The Manlius Town Board next week will hold a public hearing on a local law that reduces the number of planning board members from seven to five.
This hearing comes after the town board voted 4–3 on June 10 to draft the local law that amends chapter 155 of the Manlius Town Laws the number of members on the town’s planning board.
Manlius Supervisor Ed Theobald said there are currently two vacant positions on the planning board, which he said gives the town board the “unique opportunity to look into reducing the number of planning board seats.”
In the drafted local law, the number of planning board seats would be changed from seven to five, and each member’s seat would have a term of a five years.
Town Attorney Tim Frateschi said in the drafted local law he wrote a provision to allow up to two alternate members to the town’s planning board “in order to address member illness, absences, conflicts of interest and the like.”
The alternate members would be elected for terms not to exceed five years, which is the same as the regular seat planning board members, and would fill in at the description of the town board when a planning board member is unable to participate for a number of meetings.
Frateschi said this provision allows the planning board a “safeguard” in the event a planning board members has to be out for some time.
Town Councilor Dave Marnell, who voted against drafting the reduction of the board on June 10 because he said there were no benefits to making this reduction, said he believed appointing two alternates would make the reduction unnecessary.
“I can’t wrap my mind around it,” Marnell said. “We haven’t needed the safeguard in the past, why do we need it now?”
Frateschi said they can change the language of the drafted resolution and have further discussion on the matter of alternate members at the public hearing.
The board agreed they will use the public hearing as a time to consider resident’s thoughts on both reducing the planning board seats and the provision allowing two alternate members. They voted 6-1 at the June 24 board meeting to set the public hearing date.
The public hearing is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 8 at the Manlius Town Hall, 301 Brooklea Drive, Fayetteville.
Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].
