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   MORATORIUM

 

WHY A MORATORIUM ?  
  

MAY 12, 2004

PLAN NOW for FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

If enacted, the moratorium would temporarily keep the town from considering any new commercial development until the Corridor Study Committee has time to implement its plan and it will give the Town time to revisit its Zoning Code and make any changes it sees necessary as a result of the study.  

 
The KNGG Board of directors had looked closely at the US9/NY 9H corridor in conjunction with the impacts Widewaters and Dunkin' Donuts'  would have on the Town.  A corridor study had been approved by the Town Board previously and a corridor study committee set up but nothing happened because it was not funded.  
 
Commercial businesses such as Dunkin' Donuts, Stewart's and who knows who else is jumping on the bandwagon to take advantage of customers Widewaters expects to bring to our area.
 
As there is no comprehensive study or policy to handle this situation, the KNGG Board of Directors had come to the conclusion that we must ask the Town Board to declare a moratorium on all commercial development along routes US9 and NY 9H in Kinderhook for a given period so the Town can make this study and then determine how to work it out.  Because things are beginning to happen so quickly, KNGG believes that a moratorium is the only way the Town can manage this growth with any thoughtful planning. "We just keep getting applications. Given the speed in which it occurs, I don’t know if this (study) will be helpful or not," said Planning Board Chairman Ed Simonsed to the Register-Star.
 
Now is the time for the Kinderhook Town Board to enact a moratorium.
        
The Register-Star
MAY 14, 2004

Town Board says no to 9/9H moratorium

By Joe Prout

KINDERHOOK -- While some councilmen may acknowledged traffic congestion from the potential full commercial buildout on Routes 9 and 9H is concerning, the Town Board isn't ready to enact a moratorium on new construction pursue a broad traffic study.

Kinderhook Neighbors for Good Growth representative Meg Moran came before the Town Board recently proposing just that -- starting with at least a 90-day moratorium during which no approvals could be issued for commercials development proposals along the 9/9H corridor. The moratorium would give the town time to develop a traffic analysis to consider the impacts of traffic in the area from full commercial buildout of the corridor.

Moran called for computer program modeling, maybe taking advantage of utilities available from the state Department of Transportation. She said the Town Board could take results from a study and consider its results -- possibly using the information to re-evaluate the town's zoning ordinance.

Councilman Francis Vecellio said Moran tied the proposal for a large shopping center and one for Dunkin Donuts together to drive home her point, that all this proposed construction with potential high traffic flows will create a burden on an intersection that's already near failing, based on DOT admissions.

Vecellio said that Moran noted the need for a detailed traffic study, pointing to changing traffic growth numbers presented by the shopping center developer -- Widewaters -- and Dunkin Donuts.

Meanwhile, the town's 9/9H Corridor Study Committee has hit a snag in its efforts to provide better planning materials, Vecellio said. He said the committee was denied one grant and is considering applying to the DOT for a similar grant.

Vecellio said he doesn't support a moratorium, but he does support a more in-depth traffic study. "I'd like to see as much planning done as possible," he said.

Councilman Keith Stack agreed. "I don’t think the moratorium is necessary," he said. He said Moran didn’t make a case for why the moratorium is called for.

Planning Board Chairman Ed Simonsen said having better information with respect to commercial corridor development would be beneficial, especially if traffic measures were planned ahead of time. "I don’t know if there is a will to do that, though," Simonsen said.

Simonsen questioned whether information could come fast enough to benefit the Planning Board. "We just keep getting applications. Given the speed in which it occurs, I don’t know if this (study) will be helpful or not."

Vecellio said he believed any one project by itself won’t overburden Kinderhook’s infrastructure, but he said he believed if every parcel that could be developed along the corridor had full build-out with high-traffic businesses, that might stop being the case.

"I don’t see what’s on the table now as doing irreparable damage to traffic," Vecellio added.

Stack said the Town Board has supported the corridor study, but only to a point. "The discussion seems to be: We’re all for it as long as someone else pays for it," he said.

Stack said the board needs to decide whether the study is worth it. "I guess we have to be more convinced that we have to start the planning process," he said.

KNGG REPORTS on MORATORIUM

In early 2004, The KNGG recommendation for a moratorium was thoroughly researched by Board Member Meg Moran who presented it to the Town Board. Ms Moran, an attorney, served on the Comprehensive Plan Committee and the Town Planning Board.

KNGG took its recommendation to the Town Board on the evening of May 10, 2004.  Representing KNGG, Meg Moran stated, "Almost two years ago, Supervisor McGivney wrote to DOT and asked for assistance. In his letters, he noted the recent development proposals, including those of a Hannaford grocery store, a donut shop and a Stewart’s, and he requested DOT’s assistance in a coordinated approach to the whole Kinderhook Route 9 corridor. This approach would have been in keeping with the stated goals and mission of the Comprehensive Plan and reflected a concern for the overall impact on traffic and safety that each of these proposals were reasonably anticipated to have and that, as Supervisor McGivney and others realized, needed to be addressed as a whole and not on a piecemeal, case-by-case basis." The DOT did not reply.

"Supervisor McGivney and others have observed that professional guidance regarding traffic considerations would have been helpful at the time of the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan and the related zoning amendments."

A quick look at the numbers illustrates the inevitable short-term failure of the proposed roundabout which DOT has recommended to mitigate the traffic problems for the Widewaters project which would include a Hannaford supermarket and other stores. But the 30-year lifetime for the roundabout projected by DOT’s Howard McCulloch is based on a 2% growth factor. That number is nowhere near reality. The effect of an error in the growth rate can be significant because we are talking about compounded growth. Based on figures presented to the Planning Board with the Dunkin’ Donuts application, in all probability, US9 will fail in approximately five years and NY 9H will fail in approximately 10 years and not in 30 years as McCulloch claims having used the DOT’s 2% growth factor.

KNGG president Allen Schaefer stated, "Ms. Moran’s comments make a very strong case for the Town’s need to step back and look at how future development complements our Comprehensive Plan. If a corridor study is implemented today without a moratorium, the study will be based on today and will not include new projects yet to be built. The study would be inaccurate. We must put a halt to commercial development until the study is finished. Once the study is finished and the Town determines how to move on it, development could continue under the new plan."

Schaefer concluded, "We have given the Town Board more than sufficient facts needed for this moratorium to work well for Kinderhook. Now is the time for the Town Board to act, before we begin to look like Greenport."

In January of 2005, the Town Board reorganized the Corridor Study Committee.  Once again it was not funded. And once more KNGG requests a moratorium on commercial development until the study is complete and the Town has time to put into effect.

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