BY ADAM ATKINSON

North Country This Week

CANTON -- The Canton town board has approved an agreement with the firm River Street Planning and Development to audit and rework the town's zoning code.

The village of Canton has already approved a contract with the firm to look at village zoning. Both audits of the two municipal codes are the next step in implementing the Canton Comprehensive Plan developed by River Street last year. The town board has previously heard a presentation on a preliminary overview of its zoning from River Street prior to the pandemic shutdown and the state of emergency declared in the town.

At their June 10 meeting when they approved the agreement, town board members briefly debated moving forward with the plan in light of the spending freeze put in place by the state of emergency declaration.

"My position was that . . . I think in light of the finances at this point and the spending freeze that if we could table this for one more month . . . that's my recommendation, but I'm just one board member," said Town Supervisor Mary Ann Ashley.

Town Councilman Jimmy Smith pointed out that with the Comprehensive Plan in place since last year, the town board has known that the next step would be an audit of the zoning code, and he urged the board to move forward on the agreement. "In order for us to move forward . . . with development in any way, we really need to have the new code in place. I think the quicker we can get this done, the more ready we will be able to be with whatever it is we want to move (forward with)," Smith said.

The $16,000 total cost of the zoning audit and rework is not accounted for in the town's current fiscal budget, however the amount would not all be paid out for the work at once.

Smith commented that a new zoning code was an important next step and that if the town could not afford the $16,000 to cover the cost of developing a new code then they were in "real trouble."

Smith said he didn't have a problem waiting another month before approving the contract for the zoning work, but that River Street was ready to move forward with the work right now.

"Jim's right. At the end of the day this isn't an optional thing, we have to do it," said Town Councilman Tim Danehy. "I'm confident they would do very good work for us."

Smith pointed out that town had spent more than $30,000 on the Comprehensive Plan but in order to use it to launch development initiatives in the town, a zoning audit was required.

"I'm not opposed to moving forward, but the spending freeze is still on," Ashley said. The supervisor said her hope is that the state of emergency would be lifted in July and the town would be able to move forward on an agreement without a spending freeze in place.

"I think if our intent is to move forward we might as well sign the agreement," said Danehy.

After more discussion Danehy made the motion to approve the agreement which passed unanimously.

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