Town Hall Notes: New Zoning for Country Inns Draws Fire

A discussion at Thursday’s Town Board work session of a proposal to change the zoning definition of country inns soon turned into a back-and-forth with an audience member asking who’s calling the shots in town – civic organizations or elected officials?

The proposal in question would define country inns as consisting of no more than two buildings – as opposed to no more than one building, as called for in current codes.

If approved the new wording would permit the owners of Jedediah Hawkins Inn in Jamesport to turn the barn adjacent to their restored historic building into guest rooms, supplementing the seven rooms in the main structure.

Councilman John Dunleavy argued that the change was needed so the inn could remain profitable. “What they’re trying to do is to better their business,” Dunleavy said. “They have a beautiful building. Do we really want to have the business fail and have the building go dilapidated again?”

He was quickly countered by Sid Bail, former president and current board member of the Wadding River Civic Association, who was sitting in the audience.

“It seems to be the rationale for so many things,” Bail said. “It’s like one thing starts out and morphs into something else. It’s always the same rationale: We’ve got to do this to keep the business viable.

“Where does it end?” Bail asked.

 In response, Dunleavy said, “You have to realize that some of these [civic] associations don’t want us to do anything. They fight everything we do. They fought the convenience store in Calverton, and now everybody goes there.”

Looking at Bail, he continued, “Sid’s sitting here and he’s a member of a civic. Do you believe that they ever came in and said, ‘You’re doing a great job?’ Or do they come in and argue about what we want to do?”

“We don’t have lawyers who are paid $200 an hour to represent different causes, so, yes, we’re frequently on the defensive,” Bail said. “But to characterize us as completely negative, I really resent that comment.”

“We were elected to make decisions,” Dunleavy replied. “We have to do what’s good for the town and not little portions of the town.”

After tempers cooled, board members concluded more work was needed on the wording changes for country inns.

“We’re certainly not in a position to go to a public hearing,” said town attorney Bob Kozakiewicz, who had presented a draft of the code revision, and the meeting turned to other matters.

Proposal for a garbage district

Also left unresolved at Thursday’s work session was a proposal by the Business Improvement District to create a separate garbage district, which would collect taxes from downtown business owners to support the creation of two enclosed Dumpster corrals.

Currently, Dumpsters are not allowed in town parking lots, the result of a code change during a previous administration, a decision that Supervisor Sean Walter described Thursday as “off the wall.”

According to deputy town attorney Anne Marie Prudenti – who spoke to the BID’s proposal in the absence of its president, Ray Pickersgill – many business owners downtown don’t have enough land to house a Dumpster. But, she added, BID management doesn’t want to return to the old system having Dumpsters strewn throughout parking lots.

Dunleavy agreed. “Who wants to pass by a Dumpster on their way to a restaurant?” he asked.

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said she liked the idea of centralized enclosed Dumpsters, but  didn’t think much about creating a separate district because it would result in business owners paying taxes to four separate entities – the town, the BID, the parking district and now a garbage district.

Giglio recommended requests for proposals be sent to private carters who could finance the Dumpster pads themselves and then enter contracts with individual businesses based on the amount of trash they produce.

No decisions, however, we made.