Published: May 08, 2008 11:06 am         

Hearing set on changes to zoning law

By JIM AUSTIN
Cooperstown Crier

The board of trustees has scheduled a public hearing later this month to accept comments on changes in the Historic and Architectural Control Overlay District section of the zoning law.

The change is a recommendation from the planning board, which has been reviewing the law for more than a year, board member Cynthia Falk told the trustees last month.

Most of the language in the rewritten section has been taken from a model law recommended by the State Historic Preservation Office and the Preservation League of New York, she said.

More than 50 municipalities use the language of the model law in some form, and it has successfully held up to legal challenges.

Falk said the major difference between the model law and what the planning board has recommended is that it does not include a separate Historic Preservation Commission. Instead, the planning board will continue to review any exterior changes to a structure, new construction, demolitions, site development plans, subdivisions, etc.

She said the village does not have the ``people power’’ to man a separate preservation commission of knowledgeable individuals. Instead, the planning board will depend on its advisors.

Also changing in the law is the way demolitions will be handled.

In a letter to the board of trustees, the planning board explained there are currently no criteria to evaluate demolition projects.

An earlier amendment to the law defined historic and architectural significance in regard to contributing status to the Glimmerglass National Register Historic District, but offered no other guidelines.

That can be challenging for the planning board when a structure, like Jane Forbes Clark’s barn on Spring Street, is inadvertently omitted from the national register nomination and ends up being demolished.

``As it stands now, if it is listed on the national register as contributing, you can’t take it down; if it isn’t then you can,’’ the board’s letter stated.

The public hearing will be held Monday, May 19 at 8:30 p.m. in conjunction with the trustee’s monthly meeting. A copy of the changes to the law is available in the village clerk’s office.