is to use the property at 6827, known as Blueberry Brook Farm Resort, as a BnB and set up a nursery to grow blueberries.

Williams said he was proceeding with those plans with permits issued by the Town through then Codes Officer Gary Schreppel.

Other plans include enclosing the 90 acres with an 8-foot fence to mitigate the deer damage, Williams said, and planting Christmas trees on site.

ZBA Chairman Jamie McNair said during the one- hour hearing that the role he and ZBA members Debbie Zweifel Yaciuk and Jacob Addington was to hear the appeal as if they were the Zoning Enforcement Officer able to issue the permits.

McNair said the ZBA does have an application but needed additional information that wasn’t submitted with it.

Williams said, in response to a question from a resident, that he filed the permits with Schreppel but was never asked to pay a permit fee.

McNair said he did see the application for a permit, but the Town Clerk never received anything to file or have stamped.

McNair said his messages to Schreppel to clarify some aspects have not been answered.

McNair said he saw the application on a desk in the Town Hall office and took photos.

“Is that unusual? Yes. It’s also unusual that they were not stamped and filed within five days,’’ he said. ...