The Bethlehem Planning Board wants residents to hear them out on a proposal to hear more feedback from the community on local projects.
The board’s new chairman and former director of economic development George Leveille brought up the subject in February, saying he wanted to include a public comment period before going over agenda items at the town’s bi-monthly meetings.
Currently the board has no public comment period, but frequently holds public hearings. A hearing is a required project-specific forum at which residents can air concerns or comments to the board, which are added to the town’s official record and meeting minutes. Many other boards, such as the Town Board, have a public comment period as a part of the regularly scheduled agenda.
Leveille said he met with Planning Board members Katherine McCarthy and Nicholas Behuniak, as well as Director of Economic Development and Planning Michael Morelli and Administrative Assistant Nanci Moquin.
I think it’s a reasonable way to get additional input, Leveille said during the Tuesday, March 3, board meeting at Town Hall. `What we’re trying to do is get more comments.`
The planning subcommittee has put together a format they believe will foster a more open dialogue with town residents by creating a vehicle to receive and record important feedback from people who could be affected by proposals before them.
McCarthy said the group is proposing to hold the public comment period at the beginning of their meetings, which starts at 7 p.m. at Town Hall, for a length of 10 minutes.
`This is separate from a public hearing,` McCarthy told board members. `This would be at every meeting comments would be limited to the items on the agenda for that meeting and each speaker would be allowed to speak for two minutes.`
McCarthy said it wouldn’t be a `question and answer` format, and that the board would not be responding to the comments, but merely listing to the speaker’s. She added that board members could clarify issues or items and that any board member could request to extend the comment period by another 10 minutes if necessary.
`We’d like to make all of this clear before it starts, so the public can know what to expect,` she said. `Members of the public can also always send letter to the town if they have a question.`
Behuniak reiterated that the board would not be engaging in a back and forth dialogue during this time.
`I would just point out that we as members wouldn’t be answering questions, nor would staff of the town,` said Behuniak. `But we could, as Kathy was saying, ask for clarification from people who would be speaking.`
Leveille said it would be the responsibility of the board chairman to run the public comment period.
`I think the chair really should preside over that section,` he said. `To the extent that members want clarifications, they just ask for them.`
All specific questions would be answered, according to Leveille.
`If there are questions that people have, yes, we’ll direct them to staff, and we’ll be sure to provide answers at the next meeting,` he said.
Leveille added that the two-minute time frame was a reasonable and manageable proposition.
`I think our intent was not to have some kind of [stop watch] here, but two minutes is a lot of time to be able to speak a comment within reason depending upon how many speakers are there,` Leveille said. `It’s a guide.`
The specifics of the proposed public comment period are being drafted and will be presented at the next Planning Board meeting on Wednesday, March 17. If the board adopts the proposal, the first official public comment period would be held at the board’s first meeting in April.
`I think it’s a reasonable way to get additional public input that’s consistent with what other boards are doing,` said Leveille. `Many boards and advisory committees operate this way and it’s a final opportunity for somebody to speak to the planning board before action is taken on a particular item.`
“
