A hearing just for show?

Laurie McFadden
Posted 6/23/11

On Thursday, June 16, the Town of Cochecton held a public hearing on its draft revised comprehensive, subdivision and zoning plans. The ostensible purpose of the hearing was to give Cochecton …

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A hearing just for show?

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On Thursday, June 16, the Town of Cochecton held a public hearing on its draft revised comprehensive, subdivision and zoning plans. The ostensible purpose of the hearing was to give Cochecton residents and taxpayers an opportunity to voice their comments about the changes to these plans—which are the key governing documents of any town.

Unfortunately, an adequate review of the changes by the public was not possible due to the town’s failure to provide appropriate and complete documentation for review. Revised documents that are the subject of such an important hearing should:

• Indicate deleted language by a strike-through..

• Show new language as underlined

• Clearly show the date the document was revised.

• Offer an explanation as to why each revision was made.

Residents who went to the town’s website in order to review the documents in preparation for the meeting were redirected to a site maintained by town consultant Tom Shepstone. On that site, only some of the new language was underlined, and it was impossible to tell what language was being deleted, or why changes were being made.

And at the meeting itself, various versions of the plans were in circulation, and that created even more confusion. Some residents had documents that were very different from the ones their neighbors had, even though everyone said they had downloaded the documents that very day. In the end, it was impossible to hold a meaningful hearing on the proposed plans because no one knew for sure what was being changed, or why.

Was all this confusion and misinformation a deliberate attempt to conceal information from Cochecton residents, or plain old-fashioned sloppiness?

After the meeting, I emailed Shepstone, requesting fully annotated copies of the plans, and was stunned by his reply. He wrote, “The Comp Plan is not something that can be done in that way. The town board should simply pass a resolution adopting the new version.” Other edits he said “are very limited.” Well, even “limited” revisions can make a world of difference. Is a public hearing just for show?

Working with old documents in my possession, I attempted to track all the proposed changes to our town plans, and what I found disturbed me. Time and again I discovered that zoning regulations were being altered—without explanation, and without any apparent benefit to town residents. For example, requirements that restricted building on a steep slope or near wetlands were either relaxed or omitted altogether. None of the changes I identified seemed to serve the interests of Cochecton residents.

Before any action is taken on these plans, town residents must be provided with full annotated proposed new plans and adequate time to carefully review them. Then another public meeting must be held so town residents can comment in a meaningful way on the proposed changes.

[Laurie McFadden is an attorney at law and resident of the Town of Cochecton.]

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