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COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING STEERING COMMITTEE
September 6, 2004
Present: Nan Stolzenburg, Rick
Smith, Jenna Smith, Dave Wood, Dawn Szurek, Dave Adams, Steve Caine, Maria
McCulloch, Jim Leupold, Deborah Herrin, Lynda Battenhausen, Midge Dube, Peggy
Gains, Dot Mitchell. Steve Caine opened the
meeting at 7:15 P.M. The Minutes of
August 2, 2004 were approved as written.
Steve asked if anyone had any additions or changes to the agenda. Dave Adams said that if time allows, he
would like to discuss a concern some people had last month in discussing
whether a new well would interfere with an existing well. Steve asked Nan if she had any comments to
add about the revision of the survey results.
Nan said she emailed everyone a copy of the revisions. She suggested that the members read through
it and if there are other suggestions for changes, to let her know. Dave Adams asked why the results of question
#14 from the survey were still not on the website. He can’t find it. Steve
said he thought it was on the website and will check into it. Steve said if it was an open ended question
it would have been categorized and may not be listed specifically as #14. He said there were three water related
questions grouped together in #14. Dave
said he will double-check the site again and Steve also said he will check the
situation out and let everyone know what the status. Nan stated that she still needs to do a written narrative and
will do that soon. Steve said in
looking back at the minutes, question #6 asked if residents would pay
additional taxes for public water. That
question was going to be broken out into private wells and public. Nan read #6, which was a three-part
question; “what is your source of drinking water; are you concerned with any of
the following; and would you be willing to pay extra taxes to receive public
water?” Nan said she would make sure
that it gets broken out into private wells and public water. Steve thanked Maria
McCulloch for compiling the data on seniors and asked her to comment on the
data. Maria said she didn’t find the
senior information drastically different from everyone else. She said that one-third of the households
didn’t answer question #7 probably because they aren’t aware of any
services. Steve said one of the
concerns that came out of the focus groups, and something he would like the
committee to keep in mind, was that the seniors who need the services the most
probably aren’t answering the survey.
Steve told the members that at the next Town Board meeting, as a result
of the focus groups, they will be doing a briefing on senior services. He suggested if anyone has any suggestions
or comments regarding the senior services, they should attend the Town Board meeting. Steve said he would like to see a list of
services in the town phone directory.
Midge Dube said that from the senior focus groups they heard people say
that some of them knew about the services that are available through the
county, but a lot of people don’t know they have access to those services. It might help the seniors if there was a
visual reinforcement of the services available to them. Dave Wood said it would be good to know for
sure if that is the case, and if there was a preponderance of seniors who
answered the questions. Many of the
committee members felt there was no way of determining how many seniors
answered the questions. Steve asked the committee
if there were any questions on the Community Image Survey or the Build Out
Analysis. He told the members that if
there were to be a new town hall, the architect who will take on the job would
take into consideration the input from the Community Image Survey. Steve said he told the Town Board that some
of the things that were on the Community Image Survey and what is on the
website for a future town hall are not in alignment with the Community Image
Survey. No one had comments on the
Build Out Analysis. The Vision Statement was
the next topic of discussion. Nan said
that for the Vision Statement she pulled together information from the public
meetings and surveys. The Vision
Statement needs to be realistic and reflect the direction the town wants to
go. Nan referred to the Vision
Statement Development Matrix she compiled and said she looked at the
information from the vision workshops, the community image survey, the focus
groups, and the written survey results, especially the open ended questions
about what the residents liked and didn’t like and what they feared, and pulled
out topics that indicated a concern, a direction, or desire for the
community. She titled the topics, but
said the committee can change the titles if they prefer something
different. Nan took all this
information and came up with the Vision Statement. Nan told the committee that they must
remember, and the community must know that the Comprehensive Plan is based on
the resident’s values and goals. The
committee should come up with a shared vision that everyone will feel
comfortable with and work toward attaining.
If everything goes right and the perfect vision of the town is attained,
the Vision Statement should describe the town of Charlton in 15 years. The Vision Statement Nan supplied is
in her words and the committee needs to change and edit the statement as they
see fit. Nan summarized all the
comments into eight major topics:
management of growth; community character; environmental quality; sense
of community; infrastructure capacity and public services; agriculture;
recreation; and housing. She said that
she might have put some information into a certain topic that the committee may
feel they want to split out into several different topics. The committee will
be coming up with strategies and recommendations for each one of the eight
topics. At the bottom of page one of
the Vision Statement is an overall statement. On page two, each topic is detailed. Steve asked Nan what the next level of detail would be. She said from the overall vision and the
specific topics there will be one or more goals for each topic, which will form
the direction the committee needs to take.
Then there will be one or more objectives, which should be more specific
and give a milestone to reach. Under
the objectives would be strategies and action items, which will need to be put
into place. The hierarchy is vision,
goals, objectives and strategies. Steve
asked Nan how the committee should proceed.
She suggested looking at the overall vision statement and decide if it
captures what the committee learned from all the public input. The titles of the topics can be
changed. Dave Adams feels the
Vision Statement is too definitive and would hesitate giving this information
to the public because he isn’t sure to what degree they can accomplish
them. He feels it should be more
general at this time. Dave had a Vision
Statement from another town in Saratoga County and read it to the committee,
substituting the town of Charlton in the statement because he feels it
fits. “The Town of Charlton is a
community that celebrates its agriculture, open spaces and rural lifestyle. Our goal is to preserve these special
qualities by thoughtfully managing growth so that we remain a desirable
community in which to live and work for generations to come.” Dave feels something similar to that would
be good for Charlton. He would also add
some of the things Nan talked about such as recreation opportunities,
preservation of historical character, protection of natural resources, senior
services, and visual quality. Lynda Battenhausen asked Dave what specific
things he was concerned about. Dave
said that one of the phrases he’s uncomfortable with is “the Hamlet of Charlton
serves as the focus for community life and small business uses.” He said that most of the business uses in
the Hamlet are there because they were pre-existing uses when zoning was put in
effect. The Historical District Zoning
prohibits commercial uses. Dave feels
talking about the Hamlet being a focus for small business uses is not in accordance
with what exists now. He is opposed to
anything that tries to promote commercial growth. Steve said he doesn’t believe there is any commercial enterprise
that is allowed in town without a special use permit. He said he isn’t sure if there is a stipulation in the zoning law
that prescribes no commercial uses in the Hamlet even with a special use
permit. Dave said he’s fairly sure it
is in the Historic District. He will
check on that. He feels the words imply
that it’s a desirable thing to promote commercial development. Dorothy Mitchell agrees that the way it is
worded sounds like commercial growth is being promoted in the Hamlet. Steve believes the committee needs to think
about what the purpose of a vision statement is. He feels the definition of a
vision statement is when you try to describe an end state that you want to be
at in a certain point in the future. If
the townspeople have described a specific end state they want in the future,
then it needs to be in the vision statement.
He doesn’t feel you can list categories without having an end
state. Nan said that the purpose is not
to take the current zoning and turn it into the end state. The purpose is to find out what the end
state should be and then decide if there are any changes that need to be done
to the zoning to get to that end state.
She said moderate to heavy-duty commercialization of the town was not a
desirable end state. However, there
were a lot of people who commented about encouraging home-based businesses and
small businesses in the town and wanting that focus to be in the Hamlet. She stated that it came up frequently on the
surveys that the Hamlet should be the center of community residential and
commercial life rather than starting a new business district elsewhere. Dawn Szurek stated that #12 on the survey
asks “if you are interested in seeing commercial development in Charlton, where
would you locate it?” Thirty-one, ranked number two, said highway 67
(Amsterdam/Ballston Spa Road). While
the Hamlet wasn’t listed, 8 answered Highway 51 (Charlton Road), and 61 (ranked
#1) said not interested in commercial development. Dave Adams stated that everything that he has seen and heard so
far has told him that people are happy with the residential/agricultural nature
of the town. If this is the case, he
doesn’t think commercial activity should be mentioned in the vision
statement. After more discussion Steve
stated that a vision statement needed to be created that best expresses what
the townspeople want in 15 years. Dave
Adams disagreed and said that all the information received from everything that
was done is that the people like the town the way it is now, and this is how
they want to see it in the future.
Steve recommended identifying all the issues tonight and delve into more
detail of the issues at the next meeting.
Dawn Szurek said she believes the problem is the word commercial. It conjures certain images. After considerable discussion it was decided
to change the sentence that reads “We have managed residential and commercial
growth…” to read “We have managed residential and business growth…” Dave Adams asked for clarification about
publishing the Vision Statement for public comment. Steve said everything we do should be available to the public. Dave asked if both pages one and two of the
Vision Statement will be made public or just the Vision Statement at the bottom
of page one? Nan said the second page
that has the topics was additional information basically for the committee to
use. The important section is the
overall Vision Statement at the bottom of the first page. Dave Adams said that the part of the Vision
Statement that concerns him is the section that reads “…and the Hamlet of
Charlton serves as the focus for community life and small business uses.” He would delete small business uses. Midge Dube said she doesn’t feel that
portion should be deleted. She said at
the senior focus groups one of the things that was discussed was as people are
getting older they are looking forward to having a new town hall and possibly a
senior center in the Hamlet and transportation back and forth where they could
be a part of activities for seniors.
Seniors also talked about senior housing in the Hamlet where they would
have access to a senior center and the town hall. Steve said the committee would be dealing with the language of
general vs. specific as they move forward on this project. He feels the more specific the language, the
more it’s action oriented. Nan said she
took a lot of her cues from the little yellow sticky notes where people wrote
down what they saw as their perfect vision.
After much more discussion it was decided to change the sentence “…and
the Hamlet of Charlton serves as the focus for community life and small
business uses,” to read “…and the Hamlet of Charlton serves as the focus for
community life.” Deborah Herrin liked the
idea of showing the residents examples of topics explaining that this is
feedback of what the committee might be looking at in terms of goals. Nan thought that the next public meeting was
going to be for the vision and the goals.
Any of the topics could be transferred over into goals. The committee went over
the Topic Visions on page two and edited them. After considerable discussion
about commercial growth and businesses in the Hamlet, the committee agreed to
the edit under Management of Growth the sentence stating
“Commercial growth is concentrated in the Hamlet business district and is
predominated by small, family-owned businesses,” to read “Business growth is
predominated by small, family-owned enterprises.” Steve asked that the data be looked at in regard to home
businesses. Under Community
Character the sentence that reads “…is protected through careful
attention to our roadways, streetscapes, scenic corridors…” will be changed to
read “…is protected through careful attention to our roadways, streetscapes,
scenic views…” Under Infrastructure
Capacity and Public Services, the first sentence reads “Charlton
coordinates infrastructure policies (for roads, water and sewer) with
development policies…” and will be changed to read “Charlton coordinates
infrastructure policies with development policies…” The next sentence states, “An enhanced
transportation system provides for safe streets…” and will be changed to read, “Charlton
provides for safe streets…” Under Housing
the sentence that reads “Charlton has neighborhoods that meet the needs of
all residents for decent, affordable housing and convenient access to community
facilities” will be changed to read “Charlton has neighborhoods that meet
the needs of all residents for diverse housing opportunities and
convenient access to community
facilities.” A lengthy discussion
ensued on “convenient access to community facilities” and transportation issues
for seniors/residents. A suggestion was
made that the phrase be changed to “community programs and facilities are
readily available.” Dave Adams brought up the
concern some people had last month about new wells possibly impacting existing
wells. He feels there is a need to
understand better whether this can happen, and how it can happen, what actions
could be taken if it does happen, and what actions could be taken to keep it
from happening. Dave spoke with Sam
Gowen (waiting to find out what his business is) and asked him if he would be
willing to meet with some committee members to discuss this. He would charge $100/hour. Dave proposed for the committee’s
consideration a subcommittee to meet at Sam Gowen’s office, who is the head of
Alpha Geoscience, who would in turn, report back to the Steering
Committee. Dave would like to be on the
committee and recommended Midge Dube, Steve Caine, Deborah Herrin and Jim
Leupold be on the subcommittee as well.
He asked that Nan attend if she’s available. Dave said it would give the committee information on this subject
to better understand it, and possibly develop things that the committee might
consider recommending for the Comprehensive Plan. Steve said the cost for this is not in the budget and he would
have to check on it. Steve said the next
meeting is October 4th and the following meeting is November 1st. He said he and Nan discussed the difficulty
of getting people together for meetings between Thanksgiving and
Christmas. He’s recommending that in
mid-November, possibly the 17th, the committee hold a public hearing
at the church. This public hearing
would be to update the townspeople on all the data that has been collected to
date, and show them the vision statement and goals the committee has come up
with and get feedback from them. Nan
suggested the possibility of mailing and making available the vision statement
and goals prior to the public hearing so people have time to digest the
contents and will come prepared to the meeting with their questions and
comments. Advertising could be through
the website, a press release, posters, and the town newsletter. Steve said if the goals and vision statement
is completed at the October meeting, he will recommend suspending the November
1st meeting and just have the public hearing in mid-November. If there are still open issues, the
committee will meet November 1st as well. Meeting was adjourned at
9:15 P.M. |
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