Planning board working group advances escrow schedule and wetlands mapping; short-term rental enforcement letters to resume

Town planning staff and board members updated the Clinton Town Board on several planning initiatives: an escrow schedule for development review, restarting short-term-rental enforcement letters through Granicus, and a working group’s effort to better incorporate Natural Resource Inventory (NRI) maps into the town’s wetlands code.

Paul Thomas, chair of the planning board, told the board that the planning board has been developing an escrow schedule to set predictable fees for project review so contracted planning consultants can be paid from escrow rather than using town taxpayer funds. Thomas asked the town board to place the escrow schedule on a future agenda and noted the planning consultant contract with MPV expires at the end of the year and should be added to the January agenda for extension or reauthorization.

Board members said Granicus-generated short-term rental letters should resume; Jeff (planning staff) is rewording the letters to give them more enforcement “teeth.” A small working group of the conservation advisory committee (CAC), planning board members and town board members is meeting to draft code changes to enshrine NRI maps in wetlands law. Board members emphasized the code-change path will require legal review and at least one public hearing before adoption.

Paul Thomas raised the need to clarify the town wetlands law’s relationship to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). He said DEC recently modified how it treats maps and jurisdictional determinations and noted the town’s law should be revised so applicants who obtain DEC jurisdictional determinations are not subject to duplicate town permitting where DEC has already acted.

Ending

Officials said drafts will return to the board in January for further consideration, and that any code revision will follow the standard public hearing and attorney-review process.