Tuesday’s town board meeting featured rising tensions between members over the saga of Saratoga Biochar Solutions’ proposed plant.
A construction moratorium has halted the creation of the fertilizer plant, which faces environmental and health concerns.
Independent Moreau Supervisor Jesse Fish won November’s election, running as a vocal opponent of the proposed plant.
Speaking with WAMC, Fish says the task force, proposed by zoning administrator Jim Martin, will be vital for stakeholder involvement in rewriting zoning codes that date to 1989.
“We need to get everything updated. And we need to get certain codes – I guess you want to call it codes – upgraded. Clarifications so there’s not so much gray area in the different ways that people can interpret how our codes should be read. It should be more black and white; this is this, and that is that. It’s not, ‘well it could be either or,’ depending upon who’s trying to interpret it,” said Fish.
Fish says he has specific demographics he wants to pull from to help determine which revisions best match the will of town residents.
“We have decided that the, or thought anyways, the best idea would be to have two members of the Town Board as representatives, a planning board and a zoning board member. We have two individuals, pro-industry individuals they’ll be owners in the industrial manufacturing zones, we’ll have two individuals from the Not Moreau group that’s been in town here. A farmer and two community members, one will be a realtor and the other a business person,” said Fish.
Thursday’s workshop will not feature a task force roster. Instead, it will give attendees a chance to contribute to and learn about the scope of the task force’s role in rewriting zoning codes.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Republican Kyle Noonan raised concerns about how much progress had been made in selecting task force members without full board input.
“I don’t think it’s terrible to have the community involved at all. But I think we as a board should have some sort of idea how it got this far beyond just an email because I asked for clarity,” said Noonan.
John Donohue, who ran on the Moreau United ticket, pushed back in the meeting. Speaking with WAMC following the meeting, Donohue called Noonan an obstructionist and said his emphasis on a lack of transparency misses the point of Thursday’s meeting.
“And we want the community involved in the process. And that’s what this meeting is about Thursday night. It’s to get some people in, get some ideas, see people who are interested and yeah, we’re gonna pick who’s on the committee, who else is going do it? And he sounds like it’s some secret society or something, it’s not. It’s a first step. That’s what I said, it’s the infancy. It’s the beginning of the process. And we want to get people from all cross sections of town, cross sections of residents, to come in and help with this thing,” said Donohue.
Thursday’s workshop begins at 6:30.
