By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — Municipal boards are often asked to make decisions that impact people or the use of property. 

Those decisions are definitely more difficult to make without all the proper information or when the supporting documents are received too late to be properly reviewed. That was what was discussed during a recent Naples Planning Board meeting. Because a few documents arrived on the day of the Tuesday night meeting, some planning board members requested tabling the items already on the agenda. Also, there was a discussion about what could be addressed — information that had been submitted and make public at least two weeks earlier.

During a meeting on May 18, Larry Anton recommended tabling two of the three items on the agenda. He said the board had stuck to the policy but had recently slacked on it.

“There is a policy that we don’t accept materials for a planning board meeting on the day of the meeting. We have a policy that they have to be submitted in advance, two weeks in advance. They submitted all this stuff today. I got home. I saw them there. I didn’t have time to read them,” Anton said. “Are we going to take from the meeting, while I sit here and read it?” 

Chairman Doug Bogdan 

“On that note, you are correct. We used to say two weeks so the public got to review it and so the planning board got to review it. Moving forward from today, that is going to be the request of the planning board — if it is not ready 2 weeks prior, we will have to table it,” Bogdan said. “If anyone on the board feels uncomfortable talking about it, we can table it.”

The two items that were tabled were: 

• A modification to a major subdivision application submitted by Naples Mountainview Associates, Inc. 

• A minor site plan review by Keefe’s Marine for boat storage expansion. 

Code Enforcement Assistant Kate Matthews said that if anyone was there for the public hearing, which had been advertised, those people should be able to speak. Matthews explained to Planner Ben Smith, who was attending via zoom, that supporting documents had been filed late. 

Then, Bogdan reiterated the importance of filing documents on time. 

“It allows for the public to get a hold of the material and review it as well as the board members. The board members did not see it until this afternoon. Some things are important. We can’t rush through them,” Bogdan said.

After the two items were table, board member Jimmy Allen strived for an exception.  

“I understand where you are coming from with this stuff coming in” on the day of the meeting, Allen said. 

“We are doing a disservice to these people. We are wasting their time coming up here, and it’s wasting our time. I got better things to be doing in frigging May than coming in here and having everybody tabled because stuff came in today,” he said. 

Anton said that he did not have time to read all the recently submitted paperwork yet.

Allen said that fortunately he was near a computer when the paperwork was sent to him so he was able to read it. 

“I get where you’re coming from. You’re right. Sometimes, we just need to take a deep breath,” Allen said. 

Allen pointed out that the application from Alan Keefe, of Keefe’s Marine, was submitted to the town on March 9. He suggested talking about that, and saving the recent submission by Lakes Environmental Association (LEA) for the next meeting. 

The board voted unanimously to rescind the motion to table Keefe’s Marine application and to discuss the information from March. 

The board meets once a month, and requires that all documents be turned in two weeks prior to meetings.