NEW SCOTLAND — The town board has appointed a comprehensive plan committee, but has not yet given the group of eight a specific charge, a timeline, or a budget.

At the Jan. 11 town board meeting the council members and supervisor were decisive on their appointments but were unsure on the other organizational matters.

They unanimously appointed to the committee only existing town officials who currently play a role in the town’s zoning and planning.

These appointments include: Two town board members, Douglas La Grange and Richard Reilly; two planning board members, Chairmen Robert Stapf and Chuck Voss; three zoning board of appeals members, William Hennessy, Robert Parmenter, and Adam Greenberg; and the town’s full-time zoning administrator, Paul Cantlin.
LaGrange was named the chair of the comprehensive-master-plan committee. Appointing the official committee got the process off the ground, LaGrange said, and solidifies the town’s decision that review of the comprehensive plan is "best to be done in-house."

This is the only committee in New Scotland where town board members are voting members of an appointed committee, and not just a liaison.
At last Wednesday’s meeting, resident Sharon Boehlke expressed her concern that most of the committee members were from the Voorheesville area while the master plan is supposed to be a document for the whole town. Who’s going to represent Clarksville, she asked"

Supervisor Ed Clark said that the appointed people are just leaders of the project, and that all resident’s input will still be needed.

Councilman Reilly lives in the village of Voorheesville and LaGrange is a Feura Bush farmer.

Robert Stapf is a long-time planning board member and current planning board chairman. He had been instrumental in the formation of the 1994 comprehensive plan and lives in Voorheesville.

The newest planning board member, Chuck Voss, lives on New Scotland South Road. He’s been a resident for about six years. In 2005, he moved up from an alternate post to become a regular planning board member. Voss is a certified planner. He has a master’s degree in urban and environmental planning and runs his own planning consulting firm. Voss was also a previous member of the Resident’s Planning Advisory Committee.

Three of the comprehensive committee members had been voting members on RPAC: LaGrange, Voss, and Robert Parmenter. That committee surveyed residents and produced a report, largely focusing on recommendations for the town’s Route 85 and 85A corridor.

Parmenter currently has a seat on the zoning board and is the town’s historian. He lives near the Voorheesville Elementary School.

The largest representation on the comprehensive plan committee comes from the zoning board.

LaGrange announced at the Wednesday meeting that he had received a request the night before from Adam Greenberg to join the committee.

Greenberg lives on Krumkill Road.

LaGrange said he had asked zoning board Chairman Ronnie Von Ronne to be on the committee, but he declined because of the time commitment and time conflict with his work.

Clark said that Von Ronne had recommended Greenberg and Hennessey. Hennessey lives on Heldervue Avenue.

Reilly, who seconded all the appointments, asked town attorney Michael Mackey if there was a problem that there is a quorum of the five-member zoning board on the comprehensive plan committee. Mackey said he wasn’t sure, but that he did not think it was a problem since there will be no official ZBA business being conducted.

The comprehensive plan committee, like all town board-appointed committees, is required by law to hold open meetings anyway, and follow all the regulations of the state’s Open Meetings Law.

Stapf, from the audience, reminded the town board that part of maintaining open meetings to the public means placing legal notices in the newspapers and designating someone to take minutes. Stapf said it would be advisable for the board to give the committee some start-up money.

Reilly commissioned LaGrange to outline the cost involved and get back to the town board.

Clark suggested the town board ask the planning board and zoning-board secretary if she would be interested in taking minutes for the new committee.

Everyone agreed the first step is for copies of the 1994 master plan to be made. Clark said that his office was clean out of them, but town Clerk Diane Deschenes said that she has the whole document scanned.

Mackey said that he will make available the legal definition of comprehensive plan, and the laws that address the legal procedure for amending the comprehensive plan.

Councilwoman Margaret Neri said that she keeps hearing LaGrange state that most municipalities update their master plan every five years, but, she sees many Capital Region towns that are just starting to update plans that are at times 30 years old. Neri asked LaGrange for some information on the importance of the five-year updates and trends across the state in regard to the gap between updates; she said she was interested in this information because of the expense of updating.

Reilly stated that 85 percent of New Scotland’s 12-year-old comprehensive plan is data, which he doesn’t think needs to be changed, and will keep down the cost.

The first comprehensive plan committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

Extending a hand

In other business, the town board decided not to request payment from the neighboring town of Bethlehem to have easements on town owned land. Bethlehem is trying to secure 72 easements along Route 85 in New Scotland to install a new water main and is offering property owners nine cents per square foot for permanent easements and five cents for temporary assessments. The total amount New Scotland would receive is $322.00.
Bethlehem’s Supervisor, Theresa Egan, sent a letter to Clark saying since the assessments are "for a municipalities betterment, this is a request that you advise whether the town of New Scotland anticipates payment for such easements."
Bethlehem is asking if we intend to be paid, Clark told the board and then added, "Let’s not get paid."
Reilly nodded and said, "We have bigger deals we are trying to work out."

Bethlehem and New Scotland are in the midst of a number of negotiations: the town border dispute, and working out a transmission agreement to transmit public water from Albany.
Town engineer R. Mark Dempf said that Bethlehem’s Route 85 water main project is running "very slow." He said Bethlehem is having some problems getting easements.

Clark said that he has not received any phone calls from New Scotland residents since Bethlehem’s initial letters went out.