Lot Grading Ordinance Fails in Stone Harbor

STONE HARBOR – At its Nov. 3 meeting, Stone Harbor Borough Council rejected a proposed lot grading ordinance 4-2, with two council members who served on the Flood Mitigation Committee that proposed the ordinance voting no. 
While an ordinance is sometimes defeated following strong opposition at the required public hearing, this one reached the point of potential adoption without sufficient council support for passage. No members of the public spoke during thepublic hearing.
The vote appeared to come as a surprise to Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour and Councilman Charles Krafczek, who introduced it. The dispute first centered on a provision in the ordinance that would allow drip irrigation for grass grown between the street curb and the sidewalk. This measure was favored by the borough’s Planning Board.
The Flood Mitigation Committee, where the ordinance originated, favored a requirement that stones or other substances not requiring irrigation be the only permissible coverings in that narrow area between curb and sidewalk. 
Councilwoman Joselyn Rich, who chaired the Flood Mitigation Committee, and Councilman Raymond Parzych, a committee member, aided in work on the ordinance since it began in February. They voted it down at the meeting, as did Councilmen Frank Dallahan and Reese Moore. The two positive votes came from Krafczek and Councilwoman Jennifer Gensemer. The mayor only votes in cases of a tie.
Krafczek accused those who voted no of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” He pointed to many provisions in the ordinance, which, he said, were essential. These included an increase in underground storage, new limits on impervious coverage, masonry retaining walls, and a grade level that would later permit the raising of low-level streets by the borough.
Pointing to the fact that the committee had three engineers on it at borough taxpayer expense, Krafczek decried the waste of taxpayer funds. “Who knows when we will be able to get all these measures back to this point,” he said. 
“We needed to pass this now,” he added, and return to the issue of the curb to sidewalk coverage if need be. Krafczek also defended the drip irrigation compromise, saying if done properly it would achieve everyone’s purpose.
Davies-Dunhour reiterated many of Krafczek’s points, expressing great “frustration” with the “loss” of months of work. She defended the role of the Planning Board in the process.
The borough is in the midst of a major real estate surge, with the construction official reporting earlier in the meeting that 52 construction permits were outstanding. 
For Krafczek, this was the heart of the missed opportunity. 
“Delay in this ordinance will mean we do not capture these homes being built,” he argued. “This was the moment,” he said.
Of those who voted no, Parzych offered the defense of that vote, not in terms only of the drip irrigation issue, but also stating that the move to adopt now was “premature.” For Parzych, there is a need to reconcile three separate ordinances dealing with bulkhead elevation, setbacks, and lot grading. 
The borough instructed a group of professionals to review the three ordinances and develop recommendations for any changes that might be needed to have “them mesh,” in the words of Davies-Dunhour.
Where Parzych saw the move to adopt the lot grading ordinance as premature, Krafczek and Davies-Dunhour saw it as necessary to capture the construction surge in the borough and implement the flood mitigation measures contained in the ordinance. 
For Davies-Dunhour, the agreement that the three ordinances might need some subsequent changes was not a sufficient reason to delay the important flood mitigation aspects of the ordinance up for a vote.
“It took us a year to get here,” Davies-Dunhour said. “Who knows when this will be back,” she added, referring, in part, to the cumbersome process an ordinance involving a zoning change must go through before adoption.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.