Last night at 8 P.M. I watched an "interview" with Brian Tobin on Channel 2 that Clay Benedict produced. Brian gave himself credit for introducing the Rental Permit Law-which is totally untrue!
The Council hired Don Cheney (land-use attorney) to draft the law before Brian was an Alderman. The reason why this law was even brought up in the first place was because I proposed a Moratorium to stop issuance of building permits for student housing additions or conversions for higher occupancy. My proposal was denied by Mayor Gallagher, Council and Planning Commission.
The idea of the moratorium was to allow time for the City to work on re-zoning that would allow higher density in some areas, prohibit student housing in R-1 neighborhoods, and have a healthy mix in R-2 and R-3 neighborhoods.
As an Alderman Nick DeCarlo did research and brought forward the idea of the Rental Permit Program (before Brian was on the Council) and the Council retained Don Cheney to write the law for the City.
This is documented in Council Minutes.
All of this was close to the next election when Bill Wood had Brian Tobin run a Primary against Nick DeCarlo. Nick lost in the Primary.
As an Alderman, I had planned a Housing Committee to work together on zoning in areas of the City that were affected by Student Housing. It would include residents from these neighborhoods, along with Landlords, land-use attorney, Zoning and Code officials.
I was also working at the time on appealing the FEMA Flood Maps. When Brian came on Council, he offered to take over the Housing Committee.
The Housing Committee included Vivian Bosch, Amy Bertini, Shawn Smith, one landlord (Chris Calabro), Brian Tobin, Clay Benedict and Tom Michaels.
Many revisions were made to the law. Vivian Bosch brought the revised law to Meira Hertzburg who was the land-use attorney for Thoma Development and wrote the land use and zoning sections for the Comprehensive Plan for the City.
Ms. Hertzburg found many inconsistencies and said the City would be opening itself to a lawsuit as the law was written. Per Vivian’s and my request, Brian Tobin met with Ms. Hertzburg but never relayed these concerns to the Housing Committee.
I also have emails from Don Cheney who said he had mentioned MANY times that there was a better approach to handle density then the three unrelated law. Mr. Cheney did not meet with the Committee but emailed Mr. Tobin (I have the email) and again Brian Tobin did not relay Mr. Cheney’s recommendation, later saying that “he didn’t understand” his recommendation and therefore didn’t communicate it to the Committee.
All of what I’ve written above is documented.
Mayor Susan Feiszli, Cortland
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