WESTERLO — As the town works to create its first comprehensive land-use plan, Westerlo’s planning and zoning boards and the town’s building inspector, Ed Lawson, met last week and discussed difficulties with the Westerlo’s current zoning, adopted in 1989.  

Lake Onderdonk was at the top of officials’ list.

 “It was like the lake was overlooked,” Lawson told The Enterprise this week.  Residents and officials have continually questioned whether Lake Onderdonk is a public or private lake.  Both seasonal and full-time residents live at the small lake community in the northwest corner of the town and a road — Lake Road — runs along its west side.  Residents and officials are also uncertain of the road’s status — whether it is a private road or owned by the town.  According to the town’s zoning ordinance, adopted in 1989, the lake is in a rural agricultural district, which has a three-acre minimum requirement. 

The town’s planning board, now chaired by Andrew Brick, is currently working to create Westerlo’s first comprehensive land-use plan, which will be used to draft new zoning laws.  To gather information, the board has discussed meeting with residents of the town’s hamlets and business owners and it has met twice with the town’s farmers.  While the planning board gathers information, the town board, which is a legislative body, adopts laws. 

The planning board has only three members remaining of the original five as the Westerlo Town Board last month removed Leonard Laub, the board’s former chairman, from office.  Laub refused to fill out a Civil Service application and did not want pay or pension for his work; the town board insisted it was necessary.  Jack Milner, a farmer who intends to run for a seat on the town board this fall, resigned from the board in protest last week.  Both Milner and Laub attended last Tuesday’s meeting. 

Lawson outlined conditions at Lake Onderdonk and current zoning.

Nothing, he said, can be done with existing buildings, which are considered “an existing non-conforming condition.”

Many of them were built as summer cottages and are not up to current codes. 

“Anyone that does anything to those buildings requires a variance so when someone wants to put an addition on their house, even if they meet the setback requirements, it’s still a non-conforming use, and, to expand a non-conforming use, you require a variance,” said Lawson.

When changing a seasonal home to a full-time residence, there are issues with Albany County’s health department because no one can meet the setback requirements for potable water and septic systems, said Lawson. 

He outlined some conditions at the lake to guide the town’s planning board and said, “In some instances, you cannot accommodate the change to a full-time residence of a place that doesn’t have a septic or a well so that has to be defined as an existing condition that you cannot change,” Lawson said.  “And then, you have other people that are living there and have a functional system that doesn’t meet today’s standards but when they were put in, they may have.” 

The planning board is holding comprehensive-plan meetings on the third Tuesday of each month; the board invited the Lake Onderdonk Association to its next meeting on June 17 at Town Hall at 7:30 p.m.