by David Flint
As the initial step in developing a Master Plan for the Town, Stephentown’s Land Use Regulations are being updated. After three public hearings, notices posted and completion of the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process, the Stephentown Town Board, at their meeting on Monday, finally passed a resolution adopting some amendments to the Land Use Regulations. The amendments were recommended by a special committee appointed three years ago by the Town Board as well as by the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals.
[private]Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt noted that it was a long time coming. The Regulations were adopted back in 1991, and one stipulation of the statute called for periodic review at least every five years. Although then Planning Board Chairman Ed Hand established a Land Use Review Committee in 2000 and that committee spent several years coming up with recommendations for revisions to the law, the Town Board never acted on them. So the current revisions are the first to be made to the Regulations in 23 years.
Eckhardt recalled that back in 1991, with a lot of outside purchasing of property going on, people in Town were concerned that development would be uncontrolled. There was a rush to get something into place to control it. “The attitude at the time,” he said, “was we want to stop everything from happening…and guess what? Not a whole lot happened after that in Stephentown.”
The recommendations list 14 pre-existing, non-conforming parcels to be known as “legacy parcels.” Nine are designated commercial, one is industrial and four are “extraction and fill.” Much of the other changes simply update the wording and terminology to coincide with the new International building code. Probably the most important change, in Eckhardt’s opinion, is deletion of the sentence written in all caps under Use Regulations that reads, “Any use not listed is considered to be prohibited.” Eckhardt felt, that the message sent by that sentence was that if you have some new ideas, Stephentown doesn’t want you. The new message the Board wants to send is that if you have a proposal that doesn’t fit under the land use plan, bring it to the Planning Board, and we will see how it can be accommodated.
Councilman Jennings agreed saying that for some towns the type of thinking embodied in the deleted sentence might fit for them, but it doesn’t fit in Stephentown anymore. “Our attitude now is we would like people to bring us ideas for commercial development,” he said. “We need some development in Stephentown. We need to increase our tax base, or we won’t be able to maintain any of our local government because people won’t be able to pay their taxes. We need to expand our tax base. It’s just been stagnant now for many, many years.”
Eckhardt said that revising the Regulations is the start for developing a Master Plan for the Town. The Board at its monthly workshop meetings is in the process of gathering advice from County officials. As this process unfolds, Eckhardt hopes that young people in Town will come forward to give the Board some direction as to where they want to see Stephentown in ten, twenty or thirty years from now. “This is the first step,” he said, “getting our Land Use Plan up to date.” Developing the Master Plan may take some time, he cautioned. Berlin took 2½ years to adopt its Comprehensive Plan. New Lebanon took six years.
Bert Hager Bridge Contract Confirmed
Bids for construction of the Bert Hager Road bridge were opened at last month’s meeting and the award tentatively went to the low bidder, Stephen Miller, for the amount of $248,589. The award was conditional on the bid meeting all specifications based on a review by Hudson River Valley Engineers. Having now received notice that all specifications were met in Miller’s proposal, the Board passed a resolution confirming the award.
Eckhardt noted that the Board has also received confirmation from FEMA that it will pay for the construction as well as for the engineering study.
New Insurance Broker
The Board decided to change the Town’s insurance broker that provides insurance through the New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal (NYMIR). A proposal to provide the insurance has been made by the MetzWood Harder Insurance firm in Chatham. There has never been a problem with the Amsure Insurance Agency, Eckhardt said, but the firm is no longer locally based. Eckhardt believed that although Jennifer VanDeusen, the Clerk to the Assessor, is a Customer Service Agent for MetzWood, there would be no conflict of interest since the Board would not be dealing with her on insurance matters.
Revenues Better Than Expected
Eckhardt reported that the fourth quarter sales tax distribution from the County turned out to be more than expected. In other good news, he reported, too, that the State Legislature had appropriated about 40 million dollars more for CHIPS highway money for municipalities. Jennings estimated that this means a little more than $15,000 additional for Stephentown.
Transfer Station
Councilmen Jennings and PJ Roder have been meeting regularly with the staff at the Transfer Station to figure out how to reduce the disparity between income and expense.
No decisions have been made yet, Jennings said, but they are leaning toward increasing the cost of the pink garbage bags from $2 to $2.50. There is some reluctance to do this since the bags were already increased from $1 recently. But Jennings said it represents their largest income stream and the increase, which would raise about $10,000 of additional income, would still leave Stephentown in about the middle price-wise of other towns that use this method.
Jennings expects they will also recommend increases in the fees charged for C&D (Construction & Demolition) and for tires. Currently, he said, the Town earns about $15,000 a year in C&D fees, but it costs $25,000 to haul it away. Currently the Transfer Station charges $20 for a small pickup truck load. Jennings said they are considering raising this charge by 50% or maybe doubling it. If they double it, Jennings believes they would still be charging less than other facilities in the area. Consideration has been given to buying a weigh station or scale so that the Transfer Station could charge by the ton, but Jennings said that would be a huge investment, it would take constant maintenance to keep the scale calibrated and they seldom work right. Instead, he said, they will probably recommend raising the price as currently charged but leave some discretion to the staff as to how to charge people for loads of different sorts.
Jennings said they expect to make detailed recommendations in May.
Deposits & Spending
The Town Clerk turned over the sum of $574.68 to the Supervisor for the month of March. The distribution from the Office of the State Comptroller, Justice Court Fund to the Town was $2,170. The Transfer Station deposited a total of $4,181.
The Board audited and approved claims in the amount of $26,453.98 from the General Fund and $46,534.24 from the Highway Account.
The Board set its next workshop meeting for Monday, May 12, and its next regular meeting for Monday, May 19, both to start at 7 pm.[/private]