Employees expected to lose jobs
by JESSICA L. FINCH Associate Editor

If the Town Board does not vote for a restoration of funds to the Town of Amherst Planning Department for 2007, then five people will be unemployed as of the first of the year.

In what appears to the sole case of layoffs in the town's proposed budget, the Planning Department personnel will be reduced from 14 to nine, and with those cuts, many services and programs will disappear, Planning Director Rick Gillert said.

At Monday's Town Board meeting, council members restored one position that had been marked for elimination. The senior planner in community development, a federally funded position, was restored.

Gillert's $779,547 request for 2007 was not close to being fully funded, with $395,460 indicated in Supervisor Satish Mohan's tentative budget. The personnel costs were reduced from $575,791 to $286,754 in 2006.

The planning director said if he has to work with the current amount of funding then residents can expect to see a number of projects not get done.

"We will become a development review department," Gillert said, adding that the staff will only be able to review site plan proposals for current regulations.

A 60-point document explains programs that will be removed from the town because of staffing.

Gillert estimates it will take his department 60 to 90 days to review a site plan proposal, which with the existing staff took 30 days.

With a third of the projects being reviewed each year, development will be affected and could cost the taxpayers more in taxes because revenue from permits will be lost, and the commercial tax base won't be growing.

With development such a hot topic in the Town of Amherst, the Planning Department plays a key role in many of the programs for changing zoning codes, preserving farm land, handling the deer population and ensuring that developers follow the requirements.

"The town will see a decrease in the quality of development. We will not be able to do the reviews necessary to keep quality up," he said.

The Planning Department received a lot of support during Monday's budget public hearing. Catharine Weiss, Planning Board chairman, said without a fully staffed Planning Department there would be significant impacts.

"We rely on the staff to give us information. This is one of the busiest (developing areas) in New York, and we need their expertise," she said, adding that the current employees have an intimate understanding of the town's history and future plans.

"(Get) the necessary funds to keep the planning staff at the current level," Weiss told the Town Board.

David Brody, a town resident and attorney involved in the development of the Town's Comprehensive Plan, said the proposed cuts to the Planning Department will eliminate the ability to continue to review that plan.

"It would take many years to build back to the level of competency before these cuts," he said.

Gillert said the Planning Department will not be able to review additional parcels for zoning, park and tree planning will be eliminated and the Farmland Protection Program, which has preserved 650 acres, will not be continued.

Also being removed would be the administration of HOME- and Federal Home Loan Bank-funded first-time home-buyer assistance programs, which help about 40 home buyers a year.

According to a review of planning departments across the country, the Town of Amherst has 173 annual development review cases with more required functions than many of the towns and cities reviewed. The town also has 1.2 planning staff members per 10,000 residents, less than most towns and cities.