HuntHrld article on OSPlan

The Huntington Herald had an article on the OSPlan adoption process by the PZC. I have typed and added comment as I normally due via articles on CC related issues. Please visit their website to see the article's original presentation.

Open Space Stirs dispute
Subdivision Set-aside Debate Turns Emotional
Huntington Herald - Fred Musante, EDITOR
2009/Jan/21 Printing

Who could have guessed adopting an Open Space Plan would be so emotional?

The Conservation Commission updated Shelton’s official plan for acquiring and managing open space over the last one-and-a-half years and referred it to the Planning & Zoning Commission.

Since then, the local land developers’ association has threatened to sue the city, and the chairman of the Conservation Commission (CC) and a longtime member of the P&Z got into a public shouting match.

All of the controversy swirls around one short section of the plan that recommends increasing the open space set-aside requirement in the city’s subdivision zoning regulations from 10%, which it is now, to 15%.

At a public hearing just before Thanksgiving, Stephen Bellis, the attorney for the Shelton Builders Association, said he would file a lawsuit for his client if the P&Z adopted the higher set-aside percentage.

At a follow-up P&Z meeting in December, commission member Leon Sylvester said although he hadn’t read the plan, he had questions about increasing the open space set-aside, which angered CC Chairman Tom Harbinson, resulting in a heated argument between the two.

“We had a few words,” said Sylvester.

++ My thoughts on the December PZC mtg are better referenced in the comments on articles that appeared closer to the Dec mtg. It does not improve the situation to restate them again now, months later. ++

Sylvester didn’t improve matters at a Jan. 13 P&Z meeting when he launched into a rambling defense, denying that he was pro-developer. “I’ve sat here for 20 years and never made a dime here,” he said. “I’m not corrupt.”

++ I have never alleged that Leon is "corrupt". He has served the community of Shelton for a very long time in a multitude of contributing ways. I was not at the Jan13 PZC mtg, but the minutes are available at the City's website and the comments referred to as "rambling" by the reporter are on page 8. ++

Officials hope the whole thing will smooth out this afternoon when members of the two commissions held a powwow Wednesday in City Hall to hash out final changes to the Open Space Plan.

++ As I write this entry, we have held said mtg and it is expected the PZC will adopt the plan as ammended, and presented. ++

Changes might mean the P&Z will hold yet another public hearing before voting on the plan.
This spring, the P&Z might also take up the question of the subdivision regulations. Bellis said the Open Space Plan only recommends a change in the zoning regulations. If the P&Z actually changes them, increasing the set-aside from 10% to 15%, he’ll sue.

++ Adopting the OSPlan does not change subdivision regulations. It would however recognize the % change as a possible strategy to implement so the Plan's goals can be reached. Adopting the OSPlan does not cause the PZC to be held to pursue a specific strategy, though I obviously hope that they would. ++

To fully appreciate all of this, it is important to know that the usual function for the Open Space Plan is to back up grant applications — for example, if funding assistance is requested to purchase land for open space, it is helpful if the plan says the property has historical or environmental value.

Open Space Plans are not supposed to be controversial.

Harbinson said he’s not sure why there is any controversy. He said increasing the set-aside is already in the city’s Plan of Conservation and Development adopted in 2006, and Bellis is the only person who spoke against it at the public hearing.

++ The public had input thru public forum and exercises to create the PoC&D, and there were public hearings for it's adoption by both the PZC and the BOA. The OSPlan reaffirms said strategies of the PoC&D, and had public hearing by the PZC as well as numerous opportunity for comment by the public at our CC mtgs. ++

“How can you have an opinion about a plan when you admit you have not read the plan?” Harbinson said. He said if Sylvester didn’t read the plan but is opposed to part of it, it must mean someone else is reading the plan for him, though he declined to say who that might be.

On the Shelton Conservation Commission Web site he maintains, Harbinson also takes some pokes at Sylvester, whose wife is a real estate agent handling listings for developer Robert Scinto and whose son-in-law, Ben Perry, is a business partner of Joseph Salemme in a recycling business on Oliver Terrace.

Harbinson criticized Sylvester on the Web site for frequently recusing himself on P&Z matters without explaining why he had a conflict of interest. “I believe the public have a right to know why that happens, and the frequency to which it happens,” he wrote.

++ "Poke" may be the unfortunately correct word. My comments about recuse vs abstain made at the Dec PZC public hearing on an issue separate from the OSPlan adpoption have contiminated this adoption process, and for that I have regret. The comments were a public nudge-in-the-side reminder regarding a detail which I believe the record should record. It was not made with malice toward an individual, but rather with encouragement to the PZC body toward greater clarity and transparency in light of even further astray issues that are darkening public impression regarding various approval actions made by them over the recent years. An improper example of recusing is subsequently shown by Chris Jones in the PZC minutes of Jan13 pg.9 for application #09-01, and a proper example shown by Pat Lapera in the same mtg on pg.14 for application #109-4. ++

“I think I was misunderstood,” said Sylvester.

++ Precisely why I have this blog to offer clarification when my comment are misunderstood in media accounts. ++

He said he is ready to vote to adopt the Open Space Plan as is, but he wants to hear from the public, particularly land owners affected by increasing the open space set-aside, before increasing the percentage mandated in the zoning regulations.

++ The time for the public to comment in detail on such an increase recomendation, is when the detail of a proposal is available for them to review. I believe the PZC should thus pursue the revision of subdivision regulations ASAP. ++

Sylvester also said he may not have read the plan, but he did read its executive summary, so he knew something about what was in it.

The matter also was discussed in detail at the public hearing on Nov. 25.

++ My thoughts on the December PZC mtg are better referenced in the comments on articles that appeared closer to the Dec mtg. It does not improve the situation to restate them again now, months later. ++

Bellis’ lawsuit threat against raising the open space set-aside percentage is based on his interpretation of Section 8-25 of the Connecticut General Statutes.

When the Legislature passed a provision in 1990 that allowed developers to substitute a cash payment in lieu of land for all or part of the open space set-aside, it capped the percentage at 10% of the fair market value of the subdivision.

“Such payment or combination of payment and the fair market value of land transfer shall be equal to but not more than 10% of the fair market value of the land to be subdivided prior to approval of the subdivision,” reads the statute.

The question is whether that 10% cap also applies to an open space set-aside of land only. Bellis said it does, but Assistant Corporation Council Ramon Sous contends it doesn’t.

“I have researched state statute 8-25 and find nothing in it specifically which limits the right of the Planning & Zoning Commission to require more than 10% as open space set aside as part of the subdivision approval, and I specifically disagree with attorney Bellis’ argument,” Sous said in an e-mail to P&Z and CC staff officials.

++ A note: Atty Sous' communication was communicated to the CC via our google group msg service, and thus was made public immediately. ++

“A judge is going to have to decide, and sometimes the judge is wrong and an appellate court is going to decide,” said Bellis this week.

He said P&Z Administrator Richard Schultz told him the zoning commission expects to consider changing the subdivision regulations sometime this spring.

What does he think about the dispute between Sylvester and Harbinson? “I’m not going there,” Bellis said.

It turns out Sylvester might not either. Sounding weary of the whole thing, he said he might not attend this afternoon’s meeting of the two commissions.

“I just don’t feel like debating any more,” he said.

++ The CC (5+ConsAgent=6) and the PZC (4+P&Z Adm=5) met Wed and discussed openly our issues until resolution was reached. It is expected that the PZC will adopt the OSPlan at their next mtg. ++