The
Saratoga Lake Watershed
Advisory Committee
Growth, Development and Economic Issues
in the
Saratoga Lake Watershed
January
4, 2001
Attendees:
Joe Finn, Rick Hoffman, Bart Germond, Phil Klein, Bob MacMillan, John
Bartow, Bradley Birge, Peter Balet, Bill Lupo, Ray Melander, Larry Benton,
Bill Peck, Dave Adams, George Hodgson, Karen Sklenar, Jennifer Brady-Connor,
Tracey Clothier, Dean Long, Doug Ward.
The
status of the watershed management plan was presented as was a map defining
land use patterns within the watershed. It was noted that a discussion about the values
of stream buffers is in next newsletter.
The
following is a summary of presentations that were provided at the meeting.
Overview
of Existing Standards and Community Efforts
to
Update Comprehensive Plans and Zoning
Eight
communities are updating their comprehensive plans and most are implementing
overlay zones. Overlay zones
are a method to identify a resource and put it into a protective (zoned)
corridor. There are some discrepancies
in the model stream corridor protection overlay zone due to combinations
of different ordinances. Three
towns were emphasized from the discussion paper: Greenfield, Wilton,
and Saratoga.
Town
of Greenfield has a detailed, purely stream corridor ordinance with
a lot of detail and requiring diligent effort to effectively administer.
Town
of Wilton has a comprehensive overlay district for stream corridors
and has an inspection fee per visit to cover costs of monitoring.
Town
of Saratoga is planning an approach using a natural resource overlay
that includes stream corridor protection.
Town
of Milton: For
the last two years the Town has been redoing its comprehensive plan.
The eastern one-quarter will remain high density, commercial,
and industrial with a focus on developing within the town center and
Route 50. The remainder (with some exceptions) is currently 2 acre residential
(R3). The proposal is to limit
development to .1 residential units per acre with incentives up to .2
residential units per acre for cluster development. This will result in a two-thirds reduction of development in the
R3 zone. Existing homes are
grandfathered into the proposed plan but no expansion will be allowed. There is no generic timber component but timber
cutting is limited within the stream corridor and will be considered
within site plan review.
The
Town of Milton is revising site plan review and special use permits
as part of a new Comprehensive Plan. When a site is being reviewed, all wetlands, stream corridors (100’
from the stream center), and steep slopes are removed from the acreage
available for development. The
site plan review will also incorporate stormwater management and erosion
control. The stream overlay zone also applies to single-family
home development or an individual rural lot.
The
Town of Milton’s Code Enforcement Officer (COE) has been involved throughout
the revision process and will be responsible for enforcement.
Under the new plan, the COE will need 12 Continuing Education
Units (education classes) to stay on top of new changes at the state
and federal level.
The
Town of Milton is currently going through the public review process
for its new Comprehensive Plan. There
hasn’t been much turnout in over a dozen meetings held throughout the
town in two cycles. There have
been four public hearings and the Town Board will be holding a public
hearing in February. There are
many substantial changes proposed with impacts on property values.
Town
of Malta: The
Town of Malta has just adopted an Open Space Plan. Saratoga County Planning is in the process
of putting together a toolbox of techniques for all towns to use as
necessary to preserve natural resources.
The Town is also providing incentive bonuses for certain designs.
City
of Saratoga Springs: The
City has quite a bit of “green space”, particularly to the East of Interstate
87. The City’s current planning
effort has a focus on open space protection, and it has an existing
stream protection ordinance. The
City’s zoning ordinance has various resource protective measures including
a stream corridor protection ordinance, watercourse protection, and
soil disturbance regulations. The
zoning ordinance also requires specific site plan review data and approval
standards, and requires special use permit approval standards. These tend to be very subjective standards
designed to give planning boards interpretive leeway due to special
characteristics of City lands.
The
City has also defined eight impact zones, areas where development pressure
requires special authority of the Planning board to review almost any
aspect of a project. This authority
might be used to advance water quality improvements. The City has a web site at http://www.saratoga-springs.org where
all zoning and other laws are posted.
The
NYS Department of State is developing a training module for local planning
boards, and a preview will be at the Association of Towns meeting in
February.
Buffer
Zone Ordinance Discussion
One
proposed product from the Watershed Project is a Watershed Buffer Overlay
Zone. The product will be useful
for communities within the watershed to improve water quality.
For the overlay zone to be effective, it is important to consider
slopes, regulated activities, and how it will be monitored and enforced.
Another important aspect is to have a definitive starting point
from which to measure. It is possible to use the stream center, common
stream bank, or to set a minimum of 100’ from stream center or from
100-year floodplain.
It
was questioned whether there were enough steep slopes to justify consideration
and whether soil erodibility should be considered. After discussion, it was determined that most
stream buffers are not as flat as those of the Kayaderosseras. A suggestion was to place the responsibility
onto the applicant to provide slope and other information, not burden
the planning board. Soil erodibility
was decided to be too complex unless the information was placed onto
a map for easy reference. There
was also concern about how to include single-family residences in the
regulatory process.
Providing
new zones, regulations, or considerations for planning boards one at
a time was deemed important to keep it manageable. The important elements of the overlay district
may be incorporated into the regulations without adopting the entire
overlay district.
To
increase visibility of regulations to the community, it was suggested
to include brief articles in Town newsletters and bulletins. It was also suggested that a long-term commitment
to training be made and that semi-annual or annual workshops be held.
The Department of State has about 40 training courses available
for local governments, including SEQR, and continuing education credits
are in effect. The County Planning
Board expressed an interest in hosting a training session.
Any new regulations must work together as a package.
The County Planning Board is a resource for local government
planning boards. Developers, engineers, and especially surveyors
need this information as well.
Future
Plans
The
next presentation module to local planning boards will focus on Better
Site Design to improve stormwater and erosion control.. It will stress three main points for an erosion
and sediment control plan: land clearing, implementation, and revegetation.
The
next watershed advisory committee meeting is scheduled for February
1. Steven LeMere will present
watershed data collected and will also discuss the Eurasion Water milfoil
control studies. The information
will be distributed before hand to aid in discussion.
