Bethel looks to the future

By LIAM MAYO
Posted 2/1/23

WHITE LAKE, NY — The Bethel Town Board inaugurated its comprehensive plan update process in a meeting on January 25.

A comprehensive plan helps guide a municipality in preparing for its …

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Bethel looks to the future

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WHITE LAKE, NY — The Bethel Town Board inaugurated its comprehensive plan update process in a meeting on January 25.

A comprehensive plan helps guide a municipality in preparing for its future, incorporating studies and community input to inform land-use policies and local regulations.

Bethel last updated its comprehensive plan in 2006. Common practice holds that a municipality should update its comprehensive plan every 10 years or so, to reflect the ways the community has changed since its last revision and to help the community meet its new challenges.

The town has been tentatively awarded funding to update its comprehensive plan through the Smart Growth program, funded by the state’s Environmental Protection Fund, supervisor Dan Sturm announced.

Sturm hailed the grant as good news. “Much has changed since 2006,” he said; the updated plan will balance urban and rural lifestyles, and grow the economy to meet the needs of its residents.

Areas of interest Sturm named as focus points for the update included market studies, age-friendly living, housing, clean-energy services and tourism.

The process of putting together a comprehensive plan can take a variety of forms. While the specific form that Bethel’s would take remained to be seen, Sturm emphasized the need to involve community stakeholders, and to emphasize environmental sustainability and  community character. “Resident input is vital,” he said.

“This is a long time coming, and I’m looking forward to getting the comprehensive plan started,” said town councilwoman Victoria Simpson.

During the meeting’s public comment period, Jonathan Hyman spoke as the president of the Smallwood Civic Association (SWCA) and on behalf of Smallwood Active Residents Team. He pressed the board for clarity on the process of the plan, and encouraged participation from all members of the town, not just homeowners.

The incredible real estate pressure and incredible influence of short-term rentals on every aspect of the community, including environmental sustainability, quality of life and smart growth, must be taken into account in the comprehensive planning process, Hyman said.

Sustainable Bethel

Earlier in the meeting, Sturm highlighted the sustainability work that the town planned to do for the year.

The town board planned to incorporate environmental sustainability into its two big projects: its highway barn and its town hall.

The town plans to refurbish its town hall to Passive House standards, which aim to bring projects toward carbon neutrality through high energy efficiency. The highway barn project won’t be a Passive House building, but it would be an energy-efficient and money-saving building.

The town built a solar array on its capped landfill in 2022: it’s still working through difficulties with subscriptions for that project, but power is already being generated.

And the Sustainable Bethel committee will work to recertify the town as a bronze-level NYS Climate Smart Community, a certification first achieved in 2018.

Sturm thanked all the members of the committee who had served over the years.

Planning board questions

Members of the board at the end of the meeting took a moment to comment on the planning board—or rather, to emphasize that they could not comment on the planning board.

At a January 9 meeting of the Town of Bethel planning board—in a public hearing to address the White Lake Mansion House project—several of those in attendance pressed for the planning board to broadcast its meetings and to provide its documents to the public online.

“There are more than 10 members of our civic association who wanted to participate in tonight’s meeting, but were unable to due to location, health concerns or family obligations. Nevertheless, these members and others prefer to be active participants in their government and their community and in order to do so must have timely access to documents and meetings,” said Meghan Caracci, speaking on behalf of the SWCA.

Planning board chairman Jim Crowley told those in attendance that the town board decided whether the planning board should have to broadcast its meetings online.

“Mr. Crowley spoke in error,” said Simpson, revisiting the issue on January 25. “We as the town board, an elected body, cannot and should not be telling the planning board that they must or must not Zoom a meeting.”

Simpson praised the work that the planning board did and the dedication of its volunteer members, and emphasized that the town board should not influence its fellow bodies. She had asked the members of the planning board, and they were unanimous: they did not want to broadcast their meetings online.

“Keep in mind they are local, unpaid volunteers, and our neighbors and our friends,” added Sturm. He encouraged people to bring their concerns to the planning board as allowed.

Bethel, comprehensive plan, sustainability, solar, short term rental

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