Altamont zoning plan shot down, 3 to 2, by village board

By Zach Simeone

ALTAMONT— The vacant parcel of land in the center of the village can now be more densely developed. But that won’t happen any time soon.

After Tuesday night’s village board meeting, the 5.4-acre parcel off Schoharie Plank Road owned by Carl Schilling will be rezoned from R-15 to R-10, which lacks the multi-family designation he was hoping for.

That means residential lots can now be 10,000 square feet rather than 15,000. Following its adoption of a comprehensive land-use plan a year ago, the village board held packed hearings for four months on zoning changes suggested in the master plan. One of the most hotly-contested changes was to allow multi-family housing on the vacant land.
Schilling, a carpenter who inherited the land from his father 27 years ago, wanted to build clustered housing there, leaving much of the land open for public use. He had ice-skated there as a boy and played by the creek, he said. The park-like property is bordered by village houses, many of whose residents objected to the "M" designation.
"I was just disappointed," Schilling said yesterday of the board’s decision. "I still don’t understand why people don’t see the need. I don’t think anybody fully understands this, and yet everybody’s got a very big opinion."
The subject has been the source of animosity between Schilling and his neighbors. "I don’t know what to do. What am I going to do" Fight my way through neighbors’ fears"" asked Schilling. "I’m not going to fight fear with anger. I’ve got neighbors not waving at me, giving me dirty looks and everything; it’s incredible."
Proponents of the multi-family designation, including Trustee Dean Whalen, an architect who headed the committees that drafted the master plan and the new zoning proposals, said that further development around Altamont should have a village feel, rather than the typical cul-de-sac and cookie-cutter house design that has become the suburban status quo. Proponents also said the "M" designation would preserve open space as well as allowing for more economic diversity in the village.

After Mayor James Gaughan made the motion Tuesday night for the long-awaited vote, the board decided, by a vote of 3 to 2, against re-zoning Schilling’s land to R-10M. Whalen and Trustee Bill Aylward voted in favor. Gaughan and trustees Christine Marshall and Kerry Dineen were opposed. Marshall had served on the committee that proposed the zoning changes.
Soon after, Dineen proposed rezoning the land in question to R-10. The board voted in favor with what Mayor Gaughan called a "super majority vote," meaning a majority plus one. Whalen was the only member to vote against the R-10 designation.
"My sole purpose for going for the ‘M’ designation was because it gave me the greatest leeway as far as design," Schilling told The Enterprise yesterday. "The land for me is an opportunity to create something really beautiful. What they did is analogous to hiring a painter and preventing him from using red in it. It’s an artificial handicap. I thought that this would serve the village, but the board doesn’t agree, so what am I going to do""

The board, because of the new R-10 designation, was not able to vote on the new zoning law as a whole, though this was originally part of the evening’s agenda. It will reconvene on Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. for a resolution.
Village Attorney Michael Moore explained the reason for postponing the vote: "The governing state law, under which this new zoning law is being adopted, requires that, before a local law such as this new zoning law can be acted upon, it must be in its final form and on the desks of the board members for a period of either seven days if it’s personally put on their desk, or 10 days if it’s mailed to them," he said. "There was a change in the terms of the zoning map, which is part of the zoning law, and, in order to comply with the governing state statute, we have to change the map, put that change in the law, and put it on the board members’ desks for the required period of time."

The village will have to wait until next Wednesday for a final answer on the continuing zoning debate.

Other business

In other business, the village board voted unanimously to:

— Permanently appoint Lucas Oliver as a public works laborer following a satisfactory one-year probationary appointment, effective Feb. 20;

— Hold a public hearing on March 11 at 7:45 p.m. for authorization of a $59,447 bid award to the Phoenix Electric Company for installation of a wastewater treatment plant generator; and

— Conduct budget workshops on March 18 at 6 p.m.