A virtually unknown town committee approved the development and construction
of The Hartford Financial Services building in recent years, in a process that
skirted traditional Planning Board approvals.
There was no public notice
of meetings related to the building at the New Hartford Business
Park.
There was no opportunity for public input. And there were no
official minutes taken of the discussions.
The same is true for all of
the 115-acre business park’s roads, sewers and water system.
And if
changes are not made, any new development in the business park will be subject
to the same behind-the-scenes process, said Planning Board Chairman Jerome
Donovan, who is one of five members of the review committee.
“There is
insufficient transparency in the process,” Donovan said.
Meanwhile, all
other developments in the town must go before the Planning Board and air their
plans in public.
Now, Donovan has created a Planning Board committee to
investigate whether the practice should be changed.
The discrepancy is
the result of 1999 town law mandating that construction in the New Hartford
Business Park be approved by a review committee made up of town employees and
the Planning Board chairman, not under the regular Planning Board process.
The law was passed by the Town Board at a time when New Hartford planned
to purchase the land the business park is on, and pursue development itself.
But the town never did purchase the land, and in 2006, private developer
Larry Adler bought it instead. The law designed for the municipally owned
business park, however, still remains on the books.
Adler declined to
comment on what possible changes to the system would mean.
“I don’t want
to get into hypotheticals,” he said. “Between the staff and the Planning Board,
I hope we can come to a happy medium.”
Expert
opinions
State Committee on Open Government Executive Director
Bob Freeman said the review panel’s practices appear to violate Freedom of
Information laws.
“In my opinion, it should have been conducting its
meetings in accordance with the Open Meetings Law,” he said.
But one law
professor said it was common practice for municipalities to have special laws
governing construction in specific districts, and he didn’t believe the law was
illegal.
“If they designated their town code to designate this area as a
special district with a special review board, it doesn’t matter if it’s
municipally owned or not,” Cornell University Law Professor Eduardo Penalver
said.
Nils Olsen of the University at Buffalo Law School, said the lack of
public involvement was unusual.
“I can’t tell you if it’s legal or
illegal, but I can tell you it’s unusual to have municipal proceedings that
affect the public outside the purview of the public,” he said.
Freeman
said public bodies created for specific purposes that make decisions fall under
Open Meetings Law.
The fact that most of the committee’s members are town
employees doesn’t matter because when they perform committee business, they are
operating in a group created under a law for specific purposes, he said.
The review committee consists of the Planning Board chairman, the codes
enforcement officer, the town engineer, the highway superintendent and the town
planner.
Both Oneida County Planning Commissioner John Kent and Herkimer
County Industrial Development Agency Executive Director Mark Feane said business
parks they are involved with are subject to the public review process of the
municipalities they are in.
The history
In 1994,
New Hartford began reviewing the possibility of putting a business park on about
115 acres of land along Woods Road off Route 5.
The administrations of
supervisors John Kazanjian and then William Keiser optioned the property and
conducted numerous studies.
The law creating the review committee was
implemented under Keiser, who said it was intended to “streamline the process,”
to get the land shovel ready. Once the town had sold a parcel to a developer,
the Planning Board would take over, he said.
“It was never the intent
for that group to usurp the authority of the Planning Board,” he said.
When Ralph Humphreys took office in 2002, the business park plans were
put on hold.
Then, Adler, the developer of The Orchard shopping plaza,
bought the land. And in 2006, he brought his plans before the Planning Board.
He had to do this so the Planning Board could determine whether his plan
would have any negative environmental impact and if he would have to redo any of
the studies the town had already done and paid for.
The Planning Board
never looked at any site-specific plans, Donovan said.
So far, the
business park’s only occupant is The Hartford, though Adler has put in roads and
other infrastructure.
Officials react
Several
past and present town and planning board officials said they didn’t like the
current system.
Hans Arnold, who was chairman of the Planning Board when
The Hartford building was built and other construction was done, said he never
had been comfortable with the setup.
“My sense is it should be done by
the Planning Board,” he said.
Town Supervisor Earle Reed, who entered
office in 2006, said he had not been aware of the law, and had learned of it
recently from Donovan.
Councilwoman Christine Krupa said she believed
the business park should be under the Planning Board’s purview and the reviews
should “occur wholly in the public view.”
At least two members of the
review committee — Town Engineer John Meagher and Town Codes Officer Joseph
Booth — said they felt the same way.
Booth said he was “in total
agreement” that the reviews should fall to the Planning Board.
“The
original intent of the business park was for it to be municipally owned, so the
law is really not applicable any more,” he said.
