GUILDERLAND — After a committee worked for more than two years to update Guilderland’s two-decades-old comprehensive plan, the town board has scheduled its first hearing on that plan — for Feb. 4 at 7 p.m.

The board had 90 days from the time it received the plan on Nov. 6 to hold a hearing.

“February 4th is the 90th day …,” Supervisor Peter Barber told the board members at their Jan. 21 meeting. “I wanted to give you the full 90 days to have an opportunity to read the comprehensive plan.”

He also said the hearing would be kept open after Feb. 4. “We’ll probably continue on to the March 4th [meeting] and who knows beyond that,” he said.

The board will deal with the State Environmental Quality Review of the project after the hearing, Barber said.

The Albany County Planning Board has issued a short advisory, saying, “There is a public concern over infrastructure, increased traffic, potential overdevelopment with an emphasis on Western Avenue, stormwater concerns with an emphasis on Route 20 Fuller Road intersection and potential school tax implications/shortfalls for Guilderland’s Central School District.

“The Town should consider addressing these concerns prior to final approval of the comprehensive plan update.”

The board also scheduled a public hearing for March 4, at 7 p.m., on a proposed local law to impose a moratorium on land-use development.

The subject was broached at the board’s Jan. 7 meeting by Robyn Gray, who chairs the grassroots group Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth.

Gray had pushed the board for the first moratorium last year, which was adopted in May and ended in November.

To encourage affordable housing and also to protect the town’s water quality and quantity, that moratorium law said, there would be a six-month moratorium on subdivisions of five or more lots, apartment complexes of 25 or more units, and residential-care facilities of 50 or more units.

At the Jan. 7 meeting, Deputy Supervisor Christine Napierski asked what would happen if an application came to the town now that conflicted with proposals for the updated comprehensive plan.

“Shouldn’t we have extended it until the comp plan was finished?” she asked.

Barber said on Jan. 21 that the hearing on the moratorium proposal could not be scheduled on Feb. 4 because it has to go to the county planning board, which doesn’t meet until after that.

According to a memo from the town planner, Kenneth Kovalchik, the new moratorium would last four months and could be extended for another four months or in two-month segments.

Similar to the first moratorium, the new proposal would limit subdivisions of five or more single-family homes; multiple-family developments of 25 or more dwelling units; and assisted living, independent living, and nursing-home developments of 50 or more dwelling units. 

Also related to the comprehensive plan, the board authorized Kovalchik to submit an application under a Department of Environmental Conservation program for the adoption of a conservation overlay zoning district.

Overlay districts are recommended in the update of the plan to protect the Watervliet Reservoir, Guilderland’s major source of drinking water, and to protect the Helderberg viewshed.

Cornell University is working with the DEC and the Hudson River Estuary Program to give free technical help to successful applicants for establishing overlay districts. The application deadline is March 3.

“You have to be in the Hudson River Estuary,” said Barber of qualifying to apply, “and we are in the Hudson River Estuary.”

“The Hudson estuary stretches 153 miles from Troy to New York Harbor, nearly half the river’s 315 mile course between Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks and the Battery at the tip of Manhattan,” according to the DEC.

Barber also said that getting the grant would be “a long shot.”

Napierski asked if the town would proceed with overlay zoning even if it didn’t get the grant, to which Barber responded in the affirmative.

“We’re going to do this regardless,” he said.

Other business

In other business at its Jan. 21 meeting, the Guilderland Town Board:

— Accepted the Guilderland Conservation Advisory Council’s 2024 annual report, which by law is to be forwarded to the DEC commissioner.

Barber praised the thoroughness of the three-page report, prepared by Caitlin Ferrante, calling it “a blow-by-blowing of all the applications reviewed by the council”;

— Approved the 2021 financial audit, after which Barber said, “We’re current with everything in terms of the state comptroller, but we need to get our independent auditor in.” He went on to say that auditors were in demand and getting difficult to find;

—  Awarded a contract for two fairway mowers and a turf grass sprayer to Cutting Green, LLC, the sole responsible bidder, for $94,395.

“The superintendent of golf said that was a very good deal,” said Barber, noting “It’s also part of their 2025 budget”;

— Authorized spending $1,080,000 to replace a culvert on Leesom Lane, which will be reimbursed by the state’s Department of Transportation. 

“I can’t believe it,” said Barber, expressing surprise at the cost. “It’s a culvert, not a bridge.”

He also said, “It’s probably going to happen this year sometime … And I think they’re going to have detours”;

— Appointed Heather Murphy to the Traffic Safety Committee.

“I was very impressed with her résumé,” said Councilman Gustavos Santos.

Murphy wrote in a letter to Barber that she is “passionate about improving pedestrian and cyclist safety, reducing speeding in residential areas, and enhancing driver education for young and older drivers”;

— Appointed Rebecca Alex as a telecommunicator in the police department. “We are constantly looking for telecommunicators,” said Barber; and

— Appointed Michael Drake as a laborer in the Department of Water and Waste Water Management.