The Dance!!!

 

Mr. Macsherry the Chair of the Cape Vincent Planning Board (PB) and Mr. Brown the Vice Chair, are trying to convince us that we should not take the new CV zoning law literally.  This is in reaction to the screwed up permit granted to Mr. Alexander for a large solar array.  

 

If you read table 8 on page 12 of our new law, which they initially applied to this issue, it is very clear and easy you read that the size solar array under question would not be allowed in the River Front Dist. 

 

Starting in a private conversation with Macsherry on July 31 he has been pushing this idea to down play table 8 which is so obvious.   Even on the  video of th 8/14/13 Steve Weed PB meeting video.  Mr. Brown and the planning board are apparently backing Macsherry on this "very unusual" claim (to put it politely)

 

So why are they saying this?

 

I believe it is because they spent nearly 20 minutes in detailed discussions with Alexander about how his project would fit in the new law and they were ready to approve it under the new law.  And they never caught the fact that in the new law they drafted and in a table they drafted specifically designed to be easy to read, they never caught that Alexander's project was not allowed.  Ooops!

 

Now if you view the Steve Weed PB meeting  7/10/13 video linked below you will even see Brown giving Alexander a primer on solar and how our new law handles it. Move the time slider on the video to 36:27 and  listen carefully.

http://www.steveweedproductions.com/TOCV2013.php

And in  the  discussion about the project it is very clearly determined and defined as to size and to be commercial.

This is the point at which somebody on that PB should have woken up and realized this project would not be allowed under table 8 of the new law.  But NOT ONE person on that PB picked up on this, and as I said several of them where on the committee that drafted that new law!!! A law with an  agenda by the town to promote solar.  Which by the way I told them long ago on my blog they didn't really fully understand and was arbitrary.

Also note on the video that Brown has a big thick 3 ring binder in front of him that he flips some pages on.  As far as I can see it has the old and new zoning in it right under his nose yet he still didn't pick up on table 8 and the problem.

This is why the sudden "dance" on the 8/14/13 PB video  to say...oh well it is the law's intent that matters , and that the law should not be taken literally.  You know... like table 8 that they obviously designed to BE taken literally! 

When Brown is giving his primer about solar, what he is talking about is actually clearly laid out in table 8!!!

But hey...you don't have to believe me. Let's look at what the NYS Dept. of State says in an excellent technical paper on zoning. Underlining is mine.

 

The protections afforded residents and property owners within the community from

undesirable development come from the restrictiveness of zoning. Traditionally, zoning is characterized by pre-set regulations contained in the ordinance or local law, and applicable uniformly within each district. A landowner can look at the zoning map and regulations and know that if he follows them, he has a right to use his land in a certain way, and that neighboring property is subject to the same restrictions.

That is pretty damn clear.  There have to be literal regulations in the law so everyone understands them and follows them to protect all land owners in the community. 

If we start following some broad so called intent in the law that is so vague that we can actually use it as an excuse (as Macsherry and Brown did) to even allow a use that is outright prohibited, then no citizen is going to know what the hell is going on in zoning, and who will be the one to figure out what the broad vague  meaning or intent actually is. 

AND this provides NO consistency in zoning, nor does it provide citizens with the critical protections of the health, safety and welfare Brown and the other zoning "experts"  like to promote is going to be our savior against Art. X and BP.

That is why  what they said about not being literal is frankly absurd!  And in fact has created a MAJOR screw up in the application of our brand new zoning law.

And supposedly according to the "experts" that law, and it's interpretation, application, and understanding of it  is all that stands between us and BP!!!

That  makes this entire zoning mess  really disturbing!!!

And why else all this fuss over the correct application of the law.  Because one CV citizen is going to be badly aggrieved and have her rights denied by a screw up in CV zoning.

A SECOND TIME!!!