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Pine Plains Zoning Law is Enacted

By - Jane Waters
November 9, 2009

The zoning law was adopted at the October 15, 2009 Town Board meeting. The most salient features of the law are:

It divides the town into various zoning districts with differing lot sizes or densities, varying from 20,000 square feet (15,000 if central sewer is installed) in the central hamlet districts to 5 acres in the rural district, including the agricultural overlay and the wellhead protection district.
Although a number of commercial uses are allowed throughout the town (i.e. home businesses and other smaller impact commercial uses) major commercial development is concentrated in the hamlet center and hamlet main street districts. The latest zoning map now includes the flat land behind Stewarts on the Village Green property in the hamlet main street district.
The agricultural overlay zone covering about ¾ of the rural district includes properties currently or previously used in agriculture (raising crops or pasturing livestock), properties with prime soils or soils of statewide importance and properties included in the County Agricultural District. However, none of the Carvel property is included in the Agricultural Overlay even kthough it meets the first two criteria. The zone does not differ from the underlying rural district in allowed density but it restricts placement of houses on agricultural fields to the extent practicable.

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The state of zoning in Pine Plains

October 2009

PINE PLAINS UNITED

On October 15th at 7:30, the Town Board will meet and vote to adopt the new zoning law (there will be a special workshop meeting before that, on October 6th at 7PM, but that will not be a public hearing). By all indications it will pass unanimously. On the one hand we're very pleased, Pine Plains will finally have zoning and there is much in this law to admire. But, as we've made clear in our recent emails, it is also deeply flawed and we're sorely disappointed that the Town Board chose to ignore your many letters asking that they drop, or at least amend, the NND. Allowing Durst to build at inappropriately high densities, bowing to the developers of Village Green's wish to be zoned commercial, these directly contradict the goals of the Comprehensive Plan, which are to maintain the town's rural character and focus commercial growth at its center.

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SOLDIERING ON

September 2009

PINE PLAINS UNITED

We'd like to thank our members who took the time to share their concerns with us following our last email. Most of what we heard was disappoint, disbelief, and, yes, even outrage that the Town Board chose to ignore completely the outpouring of opposition to the NND and the inappropriately high density it would allow. A common theme was a feeling that the Town Board had tailor-made this loophole to accommodate Durst. We share those sentiments completely. While we understand the board wanting a direct role in the approval process, we think their belief that in order to have leverage they must "give away the store" is terribly misguided. Six hundred plus homes is surely better than Durst's initial proposal (almost twice that amount) but it still represents a 50% increase in the number of homes in Pine Plains, which is way too many. Whether they chose to disregard your letters and emails because they figured most of you aren't registered to vote here or live outside the town (but nonetheless pay a huge chunk of the school taxes), is anyone's guess. But clearly they wanted their NND and meant to have it, public opinion be damned. Is having this zoning law better than none at all? Yes. But, the law allows commercial and residential development that clearly conflicts with the goals of the Comprehensive Plan.