NEW SCOTLAND — The town board last week appointed five residents to a committee that will work with a consultant to redesign the zoning requirements in the hamlet of New Scotland along the routes 85 and 85A corridor.

The hamlet’s current designation as a commercial zone led to an uproar six years ago when developers planned a big-box store in the hamlet on the site of a former melon farm. The hamlet is seen locally as the entry to the mostly rural and residential town, and residents fought to stop the development.

“We were awarded a grant to come up with zoning regulations for the commercial zone at the routes 85 and 85A corridor,” said Supervisor Thomas Dolin this week.

The formation of a study advisory committee in the town is a requirement of a $70,000 Capital District Transportation Committee grant New Scotland received in 2013, according to New Scotland Councilman Daniel Mackay. The study advisory committee will work directly with planning consultant Marian Hull, of URS Corporation.

“The grant, along with a $12,000 local match, is paying for the consultant to… draft new zoning code language for the commercial zone, as well as design guidelines that will shape the look of architecture and layout for new mixed-use development in the commercial zone,” Mackay said.

A study that resulted in a master plan for the hamlet was funded by an earlier grant. The plan called for clustered homes, public green space, and mixed-use buildings no more than three stories high.

The consultant’s guidelines for improved zoning “must provide for open space and scenic vista protection, as well as encourage development compatible with community goals and visions,” Mackay said. “We think we have the right consultant and committee to achieve those results.”

The town board appointed the following local residents to the advisory committee:

— Adam Greenberg, a farmer who served as the chairman of the town zoning board until December 2014;

— Paul Kelly, an associate vice-president for Consortium Programs and Initiatives at State University of New York Polytechnic and a 17-year resident of the neighborhood adjacent to the commercial zone;

— Randall DeFranco, an architect and master planner with C.T. Male and Associates;

— Stephen Reilly, an architect and partner with Lacey Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture and Preservation; and

— Camille Jobin-Davis, an attorney currently serving as assistant director for the New York State Committee on Open Government and who previously served as village trustee, village attorney, and acting village justice for Voorheesville.

“There’s been a great deal of assessment and outreach to identify the right mix and qualifications for the committee and we are very pleased for what we are about to launch,” Mackay said about the appointment of the new committee members.

Liaisons from the town, planning, and zoning boards may attend the advisory committee meetings, which are open to the public, Mackay said. According to both Mackay and committee descriptions of the consulting process, at the end of about a year Hull will present draft reforms and guidelines to the town board, after which the planning and zoning boards will review the suggestions and set a public hearing and a state environmental quality review act determination before the town board adopts any proposed guidelines.

Other business

In other business, the town board:

— Adopted Local Law A of 2015 to allow the board to choose vendors with a better value rather than a lower bid.

“It doesn’t apply to public works projects over $35,000,” Dolin said. “You’re still bound by the lowest bidder requirement for public works, or anything under $20,000.”

Dolin said that the “best value” law would most often apply to equipment purchases.

“You have to be able to justify why you’re not going with the lowest bid,” he said. Similar laws have been adopted around the state.

“We don’t have any purchases lined up at the time. It seems like good practice to have in your tool kit,” Dolin said;

— Discussed its options for using solar panels, and hired a consultant for $3,000 to review a proposal from Enlighten Power Solutions.

“We haven’t officially signed up with them,” Dolin said. “We’re trying to meet the May 1 deadline for current New York State Energy Research and Development subsidies for solar power”; and

— Approved a contract with Haley Brothers of Guilderland for $6,066 to install dugouts at the Stephen P. Wallace Park at Swift Road.

“It’s something we’ve been asked to do by the various coaches,” Dolin said.

He said that the dugouts would be paid for out of the reserves for capital improvements for the parks, and not out of tax revenues.
The dugouts will be made from see-through cyclone fencing, rather than concrete blocks, Dolin said.