North East Board discusses drafted zoning definitions

MILLERTON — On Tuesday, Feb. 18, the Town of North East held a special meeting with Town Board members and Zoning Board of Appeals chair Edith Greenwood to discuss some definition adjustments on the drafted zoning amendments.

The board members went through a handful of the defined terms to be changed, added or fully eliminated. A few examples of changes that were made varied from swapping out the expression “maid” to “housekeeping” and deleting “sanitarium” and “sanatorium.”

“Senior housing is a general term, so that might be what we want to use,” said board member Chris Mayville. “Elder housing or assisted living, memory care facilities, those are all licensed, as opposed to senior housing.”

The goal of the drafted vocabulary for the new zoning amendments is to ensure the town will have clear and precise definitions to prevent future confusion. “I think this is progress,” town supervisor Chris Kennan said. “We are moving forward through different pieces of this.”

The more than 150 page draft the Zoning Review Committee proposed to the board is available to view on the Town of North East’s website under the committee’s tab.

The board briefly mentioned various ways future sidewalk issues may be addressed. “The Zoning Review Committee has given us language which requires that a new development on the Boulevard for a substantial renovation or expansion exceeding $250,000,” Kennan said. “Either of those would require putting in a sidewalk on that parcel.”

According to the board, it is not the most preferable method of sidewalk development as it relies on selling every parcel to avoid gaps. “There are other ways of getting sidewalks going. One of them is through getting the state involved, which would look like to state funding – or the town doing it’s the town taking on some part of that,” Kennan said. “That would be the quickest way to get it. A uniform sidewalk would look the same all the way out.”

Kennan mentioned the possibility of partnering with a business improvement district to finance and construct sidewalks.

Greenwood also raised the recommendation of having sidewalks on both sides of the street to promote safety for pedestrians in town. The town board may revisit this idea as sidewalk development plans continue to take shape.