Comp Plan and Zoning Protections - Will They Remain?

                               I noted comment on JLL today by a regular JLL reader "KC". 
                                      KC's comment is below after the picture and some text.


                           According to the new town zoning lawyer, if BP plops down a few
                          industrial wind turbines in this view and you or your Comprehensive
                                   Plan don't like it...well that is just toooooooo damn bad!!!




I hope KC will come over here and read this because KC brings up an important point that should be fully examined NOW before it's too late.  If somebody reads this  and knows KC tell KC to take a look at it if he/she would like an in deoth answer.  This is not an in depth discussion you are going to see on JLL.

KC's comment:

"I thought that the original Zoning Law or at least the Comprehensive Plan contain plenty of language supporting the notion that we need to protect the rural character of the town and discourage inappropriate industrial development.

The fact that there are multiple pages discussing how big of a sign you can have in front of your house, because the document is so cognizant of aesthetics, means that prohibiting giant industrial turbines should be a forgone conclusion.

I thought any new comprehensive plan and zoning laws will essentially bolster the circa 2003 Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Law.

Or am I way off base here?"

KC you are absolutely correct.  But I would not hold your breath that this will remain as such. However, you might want to pay real close attention to what is going on on the CV land use committees.  There is NO guarantee this protective language will stay this way.  My information says that there is an internal struggle over this very issue and it may be questionable whether this language remains as strong in the new Comp Plan,or in the new zoning for that matter. 

For example if you write a zoning law that uses setbacks to try to mitigate wind turbines and the viewshed, that still means you are in a sense allowing them with restrictive setbacks.  If that is the case then you start to have a problem with your comp plan and zoning being in accordance with each other which they must be by NY law.  If you have zoning that won't protect the view, and the comp plan does, now you have a real probelm.  So something has to give.  The logical thing to do in my view is to prohibit turbines because from a view perspective you can't mitigate them...period.  But the new zoning law is not going to do that.  They have these absurd setbacks for view which will accomplish NOTHING!!!So what are they going to do, and where is this going?  And I don't think that "just trust us" is a good answer!

But the key thing you missed in your comment is that the new zoning attorney that is advising these committees clearly stated that he can't defend a zoning law that prohibits something just because somebody doesn't like the way something LOOKS...you know the VIEW that many of hold precious to CV and its future!!!!  But that is PRECISELY what our current Comp Plan and the Purpose clause of our zoning is mostly about...it is exactly about the way something in our town and village LOOKS!!!  So if the attorney says he can't defend that,VIEW thing...and the Zoning committee is looking to his advice as the "expert", then that may not play out well for that former CP and zoning  protective language, since the expert is essentially saying he can't defend that language.  If you can't defend the view in the zoning law...then to have your zoning and CP in accordance, then you can't defend the view in your CP either, or you start getting onto legal thin ice!

There is another thing you overlooked KC.  Take a look at our current zoning laws under the Purpose of our planning board and site plan review.  The planning board can DENY any project that can not be mitigated.  So can 400 ft. turbines with obnoxious lights be mitigated??  No... it is absurd.  Therefore an industrial wind project would have to be denied.  It also says any project must be in compliance with our CP.  Do you think an industrial wind project can comply to our current Comp Plan?  No that is absurd too, and that would be one more reason the PB would have to deny that type of project. Assumingthat language doesn't change...so I would watch that carefully!!!

I knew this Comp Plan and Zoning issue was going to be the crux of the industrial wind issue in CV, with any zoning law changes for wind, and that is why I brought it up in a wind law public hearing way back in 2006.  That old board was IGNORING the comp plan zoning issue.  Now here we are in 2012 and we are still debating it. So why is that????  Will this board trash a good comp plan too????  It almost sounds as if that is what the zonng attorney is saying!  my understanding is that some on the comp plan committee want to keep the plan vague on this issue...so why would that be????? Why aren't we stepping right up and toughening our plan and zoning, especially if some like Addie Russell thinks A-10 will prohibit turbines here anyhow.  None of this makes any sense!!!

It will be interesting to see how much of all this language remains.  EVERYONE interested in this issue who truly wants to understand it needs to get a current zoning law and comp plan and read them cover to cover.  That way you will know exactly what changes are being made in the new land use documents.

But keep clealry in mind that the zoning attorney who is advising the committees has said he can not defend a law that prohibits something because of the way it looks. 

Trouble is we DON'T KNOW what's happening on the zoning and comp plan committtees, and it will likely be too late and a done deal by the time we do know.

KC I  hope you will read this, and start asking some tough questions on JLL before it is far too late, since I am censored there.  These critical questions are not something that the other blogs are not going to address, and we need to be asking these questions NOW.  But be careful because you are like to get censored too if you ask too many uncomfortable questions that REALLY address the issues!