HARTWICK - Town officials continued the long process of planning for Hartwick's future during a special joint meeting of the planning board and town board Monday night.

The two boards met to discuss the possibility of enacting zoning for the town and to set up a commission that would consider the issue in detail.

However, after speaking with Otsego County planning director Terry Bliss, that plan was put on indefinite hold while the two boards work together to revise the town's master plan.

"Leave the zoning question alone for a while," Bliss said at the meeting.

He said a better way to handle the issue would be to survey residents to find out how they felt about the town's future, use those recommendations to update the town's comprehensive plan and then see what tools would be necessary to accomplish the long-range goals set forth in the plan.

"Let the planning process work to tell you what you need," Bliss said.

After the process was complete, he said the town may find that zoning was not what they needed to accomplish the goals set forth in the comprehensive plan.

Bliss made his recommendation after town supervisor Mary Balcom asked the members of the two boards to state how they felt about zoning and whether they thought it was necessary for the town.

Both boards were present in their entirety and a slight majority of the combined boards said they favored zoning for the town.

Those in favor of zoning expressed a wish to keep commercial development in the Route 28 corridor and out of residential areas.

"I think we've got to have some kind of zoning," said planning board co-chairman Ferd Thering. "If we lose our town roads, what's left?"

Planning board member Amy Ford said she felt like they had no authority to say no to projects, even if they were proposed in areas the town wished to remain rural.

"I feel like I'm sitting there with my hands tied," she said.

Town board member David Butler echoed that sentiment.

"As long as they jump through all the hoops that are necessary, the planning board approves it," he said.

Most of the officials who were against zoning said they felt the town's site plan review laws would be sufficient if they were properly enforced.

"What we have in place would work if it was enforced," said planning board member Vincent Rozella. He said if zoning were enacted, it would just be another layer of rules that the town ignored.

Planning board member Greg Horth said they needed to tighten up the site plan review law and that he was against zoning because he thought it was arrogant to "have people with no investment in your property tell you what you can do with it."

Planning board member Kelly Banner said she was in favor of zoning, but agreed that they failed to back up the town's enforcement officer Neal McManus.

Although there was some difference of opinion on whether zoning was needed or not, most everyone seemed to agree that if the town did have zoning, they would not want it to be as restrictive as Cooperstown.

The two boards will meet again Tuesday, July 18 at 7 p.m. to discuss the town's master plan.