Hands across the water

As the counties and municipalities on either side of the river develop a community effort to ‘vision’ for the future of the Upper Delaware, they need to spend some time working on strengthening the seams where portions of the community come together.

In our December 12 editorial we cautioned that the environment, which remains the area’s principal resource, needs to be protected as we develop our economy.

In response, The River Reporter received a letter from a Lackawaxen Township resident who recalled a long-standing interstate zoning issue involving a noise dispute between several Pennsylvania homeowners and a campground located across the river in the Town of Highland.

The writer recalled Pennsylvania residents’ fruitless efforts to seek redress from local officials in New York, where they were told they had no “standing” legally.

No state agencies exist with powers to mitigate these kinds of zoning issues. The National Park Service  manages only the water between the contesting parties.

The writer concluded in frustration that residents “can spin our wheels all we want to preserve the natural resources of our river valley when elected officials feel free enterprise should reign and turn a blind eye to those out to make money any way they can…”

On more than one occasion, residents have commented or written about concerns of clear-cutting along the ridgeline on the opposite shore.

Without recalling any of the details of the issues in question or taking any position about the best way to resolve it, it is apparent that there is a need for some forum to solve controversies of this kind and avoiding future ones.

The Upper Delaware Council comes quickly to mind as a possible forum. All of the valley towns are supposed to be represented there and most are.

How could this work?

While towns and townships have jealously guarded home-rule, land-use powers in the past, the UDC has maintained a solely advisory role. So, without changing any ultimate decision-making authority, the municipalities could easily agree to non-binding mediation of conflicting zoning uses at the UDC’s Project Review Committee.

Such mediation could be done with little, if any, new cost, since UDC staff already reviews most development and zoning issues in the valley.

If the municipalities so choose, code enforcement officers and zoning officers from the various municipalities could be impaneled to meet and exchange information about enforcement issues and advise the mediators.

A record of issues to come before committee would become an aid for planners when amendments to existing local zoning are considered. Inter-municipal communications at a working level would be enhanced.

The committee would give residents some degree of standing and a place to go for a hearing in multi-community zoning issues.

There will always be differences in policy about land use along the river. Route 97 in New York is the valley’s main highway for traffic in both states and New York towns cannot ignore the potential for development along the highway.

Pennsylvania, on the other hand, has no main highway tracing the length of the river and limited development has moved toward upscale residential construction.

Sound will continue to travel readily across the water, and so must the conversation.

We aren’t always going to agree on the proper use of resources or the outcome of mediation, but if we want to better meld both sides of the Upper Delaware into a cooperative healthy community, neighborly concern can’t end at the water’s edge.

If this visioning effort is to move forward, there needs to be more than planners talking to one another. We can’t ignore the folks on the other side of the river anymore.

David Hulse, News Editor