TUSTEN, NY — Tusten’s revised zoning law has been a long time coming.

The zoning rewrite process started back in 2012, according to supervisor Ben Johnson. The process got a fresh mandate in 2021 with the completion of a revised comprehensive plan for the town, a plan that establishes guidelines for growth and development that guide the zoning process.

A draft of Tusten’s revised zoning law went before the public on April 12 of this year.

Public concerns at that meeting centered around a pair of issues: parking and the environment. Some commenters expressed belief that the draft law did not do enough to relieve current strains on Tusten’s parking resources; others asserted that it allowed too much development along the river.

A new draft of the revised zoning law attempts to address both concerns.

The earlier draft of the law allowed RV parks as a special use in the scenic river district. Consultant Peter Manning, talking at a July 5 public hearing on the new draft, said that the Upper Delaware Council expressed concerns about that use, and that the zoning rewrite committee replaced it with a new “scenic campground” use in the new draft.

The “scenic campground” use allows property owners with 10 acres or more to establish a campground. At maximum, such a campground can have five sites per acre and two parking places per site, and the campground can have no more than 100 sites in total. RV parks are still allowed in the recreational river district, but they are not allowed in the scenic river district.

The new draft also clarifies the circumstances under which a business can receive a parking waiver.

The April draft of the zoning law gave the planning board the authority to issue a parking waiver to a business in the downtown business district, exempting it from requirements to offer on-site parking. The July draft keeps that language intact, while adding language to clarify what evidence an applicant needs to provide to receive a waiver.

The planning board needs to provide grounds and reasoning based in objective evidence to support that kind of decision, said town attorney Ken Kline. Otherwise, the board’s decision could be overturned through a successful Article 78 case in the courts.

Watchful eyes

The July draft professed to address the concerns expressed at April’s public hearing. Those who had expressed them appeared unconvinced.

Several residents of the scenic river district asked about the extent of the scenic campground use. Who had the right to create a campground on their property, and what would that process look like?

Anyone looking to create a scenic campground had to go before the planning board for a special use permit, said supervisor Ben Johnson. That process would be open to the public, giving concerned neighbors time to evaluate and weigh in on individual projects.

The July public hearing also served as a forum for the latest round of conversations about the need for parking in Tusten.

Narrowsburg Union owner Brendan Weiden expressed concerns about the vehicle issues he saw occurring in the business district. The waiver process eliminated the requirement for businesses to provide on-site parking, he said, as well as requirements for on-site loading and unloading of trucks, potentially leading to a dangerous situation.

Ned Lang, owner of businesses including Enviroventures and the Narrowsburg Inn, said that he had lived in Tusten for 61 years and had not seen a parking issue, and that he was concerned  the planning board would be prejudiced throughout the waiver process, giving waivers to some businesses while denying them to others.

The July draft includes language establishing an extensive process of review for waivers granted by the planning board. It also states, “For uses not requiring Site Plan Review and Special Use Permit in the DB District, the Code Enforcement Officer may waive partially or wholly parking requirements upon a demonstration by the applicant that the required parking cannot be met,” without specifying what that demonstration need be.