To the Editor:

In Philadelphia in 1787, a group of citizens gathered together to create a vision and a plan, called the United States Constitution, and put in writing the type of land and society they wanted for themselves and their children and their descendants. We all know the opening words of the preamble: “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union …”

Some 220 years later, we the people of Altamont, in order to create and preserve a more perfect village gathered together, well over 100 strong and spent two years and collectively, literally, thousands of hours to create a vision and a plan, called The Altamont Comprehensive Plan.

This plan would similarly define the type of village and community they wanted for themselves, their children, and their descendants. We have descendants living in the village of some of Altamont’s early residents, going back at least 10 generations.

The Altamont Comprehensive Plan is our Constitution. It is democracy in its purest form. It lays out the framework for the type of village we want. It is the voice of the people, literally. Those people who spent all those thousands of hours actually wrote the plan.

As both trustee and then continuing involvement as a resident, I remember committee meetings where ideas were exchanged, the tiniest of details discussed, compromises made, and final language agreed to. Literally thousands of hours by your friends and neighbors.

A giant middle finger!

That's what it feels like the village board and the zoning board of appeals are saying to the residents. Over 100 residents collectively spent all that time and dedicated effort to define and protect the “character uniqueness and charm of Altamont” as consultant and project director Nan Stolzenburg has often stated.

And the part that is particularly disrespectful is that the reasons used for justification don’t stand up to scrutiny and yet they went ahead.

The comp plan clearly defined the Business District as ending behind Stewart’s because Altamont’s residents wanted to preserve the character, scale, and proportion of both the neighborhood and the Commercial Business District.

It is the planning board’s responsibility to protect the character of the village by insisting that Stewart's abides by these principles and revises the scale and design. The law says it must be based on the intent of the comprehensive plan.

On Sept. 2, 2019, at the village’s request, Nan Stolzenburg submitted a very detailed analysis of the project. In it there are many, many disqualifying observations by Nan. She has also expressed opinions that the plan could proceed if, and there are many ifs, certain conditions are met, which for the most part they have not been.

This ignoring of mitigating issues is what prompts the frustration and feeling that the thousands of hours are being given a giant middle finger.

It would be very reassuring to all the village residents and the comprehensive plan participants in particular, if every planning board board member stated that he or she had read and were familiar with the details of the comp plan and Nan’s analysis of the situation.

Here are just a few of the SEQRA [State Environmental Quality Review Act] Part 3 significance of determination that are wrong.

The expansion is consistent with the comp plan and extends an existing contiguous zoning district. It is not consistent with the comp plan as stated above. The entire village voted to define the Commercial Business and the Residential-10 neighborhoods. The very fact that it needed significant variances is evidence that it is not. It is up to the planning board to protect the character of the village by making the plans conform in scale and character.

The subject property is being rezoned to a zoning classification that it previously had. The house is 120 years old and may have been commercial for perhaps 10 of those years. But that’s almost irrelevant. The comp plan said 107-109 Helderberg Ave. should be residential, proving once again that the project goes against the comp plan, which was established just 12 years earlier.

The project advances the stated policy of the village to promote business growth in the Commercial Business District to meet the needs of the village. The actual intent of the comp plan is not only growth but diversity. Stewart’s is not providing diversity.

By giving Stewart’s the equivalent of huge zoning variances so it can expand its offerings, it is making it that much harder for the mom-and-pop businesses to compete such as Hungerfords and Village Pizza and Paisano’s. Any business can offer what it wants. But the village is not obliged to favor one over the other.

These are but a few of the reasons that the planning board should respect the will of the people who devoted thousands of hours to create Altamont’s constitution.

Harvey Vlahos

Former Village Trustee

Altamont