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Gardiner board seeks input on building moratorium
Daily Freeman
By Dawn Letus, Correspondent
July 3, 2003

GARDINER - The Town Board this week decided to ask for written comments from residents on a proposal to enact a yearlong moratorium on subdivisions greater than two lots while the town revises its master plan and implements new zoning.

At a workshop meeting on Tuesday, Town Clerk Michelle Mosher said the deadline for submitting written materials will be July 24.

Town Board members unanimously agreed they would like to hear more about why the moratorium is needed, but they were divided on the timing.

"No one here has said they would not be willing to enact moratorium legislation. The question is the timeliness," said town Supervisor Jack Hayes.

Hayes read opinions from both the town Planning Board and planning consultant, which suggested that enacting a moratorium now would be premature.

A June 17 memo from town Planner Jim Freiband advises: "There is no justification for adopting a moratorium until a master plan is submitted to the Town Board."

Freiband also pointed to the proposed 350-unit Awosting Reserve project as a reason for supporters' request for a moratorium.

"Personally, I do not agree with Jim Freiband's assessment," Councilman Bill Richards said, adding he believed the current master plan was not reflected in the town's zoning code.

"We are not following the growth pattern that the master plan provided for," Richards said. "I don't care how many houses are being built. We are facing development that is not in keeping with the current master plan."

The sheer number of people in favor of a moratorium points to a need to discuss the possibility further, Richards said.

But Councilman Fred Fischer disagreed. "A moratorium is not something you put up just to stop one project," he said. "The town's attorneys tell me that this is not defendable. Our own statistics say a moratorium is not warranted.

"It would be justified and defendable to enact that kind of legislation at the end of the review - when we are getting ready to change the zoning laws - to fend off an influx of applications coming in under former legislation," Fischer said.

Hayes said a petition given to the town with 1,100 signatures supporting a moratorium also asks the board to hire a consultant to help with the master plan review process, which it did, and to open the review process to the public, which consultant Peter Fairweather is preparing to do.

"We have done what our constituents have asked us to do," said Councilman Paul Colucci. "We've gotten professional opinions and the statistics to back them up."

Now, the town needs to begin compiling data to create a substantive record that would make a moratorium adoptable, as well as defensible, Hayes said.

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