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The Lansing Town Board unanimously passed an extension to the Town's moratorium on high impact commercial and industrial activities Wednesday.  The original one year moratorium was passed into law last May to protect the town against the threat of hydrofracking while the town updates ordinances and plans to offer permanent protection against potential environmental and road damage to town property.  The new law extends the moratorium for another year and includes one minor clarification of permitted business uses to protect existing businesses in the town.

Town officials and committees are in the process of updating zoning laws and the town's comprehensive plan.  The moratorium is crafted to allow time for the work of Town Center Committee, the Comprehensive Plan Committee, the Pathways Committee, the Codes Committee, the Oil & Gas Committee, as well as what officials deem 'key drivers of the future' including the comprehensive plan and zoning efforts, including the South Lansing sewer initiative.

When the moratorium passed a year ago Town Officials said they expected ongoing efforts to update Town law would take more than a year.  At that time Town Attorney Guy Krogh advised the board to enact it for a year on the grounds that it would be more defensible if challenged in court.  He said that as long as a good faith effort to update ordinances and laws is in progress it would be possible to extend the ban.

The law justifies the ban by noting the importance of the lake and waterways, farmland, wetlands, historic buildings, cemeteries and farmsteads, and other important natural, scenic, archaeological, and historic resources that contribute to the cultural fabric and quality of life that residents prize.  It lists protection of water and air quality, as well as the aesthetic quality of the town.

The law states, "The purpose of the Local Law is therefore to provide the Town with a period of time to consider and, if appropriate, to draft and to enact one or more local laws, ordinances, or other legislation, to identify and designate wetlands and critical environmental areas, develop aquifer protection legislation, develop road use classification laws or other road use policies, to update Town’s Comprehensive Plan, to examine nuisance controls and the Town’s authority to mitigate or abate nuisances, including by regulating or prohibiting air and water pollution, and to update or amend, as indicated or needed, the Town’s zoning laws, and/or to consider a ban or prohibition of the activities described in Article 3, § 4 of the Local Law. At this time, it appears to the Town Board that a moratorium of one (1) year in duration, coupled with a mechanism for a variance procedure, will achieve an appropriate balancing of interests between (on the one hand) the public need to safeguard the character and other resources of the Town and the health, safety and general welfare of its residents, and (on the other) the rights of individual property owners or businesses desiring to conduct such activities during such period."

The law was passed 4/0 with no discussion.

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