NORTH SYRACUSE — For over a year, a temporary storage container has sat next to the road in front of a house in the village of North Syracuse. Homeowners often use these “PODS” — named for one such company that provides them, Portable On Demand Storage — when moving into or out of a home or to store items while renovations take place. The village is considering putting a cap on the amount of time residents can have storage pods on their properties to reduce fire hazards and eyesores.
The North Syracuse Village Board of Trustees held a public hearing on the topic at its April 8 meeting.
John Coleman, a resident of Elm Street, said he is “definitely opposed” to allowing long-term storage of these containers outside people’s homes.
“Unless it’s for moving purposes and within X number of days, you should probably have it taken out of there,” Coleman said.
As currently written, the proposed law would require property owners to apply for a permit to keep a storage pod on a residential property. The permit application would require detailed information about the dimensions and location of the container. The permit fee would be $25 for 30 days and could be extended for an additional term not to exceed 120 days for $75.
Trustee Chris Strong suggested the village have a discussion with the property owner who has had a pod in their yard for a year.
“Maybe this person doesn’t know this is an issue,” he said. “It’s really the admirable thing to do — to just solve or deescalate.”
Strong cautioned against creating legislation just to address one particular homeowner.
“You’re never going to be able to legislate yourself into a utopia,” he said.
Renovations or closing on a home could take longer than 30 days, Strong said.
“It’s not a pod frenzy,” he said.
Deputy Mayor Pat Gustafson said the village board’s intention is not to direct legislation at a single homeowner.
“It sounds to me you’re picking on this one particular incident,” she said. “We’re not. We’re looking out for the whole village.”
Strong asked Clerk-Treasurer Dianne Kufel to post the proposed law and a poll to the village’s website, northsyracuseny.org. The proposed law was posted to the village’s Facebook page, facebook.com/nsyrvillage1925, on April 7.
“I’m just not sure the information is getting out there as much as we want it to,” Strong said.
Gustafson said more people have been engaging with the village’s social media posts.
“I think the majority of the people would have had the information or would have the means to access it,” added Trustee Lou Ann St. Germain.
Mayor Gary Butterfield said some residents are using storage pods to get around having to secure a building permit for a shed.
“We can allow extensions, but we don’t want people to use a pod as a shed right next to the road,” Butterfield said.
The board tabled the storage pod law and will revisit it in the future.
Also on the agenda
In addition to the storage container discussion, the village board also addressed the following issues at the April 8 meeting:
• Budget: Clerk-Treasurer Dianne Kufel presented the second model of the village’s 2021-22 budget, which shows a 3.9% increase in expenses over the current year’s budget. Despite the increase in spending, this model of the budget does not include several pieces of equipment requested by the North Syracuse Department of Public Works.
The trustees opted to table the budget vote pending additional discussion with DPW Superintendent Ed Ware. The board has until April 30 to adopt the 2021-22 budget.
• Garage sales: Each spring, the village traditionally sets one weekend in which the permit process for holding a garage sale is waived. Last year, due to the pandemic, the village-wide garage sale took place in July instead of May. The trustees tentatively agreed to set this year’s sales for the weekend of July 17 and 18.
Trustee Fred Wilmer suggested doing two weekends, one in May and one in July. Resident Lisa Lioto requested this as well, as many residents are doing spring cleaning.
• Arbor Day: North Syracuse is celebrating its 32nd year with the Tree City USA designation. This year’s celebration will take place at 6 p.m. Friday, April 30. Mayor Butterfield will preside over a ceremony in which New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forester John Graham will plant a pink blossoming dogwood tree in honor of former Mayor Diane Browning. Local trumpeter Lee Turner will perform. Residents are invited to gather at the North Syracuse Community Center for the celebration.
