Clinton officials weigh extension of moratorium and new rules for conference centers

Deputy Supervisor Elliot (S4) told the Town Board the town is working with the town attorney and planner on draft regulations intended to control — and possibly prohibit — future development of conference centers or similar hospitality venues.

"We are working with the town attorney and also with the town planner to come up with a regulation that will control, if not absolutely prohibited, depending on how this goes, future development of conference centers and hospitality venues," Elliot said. He noted an existing moratorium currently scheduled to expire on Jan. 1 and said the board expects to place an extension on the December agenda to extend the moratorium for another six months to allow time for drafting a law.

Board members acknowledged the process will be multi-month and that a draft may be late for the December meeting. The supervisor said staff have a meeting scheduled with the town attorney and planner to focus on producing a draft the board can review.

The proposal is framed as a planning and zoning regulation issue; no formal ordinance or final text was presented at the meeting, and the board did not take a vote on regulatory language during this session. The deputy supervisor described the extension as procedural: "This will give us plenty of time to do our homework and come up with a law that that we can all be happy with."