VILLAGE OF PAWLING – A village resident is suing the Village of Pawling with a claim that the attorney for the village is operating an illegal bed and breakfast (B&B) in the same building where his office is located next to Pawling Village Hall. Plaintiff Steve Goldberg says that Village Attorney David Daniels, a founding partner of the Daniels, Porco, and Lisardi law firm, had submitted plans to change the top floor office space into two apartments but the units are being rented on a nightly and weekly basis, which Goldberg says is not legal.
Goldberg says that Daniels submitted plans to convert the space into apartments to the planning board in 2019. The plans also sought to convert the parcel designation from commercial to mixed-use. The planning board, including Robert Pfister, approved the plans in 2019. Pfister has since been elevated to the planning board chairman position. Pfister is also a contractor and owns the company that did the renovation work at the attorney’s building.
In January of this year, the Village issued a certificate of compliance to One Memorial LLC, of which Daniels is a principal, saying that the renovations converted the top floor space into two one-bedroom apartments and an elevator had been installed.
The neighboring boutique hotel, Station Inn, at 7 Memorial Avenue, appears to be marketing the new apartments as vacation rentals. Goldberg has provided exhibits that indicate the hotel is marketing the new apartments as short-term rentals. The Station Inn website has pictures of the recently renovated offices being marketed as one-bedroom vacation rentals that Daniels claims are apartments. Goldberg claims the apartments are not permitted under the current certifications.
The plaintiff is seeking to have the certificate of compliance issued for the renovations annulled because Daniels did not seek approval from the planning board for a permit allowing the apartments to be used as a B&B. He also wants Daniels, who also serves as a Pawling town justice to recuse himself from representing the village due to the obvious conflict.
