NEW SCOTLAND — The town board is mulling two new laws about the area’s rural nature — Local Law B, an amendment to town zoning to allow a commercial facility to sell animal feed to farmers; and Local Law C, an expansion of the town’s minimum acreage for farm activities from five acres to seven.

Commercial zoning for Local Law B

The planning board last week reviewed Local Law B — the allowance of an agricultural supply store in the town’s commercial or residential agricultural zones — and voted to recommend it to the town board.

Local Law B would define such a facility and permit one similar to the Altamont Agway or Westerlo’s The Original Applebees, now closed.

Stating that the town code does not permit a retail or wholesale facility for agricultural products, and that such a store fits in the town’s comprehensive plan, the proposal for Local Law B says that “ a large portion of the town’s land is zoned for agricultural uses, and the town has adopted a ‘right to farm’ law. There appears to be a need in the town for an establishment selling such goods, and the town finds that is should be located near the farmers and agricultural customers that purchase goods for their farm operations, including the residential agriculture and commercial zoning districts.”

During a town board hearing Wednesday, 21 people, invited by resident Sharon Boehlke, came in protest to the use of New Scotland South Road, concerned with truck traffic and hazards at the intersection of routes 308 and 443, all in the industrial zone.

Councilman Adam Greenberg polled the group, with one person opposed to allowing a similar facility in a commercial district.

Supervisor Douglas LaGrange told The Enterprise that such a facility would be allowed in areas zoned for industrial or residential agriculture uses.

No formal application for a store is before the town now, he said.

“I don’t want to get caught up in the minutiae of who, what, where — that’s for the planning board,” LaGrange said.

Gary Guyette proposed to the town board in April that he use his existing barns at 209 New Scotland South Road to open a feed supply store similar to the Original Applebee’s shop that recently closed in Westerlo.

Albany County Department of Public Works Commissioner Darrell Duncan, who spent several years as New Scotland’s highway superintendent, is considering running such a business with Guyette, LaGrange said; according to the town board’s April agenda, Duncan and Guyette were to present the proposal together.

Duncan did not return a call before press time.

Previously, town board member Patricia Snyder said that she was not comfortable with Guyette’s proposal or the history of his property, which had been approved, previously, for horse boarding and for equipment sales and rentals. The town received complaints in 2003 when he expanded his business at a nearby property without permits and did not fulfill conditions of his site plan.

LaGrange told the planning board last week that his goals in running for office in New Scotland included preserving the town’s rural character and increasing commercial uses.

“It kind of kills two birds,” LaGrange said of Local Law B.

Planning board Chairman Charles Voss said that the other proposed zoning change, Local Law C, with its seven-acre minimum, might preclude such a store from being allowed in New Scotland’s commercial hamlet district, where businesses and residences are closer together than Guyette’s proposed area.

Planning board attorney Jeffrey Baker said that special use permits are needed for agricultural uses on five acres, and that permits would also be needed for agriculture on seven acres within a commercial district.

Building Inspector Jeremy Cramer said that any later changes to special use permits require a new permit.

Planning board members said they supported the idea of the law, but suggested limits to the types of roads the facility be allowed on. Snyder asked the planning board to forward specific modifications to the town board.

New Scotland resident Sharon Boehlke said that the proposed law “is a spot-zoning law...on a piece of property already having trouble.”

Seven-acre farms for Local Law C

The second town board hearing Wednesday was for changing the minimum acreage requirements for farm uses from five to seven acres. No comments were made.

“It will certainly clean up some issues in the code,” Voss said earlier about proposed Local Law C.

LaGrange said that the change in the town’s zoning code would align with the New York Agriculture and Markets Law, based on a seven-acre threshold for farming.

“The town board finds that the minimum acreage requirements, and regulation of farming activity facilitated by this law and the town’s ‘Right to Farm Law’... will foster compatible uses of land in neighborhoods with residential or other uses while continuing to protect and conserve farms and farmland,” the proposal states.

“In some cases, there’s a need for control,” LaGrange said. He told The Enterprise, “We’ve had one primary issue.”

One Unionville resident in an industrial zone owns two parcels totaling six acres that straddle the Bethlehem town line, he said. The resident has begun pasturing animals in the somewhat residential area, LaGrange said. He said that the owner “did everything right,” and that the proposed law would not affect the owner.

Local Law C gives the planning board more overview of issues for smaller farming operations, LaGrange said.

The Right to Farm Law is “set up to protect farms from nuisance lawsuits” from those complaining of large-scale farming issues like odors or noises, he said.

The Unionville situation “brought to light the need to raise it from five to seven,” LaGrange said of small-scale farming acreages. The proposed law would allow the town to prevent the need to “fix what could have been fixed by a single site plan,” he said.