Environmental Commission Members: Developers Ignore Clear-Cutting Ordinances

Environmental Commission members Sheryl Nowell and Alan Gilbert voiced concern at Wednesday night's meeting over the borough's enforcement of an ordinance stating property owners can't clear their land of trees.

Nowell and Gilbert said it's been an issue and that local officials have done little to stop it.

Gilbert said enforcement "is a problem, not just in the trees, but on all of our ordinances."

"The punishment is laughable," Gilbert continued. "It's easier and more beneficial to a builder or an individual who is acting as his own contractor to just simply go out and violate every ordinance that is in their way and get a slap on the wrist and, possibly, a $25 fine, which they don't even pay. Then they just go ahead and do what they want to do."

Zoning board officer Bill Donegan, however, said in a phone interview Thursday he believed the problem hasn't been too widespread.

"I don't know of any gross problem," he said.

Councilwoman Madeline McManus was in the crowd Wednesday. She left the meeting and discussed the issue with Construction Code Official Bill O'Connor. Minutes later, McManus returned and, apparently, spoke on his behalf.

"The reason they're clear cutting … is because there are other laws related to water runoff, and not letting the water not run into the road and the elevation of the land," McManus said. "And because our properties are so small, that is the reason there may be some clear cutting. They really don't want to cut the trees.

"It's not just that they're coming in to clear cut."

McManus said she wasn't sticking up for the builders, but instead providing another view.