Consultant will help draft revisions to zoning law

HURLEY, N.Y. » The Town Board has agreed to hire the consulting firm Nelson, Pope and Voorhis for up to $50,590 for a second phase of draft revisions to the town’s comprehensive plan and zoning law.

The firm have been working on zoning law updates involving multifamily properties in response to a developer’s plan to convert the former West Hurley Elementary School into rental units.

“Task one was dealing with the moratorium on multifamily [housing],” town Supervisor John Perry said. “... Task two is the remaining comprehensive review, where we update the town as a whole.”

The Town Board adopted a three-month moratorium last October that prohibited the Hurley Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals from processing or reviewing “any new or pending” site plan, subdivision, special use permit or variance application. In January, the moratorium was extended for an additional three months and is expected to be extended again before it expires April 22.

Under the moratorium, a “multiple dwelling complex” would consist of two or more buildings that have two or more units of residential housing each. A multifamily dwelling would have four or more residential housing units.

Husband and wife developers Kerry Danenberg and Sarah Russell have proposed converting the former West Hurley Elementary School into 46 apartments. Last year, though, they issued a press release saying that the then-proposed moratorium would be met with a new plan to have the site used for a religious school, but there has been no filing that has included that potential change.