Board debatesHow to preserve Westerlo’s rural character"

WESTERLO — The town board here wants to develop a right-to-farm law and, at its lawyer’s suggestion, may consider a moratorium on developments.

Tuesday, the board set a workshop for Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the law and the moratorium.

Last month, Councilman Edward Rash gave town board members his proposal for zoning changes.
"This is not to prohibit anything," he told the board Tuesday night. "We can always give a variance."

The town board eliminated Westerlo’s planning board over a decade ago and so it acts as a planning board.
"With development coming in as fast as it is," Rash said, it is important to make some changes right away.
"Right now, we’re a little too lax and a little too easy," he said.

Westerlo is the fastest-growing of the Hilltowns; it is closest to the Catskills, where New York City residents have often vacationed.

Rash’s proposal, which he said he has worked on for over 10 months, learning from zoning in nearby towns, calls for changes in minimum lot size, from three to five acres for a single-family home, and from five to seven acres for a two-family home. Rash also proposes that subdivision not exceed 10 units.
Five acres, Rash said, is "not a lot to ask." Originally, he said, the town required five acres and then lowered it to three. "Most of the small lots have been utilized," he said.

Councilman R. Gregory Zeh said that, while he agreed it was important to preserve Westerlo’s rural heritage, he didn’t support Rash’s stopgap approach.
"Don’t put on a Band-Aid," he said. "We should do the job once and do it right....I don’t see any crisis today."
Zeh advocated the town create a comprehensive land-use plan, involving citizens in public hearings. He said later in the discussion that, in addition to lot size, a master plan could address "spotty commercial locations throughout the town."
"The writing is on the wall," returned Rash. He said his proposal was not in lieu of a comprehensive plan, but would protect Westerlo while one was being developed, which could take a year or more.
"A lot of building could go up in that time," said Rash.

Town Attorney Aline Galgay then interjected her views; she dominated the meeting’s hour-long discussion.
"I deal a lot with Rensselaerville, Berne, Knox," she said, stating that Rensselaerville spent many years developing its plan which includes five-, 10-, and 15-acre zoning.
"To do comprehensive planning and not have land use get out of control, you enact a moratorium," she said.
"It doesn’t mean people can’t build houses," she said, stating a moratorium would "just stop major developments."
"Moratorium" is like a dirty word, Rash said. "I didn’t take this job to dictate to people."
Galgay went on to say that the town currently has "a very comprehensive zoning law" and a separate document of subdivision regulations created in 1977, prior to the zoning law.
"It would be great to have them all immersed in one document," she said. Planners consider the moratorium an effective tool, Galgay said. "It has the connotation of a dictatorship but it’s not," she said.
Late in the discussion, Zeh said that a subdivision of 161 acres in the northwest corner of town for 14 new homes, called Emerald Meadows, would not be stopped by a moratorium because the application was already in. Galgay disagreed, stating, "Case law says you can withhold making a decision."
"You put a moratorium on the whole town, you’ll have people standing on the roof," said Supervisor Richard Rapp.

Zeh advocated explaining to people what a moratorium is, setting a time frame, and sticking to it.
"We don’t know how long it will take," said Rash.
"You can always extend your moratorium," said Galgay. She added, "I can write it however you want."
"I’d really like to get the ball rolling," said Rash, bringing up his proposal for the right-to-farm law.

Right-to-farm legislation doesn’t have anything to do with zoning changes, Galgay said.

Such legislation is meant to protect farmers from nuisance suits — for such things as farm smells or noises — filed by encroaching suburbanites.
"Recently, we had a situation with a newly-built house in town that came close to litigation with a farmer....They didn’t like the smell-of-manure kind of thing," said Galgay.

Zeh pressed to schedule a workshop for the board to create a right-to-farm bill, and one was set for Jan. 17.

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Heard from Rapp that he is in the process of getting a new compensation insurance carrier before March 1;

— Discussed a proposal that would allow highway-department workers to receive compensatory time instead of overtime pay.

It was proposed that a worker could accumulate no more than 80 hours of comp time, that it could not be carried over into the next fiscal year, and that workers would be paid for their comp time in cash if they ended their employment with the town.
"Financially, it could be very detrimental to the town," said Galgay. She also said, "I will check into it and see what our options are."
Zeh noted that workers can’t accumulate more than 30 days of vacation time, but some town employees in the gallery said most town workers aren’t subject to the new policy but are "grandfathered in" under "the old book," with no limit on vacation accumulation.
"You could go bankrupt in one year...I think we have some bigger issues we need to deal with," said Galgay;

— Heard from Rapp that some of the town’s street lights are not working and he won’t pay the bill until they’re fixed.
"We’ve called and called and called," he said;
— Heard from Ken Drumm, who headed the committee that has worked to have a public water district, with 86 taps, established in the hamlet: "It’s almost over," he said.

All the grant recipients have been hooked up, said Drumm.

The old northside and southside systems have been turned off, he said, and only two issues remain to be addressed — finalizing the billing method, and naming a water supervisor.
"All the major issues have been resolved and we have releases," Galgay reported;

— Heard a complaint from a citizen about refuse like old tires and deer carcasses being strewn along rural roads in town.
"Our rural roads are turning into landfills," he said.
"How do you patrol it" How do you stop it"" asked Rapp.

The three-dollars-per-tire fee charged by the town just covers the costs of disposing of them, said Rapp, rejecting the idea that lower fees or a period of no fees would stem the illegal dumping.
"The sad thing is, people just don’t care," he said, adding he would notify the State Police and Albany County Sheriff’s Department;

— Heard that a 100-foot tower has been approved, to be built by Nextel on property owned by the Westerlo Volunteer Fire Company.

It is to be finished by spring, and Galgay said the fire company would get revenue from it.
Thomas Diederich, district chief with the fire company, said that the company won’t "derive financial benefit...for quite a while."
"Nextel will put it in," he said. "The hope is there will be additional tenants." Any money gotten from those tenants would be used for fire-company expenses, including unfunded mandates, he said.

Another fire department member said the company was housed in a 1936 building and had 28-year-old trucks.