Are you sufficiently confused about this proposed Greenfield French King Highway zoning proposal?
Me, too, and I’m apparently not alone.
Also stumped are a goodly number of Greenfield town councilors, who are expected to try to make an intelligent, informed vote on the matter later this month.
Ordinarily, this type of confusion is clarified simply by replaying the most recent meeting. After watching it three different times, the only thing I’m really sure of is that Council Vice-President Isaac Mass badly wants to withdraw the current proposal before it is voted on, and apparently, in his zeal to amend it, violated existing zoning law.
To fully understand this comedy of errors requires a trip back to the January council meeting, where a protracted debate ended with the council approving Mass’ motion to table the matter until the March 15 meeting.
But what not many people knew — including most of his colleagues — was that Mass had a second motion, which was never presented, that altered the dimensions of the area set to be rezoned.
According to Town Clerk Deborah Tuttle, who is also clerk of the council, Mass went to the Planning Department the next day and tried to schedule a subcommittee public hearing on the second motion, which the council never acted upon.
Typically, any council-related motion scheduled for a public hearing flows through Tuttle’s office, and when she heard about what Mass was doing, Tuttle requested a legal opinion from the town’s lawyer, which revealed that Mass has violated the law by scheduling a hearing on a motion the council never approved.
“The way the law reads, an individual councilor cannot schedule a hearing on a motion from the council,” Tuttle said. “Only the full council can do that by a vote of the entire body.”
Tuttle said she was “just doing her job” by requesting the legal opinion, and it’s a good thing she did, because Mass was clearly operating outside the limits of the law, even though he did his best to explain it away as a misunderstanding for which he was willing to “fall on his sword.”
Too little, too late there, Lancelot.
This is more than just a little “snafu.” It’s pretty obviously an attempt to do an end run around the council for the sake of political expediency, and that is absolutely not OK.
What I can’t understand is why this wasn’t a bigger story, and why there isn’t more of a hue and cry from his fellow councilors or the people they represent, who were nearly put in a legal jackpot over a political maneuver that was altogether unnecessary.
I’m also somewhat mystified as to why there has not even been a hint of a suggestion that Mass be sanctioned for this activity. Can you imagine if Hillary Hoffmann tried to pull this kind of a stunt when she was council president? There would be people calling for her head on a plate, but for some reason, Mass, and by extension council President Brickett Allis, are getting a pass, and they shouldn’t.
Then there’s the little matter of the rezoning proposal itself, which, in my opinion, has taken up way too much of this council’s time already. I’m as in favor of growth as anyone, but some people are acting as though opening this area up to new development is the key to Greenfield’s economic future.
The town’s own planning director has admitted that even if that corridor is rezoned, there is not enough developable land there to make any real difference economically — certainly not when it comes to reducing individual residential property tax bills, a goal on which this council’s leadership is supposedly laser-focused.
As for the rest of the membership, I’m not sure what to think. I can’t figure out if they are just confused by Mass’ actions, or afraid of incurring the wrath of the leadership, or just aren’t all that worried about the law being violated on their watch, without their knowledge.
Whatever the issues are, they’d better get over them and start doing their jobs, and I can’t think of a better way to get that ball rolling than by refusing to allow this rezoning proposal to be withdrawn, which Mass plans to ask for at the March meeting.
If it really wants to send a message, this council should deny the withdrawal and vote the zoning change down, which would prevent it from being brought back for two years. Maybe that will allow enough time for the council leadership to read and understand the zoning laws, and hammer out a process for debating and voting on an idea which, frankly, isn’t all that damn important to begin with.
Chris Collins is the Franklin County News Bureau Chief for WHAI, WPVQ and WHMP Radio. He is a former staff reporter for The Recorder, and is a Greenfield native.