Bi-partisan effort to require zoning training in NY

[Tsiyu]

From the Ithaca (NY) Journal online:

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060707/OPINION01/607070335/1014



Rural planning: Training law a good start Paying propers to NYSEG


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One accomplishment that shouldn't get lost in the closing-bell fury now sits on Gov. George Pataki's desk. Recommended by the Legislature's Commission on Rural Resources and submitted before the session started on Jan. 4, a bill to require a minimum level of training for local planning and zoning officials finally got off the Assembly's floor on June 20. The two-house, bipartisan commission is chaired by area Republican Sen. George Winner and includes local Democratic Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton. After a series of hearing throughout Upstate co-sponsored by Cornell's Cooperative Extension program, a recommendation to create some uniform minimum for training local planning and zoning board members emerged and was transformed into legislation (S.6316/A.9259). The bill calls for all people appointed to county, city, town and village planning and zoning boards to get at least four hours of professional training each year. No member can be reappointed without meeting that standard. There are many free land use and planning training programs run by the state and various municipal government associations so Winner said there should be little financial burden for local officials. The bill even has an escape clause, allowing local governments to waive the training requirement if “it is in (their) best interest” to do so.



Far from ambitious, the bill is a very modest first step. Land use issues abound in Upstate New York, from managing development in Tompkins County to attracting development in many less prosperous areas. Local officials face their own hurricane of complex issues and competing demands. It is in their interest, and in the interest of the people whose land and investments these boards can control, to insure that everyone is up to the task.


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