What Is the Role of the Board of Directors?
What Is the Role of the Board of Directors?
The Board of Directors is a working, grassroots, group that understands the needs of the communities it serves and seeks to fulfill the organization’s mission of providing training and education to New York’s planning and zoning board members. The Board is comprised of eighteen Regional Representatives, who represent the State’s nine regions, and six Directors-at-Large. According to the by-laws, Regional Representatives must be members of a local planning board or ZBA, while the Directors-at-Large may be land use attorneys, engineers, educators, or others involved in some aspect of local government. Members of the Executive Committee include the current President, 1st and 2nd Vice Presidents, and the Immediate Past President.

President
Fred Wilcox III is Vice President of Demographic Development for The Nielsen Company and chairs the Town of Ithaca Planning Board. He is also a member of other local agencies dealing with land use planning.

1st Vice President
Laura E. Moore is Vice Chair of the Warrensburg Planning Board and has provided technical assistance to the 13 communities of Warren County on issues involving housing rehabilitation, infrastructure projects, community development, tourism initiatives and planning and zoning programming. She also chairs the committee developing a comprehensive plan for the Town of Warrensburg.

2nd Vice President
John (Jack) Benjamin is President of Three Rivers Development Corporation, where he has worked since 1973. Jack is a member of the NYS Economic Development Council, the International Downtown Association, the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners. Active in the community, he is President of the LPGA Corning Classic and serves on the boards of several area organizations, including Corning Hospital, Five Star Bank and Guthrie HealthCare Systems.

Immediate Past President
Wendy E. Weber Salvati, AICP is a Senior Planner with Wendel Duchscherer Architects & Engineers, PC. She has over 20 years of comprehensive knowledge and experience as a coastal, environmental and land use planner. She has been worked on numerous projects involving waterfront planning, comprehensive planning, zoning analysis and code review, SEQR and environmental review, site plan and subdivision review, and agricultural protection. Wendy is Vice Chair of the Town of Clarence Planning Board.

Region 1: Long Island
(Nassau and, Suffolk Counties)

Alison LaPointe, Esq. Admitted to the New York State Bar in September, 2009, Alison is secretary to the ZBA of the Town of Brookhaven, providing services to approximately 475,000 residents and handling a calendar of between 60-90 appeals each month. In her capacity as secretary, she manages the office and the ZBA calendar and drafts board findings for the Law Department. Additionally, Alison is Chair of the Village of Port Jefferson’s ZBA and a past member of the Architectural Review Committee of the Village of Port Jefferson.

Vacancy for a second Region 1 representative.

Region 2: Metropolitan
(Bronx,Kings, New York Queens and,Richmond Counties)

Frank Fish, FAICP is a principal with the firm of BFJ Planning. His work specializes in comprehensive planning, real estate development and public approvals. He has represented more than 30 municipalities throughout the Northeast, as well as major private sector clients. He is a planning consultant to the Village of Mamaroneck Planning Board.

Vacancy for the second Region 2 representative.

Region 3: Low/Mid Hudson
(Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and, Westchester Counties)

Edwin Jackson chairs the Planning Board for the Town of Tusten.

Nina Peek, AICP, Town of Amenia

Region 4: Capital Region/Upper Hudson
(Albany, Columbia, Fulton, Greene, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady and,
Schoharie Counties)

David Everett, Esq. is an attorney with the firm of Whiteman Osterman & Hanna, specializing in environmental and land use practice. His areas of expertise include land use law, zoning and planning, SEQRA compliance, Superfund litigation, solid waste management and wetlands regulations. David chairs the Town of Chatham ZBA.

Tim Stalker was appointed to the Town of Austerlitz (Columbia County) Planning Board in 1995 and became Chair the following year. He has also chaired the Columbia County Planning Board since 1995, after joining it in 1999. From 2001-04, Tim chaired the Town of Austerlitz comprehensive plan committee, helping to develop the Town’s first comprehensive plan.

Region 5: Adirondack/North Country
(Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Warren and, Washington Counties)

Leslie Karasin is Program Manager with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Program in Saranac Lake. She is responsible for all facets of office communications, fundraising and management and also has significant involvement with WCS programming. Leslie has been a member of the Village of Saranac Lake Planning Board since 2006, and was appointed its chair in 2009. For the past few years she has represented the environmental community on the Franklin County All-Terrain Vehicle Committee, appointed to undertake a planning process to consider the creation of ATV trails. She is also a board member of the Northern New York Audubon Society.

Valerie Reagan - Village of Cambridge

Region 6: Southern Tier
(Broome Chemung,Chenango,Cortland,Delaware,Otsego, Schuyler,Steuben,Tioga and,Tompkins Counties)

Jonathan Kanter, AICP - Village of Lansing PBC

Nicolette A Barber, AICP -Corning

Region 7: Central
Cayuga, Herkimer, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga and, Oswego Counties

David Hess - Town of Clay

Vacancy for the second Region 7 representative.

Region 8: Finger Lakes
(Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne and, Yates Countie)

Michael Wall has worked for FRA Engineering in Rochester since 2002 and is presently a Senior Site Designer. In his work, Mike is responsible for the project management, design, approvals and construction for numerous individual septic design projects. He has also worked on site improvements for such firms as Amerada Hess, Home Depot, Sunoco and the Bayside Drive Subdivision extension in Webster, NY. Since 2000, Mike has been Vice Chair of the Town of Gates Planning Board. He is also a member of the Gates Chili Chamber of Commerce.

Vacancy for the second Region 8 representative.

Region 9: Western
(Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Niagara and, Wyoming Counties)

John Marriott retired in 2010 as Sales Manager for the West Seneca firm of Griffin Automation, though he continues to work part-time as an independent field sales representative for the firm. In his 25 years with Griffin, he managed sales and marketing operations for large-scale projects and also developed and implemented a plan for directing and broadening the company’s marketing strategy. John was appointed to the Town of Cheektowaga Planning Board in 1999 and was named Chair in 2009. He is a former Chair of the Cheektowaga Conservation Advisory Council and a current member of the Town of Cheektowaga Environmental Advisory Council.

Timothy Pazda is a member of the Town of Clarence Planning Board.

Robert Galvin, AICP - Westchester Municipal Planning Federation

Michael J. Kayes is Director of Planning and Development for Montgomery County. He is also President of the National Association of Planners and the Mohawk Valley Economic Development District and serves on the executive committee of the Hudson-Mohawk Resource Conservation and Development Council.

Mark Schachner, Esq.- Miller,Mannix,Schachner & Hafner, LLC

Ken Swanekamp

 

 

Bruce Boncke, PE is a partner in BME Associates, with more than 30 years in the consulting field. As a design engineer he has done extensive planning and design work for numerous municipal and private projects. A past president of the Rochester Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Bruce continues to be an active member of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) and many planning organizations.

J. Donald Faso is a Town Councilman in Chili, NY. Other affiliations include Director of the Gates-Chili Chamber of Commerce and a membership in the NYS Association of Professional Land Surveyors (NYSAPLS). He is also a past Chair of the Monroe County Planning Board.

James Hotaling is the former Chief of Local Government Services for the Adirondack Park Agency. He also served as a member of both the Saranac Lake Planning Board and the Saranac Lake school board. A registered architect and member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), Jim co-authored the popular New York Planning Federation publication “The Short Course: A Basic Guide for Planning and Zoning Boards of Appeal in New York State.”

David L. Kay is a staff economist at Cornell University’s Community and Rural Development Institute (CaRDI) in Ithaca, NY, where he provides leadership in the Land Use and Landscape Management programming. David has served as a member and Chair of the City of Ithaca Planning & Development Board, as well as the Tompkins County Planning Federation. He is also a past member of the Executive Committee of the Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Arthur J. Koweek is a member of the Columbia County Planning Board and former Chair of the City of Hudson Planning Board.

David Tessier, ASLA is Planning and Development Director for the Town of Manlius in Onondaga County. A Licensed Landscape Architect, he started David Tessier Landscape Architect in 1980. The firm specializes in residential design, park design, municipal planning and commercial design.

Judith Breselor, AICP is Executive Director of NYPF. She previously served as Commissioner of Planning and Development for the City of Rensselaer, and as Senior Planner for the NYS Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities. An elected member of the Rensselaer County Legislature, Judy is Past President of the NY Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Lael Locke is NYPF’s Community Planner. She has served as an elected official in the Village of Chatham since 1997 and was a member of that community’s comprehensive planning committee from 1993-95. Lael is a former newspaper editor/publisher of the regional monthly “The Paper,” and a former board member of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, where she continues to sit on several committees. She also serves as a member of the agriculture committee of the Columbia Land Conservancy.

Anne Rounds is an Administrative Assistant at NYPF. She was the owner/manager of Beachcomber Pools & Construction for 20+ years in Wynantskill. Anne has been on the Board of Education for the Troy City School District, for the past 5 years, where she currently holds the office of the President of the Board.

Susan Terwilliger is an Administrative Assistant at NYPF. She recently retired as administrative director of the Albany Law School Law Clinic & Justice Center, where she had worked since 2005.Prior to this she was employeed with the Albany firm of Leboeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, LLP.