PO Box 757 Hyde Park, New York 12538
- September 18, 2004 - Stop the Sprawl forms after a group of citizens come together out
of concern for the massive amounts of proposed development in Hyde Park and the lack of
smart zoning to enforce the Town's Comprehensive Plan. For more details check out Who
We Are. - September 2004 - February 2005 - Stop the Sprawl works to educate and raise the
awareness of the residents of the Town. Through yard signs, billboards, town-wide
mailings, sidewalk demonstrations (see bottom of page) and a constant presence at Town
Board meetings, the group exposes the flaws in the proposed zoning and works to get a
building moratorium enacted. - March 14 - zoning draft released for comment
- March 31 - Public Hearing on proposed zoning - hundreds of people crowd Town Hall -
many leave after hours of waiting in cramped, poorly ventilated conditions - April 7 - Public Hearing extended - overwhelming opposition to the proposal
- April 14 - Dutchess County Department of Planning rejects proposed zoning. Read their
letter here. - April 18 - Town Board proposes implementing a building moratorium
- April 25 - Town Board schedules Public Hearing for input on proposed moratorium.
Read the moratorium text here. - May 2 - at a special workshop meeting of the Town Board, zoning amendments addressing
the County's concerns are discussed. Check PoJo article out here. - May 11 - Public Hearing on proposed moratorium held at the FD Roosevelt High School
auditorium. Overwhelming support voiced - read Poughkeepsie Journal coverage here. - May 16 - letter from County Department of Planning Commissioner Roger Akeley is read
at the Town Board workshop - letter states that the Town has met conditions set forth on
April 14th. Discussion on public comment is halted - but some of the Planning Board
conditions are discussed. - May 23 - Town Board passes a resolution setting a public hearing (June 7th at 7pm)on
newest version of the revised zoning docs. - June 1 - at the regular Planning Board meeting, Supervisor McArthur reads yet another
letter from Planning Commissioner Akeley - this one stating that the County basically
approves this latest round of zoning. This is unfortunate, as there are still many items that
have not been addressed. - June 7 - Public Hearing held on buiding moratorium
- June 20 - additional zoning amendments discussed at Town Board workshop
- June 27, 28, 29 - Stop the Sprawl runs ad in the Poughkeepsie Journal
- July 11 - the vote on the proposed zoning had to be delayed after it was discovered that the
zoning documents were not published and made public for a long enough period of time.
Instead, the Board votes to adopt the Comprehensive Plan, and implements the proposed 9
month moratorium, because Councilman Targia is to be out of town on vacation for many
weeks and the vote would not pass without him. - July 14 - moratorium goes into effect - most Planning Board applicants caught by surprise
- August 3 - Planning Board requests a 90 day extension to the moratorium if zoning is
passed on August 22 - they need to time to digest zoning content and develop new forms
and procedures - August 22 - the vote on the proposed zoning had to be delayed AGAIN after it was
discovered that changes were made to the zoning documents and these were not published
and made public for a long enough period of time (7 days) - September 8 - Town Board majority passes new zoning, without incorporating any of the
public comments or adequately addressing the DEIS.
