Over a year ago the Town Board hired a new planner (Bonnie Franson of Tim Miller and Associates) to assist in its review and revision of the draft zoning law. The resulting draft law contains many changes from the draft produced by the Zoning Commission. Among those changes are that instead of utilizing an environmental control formula for determining numbers of units that can be built on a parcel it excludes environmentally constrained acreage (i.e. land in steep slopes, open waters, flood plains and wetlands) prior to dividing the remaining rural district acreage by 5 in order to determine the numbers of units that can be built. Another difference is that while the agricultural overlay now includes much more land than it did in the Zoning Commission draft, the base density is changed from one unit per 10 acres to one unit per 5 buildable acres. The agricultural district now mainly imposes restrictions on the placement of the units, rather than reducing the number of units beyond what is allowed in the rural district. Read the rest of this entry »

Comments delivered to the Town Board relating to the Zoning Proposal submitted for public review. The comments center mainly around the New Neighborhood District component of the proposed law. Read the letter here.

→ Lyons Testimony on Proposed Zoning

→ Lisa Nagle of Elan Planning and Design’s Testimony

→ Mark Wildonger of Scenic Hudson’s Testimony

The first public hearing for the Draft Zoning Law is this Saturday, April 18th, at 9:30AM at the Lions Club Pavilion (82 Beach Road). We hope you can make it as your input on this far reaching law will have a dramatic impact on the quality of life of all of us here in the Pine Plains area. In our last email we made it clear how impressed we were with the hard work the Town Board put into their revision of the Zoning Commission’s original plan. Generally speaking, the draft zoning law they have come up with is acceptable. It presents needed guidelines and maximum numbers for growth in Pine Plains. It is for the most part consistent with our Comprehensive Plan and is reasonably sensitive to protection of our community’s environment and rural character by excluding steep slopes and wetlands from build-able acreage, for example. However, there are some flaws in the law as written that are serious enough to threaten to undo many of its benefits. We intend to raise them at the hearings and in our letters to the Town Board:

• The proposed New Neighborhood Development (NND), which appears on Page 41 of the document, is clearly in conflict with goals of the Comprehensive Plan. By shifting the base density from one unit per five acres, as it is in the rural district, to one unit per three acres, the NND allows for development on a scale and of a density inappropriate to the rural character of Pine Plains. It is a recipe for suburban sprawl and as such is entirely inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan.
• Further, the NND would allow for the creation of an entirely separate hamlet equal in size to the hamlet of Pine Plains (up to 611 or higher), within which some commercial uses would be allowed provided they don’t compete with businesses presently within the hamlet (just how the town would determine, in any legal fashion, exactly which businesses are competing and which are not is unclear). The Comprehensive Plan states plainly that the historic Pine Plains hamlet is to be the town center and community development must therefore be focused in or adjacent to that center.
• While it would seem that the NND concept was created specifically for the benefit of the Durst Carvel Project, it is by no means certain that it would preclude the construction of additional large scale developments. In fact, there are several other large land holdings within town which could be combined to meet the requirements of the NND and thus create a second and possibly a third hamlet-sized development in Pine Plains. Development on that scale is wholly at odds with the Comprehensive Plan.
• The NND section of the Draft Zoning Plan should be removed until such a time as language is clarified and the allowable development is of a scale and density consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. Further, the proposed Draft Zoning Law, exclusive of the NND, provides sufficient flexibility to meet the legitimate concerns of both the town and any developer, making the NND provision unnecessary. Given the looseness of its wording and its potential to cause serious, irreversible harm to the community-both unforeseen and foreseeable-the zoning law would be much better without the NND provision.
• Some additional concerns. We believe site plan review should include single home parcels as well as multi-unit ones. Our concern for our ridge lines, steep slopes, and open farmland should not end just because a single residence is planned for the site. Also, the same lighting restrictions should be applied to all residential sites, not just ones with multiple units.

Please download the Draft Zoning Law if you have not already done so and come to the hearing this Saturday (and the second the following Wednesday evening at 7:30) prepared to voice your concerns. In addition, please put your comments in writing and send them to: Town Supervisor, Town of Pine Plains, Pine Plains Town Hall, 3284 Route 199, PO Box 955, Pine Plains, NY 12567. You have until the close of business day on May 4th to submit your comments.

Thanks and we’ll see you at the hearings.

Attend the hearings.

First, a reminder: the public hearings on the proposed Pine Plains Zoning Law are scheduled for Saturday, April 18th at 9:30AM and Wednesday, the 22nd at 7:00PM. Both will be held at the Lions Club Pavilion at 82 Beach Road.

Read the document.

If you haven’t already, be sure to go to the town website and download a copy of the draft zoning law (the main document is entitled “Local Law #1 of 2009″ but be sure to also download the maps and appendices). Or, if you prefer, you may purchase a hard copy for $12.50 at the town hall. It’s not exactly beach reading, it’s long and dense and very technical in parts, but what it lacks in style it makes up for in substance. No document will have a greater impact on the place we live

The NND: a slippery slope?

The section that most concerns us is the one dealing with the New Neighborhood Development (NND), on page 41. An NND gives the Town Board the flexibility to green light a development even if it doesn’t conform to zoning laws. We’re not opposed to NNDs per se, there may be instances where it is in the interest of the community to allow an exception to the rules. The problem is unless there are clearly defined limits the result may be seriously at odds with the goals laid out by the Comprehensive Plan. Unfortunately, the limits laid out in the NND provision are neither clearly defined nor strong enough.

The 800-pound gorilla.

Though never mentioned by name, the NND appears tailor-made for the Carvel Durst development, at least for its bottom line. By loosening density requirements (from one home per five acres to one home per three acres) and adding overly generous bonuses, the NND would appear to allow the Durst Corporation to add more than 700 new homes to Pine Plains and Milan. It would create a suburban style development so large and so dense it would be in clear conflict with the Comprehensive Plan’s stated goal of maintaining the town’s rural character. And in the process it would essentially create an entirely new hamlet on the western edge of town, comparable in size to the hamlet of Pine Plains, which is a clear violation of the Comprehensive Plan’s stated goal of keeping a compact town center surrounded by rural open space. Not only that, it would allow for another hamlet-sized development on the eastern edge of town and possibly a third on the north side. Not exactly what the citizens of Pine Plains had in mind when they made preserving the town’s rural character a top priority.

(FYI, there will be a special meeting of the Planning Board on Wednesday, April 15th at 7PM at the town hall to discuss how the new zoning will impact the Carvel Durst development. This is not a public hearing but it should be very illuminating.)

Make the law better.

We are by no means advocating the scrapping of the proposed zoning law. It is in most respects very impressive for its enlightened approach to zoning and we salute the Zoning Commission and the Town Board for their hard work and foresight. But what a terrible shame it would be to have come this far, invested all that time and effort, only to have it undone by a loophole so large you could drive a Mack truck through it. Pine Plains United and its members have also invested heavily in seeing that our community grows in a manner that maintains its unique rural character. Just look at all the testimony by both our members and our experts at last year’s Carvel Durst hearings. Our members, who have been extremely generous with their money and their time, didn’t do all that for nothing. We are hopeful that the Town Board, after getting lots of feedback at the hearings and throughout the public comment period, will decide to take a second look at the NND provision.

So study the documents and come to the hearings on the 18th and the 22nd armed with questions and comments. Thanks.

The Pine Plains Town Board, after going over the Proposed Draft Zoning Law submitted to them in 2007 by the Zoning Commission, has, after working long and hard with their planning consultant, completed the Amended Final Draft Zoning Law and submitted it for public review.

Public Hearings on the proposed law will be held on Saturday, April 18th at 9:30AM and Wednesday, April 22nd at 7:00PM at the Pine Plains Lions Club Pavilion at 82 Beach Road.

You can download the documents at the town’s website (the main document is titled “Local Law #1 of 2009 - Pine Plains Zoning” but there are other important documents on this web page, including maps and appendices). Or, if you prefer, you can pick up a printed copy at the Town Hall for $12.50.

We’re impressed with the evident time and thought that’s gone into the document but we’d like to examine it more closely before we comment. We recommend you do the same. We’ll share with you any thoughts or concerns we have between now and the hearings and we hope you’ll join us at the Lions Club Pavilion.

–Paul, Jim, and the rest of the steering committee

After the overwhelmingly negative reaction from the public and many experts representing PPU, Scenic Hudson, the Dutchess Land Conservancy, the county planning office and even the State Department of Environmental Conservation in the series of public hearings held in the spring of 2008; the Carvel/Durst team submitted a major revision of their large golf development proposal to the Planning Board.

Read the rest of this entry »

In recent Planning Board meetings held since the hearings this spring on the Carvel DEIS the Durst team has submitted a major revision of the proposal. This revision is a result of the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the original plan by the public and many experts representing PPU, Scenic Hudson, the Dutchess Land Conservancy, the county planning office and even the State Department of Environmental Conservation. Read the rest of this entry »

This provocative title signals a new phase in the Durst DEIS process. Durst has introduced their newly hired ecologist, Alex Felson who will be leading an analysis of the property that addresses the stated concerns from the town relating to the environmental, social and cultural issues.

→ Go to the article here

→ The Daily Freeman reporting on the recent developments

The Poughkeepsie Journal provides an update on the reviewing of the public comments for the DEIS. Especially important is the differing perspectives of how to address the pending Zoning Regulations, with the Durst organization still claiming there is no need to address them at this time.

→ View the article here

The Pine Plains School District has submitted their comments after reviewing the Durst DEIS, “with special attention having been given to Chapter 14, Community Services and Fiscal Impacts and Chapter 7, Visual Resources & Community Character and the project sponsor’s general obligations under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.” The report is quite critical of the DEIS and echoes many of the findings of other professional analysis of the DEIS.

A copy of the submission is included here and can also be found on the Pine Plains Central School District website

→ PPCSD Comments on Durst DEIS
→ Register Herald Reporting