Town
of East Fishkill Supervisor John Hickman says his town
is indeed over-developed, but that the town board has
plans in place to counter that. Those plans include
consideration of a residential building moratorium,
which is being discussed at the present time.
Dutchess County Economic Development Corporation President
Anne Conroy said she believes that building moratoriums
are a sign of development “getting away”
from a town, and that they “discourage an appropriate
response” to needs in the community. “Communities
need to be pro-active in the planning process and a
moratorium is usually sort of a recognition that planning
has gotten away from them and we are encouraging more
of a pro-active planning response,” she said.
Hickman, who has worked as deputy zoning administrator
in East Fishkill for the past seven years before becoming
supervisor last month, said that he agrees with Conroy,
but attributes it to more than just disorganized planning.
“I think were very happy to see East Fishkill
becoming very popular and developed, and now the national
guys come in and now instead of doing 30, 40 houses
at a clip, now we’re doing 100, 200, 300 houses
at a clip,” he said. “Our laws didn’t
address it; our density calculations didn’t address
it. We need to take a break while we change our zoning
laws. Who could have seen it coming?”
And updating zoning is precisely what Hickman plans
to do in the upcoming months while the moratorium, he
hopes, is in place. The town board also plans to enact
wetland laws, which limit development in those areas,
and steep-slope laws, which dictate which hilled areas
can be developed. Building bonuses, which enable developers
to build more houses on land near wetlands and steep-slopers,
are planned to be eliminated all together.
Hickman hopes that with the new zoning laws in effect,
it will space out complexes built in the town. He also
plans to enact new density calculation laws, which will
decrease cluster housing. This, he said, will be done
later this year. |
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