STONE HARBOR – A proposal to combine Stone Harbor’s planning and zoning boards has been set aside in the wake of public criticism of the plan and the disclosure of a new proposal about the two boards.
Councilman Reese Moore, a member of the council’s administration and finance committee, said at the Tuesday, Nov. 21, council work session that his committee had a new proposal that would “preserve” the two land use boards as separate entities.
Moore said that the two boards would benefit from a designated liaison. The benefits of a liaison would be better communication between the boards, less ordinance revision after the fact and fewer requests for variances, he said.
He had no further details on the proposal, saying those would need to be worked out. “For now this is just a concept,” he said.
There was no further council discussion of the matter in the work session. But the council did agree that it would not move forward at this time with the original plan to combine the boards.
The proposal to join the two boards, also made by the administration and finance committee, came at the Nov. 7 council meeting and surprised many members of the public. Committee Chair Jennifer Gensemer announced then that the council would introduce an ordinance at its Nov. 21 meeting to accomplish the union.
Reaction from many who said they heard about the proposal within days of Gensemer’s announcement was strong and negative.
Following the Nov. 7 meeting, the council scheduled a special meeting for what the agenda termed “Public Input on Zoning Issues.” That meeting was to take place on Friday, Nov. 17, but was canceled due to an error in the notification process.
By the time the council met again on Nov. 21, the agenda still called for discussion of a combined planning and zoning board. But that was obviated by the announcement of the new proposal by Moore.
Gensemer did not speak on the issue at that meeting, and the third administration and finance committee member, Frank Dallahan, was largely silent.
Residents who took to the podium at the meeting had a common message of being satisfied that the ordinance mentioned by Gensemer would not be introduced and asked the council for careful analysis before action is contemplated in the future.
Ken Fischer, a member of the planning board, emphasized the different roles played by the two boards and said he found some of the remarks from the committee at the Nov. 7 meeting “insulting.”
Former Mayor Suzanne Walters said she was happy the council had backed away from the introduction of the proposed ordinance and urged the council to call upon the expertise that exists within the borough as it looks to ways to improve the development of zoning regulations.
Geoff Woolery of the Stone Harbor Property Owners Association said he wanted to use the discussion of the optimal structure of land use boards as an example of the need for greater use of formal “work process” techniques when considering big projects.
Mary Packer urged the council to look at land use planning as a “big picture” issue, complaining as she did so that “developers own this town.”
Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.