GUILDERLAND — A lone Guilderland Town Board member, on a board that rarely has split votes, cast her vote “no” against a proposed apartment complex and urged the town board to look at the big picture when considering zoning changes.

Councilwoman Rosemary Centi said the board should consider what is best for town residents overall — not just the developer or immediate neighbors — and avoid spot zoning.

The project that Centi voted against on Feb. 6, a zoning change from local business to multiple residence to allow for construction of apartment buildings at 3760 and 3800 Carman Road, was approved 3 to 1.  Councilman Lee Carman, the board’s only Republican, abstained because of a business connection with developer David Fusco, who also owns Carman Plaza.

Supervisor Peter Barber and council members Paul Pastore and Patricia Slavick, all Democrats, voted in favor of the zoning change, allowing the project to proceed.

The vote clears the way for a total of 32 units in one 16-unit building to be built next to Corner Ice Cream and two eight-unit buildings planned for the current site of Korandace Pool Builders, just beyond Carman Plaza’s other end.

That rezone is completed, but there are two other zoning-change projects currently before the town, both of them applications for rezoning as Planned Unit Developments, or PUDs.

One is the large-scale Hiawatha Trails Land Development project, which calls for 256 independent-living apartments for residents aged 55 and older to be built on what is now a golf course and land adjacent to it, across Route 155 from Farnsworth Middle School.

The other project is on Winding Brook Drive, opposite the YMCA, and would involve building 13 two-story structures containing a total of 52 multi-family apartments or condominiums with no age restriction.

Hiawatha Trails

Supervisor Barber said that the town’s Conservation Advisory Council would probably not be reviewing the Hiawatha Trails project because that council reviews only subdivision applications, in keeping with state Department of Environmental Conservation regulations.

Spokesman Rick Georgeson of the DEC’s Region 4 office said that the office’s regional attorney did not know what kinds of projects the DEC requires municipalities to have environmental councils review. He suggested contacting the New York State Association of Conservation Commissions, which did not respond to a query by press time.

Planning board Chairman Stephen Feeney said this week, “Historically, what’s been sent to the council is single-family subdivisions.” Recently, the kinds of projects referred to the council has grown a little, Feeney said.

Feeney said that Hiawatha Trails might end up being a subdivision.

“We might refer it to them,” he said of the council.

He said that the board had asked the applicant to supply a map showing which parts of the entire site were buildable and which were not. “That’s the only way we can determine density,” he said, explaining that this is usually set at a maximum of 12 units per buildable acre.

A PUD has more flexibility, he said, but the board’s recommendation would probably ultimately be to hold a PUD to the same density standard as other projects.

Feeney also said that the plan is that the applicant would be required to create a path running from Route 155 to Winding Brook Road, although no details about that have yet been worked out. “It’s all very preliminary,” he said.

Feeney noted that some area residents have said that they don’t want a traffic signal at Route 155 and Presidential Way, but said that almost any subdivision there would trigger the need for a signal, a decision made by the state’s Department of Transportation. A signal there could be beneficial, Feeney said, as there is currently no signalized crossing for pedestrians until they get to the intersection of routes 20 and 155, which is very wide and busy.

Feeney also said, in late January, that there are few independent-living senior apartment complexes, naming the Omni Senior Living Community on Carman Road and Brandle Woods, just outside of the village of Altamont.

Frank Casey, president of the board of directors for the Presidential Estate Homes Homeowners Association, reminded The Enterprise that there are several complexes not yet built that have either been approved or are under consideration. One, an independent-living apartment complex for seniors at the intersection of Route 155 and Mill Hill Court — less than a mile from Hiawatha Trails — has been approved for 92 units. Another, the proposed Riitano Senior Apartments on Johnston Road, is seeking a subdivision to build the same type of complex, with 72 units.

Casey told The Enterprise the vast majority of members of the homeowners’ association are opposed to the proposal. He said the project is too dense, too large, and too visible from the road. (See related letters to the editor.)

The town should do a survey of the extent of its need for senior housing of various types, Casey said.

Winding Brook

The town’s Conservation Advisory Council looked at this project at the end of January and recommended that it not be approved.

The council’s chairman, John Wemple, said this week that, after the council had reviewed the project, the developer had revised the site plans so, he said, the council’s recommendations might no longer apply. He referred The Enterprise to Feeney.

Wemple said the council would go back to the site only if invited by the planning board, but that usually the planning board would take over from this point.

The report, written by Wemple, describes a number of concerns:

— Safety of the entrance/exit to the site, because of its “substantial curve” and the rise of a hill to the north, both of which might limit lines of sight;

— Slopes that may slip in the future, even with retaining walls; and

— Lack of room for recreational amenities or landscaping.

The report also noted, “Consideration should also address the entirety of the Winding Brook Road service area: YMCA, Mercy Care, Fairview Apartments, and the Guilderland Library and the stressing they are already placing on a very finite piece of fragile tributary lands of the Normanskill and the Western Avenue Corridor.”

Feeney said that the comments from the council were good, but that the site plan is still very preliminary and could change a great deal. “We’ll look at the comments and we’ll see what, ultimately, the site plan looks like,” he said.

He noted that the planning board had also had some concerns about, for instance, grading, and that the applicant was already talking with the Army Corps of Engineers about the wetlands on the site.

Site-plan issues aside, Feeney said, he feels that the use is in keeping with the town’s comprehensive plan.

Tom Ragone, the owner of Guilderland Printing, located the corner of Winding Brook and Route 20, said that every day about 35 cars turn around in his parking lot, which is clearly marked “No Turnaround.” They turn right when trying to leave the library and come to Winding Brook and then turn around to go out at the light, he said.

This is dangerous, he said, because of the lines of sight there and the way that cars coming from the YMCA “fly down the street to beat the light.”

He saw three separate incidents in the summer of 2017 in which pedestrians were hit by vehicles as they tried to cross Winding Brook near his shop, Ragone said.

Traffic on Winding Brook would be eased by putting in a turn lane in front of the library and Mercy Care, Ragone said. He noted that his “No Turnaround” sign has been run over “like 100 times.”

Feeney said that Fairview Apartments is located down the hill from the YMCA and that all of that traffic comes out at Winding Brook, but that fewer cars enter and leave the apartments than enter and leave the YMCA.

“You add 50 units to the traffic that exists there now, it’s nothing. You won’t even notice it,” Feeney said.

“I don’t disagree with someone who says you’ve got to keep an eye on the longterm things, because, cumulatively, things can add up,” Feeney said, “but you can probably handle hundreds of more units there.”

As to the issue of cars turning from the library, Feeney said, “That’s a different thing. If people are pulling in there and turning around, they’re making an illegal move. So do we say, ‘You can’t build apartments, because people from the library are turning around’?”

He noted that the library board had fought the town years ago when the town wanted to put in a road behind the library to get people to the traffic signal.

No planner

The position of town planner has been empty since Jan Weston, who served as planner for almost three decades, retired at the end of 2016.

Barber said that town officials had been aware of people looking for part-time jobs who are known in the industry and had let word get out within professional circles about the town’s need for a consultant.

“We had one person in mind who we thought would be good, but he decided he just couldn’t do it,” Barber said.

Barber described the position of planner as helping the planning board, which he said oversees subdivisions.

He said that the 2018 budget “includes funding for a planning consultant to fill Jan’s position.” He noted that Weston had worked part-time for the last several years of her tenure with the town, after resigning from the full-time post she had held for over two decades.

Clerk Jean Cataldo said the amount budgeted for a planning consultant this year was “30,000 (recommended).”

Weston was paid $29,521 for her part-time work in 2016, her last year in the position, according to town Comptroller Jean Sterling.

Barber said, “We have the benefit of the comprehensive plan and also neighborhood studies, so we have a pretty good understanding of what the residents want in various parts of the town.”

Neighborhood studies were called for in the comprehensive plan of 2001. More than a half-dozen have been completed since then, said Barber, including Westmere, McKownville, Route 20 Corridor, Guilderland Hamlet, Fort Hunter/Carman Road, Guilderland Center, and rural Guilderland.

The zoning code was also updated over a long period, culminating in a revised zoning code adopted in 2016.

The neighboring town of Bethlehem has a much larger planning staff than Guilderland, although it has fewer residents. According to census data, Bethlehem’s estimated population as of 2016 was 34,709, while Guilderland’s was 35,693.

Bethlehem has a Department of Economic Development and Planning, headed by Director of Planning Robert Leslie, who supervises two senior planners and an economic development coordinator. He and the three employees under him all work full-time, he said.

Leslie said that his department serves as staff to the planning board and assists it in its reviews of development projects. The department meets with applicants and reviews plans for business development and subdivisions for compliance with the zoning code, he said.

The department also works on planning initiatives, he said. Currently, those include a Waterfront Revitalization Plan, he said, which would establish a vision for the town’s 10 miles of waterfront along the Hudson River: “Do we want to see marinas and restaurants on the river? Do we want it to accommodate industrial uses, because of the water-dependent nature of some of these industries? Do we want to promote agriculture because there might be some good agricultural soils in that area. What do we want to look like in the future?”

Staff members are also working, he said, on a Delaware Avenue Complete Street Feasibility Study, “which is looking at all modes of travel along Delaware Avenue in Bethlehem, and how can we better accommodate bicycle and pedestrian and transit users, creating a complete street so that we’re not just focusing on motor-vehicle traffic.”

Chief Building and Zoning Inspector Jacqueline Coons told The Enterprise  earlier, referring to the work of a planner, that she and Feeney were “kind of doing it together” since Weston left.

Coons said she has been “totally uninvolved” with the Hiawatha Trails project.

“I haven’t asked Jackie for an opinion on it,” Feeney said. “She’s pretty busy as it is. I think if this moves forward, there would be some sort of recommendation from the Planning Board to the Town Board.”

Asked if there was a conflict of interest in his meeting with the developer to work out details of the site plan even though he is also the head of a quasi-judicial board that helps to decide the project’s ultimate fate, Feeney said, “I don’t think I’ve been working out any details except generic scope.”

If Weston were still the town planner, he said, “Jan and I would have met with these people.” He said he’s not sure it’s a conflict, because “any decisions made are going to be made in public.”

As with any PUD, he added, “It’s a discretionary decision of the town board.”

He added, “To say this is a done deal, that’s not true.”

Campaign donations

Some developers or those associated with developments made campaign contributions to the Democratic incumbents before November’s elections:

— Edward Swyer: In addition to being president of the Swyer Companies, which owns Stuyvesant Plaza, Edward Swyer is also managing partner of Selected Properties of the Northeast, which owns the land under consideration for a Planned Unit Development on Winding Brook Road opposite the YMCA. Swyer himself donated $250 to the committee to elect Peter Barber on April 1, 2017, and Stuyvesant Plaza donated $250 to the same committee a few days later, on April 6;

— The engineering firm Hershberg and Hershberg, whose Daniel Hershberg is presenting both the Hiawatha Trails and Winding Brook projects to the board, donated $95 on Nov. 13, 2017 to the campaign of Councilman Paul Pastore. The developers on the Winding Brook Drive project — Frank McCloskey and William Mafrici — are both with the firm Hershberg and Hershberg. McCloskey is a partner, and Mafrici is a principal designer;

— Stockli, Slevin & Peters: This firm donated $250 on March 20, 2017, about a year after Mary Beth Slevin argued successfully that the age requirement on the Mill Hollow project should be lifted and about six months before she requested that the town lift the requirement of the Mill Hill PUD to build a nursing home and allow it instead to build a senior independent-living complex; and

— Michael Shanley, managing partner with Pyramid, which owns Crossgates: Shanley and his wife, Lyn Shanley, together donated a total of $1,500 to the Democratic ticket over the period from March through November 2017. Pyramid is not involved with Hiawatha Trails or Winding Brook, but it was in March that Pyramid first requested a rezone of a 12.7-acre area on Western Avenue in front of Crossgates Mall to build a hotel and August when it broke ground on the project.

People donate to candidates on both sides, Democrat and Republican, Barber said.

“I think the vast majority of any contributions are under $100,” he said.

About Swyer, Barber said, “I wouldn’t even know that he was involved with the project.”

He said that he would expect members of any board to act responsibly and recuse themselves from any issue that posed a conflict of interest.

The last time he remembers this becoming an issue, Barber said, was in 2015 when Brian Forte — at the time a town board member, running against Barber for supervisor — accepted campaign checks totaling $1,750 from an applicant who was requesting a rezone of property across from Stewart’s at the corner of routes 20 and 146.