The Mystical, Magical Sign Of Red Mountain
Posted on Saturday, 7 of November , 2009 at 9:15 pm
COMMENTARY
By June Maxam
CHESTERTOWN—Did you know that Merlin, the Magician has become the zoning officer of the Town of Chester in northern Warren County?
Why, he can make signs shrink with a wave of a pen. He even inspects and permits signs that don’t exist.
A sign on the main street in Chestertown that has measured 32 square feet since 2001 has mysteriously, mystically and magically shrunk by over nearly 3 and half square feet overnight according to Chester zoning administrator Walter Tennyson
Abracadabra!!!
But maybe one shouldn’t be surprised. This is the same sign that Tennyson says he inspected last December and issued a sign permit for, saying that it conformed with the submitted sign application, town zoning law and measured 32 square feet.
The sign is located on property owned by Charles W. Redmond on which he operates a self-storage business along with an office for a real estate business although it appears he has no listings.
Redmond tries to rest on his “laurels” of being a retired state trooper, a position he left in 1995 in order to make the first of his three unsuccessful attempts to gain elected public office in the Town of Chester. He was twice defeated in his quest to become town supervisor and was then soundly rejected in his attempt to become a councilman.
Redmond is a chronic zoning violator, having been cited repeatedly over the last 20 years for his property on Route 9 at the southern entrance to the hamlet of Chestertown, first in his lease to a construction company known as E.R.S.C., and most recently his operation of a self storage unit business first known as Mountain Storage, now known as Red Mountain Storage LLC.
The Redmond operation has been mired in controversy since its inception in 2001—when the magic sign was first represented by him, and certified by Tennyson, to be 32 square feet.
And what has followed between 2001 to present, is a convoluted saga of Redmond submitting pictures of a sign that didn’t exist and then Tennyson claiming that he had inspected the non-existent sign—saying that it conformed with Redmond’s application and the ordinance. It didn’t on either count.
Tennyson entered a false statement into the town’s business records, claiming that he had inspected a sign that didn’t exist and in essence certifying that it measured 32 square feet in size. It’s time he was held accountable as issuing permits without the requisite inspections is a serious matter.
In other words, Redmond lied and Tennyson swore to it and on the basis of the inspection that he never conducted, a sign permit to which Redmond wasn’t entitled was issued.
Redmond and his ex-wife, Penny, had jointly operated Extra Room Storage on Route 9, Chestertown, but in 2000 after she filed for divorce, she was awarded sole ownership of the property and business. The court imposed a five-year restrictive covenant to prohibit Redmond from opening a competing storage business adjacent to her.
But in 2001, in an obvious attempt to circumvent the court order and an alleged subterfuge, Redmond filed to create a new self storage business on property adjoining his ex-wife, except that he claimed he wasn’t going to be the one operating the business. He claimed that his then good friend, former Chester town justice E. Wendell Ross, who had been sanctioned for 21 counts of misconduct and later forced into retirement in the midst of a second state judicial investigation, had entered into a $100,000 sales contract with Redmond and would operate the business.
The only thing was, it was all on paper. It was a sham.
Redmond produced a copy of the sales contract to the Chester Planning Board but refused to reveal the details of the deal, saying that the property would have to remain in his name because Ross couldn’t obtain the financing for it and that he, Redmond, would hold the mortgage. Problem is, no mortgage or sale was ever recorded at the Warren County Clerk’s office, just another subterfuge and lie by Redmond.
In 2001, the Chester Planning Board conducted a site plan review of the property and based on Redmond’s misrepresentations, granted approval for his proposal, despite the existing restrictive covenant. The town zoning law states that any permits or approvals granted as a result of misrepresentation are void to say nothing about the submission of false instruments for filing with intent to defraud being a criminal matter.
Although Redmond claimed Ross was the operator of the business, he has never produced any reliable documentation to support that claim. As soon as the five years expired, Ross disappeared from the business……and apparently from the friendship with Redmond.
Redmond also made various representations, submitting survey maps and alleged plot plans showing the lot size and other plans in order to obtain a permit for Wendell Ross to purportedly operate a business known as Mountain Storage, including a sign permit which was issued in Ross’ name.
The latest controversy began in late 2007 after Redmond moved the Mountain Storage sign which had been permitted in Ross’ name and had consistently been represented to be 4’x8’ or 32 square feet. According to the provisions of the town zoning law, once an applicant makes an application for a sign permit, the zoning administrator issues a zoning certificate and the applicant installs the sign. The zoning administrator is then supposed to inspect the sign to insure that is in conformance with the plans as submitted and then issue a sign permit.
But that didn’t happen.
For over eight years, Redmond represented that the Mountain Storage sign was 32 square feet in size and for eight years, Tennyson agreed, claiming that he had inspected the sign and purportedly measured it to insure that it was in compliance.
Redmond has never offered any concrete reason for the relocation of the sign from the south end of the property to the north end, next to the fence separating his and his ex-wife’s business which made it appear that he owned both businesses.
Not only that, but it didn’t meet the sideline setbacks nor did it meet the frontline setback. The town zoning law requires an additional one foot of setback for every two square feet of signage exceeding 12 square feet with a minimum front line setback of five feet.
Everyone accepted the sign as 32 square feet and in September, 2007, the town attorney, zoning administrator and Redmond along with adjoining property owners had all agreed that the zoning ordinance required a 15 foot setback from the property line based on the sign’s square footage of 32 square feet.
Thus for a sign which exceeds the sign area allowed by 20 square feet, an additional 10 feet of setback is required from the front property line which required Redmond’s sign to minimally be set back 15 feet from the front property line.
And then it took a sudden turn.
Despite the ruling by the town attorney and zoning board at its Sept. 25, 2007 public hearing regarding the setback required, Tennyson allowed Redmond to move the sign again, closer to the road, this time with only a five foot setback from the front property line. He then allowed Redmond to install two more signs on the same sign display, increasing the square footage, all without the proper sign application and without the requisite variance.
So, if a 32 square foot sign had to be 15 feet back from the front property line in order to comply with the law, how can you increase the square footage by adding two more signs, move it 10 feet CLOSER to the front property line and claim it’s in compliance?
That’s what Tennyson did but without the requisite zoning certificate and sign permits at that time and he refused to place his “determination” in writing. An appeal was filed by aggrieved adjoining property owners.
Suddenly, at the Jan. 22, 2008 meeting the ZBA, town attorney Michael Hill of Miller, Mannix, Schachner and Hafner, did a total turnabout from the previous hearing in September, angrily and incredibly denying that he had made any “determination” in regard to the requirement for a front line setback of the Mountain Storage sign prior to it being moved.
However, such is untrue as his position is memorialized in the now approved meeting minutes, ruling that a 15 foot frontline setback was required for the Mountain Storage sign of 32 square feet. http://www.townofchesterny.org/minuteszba/zba092507.html
Redmond increased the size of the display to 37.5 square feet by adding yet another sign to it and moved it 10 feet closer to the road and Tennyson and the town claimed it was then in compliance.
Despite the provisions of the ordinance and the town attorney’s prior ruling, in May, 2008, the ZBA, chaired by Kenneth Marcheselli who had been renting at least four self storage units from Redmond but refused to recuse himself in the matter, issued a ruling directing Tennyson to issue a sign permit for Mountain Storage.
However, there was a big problem. There was no such business. Redmond had dissolved that business and restructured it as Red Mountain Storage LLC in January 2008. But he never bothered to inform either the zoning office or ZBA of name change despite on ongoing public hearing. And never bothered to change his sign at that time. Such would seem to constitutes the intentional withholding of a material fact. The ZBA lacks jurisdiction to order the zoning administrator to issue a permit for a non-existent entity.
Thus the issue was at a stalemate for months as Tennyson did not issue any permits. He sat on it until last November when Redmond contacted Tennyson and demanded a sign permit for Mountain Storage, by then a non-existent business. Eleven months after change of business name, Redmond finally gave notice to the town.
On Dec. 1, the zoning office instructed Redmond to submit a new sign application for change of name and to provide pictures of the sign as it existed.
On Dec. 18, 2008, Redmond submited a written application with a photograph representing that the Red Mountain Storage sign was in place. It was not. Such sign did not exist at that time and in fact did exist at all until at least eight months later in August, 2009, a knowing, intentional false statement of a material fact by Redmond.
Last December, he had stated in writing that “Red Mountain LLC” is leasing property from him. According to DOS records, There is no such legal entity as Red Mountain LLC. Another material false statement by Redmond.
In his diagram submitted with his sign application, as he has for the past eight years, Redmond continued to represent that the main storage sign was 4×8 or 32 square feet.
Such is not allowed under the town zoning law as the principal sign in an “office plaza” can measure no more than 30 square feet. Further, under the section that both Redmond and Tennyson claim that the sign is permitted, all signs must be uniform in color and design and cannot carry any advertising manner.
Not only is the sign as proposed by Redmond not in conformance with the town zoning law, it doesn’t exist as Redmond represents and to top it off, Tennyson claims he inspected the invisible sign. Had he truly inspected the sign in December as required instead of entering a false statement in town business records, he would have known that it was oversized.
Irregardless that the sign doesn’t exist and that he never checked to see if it existed and was in compliance on Dec. 30, 2008, Tennyson issued a zoning certificate and sign permit (S2008-12) based on the material false written statement and misrepresentations submitted by Charles Redmond and without following proper procedure as delineated in the town zoning law.
So, Redmond had a permit for a sign which didn’t exist.
In May, when it was learned that a permit had been issued but no sign existed, a complaint was filed with the zoning office. On May 4, Tennyson took a date-stamped photograph of the sign that then existed on the Redmond property with the name of Mountain Storage, a non-existent entity, giving undeniable evidence that the Red Mountain Storage sign DID NOT exist as of that date although Redmond had represented that it had been in place as of 12/18/08 and ZA had issued a permit for it on 12/30/08. (See the photos at http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/08/02/magic_sign/
A total sham, again.
By letter to the town dated May 18, Redmond essentially admitted the fact that he had intentionally filed a false instrument with the town in December, knowing that the sign did not exist as he had represented with the concocted photograph. He stated in writing that as of May 18, the sign STILL did not exist as it had been “too cold” to make the changes.
And in yet another letter written by Redmond, this one to the NYS Department of State dated July 31, acquired by The North Country Gazette through the Freedom of Information Law, Redmond admitted that Red Mountain Storage sign which had been permitted as a result of his false representations to the town, STILL didn’t exist at THAT time!
Such allegedly constitutes grounds for a criminal charge of first degree filing of a false instrument with intent to defraud as he obtained a benefit to which he was not entitled. By filing a written statement in the town business records that he had inspected the sign when he had not, it would appear that Tennyson may also be subject to criminal charges.
Confronted with the fact that a 32 square foot sign is not in compliance with the ordinance and must be removed, how do Redmond and Tennyson address that issue?
With the assistance of Marcheselli, Redmond’s former tenant, and the ZBA, they voided the December sign permit which indicated the “sign” was 37.5 square feet with the principal sign at 32 square feet, two square feet more than allowed.
Then, Redmond files another sign application, changes the dimension of the principal sign, claiming it’s 29 square feet rather than 32. He then adds yet ANOTHER sign, this one totaling another 5.5 square feet bringing the total in actuality to 43 square feet with prohibited advertising, lack of uniformity in design and lettering. According to the zoning law, a sign this size is required to be setback 20 feet from the front property line, not the five foot that Tennyson has allowed. The zoning law also states that the total of all signs can be no more than 40 square feet.
Remember, the principal sign can measure no more than 30 square feet. Oops. Suddenly, overnight, Redmond submits an application showing that the principal sign is 29 square feet, shrinking it three square feet without any physical alteration. Not to be outdone, Tennyson then claims that he’s measured this sign that has been 32 square feet for 8 years, AND NOW IT MEASURES 28.42 square feet!!! Trouble is, Tennyson hasn’t taken into consideration the section of the zoning law which says that you must include the measurements of the framework holding the sign too!!
And, Tennyson didn’t measure the sign as he represented according to a witness who was in the area at the time Tennyson represents the measurement was done.
Tennyson issued a new sign permit on Sept. 21 but omitted a crucial requirement—he failed to list an inspection date on the permit.
What a mystical, magical sign! What a Houdini this Tennyson is with his assistant Redmond. First he ‘inspects’ and permits a sign that doesn’t exist. Now he’s shrunk the sign over three and half feet so it can magically conform to the ordinance, at least in his way of thinking. It still contains prohibited advertising, lack of uniformity in design and lettering and according to the zoning law, is required to be setback 20 feet from the front property line, not five feet.
Tennyson has intentionally avoided three out of last four ZBA meetings, apparently so he won’t have to answer the primary question, did you or did you not inspect the claimed Red Mountain Storage sign as Redmond claimed existed in December 2008, and how did a sign that has been 32 square feet for eight years suddenly shrink overnight to 28.42 square feet without any alteration at all?
When will the signs be removed as required as the permit was acquired by fraud and misrepresentation?
Perhaps the biggest question of all is when will the criminal investigation of this entire matter, including the actions of the ZBA and Marcheselli be conducted with Tennyson, aka Merlin, and Redmond held accountable for their provable false filings.
Magic, sleight of hand and illusions have no place in zoning administration. 11-7-09
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/08/02/magic_sign/
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/documents/redmondchronology.pdf
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2008/01/06/ex-nys-trooper-at-odds-with-chester-zoning-officials/
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2008/02/18/altered-documents-an-issue-in-ex-trooper-zoning-case/
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