The centerpiece of August’s Board of Trustees meeting was the second public hearing on a proposal to create a mixed-use corridor through Marble. On the heels of an executive session to discuss ongoing negotiations with Marble Water Company, Mayor Ryan Vinciguerra outlined the fundamentals of the proposal to the
30-or-so people present, many of whom had not attended the initial hearing in July.
Trustees were first to share their perspectives on the issue.
Larry Good explained that the proposal, affecting approximately 27% of existing lots, threatened to “change the entire DNA of Marble for the worse.” He highlighted the lack of infrastructure to support the zoning change, figuring the existing home occupation code sufficient to allow residents to run small businesses from their homes.
Councilman Dustin Wilkey explained that, “No matter what happens here, the board can control the outcome,” adding that the measure “can be tailored to what this town is and represents.” Failure to adopt the proposal, he suggested, would be detrimental to economic growth.
Being somewhat subdued, Wilkey later explained how his dog had been hit and killed that morning by a speeding motorist outside his home on West Park Street. The Board offered him their sincere condolences.
East Marble resident Jamie Vogt was the first member of the public to address the board. An experienced practitioner in the field of land management, Vogt characterized the proposal as “really premature at this moment,” and the current zoning code as “wildly short,” cautioning that the proposition “had many tentacles that would touch life in the town in a multitude of ways.”
Allowing businesses to adjust setbacks from the road, Vogt claimed, would adversely impact the rights of way, which are “integral to the charm and rustic appeal” of Marble. Vogt suggested updating codes and processes before making the change, advocating that a portion of the Town’s reserves be earmarked to hire consultants and grant writers and recommending the issuance of municipal bonds to address infrastructure needs before making any big decision. Vogt’s comments were met with murmurs of approval.
Next up was Brian Souter, resident since 1993. Souter claimed that Marble had “always been mixed use.” Dismissing the risk of any immediate and adverse fallout from the proposed measure, he explained that there were only four “buildable” vacant lots along the proposed corridor. Clearly vexed that the board had again raised the issue of rezoning, Souter insisted, “I don’t think we have a problem; leave it the way it is.”
His ensuing eulogy of cottage industry included a reference to Bill Gates, who had started his business (Microsoft) in a small garage in Albuquerque. “All we need to do is enforce existing rules and stop being so anti-business,” he pronounced. Claiming it to be “proof” that the Town of Marble already allowed mixed zoning, he then distributed copies of an undated letter addressed to “Vince” typed in all caps and signed by Wayne Brown, then-mayor pro tem.
Of dubious origin, the letter is a fawning response to a building application made in November 2001 for a garage/shop/office on East 2nd Street. In it, Brown states that “the Town allows and encourages cottage industries,” and cordially advises “Vince” (who was then considering constructing a darkroom) to “put in a grey-water system to avoid all the photo water over-working the septic.”
A few minutes later, Souter took umbrage at some comments made by Trustee Good on the topic of home occupation and the mayor stepped in with an appeal for civility. Unrepentant, Souter expressed his displeasure and left the meeting.
Max Gibbons of East Marble questioned the sense of spending so much time on the issue of zoning when the priority of the Town lay in addressing infrastructure issues. Mayor Vinciguerra justified the urgency on the grounds that it had become increasingly difficult to enforce the zoning code in its current form, stressing the need to avoid the risk of litigation related to “spot zoning.”
When Gibbons pressed him on the question of allowing the needs of individual businesses to supersede the broader interests of the Town, the Mayor offered his assurances that the board was “not ignoring the issues of water and septic systems.”
Once the public hearing was closed, the board passed a motion to decline a proposal from the Marble Water Company offering to extend their existing water infrastructure to East Marble. Adjacent to this, a motion was passed to engage the services of Alan Leslie of Environmental Process Control to help the Town develop a strategy to solve the impending impasse it is facing with the Marble Water Company.