Passes Zoning Law Revision
by Alex Brooks
At its January 14 meeting, the Hoosick Town Board approved revisions to its Zoning Law that it has been developing for many years. The main new section is that dealing with solar installations in the town, although there are minor revisions to several other items in the law.
The issue of regulating solar installations was first raised by a proposal for a solar installation on the land across from the Hoosick True Value which did not ultimately get built. Since that time there have been committees set up to discuss the issue, and a great deal of discussion on the Town Board, which came to a final draft a couple of months ago. The draft was then sent to County Planning, and was approved by them in early December, and the Board passed it unanimously. The full document has been posted on the town web site.
PILOT Law Workshop
In a related matter, the Board discussed what it wants to do about taxes on renewable energy installation. State law makes such installations exempt from local property tax by default, but gives towns an option to make them taxable by Town Board action. Only about 10% of towns statewide have made them taxable. A more popular option is to require a Payment in Lieu of Taxes, known as a PILOT. Town Attorney Jonathan Schopf, Town Assessor Tony Rice, and Deputy Supervisor Eric Sheffer have all been looking into PILOT laws that have been put into place in nearby towns, which might serve as an example for Hoosick. The Town of Brunswick’s PILOT law had been sent to the Board members by e-mail just prior to the meeting, but they did not have time to review it prior to the meeting.
The Board seems to have a consensus that it would like to put a PILOT law in place, but it is now seeking to put together the details of the law. A workshop meeting was scheduled for Tuesday January 29 at 6 pm to discuss what they would like to do in this matter.
Pool Improvements
Although Supervisor Surdam has already sent in a budget for improvements to be made to the Town Recreation area (mostly to the pool) under the $925,000 State And Municipal Facilities Program (SAM) grant and it has been approved, Surdam is still working to refine the plans and add more details to the project plans. He said he has received an extension until the end of January to submit more detailed plans. Tom Marciotta, who has been advising the Town on development of the plan for this grant, spoke to the Board about it. He said these projects generally spend about 10% to 15% of the grant on engineering fees. He said he hopes to keep this as low as possible by having elements of the project, such as shade structures and associated furniture, that do not need to be designed by an engineer. But he said an engineer and Health Dept. approval will be needed for anything in the grant that has to do with the pool. He suggested that the Town stay away from water spray pad designs that involve recycling the water, because Health Dept. regulations for that kind of system involve a lot of trouble and expense. Board members asked how much water a feature like that uses, and the estimates were rather large, making the Board concerned about the cost of the water itself. Marciotta assured them it would be less than the cost of maintaining a recycling system. Town attorney Schopf said he would gather as much information as he can from the Town of Half Moon, which has a splash pad similar to the one Hoosick is considering installing.
The Town will shortly be making its annual payment on the debt from the pool renovation. This year’s payment is $100,000 plus interest, and after that payment is made the Town will take out a new note for the remaining balance of $130,000. In addition, the Town will issue another note for Phase 2 of the pool project, the Bath house renovation, which was recently completed. That note will be for $300,000. The Board authorized the Supervisor to sign both notes on behalf of the Town. The best interest rate offered for these notes was a 2.65% annual rate from a bank in Greene County.
MotoCross Discussion
The Board discussed how it would like to handle summer motocross events held in the Town. The Town already has in place a Mass Gatherings law which requires a permit be obtained for large gatherings of this kind. The State Line Riders have held motocross events in the Town for a number of years without obtaining permits, apparently because it was said to be exempt because it was an educational event. No one objected to this until last summer when the route of one of the races was moved too close to the property line and disturbed the peace of the neighbors, and many people began questioning the legality of the motocross events.
Hoosick Zoning Board Chairman Jim Hoag came to the meeting and stated his belief that the motocross events are illegal in the locations where they have been held under the Town Zoning Law. He said the Zoning Law says that motocross tracks are allowed only in Light Industrial and Commercial districts with Site Plan Review.
Town Attorney Schopf said that provision refers to permanent tracks where riding and racing are happening on a regular basis, and it does not apply to one-time events such as those held by the State Line Riders.
Hoag disputed whether these are one-time events, since there are sometimes more than one per year, and they happen every year, but Schopf said if it is not a permanent installation, the Zoning Law does not apply, and it should be handled through the Mass Gatherings Law.
Deputy Supervisor Eric Sheffer said, “If we chase this thing out of town, we’re not doing anyone any good. If I want to have a motocross race on my farm, there should be some way to do that.”
Supervisor Surdam agreed. He said, “We need to find a way that makes it possible to hold these events, and also to make sure the neighbors are not overly impacted.”
Sheffer said the guys from State Line Riders have no problem with getting a permit or filling out paperwork, or abiding by reasonable restrictions like minimum distance from property lines.
Schopf said he thought the best thing to do is tweak the Mass Gatherings law to make sure it adequately handles these events and then just to enforce it, and insist that people holding large events take out a permit and do them in a way that won’t have negative effects on the neighbors. He said he would take another look at the law and make recommendations at the next meeting.
Farmland Protection
The Town received notice that two farms in the Town have received Farmland protection grants through the Agricultural Stewardship Association. These are to purchase development rights to permanently protect the agricultural lands of Battle Acres Farm for $658,655, and Hoacre Farm for $700,265. These farms are both in the area of Cottrell Road near the Bennington Battlefield.