Local planners: ‘It’s up to the towns’

By TOM KANE

NARROWSBURG, NY — How to prepare the Upper Delaware River valley for the rapid growth headed in its direction was the question of the evening. And planners from Orange, Sullivan and Pike counties said it was up to the local towns and townships and their comprehensive plans to manage it.

The panel of regional planners were in Narrowsburg last Friday evening as part of the Visioning the Upper Delaware Committee’s “Casinos: Boom or Bust, A Challenging Development for the Upper Delaware” on February 18.

Sullivan County Commissioner of Community Development and Planning Dr. William Pammer, Orange County Planning Commissioner David Church and Pike County Planning Commissioner Michael Mrozinski told the audience of about 50 that the power to shape the future of the valley depended on their involvement.

“There’s just so much a county planning department can do,” Pammer said. “Ultimately, in the final analysis, the local boards are the ones that control the growth in their towns.”

“Our role is advisory,” Church said in agreement with Pammer. “We have to help our townships,” Mrozinski said.

“Get involved,” Church said. “Be part of the political process. Get on boards yourself.”

Pammer was at pains to emphasize the respect a planner must have towards “home rule.”

“Our main role is to start a dialogue with town boards,” Pammer said. “We are facilitators to engage towns in making decisions about what they want their town to look like in five or ten years. I emphasize that we respect home rule.”

Home rule is a legal process in New York State and Pennsylvania whereby decisions concerning zoning, septic systems, sewer plants, water systems, building locations, paved surfaces and other land use practices are made at the town level, not at the state or county level. “It all begins on the local level,” Pammer said.

Pammer, who has inaugurated a planning process in Sullivan County called “Sullivan 2020,” said his plan has two goals: “First, it will build a dialogue among towns and the county on growth issues, and second, it will delineate what the county can offer in terms of technical assistance to towns as they face growth.”

Much of the county’s efforts will be education, he said.

All three planners emphasized the role of the town’s comprehensive plan in guiding a town’s future as it develops and changes.

“Pike County is completing its comprehensive plan in a few months with a build-out analysis that will show people where things are happening in the county,” Mrozinski said.

“Everything has to be consistent with the master (comprehensive) plan,” Church said. “It’s a failing of local boards to get caught up in zoning and not look at the master plan.”

According to a Pace University Land Use Law Center publication, “New York statutes define the comprehensive plan as the material, written and/or graphic…that identifies the goals, objectives, principles, guidelines, policies, standards, devices and instruments for the immediate and long-ranged protection, enhancement, growth and development of the locality.”

Training seminars on the comprehensive plan

Both Pammer and Mrozinski will host a meeting for local supervisors, town board, planning and zoning board members on both sides of the river at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, February 25 at the headquarters of the Upper Delaware Council in Narrowsburg to discuss the comprehensive plan and the key role it plays in guiding the growth of towns. They are also looking for feedback from towns about the technical assistance they will need to complete the plan.

Growth and local schools

In discussing local growth resulting from casinos, Pammer said that he did not expect that five casinos would happen. For the ones that will happen, the county expected the greatest growth to occur in the eastern part of the county. “We do not see significant growth in the western part of the county,” he said. In speaking about school enrollments, he said that his department is working closely with local schools to give them some idea of what expected growth will be.

“In all probability, school districts in the west may not see significant enrollment increases due to patterns of second-home owners,” Pammer said. “It might mean the necessity of a school consolidation between the Sullivan West and Eldred schools.”

Towns lose money with residential development

As residential development increases, towns will see their taxes rise if they do not have commercial development to offset the higher cost of services to residences.

“We’ve done a cost analysis of our towns that shows for every dollar raised from residential taxes, it will cost a town $1.30 to $1.40 to provide services,” Pammer said. “In contrast, for every dollar raised from commercial properties, it costs 40 to 50 cents to provide services. Farms and open space cost even less.”

It makes sense that towns should encourage developers to mix commercial use with residential use in planning their projects, Pammer said.

“The area can’t afford more auto-dependent development,” Church said. “Traffic is becoming an enormous problem for Orange County and I expect it will also be true in Sullivan County as casinos appear.”

The three planners welcomed the chance to meet together with residents as future development happens.