(Enterprise photos — Griffin Kelly)

VERMONTVILLE — Though subdivision land-use codes in Franklin were done away with just about a decade ago, their legacy has lingered in the minds of some residents, and the thought of them coming back hangs over this current election.

Democratic town council candidate Richard Jarvis said while he and fellow Democratic candidate Leo Demong campaign door-to-door, residents will mention the pair’s alleged stance on bringing back subdivision laws.

“We’ll be knocking on doors, and some people have mentioned that we want to reinstate them,” Jarvis said in a phone interview Thursday. “We were wondering where that came from.”

He said they don’t have any plans for land-use codes.

“I had a clear role in developing those (initial) laws, but we feel there are more pressing matters going on in the town,” Jarvis said. “It is not part of what we think is needed in the town at this time. There could be some land-use issues that arise. We would definitely listen to residents and work it out with other town board members, but there is no plan to bring it back.”

Franklin town Supervisor Arthur Willman said he’s heard from some people around town that Jarvis and Demong want to bring back subdivision rules, too.

“I spoke with someone after the Democratic caucus who told me Dick (Jarvis) said, ‘I’m all about planning and zoning,'” Willman said in a phone interview Thursday. “If that’s not the case, that’s fine. I spoke with Leo Demong at pretty good length recently. He stopped over last Saturday evening and told me they didn’t have any plans for land-use codes.”

Republican town council candidate Glen Swinyer said he doesn’t agree with land regulations other than what the town already adheres to with the state Adirondack Park Agency. He said he didn’t want to comment further than that.

The other Republican town council candidate, Brad Merrill, could not be reached for comment.

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Subdivision history

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The debate over subdivisions began in 2006, when real estate entrepreneur John Hutchison wanted to reestablish the property lines on his land at Stickney Point on Union Falls Pond. He wanted to create 21 lots, 18 of which would be for residential use. At that time, Franklin did not have a development board, a planning and zoning board, or any land-use rules other than those set by the APA. The APA approved the subdivision, and then-Franklin town Supervisor Mary Ellen Keith raised concerns about the outcome, saying there should have been a town public hearing on the matter.

“The fact that (the Hutchisons) have the (money) to purchase this property has ruined the ability of all people to enjoy this pristine parcel of land,” Keith said at the time. She died in 2017.

At the end of that APA meeting, then-state Department of Environmental Conservation designee Stuart Buchanan, who voted against the subdivision, said, “If there was ever an example where local planning and local land-use was needed in the park — this is it.”

Later, Keith and the Franklin Town Council drafted and instated a local subdivision code with the help of Jarvis, who had worked for the APA for 28 years and retired in 2002. Jarvis said there was never an example of when the town had to enforce the code before Willman was elected supervisor in 2010 and the council removed the regulation.

“There were objections from a great many townspeople, urging for that it be done away with,” Willman said. “It was one of the things I ran on.”

He added that having land-use codes for subdivisions in Franklin would create another layer of bureaucracy with which most residents didn’t want to deal.

“It cost the town a lot of time and money to do this and to no avail,” he said. “A vast majority of the town did not want anything like this.”

Willman leaves office at the end of this year, and current Deputy Supervisor Dorothy Brown is running uncontested to fill the supervisor role.