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News from the July 16 Town Board meeting

The meeting was attended by Supervisor Becker and all members.  

The only zoning item discussed at the meeting was the brief report from Supervisor Becker on the Dennis Mills case.  The Town received no bids on its request to remove junk from Mr. Mills’ property, so Supervisor Becker made an arrangement with a local company to do the removal task.  No specifics on this contract were provided.

An unrelated interesting item was the report that a $22,000 check written on a Town account to pay a supplier had been stolen from the mail, forged, and cashed at the bank.  Apparently the theft did not happen locally but in Pennsylvania before it reached the address of the supplier.

News from the July 9 Planning Board meeting

The meeting was attended by three members – Deb Kirsch, Don Pawlak and Kathy Roberts. No action was taken on the proposed new zoning law.  

The only item on the agenda was a 60-minute video webinar presented by AES on how solar permitting works in New York State.  Basically, the message is that so long as the company has generated the required documents and convened the required community information meetings, the local town authorities cannot stop any wind or solar energy project. In New York, a state agency, the Office of Renewable Energy Siting, can override any town effort to delay or deny any necessary permit.  

AES is a very large corporation that operates nationwide and internationally and has reported over $12 billion in revenues each year for the past four years.  Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia.  It has 60 renewable energy projects in New York State.  These are wind (612 MW), solar (52 MW), and battery storage (400 MW) projects.  AES has a portfolio of what it calls “community solar projects” in NY including Accabonac in East Hampton on Long Island, Baldwinsville in Onondaga County, Lansing in Tompkins County and Lowville, Adams, Wilna and Croghan sites in Jefferson and Lewis counties.  It has plans to expand this portfolio in places like western New York.

AES has been fined a total of $40 million in recent years by the federal government for various environmental and securities violations.  In a New Mexico case, it is reported that AES tried to get a temporary restraining order to prevent local officials from making public information about the release of toxic gases from a proposed battery storage facility claiming that such information constituted trade secrets.

Updated news from the June 25 working session meeting of the Planning Board

The working session focused on the requirements with respect to new housing and new special use permits.  The Planning Board Clerk has highlighted and color-coded the various proposed changes to the proposed new zoning law on a copy of that law.  The Town Clerk has posted that edited copy of the law on the home page of the Town of Sheldon website so that everyone can see the proposed changes by scrolling through that posting.  Good work – thanks to both!

Tentative actions agreed:

Single family housing:  The special category for farm family housing (requiring 5 acres) was deleted from the table in Section 400 covering the Low Density District.  Farm family housing would now be treated the same as other single family housing (requiring only 2 acres).  The table heading for “maximum coverage” of a building located on a lot was changed to “minimum coverage” and the measurement was changed from a percentage of the lot size to a number of sq. ft.  The minimum for single family housing was set at 1,075 sq, ft. which is the same as specified in the current law.

Two-family housing:  The minimum coverage was set at 1,440 sq. ft. which is the same as specified in the current law.

Manufactured housing:  The minimum coverage was set at 1,075 sq. ft.

Farm worker housing:  For Section 729 of the proposed new law, the language of Section 6140 of the current law was reinstated.  A maximum of five buildings is allowed; all farm housing buildings must be on the farm where the workers occupying these buildings are employed.  The minimum coverage for each of these buildings was set at 1,075 sq. ft.

Farm buildings: Farm buildings and other farm structures must be located on 10 acres and the minimum size is 1075 sq. ft. except for accessory buildings.

Accessory buildings: Accessory buildings are allowed for housing and other purposes and  “shall not exceed 1,075 sq. ft.”  (Section 702)

Procedure for special use permits:  The powers assigned to the Planning Board in the proposed new zoning law were re-assigned to the Town Board as in the current law.  The public notice to property owners with respect to special use permits would go to those within 500 feet as in the current law (rather than the 200 feet specified in the proposed law).  The Town Board rather than the Planning Board would conduct public hearings on special use permits.  

News from the June 25 Planning Board Special meeting

Sorry, nobody from the website could make this meeting.  We have asked for access to any record of what was discussed but have nothing to report thus far.
How this kind of meeting functions:  No written minutes are prepared for a special “working session” meeting. However, notes as to proposed changes are made by the Secretary on a digital copy of the proposed new law.  Perhaps someone has determined that this meets the requirements of the New York State Open Meetings Law. 

News from the April 16 Town Board meeting

Supervisor Becker spoke about the 3rd postcard on issues before the Planning Board in its review of the proposed new zoning law, briefly recounting the criticisms he put forward at the preceding Planning Board meeting. He also discussed the role of the Genesee-Finger Lakes Regional Planning Council as the original source of material for the proposed new zoning law.  More.

News from the June 18 Town Board meeting

The meeting was attended by Supervisor Becker and all members.

The only zoning item discussed at the meeting was the report from Supervisor Becker that an Invenergy representative had authorized him to say publicly that at present Invenergy does not plan to build new windmills or repower existing windmills in the Town of Sheldon for 5 to 10 years.  Informal reports from Invenergy previously estimated 11 years, and then 10 years, before new projects would be started in the Town of Sheldon. 

A project to build  giant windmills in the Town of Bennington, very close to the Sheldon boundary, if it goes forward, would likely be operated from the Invenergy substation in Sheldon.   Supervisor Becker reported that any transmission lines from such a project to the substation would be required to be put underground per the existing wind power legislation in the Town of Sheldon.

The New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) reports informally that a project to begin construction in 5 years would typically begin the application process 2 to 3 years before the planned date for construction to begin.  

Invenergy has a solicitation permit and continues to solicit landowners in the town for leases on which solar projects would be developed in the near future. 

News from the June 11 Planning Board meeting

The meeting was attended by Planning Board members Deb Kirsch, Don Pawlak, and Kathy Roberts; and also by Town Board members Brian Becker and Mike Armbrust.

Tentative actions agreed:

  1. Granting special use permits:  All references in the proposed new law (Article 7) to the Planning Board power to grant special use permits would be deleted.  The Town Board would have the power to grant or deny special use permits as provided in the current law.
  2. Notice on special use permits:  The provision in the proposed new law (Section 702(B)(2)) for mail notice of a hearing on a special use permit to adjoining landowners would be changed from properties within 200 feet to properties within 500 feet.
  3. Revocation of special use permits:  The provision in the proposed new law that provides for automatic revocation of a special use permit (Section 704(A)) would be changed.  Under the proposed new law, special use permits would be revoked automatically if not used within one year or if the special use for which the permit was granted was discontinued for one year.  The revocation process would be changed from automatic (without any hearing) to decision after a hearing.
  4. Power to waive requirements for granting special use permits:  The provision in the proposed new law allowing requirements to be waived by the Town Board (Section 704(A)) would be deleted.  Problems with requirements would go to the Zoning Board of Appeals as is provided by the current law.
  5. Farm markets:  A new subsection would be added to the requirement in the current law (Section 707) that farm markets obtain a special use permit.  The new subsection would allow small farmstands up to 144 square feet without a special use permit.  Only a zoning permit would be required.

News from the June 4 "Working Session" Planning Board meeting

The working session was attended by three Planning Board members – Mary Kehl, Deb Kirsch, and Kathy Roberts – and three Town Board members – Brian Becker, Jim Fontaine, and Mike Armbrust.

Tentative actions agreed:

  1. Property maintenance:  The entire property maintenance article in the new proposed law (Sections 900-907) would be deleted and replaced by Section 5110 of the current law which covers outdoor storage of junk.
  2. Future amendments:  The provision in the new proposed law requiring a supermajority (5 votes) of the Town Board to amend the zoning law in the future would be deleted and replaced with a provision requiring only a simple majority as is the case under the current law.
  3. Percentage of building coverage:  The percentage numbers in the columns in all of the tables in the proposed new law that regulate maximum building coverage would be deleted and replaced with the square foot numbers in the current law.
  4. Single family dwellings:   The provision in the Section 400 of the proposed new law for two types of single family dwellings – regular and farm --would be deleted.  This would leave one category of covering all single family dwellings.  The current law has two categories – one story and two story.
  5. Accessory buildings:  The maximum building coverage of accessory buildings would be up to 1075 sq. feet but for very small primary buildings on the lot, the building coverage of an accessory building cannot to exceed the building coverage of the primary building on the lot.

News from the Zoning Office, January-June work

The County workers in the Zoning Office had no open projects as of the end of June 2025.

During the past six months, January to June, the Zoning office handled 25 matters for the Town of Sheldon, about 4 matters per month. They issued 22 zoning permits (not requiring any review other than by the zoning officer).  These were for 8 ag buildings, 3 new single family houses, 1 addition on a house, 3 decks and 1 porch, 1 garage, 1 shed, 1 fence, 2 pools, and 1 sign.  The zoning office also dealt with 3 special use permit renewals.  There were zero property maintenance violations. 

Recent news about Invenergy, the corporate owner of the Sheldon windmills

Last week, President Trump asked the Secretary of Energy to cancel any loan guarantee for Invenergy’s $11 billion (yes, billion) transmission line called the Grain Belt Express from Kansas wind farms to Indiana and Illinois.  The loan guarantee had been granted during the final months of the Biden Administration.  Invenergy says this is “the largest transmission infrastructure project in U.S. history.”  It seems that Invenergy’s project would bring no benefits at all to the four states through which the giant transmission line would pass, and farmers were upset that Invenergy was using eminent domain powers to run high voltage lines and place high towers on farmland against the protests of farmer owners.

News from the May 21 Town Board meeting

The Town Board discussed each of the subjects on the agenda as posted on the Town website except the Zoning report which was not discussed. - 

(One report by the Town Historian of dead and dying trees on public access property raised the question whether all of the Town’s property and buildings would be subject to the requirements of the proposed new expanded Zoning law prepared by the County. Supervisor Becker pointed out that this tree problem was not covered by the current budget.)

Supervisor Becker raised his personal objections to the website SheldonZoning.com. Supervisor Becker said that references to the website in printed materials were misleading and misinformation because these references to the SheldonZoning.com website led residents of the Town to believe that these were official texts from the Town. He explained that, for example, one of his relatives had been confused on this.

In response it was noted that the Town website is set out clearly at the top of the front page and a disclaimer is set out with the information on the publisher at the bottom of the front page.

Supervisor Becker pointed out a mistake in the address list for the most recent postcards, at least one of which went to a resident of Orangeville. Supervisor Becker also stated his conclusion that the postcards returned by Town residents indicating their agreement or disagreement with issues on future zoning were not a proper poll of public opinion. Further, Supervisor Becker said that there were no signatures on the postcards, so no one could tell whether they actually came from residents of the Town.

In response, it was noted that the blank postcards were sent to Town residents by an independent service that used a better address list than the official address list from the Post Office used for prior mailings. Addresses in the Town’s districts are published in Section 1400 of the proposed new zoning law. The mailing to residents was intended as information, not as a formal poll. However, the hundreds of postcards addressed to the Planning Board by Town residents nearly uniformly opposed the proposed new expanded zoning law now before the Planning Board for possible revision.

News from the May 14  Planning Board meeting

The Planning Board did no work on any changes to the proposed new zoning law at this meeting.

Three Board members attended – Mary Kehl, Deb Kirsch and Don Pawlak – along with alternate member Kathy Roberts.  Supervisor Becker attended, as did Zoning Officer Don Roberts from the County and both the Town Clerk and the Planning Board Clerk.  The meeting began at 6 pm.

Vice Chair Mary Kehl announced that the Planning Board would hold a special working session meeting on June 4 at 6 pm.  Public notice of the meeting will be in the Batavia paper.

Mary Kehl announced that although the June 4 special meeting was a public meeting, there would be no comments allowed from any members of the public who attended the meeting.

Supervisor Becker stated that 90% of the new proposed zoning law is the same as the current law, and he asked that as the Planning Board reviews the proposed new law, he would like them to cite where the same provision can be found in the current law.  Mary Kehl asked that it be made a part of the record that Supervisor Becker had nothing to do with the new proposed zoning law or what was in it.

An announcement was made for the record that Board member Jeff Nixon has resigned from the Board.

The Board members in attendance approved two land separations and clarified for the American Legion Post that their proposed new building project needed a site plan review before a permit could be issued.  

The meeting adjourned at 6:55 pm.

News from the April 9  Planning Board meeting

The Planning Board did not take up the matter of the new zoning law. Supervisor Becker spoke at length describing his personal laundry list of complaints about the postcards sent to residents about potential problems with the process for considering the new zoning law and its content. More.

News from the March 26 Town Board meeting

No discussion of the proposed new zoning law or other zoning matters.

News from the March 12 Planning  Board meeting

No meeting was held.

News from the February 19 Town Board meeting

The Town approved a contract with the County for Zoning services for another year. No other candidates were considered.

Supervisor Becker is getting ready to pursue discussions with Invenergy about revenue from the existing 75 windmills in the Town. The existing 20-year contract with Invenergy will run out in the near future.  Supervisor Becker announced again that he has no information on any plan by Invenergy to build more windmills in the Town. The Town Clerk announced that Invenergy has been soliciting in the Town for a year without a permit.  A representative of Invenergy recently applied for a permit.  The Town Clerk issued the permit.  No penalty for soliciting without a permit.    More

News from the February 5 Planning Board meeting

This meeting was attended by Attorney David DiMatteo who summarized the discussion in a letter to the Town Board.  The Planning Board never voted on any provision of the proposed new law.  Their only vote, at the October 9, 2024 meeting, was to “refer the proposed zoning law to the Town Board for review.”  All members were present at that meeting and all voted in favor of the referral.  More

News from the January Public Hearing

The 90% number

Don Roberts reported that “probably 90 percent of the information [in the proposed new law] is currently existing or law is still there today.” 

Don is wrong.  In fact, a whopping 75 sections (66%) of the proposed new law are either totally new or changed so substantially as they might as well be brand new. Take a look for yourself.  The analysis is HERE.

The side-by-side analysis of changes

Dave DiMatteo reported “I don’t think we did that [a document that shows what has been changed from the existing law]. … I think you need to look at it from your own perspective.”

Dave is wrong.  In fact, there is a 17-page section-by-section comparison of the existing law with the proposed law showing exactly what has been changed.  The document is HERE.

What kinds of things are “new?”

An analysis shows the proposed new law adds 27 new categories of things to be regulated in the Low Density District – including orchards, tennis courts, and picnic groves; 34 new categories regulated in the two new business districts; and 20 new categories in the Light Industrial District.  The documents are HERE.

The 80 proposed new property maintenance offenses are listed HERE.

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO TURNED OUT FOR THE JANUARY, 2025 PUBLIC MEETING!

The overflow crowd had lots of questions about the proposed new zoning law that Supervisor Brian Becker is sponsoring. Examples:

PUBLIC MEETING CUT SHORT

Supervisor Becker cut the public meeting short without allowing everyone to speak. 

He announced that written comments would be received by the Town Board for the next 21 days (to Tuesday, February 4, 2025) before the Board’s next regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 7 pm at the Town Hall.