With a standing-room-only crowd beyond the posted legal occupancy of 50, people standing in the doorway and another crowd on the lawn, Woodstock’s town board on Tuesday, October 17 held its first of many public hearings on comprehensive zoning changes meant to address the town’s affordable housing crisis.
Comments ranged from pleas for environmental protection to bringing back the people forced to move, and to taking the time to distribute more information.
Town supervisor Bill McKenna said the hearing was held at the Comeau offices instead of the community center or the town hall because it is the only place equipped to have people participate via Zoom videoconferencing.
McKenna said the work behind the recommended changes were born out of the comprehensive plan, a community roadmap for the next decade.
“The two top items coming out of the comprehensive plan were a need for affordable housing and a need to protect even more our environment,” he said. “And in some ways, some people could say Well, that they could be very conflicting. But that was the task that I asked this group and I think that they worked extremely diligently on putting that together.”
This third version of the proposed changes was presented after comments and feedback from various groups. “Along the way, they’ve met with official town committees and boards over 20 times in this process,” McKenna said. “They’ve also had over 20 open meetings with various constituency groups, [Woodstock] Land Conservancy, new residents, old residents, young people, police officers, town employees, and got input from all these folks as well.”
Housing oversight task force member and planning board vice-chair Judith Kerman said the planning board has given its green light to the zoning changes.
“The planning board supports the proposed zoning and subdivision laws. Our suggestions have been incorporated in the most recent drafts. In our opinion, the new code will give us additional tools for facilitating affordable housing,” said Kerman.
Resident John Ludwig said the proposal was not about affordable housing. “I read the mission of the housing oversight task force their mission does not include the word affordable,” Ludwig said. “When I’ve asked what about this proposal makes the housing affordable, I was told two things …. One, regulations, and two, deed restrictions. But there are no regulations proposed, When I made that point to a member of the housing committee, I was told, quote, ‘The town is going to have to set this up to implement it. So they have to figure that out,’”
Ludwig expressed concerns the proposed changes would open the floodgates to luxury housing.
“What kind of agencies is Woodstock need to make to make sure units go to those who need them? Should we be hearing bringing in an agency like RUPCO to provide something like Woodstock Commons, with that kind of focus?” he asked.
Rachel Marco-Havens wanted to know how much energy has been put into returning people who have been displaced from town. “I think community retention is huge and very important, and I don’t know what zoning might have to do with that,” she said. “We need to be looking at way wider scale of affordability in this story around opening up development.”
Annalie Orsulich’s family moved to the area in a school bus in the 1980s, then moved into an apartment near the monastery that was $300 a month for a three-bedroom unit.
“I was able to raise my son here as a single mother for 20 years,” she said. “I was thinking my way here how many places I lived in Woodstock. I mean from Shady to five different apartments in the town. The last place I lived was in Bearsville. Our rent was $1000 a month for a three-bedroom.”
Her landlord askd her to vacate so he could renovate, “This was six years ago. So I’m scrambling and I couldn’t find a place for us to live six years ago, and we were making decent money I felt. So, basically, I spent six months sort of displaced with my daughter and I now live in Glasco.”
Woodstock environmental commission member Susan Paynter said water supply was a big concern. “I think we all care about affordable housing. Let’s just put that to rest,” Paynter said. “I’m concerned about the added strain that new zoning could cause to Woodstock’s water supply. The Woodstock environmental commission gave recommendations to the housing task force and asked that the town examine its water resources, and the limits of the aquifer’s resilience to determine at what point the aquifer will run dry.”
She wanted to be sure the WEC recommendations were included in the new zoning.
Some commentators wanted to know whether developers would be held to a strict definition of affordability Housing committee co-chair Susan Goldman said that issue was addressed in the changes.
Emma Leigh wishes she could afford to buy property in Woodstock. She was raised by a single mother who couldn’t afford to buy a place in town. “I always imagined that as I grew and I got the education of being able to buy a home and raise my family here because I feel deeply connected to this land,” she said. Leigh said she liked the idea of accessory dwelling units.
Anula Courtis, a candidate for town board, said affordable housing was first recognized as a human right in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “Meanwhile, here in Woodstock, too many Woodstockers were forced out of their town due to lack of affordable housing. More and more are struggling to find secure, affordable housing and more are on the cusp of losing their homes, she said.
McKenna had to recess the hearing after noticing council member Maria-Elena Conte had left, leaving the board lacking of quorum. Council members Bennet Ratcliff and Reggie Earls were not present.
The hearing will resume in November and then be recessed for another session in December.
McKenna has said there is no silver bullet to addressing housing.
The changes represent a multi-pronged approach. that includes allowing duplexes and up to eight units in a structure that from the outside, may look like a single-family home.
A variety of lot sizes and layout flexibility will allow for denser housing in some locations while still avoiding sensitive environmental features by clustering.
A new floating residential district can be applied to all zoning districts upon review and approval by the town board. This floating district will allow for a variety of housing types while requiring that 60 percent be affordable and moderate-income.
Accessory dwelling units cannot be used as short-term rentals when only one is on a parcel.
A newly allowed second ADU can be built and used as a short-term rental but only one per parcel.
Those are some of the major changes. A complete summary is available on the town website, woodstockny.org, and clicking on the “zoning Updates” link on the left.
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