AURELIUS - A local farmland owner will be allowed to continue to store fireworks on his property, the Aurelius Zoning Board of Appeals decided Monday.

The board unanimously decided in three separate votes to grant David Delaney, of 1214 Clark Street Road, permission to store up to 10,000 pounds of the explosives on his property. The ZBA took up the issue after the town Planning Board declared the property was not properly zoned to store the items.

The fireworks, which belong to Auburn TelStar Fireworks Inc., have been stored at the farm since the 1980s. They currently sit in six separate containers on the property, which has 500 feet zoned for commercial use, according to the ZBA.

However, the current venture extends almost 150 feet past the commercial zone, town officials had said. And such warehousing activity is allowed only on land that is zoned for industrial use, according to town zoning laws.

ZBA Chair Ted Herrling said during the meeting that the variances were the only solution the board could offer.

“We cannot take the property and say it is an industrial zone,” Herrling said.

The three variances authorized the following: Delaney can warehouse in a commercial and residential-agricultural zone 114 feet beyond the east side and 138 feet beyond the west side of the zone, and he can specifically store explosives in the area described, as explosives are not mentioned in the current zoning law.

However, if Delaney sells the property or stores items other than the fireworks, the variances are no longer valid, Herrling said.

Planning board chairman Gerald Scouten attended the meeting, and he told the ZBA members that the fireworks are stored in accordance with both state and federal safety standards.

“Everything is done perfectly over there in terms of safety,” Scouten said.

However, Scouten also said one member of the planning board did take exception to the fact that the property has not been legitimately taxed since the commercial products were stored there.

“There was no correct tax assessment on it,” he said.

Scouten would not comment after the meeting on whether the planning board will address that issue in the future.

But Peter Corning, former Cayuga County Judge who represented Delaney at the meeting, said the containers are “innocuous.” No one has brought up a problem with the storage units, Corning said, and they aren't near anybody.

“We're very pleased,” Corning said after the meeting in regards to the decision.

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net