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Council to introduce three ordinances clarifying building lines, pesticide use on town property and biomass removal
Summary
The council agreed to introduce three ordinances: (1) clarify the established building line and curb‑cut rules, (2) extend the county's prohibited-pesticide list to town property, and (3) expand prohibitions on biomass removal (with edits sought on leaf-compost language). Members also debated whether the town should assume responsibility for sidewalk aprons across driveways.
The Somerset Town Council directed the town attorney to prepare three ordinances for introduction: one to clarify the definition and application of the established building line (EBL) including treatment of cul‑de‑sac lots and unbuilt ('paper') intersections and to add criteria limiting curb cuts to one per lot; a second to prohibit on town property any pesticides the county registers as prohibited (incorporating the county list by reference); and a third to broaden restrictions on removing biomass and invasive vegetation from town property.
During discussion of the EBL ordinance, Attorney Ron explained that some cul‑de‑sac lots should be included in an averaged EBL and that where there are fewer than two comparable buildings, no EBL would be calculated and the default 25‑foot setback applies. Several council members asked Ron to add clarifying language and an exception pathway via the variance process for anomalous lots.
Councilors also debated sidewalk/driveway maintenance: members noted the town’s current code can require homeowners to install and maintain aprons and asked Ron to draft edits so the town would maintain aprons after initial installation (section 1‑70‑3 was identified as the appropriate code location). Members favored prioritizing safety-critical repairs and using a schedule to phase replacements to reduce immediate budget impacts.
On the biomass removal ordinance, the council supported prohibiting removal of invasive species in many contexts but several members recommended removing a sentence that would have broadly banned removal of leaf compost/leaf mulch — they concluded that leaf compost can be beneficial and voted to delete that prohibition in the draft. The attorney agreed to adjust the language and confirmed he would prepare the three ordinances for introduction.
