Building on green areas is possible
Hyde Park floats changes to '97 zoning

By John Davis Poughkeepsie Journal Thursday, February 24, 2005

HYDE PARK -- Areas of the town now green could be the sites of light industry under proposed plans before the town board.

Residents will get their first chance tonight to comment on the proposals, which contradict the 1997 comprehensive plan that calls for concentrating new development around the town center on Route 9. The town board is considering amendments to the comprehensive plan to allow the new zoning.

The Hyde Park Zoning Review Committee is recommending the creation of Planned Light Industrial Districts. These ''floating zones'' would allow the town board to locate them in rural and commercial areas, committee Vice Chairman Tony Quirici said.

The change would permit more than 40 light industrial uses such as automobile repair shops, dry cleaners and commercial bakeries.

''Hopefully, people will come out and be constructive,'' Hyde Park Supervisor Yancy McArthur said. ''They really need to tell us what they want to see.''

Qualifications needed

The new districts, however, would have to meet a number of requirements, including a minimum size of 10 acres and fronting on either a state or county highway.

''We all know we need new businesses to come into town,'' Quirici said. ''We're planning for the future.''

The zoning review committee spent the summer, fall and early winter drafting zoning and subdivision regulations to match the town's 1997 comprehensive plan.

The plan sets the land use policy that the town's zoning enforces. That's why the committee, which was appointed by the town board in 2004, wants to amend the 1997 plan to permit more commercial growth in areas along routes 9 and 9G.

The committee's recommendations have alarmed some in town who support the 1997 plan's basic vision of concentrating future development in the town center on Route 9.

''They took the concept of a town center and tossed it out,'' said Anne Dexter, co-founder of the town grassroots group Stop the Sprawl. ''They've destroyed the vision.''

Herb Sweet, who helped draft the comprehensive plan in the mid-1990s, said, ''The whole idea of containing development'' is missing from the committee's amended plan, Sweet said.

McArthur and the board's GOP majority have drawn harsh criticism at town hall meetings from Stop the Sprawl members and others unhappy with the zoning panel's recommendations.

Councilwoman Victoria Kane, a Democrat, said that unlike the drafting of the 1997 plan, which included a number of public forums, the nine-member zoning review committee has made its amendments behind closed doors.

''The 1997 comprehensive plan was something that involved a large number of people,'' Kane said. ''Everyone's opinion was taken into account.''

HEARING TONIGHT The Hyde Park zoning review committee will hold a public hearing on amendments to the 1997 comprehensive plan at 7 tonight in town hall on Route 9. Residents can read a draft of the plan on the town Web site at www.hydeparkny.us or at the town clerk's office in town hall.

Copyright © 2005, Poughkeepsie Journal .

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