Town hires land use attorney in anticipation of zoning changes
PORT EWEN, N.Y. » Esopus Town Board members have approved retaining a land use lawyer to conduct reviews of proposed updates to the comprehensive plan and land use regulations.
Authorization to hire attorney Victoria Polidora of the firm Rodenhausen Chale was given during a meeting last week in a unanimous vote.
“We have our comprehensive plan update and that kicks off a zoning review,” Supervisor Shannon Harris said.
Under the agreement, there would be a $210 per hour charge as an attorney fees with lower hourly rates for other legal services.
Board members did not set a limit in the total cost for legal services that would include adoption of the comprehensive plan use of the changes as the basis for code changes.
“We are still formulating ... our zoning update recommendations,” Harris said.
“There is a land use recommendation that we have in draft form that we reviewed for the first time at our last comprehensive plan meeting and we provided input to that,” she said. “From there we’re going to prioritize each of the recommendations and come up with a schedule.”
Harris expects that a task force will be appointed to draft language for zoning changes.
“We’ll take this as a phased approach,” she said. “We know that there are certain things we need to do right away, like updating our solar laws, so that will be one of the higher priorities that we do.”
Board members noted that the hiring comes after losing longtime consultant Myles Putman, who died accidentally in June after being struck by a tree branch.
“That’s where we have the (loss of knowledge) right at our finger tips,” Councilman Jared Geuss said. “Now we’re going to have to pay for that general knowledge.”
Councilwoman Gloria VanVliet said Putman has been a “walking encyclopedia” who could answers questions about the process officials needed to have regulation move from proposal to adoption.
Officials in June conducted a community meeting to take comments on land use regulations that should change, where updates were needed, and the types of development residents would like to see addressed under revisions to zoning law.