GUILDERLAND — A long-in-the-making proposal for 46 residential units near the town’s center is looking more like a reality after the Guilderland Planning Board’s April 26 meeting.

The Guilderland Town Board in March declined to sign off on the environmental feasibility of the proposed development, choosing instead to send the project back to the planning board for further site-plan review. 

Those revisions have since been made, Town Planner Kenneth Kovalchik told the planning board on April 26: a roughly three-acre stormwater detention basin was moved about 100 feet further away from the property line; a previously-shown gravel access road has been removed; and the plans have been updated to show the nearly 27 acres that are being conveyed to the town. 

Kovalchik will write up the site-plan report on which the planning board will vote at its May 10 meeting. The report to be sent to the town board touches on site-access issues, the endpoint of a sidewalk, fencing around a stormwater pond, and some possible landscaping issues.

Rosetti Acquisitions’ proposal for 6250 Depot Road includes: 

— 24 single-family homes;

— 14 senior apartments; and

— Eight townhome units.

The town board is the lead agency for the project, Kovalchik explained to planning board members on April 26, but it never performed a coordinated review of the project, nor did it declare a negative State Environmental Quality Review. A negative declaration means deep environmental review is not needed.

The town board adopted a local law for the zone change, but the law was never filed with the New York Department of State, Kovalchik said, while the planning board signed off only on a preliminary site plan;, never giving final approval.

At the March town board meeting, the issue of traffic was brought up. 

Supervisor Peter Barber said he didn’t think the project would create an “appreciable difference in terms of traffic,” although it was something he wanted the planning board to look at.

Councilwoman Amanda Beedle disagreed with Barber. 

“I drive to that school, my son drives to that school. And the drop time actually starts at 7:05,” Beedle said. She described the route she takes from Altamont along Route 146 to Depot Road as “a constant nightmare,” and noted that, “since the pandemic, there are a lot more parents still driving their kids.”

The project engineer, Nicholas Costa, told the planning board on April 26 that, after obtaining information from the Guilderland Central School District, traffic engineers determined that school traffic would have a “very minor effect” on the project, and that there was “no need to do any traffic improvements or roadway improvements to the site.”

The district-provided information said there were approximately 280 students and 350 staffers with parking permits. 

Stormwater management was also brought up at the April 26 meeting. 

Neighbor Michael Moak expressed concern that the new development could further increase the possibility of flooding, which already happens with a regular rainfall. 

Kovalchik explained that, after the planning board approves the site-plan report, it will be sent to the town board, which will perform the state-required environmental review on the development proposal, and hold a public hearing on the adoption of the local law needed to change the zoning to Country Hamlet.