Mathes Says County Planner

Stalls Pony Farm Expansion

By JIM KEVLIN • for www.allotsego.com

ONEONTA – The county’s “single point of contact” for economic development, Sandy Mathes, told a Citizen Voices public meeting this morning that, given interference by the county Planning Department, he is considering abandoning development of the final 25 acres in the Pony Farm Commerce Park.

The county Planning Department director, Karen Sullivan, has asked the state DOT to review the Route 205 corridor from I-88 north, an unnecessary step that will embroil local ec-dev plans in perhaps years of unnecessary red tape, Mathes told a gathering of 50 businesspeople in the Carriage House on Southside Drive.

“She absolutely overstepped her bounds,” he said of the planning director.

Later this month, the Town of Oneonta Planning Board has to decide whether to support Sullivan’s recommendation, or whether to proceed with its SEQRA review responsibilities without asking for state DOT involvement.

Mathes said the board has the authority to move forward on its own.  The DOT has neglected the stretch for decades, and it is the state’s responsibility, not the town’s to fix it at town expense, he said.