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Town Board Minutes |
Special Meeting 9/15/2007 Budget Workshop 9/26/2007 Town Board September 12, 2007 A regular meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on September 12, 2007. Supervisor Michael Flaherty called the meeting to order at 7 P.M. Present were Board members Thomas Hitchcock, Charles Kutcher, Elaine Warfield and Harry T. Wilson. Present were Attorney for the Town Tal G. Rappleyea, Building Inspector Thomas Cross, Superintendent of Highways Robert Mallory, Mark Kenny, C.B. Slutzky, Consultant Nan Stolzenburg, town residents Werner & Helga Pscherer, David Slutzky, J.R. Quackenbush, Jane Bostrom, Joan Kutcher, Michael McCrary, newspaper reporter Mike Ryan and the town clerk. The pledge to the flag and a moment of silence were observed outside before the 911 memorial. The public hearing on Local Law #8 of 2007 was opened. The law extends a temporary six-month moratorium on the approval of new major subdivisions of land for a further six months. Mark Kenny, “I'm a resident of Windham. Sometime ago I entered into an agreement with the Slutzky's to purchase some property with the idea of building an environmentally friendly subdivision plan I hoped to do in partnership with the Town.” “Shortly after I met with the planning board it came to my attention that the moratorium was to be adopted. I guess it was a necessary course of events for the Town, I'm just not sure if something I had planned on triggered it, but at the end of the day now after 12months its going to 18 months. It seems to me that already having a template and reading what is proposed there's really little new. At the end of the day it's a hardship for me. I cannot sit down and work in partnership with the Town.” “ I have a lot of money at risk, which is standard procedure for a developer. What's taken a year and now another 6 months could have been done a lot sooner. There's nothing really new. I just think it's come to a point where we really need to put an end to this thing. I do need to move forward and there is a lot of stuff being proposed that is very negative, not just to me but also to the Town of Jewett. I just don't think this should go on indefinitely. I think we should know what the end is and it should be sooner rather than later so we all know where we stand. Thank you.” C.B. Slutzky, “Along with my brother David we are major land owners in the Town of Jewett. The moratorium is very misleading. I understand that you're in the process now of updating your comprehensive plan. What I'm not certain about is that any developer that wants to do a major subdivision in the Town of Jewett or any town has to use SEQR as their agency and as procedure for doing the subdivision. SEQR regulations and regulations of NYS DEC and DEP are very stringent and comprehensive and probably more stringent then what your subdivision regulations are. I don't understand why the town is delaying subdivisions when these regulations are out there. They have been provided by the State of New York and other agencies for a long period of time. As Mark said, this moratorium, which has yet been extended another 6 months, is very cumbersome and time consuming and costly to development.” “Jewett is made up of individual landowners who have a right to develop their land in an orderly fashion in accordance with the rules and regulations set up by the State of New York. The SEQR review is adequate and this moratorium that's been placed on major subdivisions should be lifted immediately. Thank you.” David Slutzky, “I'm a resident of Jewett. In reading the comprehensive plan and visions for where you would like to see Jewett go, I think your going down the wrong way. There are two things that are certain, death and taxes. If we don't have growth in this Town your not going to see a lot of what you want in the vision. Everyone wants the charm of rural living without the stop signs, without the stoplights, without the crowded neighborhoods. Jewett doesn't even have a sidewalk. But, in order to get that, in order to have a shop or a store you can stop at in Jewett, you need some growth. You'll need growth further down the road or you won't survive. I've been here all my life and I'd like to see a little bit more growth before its put to a stop.” “When you go through the comprehensive plan it's like you want your cake and eat it to and they say you really can't, with that the Town's got to go ahead with a certain amount of development. You need a certain amount of people living up here to support this mountaintop. Jewett has the land. If it's done in a comfortable way there's a lot more room for a lot more buildings and I'm all for it. I'm all for regulations to keep it in an orderly manner but I'm not for restrictions that just stop it completely, Thank you.” The public hearing was closed on a motion by Supervisor Flaherty, 2nd by Councilman Hitchcock and carried. Supervisor Flaherty, “I can see since the Town Board hasn't had a chance to adopt the comprehensive plan yet and we've already had the prohibition on the major subdivisions for one year, I can see approval of the plan relatively soon.” “I'm going to move that we do reinstall the moratorium with the hope that we will be able to lift it within one month.” Councilman Hitchcock, “I'm totally opposed to that. I think we've had more than ample time to get our act in gear. We've had the moratorium in place 1 year. I think it impacts our people who want to do things and I think we've fallen down on the job. It should have been taken care of by now and it hasn't been and there's no guarantee that this isn't going to keep going right on. I'm opposed to extending this moratorium longer than a year. We initially talked about 6 months. I thought that was kind of a wild idea at the time that we could do anything within 6 months in this Town and we couldn't. Now a year's gone by and we're looking for another 6-month extension. I'm opposed to it.” A motion was made by Supervisor Flaherty to adopt Local Law #8 of 2007. This law extends a temporary six-month moratorium on the approval of new major subdivision of land for a further six months, 2nd by Councilman Wilson and carried. ROLL CALL VOTE: Aye Flaherty, Kutcher, Wilson Nay Hitchcock, Warfield Councilman Hitchcock, “Just for clarification, did I hear something about a month from now?” Supervisor Flaherty, “As you just received the draft copy of the comprehensive plan and the hearing was on Saturday the 1st and the comment period just closed, I believe the Town Board has enough information now to review that document. I'll put it on the agenda for next month for a vote.” Councilman Hitchcock, “Just to keep me informed what do we gain by extending this moratorium? If you say a month I'm going to hold my breath. What do we gain?” Supervisor Flaherty, “There was a big boon here for a while, we felt it was time to look at the way we're doing things and let the Town grow in a reasonable and proper manner, that was the study.” Councilman Hitchcock, “I didn't quite hear it that way. I heard that we're doing a moratorium and we did the moratorium on major subdivisions. If we were so concerned about what was going to happen to this town why didn't we shut down everything? My understanding was, we talked about what we've seen happen in Windham, not in any detail but we mentioned a couple major subdivisions in Windham which were interesting and we didn't want to see some of those things happen here, so we put in a moratorium and I voted for it, so we could look at, my understanding was, how we're going to better control or enhance any major subdivisions done in the Town of Jewett.” Councilman Wilson, “That's not my understanding at all.” Councilman Hitchcock, “Ok. It was mine and on that basis I voted. We shut down major subdivisions for 6 months and we extended it another 6 months and I went along with that thinking that when I actually would see the draft revision that it would address it, I thought, and shut it down. That's the reason I voted for it. Then when I got the draft I'm overwhelmed because it affects everything across the board. Why don't we shut down everything, why do we just pick on major subdivisions? I'm not asking for an answer, I'm just telling you where I'm coming from. I'm a little upset here.” Councilman Kutcher, “Let's deal with two issues the moratorium and the comprehensive plan.” “A comprehensive plan is not a land use plan. It's a comprehensive plan that's mandated to deal with every aspect of the town. That's why that plan covers all aspects of the town thought the bulk of it is still land use in one way or another. That's why the plan is the way it is. The idea of putting in the moratorium on major subdivisions was that most minor subdivisions being 1,2 3 or 4 lots could not have a hugh impact on the town. A major subdivision, which is 5 or more lots, could have a much bigger impact. Secondly, we didn't want to place a hardship on individual landowners in the Town who may be subdividing their land because they have a son or daughter who wants a piece or things like that. It was put in on major subdivisions to cover that and not on minor. Also major subdivisions were probably the area in which we felt that we needed to look at land use planning. Over the years a lot of holes have been discovered in the major subdivision law and not so much in the minor subdivisions. Those are the reasons it came about.” “We voted also for the moratorium because one of the things you really didn't want to happen was what I believe happened in the zoning one year. I believe this town sits with a lot of small parcels that were subdivided and never developed because everyone rushed to get in before zoning changed and we want to try and avoid that problem. In terms of the amount of time it's taken, I believe a year is probably a very short amount of time. I believe 18 months to 2 years is the standard time to do a comprehensive plan. We got a grant that was going to take us well over a year to get the work done.” Councilman Hitchcock, “I know we were talking about it. I heard the discussion because I don't like moratoriums in general. I heard there were 2 or 3 outfits looking to do subdivisions and we like to enhance or tweak our laws, our rules, our regulations so that maybe we have them do a little better job. That's how I was sold on it. That's all history now. Now we're talking about another extension. I'd like to see the Town of Jewett grow. I'm aware of one of the projects being proposed. I thing it's a tremendous project. I think it means tremendous thing for the Town of Jewett. Although we don't want to hurt the small property owner, I'm just as concerned about those people that are willing to venture forth and put down fairly big bucks to do major thing in the Town of Jewett. I think there's room for that and why are we singling them out. I like fairness.” “Whoever does anything in the Town still has to go before the planning board. I might add as I read the minutes from the planning board I don't think I'd want to go before the planning board in the Town of Jewett. I don't see them as a very helpful organization, as I read the minutes. I know of 2 or 3 businesses over the years that tried to open up small operations in the Town of Jewett. They were not welcome in the Town of Jewett. We really are not too favorable to those people who want to do business in the Town of Jewett. If that's the way everyone feels, fine I live here to and I can go along with the majority. I don't like the moratorium and I think we have a lot in discussing this comprehensive plan.” Supervisor Flaherty made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Kutcher and carried to accept the minutes of the August 8, 2007 regular meeting with a spelling correction of Mr. Pinsky's name. The Supervisor's August financial report was given to the Board. The building inspector gave his monthly written report to the Board. He informed the Board that there has been a bit of a surge in construction lately, about half from last year. The old school house on the corner of Co. Rt. 23C and Co. Rt. 13 has been taken down and will be burned when weather permits. He looked at the dwelling on Griffin Road and it can't be saved. He has had no response concerning the property on Cloos Road. He will send one more letter before action is taken. Supervisor Flaherty made a motion to accept the building inspector's report, 2nd by Councilman Hitchcock and carried. The Board reviewed the zoning officers monthly report. Councilman Wilson made a motion to accept the report, 2nd by Councilman Hitchcock and carried. Councilman Kutcher made a motion to accept the tax collector's yearly report, 2nd by Councilman Hitchcock and carried. Under courtesy of the floor: C.B. Slutzky, “I realize you just reenacted the law for 6 months. As far as I'm concerned dealing with the Town of Hunter and other Town's that we've gone through, there regulations are much more stringent, much more restrictive and much more difficult to deal with then any in your comprehensive plan. Why are you keeping this moratorium on knowing that the SEQR review is there and all these other agencies are out there reviewing subdivisions and plans and tweaking them to the requirements of the State and the Town of Jewett. It seems to me it's a double form of injustice that you're imposing another layer of review on a system that has been created and is adequate. I don't see why these other regulations don't supersede your comprehensive plan and don't give the Town of Jewett the assurance that subdivisions are going to be handled in an orderly manner and not cause hardships to the Town.” Supervisor Flaherty, “Hopefully in a month's time, when the Town Board has had time to look at the comprehensive plan, we can bring it back and possibly rescind the moratorium. There's nothing that mandates that this has to be in affect for any more time then we want it to be.” Mark Kenny, “I don't understand, there is virtually zero demand for major subdivision. The comprehensive plan has taken a year to do. You had a template already, you had a water study.” Supervisor Flaherty, “No, we're not aware of any water study that had been done. We have no problem with development. I just can't see something going up and we can't provide those folks with water because of an inadequate study or that demand diminishes somebody that is already existing.” Mark Kenny, “The major subdivision responsibility of the developer is to come forth as part of the comprehensive plan with SEQR and a water study. At the end of the day there is not a significant nor has there been historically a significant demand for major subdivisions. At the end of the day we're looking to do a reasonable amount of an environmentally friendly major subdivision that will benefit the Town.” Courtesy of the floor was closed. Superintendent Mallory reported the Town wide pick up is going well. He has found some clean sand for use in winter plowing. The highway department has blacktopped about 2 miles of road and chip sealed about 1½ miles of road. Supervisor Flaherty has contacted the owner of a parcel of land the Board looked at as a potential site for adult use. The homeowner was willing to have the Town designate that parcel for adult use. Attorney Rappleyea said the Town would first have to adopt a plan then adopt a local law. Supervisor Flaherty made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Kutcher and carried to have the attorney draw up a draft for the Board to review at the October meeting. Supervisor Flaherty has been in contact with the union representative for the highway department. They would like to set up a meeting with the Board to discuss negotiations on a labor contract. The Supervisor will ask them to attend the budget workshop on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 8 A.M. The Board received a proposal from CPA Bradley Cummings to provide QuickBooks installation and training services for the Town. Supervisor Flaherty made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Wilson to add the cost into the 2008 budget. Ambulance billing was discussed. Councilman Hitchcock suggested the Town have a written policy as to how we handle the ambulance bill for Town residents. Councilmen Kutcher and Wilson agreed the Town should “eat the bill.” Councilman Hitchcock was asked to write down his ideas and bring them to the October meeting. Councilman Hitchcock reported on the meeting he attended at Hunter Mountain concerning a stream disturbance permit in the Schoharie Creek for Hunter Mountain. It was held before a hearing officer. The project will give the ski slope more reserve to make snow. It was done in conjunction with DEC. The reservoir will be partially in Jewett. Councilman Hitchcock asked Mr. Slutzky if it would be helpful for the Town of Jewett to send a letter of support to the hearing officer in favor of what Hunter Mountain is doing. Councilman Kutcher suggested the Town Board wait to see how it will impact the Town before a letter of support is written. David Slutzky, “The written comment has to be in by September 25th. This has been going on for 20 years. There has been a lot of engineering and studies done. DEC has signed with Hunter Mountain. The Town and Village of Hunter have given their support. We have to wait for the final permit to come through. It will be a plus for the stream.” The comment period on the DEP land acquisition on Scribner Hollow Road is still open and will be on the October agenda. Councilman Hitchcock, “There is very little on this in the draft comprehensive plan. This is a major thing in this Town and the other Towns on the mountaintop. I'm appalled that the publicly elected officials on the mountaintop are not aware of what is happening to us as a mountaintop with NYC coming in buying hugh amounts of land. They are buying land that is buildable DEP is doing more to keep this town more rural and uninhabited.” The Supervisor informed the Board that a letter was received from Sgt. Patrick Cullen of the NY State Police stating that a vandalism report has been taken from Mr. Loser on Colgate Road concerning graffiti on his property. There were no bids received for the dinning room and kitchen renovations in the municipal building. A bid notice will be placed again in the Windham Journal, Catskill Daily Mail, Kingston Freeman and the Greenville Press. The finance committee of Councilwoman Warfield and Councilman Wilson audited the bills prior to the meeting. Councilman Wilson made a motion recommending the Board approve the audit. Councilwoman Warfield 2nd the motion and all Board members voted Aye. The general fund was $18,886.72 on abstract #9, claim numbers 207 to 239. The highway fund was $23,410.86 on abstract #9, claim numbers 151 to 177. Councilmen Hitchcock and Kutcher were appointed as the finance committee for October, November and December. Councilman Hitchcock made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Kutcher and carried approving the July financial report. Bank statements were made available for review. Councilman Kutcher introduced Consultant Nan Stalzenburg. She worked with the committee on the comprehensive plan. The committee worked on the plan for 1 ½ years. Board members Kutcher and Warfield were part of the committee along with several community residents. Councilwoman Warfield, “This is the first time I've been on any kind of a board that was town related. I don't have much experience with the planning board, how they operate except from my own experience. As far a zoning goes I'm learning. Even though I attended every meeting there are still some things I don't understand.” “My only concern is that it's going to take a while to implement because of the scope of it.” Ms. Stolzenburg, “It's got a life of 10 to 15 years. It's up to the Board to determine what get implemented and when and how fast. The Board is in complete control as to what happens when.” Councilman Kutcher, “What benefit if any would we have by just adopting the plan.” Ms. Stolzenburg, “There are several. This comes from State law; if any other government agencies have a capital project they must consider your plan. It gives more standing of importance with other agencies. It would help to continue to be successful with grants that may be applied for at the State level. The analysis of the demographic, the mapping, all are concrete tools that can be used to understand the Town, to understand the resources. Those are all concrete things that if you never cracked the cover would still be beneficial.” “The planning board and zoning board of appeals, as they make their decisions, need to see how see how a project is consistent with the Town's adopted plan. Those are things that come out of a comprehensive plan even if you chose not to implement the items in it.” Ms. Stolzenburg has work over 15 year on about 30 or 40 comprehensive plans. Ms. Stolzenburg, “The outlook of a comprehensive plan really is long term. It looked at the town now; it kind of projected where it's headed and where it could be. Looked at what the community wanted it to be in the future and lays out a long term toolbox of ideas that you can implement to help you reach that vision.” Councilman Wilson, “We just voted to extend the moratorium on major subdivisions. In your experience does that seem unreasonable or reasonable?” Ms. Stolzenburg, “It's reasonable and common. Many communities in this stage of the plan process feel they need to give themselves some room to finish their planning and moratoriums are always controversial but quite common.” Councilman Wilson, “If we adopt the comprehensive plan it's not law?” Ms. Stolzenburg, “No, you are not adopting a law you are adopting a plan. The plan is the basis for zoning changes should you want to make them in the future. Without an updated plan to go ahead in the future you are running the risk of being contrary to the land use laws. The comprehensive plan is the rational to study the purpose behind those regulations. Having the plan gives you a direction of what those changes could be.” Ms. Stolzenburg, “One of the things commonly overlooked at this stage of the adoption process is looking long term. You have to look at some of the strategies, is it something we need right this minute, maybe not, is it something that could help a future community? Will it enable the future Town of Jewett residents and board to tackle a problem that is looming? I don't think there's anything in that plan that's not feasible, it wouldn't be in there if it wasn't feasible and it wouldn't be in there if it wasn't related somehow to reaching that long term goal.” A workshop meeting was scheduled for Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 8 A.M. for the Board to discuss the comprehensive plan. Attorney Rappleyea gave a draft copy on outdoor wood furnaces to the Board. Councilman Hitchcock made a motion to hold a public hearing to adopt a local law on outdoor wood furnaces at the October meeting, 2nd by Councilman Wilson and carried. The regular monthly meeting for November was rescheduled to November 7, 2007. Supervisor Flaherty made a motion to go into executive session at 9:05 P.M. for contract negotiations, 2nd by Councilman Wilson and carried. Supervisor Flaherty made a motion to come out of executive session at 9:35 P.M., 2nd by Councilman Wilson and carried. Councilman Hitchcock made a motion to declare the gravel bank on Co. RT 23C and Losee Road as surplus land, 2nd by Supervisor Flaherty and carried. This item will be put out to bid. There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 9:40 P.M. on a motion by Supervisor Flaherty, 2nd by Councilman Wilson and carried. ______________________________- Patricia Merwin Town Clerk RMC
A special meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on September 15, 2007. Supervisor Michael Flaherty called the meeting to order at 8 A.M. Present were Board members Thomas Hitchcock, Charles Kutcher, Elaine Warfield and Harry T. Wilson. Also present were Consultant Nan Stolzenburg, C.B. Slutzky, town residents Michael McCrary, David Slutzky, J.R. Quackenbush and the town clerk. The purpose of the meeting was for the Board to discuss the comprehensive plan. Councilman Hitchcock, “I'm voting against the plan. It's overwhelming. It is neither concise, readable nor understandable and for whom to interpret? I'm in favor of zoning where there is a little bit of common sense and helpfulness trying to work within our zoning to make this community better.” “I don't see language that people understand, I don't understand it. I don't see simplicity in what we're trying to do. At this point in time I'm not going to be on board, I'm not on board. This is way to much.” Nan Stolzenburg, “A comprehensive plan is a community plan. It's based on community input. The Town Board influences that and can influence. The premise of a comprehensive plan is that it identifies what the community as a whole wants and that individuals who have opinions, that there opinions count and influence the plan.” Councilman Kutcher, “This is an overall plan. Zoning has to be changed or rewritten to fit in with this plan. This is not done by the planning board or the town board. That has to be done by a separate committee. Then the Town Board has to approve it.” “The big concern was that we need to manage development in some way so that we assure what a large number of people in Town want. We needed to make sure, whatever we were doing, that we encouraged or directed that zoning in the future would in some way allow for that. This doesn't say what you're going to do but it gives a large number of ways of doing it, for example, how to expand the hamlet. People are very concerned about the ability to afford to live here. Those are important things that need to be said otherwise you will get what you complain about which is each person on the planning board makes their own determination about which way their going to go. You've got to give people direction. There is absolutely no way that the Board can do all the items in here. But, you have a long list of things to do and hopefully you get a large number or the more significant ones done. We don't need to stop development we need to manage it.” Councilman Hitchcock, “We have more zoning on the books, as I understand it, then other Towns around us. Depending on what someone does there are already agencies in place. If you want to build a major subdivision you don't go to DEC you go to the town planning board and there's regulations already there. Why are we reinventing this?” Nan Stolzenburg, “Part of the planning process and the purpose of a comprehensive plan are to evaluate what you already have in place. It determines and evaluates if what you have in place will attain the goals and the vision that you have set for yourself.” Councilman Hitchcock, “With all due respect, how are you going to acquire those visions?” Councilwoman Warfield, “I expressed concerns that I didn't understand all of this. I understand the zoning. Going before the planning board, I personally think, something has to change because it was a very unhelpful experience.” Nan Stolzenburg, “My perspective from interviewing both sides of the table, the planning board and people who are trying to do things and working with chamber of commerce's and business owners and land owners is the problem that many people have with planning boards, in general, is they come to the planning board with their project and they never really know if they follow the rules. They'll get a yes or a no.” Nan Stolzenburg, “From my experience, people tell me they want to know what the rules are up front and if they follow the rules they will have a yes at the end. They don't want to be told to do A, B and C and then the planning board say's now we need you to do D, E and F. That is not helpful. That is not what we want. What we want is the law, whatever that law may be, set up in a way that is a balance. We have to set the parameters so everybody knows what the expectations are and if the expectations are followed then there's a yes at the end. That's the implicate understanding of the zoning.” “When you have a planning or zoning board that leaves things to vague then you are really at the whim of the board to say whatever they want to say. That's what a lot of this in the plan is getting at identifying the expectations of the town to meet certain goals. The expectation is not just for the applicant but also for the planning board. This is what it says, this is what we have to do, and this is the policy of the Town. A lot of the things in here are to not necessarily over regulate or put more requirements on someone, but to outline what the expatiations are. We want to build a culture where people can say I'll take the risk. I'll do that development here because I know that within the time frame I'll get a yes with the least amount of resistance.” “Changes to zoning are in the implementation step. In NYS you have to have a comprehensive plan as a basis of those zoning changes. The one you have now is out of date.” Councilman Hitchcock, “In #3 is says to reevaluate something. It's something we already have existing. It says reevaluate uses in RR and RC. Obviously someone feels we need to update that. I don't have a problem doing that. Then I look at #1, ‘encourage traditional and rural road styles'.” Nan Stolzenburg, “That means that you don't want to have a rule that requires 30 foot of pavement on your road because that's not a road that consistent with the roads in Jewett. You want to make sure as you go along that you don't have someone proposing or the board imposing a rule that's different then what is the nature of roads in the Town already.” Councilman Hitchcock, “Add commercial development standards, it gets into water runoff, lighting, building design, to me it goes too far. Why are we getting involved? We are going to have to have people on staff that know about this kind of stuff, that's going to work with anybody coming in to do a major subdivision or do something in this Town. Every single thing that that individual or corporation does is going to be scrutinized to the empts degree.” Nan Stolzenburg, “Those are the critical things that influence the character of a community. We're not saying to the developer we don't want you to have lights, we're saying we want them to be done in a way that doesn't create negative issues for someone else. That's what it's about.” Councilman Wilson, “Tom, I don't think you're on the right track. There is a level of expertise in this Town and that's it. It's not going to get any better. Just because we have limitations doesn't mean we can't have a vision and an optimal situation over here even thought were down here in terms of our ability to do it.” Councilman Hitchcock, “I think we've already got that vision and our expertise is down here.” Councilman Wilson, “I don't think so. The first thing done here was 30 some years ago. I don't think there's anything wrong whatsoever in revisiting and looking in the mirror and saying how am I doing?” Councilman Hitchcock, “I don't either.” Nan Stolzenburg, “If the planning board is faced with something that they don't understand or they need help on, they have the authority and ability, and the comprehensive plan supports that and the zoning should explicitly say that they can get help. They can get help from County agencies, engineers, lawyers or anyone else they need to hire to help them. That is part of the planning process. That's the way it works.” Councilman Hitchcock, “I have lived here longer than anyone else, in a sense. I have seen this valley change in ways that are staggering. I represent the last generation of six that have lived in this valley. It's a fact of life. We're becoming a place of second home people and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that either. What I would like to see is that people be able to come into this town and do something to increase the tax base. This document will see that that doesn't happen.” Councilman Wilson, “There is not a municipality in the world that doesn't have this. Try building anywhere in New York. We're not so special, we're not doing anything abnormal here.” Supervisor Flaherty, “This document is not a law. There are a lot of suggestions. We've identified certain things to be looked at. Is there an absolute mandate that tomorrow or next week we have to start working on one thing? This is a plan and just a plan. We have the best interest of the Town at heart as elected officials and we get through this. Over the years something's become a stumbling block, we talk about it, we sought some advice and made some changes. ‘ Councilman Hitchcock, “What was wrong with that. We have a stumbling block we bring it before the Town Board and deal with it. I think the planning board has indicated a couple of times a difficulty administering a particular rule or regulation and we've looked at it and changed it. What's wrong with that?” Supervisor Flaherty, “There is nothing wrong with that. We've made changes, is there anything wrong with that, no there isn't. I looked at this to see if there was anything that we were committing ourselves to that we couldn't get out from under. We have reference that a comprehensive plan is the driving force for new laws and they must be consistent. We talked years ago about where we felt as individuals the town would be in five or ten years. We have to make long-range plans or there's going to be additional roads and more of a burden on our services here. We have to know all these things so we can plan for it. We need employees and equipment to stay up with it. Over the years we were able to create private roads as part of our subdivision regulations that gave people another option. The safety of their homes for ambulance or fire is assured from that approval. Our primary obligation is make sure we can get to those people in the event they needed ambulance or fire. I personally like a plan. There's no mandate here that tells us we must do this, this and this.” Councilwoman Warfield, “That's the one thing through out the year and a half that Nan stressed and we talked about. It was always these are suggestions and things to take into consideration. It's up to the Town Board, that's the bottom line, to decide in the end do you want to do whatever comes up or not. That eased my mind.” Councilman Kutcher, “It's such a complicated document for us that we didn't want to say it's also going to mandate everything that zoning needs to be. The Board still gets to vote and decide on every single item in here. This is merely guidance.” Councilman Hitchcock, “Suppose the vote is taken and this passes and this becomes the comprehensive plan for 2007. I'm assuming the 1990 plan has just been superceded.” Nan Stolzenburg, “The law is still the law until you change it. Where it would come into play is if you want to change that law. The changes you make to that law need to be consistent with this comprehensive plan, if you were to adopt this comprehensive plan.” “ Most zoning laws have something in there purpose statements that say the purpose of the zoning is to be a tool for the Town to meet the goals that it wants for itself. The planning board would refer to the goals and the vision and direction of this document as they review something. But the law is still the law until you change it. When you change it, it has to be consistent with this law. You would have to evaluate and say if we change the lot size requirement in this district is that consistent with this plan and reaching the goals of what this town wants. That's how you would look at it.” Councilman Hitchcock, “At the end of this document where you have those pages of things that should be looked at depending on the time line, those are the changes the committee sees that will have to be changed in our current zoning law?” Nan Stolzenburg, “Correct. Nothing changes the law that's on the books until you change it. In New York State the way town law is set up is that the land use laws are based on a purpose. You can't just zone willy-nilly. This outlines the purpose for zoning. This is the rational for controlling someone's land.” Councilman Wilson, “The fact is it's mandated by law and we have to have it. A lot of work has been done, ten's of thousands of dollars of money have been expended and there's no reason why we can't say that this is an optimal vision for fifteen, twenty years down the road. We have limited resources to make sure that vision is executed and it will be baby steps to do it. This is not going to be enacted overnight or even within five years. That doesn't mean that this should not reflect and I think it does reflect the people who live here.” Councilman Hitchcock, “It is what it is. I'm not against zoning. Obviously there are a lot of things in town here I'm not particularly happy with and we've addressed those things in terms of unsafe buildings and now unkempt places. We're addressing them. This is just too vague. It is just too much discretion to a group, in this case the planning board. Take the 1990 comprehensive plan, which we have. That is what the planning board is working with now. Now we're going to give them a document that we have to tweak at some point. I'm leaving to the person who succeeds me a document that if they want to put the screws to the 1990 comprehensive plan they have a perfect way to do it because this is so vague, so general, so nebulous that if they want to take those individual things now and start tweaking it to the point that we could control this 35,000 acres. It's here.” Nan Stolzenburg, “It's the policy of the Town. It gets relooked at with public input every few years to make sure it's relevant still to this community and it's not a static document. That's the problem with the first one from 1990. It was seventeen years before it got looked at.” Supervisor Flaherty, “The 1990 plan is still in place. The zoning that is a result of that or the subdivisions they would change because it made sense. But, change by law by this Board. The Town Board controls, we are the lawmakers. The Board at the time gets faced with the situations and they react to it. Their not going to come back and change page 7 or 8 of the comprehensive plan they're going to work with the laws that we have. If they don't work in our best interest or they're contrary they will be changed. That's the procedure.” Nan Stolzenburg, “What you, Councilman Hitchcock said about you had something on the books that required x amount of paved feet for the road and people were complaining that that was too expensive, it didn't fit in the character of the Town. You complained about 4 months or however much time it took to make a change. Here you have a comprehensive plan that says ‘encourage traditional and rural road styles'. Using that example someone or the Board itself could say we have a rule that requires 25 feet of pavement for new road, or whatever it was, but our plan says we want to have traditional and rural road styles.” “So in that particular example if you had had that written in your plan you could have pointed out to the Town Board and said, our plan says we want traditional and rural road styles, 25 feet of paved road is not a traditional style of road in Jewett, we need to change it. That would have been your rational without having to convince anybody. It already is a policy of the Town.” Councilman Hitchcock, “On page 8 it says we're going to encourage modern communication. On another page it says we're going to maintain pristine ridgelines. I see the two in direct opposition.” Nan Stolzenburg, “That is a goal and they may be. That is a good point and it's a problem we have everywhere in rural communities that want to preserve the ruralness. I'm not saying a cell tower wouldn't be controversial they are everywhere you go. I'm not saying it's impossible to find a good site, constructed in a way, in a place that balances the different needs of the town. I think it can be done. It's been done in lots of places where they manage to balance it and do it in a way that works.” Councilman Wilson, “That's the beauty of this plan. It identifies issues like that that are absolutely at odds with each other. Yes, we want modern technological convince and yes, we want to maintain our view shed. That's true. You can have both of those as a goal. There are conflicts in here, there's no question. But, that's good because it doesn't say we want modern convinces or we want to preserve our ridgeline without the modern convinces.” Councilman Kutcher, “If there were no conflicts in this plan then it would not have reflected the Town. The Town is conflicting. This gives us new tools. It allows us to manage the process and not have the process managed for us. Ultimately there will be conflict between what people need for profit and what maybe the town wants. Hopefully you work out something for everybody's benefit.” Councilman Hitchcock, “There is one person that is not happy with the comprehensive plan in its current form. To go through it is a large commitment on the part of the other Town Board members. I hear all that you've said. A lot of work has gone into it. I do come at it; maybe, from a different direction but at the same time I don't see much point in continuing this because I think we know this is going to pass. It's a forgone conclusion. Maybe that's a good thing; in my mind it's not. Maybe it can be made better if we start looking at the individual parts that make up zoning and the implementation of this comprehensive plan as a law.” The Board set a tentative public hearing on the comprehensive plan for Saturday, October 6, 2007 at 10 A.M. Supervisor Flaherty made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:40 A.M., 2nd by Councilman Wilson and carried.
________________________________ Patricia Merwin Town Clerk RMC
A second budget workshop was held on September 26, 2007. Supervisor Michael Flaherty called the workshop to order at 9 A.M. Present were Board members Thomas Hitchcock, Charles Kutcher, Elaine Warfield and Harry T. Wilson. Also present were East Jewett Fire Department representatives Jeff Loucks, Steve Canfield, Francis Benjamin, Donald Muth and the town clerk. The Board worked on the fire protection districts and highway budgets. Councilwoman Warfield attended meetings at the East Jewett and Jewett fire departments along with consultant Mr. Pinsky. Mr. Pinsky felt that because of equipment issues in the East Jewett fire protection district more money needed to be put aside especially for new air packs. The Jewett fire protection districts needs were not as urgent. Under other business: Councilman Kutcher made a motion to adopt Resolution #14 of 2007. Resolution #14 is the adoption of the Town Comprehensive Plan. It states, “Pursuant to the applicable standards of SEQR 6 NYCRR Part 617, the Town of Jewett Town Board concludes that it is the appropriate agency to serve as, and declares itself lead agency for the environmental review of the proposed Type I action.” Seconded by Supervisor Flaherty and carried. ROLL CALL VOTE: Aye Flaherty, Hitchcock, Kutcher, Warfield and Wilson. Supervisor Flaherty made a motion to adopt Resolution #15 of 2007. Resolution #15 states, “The Town Board will be submitting the Draft Comprehensive Plan to the Greene County Planning Board as required by NYS General Municipal Law 239-m and the proposed action does not require any other permits or approvals from other State and Federal agencies prior to adoption; and the Town Board declared itself Lead Agency and conducted an environmental assessment according to SEQRA, NYS 6 NYCRR Part 617; and the Town of Jewett Town Board hereby declares that adoption of the Town of Jewett Comprehensive Plan will not have any significant negative environmental impacts; and the Town Board authorizes filing of a negative declaration according to SEQR, NYS 6 NYCRR Part 617.” Seconded by Councilman Wilson and carried ROLL CALL VOTE: Aye Flaherty, Hitchcock, Kutcher, Warfield and Wilson. A motion was made by Councilman Kutcher, 2nd by Councilman Wilson and carried for the Board to go into executive session at 10:05 A.M. for contract negotiations. A motion was made by Councilman Kutcher, 2nd by Councilwoman Warfield and carried to come out of executive session at 10:40 A.M. There being no further business the workshop was adjourned at 10:45 A.M.
______________________________ Patricia Merwin Town Clerk RMC
September 6, 2007 Agenda Item 1: Meeting called to order at 7:30pm Roll Call: Chair: Jane Bostrom Agenda Item 2: Approval of Minutes of August 2, 2007. Corrections made on page 3 to complete a question asked by Mr. Rosedale. Motion to accept the corrected minutes made by Mrs. Nicholls; motion seconded by Mrs. Kutcher; motion passed with Carol Muth abstaining. Agenda 4: Skip Dippold for Pat Reilly for property on 23C. Tax Map No. 131.00-1-15; Rural Residential; .64 acre. The Planning Board began with Mr. Reilly’s case about which it had little previous information. Ms. Laubmeier, Planning Board clerk, gave to Mrs. Bostrom the information she had from Tom Cross in April when Mr. Flaherty first had communication with Mr. Dippold and Mr. Reilly concerning this property. From Mrs. Dwyer, Zoning Board clerk, and Mr. Dippold, Ms. Laubmeier understood that Mr. Reilly was still in the decision making process. Since then, Mr. Dippold and Mr. Reilly had been to see the ZBA, and had requested to speak to the Planning Board. The Tolve case has been before the Planning Board since March with many unresolved issues. The property consists of 7.7 acres and started out as a proposed three-lot subdivision. It is currently down to two, with a flag lot in the back. The map has to be redone to show the correct acreage for the back lot as flag lots cannot include the acreage in the corridor approaching them. Agenda 5: Report from Greene County Planning Board Representative Gene Beers Mr. Beers stated that he had nothing to report as the Greene County Planning Board took the day off. Agenda 9: Other Business: training, ground water handout, moratorium. Mrs. Bostrom handed out a copy of “What Is Ground Water?” thinking it would be informative for the board members to read. Respectfully Submitted, Susan Laubmeier, Clerk
_____________________________ 9/05/2007
The meeting opened at 7:07 pm. Agenda Item 2: Approval of Minutes of June 6, 2007. Agenda Item 6: Training Requirements Agenda Item 3: Consultation on Area Variance with Lori Henningberg of Hunter-Windham Realty regarding Tax Map # 136.00-1-36 on behalf of prospect Lori Carmine on lot owned by John Murray. District: Rural Residential. Agenda Item 4: Administrative Review of Zoning Board of Appeals Application Activity Agenda Item 5: Review of the Draft Comprehensive Plan Mrs. Dwyer distributed copies of the draft plan to the members. She noted that both she and Mrs. Williams attended the Public Hearing on Saturday September 1st and the 10-day comment period would end on September 10th. She stated that in her quick review of the plan, there were a few things which the members should evaluate – especially the proposed changes to the Zoning Law. Members examined the maps and the draft plan. Mrs. Dwyer suggested calling Ms. Allen for clarification or if they found anything substantial that should be corrected. Mr. Coloton recommended members review the draft and at the next meeting, discuss any concerns. This would allow the Board, as a whole, to make recommendations to the Plan Committee. Members agreed. The plan will be on the agenda for the October meeting. There being no other business, Mrs. Dwyer made the motion to close the meeting. Mrs. Flaherty seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. The meeting ended at 8:30 pm. Ann Dwyer, __________________________________ |