Will the plan be used?
Virginia Luppino said the existing comprehensive plan “kind of sat on a shelf, and wasn’t really used as a lens the Planning and Zoning Board used.”
Samantha Dederick, a Comprehensive Planning Committee member, disagreed. She said the town has passed 23 zoning amendments to implement the 1999 plan.
Address large-scale developments
George Lewandowski, the chairman of the village Planning Board, said some major projects the board considered drew a good deal of controversy. He cited Diamond Mills Hotel & Tavern as an example. In that case, the controversy was about the design, the size of the project and access to views of the waterfall and river. “But over and over, whenever development of multi-family housing comes up, we have a lot of people that live in the village that come forward and say, we don’t really want that here.” He gave several examples of opposition to multi-family housing that occurred in recent years.
Despite the opposition, “we have zones in the village, and I’m sure in town, where cluster developing is allowed.” Among the recent proposals is Country Meadows, a 55-unit development for North St. in the village, “and nothing in our zoning law says that it cannot be built,” Lewandowski said. The plan should be considering alternatives that would not be opposed by residents, Lewandowski said. “Instead of building large-scale developments, the same number of units could be split into smaller developments. Build five here, build three there, build seven over there, to keep things balanced.”
Rentals
Suzanne LeBlanc said the village is close to 60 percent rental housing, and that this is too much. “We have to keep a balance, and if we build another 55 units, we will not. This is something you have to consider.” LeBlanc noted that the town and village have provided more low-income housing than any other community except the city of Kingston. The comprehensive plan should consider how this affects the local economy in light of the fact that such developments usually receive large tax breaks.
Kings Highway, mixed use and environment
James Uhl said that the town is “shooting itself in the foot” by enacting regulations for business while investing in water and sewer to attract business. Referring to improvements to make Kings Highway “shovel-ready,” Uhl said that with strict regulations in place, “it’s no longer shovel-ready.”
Committee member Paul Andreassen responded that the Planning Board recently approved a “shovel-ready” site on Kings Highway, and “there is nothing in this updated plan that would eliminate any of that. In fact, we’re encouraging it.”
Susan Bolitzer said that the goal of “nurturing the community’s friendly and safe atmosphere” in the preamble “is almost as important as preserving the land and water.” In contrast to earlier speakers, Bolitzer also praised the goal of encouraging a mix of housing, with apartments and cluster homes encouraged as well as single-family. The plan also encourages a variety of sizes and types of businesses, Bolitzer noted.
Referring to the floods that have ravaged low-lying areas, including the street she live on, Bolitzer said the plan should, if possible, address the question of building on flood plains and whether continually rebuilding in areas that have been flooded should be limited.
Other issues that came up included traffic, stream protection, logging regulations and farmland protection.
Read the plan here.
right now the high taxes are a natural form of city planning.