At the Mercy of Planning Board To the Editor: It's unfair when planning and zoning boards make decisions which do not follow the letter of the law. The only recourse a resident has to rectify a decision is to spend their hard-earned money and file a lawsuit against the board and applicant. In Mamakating a use variance request was decided October 12 in favor of the applicant. The law for use variance approval requires meeting four conditions and the law states you must satisfy all four. One condition is the applicant must provide a "dollars and cents" analysis that they can't realize a reasonable return for each and every allowable use in that zone. A letter fro a realtor indicating that the commercial property was put on the market for a year and there were no offers does not satisfy this requirement. Langdon Chapman, Deputy Town Attorney, advised the zoning board it needed "competent financial evidence…dollars and cents proof." Sullivan County Planning Commissioner, Dr. William J. Pammer, Ph.D., wrote "…the applicant has not met all the criteria for use variance…" in his review. In my opinion the zoning board has stretched its discretion to the limits and in some cases beyond. The members wield their power as they want because working class people can't afford to take them to task. Richard W. Morris |