News

Zone Change gathering steam
By Elizabeth Prata

Gray--The Gray Town Council has been reviewing zone changes town-wide for about two years. They first began by looking at one segment of town, Rt. 100 south of Gray Plaza, and then decided that a comprehensive approach is wiser. They have been painstakingly reviewing changing zones town wide ever since. Some zones will remain much the same, except for a name change, others will change in that they will have additional uses allowed inside them, or other uses disallowed.

The discussions have been held mostly at Council workshop meetings, every other Monday at 6 p.m. These meetings are not televised like the regular meetings are, but the public is invited and they have been allowed to comment and ask questions.

There are zone segments left to review. Not all zones are ready for hearing. The document is still unfinished, as discussed at the Council's regular meeting on Tuesday, April 5. Councilor Matthew Sturgis spotted several long-standing errors that had not yet been fixed, and raised several other substantive questions in addition to addressing the inaccuracies.

Councilor Foster also had concerns, as well as the public, expressed during a lengthy portion of the agenda dedicated to discussion on the item. The Council was queried repeatedly as to what the rush was for passing the zoning draft to the Planning Board for a public hearing when it was inaccurate and unfinished.

Several citizens posited the notion that the hurry was because outgoing Chair Pam Wilkinson and outgoing Vice-Chair Lynn Olson want to leave a legacy. Others wondered if perhaps they must accomplish the change before elections on June 14 for fear that the next Council will not be so eager to approve the new zone changes. Ms. Wilkinson disagreed with that view, saying that the draft was 85% complete and it was time to open up the draft to wider exposure and opportunity for comment at a different venue, such as the Planning Board.

After all was said and done, the vote to pass the draft to the Planning Board was 4-1 with only Mr. Foster opposed.

The timeline for the upcoming events surrounding this issue were outlined by Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz to the Council in an e-mail, as follows:

"If this Council is to take any action on their work products, the final (2nd reading with a Council public hearing has to occur no later than June 7. To meet that deadline, you must send over to the Planning Board (PB) the attached order with some of the zones.

This permits the PB to make the proper notifications hold their hearing either on April 28 or May 12 and immediately send it back to the Council for a first read at your May 17 Council meeting. The PH occurs on June 7. If you miss this April 5 agenda and hold it off till April 19, we run the risk of running out of time and unless there is a special council meeting no later than June 13, you leave the action to a future Council."

 

 

 

 

 

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