About 100 or so Hurley citizens crowded into town hall Tuesday evening to take in and comment on an information session on the latest update to the town’s draft comprehensive plan. The presentation made by town planner Bonnie Franson was followed by a public comment period in which some 25 residents asked questions and offer opinions on the draft.

The draft, prepared by environmental and land-use engineering firm Nelson, Pope, and Voorhis, where Franson is a partner, was released to the public in mid-April. A comprehensive plan is a document that collects information about a municipality, details goals and suggests improvements.

“Some of those recommendations may be immediate needs, immediate actions, others may take some time to implement, and some are continuing just ongoing implementation measures,” said Franson. “The idea is to get input from the entire community to determine what direction town-wide citizens want for the evolution of the town — how it wants it to be directed. And, very importantly, it is an opportunity to attract investment and support future funding opportunities.”

Franson said land-use regulations and zoning cannot be changed unless the changes align with a comprehensive plan. Therefore, she said, some of the improvements suggested in the draft could not be made otherwise. Both Franson and Town Supervisor Melinda McKnight noted that the comprehensive plan does not require the changes, as it is not law in itself, but more a vision statement upon which laws are based.

“It's not about thou shalt adopt this new law, new zoning, tomorrow,” Franson said. “It's to provide the context to then be able to evaluate the zoning changes as we go through another process.”

The town has stated that the suggestions in the draft plan reflect feedback from an online survey and a workshop meeting conducted last year. The online survey, Franson said, received about 200 responses; the workshop meeting had about 70 attendees. The respondents named Hurley’s rural, small-town character as its most valued attribute and expressed concerns about development demands and housing prices.

Franson’s presentation examined the past, present and future of Hurley based on statistics and public input and mostly addressed proposed development provisions within the draft.

In 2020, Hurley’s census population was just over 6,100, with a median age of approximately 50 years old. Franson noted that single-family residences, as opposed to multi-family and accessory dwellings, currently encompass approximately 73 percent of the town’s land use and 91.7 percent of its residential land use. She also noted that responses from the survey and workshop meeting indicate that Hurley citizens prefer single-family residence developments to multi-family dwelling proposals.

However, the comprehensive draft includes provisions for more accessory dwelling units, housing for the elderly and multi-family housing developments. The draft considers speeding up the application process for accessory dwelling units by sidestepping the town planning board and putting proposals immediately in front of the town board. The draft suggests adding bonuses for development projects that promote affordable, senior, or a “mix of housing options.”

Respondents to the survey and workshop meeting named a bakery or specialty food shop as the most coveted economic development and a farmers’ market as the best tourism use. The draft proposes two floating zones that would allow non-residential developments related to industry or tourism uses. In addition, it proposes new nonresidential zones to cover existing large manufacturing areas in residential zones, making it easier for the manufacturing already there to expand.

The draft also suggests adding sidewalks in parts of the town to protect schoolchildren and pedestrians, and additional road signage to define town borders and limits more clearly.

Franson’s presentation was met with a range of responses from the public. Former town supervisor John Perry was the first to speak and questioned the locations of the provisions for housing and commercial developments. “We don't know where they're going to happen,” he said.

Franson replied that after the comprehensive plan is adopted a map will be developed to show possible development areas, but the draft itself is vague because it needs some “wiggle-room,” as it’s based off current land uses and districts.

The majority of the draft’s suggestions, from streamlining the accessory housing application process to adding extra road signage, met both favor and opposition within the crowd. One resident claimed that accessory dwellings, though temporary in nature, would remain through generations and crowd up residential land.

Not all agreed. “As I age, I envision having an accessory dwelling on my property near my garden, near my husband's woodshop, where I can stay in place with his family,” countered another resident.

Even the notion of adding sidewalks caused contention, with some citizens advocating for safer walking routes and others insisting that sidewalks would compromise the town’s rural feel.

“We know where we can walk and we can't walk,” said one resident. “We don't need sidewalks. We're all used to getting in our cars to go down the road to grab a quart of milk. I think we're trying to make it more like a city, and less like the country.”

Residents also brought up issues from karst formations under houses bordering Marbletown, to concerns about a proposal in the Town of Woodstock to build another gas station at the corner of Basin Road and Route 28, that were not included in the draft.

A number of residents expressed concerns that the draft only voiced a tiny portion of public opinion, as the 270 responses garnered in the survey and workshop meeting comes to less than 5 percent of Hurley’s population. At the mid-point of the meeting, one resident’s statement that the draft’s reflection of public opinion was a “failure” was drowned out by a chorus of attendants crying, “It’s a draft!”

“The draft, the work product that the planners are presenting will be adjusted, considering all of the feedback we're getting,” said Supervisor McKnight. “This is not a fait accompli. This is not the plan that we're going to adopt. This is for your consideration.”

According to McKnight, the town board and the town planners will take the comments into consideration and create a new draft within the next few weeks before scheduling another public hearing.

In Other Hurley News:

Town Clerk Judy Mayhon Passes

Longtime Hurley Town Clerk Judy Mayhon died last Friday, June 2, after an illness.

Mayhon was first elected town clerk in 2007 and was re-elected every two years after that through 2021. She previously worked as a deputy town clerk.

"I am so sorry to learn of Judy's passing," Hurley Town Supervisor Melinda McKnight said in statement. "Throughout her years in public service, she served the town and its residents with dedication. I, the Town Board and the staff send her family our deepest condolences."

Appointed to take over the town clerk post was Deputy Town Clerk Annie Reed, who will finish the rest of Mayhon’s term, which ends Dec. 31, 2023. Reed joined the town hall staff in 2022 as executive assistant to Supervisor McKnight and became a deputy town clerk later in the year. She served in the town clerk’s capacity during Mayhon’s illness.

Arrangements for Mayhon’s funeral are by the George J. Moylan Funeral Home Inc., 2053 Route 32, Rosendale. For complete obituary information, click here: https://www.gjmoylanfuneralhome.com/obituary/judy-mayhon

Free N95 Masks at Town Hall

N95 face masks, supplied by Ulster County, are available for free at the Hurley Town Hall, 10 Wamsley Place, as the region deals with air quality problems caused by smoke from Canadian wildfires.

The masks can be picked up during the Town Hall's weekday operating hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Kingston Wire's coverage of the Town of Hurley is underwritten by Hurley Up. Kingston Wire has complete editorial control of what is reported and published. We accept submissions of letters to the editor, longer opinion pieces, community event notices and story ideas: email us at info@kingstonwire.com