Things did not go as planned for the second day in a row for the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee, as a meeting yesterday lost its direction when members from the public shifted the conversation towards rezoning instead of the task at hand.
The meeting followed a different format than the meeting on Dec. 13, where member of the committee and Town Councilman Dan Hornick went through each section of the assessments and allowed for public comment after each was read.
Building Department Director Mike Rosch took a different angle, where instead of going section by section and letting residents comment on each one, he read the vision statement and allowed for an open discussion.
While one resident, Gloria Knorr, tried to follow the previous night’s format by only speaking on her thoughts of the vision statement, others started immediately on the issue of rezoning.
One of them was Victor Depoalo, a resident on the western end of town, who was irate over not being allowed to sell his piece of land as Industrial instead of its current zoning label of Single Family Housing.
This is pathetic, and I’ll spend as much as I got to stop these people from doing what they’re doing, he said. `I do have a problem with you telling me my property is nonconforming.`
The committee itself, made up of residents in the business community and other areas, town board members and department heads, was appointed by Town Supervisor Paula Mahan. They were instructed to go over the 2005 Comprehensive Plan and assess what has been completed and what work is continuing, according to the assessment.
The committee then makes recommendations as what should take immediate action, ongoing action, short term action or midterm action, to the town board. The public meetings are meant for residents to comment on these assessments.
Rosch tried to explain this, and added that the committee did not touch the issue of rezoning. Planning and Economic Development Director Joe LaCivita said that it is the town’s next step to look at the land use law.
`We’re working on it for 2011,` he said.
This didn’t quell the other residents from the western end to continue to voice their concerns over the rezoning that took place in 2007.
`My question is, did the original Comprehensive Plan, that was adopted in 2005, did it address rezoning?` asked Jan Metzger. `Because if it did, then it would seem to me that in the ongoing Comprehensive plan that you’re making these goals and vision statements and commenting on, it should at least address that there are a lot of people that are unhappy that the western end was rezoned.`
Rosch responded and said that in the plan it said zoning should be looked at and updated, and that rezoning did occur. He suggested, though, that the western end maybe have experienced `more drastic changes.`
`I don’t know what the thinking was when that happened,` he said, adding that he wasn’t a part of the rezoning. `I think it is going to be addressed at the Planning Board level.`
One resident was able to provide her opinion on what was actually contained in the assessments put out by the committee. She asked that if there were to be an architectural review board, which she said was a very good idea, it should include more input of the neighborhood residents.
`Because it would prevent something happen that shouldn’t because of some of the zoning,` said Mary Alice Morgan.
LaCivita said that the planning department works with the neighborhood associations before a new project is built in the area, and said it was something they should continue to do. He added, however, that it’s hard to have one uniform standard for the entire town.
`It’s hard to put a standard in because the town is so diverse.`
Both Rosch and LaCivita said they had concerns with creating an architectural review board because they felt it would hold up development.
The focus then came back to rezoning, as resident Dan Kelly spoke about not being notified about the zoning changes.
`I know this will be addressed by the planning board,` he said. `But it should be addresses in this.`
At this point, Mahan stood up and reminded everyone that her administration was not a part of the rezoning and said that she didn’t agree with what had happened.
`I don’t agree with going around and changing people from Industrial to Single Family Housing,` she said. `We [the town] are working on it and trying to come up with a solution. It’s something we were left with.`
Trying to shift the focus back to the task at hand, Knorr asked as to why the committee was not following the same format as the night before, explaining that she had prepared her comments for each section individually. She then said it would allow for comment on just each section instead of all of them at once.
Another resident, Tom Romano, asked that they `get back to the facts here,` and asked that there be additional public meetings so more homeowners could be involved in the process.
`Meetings should be made at a convenient time so that the majority of residents can attend,` he said. `The Town of Colonie is so large and individual neighborhoods could have different concerns.`
He then suggested somewhat of a solution the town that could have answered some of the concerns residents had with rezoning.
`Even though changes were made to the zoning and regulations, a report should have been prepared on the status of the plan by the Planning board,` he said. `I feel this review process should not be rushed and careful consideration should be required. There’s no need to rush at this time.`
There will be a public hearing regarding the committee’s assessment of the 2005 Comprehensive Plan on Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Public Operations Center on Old Niskayuna Road.
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