SHANDAKEN >> The town Zoning Board of Appeals has agreed to let Al Higley seek permission anew to reopen his farm stand on Route 28 in Mount Tremper.
At a meeting last week, Higley’s lawyer, Phillip Wellner, and surveyor, Don Brewer, convinced the board that Higley expects the necessary approval from the state Department of Transportation within days. The department asked for changes to where vehicles enter and exit the property, which front state Route 28, and Brewer made those changes and presented to the board.
Wellner said he believes that once the transportation department reviews the updated plan, it will be approved.
Higley had no approval from the state when he applied to reopen the business last year, so the Zoning Board of Appeals turned him down.
Now, the board is willing to give him another chance.
“You will go through it again as if it were new,” said the board’s attorney, Larry Wolinsky, said to Higley.
Wolinsky said the new application to run the farm stand must be reviewed by the Ulster County Planning Board and be subject to a public hearing.
That hearing is expected to be held later this month, provided Higley can provide proof of state approval in time.
State Supreme Court Justice Mary Work ordered Higley’s business, called Hanover Farms, shut down in 2013 and mandated that parts of the structure built without proper permits be removed. Last year, though, the town of Shandaken agreed to a consent order that gave Higley a chance to apply for the proper permits and follow the proper procedures to make the business legal.
That effort ultimate failed, and Higley last summer moved his business to a vacant bank building on Route 28 in the Olive hamlet of Shokan and renamed it Greenheart Farmstand.
But by February of this year, he was back before Shandaken officials, looking for another chance.
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