North East Town Board meets with Zoning Review Committee

MILLERTON — The Town of North East’s board held a special meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 21, to review the work of the Zoning Review Committee and suggest amendments to the Town’s Zoning Code.

“One of the huge steps forward that the committee made very early on was the idea of reservation,” Zoning Board chair Edie Greenwood said. “Because of the location, the walkability … we were very cognizant that we do not have much land committed to commerce.”

The Zoning Review Committee has spent a large portion of its time redoing the zoning for the Town of North East’s commercial district, taking almost four years to bring final touches to the town board. This project focuses on the town, stretching from Route 44 to the Connecticut border, which mainly consists of commercial buildings.

“There are areas which the ZRC did not touch. If we wanted to we could, but it would be a very time consuming thing,” said town supervisor Chris Kennan. “We would probably be adding months, if not years, onto this whole process.”

According to Kennan, the changes being made to the codes don’t only apply to the Boulevard or other commercial districts. Some of the amendments will be used elsewhere.

“I think what is challenging for me, and I’ll just speak for myself, is that code is not something we usually work with,” Kennan said. “So understanding how code is law, a town law, but how when you can say something should be regulated or allowed … how that gets translated into code is not easy to see.”

Boulevard West, North and South have their own set of codes and the Zoning Committee looked into how they will be separated. It was suggested the board review the differences between the streets to ensure proper protocol in the future.

“We want people to come here and build good things for us,” Greenwood said. “We don’t want to get a reputation for onerous processes and applications … I think this is much more applicant-friendly. You’re not stopping and sending to another board, you’re coming back and going, but it’s a case where special permits are important.”

For this type of project to proceed, the town has to receive advice from the County and the public. “Our attorney felt that we just weren’t ending up with sufficient community benefit and so we’ve not really addressed the use of incentives to expand footprints,” said Greenwood. “Dutchess County Planning is very large. They would want us to be bigger. That came through in their comments because they have not seen this finished product, but they have a sense.”

Kennan suggested the board give him specific sections of the plan to devote time to in order to fully understand how that subsection would work in town. There will be future meetings — including a public hearing — for members of the community to learn about the new codes and the opportunity to share concerns or suggestions to the board.

“My goal is that we will have finished this process by the summer time,” Kennan said. “That means moving along with an extra board meeting, at least once a month, and a public hearing.” Kennan also suggested that when the process was complete, he would prefer the county commit itself to a timely response.

Board members and Warren Replansky, the town’s attorney, will be going through the ZRC’s plan and definitions to find the most effective way to move forward.