Town officials to revisit comp plan
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

BATH - Faced with heavy criticism, Bath town officials appear ready to reconsider changes made to a draft comprehensive plan submitted by an ad hoc committee in 2007.

Town Councilwoman Robin Lattimer advised board members Monday the comprehensive plan would be "revisited" in the aftermath of a public hearing dominated by complaints that town officials deleted scores of specific recommendations drawn up by the ad hoc committee.

The recommendations pertained to a broad range of guidelines regarding future development and land use issues in the town. They included suggested restrictions on the location of adult-oriented businesses, as well as suggestions for protecting area aquifers and preserving a rural quality of life in the municipality.

After the preliminary comprehensive plan was handed over to the town government, a second committee representing the town board struck the recommendations. Lattimer said the deletions were a way of keeping the overall plan "flexible."

Town residents, however, disagreed and made their displeasure known at a May 8 public hearing. A representative remark came from town resident Tom Daulton, who told the board the committee had "emasculated the plan."

Lattimer last week said board members were attentive to the complaints. "We listened to the comments, and we're responding to them," she told The Courier Tuesday.

The committee, made up of Lattimer, town Councilman Albert Burns, Planning Board Chairman James Emo and Hal Bailey, chairman of the ad hoc committee, will return to the plan in the weeks ahead, Lattimer said.

"It's going to take time," she said, adding a current moratorium on new adult businesses in the town may have to be extended further.

It was the opening of an adult products store on Worth Road in 2004 that led to the formation of the ad hoc committee in the first place. Committee members originally were charged with drawing up guidelines restricting the location of any future adult business in the town.