March 5, 2015
Homer sends manure law to county planning
HOMER — The Town Board voted unanimously Wednesday to send a proposed town zoning law amendment regulating large manure storage facilities to the Cortland County Planning Board for review, Town Supervisor Fred Forbes said.
The proposed amendment would require those seeking to build a manure storage facility to submit their plans to the town planning board for approval. The plans would include a map detailing the facility’s site and surrounding properties, while other submitted documents include a description of the applicant farm’s operations and future plans.
The county Planning Board will take up the proposed zoning law amendment at its next meeting on March 18, Forbes said. The Town Board would address the amendment and the department’s recommendations at its April 8 meeting and a public hearing on the law would likely be scheduled for May, he said.
The town proposed the zoning change after Foster Moore Road residents expressed anger and frustration last fall over the construction of a 7-million-gallon manure pit near their homes — a project the town was unaware of since it required no local approvals.
Before sending the proposed amendment to the planning board, the town board discussed language in the law allowing the planning board to ask a petitioner to put up screening, such as bushes, trees and shrubs, to obscure the view of a manure pit, Forbes said.
While the state Agriculture and Markets Department could override the town’s request for screening if it opted to, the town decided to leave the town planning board the option of making the request, he said.
The board also changed the proposed amendment to require applicants to submit one paper and two electronic copies of the pit plans to the planning board, instead of three paper copies, Forbes said.
Other requirements listed in the zoning amendment include holding a public hearing before a site plan is approved and installing monitoring wells to detect groundwater contamination near residences within 1,000 feet of a pit.
The town created the proposed zoning amendment to ensure that projects similar to the Foster Moore Road pit do not go forward without the town’s knowledge, Forbes said.
While Farmer Bill Head, co-owner of the New Hope View Dairy Farm in Little York, acted legally when he started building the Foster Moore Road pit, the town was surprised by the move, Forbes said.
Head obtained the necessary permits for the pit from the state and federal level.
“We were really blindsided by this,” Forbes said. “Now anything like this is going to have site plan review.”
The manure pit created a political issue in which farmers that sit on the town’s planning board, zoning board of appeals and the town board could appear biased, said Forbes, co-owner of East River Dairy.
Forbes noted Mike McMahon, co-owner of EZ Acres farm, authored the zoning amendment as vice chair of the planning board.
“I think that we’ve gone the extra mile to say to the public we want open government and these things to come before the public,” Forbes said.
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