New Hartford Moves . . . And a Questionable Statement

Hans Arnold is stepping down as Planning Board Chairman. This is too bad for New Hartford. A long time public servant in the truest sense of the word, Mr. Arnold was always open to discussion on issues, and understood how the planning process should work.

Supervisor Reed's statement in the story is a bit confusing, however.

“You've got to realize these developers are out to do their projects and we've got to protect the good interest of the town,” Reed said. “We want development, but we don't want urban sprawl and uncontrolled development.”

I think people will find Mr. Reed hard to believe because urban sprawl is exactly what we've got ... and the Town seems to bend over backwards to accommodate developers.

How is the approval of the New Hartford Business Park and arranging to finance associated road construction NOT fostering sprawl? Local government is reducing the developer's cost of doing business, giving him an economic advantage over his competitors. It then would become advantageous for prospective tenants to go to this developer's development, because the taxpayers are subsidizing the project. That will attract economic activity from elsewhere in the area, and move it to this heretofore undeveloped land . . . THAT'S SPRAWL.

As far as protecting the town's interests, that is what an Environmental Impact Statement is for -- so the decisionmakers and the public know what the project's impact on them will be. It must be pointed out that the current New Hartford Business Park is not the manufacturing business park that was proposed and subjected to SEQRA review and a final Environmental Impact Statement in the late 1990s. Development for manufacturing would likely be more acceptable to people than the development of more office buildings and a hotel -- things which are not in short supply regionally. From that perspective, no Environmental Impact Statement for the New Hartford Business Park -- as it is being implemented now -- was ever done. Furthermore, the site of "the Hartford" itself was never made part of the Environmental Impact Statement, as noted last September.

Without a proper Environmental Impact Statement, the "good interest of the town"cannot be protected.