» Articles from January 2006
Words Worth Repeating:
“We need to figure out what we want to have happen in the town and write the zoning regulations so it does happen.”
— Scott Chase, Pine Plains Town Zoning Commission
The Fractured State Of Tax Reassessments
Question: When is a 50-acre parcel of open land on one side of the Shekomeko Valley socked with a $6,000 school tax bill while a comparably desirable lot of the same size, located just a few miles away, carries a levy to the same school district of only $2,000?
Answer: When the method used for determining the land’s value is the fractured, arcane and unjust system of property tax assessment practiced in New York State. Read more
Words Worth Repeating:
“Where it is clear that the existing physical and financial resources of the community are inadequate to furnish the essential services and facilities which a substantial increase in population requires, there is a rational basis for ‘phased growth.’”
The New York State Court of Appeals (1972)
For further details on phased growth initiatives, read the July 2004 “Views From Gallatin” column entitled The Pace of Growth.
Town Highway Capital Spending
If your town has been spending substantially less than the average of 27 towns in our region on road-related investments, you could be in for a jolt to your property tax bill. Click here to see where your town ranks.
Local Columnist LaunchesLand Use Website
January 3, 2006– Gallatin, NY– James Sheldon, whose newspaper column, “Views From Gallatin,” has won acclaim as a leading voice on land use issues in the Hudson Valley, announced today the launch of a new website designed to expand the reach of the column and provide readers with broader coverage of the financial costs of rapid development.
The website, LittleTownViews.com, is “a community catalyst and information resource dedicated to the proposition that we all have the right to live and raise our children in a small-town setting,” said Mr. Sheldon, a journalist, financial analyst and consultant.
Anchoring the site is “Views From Gallatin,” his widely respected land use column that also appears monthly in The Independent of Columbia County and The Millerton News in Dutchess County. The column draws on Mr. Sheldon’s professional background to quantify the financial impact of rapid growth on rural communities. Past columns have also highlighted planning techniques and tax policies that have helped many municipalities reduce the high public cost of private development, promote affordable housing and support local agriculture.
In addition to expanding the readership of the monthly column and launching a more frequent “For The Record” commentary, the website aims to serve as a clearinghouse for other resources that can help public officials and citizens better understand the pros and cons of growth and craft the policies that can best implement their views.
“I am very excited that readers who sign up as members to the site free of charge will not only have ready access to my columns and other postings but will also be able to exchange their comments, questions and sources of information with each other,” Mr. Sheldon said. “The site can easily be expanded to include a live, on-line forum on land use and municipal finance issues if the demand is there.”
LittleTownViews.com, Mr. Sheldon writes in the site’s Statement of Principles “is neither pro-growth nor anti-development in its vision, neither right nor left in its political leaning, neither for nor against ‘progress.’ Rather, our central view, based on in-depth research and level-headed analysis, is that runaway growth of the sort proposed for many of our rural towns would lead to substantially higher property taxes, more crowded schools, less affordable housing, and little economic gain other than for the developers and builders whose high returns we, the taxpayers, would be forced to subsidize.
“Responsible government, thoughtful planning and active community involvement do not stand in the way of progress; they are essential ingredients in helping us all define what we view as progress itself.”
Mr. Sheldon said he hopes to earn a return on his investment in the site through additional consulting contracts, new speaking engagements and advertising from a limited number of site sponsors.
Battle of the Experts Begins
In Durst Subdivision Review
A debate is brewing which, though very technical in nature, seeks to answer a question that will largely determine the future of Pine Plains and many neighboring towns: how will the 951-home Carvel subdivision now under review affect property taxes and the financial well-being of the town and surrounding school district?
Well-trained and expensive consulting teams– one hired by the town and one by the developer– are already dueling about how best to study the question in an exercise that is nothing short of forecasting the future profile and behavior of the thousands of new residents who would inhabit the homes on the former Carvel estate and more than double the population of the town. Read more