GUILDERLAND — The planning board here last Wednesday gave preliminary approval to Lisa Romano for her subdivision request for lots bordering the Watervliet Reservoir.

Romano owns 14.7 acres on Route 158, which is to be cut into four lots. One has her existing home, and three others are future home sites. The property is zoned for three-acre lots; the proposed lots range from 3.03 to 4.2 acres. Two lots will share a driveway on Route 158, where a second driveway for a third lot will also be installed. One driveway will enter Route 20.

Planning board Chairman Stephen Feeney said that the board would delay final approval until the plan had been reviewed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that oversees wetland regulations. Two of the proposed septic plans do not meet the town requirement of a 500-foot setback from the creek, but they both slope away from the water. Feeney hesitated to give final approval before the Army Corps approved the plan.
"If it changes, we’re modifying the map," Feeney said.
Tim Elliott, Romano’s representative, reminded the board that state law requires only a 300-foot setback for septic tanks from reservoirs, "which is why Albany County [Department of Health] approved it," he said.
"Your wetlands on this map are about as rough as any I’ve seen in a long time," board member Lindsay Childs told Elliott. Childs said that the wetlands were delineated by straight lines on the map.
Feeney, who had walked the site earlier that day, described one portion as "a continual wetland." Feeney said that the board needs to see designs for the wetlands on the map.

Rather than give final approval and hold a second public hearing to change the map, the board agreed to give preliminary approval. A basic change after preliminary approval would not require a second public hearing, Feeney said.
"I’m not going to require something the Army Corps’s not going to require," Feeney said. He said that the lots are probably large enough that the wetlands will not affect the building envelope. The principal issue with the application, he said, is the driveway crossing.

Romano told The Enterprise that, from Route 20, the driveway crosses seasonal wetlands and culverts will need to be installed.

Feeney told Romano to show a cross-section of the driveway on the plan.

The preliminary approval was conditional upon the creation of a 50-foot no-disturbance zone on the eastern boundary of the Watervliet Reservoir, and notification of the Army Corps of Engineers.

At its final April meeting, the planning board also approved, with no conditions, the request by Mohawk Village Apartments at 1-5 Okara Drive to cut off an existing home from the complex. Representative Frederick Clark said that an easement to access the back apartments would be granted.