Conservation And Development Plan

Gets Council Backing

By Jan Howard

The Legislative Council voted 10-0 on November 19 to approve the draft of the Plan of Conservation and Development subject to the incorporation of recommendations from the council.

Will Rodgers, chairman of the council’s Ordinance Committee, told Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Chairman Bill O’Neil, Vice Chairman Sten Wilson, and Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker that his committee was very impressed with the plan and the goals and objectives within it.

“It is very comprehensive,” Mr Rodgers said. “It is one of the most impressive documents coming out of a town agency.”

The members of the Ordinance Committee did have some recommendations for inclusion or exclusion from the plan. A letter is to be drafted delineating these points and sent to the P&Z.

The committee felt it would be helpful to stress the limited binding nature of the plan. The document, Mr Rodgers said, should “make clear that the recommended actions are merely recommended.”

The committee also noted the omission of designated open space land in the plan.

Mr O’Neil said P&Z was looking to the Open Space Ad Hoc Committee for what should be designated in the plan, noting open space “is critical to the town.”

Ms Stocker explained that under the proposed “490” reduced tax assessment program, if a homeowner owns extra acreage over the minimum for a designated zone, such as six acres in a two-acre zone, the two acres would be taxed at maximum with the extra four taxed at a lower level. “The assessor felt this would not have huge economic impact,” she said.

 Landowners have to meet the plan criteria. Ms Stocker said larger open space properties are easy to identify, but property owners have to apply to the town for enrollment in the “490” program. The property would not be public open space.

“Other towns have been successful in implementing it,” she said.

Council member Fran Pennarola questioned the potential economic impact. “Is that good planning to preserve open space?” he questioned. “It may have impact on our ability to get large parcels. I would not be comfortable of essentially all the property that meets that criteria to be open space.”

The land would be preserved as open space for ten years, Mr Wilson said. “With the amount of children in school, this is a good way to manage growth. This way people won’t subdivide their property.”

If landowners do subdivide before ten years, they pay a penalty, he said. “It would be a win-win for everyone.” He said it might also be possible for the town to have right of first refusal for purchase of those properties.

How the “action agendas” in the plan would be monitored was not stated in the plan, Mr Rodgers said. “There’s nothing set forth as to whether P&Z will birddog that process.”

Mr O’Neil said the commission would send out a letter for feedback at the end of each year. “We will act as facilitator and monitor,” he said.

Council member Joe Borst questioned if this annual review would be a published document of the progress being made.

“We need to get the process going,” Mr O’Neil said. “We want it to be an evergreen plan. It can be amended in the future.”

The council recommended that a monitoring process be included in the plan.

Mr Rodgers also noted that designation of scenic roads could be “problematic.” He recommended that the language regarding scenic road designation be modified. He noted that in the council’s limited experience scenic road designation applications tend to be mostly antidevelopment moves.

The Ordinance Committee also felt that it might be a good idea to change the date of a public hearing on the plan. The proposed hearing date is December 18, and it was felt that holiday preparations might limit attendance at the hearing.

However, Mr O’Neil said his commission was trying to move the approval process of the document along. “We have not gotten a lot of public involvement,” he said. “It takes two months before this is an official document.”

He said having a meeting in January would be purely speculative as to the number of people who would attend.

Mr O’Neil said his commission is attempting to implement 15 percent open space set aside in subdivisions and to institute conservation subdivisions.

“We need the weight of the plan to implement them,” he said. “If not, we would lose the value of those.”

In regard to the focus on increasing open space lands, council member Amy Dent said the town needs an ordinance against hunting in town open space. “This is a serious safety issue and it is critical to deal with it,” she said.

Mr Borst noted that this is particularly important if the town is considering cluster zoning with larger areas of open space.