Staying informed about Hyde Park government issues may soon be just a click away, as town leaders consider expanding use of more computerized technology for residential communications and planning board submissions.
Electronic submissions to the planning board
Michael Dupree, chairman of the town’s planning board, addressed the Town Board at a public hearing on Feb. 4 to recommend that a local law be amended to require planning board documents to be submitted by developers electronically.
“We’ve had an informal process asking for applications to be submitted electronically,” said Dupree, who said the town will benefit by making the electronic submissions mandatory. If the law is amended, developers would be required to send applications and supporting documents, such as maps and surveys, in electronic format.
Since planning board meetings are not televised, said Dupree, electronic documents could be posted on the town’s Web site to allow residents to stay informed of proposed construction.
According to John Bickford, a member of the town’s planning board, Hyde Park resident Barbara Sweet has been transferring paper documents to electronic formats on a volunteer basis with much success. Having the documents in an electronic format, said Bickford, allows planning board member to overlay developer’s planning maps over geographic maps, identifying such elements as terrain, wetlands, flood plains and more that could be impacted by development.
“You can also turn layers on and off,” said Bickford, who added that over time other layers can be added through the computer program to include street layouts, water resources, sewer, electric, road right of ways and locations of septic systems.
Bickford added that switching to a computerized system may save developers money, as they are required to produce numerous copies of documents for planning board members. “It costs a couple hundred dollars apiece to generate these, so this can save developers a significant amount of money in the long run,” said Bickford.
Herb Sweet, a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, said the computer system’s usage could be expanded to include other departments within the town. “This could be extremely useful for us as well,” he said, referring to the ZBA.
Michael White of Spectra Engineering noted that while electronic submissions may be a good idea, safeguards must be put in place to ensure the documents cannot be altered. “The work we do for our clients we consider confidential,” said White, noting that engineering documents are copyrighted materials. Bickford explained that the original documents will not be made public – materials will be converted to non-editable .pdf format before being posted on the town’s Web site. “It’s not our intention to do any editing at all,” said Bickford.
Supervisor Pompey Delafield (D) suggested that while most seem welcome to changing the local law, the town should put precautionary guidelines in place. “What we heard is pretty direct in terms of people not objecting to it. There are some proprietary things that belong to the generator of the document and updating guidelines. This law seems right for our purposes,” he said.
E-mail notification system
Steve Hughes, Hyde Park’s Webmaster and a member of the town’s media committee, unveiled a plan to create a one-way e-mail notification system that would allow residents to sign up based on their Ward and categories of interest. The notification system is similar to those used by other municipalities and school districts, and can also be used to notify residents of emergencies, severe weather situations, meeting and vote notifications, important local deadlines and more.
According to Hughes, if the Town Board approves the system, residents would voluntarily register to participate and will always have the option to opt out if they wish. The service is designed for one-way communication, meaning that e-mail correspondence will go from a member of the town government to residents and replies are not permissible. “This is a way to push information out, to get information to people without requiring them to turn on their television,” said Hughes.
Town board members were concerned about security and usage issues, and asked that guidelines be created that would assure that the notification system is secure and will be utilized for official town government business only. Robert Linville (D-1st Ward) also asked that a policy be considered that would prohibit any political campaigning and partisan politics usage within the system.
Delafield noted that the system requires a set-up cost of approximately $400; while he sees the system as being useful, cost is still an issue. “I do bring up the money not to be Draconian about it,” said Delafield, adding that a resolution requiring a transfer of funds will be needed in order for the project to move forward.