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April 4, 2009

First APA reform introduced

[-BULLET-] Bill proposes density bonus for some housing

By KIM SMITH DEDAM

LAKE PLACID — A series of new Adirondack Park Agency reform measures are moving one at a time into legislative review.

Fred Monroe, executive director of the Local Government Review Board, said Friday the first of the three to attain bill status would make it easier to build affordable housing in the Adirondack Park.

Sen. Carl Kruger, chairman of the finance committee, introduced Senate Bill S3367 this week, proposing a four-to-one density bonus for community housing built for seniors, low income and workforce population.

The change would allow up to four units to qualify as one "principal building" in clustered lots "within three miles of a designated hamlet boundary."

The problem is, Monroe said, that 31 — nearly one-third of the 92 towns in the Adirondacks — do not have APA-designated hamlets.

"In the bill, the community housing has to be built within three miles of hamlet with a small 'h,'" Monroe said in a phone interview Friday.

"The way land-use planners define hamlet is different than the way APA classifies Hamlet with a capital 'H.'"

The Review Board is looking to restructure language to encompass all Adirondack towns.

"It's good that the APA is taking a look at affordable housing, but we shouldn't exclude 31 towns," Monroe said.

The reform bills made it to the senate with a small window of town review.

A group of eight town leaders from throughout the park met with APA Chairman Curt Stiles to discuss the bills a few days before they were submitted to the Senate Finance Committee.

Howard Aubin, town councilman from Black Brook, attended that meeting, which was invitation-only and did not reach a quorum from any one town or county political body.

Aubin remains critical of the regulation reform process at APA, saying it should more closely mirror the way towns must change their policies.

But he thought the open discussion was a step forward.

"The one thing that Curtis Stiles did that I did like is that he sat down with eight of us (local officials) and discussed some other issues that we thought needed to be worked on. That was out of the norm for the APA.

"The proper way for the APA to have handled the (reform) change is listed in section 805 of the APA Act. They are supposed to consult with the Review Board and local governments. This is different than just saying, 'Oh by the way, we are making these changes and the purpose of this meeting is to satisfy our legal obligations prior to submitting the bills tomorrow.'"

Monroe said the proposed density reform bill would not have left out 31 towns if it had been vetted through the Review Board.

"If we had real consultation before APA did these things, and by that I mean meaningful dialogue, at least maybe we could have dealt with this before it was introduced to the senate."

When asked how the reform would apply to the 31 towns without hamlets, APA spokesman Keith McKeever said most of them are not wholly within the park and have hamlet communities beyond the blue line, "so there isn't any APA zoning that limits density."

Only 12 of the towns are entirely in the park.

"In a lot of cases with these 12 communities, they have an area within the three-mile buffer of another (neighboring) hamlet," McKeever said. "Like in the Town of Arietta, the three-mile buffer around the hamlet of Raquette Lake leaves opportunity to create affordable housing in Arietta."

Stiles said all three of the reform bills were carefully designed to benefit the Park and its residents and improve overall APA efficiency.

The Kruger bill "helps address the critical need for affordable housing," Stiles said in a statement issued Friday.

Environmentalists also monitoring APA reform said there are ways to revisit hamlet definition.

"If towns believe there is a place in their community that should be designated a hamlet, then there would be an opportunity for them to approach APA for a map amendment," said Adirondack Council spokesman John Sheehan.

"If that's practical and makes sense to the park agency, that would make it easier, since there is no density restriction in hamlets."

Review Board attorneys and APA are discussing the definition, Monroe said.

The other reform bills under consideration look to add fees for APA permits, allow conveyance of development rights and give APA authority to deny permits without a hearing.

E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com

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