Roosters have rights! Spared the zoning chopping block

By NEAL RENTZ

The Lewisboro Town Board has agreed to preserve rooster ownership as it voted unanimously April 28 to approve a series of zoning amendments.

The updates followed several months of work by the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee and its Zoning Subcommittee.

The changes were made in the following categories: the Architecture and Community Appearance Review Council, sidewalks, subdivision regulations, wetlands and watercourses and zoning.  

At this week’s meeting, Supervisor Tony Gonçalves said the board agreed at the previous meeting that it wanted to remove language that would have banned the ownership of roosters. 

“Someone has to stand up for the rights of roosters,” Councilwoman Andrea Rendo quipped. “My neighbors have roosters.”Judson Siebert, an attorney representing the planning board, said two sections regarding the banning of rooster ownership were eliminated — accessory use of domestic farm animals and a limit on poultry. 

The proposed amendments were discussed at a March public hearing, Siebert noted. “This has been a very long process,” he said.

The town board has yet to approve zoning amendments on a series of issues including steep slopes, excavation and fill and regulation of short-term residential rentals. 

Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee honored

In a related matter, the town board honored the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee with a proclamation, which was read by Councilwoman Rendo, who along with Councilman Dan Welsh were town board liaisons to the committee.

The board acknowledged “the time, hard work and outstanding civic participation” of the committee, which was formed in March 2021. The committee consisted of Charlene Indelicato, Lawrence Mango, Mark Robbins, John Wolff and Katherine McGinn. 

“The committee quickly educated themselves on comprehensive plans, the Lewisboro town code, planning and governmental best practices,” the resolution stated. “The Committee gave of their time in attending over three dozen meetings, several town-wide public outreach workshops, and three Lewisboro Library fairs.”

The committee worked with its consultant, Nelson Pope Voorhis, and kept the process within the budget, the resolution stated. The committee was awarded $20,000 in funds from the Hudson River Valley Greenway Community grant program, the resolution noted. 

“The Committee was committed to engaging and educating as many residents and stakeholders as possible during Lewisboro’s comprehensive planning process,” the resolution stated. “They did this through making accessibility a priority: always having surveys and flyers available in multiple languages, having multiple language translators, free on-site childcare and ADA accessible locations for in-person meetings plus adding the Google translate button to all the web pages on the Lewisboro website.”

The town board also honored in its proclamation members of the Zoning Subcommittee, planning board counsel, Judd Siebert, and town planner Jan Johannessen for drafting new or revised town laws to update the town code.

Steering committee member Larry Mango thanked the town board and said the process to revise the comprehensive plan “was a real community effort. The mission of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee was to engage the Lewisboro community in order to inform the future of this town and capture this vision in an updated comprehensive plan. Hopefully, we succeeded.”

Bathhouse bid awarded

Also at the meeting, the town board voted unanimously to award the town pool timber frame bathhouse bid from Mid-Atlantic Timber Frames for $428,127.

At the last town board meeting some of the members requested a report on how to fund the project. The options are borrowing or taking money from the fund balance. 

Comptroller Annie Burnham told the town board this week that it could choose to borrow through a bond anticipation note, which could be repaid in one year. If the board decided to borrow for the project it would have an estimated interest rate of 4.5%, the same as the current interest rate being earned for money in the fund balance, she said. 

It would cost the town $27,000 in interest if it borrowed for the project, the same amount as the lost revenue from interest if the money was taken from the fund balance, Burnham said. There is currently $6,553,557 in the fund balance, she noted. 

Taking money out of the fund balance for the bathhouse project “is a logical use of the fund balance, Burnham said. 

The board voted unanimously to pay for the project through a line-item transfer from the fund balance.