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Facts and Comments on All Matters of Zoning in the Town of Sheldon

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What is on the schedule?

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 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.

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. 

News from the September 17 Town Board meeting

The meeting was attended by Supervisor Becker and all members. The only zoning items discussed at the meeting were brief reports from Supervisor Becker on the regular (long-ago negotiated) payments coming from Invenergy on the contract for the existing windmills and the contract for the removal of junk from the Dennis Mills property.  

The County Zoning Department report to the Town Board on their enforcement work for the Town of Sheldon shows a one-sentence report on the Zoning Board of Appeals report on the American Legion Post project, one permit issued for a swimming pool, and no other work during the month of August 2025.  

News from the September 10, 2025 Planning Board Meeting

The meeting was attended  by Board members Mary Kehl, Deb Kirsch, and Don Pawlak and Alternate Kathy Roberts.  Supervisor Becker also attended part of the meeting with Town Board member and Deputy Supervisor Joe Meyer.  Mr. Meyer is running for re-election this November.  Don Roberts, the County’s Code Enforcement Officer, also attended the Planning Board meeting.

The regular meeting was adjourned to a planning session to deal with proposed changes to the draft zoning law.

Supervisor Becker reported on the current situation with the American Legion Post’s proposal to build a new memorial and activity center on property with road frontage on Route 78.  The amount of road frontage for the property acquired for the Legion’s proposed project is insufficient under the current zoning law, and a variance request was put to the Zoning Board of Appeals.  The matter is still pending.  Supervisor Becker reported on his assessment of the positions of property owners along the affected section of Route 78.  Supervisor Becker and Town Board member Meyer left the meeting after this discussion.

Don Roberts remained for the entire meeting. Mr. Roberts is the head of the office that drafted the proposed new zoning law for Sheldon.  That draft includes extensive property maintenance requirements and other significant changes from the existing Town zoning law. Until this proposed new law was submitted to the Town Board in October 2024, Mr. Roberts personally attended Planning Board meetings and explained his reasons for the significant changes his draft proposed from the Town’s current zoning law.  Those changes drew criticism from the audience at the public hearing convened by the Town Board in January 2025.  Neither Mr. Roberts nor any of his staff attended Planning Board meetings in the seven months following the public hearing while the Planning Board discussed changes to Mr. Roberts’ draft law.  

At the September 10 meeting, Mr. Roberts discussed a significant change that the Planning Board members had tentatively approved at their earlier meetings.    

The Planning Board had tentatively decided to delete the percentage of the lot size provisions in all parts of the new zoning law and to go back to the current law provisions that have been in place for many years.  

Mr. Roberts explained why, in his view, the percentage of lot size should be restored -- it would help keep open spaces in rural areas while allowing more dense building in villages.

Basically, for relatively small lots, the percentage restriction would be limiting because the percentage would apply to all buildings, not just the house.  However, for bigger lots, more and potentially much bigger buildings would be allowed.  There would be no limit on building size.  This would apply to buildings like data centers, trucking warehouses, and very large private storage centers.

The Planning Board tentatively decided to do what Mr. Roberts advocated.  However, their review is ongoing.

 

What does the County Zoning Officer actually do for the Town?

The proposed new 157-page zoning law raises the questions:

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.

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: