Residents seek updates to town comprehensive plan

Residents brought up various concerns at the Aug. 10 Monroe Town Board meeting, including the lack of updates to the town’s comprehensive plan.

Resident Curtis Kimbrell encouraged the board to update the comprehensive plan. He said that critical aspects to the town, such as censuses, infrastructure needs, transportation needs and financial aspects should accurately reflect what the town needs now and what will be needed in the future.

Carol Hawxhurst also brought up the comprehensive plan, saying that now that the county-wide sales tax distribution error was being fixed by the state, the town should have the money to work on the comprehensive plan.

Councilmember Mary Bingham spoke in support of revising the comprehensive plan, and said she hopes the board can identify the sections that need to be looked at. Councilmember Bethany Stephens also supported the idea of revising the comprehensive plan, and was in support of a building moratorium being put in place until the comprehensive plan is revised.

Supervisor Maureen Richardson stated that while the town will be getting refunded the money from the county sales tax distribution error, it was not the only budgetary issue that prevented them from revising the comprehensive plan. According to Richardson, the board had to delay addressing the comprehensive plan due to a lack of appropriate funds in the budget. She said she hopes it can be something that will move forward.

Potential bus depot raises concerns

Other residents brought up concerns about a potential bus depot by Orange and Rockland Lake. The bus depot was proposed at a previous zoning board meeting by Joel Mann, and residents expressed concerns online and at the town board meeting about environmental, financial and social issues that come with the proposal.

One resident spoke on the matter, suggesting younger families aren’t moving into the community and that the bus depot would not serve the Town of Monroe.

Councilmember Stephens agreed with some of the concerns towards the bus depot, stating, “If it’s not serving our residents, I’m not sure that it’s necessary in our town, but I do know that people have the right to apply for things and go through the proper different boards, and in my opinion, it appears like the boards are handling those decisions appropriately.”

On the topic of the bus depot, Richardson also acknowledged the lack of young families moving into Monroe, and emphasized that the board acts as land use stewards and is there to make sure everything is done lawfully and properly.

“We don’t get to say, ‘I don’t think this provides value to the community,’ and not allow that person to have something that is lawfully allowable...That district is general business, which is a higher mixed-use district. That’s already been zoned, we don’t have the ability to simply argue that we don’t want it, we just have to make sure that it is done the appropriate way, that there is a minimized impact to the environment...” said Richardson.