Rochester’s Planning Board served heavy criticism to the owners of Wellspring Farm for ignoring Planning Board requirements - as the owners argued that they had no choice but to jump the gun on some projects.

Wellspring owners Jim and Holly Vogel, along with their attorney George Boerger, presented the board with an updated site plan Tuesday night.

The site plan review is a condition of the Special Permit the business received in September of 2016, allowing Wellspring to continue operations as a therapeutic center.

However, shortly after the public hearing began, several board members expressed strong concerns with recent construction of a parking lot on the property.

“I found out by accident that there was construction going on,” Planning Board Chairman Arnie Johnson chastised the Vogels. When Johnson asked the contractor if he had a permit, the answer was “no.”

When the contractor did go to obtain a permit, Johnson added, he found that the parking lot was not located in the same spot as it was in the site plan. “So now you’re presenting us with incorrect plans,” he stated.

Jim Vogel admitted that the construction had taken place, but only because of a dire parking situation.

“We want to work with you,” he explained, “but we had been told that people couldn’t park on the road, and they couldn’t park in the parking lots. To keep the operation going, our clients need to be able to park somewhere.”

Johnson disagreed with the assessment, noting that as the parking ban had not been rendered as a decision by the board, it was not yet a requirement. "You jumped the gun. That’s at your risk, because we could tell you to rip it all up. We have the absolute right as a board to do that.”

He added that he was surprised by the behavior. “When you do something like this, you make the board look like it doesn’t know what’s going on - and it didn’t.”

Board member Gary Florindo added that the Vogels had had plenty of time to come into Town Hall and request that work move forward due to the circumstances. “I understand what you’re working with, but it would’ve looked better to the board,” he admitted.

Planning Board member Ben Bailey said that he was concerned with the pattern of behavior he had seen from the Vogels. "It seems to me that there's a recurring pattern of you doing whatever you want, and ignoring Planning Board and Zoning Board requirements," he told them. "Frankly, it's disrespectful."

Johnson, not done, also noted that the board had been given incorrect information about the use of one lot on the property. “We were told that the lot in question was never used,” said Johnson, “come to find out that it’s actually being used for parking every day.” Bottom line, he said, the lot needed to be taken into account.

“We’re sorry about this,” Boerger said on behalf of the Vogels. “We want to work with you. We’ll do whatever we can. But we just want to move forward.”

There was also talk of an independent traffic analysis at the property, located at  42 Hiller Road. “We have you telling us one thing, and the abutters saying something else,” Johnson explained. “What we need is an independent source to tell us how many cars come in and out, how long they stay, where they arrive and leave. We need all of that.”

The Vogels agreed to submit an updated site plan for the board’s May 9 meeting, and to look into a traffic analysis.