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At times the heated exchange at Wednesday's public hearings on amendments to Lansing's subdivisions and zoning ordinances made one wonder whether passionate disagreement is an allowed use in the Commercial Mixed Use Zone that the Town Hall is located in.  At the heart of the disagreement are changes the Town Board has proposed that would redefine the role of the Planning Board. But even with a history of poor communication between the Town and Planning Boards, a draft of the proposals made it to a public hearing.

There are some major substantive changes that are being proposed," explained attorney Lorraine Moynihan Schmitt, who works with the Planning Board for the Town.  "The land use ordinance will now be called a zoning ordinance.  There is some provision for in-house Planning Department site plan review, minor applications.  That is a major substantive change.  The Planning Department site plan review is intended to utilize the Planning Department for those projects that do not require the expertise of the Planning Board.  In facilitating this process the Town Board has put together an in-house site plan check list for the Planning Department's use.  That is part and parcel of the proposed amendment."

Schmitt noted that the overall intent of moving some of the site review currently conducted by the Planning Board is to streamline the consideration of straightforward projects.  The Planning Department would use a checklist to review projects as they are brought to them.  Any project that goes beyond well defined triggers would automatically be referred to the Planning Board.  "The overall intent of the in-house site plan process is to streamline the application for certain straightforward projects," Schmitt said.  "Minor projects.  Reserving large, potentially complicated, nuanced projects for the expertise of the Planning Board and for public hearing."


But Planning Board members are uncomfortable with taking any of their review responsibilities away.  "In my view the proposed changes remove from the Planning Board a significant portion of its responsibilities and radically alter the relationships between the Planning Board and the Town Board, Planning Department and residents of the Town," said Larry Zuidema in a prepared statement.  A Planning Board member for many years, Zuidema said he had come to convey his own views, and was not speaking on behalf of the Planning Board. 

"The adoption of the proposed changes will curtail the activities of the Planning Board beyond those envisioned for an independent Planning Board under 'NYS Town Law,'" he continued.  "In fact, the adoption of these proposed changes require the Town to invoke 'home rule' and supersede normal 'NYS Town Law' which has basically governed operations in the Town of Lansing until now.  In my view no valid justification for this has as yet been documented."

The proposals came about when the Town Board asked the Planning board to review the town ordinances two years ago.  In December the Planning Board forwarded over 100 recommendations, which the Town Board has been reviewing and amending since January of this year.  


Schmitt outlined the Planning Board's concerns, saying that some of the Town Board's proposals represent significant changes.  "The Planning Board and ZBA have reviewed and made comment on these proposed amendments, and they've indicated concerns and recommendations for the record," she explained.  "There are concerns respecting the proposed 10 foot setback as being potentially insufficient.  There are concerns with more business uses being permitted in the R1 district.  There are concerns that landscaping requirements be specifically delineated with specific requirements by district.  Concerns that site plan review overall should be the purview of the Planning Board, not the Planning Department.  Concern that site planning review should be required for all commercial development within the RA district, and some concerns that if the in-house site plan checklist and review amendments are to be workable, that certain of those uses should be before the Planning Board."


That last one is the major bone of contention.  Town Board members say that a streamlined process and more readable ordinance is necessary because of numerous complaints and instances when businesses decided not to come to Lansing after dealing with the current planning process.  Business is considered to be good for the Town, because it brings tax revenue, which relieves the burden on residents, and it brings jobs.  But Town Board members say that repeated appearances before the Planning Board sometimes drag over years with expensive engineering studies or other plans adding up.  Town officials have also said that Town Attorney Guy Krogh has fended off lawsuits on more than one occasion that would have been precipitated by frustration with the planning process here.

Planning Board members say they haven't hear these complaints, and would certainly respond to the situation if they were aware of them.  But Town Board members say that repeated attempts at communicating with the Planning Board have been rebuffed.  And that goes to the heart of the controversy.  Over the years it is clear that there has been a massive breakdown of communication.  A joint meeting last year to discuss the future of Lansing quickly degenerated into a gripe session in which resentments were high and the agenda item was never even addressed.  As recently as last week those resentments surfaced in a Planning Board meeting that Town Board members Connie Wilcox and Matt Besemer attended.

"The issue goes well beyond your comments," said a clearly agitated Councilman Marty Christopher after Zuidema  spoke.  "I don't think they reflect the entire picture of what has taken place.  We've tried on a number of occasions to have Planning Board / Town Board sessions where none of these folks have given the Planning Board opportunities to try to communicate better.  I don't want people here to think that this is an isolated situation and that there are bad guys and good guys.  We're all supposed to be good guys, but it hasn't appeared that way this evening."

Both sides say that they want the other to communicate better.  Zuidema outlined five remedies including improving the functionality of he Planning Board by shifting minor, routine matters to the Planning Department, keeping site plan reviews within the board's responsibilities, removing all proposed subdivision exemptions and discretionary waivers for sketch plan deposits, schedule more joint meetings between the two boards, and hold widely advertised public informational meetings to get community input.

A few other speakers spoke to one side of the argument or the other, encouraging easy public access to the draft document so that the public will have ample opportunity to weigh in on the ordinances that will shape the way Lansing's growth is administered well into the future.

"I certainly think it's a good opportunity to streamline this, knowing some of the businesses that have been pushed away from the Town because of problems dealing with the Planning Board on a lot of minor issues that probably should have been resolved right here, in-house," said Charlie Purcell in the time allotted for the public to weigh in.  "People have left town rather than bringing business to our town, which obviously is a good thing.  It sounds like (Planning Board and ZBA members) are worried about losing some of their authority.  If it's for the good of the people of the town I think we elected the (Town Board members) who sit up here for that."

Zuidema responded that he shares the sentiment about streamlining the process.  "I think the important point about the Planning Board is that it should have a purview of what is going on in the town," he said.  "If we just get a small slice, or even a large slice but don't see the rest of it, we don't have a comprehensive point of view as to what's going on.  So, yes, let's streamline it.  But don't remove whole sections.  We want to support the Town Board.  We want to support residents.  We certainly want businesses."

The bottom line is that the Town Board has the authority to propose the changes and vote on them.  They plan to extend the public hearing, possibly for months, before taking action on a final draft.  But they also plan to try again to meet with the Planning Board to try to come to some consensus on what will best serve the Town.   "This continues to be a dialog between the public, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Planning Board, and the Town board respecting the proposed amendments," Schmitt said.

Town and Planning Board members alike seem amenable to the idea of using an independent facilitator to make sure that when they do meet that an agenda is set and followed so that actual work can be accomplished.  "I hope that when we meet together we can work through these issues," said Town Supervisor Scott Pinney,  "and move forward in the best interest of all the taxpayers."

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