Lot size decision waits for citizens 146 vote in Rensselaerville
RENSSELAERVILLE Two who helped draft the towns new land-use plan voiced concerns after a Saturday forum on the future of farming in the Hilltowns.
Citizens are being asked to vote on the divisive issue of lot size in the agricultural district as the committee that drafted the plan turns its vision into law.
"We’re really at an important juncture," said Jeannette Rice, who has been one of 13 members of the committee, which is now drafting zoning laws and subdivision regulations.
During planning, Nan Stolzenberg and the American Farmland Trust recommended larger lot sizes 20- and 25-acre zoning in the agricultural districts. Stolzenberg is the towns planner.
Vernon Husek, the committees chairman, resigned shortly after the committees document was adopted by the town board in March.
He was upset about the large-acre zoning being undermined.
Prior to a public hearing on zoning laws and subdivision regulations in April, a majority of the 13-member board voted for 10-acre zoning.
Since the towns laws were last updated in 1991, zoning has permitted one dwelling per five acres in the agricultural districts.
Thomas Mikulka was appointed as the committees new chairman. Mikulka has been outspoken about larger lot sizes decreasing a propertys value. At its meeting this month, the Rensselaerville Town Board approved $1,250 to apply for a $25,000 grant from the American Farmland Trust to study the issue. If the town does not receive the grant, the money will be returned.
Following Saturdays meeting at Conkling Hall, Husek was critical of the land-use committees competence and the town boards decision to have the committee revise zoning laws.
"[Stolzenberg] said, ‘Don’t give the zoning to the land-use committee,’" Husek said.
"The land-use committee was always the group asked to do the original drafting," Stolzenburg responded through The Enterprise.
Stolzenburg said that, shortly after the public hearing in April, when the draft was a document going through the legal adoption process, she felt the town board should make revisions itself since the land-use committee had already approved and endorsed the draft submitted to the board.
The town board felt revisions were needed and then gave the task to the land-use committee as a result of the public hearing, she said.
"That was my only recommendation related to the revisions," said Stolzenburg.
Stolzenburg, who works with many municipalities, said it is not uncommon for a committee working on a towns comprehensive plan to also draft zoning laws and subdivision regulations because the committee working on the master plan is most familiar with the document.
Husek, who said shortly after resigning that the committee wasn’t following experts’ advice and had changed from "data-driven" to "politically-driven," was critical about the committee now working on subdivision regulations and zoning laws.
"They’re not looking out for the town," Husek said of members drafting laws. "They’re looking out for their own pocketbooks."
Rice, too, favors larger lot sizes in the agricultural districts, and, at a public hearing in April on new zoning laws and subdivision regulations, supported the land-use committees document.
The land-use committee, she said this week, went through it "page by page," and it was approved by the town board.
"It was a top-quality project," Rice told The Enterprise. Rice echoed Kevin Crosier, saying, once farmland is gone, its gone forever. Crosier, Bernes supervisor, is forcing a primary for the Hilltowns seat in the Albany County Legislature. He spoke at Saturdays forum. (See related story.)
Rice is concerned about soil and farmland protection now and for future generations.
A survey will be sent out this month to residents, who will decide between one dwelling per five acres in the agricultural districts or one dwelling per 20 acres.
At the public hearing in April on new zoning laws and subdivision regulations, some members of the land-use committee said more time was needed and their work was rushed. On May 1, a moratorium on major subdivisions enacted last year was extended for six months. The town board is slated to vote on new subdivision regulations and zoning laws in November.
