Breen rewrote the subdivision regs for residential projects. The Academy project comes under the Zoning regulations as a nonresidential “special permit” application. Goldsmith re-wrote the zoning regs to put some teeth in them, and Dottie Durst, Ed Higgins and the RTC publicized a phony conspiracy theory to defeat them as an election issue. Refinements since the election consist of a lot of wordsmithing at an administrative level directed by Delia Fey and thats about it. The basic flaw is still there – the special permit process which controls all nonresidential development in the town essentially has no concrete, specific standards and is therefore not really enforceable. This is essentially an illegal zoning program called “spot zoning” with the rules essentially devised after the fact on a case by case basis. Hardly anyone on the PZC – or the town planner – even understands this. The exceptions are Dexter Young, Fred Rich, former PZC chair Ed Higgins and the boys at CME. Its basically a plan for the farmers, who own the land, and CME, that processes all the applications and does all the engineeering work, to get rich developing the town without any zoning.
Make sense?
Snuffy
It could just be that the zoning regs in town just don’t really address the WA proposal.
You may add into the mix the fact that farmers and others who own large tracts of land are selling it.
I, for one, don’t want to see Woodstock become over-developed. We can’t blame those in office for
not preventing what they can’t prevent.
Voters can unite to attempt to change current regulation. Even if all P&Z members were opposed to any particular new project in town, they are bound by the regulations currently in effect.
If you had a couple hundred acres to sell and someone was offering a sum that would be financially beneficial to you, what would you do?
Snuffy, thanks for the comment. I hope you (or someone) can tell me more. Does this “case by case” zoning mean that there are no zoning regs that prevent someone from selling land intended for a WALMART or factory owner or landfill? Is that what the landowners are afraid of? Do they want to be able to just unload their land to anything and anyone in whatever parts and parcel that they want?
PS: This is the most obvious problem I have with Ernie and company’s self appointed “watchdog” (NOT!) group: this town has LOADS of issues that could be addressed and probed (and lots of them readily listed with the Mfat proposal) and all Ernie’s dummies do, is hammer a school system that is at the BOTTOM of state funding.
Chicklet –
That’s exactly right. They have formula that looks like they have control but really they do not. It works when the local-yokel wants to open a junk shop, because they will never have the time or financial incentive to fight the PZC in court. But a shopping center developer will, and will certainly prevail.
And that’s just the way Ed Higgins and the RTC want it.
I was in a Woodstock Merchants Meeting a few years back and Dottie Durst came to talk to those of us there on behalf of Economic Development. She indicated at that time, that the Committee was interested in fostering a commercial development at one, contained end of Town and the south/Woodstock Fair end of town was implied.
Not a Secret –
I think everyone has thought of the Route 171 corridor from South Woodstock to Putnam as the logical location for the town’s commercial growth.
But the problem is the current regulations do not deal with proposed commercial growth in other parts of town. A land use plan would allow properly scaled and designed development around the key intersections where commercial development has already cropped up. Again, scale of buildings; scale of overall zone; and design of buildings is key to keeping Woodstock looking like Woodstock. This was proposed by the Democrats last fall and undermined by a conspiracy-oriented campaign theme engineered by Ed Higgins and Dottie Durst of the RTC.
I would like these people to address what they envision for the town’s development.
I am always impressed by the generous contribution of people like yourself to the industry. Thank You