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There are Legitimate Town Concerns About County Agricultural District
Dear Editor:
Regarding Margaret Sternberg's article of February 14th, there are legitimate Town concerns about the county agricultural district. As I told the legislators, a pending court decision involving Putnam Valley will go far toward defining the limits of the program. The Town is attempting to enforce its zoning laws against a dump and materials processing operation in a residential zone. The operators are using the property's inclusion in the Putnam County Agricultural district to justify the commercial and regional nature of the operation. In my opinion, based on our experience in the Town, such an exemption from town zoning and environmental codes, if the court were to find it a result of the agricultural district law, would substantially reduce the acceptability of the program in Putnam County. Accordingly, I advised the legislature to postpone adding to the district until they could review the court decision.
Legislator Sam Oliverio's intemperate (and out of order) outburst that I was representing myself instead of the Town was utterly unwarranted, if not incomprehensible. The town Board has four times unanimously supported suing to enforce the town zoning and environmental laws. The Town employees in the Building and Highway Departments who deal with these violations on a dayto day basis have also overwhelmingly supported our enforcement actions.
Legislator Oliverio wrote a letter supporting the operators' claim of protection under the agricultural district. Mr. Oliverio should not use his position as legislator to interfere with Town enforcement. Legislator Hay had it right when he said that the legislators should be working with the Towns, not against them.
Sam Davis Putnam Valley Supervisor
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