P&Z change allows applicant rebuttal
Faced with the same decision – how to allow fair comment by applicants and residents at public hearings – two Sussex County panels took different routes to try to accomplish the same goal.
An applicant typically begins a hearing by explaining the project, followed by comments from the public. The county’s long-time policy did not give applicants an opportunity to respond to those comments unless requested by the county council or planning & zoning commission.
Council members and commissioners each considered amending hearing rules to allow applicants for conditional uses and zoning changes five minutes to respond to public testimony.
County council in January agreed on a compromise that does not allow a five-minute rebuttal, while P&Z, at its Feb. 4 meeting, agreed to allow applicants to correct or clarify comments made by the public during its meetings.
The applicant and public will not have an opportunity to speak further at a P&Z meeting following the rebuttal, unless requested by commissioners.
Vince Robertson, a county attorney who works with P&Z, explained the rationale for allowing a rebuttal by applicants.
“The purpose is that for the benefit of the applicants, the public and the opposition and the commission, we have as complete and accurate a record as we possibly can,” he said.
“The intent of that is to allow an applicant, if there’s information that needs to be clarified or there’s information that was stated that’s not accurate, the applicant gets an opportunity to make that known to the commission,” he added.
Robertson said even before the change, the commission made efforts to question applicants and members of the public in order to gather more information, and to clarify and correct statements. It did so again during public hearings Jan. 4, prior to the decision on the rules change at the end of the meeting.
“I would say that the commission has been pretty active in asking questions of the applicant, and if there’s people in favor or in opposition to an application and they provide information that the commission questions, we’ll call the applicant back up,” Robertson said.
“However, the commission may not know that there are some inconsistencies stated by the public, and that [rebuttal] gives the applicant an opportunity to answer those,” he added.
After the meeting, Robertson said commissioners can still ask residents to respond to an applicant’s rebuttal, when necessary, to create a complete and fair record.
J. Michael Riemann, an engineer and principal of Becker Morgan Group who has presented many projects for developers at hearings, said in a Jan. 14 email that a rebuttal is needed to create an accurate record. Riemann said many municipalities allow that opportunity.
“This is a common-sense refinement to the process that improves clarity, transparency and decision making by getting the facts right,” he said.
During a Jan. 6 meeting, some members of county council were concerned that allowing applicants to rebut comments made by the public might give the impression that the applicants’ opinions would be given greater weight. A decision on the rule change was postponed.
County Administrator Todd Lawson announced a compromise at a Jan. 13 meeting that council unanimously approved. It eliminates a sentence in the rules that stated the applicant would not be allowed to provide a rebuttal.
Cutting this sentence allows council to ask anyone questions or seek clarifications at the end of a public hearing. It does not create a standard rebuttal period for the applicant to respond on its own.
Kevin Conlon came to the Cape Gazette with nearly 40 years of newspaper experience since graduating from St. Bonaventure University in New York with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He reports on Sussex County government and other assignments as needed.
His career spans working as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in upstate New York, including The Daily Gazette in Schenectady. He comes to the Cape Gazette from the Cortland Standard, where he was an editor for more than 25 years, and in recent years also contributed as a columnist and opinion page writer. He and his staff won regional and state writing awards.
Conlon was relocating to Lewes when he came across an advertisement for a reporter job at the Cape Gazette, and the decision to pursue it paid off. His new position gives him an opportunity to stay in a career that he loves, covering local news for an independently owned newspaper.
Conlon is the father of seven children and grandfather to two young boys. In his spare time, he trains for and competes in triathlons and other races. Now settling into the Cape Region, he is searching out hilly trails and roads with wide shoulders. He is a fan of St. Bonaventure sports, especially rugby and basketball, as well as following the Mets, Steelers and Celtics.
