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Fracking Likely to Dominate R'ville Public Hearing

Written By Editor on 7/17/14 | 7/17/14


The Richmondville Town Board will be holding its regular board meeting for the month of July tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the Richmondville Volunteer Emergency Squad building located on Route 7 near the outskirts of the Village. It was rescheduled to this evening due to the Ethington hearings that were held last week.

In addition to the regular agenda, members of the board and general public will have the opportunity to comment during a public hearing on the new proposed Zoning Law, which has been under review and rewrite for several years, and can be viewed on the municipality's website here

One potential point of contention within the proposed law is language viewed as hostile to fracking interests, which was promoted by members of the community concerned with the controversial natural gas practice of extraction, and has become a hot button topic of discussion in the Town of Richmondville. 

The Center for Sustainable Rural Communities, which favors stringent language against fracking and other industry related activities in Richmondville, sent an email to supporters Wednesday afternoon urging area residents to attend tonight's meeting and stand for the proposed environmental protections. 
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1 comments:

Unknown said...

After years of work, deliberation and the input of Town Board members, Zoning Rewrite Committee members and subject matter experts including a Senior Planning from the Schoharie County Planning and Development Agency and renowned non-profit attorney David Slottje, the Town of Richmondville held a public hearing on its updated zoning law.

The hearing was remarkable for its often angry statements by a small group of attendees who had a clear pro-fracking, anti-zoning agenda. Their hyperbolic statements included claims that the updated zoning would kill both agriculture and business in the Town and force Lancaster Development and other employers to flee.

Additionally, claims were made that prohibitions on fracking were not necessary and were not supported by some of the Committee members. It was clear that many of the most vocal opponents (including those who have been outspoken supporters of drilling and pipelines) of the proposed zoning had not read and understood it nor did they fully understand the requirement that the Town’s zoning be consistent with its comprehensive plan that was developed and approved in response to priorities identified by the community.

Hopefully, the Town will enact the zoning law to the benefit of the community and ignore the histrionics of a few who would personally benefit from fracking and/or weak land use regulations.

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