Opposition Voiced To Amendments In Grafton

by Alex Brooks
The Grafton Town Board convened on Monday, July 22, to hold two public hearings on amending two local laws.
The first one was to get public input on an amendment that would prohibit parking on Beach Road at Babcock Lake. Supervisor Frank Higgins said the amendment was proposed because an ambulance visit to the area earlier this year found the area congested and difficult to navigate.
[private]There were a number of residents of the Babcock Lake area who spoke against the amendment. Mike Martin said there are a lot of properties on Beach Road with limited parking, and it would cause a problem for many of them if they couldn’t park on the road. He also noted that the Association had made a new access road to the beach which might serve as an access road for emergency vehicles.
Others noted that the problem is only on a short section of the road down near the beach and suggested that the parking prohibition should be only in that section rather than the whole road.
Supervisor Higgins suggested that the Town form a committee including the Ambulance Captain, the Fire Chief, the Highway Superintendent, the Code Enforcement Officer and a representative from the Babcock Lake Association to look at the summer parking issues at that location in more detail and make recommendations to the Town Board.
Travel Trailers
The second Public Hearing was on a proposed amendment to the Town Code allowing travel trailers outside of trailer camps to be permitted by the Planning Board. This amendment makes the law less restrictive than current law, but most of the comments from the public complained that it was too restrictive.
The current Town law, said to have been passed in the 1970s, bans all travel trailers outside of trailer camps. This was a surprise to most of the citizens in the room, which was nearly full. Some gave examples of instances in which this law was not enforced.
The proposed law would allow citizens to get permission from the Planning Board to live in a travel trailer on their property in Grafton for up to 60 hours per year if they use the bathroom facilities of the “permanent structure” on the property.
Many, including Councilman Rick Ungaro, felt that having to get the Planning Board’s permission to have a travel trailer on their property is an infringement of the rights of property owners. Rick Goyer said, “This country is all about freedom to use your land as you choose.” When it was pointed out that the measure under consideration would allow more freedom than the current law, they called for repeal rather than amendment of the law which bans travel trailers in Town.
Supervisor Higgins responded that the Board could consider repealing that law, but it would first have to hold a Public Hearing on repealing it, and he expects a whole new group of people would appear to complain about that.
If the law were to be repealed, State and County regulations would govern. They don’t restrict travel trailers unless there are five or more of them on a property or if there are health code violations.
While many in Town may feel, as Higgins suggests, that allowing unrestricted gatherings of transients on properties in Grafton may lead to trouble, others feel that when a relative comes to visit a Grafton resident for a week or two and stays in their travel trailer in the host’s driveway such a visit should not require Planning Board approval and certainly should not be illegal after 60 hours (2½ days) had passed.
Supervisor Higgins said the Board will discuss its options and decide what to do next but it was certainly not ready at this time to pass either of the proposed amendments.[/private]