Supporters of a countywide planning board—an idea backers hail as anti-status quo and critics call another unnecessary layer of government— fell one vote short Thursday in their effort to create the new board.
Three of the County Legislature’s 12 Democrats broke ranks in joining with three Republicans to uphold County Executive Chris Collins’ veto of the planning board.
The 9-6 vote kills the existing idea of a countywide advisory board with the power to review, but not reject, development plans in every city, town and village,
“It would have been a tragic waste of taxpayers’ money,” Collins said after the vote. “This is a good day for the taxpayers of Erie County.”
Collins declared the idea of a county planning board, whatever its shape, size or form, dead, but Democrats were quick to promise a revival of the idea.
For that to happen, for the notion of a countywide planning board to move forward, it will take the support of the county’s numerous cities, towns and villages, the same group that led the opposition this time.
“I think they’re afraid,” Majority
Leader Maria Whyte, the bill’s chief sponsor, told her colleagues Thursday. “I think they’re afraid of change, and I think they’re afraid of losing power and control.”
For the three Democrats who broke ranks, it was clear the municipalities in their districts leaned on them to vote “no” just as fellow Democrats pressured them to vote “yes.”
Legislator Robert Reynolds of Hamburg said his defining moment came last week during a meeting of the Erie County Association of Governments.
Reynolds, who indicated he might provide the necessary 10th vote to override, asked who among the municipal leaders there opposed the new board.
“It was unanimous,” Reynolds said. “That was a changing moment for me.”
Even with that memory still fresh in his head, Reynolds paused several seconds Thursday before voting “no.”
Joining Reynolds and the three Republicans were Democrats Daniel Kozub of Lackawanna and Timothy Wroblewski of West Seneca.
Wroblewski says he wants a new planning board. but it has to be something the towns in his district also want.
“For this to work, everyone has to be on board,” he told his fellow lawmakers.
The three Democrats stood by their previous “no” votes despite eleventh-hour lobbying by supporters of the measure.
At one point, Democrats interrupted the meeting for a 15- minute recess before the vote.
“This puts me in a tough spot,” Reynolds said of the vote Thursday. “It truly puts me in a tough spot.”