Lloyd Supervisor Stu Weiss recently suggested a new way to determine whether a developer’s project meets the town’s zoning code: Have a member from each of the town, planning and zoning boards — perhaps the chairs — review a project together, in a group setting.

We believe town residents should also be added to that group to offer their perspective, which would help produce timely, accurately written zoning determinations. Under the town code, this determination must be made before any project begins site plan review.

The proposal marks a departure from how the process has worked for decades in Lloyd. Typically, Building Department Director Dave Barton reports his findings verbally, concluding that a project meets the code, often without anything in writing to explain the decision. But once a project reaches the Planning Board, developers frequently present amended plans and request considerations or waivers, raising questions about how the director determined the project met the zoning code in the first place.

We also believe any meeting of this proposed group should be held in public, with the project presented in full, and that it should be filmed — as many other town meetings are — so residents unable to attend can review it later.

We strongly urge the Town Board to halt the practice of developers meeting with the building director long before an application is submitted, and even before a formal zoning review and written determination have been completed.

Weiss said the process “has got to be a three-board thing, so when a project comes in, there should be a determination meeting and go from there, otherwise everyone is wasting their time. There has got to be a better flow chart on how a gray-area project gets handled.”

Members of the group may not always agree, but the town’s land use attorney can be consulted for guidance. We believe a new process would lead to far less divisive outcomes than the current one, in which developers who appear to have received early assurances are prepared to sue the town if they don’t get their way. The present system continues to serve the public poorly. It’s time for a change.