A request to store a few empty fuel tanks in a contractor's yard on Goguen Drive turned into the Clay Town Board's longest discussion of the night on Jan. 22 — and by the end of it, board members were questioning whether the applicant belonged in that hearing room at all. Ben, a representative from CHA Consulting, told the board that Goguen Drive Realty LLC was seeking a Special Permit under Section 230-17E(2)(a)[6], governing S-1 Special Use Districts, to store one full 1,000-gallon fuel tank on site at 7835 Goguen Drive along with two or three smaller empty tanks used for excavators on the I-81 construction project. The property, about 6.24 acres, sits in the town's I-1 Industrial 1 District. That mismatch became the hearing's central problem. Councilor Ryan Pleskach said the S-1 Special Permit was "not appropriate for this parcel," and Councilor Eugene Young asked the board to clarify that the S-1 use district is not allowed in an I-1 district even with a special permit attached. The applicant said he had applied for that permit on the advice of the town's former Commissioner of Planning. Board members pressed for operational details. The tanks would sit outdoors, refilled about once a week, with no other liquids such as oil stored on site. Supervisor Damian Ulatowski said he was concerned about the tanks being left exposed to the elements and to possible vandals, and said he would feel better with locking caps or housing in place. Councilor Deborah Magaro-Dolan asked about tank size and how often they'd be filled, and Councilor Joseph Bick noted that hazardous-materials storage falls under state Department of Environmental Conservation rules regardless of what the town permits. Four residents spoke against the application. Ralph Turner raised concerns about spill damage and the site's proximity to schools and neighborhoods, and asked who would monitor the applicant. Jason Spagnola cited OSHA storage regulation 1926.152(c). Janet Rathburn presented Department of Environmental Conservation file information on the parcel along with an Appearance Ticket dated March 12, 2024, for a code violation. And Mark Orr, citing risks of corrosion, vapor fumes, contamination and fire, told the board this was "the same applicant that was crushing concrete without proper authorization." Supervisor Ulatowski said the board would refer the application to the Planning Board for review and recommendation, and that the Town Board would keep researching the matter on its own. Councilor Pleskach then moved to adjourn the public hearing to March 3, 2025, at 7:38 p.m.; the board approved it 6-0. Left unresolved is the more basic question the councilors raised themselves — whether a special permit can fix a zoning mismatch at all, or whether Goguen Drive Realty will need to come back with a different application altogether. The fuel-tank case wasn't the only stalled land-use matter the board closed out or kicked forward that night. Earlier in the meeting, it formally denied McDonald's USA's long-pending request for a drive-thru at 4979 Taft Road, Case #1210, after five adjournments dating back to August 2024 — no one showed up to represent the company this time either, and Councilor Young's motion declaring the application abandoned passed 6-0. The board also opened, and closed without a vote, a hearing on a new sewer district that Delta Sonic will build and pay for entirely on its own to serve a planned Route 31 carwash. By the time Councilor Young moved to adjourn at 8:21 p.m., the board had also renewed a mobile home park's operating license, approved three new stop signs at a residential intersection, scheduled a fix to a noise-law amendment its own attorney's office had accidentally filed under a section number that doesn't exist, and released $27,142.11 in performance security to a waste-hauling contractor. None of it drew the scrutiny — or the pushback — that the empty tanks on Goguen Drive did.