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Facts and Comments on All Matters of Zoning in the Town of Sheldon
What is on the schedule?
- December 10, 2025, 6 pm: Planning Board Meeting
- December 17, 2025, 7 pm: Town Board Meeting
Also consult the Town of Sheldon website.
County Comprehensive Plan
The Wyoming County Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee has a draft plan that affects the County’s efforts to push Town of Sheldon zoning in specific directions. The Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee is holding open house-workshop meetings in order to meet the requirement of community consultation. There is also an online survey at https://forms.office.com/r/GeAFfXVNGK.
News
For news items more than 60 days old, please visit the News Archive.
News from the November 19 Town Board meeting
The meeting was attended by Supervisor Becker and all members except Mike Armbrust. Two zoning items were on the agenda.
Windy Brew
Supervisor Becker announced that the Windy Brew brewery/bar/restaurant was under new ownership. The previous owners held a special use permit, but that permit ends with a transfer of ownership, so the new owners need to deal with any permitting requirement to operate in the town. Supervisor Becker mentioned a new special use permit or a variance but did not discuss any specifics.
The Windy Brew brewery/bar/restaurant is interesting because neither the current zoning law nor the proposed new draft law provides for a special use permit for a brewery, winery or distillery.
State law (Section 51-a of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law) provides for farm breweries. In its original request for a special use permit from the town, Windy Brew claimed to be a farm on the basis of ownership of 5 acres. The current Sheldon Town zoning law requires 5 acres to qualify as a farm. State law does not provide any controls on the location of a farm brewery as far as road frontage, setbacks, parking, lighting, signs, and other normal zoning controls. The special use permit issued for the Windy Brew specifies all of those requirements.
The proposed new town zoning law for Sheldon has no acreage requirement to qualify as a farm, only that the land be used for "agriculture" of some sort. The state law on farm breweries requires only that 60% of the hops and 60% of all other ingredients must come from New York State farms.
The current town zoning law does not cover restaurants, bars, or breweries except for minimum yard requirements for a restaurant (Addendum 2, p. 127) in the Business District which is now the Hamlet Commercial District and General Commercial District.
The proposed new law does not allow restaurants, bars, or breweries as permitted uses in the Low Density District. Bars and restaurants (but not breweries) are permitted uses in the Hamlet Commercial and General Commercial Districts, and maybe a brewery qualifies as a "Food Processing or Packaging" use in the Light Industrial District. Once a use for a restaurant and bar is established by permit in the Town, the holder of the permit likely can use the state law to "add" a brewery.
If the proposed new law is enacted in its present form, the new owner of Windy Brew likely would apply for a regular permit as a bar/restaurant in the Low Density District. This kind of permit can be granted/denied by the Zoning Officer under his own authority as no special use permit requirement applies. The Zoning Officer would deny that permit as a use not specifically authorized for the Low Density District. The applicant would then appeal to the Zoning Board of Appeals to allow this use as a special case in the Low Density District.
If an application is submitted under the current town zoning law, Windy Brew might apply to amend its existing special use permit to cover the new owner. That would involve the Planning Board, which can be a critical difference between the procedures envisioned by the proposed new law and the procedures under existing law. The Planning Board has had quite a few problems over the past few years with the Windy Brew business and enforcement of the requirements of the existing permit.
The Mills case
As previously, there was a brief report from Supervisor Becker on the contract for the removal of junk from the Dennis Mills property. No removal of Mr. Mills’ outdoor collections has yet begun. Mr. Mills’ property remains in approximately the same condition as it has been for the past five years.
News from the November 12 Planning Board meeting
The meeting was attended by Board members Deb Kirsch, Don Pawlak and Mary Kehl and Alternate member Kathy Roberts.Zoning Officer Don Roberts attended parts of the meeting and spoke in favor of the current draft provision on cluster developments. Town Board member Joe Meyer attended part of the meeting.
Committee chair Deb Kirsch presented her detailed analysis of remaining issues where the current County-prepared draft differed substantially from the current Town of Sheldon zoning law. The members supported language from the current law on most of the items discussed. Some cross-references to parts of the draft law were added to the tables in Article 4. These are drafting clarifications, not substantive changes.
The Board members discussed cluster residential developments at some length. The County-drafted provision is new and replaces Section 6270 of the Town’s current zoning law. The County draft covers this kind of dense multi-unit development in Section 400, Table 1, on p. 15 together with Section 718.
Comparison:
| Requirement | Current Law | Proposed new draft law |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum lot size for development | 10 acres | 20 acres |
| Location | Any district | Low Density District |
| Type of building | Single-family, two-family, townhouses, apartments | Single-family only |
| Open space | Set aside of 25% of total land area | Set aside of 20% of gross acreage |
| Setbacks | 50 ft. front, 25 ft. side, 25 ft. rear | No setbacks specified |
| Density | Not exceeding minimum lot size and density for district in which located | Maximum building coverage is 15% of total acreage allows 104,544 sq. ft. of buildings. Limit of 4 ½ residential units per acre. |
Under the proposed new law, there is no minimum size requirement for one-family residences in the Low Density District. That could result in small low-cost units in the cluster development. Here’s the math: The statutory formula allows 4 ½ units per acre. With a 20% set aside for green space, the available building space on a 20-acre lot is 16 acres or 72 units. The maximum building coverage is set at 15%. If that applies to 16 acres, it allows 104,544 square feet of buildings. No specific setbacks are required, and if minimal setbacks are allowed, an average unit size could be 1,600 sq. ft. or less.
The Board members decided the small residence size could be concerning but that the requirement of a special use permit, and its associated public hearing, would make the proposed provision workable for the community.
The Board members also discussed minor language changes to Sections 520, 701, 702, and Article 9. Article 12 on definitions was amended to delete the definitions in the County-prepared draft law that had no reference in the text of the law. These are drafting errors, not substantive changes.
Deb Kirsch raised with Don Roberts the legal question whether a land use or activity NOT covered in the zoning law (current or new) is prohibited. Don reported that items like slaughterhouses and enormous data centers that are not covered in the Town’s zoning law are NOT automatically prohibited. If an application for one of these items (not covered by the law) is received by the Town’s Zoning Officer, it would be referred to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a variance. This issue was previously discussed at a Town Board meeting at which Supervisor Becker reported the Town had received legal advice that such items ARE automatically prohibited and would require an amendment of the zoning law in order to go forward.
The Planning Board anticipates one final meeting on the zoning law project on December 10 to consider some remaining details and confirm its recommended changes to the draft law that was presented at the public hearing in January 2025.
News from the October 15 Town Board meeting
The meeting was attended by Supervisor Becker and all members. The only zoning item discussed at the meeting was a brief report from Supervisor Becker on the contract for the removal of junk from the Dennis Mills property. The contractor, Twin Village Recycling, located at 4153 Broadway, Depew, has not yet begun any removal of Mr. Mills’ collections. Mr. Mills’ property remains in approximately the same condition as it has been for the past five years.
News from the October 8 Planning Board meeting
The meeting was attended by Board members Deb Kirsch and Don Pawlak and Alternate member Kathy Roberts. Town Board members Mike Armbrust and Jim Fontaine attended the meeting. Supervisor Becker also attended part of the meeting. County Zoning Officer Don Roberts attended the September meeting to support the new “percentage of lot size” proposal for more substantial limitations on the uses of 2-acre and other small lots. Mr. Roberts did not attend the October meeting, nor did anyone from his office.
The Board discussed the new requirements for permits and the lack of clarity with respect to activities of persons pursuing private purposes on their own rural land versus activities of persons pursuing commercial purposes on their rural land or land owned by others.
- For example, the new law restricts “Nurseries, Orchards, and Vineyards” (page 12) in the Low Density (formerly Agricultural) District in such general terms as to cover planting of fruit trees and other plants for home consumption. A permit is required for these activities. But the new law is completely vague as to what constitutes an “orchard,” for example, so it would be difficult to enforce.
- For another example, the new law restricts “archery courses, rifle ranges, trap and skeet facilities” (page 13) in the Low Density District in a way that a homeowner’s private archery target practice area used only by family members could be shut down if used without a permit.
Violations involve a mandatory $250 fine.
The proposed new law creates 24 new categories of uses that require permits. This is in addition to the 31 categories of uses that currently require permits under the current Town zoning law, all of which are continued under the proposed new law.
The Planning Board also discussed the question whether a specific use of land not covered by any provision of the zoning law is permitted or prohibited. Supervisor Becker is of the view that anything not specifically mentioned in the zoning law is prohibited. That kind of sweeping regulatory interpretation might not pass constitutional muster under the “void for vagueness” doctrine, which is rooted in the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
What does the County Zoning Officer actually do for the Town?
The proposed new 157-page zoning law raises the questions:
- How much work does the Zoning Officer currently do for the residents of the Town? and
- Is there anything in the current work of Zoning Officer that shows a need for the new 157-page zoning law?
The answer to the first question on the work actually done by the Zoning Officer can be determined by looking at the Zoning Officer’s reports. Current law requires the Zoning Officer to issue a monthly report to the Town Board. Those reports must provide details on all actions of the Zoning Officer, all permits, all complaints, and all violations found. The data showing how many actions actually occurred are listed HERE.
Please note that there are no reports on any activity on the proposed new zoning law. and the proposed new zoning law eliminates entirely the requirement for monthly reports from the Zoning Officer.
- In the most recent 15 months, the Zoning Officer reported zero citizen complaints. According to the Zoning Officer’s official records, no one in the Town was worried enough about any problem to complain in writing.
- In the most recent 15 months, the Zoning Officer handled only one property maintenance violation.
- In the most recent 15 months, the Zoning Officer handled only one special use permit.
The current law allows the Zoning Officer to issue routine permits for common low-impact local activities like single family housing, standard ag buildings, fences, sheds and the like. In the first 3 months of this year, the Zoning Officer issued 4 of these. In all 12 months of 2024, the Zoning Officer issued 41 of these, an average of 3 to 4 per month. No permits were denied.
So that brings on the second question -- whether there is anything in the volume and type of work that the Zoning Officer is currently doing that requires a complete re-write of the Town’s zoning law. The Town’s residents apparently do not raise complaints; there appear to be no regular property maintenance violations that need attention; and the day-to-day workload of the Zoning Officer does not seem to highlight any urgent need for reform.
If a justification exists for an entirely new zoning law that justification must lie elsewhere.
HERE’S WHAT IS GOING ON:
- The Town’s Zoning Officer drafted a PROPOSED REPLACEMENT ZONING LAW which you can read HERE.
- The Town’s Planning Board considered what the Zoning Officer wanted to do and sent the proposed replacement law ahead to the Town Board for its decision.
- You can read the Town’s current zoning law HERE.
- HOW MIGHT THE NEW LAW AFFECT YOU? See examples HERE.