Public outcry against an events venue in northern Lansing last year has raised a hornet's nest of issues for town officials.  A series of contentious meetings spanning a good part of last year, including opposition to the reappointment of a planning board member resulted in new procedures and sensitivity training for public board members.  Planning Board member Lin Davidson took the Town Board to task for what he charged are inadequate tools in the form of noise and related ordinances that do not allow the Planning Board to impose limits on activities that may impact neighbors.

"This is beyond the planning board issue," Davidson said. "Where is the Town? They look at us to be a planning board that does a better job.  Law is purview of this town.  Your law, with due respect, allows us to happen. The site plan tool that the Planning Board has to reduce impact just doesn't work here. We had to beg the applicant to set voluntary hours of operation.  We have begged to get two weeks notice for a fireworks display.  We have no way, according to counsel, to touch that. The public's upset. I don't care how you communicate, it's incendiary."

A particularly contentious meeting took place last March with speakers from the neighborhood angrily shouting down Planning Board members.  An especially angry clash occurred when neighbor Richard Van Emery's phone sounded an alarm in the middle of the meeting. Shea told him to turn off the phone, or to leave the room. But Van Emery, who is hearing-impaired, couldn't hear his phone, and didn't understand what Shea was saying. The incident escalated even as another member of the public sought to help to Van Every, and continued through 2019 with Van Every and others speaking against renewing Shea for a new seven-year term on the Planning Board.

Shea responded that he is also hard of hearing and the poor behavior by members of the public and the phone alarm meant he could not hear the official business being conducted.  He apologized for the tone of his response to the alarm, and offered suggestions to the Town Board for promoting civil public discourse at meetings.

The Town Board has discussed Shea's renewal at least twice in 'executive session' in its December and January meeting.  According to the New York State Open Meeting Law, those sessions are closed to the public, but only for very specific reasons:

• matters which will imperil the public safety if disclosed;
• any matter which may disclose the identity of a law enforcement agent or informer;
• information relating to current or future investigation or prosecution of a criminal offense which would imperil effective law enforcement if disclosed;
• discussions regarding proposed, pending or current litigation;
• collective negotiations pursuant to article fourteen of the civil service law;
• the medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation;
• the preparation, grading or administration of examinations; and
• the proposed acquisition, sale or lease of real property or the proposed acquisition of securities, or sale or exchange of securities held by such public body, but only when publicity would substantially affect the value thereof.

That and other incidents prompted the Town Board to establish required sensitivity training for all board members, including members of the Town, Planning, and Zoning Appeals boards.  Shea was one of a pair of board members who missed the training last year, because a storm forced the cancellation of the session.  On emerging from executive session at the January 15th Town Board meeting Supervisor Ed LaVigne LaVigne said people missed the required sensitivity training session when it was cancelled because of a storm, and not due to board members missing it on purpose.  He announced that the vote on Shea's reappointment would be postponed for a second time, and would be contingent on Shea attending a makeup session on February 5th.

n addition to the training, documents explaining how 'Privilege of the Floor' is to be conducted are distributed and verbally explained at every meeting. The public is asked to sign up if they want to speak, and those who did not sign up are given an opportunity to speak as time allows. Boards have been instructed on how to use microphones so their deliberations can be heard by the public, and new sound equipment was installed.

Davidson agreed that these measures help, saying, "There's been much cry and public criticism of the perceived indifference of the planning and response to citizens' complaints and concerns about events centers. I concur that all boards can be better communicators. It's very important and it's something all of us as people have to work on."

But he added that the public is rightly angry about issues like potential noise from events including music and fireworks, and laid the blame on the Town Board for not making laws that specifically address the matters raised, especially in the case of the events center site plan reviews.  He said the Town Board should have imposed a moratorium to allow time to "muddle through these issues".

"Why and where is the noise ordinance to shut this annoyance down?" he challenged. "This is a town board issue. Where's the fireworks ordinance? After problems at John Joseph and then Aurora-- then you have people with PTSD, loose animals running down Route 90, cows are having a problem with broken partitions in the barn and loose animals, dead sheep in Aurora."

As often seems to happen, issues are raised shortly before new procedures are ready to be put in place.  This was a common occurrence during the years that the Town's Comprehensive Plan took to be revised.  The Planning Board is now working with the Town Agriculture committee to craft a new zoning ordinance that will define a new AG zone, including specifically allowed uses. The AG zone is expected to blanket most of the norther half of the town.

But Davidson said that laws that govern issues that come up in site plan reviews must also be revised.  He warned of further public unrest unless the Town laws are adequately revised, saying, "There will be citizen action if the town board doesn't do something, and is purely out of the Planning Board's hands."

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