Comprehensive Plan Public Hearing 11-30-09 6:30 pm Town Hall

TOWN OF RHINEBECK TOWN BOARD
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Town Board of the Town of Rhinebeck shall hold a public hearing on the following Proposed Actions: adoption of the Comprehensive Plan; Local Law No. 6 of 2009 entitled "A Local Law Amending the Town of Rhinebeck Zoning Law"; and Local Law No. 7 of 2009 entitled "Freshwater Wetlands Law of the Town of Rhinebeck" ("Proposed Actions"), on November 30, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. at the Rhinebeck Town Hall, located at 80 East Market Street, Rhinebeck, New York. On that same date, time and location, the Town Board shall also conduct a special meeting for purposes of dealing with any business that comes before the Board in relation to the said Proposed Actions and the adoption of the same. The meeting shall commence after the closing of the public hearing. The purpose of the public hearing is to provide the public and interested agencies with the opportunity to comment on the changes which have been made to the Proposed Actions by the Town Board subsequent to the close of the joint public hearing held on the three actions and on the Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement ("FGEIS") on August 19, 2009. The Town of Rhinebeck Comprehensive Plan as proposed in August of 2009 addresses most aspects of life in the Town of Rhinebeck, including: economic growth; affordable housing; home based work; agriculture and open space; historic resources; fire districts; water/sewer; transportation; and recreation, scenic and cultural resources, among others. The Plan proposes more than 400 actions for possible adoption by the Town Board. The Plan also incorporates a Biodiversity Assessment commissioned by the Town Board contained in a report by Hudsonia, Ltd. entitled “Significant Habitats,” and the Rhinebeck Open Space and Affordable Housing Implementation Plan. The Zoning Law as in August of 2009 has been designed to be consistent with the actions recommended in the Comprehensive Plan. The Local Law substantially amends the existing Zoning Law and Zoning Map adopted by the Town in 1989. New zoning districts have been created and a variety of land uses have been added or removed from the list of allowable uses. Residential densities have been increased in parts of the Town deemed appropriate for compact development, and decreased in other parts of the Town deemed more appropriate for rural, agricultural, forestry and open space uses. The Zoning Law provides for a Conservation Subdivision design to be used as a tool for most new residential development within the Town, and new standards governing lighting, signage, noise, landscaping, parking, storm water management, affordable housing, habitat management, solar energy/green building construction have been added. The Wetlands Law as proposed in August of 2009 has been designed to protect water quality and quantity in the Town of Rhinebeck by utilizing watershed based approach and is designed to limit development from occurring with a wetland and its associated upland buffer areas. Some activities which are known to be detrimental to water quality are prohibited and other activities are regulated to evaluate potential environmental impacts and insure proper construction procedures are conducted. The proposed Wetlands Law has been designed to be consistent with the recommendations contained in the Comprehensive Plan and would require issuance of a Wetlands Permit by the Planning Board before certain development activities could be initiated within the wetlands and adjacent upland buffer areas.
Subsequent to the close of the August 19, 2009 public hearing and after due consideration of the comments of the public, and interested agencies, and following its own deliberative process, certain changes were made to the proposed actions by the Town Board. These changes included, but were not limited to:
(1) The elimination of the proposed Plan Conservation Neighborhood Overly (PCN-O) Zoning District;

(2) Modification of the provisions allowing for multi-family housing within the RA-10 Zoning District to require a minimum percentage of all new dwelling units housing developments of 50 or more units to contain residential housing mix of single family, two-family and multi-family dwellings, none comprising less than 20% of the total number of units and to provide density bonuses under certain circumstances;

(3) Amendment of the provisions applicable to non-conforming rod and gun clubs amended to allow the operation of such clubs without complete adherence to the noise regulation limits set forth in Article V(X) of the Zoning Law provided that mitigation measures are implemented by the gun clubs to reduce such noise levels;

(4) The Schedule of Use Regulations was amended to allow "small equipment rental or sales" in the CB-S Zoning District as a Special Permit Use. Definitions of small equipment and large equipment rental or sales were added to the Zoning Law;

(5) The requirement of a "Green Building Fee" for new facilities that fail to meet the LEEDS standards was removed;

(6) Certain provisions of the County Inn 2 Special Permit regulations were amended;

(7) Additions were made to the Zoning Law to incorporate recommendations made by the Town's Highway Superintendent;

(8) The Vanderburgh Cove subdivision property was removed from the HP-20 District and placed in the proposed RA-10 District;

(9) Certain uses the Board felt were not appropriate for the Town's HP-20 and RL-5 Districts were eliminated as uses permitted in those Districts;

(10) Modifications were made to Article IX regulating non-conforming uses to clarify the circumstances under which non-conforming uses could be expanded;

(11) The proposed Wetlands Law was modified to restrict the Town's jurisdiction of wetlands to only those wetlands not already under the jurisdiction of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and several other modifications were made to the text of the Law, mostly at the request of the Town's Conservation Advisory Council; and

(12) Modifications were made to the language of the Comprehensive Plan, in particular Chapters 3, 5, 9 and 13 of the same.

Copies of the Comprehensive Plan, Volumes 1 and 2, both Local Laws, and the DGEIS and FGEIS prepared by the Town Board in conjunction with the three actions are available for inspection at the Rhinebeck Town Clerk's Office during regular business hours. Copies of the two local laws in their amended form have been placed on the Town's official website at www.rhinebeck-ny.gov and may be downloaded. Copies of the DGEIS and FGEIS and Chapters 3, 5, 9 and 13 of the Comprehensive Plan and proposed Local Law Nos. 6 and 7 may be accessed through the Town's official website also. Copies of the three proposed actions, the DGEIS and FGEIS are also available for inspection at the Starr Library located at 68 West Market Street, Rhinebeck, New York and the Morton Memorial Library located at 82 Kelly Street, Rhinecliff, New York. Information concerning obtaining hard copies of any of these documents may be obtained from the Town Clerk's Office. All persons desiring to comment on these three actions shall be permitted to do so, either in writing or during the course of the public hearing. Those persons commenting are requested, to the extent possible, to limit their comments on the amendments to the Proposed Actions since the date of the close of the last public hearings. Written comments on all three actions shall be accepted until the close of the public hearing on November 30, 2009. All written comments shall be addressed to the Town Supervisor, Town of Rhinebeck, 80 East Market Street, Rhinebeck, New York 12572. BY ORDER OF THE TOWN BOARD OF THE TOWN OF RHINEBECK.
DATED: November 18, 2009
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BARBARA CUNNINGHAM, TOWN CLERK
TOWN OF RHINEBECK

Thank you,