Cortland’s City Council delayed a vote Tuesday to change the city code to allow it to repurpose vacant properties unable to be used for their original permitted use – so long as its new use provides a service to the public.
The delay followed a public hearing at which four people spoke to oppose the change, including members of two city committees.
In the proposal, if the council were to determine that a proposed repurposing of a property is for “substantial public benefit,” the special use permitting process for the property would go to a public hearing before the council before going through Cortland’s Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals. The use could run counter to what’s would be allowed in the zone the property lies in.
“We might have a property that could be beneficial for other uses and this requires us to have a public hearing to allow that,” Mayor Scott Steve said before the meeting. “I look at 51 Port Watson St. as an example, that's registered as an R1 (residential) district. In a district like that, anything (contractors) want to do with that property would have to go through this, if it's outside its designated use.”
“I have a concern about this proposal,” said Diane Chu, a member of the city's Environmental Advisory Committee. “I surmise that it may be targeting the Parker school property, and wanting to dispose of it. My hope was that it would go toward a childcare center or something of community benefit, not just an apartment.”
The city acquired the former Parker Elementary School for $91 to refurbish as an early childhood education center operated by a pair of non-profit organizations. When the plan fell through, the city was left with an empty school building in a residential neighborhood.
Chu said she worried that the change would set a precedent of the city disregarding zoning ordinances. Several others who spoke during the public hearing echoed this concern.
“I’m here to register my strong opposition to proposed law number 12 of 2023,” said Brendan McGovern, a member of the Cortland City Planning Commission. “Why not change the code to include more conditions where special permits are allowed and let the planning commission do its job?”
Steve said after the decision was delayed that the change would make the special use permitting process more open and could not be abused as easily as the former method of permitting special uses for property in the city.
“I just wanted to identify that this has nothing to do directly with Parker School, however, it could be a benefactor of that for sure,” he said. “I was hoping to get the law out and done before the RFP (request for proposals) came back so that accusation could not be made.”
“The substantial public benefit would be a determination by (the council) first, subject to public hearing,” said A.J. Meldrim, Cortland's corporation counsel. “Then it would go to planning, most likely county planning first. This just gives the city another mechanism to address those properties where right now there’s a lot of them where there’s no way we can do that.”
“So wouldn't this sometimes amount to spot zoning?” Councilperson Kathryn Silliman (D-2nd Ward) asked.
“It's funny that you asked that, but no,” Meldrim said. “That’s the whole test that we’re contemplating. If it serves a substantial amount of public benefit to the community as a whole, it’s not going to harm adjacent properties, and there’s an extensive review process.”
