GUILDERLAND — A controversial proposal before the town board would build 256 independent-living apartments for seniors and an office building on a 44-acre property across Route 155 from the Farnsworth Middle School.

The apartments would be in a cluster of four buildings, each four stories tall, with a one-story building in the center. The separate two-story building would have 30,000 square feet of office space.

The application for a Planned Unit Development, or PUD, went to the planning board last night for an advisory opinion; the town board will make the ultimate decision on whether or not to allow it after a public hearing on March 6.

At Wednesday night’s planning board meeting, a crowd of people applauded for residents who spoke against the proposal. One said that anything other than single-family homes would be an affront to the neighbors already living there.

Another resident who opposes the project, Robert Randall, of Randall Law Firm and husband of town Justice Denise Randall, said the applicant wants a PUD for higher density. Since the applicant can’t build on the back of the land, but only on the flat part near the road, he continued, the plan is to build “higher than anybody ever has before," in order to get the largest number of units in as cheaply as possible. “Everything about this is cost-efficient for the builder, and not in conformity to the neighborhood,” Randall said.

Marie Wiles, superintendent of the Guilderland schools, spoke about how difficult traffic already is at the beginning and end of the school day. She noted that, while she hasn’t decided one way or the other on the project, many students walk to school and need to cross the busy Route 155.

The developer would pay for installing a traffic signal at the project’s main entrance, directly across from Presidential Way, the road that leads to the Farnsworth Middle School and to Presidential Estates Townhomes.

Most of this property is currently used as Hiawatha Trails Executive Golf Course, which has been open for a fee for many years, but which is “no longer economically viable,” the town board heard on Jan. 16 from engineer Daniel Hershberg of Hershberg and Hershberg in Albany. The property, already under contract, spans three different parcels including one with a single-family home.

The applicant is listed on documents on file at the town hall as Hiawatha Land Development, LLC, and Ira Mark Dean of RDC Equities in New York City is named as a contact person.

The applicant “believes and has commissioned a study to show” that the town of Guilderland and the surrounding area is underserved with independent senior-living units, Hershberg told the board. This project will fulfill that need, Hershberg said, and also provide a separate office building “to occupy some of the excessive frontage on New York State Route 155.”

Terresa M. Bakner of Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna, representing the applicant, wrote to the town board in a letter on file at the town hall that the development would offer benefits to the town:

— Transition: Conditions placed on the PUD will ensure that the four-story apartment buildings are consistent with the surrounding community and act as a transition between the existing apartments, retail uses, school, and single-family homes in the surrounding area;

— Open space: The PUD will protect open spaces and provide a “walkway” to other areas of the town “such as the YMCA property.” The project will transfer about 23.7 acres to the town for recreational purposes; another 11 acres will be open space, not owned by the town. After construction of the proposed apartments and office building, Bakner wrote, “There will still be 79% open space.”

The existing R-40 zoning district allows, by special-use permit, for a “residential facility independent living” for residents over 55 and/or disabled residents, Bakner also writes in the letter. The reason for the PUD application is the height of the buildings and the office-building use, she wrote.

More for the over-55 set

The Hiawatha Trails project is less than one mile northeast of another planned independent-living senior apartment complex, that was approved on Nov. 9. The proposed Summit at Mill Hill Apartments, on Route 155 at Mill Hill Court, is to be a 92-unit complex for people aged 55 and older.

It is part of a Planned Unit Development that was approved in 1992, which includes the Atria, an assisted-living facility; 74 townhouses for people aged 55 and older; and a Stewart’s Shop.

The only element of the Mill Hill PUD not yet built was a 160-bed nursing home, which the apartment complex will replace. Attorney Mary Beth Slevin of Stockli Slevin & Peters told the town board in September of the independent-living senior apartments, “We believe that this proposal is entirely consistent with the vision for the PUD as adopted in 1993 … and it would provide a very useful and very important alternative for seniors, not currently available in the town of Guilderland.”

In March 2016, Mill Hollow, a project on Route 20 in western Guilderland that had been approved for units for residents aged 55 and older, sought approval from the town to lift its age restriction.

Slevin also represented Mill Hollow’s developer, Buck Construction, telling the town board at the time that it was “imperative” that the age restriction be lifted. The reason, she said, was that the real-estate market had evolved in 2013 and lenders had come to believe that there was sufficient supply in the market for over-55 units and no need for the Mill Hollow project if it remained senior-focused. The Mill Hollow project went ahead as apartments for renters of any age.

Asked about this discrepancy, Guilderland’s supervisor, Peter Barber, said this week that demand for senior housing may vary from one part of town to another: As they age, people still want to live in familiar places, and so suburban Westmere may be more popular than the more rural western Guilderland.

None of the town’s boards, including the planning or zoning boards, “second guess” a developer’s estimation of the marketability of a project, Barber said, although the town board does have input into whether a specific residential project would be better marketed as condominiums or apartments.

“Part of it,” Barber said, “could be looking at the overall town, looking at how many condominiums there are and whether we want to provide seniors, or the elderly, with an opportunity for continued ownership of the property. Some people still want to own.”

Why a PUD?

Barber, who for years chaired Guilderland’s zoning board, said this week that a PUD can be preferable to what he called “a regular subdivision,” because of its compact design and the potential to leave more land as open space. He noted that, if trails were built through the property, it would be possible for someone to walk from Kennewyck, a development almost a mile south on Route 155, down the sidewalk, cross Route 155, and then walk on trails to the YMCA or the library or the elementary school.

“That’s the goal,” he said, “to create pedestrian and bicycle connections.”

The town’s new zoning code, approved in June 2016, outlines the purpose of a PUD: “The PUD district provides for flexible land use and design so that small- to large-scale neighborhoods can be developed that incorporate a variety of residential types and nonresidential uses, and which may contain both individual building sites and common property which are planned and developed as a unit. The PUD district shall include preservation of trees, natural topography and geologic features; efficient use of land resulting in smaller networks of utilities; interconnected streets; and, a plan supportive of transit service and consistent with smart growth principles.

The first step in the process of considering a PUD is, according to the code, meant to be a “planning conference with the town planner,” who then issues a report to the town board.

Guilderland has been without a town planner since Jan Weston, Guilderland’s planner for almost three decades, retired in January 2017.

Barber said that, without a planner, the planning board now takes the initial look at any proposed PUDs. Cases involving rezones, he said, are sent to the Land Use Advisory Committee.

Town officials plan to hire a planning consultant or town planner this year, Barber said this week, adding that he should have an update in the near future.