I reported about a month ago that the Town of Dryden is getting ready to develop a Varna Master Plan over the next few months, spending about $70,000 to address one of the most criticized aspects of the proposed zoning. They had an initial public meeting in December, and finally seem to be getting underway.
There's one major potential problem with this process, however: it comes as a number of development proposals, most notably Steve Lucente's Varna II, are in the air. They have their own schedule, which may or may not mesh with the master planning process.
Does it really make sense to let developments start that could make that $70,000 planning process meaningless? New York State allows municipalities to avoid that problem with moratoriums, halting development until the planning process is complete. There are a lot of rules on them - they have to be for a defined time, connected to a clear process with a timeline - but it seems clear that in this case those rules have been met.
Varna residents have prepared a petition they'll be carrying, but given the weather right now an online petition is pretty appealing. They've posted a petition supporting a Varna moratorium, which states:
To: Dryden Town Board
Petition to the Dryden Town Board
Residents in and around the Hamlet of Varna hereby petition the Dryden Town Board in support of a moratorium for a period of NINE MONTHS to preserve the integrity of the Hamlet Planning process recently adopted by the Town Board until a plan and recommended improvements to local zoning can be completed.
Think about it, and please sign it if you support the idea. I very definitely do.
Posted by simon at March 7, 2011 6:50 AM in Varna , Varna II , planning and zoning