by Rachel Hunter, from the Gouverneur Tribune Press, Friday, January 24, 2020
The Town of Fowler Council at its Jan. 7 regular board meeting adopted a Shoreline District Development Map for inclusion in Land Use Law and Regulations for the Town of Fowler.

Town of Fowler Supervisor Rick Newvine said, "We just want everyone to know that this has nothing to do with assessment. Nothing to do with your assessment. It is to help landowners along the water that can't make standard requirements. It eases the pain for them so that (Code Enforcement Officer Glen Besaw) can approve projects that normally he would not be able to."

The Town of Fowler Council and Town of Fowler residents at the Jan.7 meeting were shown the Shoreline District Development Map by Town of Fowler Planning Board Chair, Stephen Gale, who said: "What this shows is 300 feet from the highest water mark back. Everybody knows how Sylvia Lake is for building. Everybody builds on top of each other, and half the people don't even know where the actual lines are... it has created havoc up there. So, what we have decided and with the approval of the board, created this district. It doesn't change anything to anybody's assessment. It just sets how much minimum water frontage you can have, how much back set distance, and you have to build on at least a minimum of an acre."

"There's a lot of things up on Sylvia Lake that we have to go through as a planning board and set variances because they've built on top of each other for years, and we just don't want that to happen on the Oswegatchie River and in the future maybe Chubb Lake. Se everybody has to had an acre, not a half-acre, not a quarter-acre. You can't split it."

There was some discussion on the map's feats before it was unanimously adopted by the Town of Fowler Council.

The next regular monthly meeting of the Town of Fowler Council is set to be held on Tuesday, February 4, 7PM, at the Fowler Town Hall, 87 Little York Road, Fowler.