|
Public comment snowballed at the Town Board meeting on February 19th regarding recent action by the Columbia County Board of Supervisors to grant agricultural district status to a property on Bashford Road in Chatham (Fox Hill Estate). Along with concerns about how this decision will play out in the several-step process to a final decision on the status of the property (with the application now sent on to the NYS Agriculture and Markets Department), speakers complained about a lack of transparency at both the county and town government levels. Supervisor Collins did not seem to know and did not clarify the county’s obligation to give notice in such a case. Collins serves as a member of the County Board of Supervisors and the County Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board, both of which were involved in Fox Hill’s application review. It was not made clear if any of the other town board members were aware that the county was acting on an application from a town resident, and if so, what obligation exists to communicate that fact to other town board members, planning board members, zoning board of appeals members, or to neighboring property owners. The Bashford Road property owners’ application to be designated as part of a local Agricultural District raises more controversy on the property, which has been under review by the town’s planning board for various applications in the past, and is currently before the town’s zoning board of appeals on another matter. Based on public comment and letters to the town government, there has been considerable opposition by neighbors and other local residents to previous requests by the property owners for other than residential use of the property. If approved at the NYS level, the designation as part of a county agricultural district would likely ease restrictions on certain activities on the property that otherwise would exist under town laws related to zoning and permissible activities on the property.
|
