Zoning debate continues to divide Caroline

Across the street from Caroline Town Hall, a yard sign sits with distinct red markings. It reads: “There is a war in the valley, time to pick a side.”

The valley in question is the Six-Mile Creek valley, which occupies a significant portion of Caroline. The war in question is whether Caroline should implement zoning.

Caroline started exploring zoning laws in 2013, when it revised the town’s comprehensive plan, which was organized in 2006. In the fall of 2020, a task force was formed to establish zoning laws that make sense for the hamlets in the town.

After the task force, a Zoning Commission was created, which appointed members of the Planning Commission to the Zoning Commission if they were willing. The remaining seats were filled by residents of Caroline.

Since the Town Board approached zoning laws, activists from Caroline have spoken out against zoning. Along Route 79 and into the hamlets of Slaterville Springs and Brooktondale, multiple signs can be seen protesting zoning.

A sign next to a cemetery on Route 79 reads, “Grandma hates zoning,” and signs at the farm directly east of Caroline Elementary School read, “Our Leaders Don’t Listen” and “Put The Vote To The People.”

According to New York state law, zoning laws can’t be the subject of a public vote.

Demonstrations have been held at Caroline Town Hall to protest zoning (tinyurl.com/2gscftao), and a protest march of horses, people and tractors made its way through Brooktondale on Feb. 26 in opposition to zoning.

“Zoning is often a contentious issue, and I think zoning is at the heart of a political discussion about the role of government in town affairs,” Caroline Town Supervisor Mark Witmer said. “It’s not black and white to me; that’s why we need a zoning plan that is sensitive to the town, its conditions and is appropriate for Caroline. I do believe that local government has a role, and that is expressed in state law and planning documents.”

On Nov. 28, the Zoning Commission held the first of two public information sessions on the draft zoning law. The meeting was held virtually, and the committee heard the public’s opinions about the 129-page zoning document (tinyurl.com/2mbq6lfy). The majority of the people who asked questions were critical of the document.

The Brooktondale Community Center hosted an in-person and virtual meeting Dec. 3. Many speakers at the meeting addressed specific concerns about the proposal, such as Kathy Mix, who has lived in Caroline for 37 years. She and her husband were farmers, and now her children farm adjacent properties.

After the meeting, she expressed concerns about the town government regulating land use.

“I’m against the draft plan that they’ve put into place. I think the town needs regulations, but I’m not sure it needs to go under the regulations of zoning,” she said. “It’s not zoning, it’s more Homeowners Association in my opinion, about how they want buffers, characteristics of your house when you build you house, and I get it, I like Caroline; that’s why I moved here. We’re regulating ourselves to death.”

Multiple residents spoke against zoning during the meeting, with a minority in favor of the drafted law or calling for unity and less contention in a town of just more than 3,000 people.

R.C. Quick, a fifth-generation Caroline resident, said during the meeting that his grandparents would “be rolling over in their graves” at the idea of zoning.

“My main question is why, why now? And have we really looked down the road to implications and results of what the passage of zoning will do to our town?” he said. “The comprehensive plan is quite sufficient. The codes in place are quite sufficient. Some of the codes that are in place are not enforced now. With zoning in place, there is undoubtedly going to be more hiring necessary at the town level.”

Caroline Zoning Commission member Bill Podulka answered Quick’s question pertaining to why zoning laws are important now. In the December and November meetings, he said that zoning laws can prevent a rural town like Caroline from hosting businesses that would alter the rural nature of the community.

“It’s clear that there’s continued potential development in town, and there’s an interest in developments in town,” he said. “It seemed timely and appropriate to put some of that down, what the community felt was the right uses in the right areas.”

During the meeting, Caroline resident Yvette DeBoer spoke about how contentious the issue of zoning has become in the town.

She said she grew up in Ithaca, taught in the Ithaca City School District for 30 years and moved to Brooktondale from the Fall Creek neighborhood in 2020.

Brooktondale has become a home to her, but she became emotional at the meeting when talking about the division zoning has caused in the town.

“It’s truly been amazing [living in Caroline]; I’ve never felt so at home,” she said during the meeting. “At the same time, I get emotional because it breaks my heart to see this contention happening right now. I would ask that you [the Zoning Commission] reconsider getting some other people who are not on board with what you’re deciding now on the board, and see if you can better move this forward so there’s less contention in this community.”

Caroline Zoning Commission chairperson Jean McPheeters echoed the call for unity. After DeBoer was done speaking, McPheeters said that she has experienced threats of violence for being on the Zoning Commission.

“My heart has been broken too, in many ways,” she said. “I have received emails that are just so full of hatred. At one point, I decided not to respond to a person anymore because I was accused of taking bribes, which I found really annoying. I received a threat that I was so worried about that I called the State Police on that person. I’m happy to say that has turned out incredibly well and I recently have had a wonderful email from that person about her own mental health and that she’s gotten better.”

McPheeters said that she understands residents’ concerns about town government overstepping its role in controlling the day-to-day lives of property owners. She also disagrees with the notion that members of Caroline town government aren’t listening to concerns of residents.

“I think a lot of this is about fear, and I understand that,” she said during the Dec. 3 meeting. “I think those of us on the commission accepted a request from this town board, and we’re doing our best and we’ve taken in very carefully many things that have been said and we’ve made vast changes to the original document.”

Although Mix is against the current 129-page zoning document, she said the recent meetings are a sign that the town’s elected officials are listening to residents’ concerns.

She knows members of the community won’t see the issue the way she does, but she is hopeful that having meetings and discussing zoning can help bring people together, not push them apart.

“I think they’re scared, because they feel they aren’t being heard,” she said of Caroline residents against zoning. “I don’t necessarily think that’s true. By having these sessions, they’re listening. There were four Town Board members here tonight and the fifth one [was on Zoom], so everyone was listening. And I hope they hear what the people are trying to say and really scrutinize this draft.”

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