To the Editor:

On Dec. 10, 2025, a business application for a private business school community at 6378 Gun Hill Road entered into record that it will be using the abutting Benjamin M. Crupe Bozenkill Park as part of their business [“Former dance hall-turned-church now to host home-school center,” The Altamont Enterprise, Dec. 12, 2025].

The applicants expressed that they will grow. They allege that children will be dropped off at their community program for skills on educational socialization. The Guilderland Planning Board instructed the applicants to drop the words “school” and “daycare” from their application.

Altamont Mayor Kerry Dineen, a licensed and professional educator, raised concerns about water usage and lack of a Guilderland town code on community centers. Planning Board Chairman Stephen Feeney, cousin of Town Supervisor Peter Barber, stated it would be up to the town’s zoning board of appeals to interpret “community center.”

I respectfully disagree. This business is an educational center and possibly daycare because it will be bringing together a group of children for educational instruction. Socialization is an educational curriculum. Bringing children together for supervision without parents is a component of daycare depending upon the ages of the children.

To allow the zoning board of appeals to make its own interpretation of what is a community center is an end run around and to avoid the role and duties of a town board (run by Peter Barber) to bypass creating and having oversight of town-made law.

A zoning board of appeals does not make law. It has nothing to interpret when the town board has not made a law.

I know that the village of Altamont only has jurisdiction over the water, which explains why Mayor Kerry Dineen spoke to the issue in her control. But all of us, every Altamont and Guilderland resident, have a right to know what the town board will do when a business lays claim on record to a town park as part of their business plan.

Some might say this is no different than the YMCA using the schools for daycare or the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) for classrooms in our district. Do they pay a leasing agreement to the school district? Does the YMCA or BOCES provide additional insurance coverage for use of town facilities for their business operations?

I called the Guilderland Parks and Recreation Department and asked: Am I allowed to operate a dog business at a town dog park?  I also sent the following email to the Guilderland Town Board:

Dear Town Board,

On Dec. 10, 2025, the Guilderland Planning Board put into record that Guilderland Zoning Administrator J. Coons approved a school daycare and put the application into motion with the planning board. The applicants expressed parking and using the Bozenkill Town Park as part of their business plan. The applicants and the planning board expressed parking needs with the applicants stating and referencing the town park, again in the Q/A.

Because the applicants have laid claim to the town park as part of their business plan and have expressed using the park for their day schooling education program, and expressed growth, I request the Guilderland Town Board step in to protect the town park from a business acquisition and capacity problem. I also request that the town board protect one of the only handicapped accessible parks in the town of Guilderland.

The town planner has come under open public comment for problems with oversight and opinions and this application requires your intervention because the planner and building and zoning administrator are bypassing the town codes and lack thereof when it is the town board that makes law. The zoning board of appeals is tasked with following the law.

There are immediate questions that come to mind and I am sure you will have others from a town board perspective.

Please inform me:

— 1. Why was a business allowed to include the use of a town-owned park as part of their business plan for a school community program?

— 2. If this business were to open up next door to a district school and stated to the school district that it would be using the school playground for its program during school time periods would this be allowed?

— 3. What insurance and liability protections would the town have to protect liability from injuries in the event of dog bites, falls, injuries incurred by children and adults in their business using the town park?

— 4. In continued use, now that the applicants have laid claim to the park as their business operation will they be returning to the town to claim adverse possession?

— 5. What happens to town residents when capacity is reached by the influx of their business patrons? Will town residents lose use of town park amenities?

— 6. If I wanted to open a dog day-care business at the town dog parks, am I allowed to use town park for business use?

— 7. What fees, permits, and enforcement would be in place for a group business?

— 8. Parking and overflow, what stipulations are in place when they will be using the park as a group?

— 9. Handicapped use of the park. How will town residents with disabilities be able to use the park?  We know that this is a community business population. The idea that, after going to their program, one or two parents will take their child to the park contradicts the business plan for this organization.

— 10. How did this application bypass the town board for interpretation of codes that do not exist?  How is the ZBA making town law?

Please respond.

Christine Duffy

Guilderland

Editor’s note: The Benjamin M. Crupe Bozenkill Park off of Gun Club Road is a village of Altamont park, not a town of Guilderland park.