Trustees Approve New Camera Law by a Vote of 5-1

By CASPAR EWIGCOOPERSTOWN

Cooperstown’s Village Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, March 27 resulted in the approval of a policy for fixed video-only cameras to be installed in four public locations, the continued criticism of the present regulations involving short-term rentals in the village’s zoning law and a short statement by outgoing Trustee MacGuire Benton upon his retirement from the board.

The meeting was well attended by citizens wanting to be heard at the public hearing scheduled for discussion of the installation of cameras along Main and Pioneer streets, but the short-term rental issue raised in last month’s public hearing also persisted. In the public comment session, a number of speakers addressed what they considered to be ambiguities in the present zoning law definitions of “incidental use” as well as “owner occupancy,” and pointed to the absence of language regulating the areas that abut Otsego Lake in order to protect the village’s source of water. At the end of the public comment period, Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh indicated that a number of letters had also been received relative to the short-term rental issue, and that the zoning board was going to continue to look into the issue.