Altamont hearing
Subdividing modernized



ALTAMONT — With some minor changes after public input, the proposed subdivision regulations for Altamont are set to be adopted by the village board on July 3.

A public hearing on the regulations drew about 10 residents to village hall on Tuesday night.
"We primarily modernized the language and the procedures," said Trustee Dean Whalen at the start of the hearing. Whalen, an architect, is the chairman of the comprehensive planning committee, which drafted the new regulations.

Trustee William Aylward started off the public-comment session with a question about keyhole lots, which are not explicitly discussed in the document. Whalen answered that keyhole lots were addressed in the zoning regulations that the planning committee is currently drafting, a more appropriate place for them to be, he said. Later, the board agreed to insert a sentence into the subdivision regulations referring readers to the zoning regulations regarding keyhole lots.

Steve Parachini, who serves on the planning committee, read a letter from Melanie Jakway, who could not be at the hearing. She was concerned about the tree requirements listed in the major subdivisions section.
"Sidewalks shall be separated from the street edges or curbs by a planting strip three to six feet wide and planted with shade trees," it says.

Her concern was that the trees might get in the way of snow removal. The board decided to change the tree requirement to the other side of the sidewalk, so the trees would not interfere with the roadway.
Local developer Troy Miller addressed the board regarding the 20-foot setback required of garages. "Not every house is large enough" to accommodate that kind of a setback, he said. "You don’t want to force people to build a house larger than they can afford."

Whalen conceded that a setback proportional to the size of the house might be appropriate, but he wanted to discuss it with the committee before making the change. When the committee has made a decision, he will print it in The Enterprise, before the July 3 village board meeting, he said.

After Danny Ramirez mentioned his concern over where heating and cooling vents and other equipment of that sort could be placed, the board agreed that the regulations should encourage developers to place those devices towards the back of houses.

Most of the changes to the regulations will be corrections of minor typographical errors. The board, after consulting with the village’s lawyer, Guy Roemer, decided that none of the suggested changes were substantive enough to warrant another public hearing.

Other business

In other business at recent meetings, the village board:

— Held an executive session on Tuesday night to discuss current litigation regarding the Fisher family;

— Voted unanimously to approve Jean Forti as a volunteer swimming instructor at the village pool and authorized village Clerk Jean LaCrosse to hire a booth attendant at the village’s Bozenkill park at a cost of $7.50 per hour;

— Praised The Spotlight for its front-page story on Altamont’s farmers’ market. The board also distributed copies of the story before the meeting;

— Heard from Bill Hoogkamp that the Altamont Fire Department is running out of space in its current building. He would like to meet with board members to discuss expanding, he said;

— Voted unanimously to participate in the Hudson Valley Volunteer Firemen’s Association parade on June 23;

— Voted unanimously to hold a public hearing on the Senior Citizens Tax Exemption Law on July 3 at p.m. at village hall;

— Voted unanimously to hold a public hearing on July 3 at 8:15 p.m. at Village Hall on the purchase of a $107,000 dump truck and snowplow;

— Voted unanimously to authorize Mayor James Gaughan to support the application of the Altamont Free Library for a grant that would help convert the old train station into a new library building;

— Voted unanimously to appoint Gaughan to represent Altamont on the Albany County Municipal Services Board; the board will have one member from each of Albany’s municipalities who will work on sharing services;

— Voted unanimously to authorize LaCrosse to hire these part-time seasonal employees for Bozenkill Park: Adriene Bush, camp director; Colleen Moller and Katie Moller, co-managers; Aubrey Seppa, Kyle McCormick, Tuesday Breitenbach, Lindsey Heacock, Elizabeth Heacock, Amanda Heacock, John Sands, Zach Appio, and Caitlin Willsey, as lifeguards. They will each make between $8 and $14.42 per hour; and

— Voted unanimously to accept Jordan Jakway’s application for membership in the Altamont Fire Department.