LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — “This is a small town, we don’t need to get into anything fancy,” said planning consultant Tom Shepstone.

He was introducing an update to the Town of Cochecton’s comprehensive plan during a public hearing on February 8.

A comprehensive plan collects a town’s goals and demographic information, looking to guide land-use policies and future development. Cochecton’s comprehensive plan was written in 1972 and updated in 1998 and 2011.

The 2023 update keeps the plan current with the times, said Shepstone. Nothing dramatic had changed since the previous update—there hadn’t been a lot of growth, and while school enrollment was declining, that was a problem all over the country.

The update includes draft regulations to address two of the town’s growing issues, short-term rentals (rooms or homes listed on sites like Airbnb or Vrbo), and the large-scale batteries used to store power from renewable energy projects. These regulations would have to be adopted separately from the comprehensive planning process.

Planning board chair Earl Bertsch said that he was very happy with the proposed battery regulations, and encouraged the board to adopt them.

Larry Richardson, the town’s representative to the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) and the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway (UDSB), said that he appreciated a number of the points the update touched on, and encouraged the board to apply for a UDC technical assistance grant to fund the zoning revisions that would put the plan into action.

Mitra Behroozi encouraged the town to consider different methods of transportation, including walking and biking, along with the vehicle traffic recommendations in the update. Shepstone replied that he had done studies of train development for the Town of Hancock and for the Towns of Fremont and Delaware together, and recommended a study as the way to address that topic.

Bertsch addressed as well the update’s position on tiny homes. It suggests that the town reduce its minimum dwelling size from 850 square feet to 500 square feet to address a demand for tiny homes; the planning board had spent a lot of time discussing it, said Bertsch, and came to that number as a consensus.

Town supervisor Gary Maas addressed the short-term rental issue in his comments on the update.

Short-term rentals will be taken care of in zoning laws if the town decides to go that route, he said. It would require a lot of work—the town would have to hunt properties down (he said the county hadn’t worked well with the town to do so), and certifying short-term rentals puts the town in a position of liability.

The town board voted to adopt the update after the close of the public hearing. Somewhere down the road, it will update local laws to match, said Maas.

Upper Delaware Scenic Byway

Later in the meeting, Richardson reported to the board in his capacity as Cochecton’s representative to the UDSB.

John Pizzolato will take a six-month, $35,000 position with the UDSB as a program manager, said Richardson. Pizzolato previously served as the Highland representative to, and the chair of, the UDSB, before the Highland Town Board removed him from his position following Pizzolato’s unsuccessful candidacy for town supervisor.

The members of the UDSB are all volunteer, and the programs the UDSB engages in (including its work to establish a visitors center in Callicoon) would benefit from management, said Richardson. The UDSB received a $40,000 grant from New York State, allowing it to shift funds around to pay for the position.

Projects for Cochecton

Maas concluded the meeting by highlighting two projects he intends for the town in the year ahead.

The old town hall had an “honorable” board that highlighted Cochecton’s veterans. Maas plans to move it from the old town hall to the new, giving it greater visibility. He encouraged people to reach out if they knew any veterans from Cochecton and would like to put their names on the board.

Maas also plans to bring the dove at the Fosterdale Motel Lodge—one of Sullivan County’s dove-trail installations—back to the town hall. That property underwent a change in ownership, said Maas, and he doesn’t know the plans for it.