Friday, December 21, 2012

Is Cape Vincent AG district in the NO Zoning Zone?



 At Thursday’s Town Board meeting Karen Stumph spoke about an issue concerning   the new zoning law, she felt there are problems that the organizers of the committee were not aware of …

   “one of the problems was that the committee was made up primarily of let me use the word – outsiders – – who had no knowledge of the rural community. “Mrs. Stumph said  .

Additionally, she said that the zoning map is deceiving in that much of the land in the outer districts is Agricultural ,she went on to explain that 80% of the River District is  Agricultural, and that 2/3 of the Lake and Recreation area is Agricultural district as well, which again means the township has no authority for land-use in Agricultural Districts, adding that any areas under the Agricultural Districts are immune and or exempt from the town rules and regulations regarding a land-use.

 To support her claim she said that she had spoken with authorities from Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Jefferson County Planning Department and  Agricultural (AG)and markets.

 This sounds credible, however it is not accurate. Farms in some cases are allowed to proceed with farm related activities despite zoning regulations. However the construction of an industrial wind  complex  is not exempt from zoning laws.

Is this a precursor to the road that the pro-wind will be taking? Will they be informing the Public Service Commission that they need not consider the Cape Vincent zoning law because it does not apply to the land slated for BP’s Cape Vincent Wind Farm?



  

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your photo attached to this post says it all.

Anonymous said...

No outsiders on those committees. Every single one is a full time resident of the Cape. The outsider thing is nothing more than prejudice and bigotry perpetuated by Bp "community organizers."

Anonymous said...

Karen's remarks were full of inaccuracies. She said farmers were concerned about mobile home park development thus they decided to participate in the Ag district process. This could not be farther from the truth. Farmers owned nearly all of the waterfront. Those farmers sold or developed their waterfront land for mobile home parks. As mobile home parks grew in numbers and size, some residents became concerned about overdevelopment with mobile home parks along the waterfront. Therefore, land use regulation (ZONING) was of interest to many residents. Farmers totally controled the town board and the farmers had not finished selling or developing their waterfront land. So, the farmer controled town board would resisted passage of a zoning law that would control development (sound familiar. After those in control of the town had finished with uncontroled development of their waterfront, they decided to move ahead with a zoning law. Most of our mobile home parks are poorly designed and would have been much more attractive (landscaped) and much less polluting (proper septic systems) and much safer (adequate for emergency access and safe drinking water) had the farmer controled town board looked out for us rather than for themselves. I am not anti-mobile home park just anti- poorly designed mobile home park. I am not anti-farmer unless that farmer dumps on us and then expects us to feel sorry for them.

Also, she is totally wrong when she says farms in ag districts are exempt from zoning. Their farming operation is PARTIALLY EXEMPT. Large wind turbines are not the same as milk, goats, crops, etc.

The message I am trying to send is that Karen just throws out "half-truths" (sound familiar) that are not supported by fact. She did the same thing with the economic impact study.

Anonymous said...

I want my money! I want my money, dammit!

Anonymous said...

You don't deserve the money dammit. The loser that writes that saying donated to the bloggers welfare fund and not to any other funds in the Cape, but BP has. Loser.

Anonymous said...

"I am not anti-mobile home park just anti- poorly designed mobile home park."

You know, most people probably aren't anti-wind either, just anti-poorly designed wind projects...like ones in the Thousand Islands region.

That used to be me, until this whole mess got me researching about our energy situation, what works, and what doesn't. As a result, I am entirely anti-wind now.

Not here. Not anywhere.