GUILDERLAND -- The planning board last week approved a site plan for the popular but legally-mired senior housing project proposed for Brandle Road. The board also approved a plan for an assisted-living facility off Windingbrook Drive.

Local businessman Jeff Thomas said that his proposed 72-unit senior condominium and rental housing facility called Brandle Meadows, L.L.C. would be less than three-tenths of a mile from Main Street in the village of Altamont. It is outside the village line.
"The need is enormous for senior housing," Thomas told the planning board.

The village is embroiled in a legal tussle with Brandle Road residents Michael and Nancy Trumpler, who agreed to sell five acres of land to the village as a source of well water for its residents. The Trumplers then filed legal papers asking the court to decide if their contract is binding. They did this after the village board broke its moratorium on granting water to those outside Altamont, and offered water and sewer services to the proposed Brandle Meadows. The village has since filed counter claims against the Trumplers for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Thomas’s lawyer has said he plans to sue them for millions.

Supporters of the project include former Altamont Mayor James Caruso and his wife, Rosemary, the Altamont corespondent for The Enterprise. They told the planning board last week that they hope to be residents of the new housing project.

Christine Capuano, related to the Trumplers, who owns land on Brandle Road, said that the proposed condominiums would increase traffic on her relatively quiet street.
Planning board Chairman Stephen Feeney agreed that traffic with 72 units "is a real issue."

Capuano asked why village water would be shared with Brandle Meadows but not with other nearby applicants, but the board repeatedly told her that the dispersement of village water was not a planning board issue.

Feeney asked if there were adequate rights-of-way along Brandle Road to install a sidewalk from the proposed housing to Arlington Road.
"There is no room to build a sidewalk," said Francis Bossolini, a representative for Thomas.
The board gave site plan approval with the conditions that: a storm water prevention plan be created; the absence or presence of wetlands be verified, and their boundaries defined by the Army Corps of Engineers, if necessary; and the applicant "explore" an adequate pedestrian connection to the village, Feeney said.

He said that the plan should refer to water and sewer sources.
"It’s implicit".Like you said, we can’t build it without water or sewers," Bossolini said.

Assisted living

The board approved a site plan to allow developer First Columbia, of Latham, to build an 80-unit assisted living facility near the Guilderland Library and the YMCA.

The approval was granted with the conditions that a sidewalk be constructed from Mercy Care Lane to the library, and that the presence of wetlands be verified.

Kevin Bette of First Columbia said that Mercy Care Lane from Western Avenue to an existing nursing home along the street is owned by St. Peter’s.
"We own the driveway," Bette said.
"The full right-of-way may not be there," said town Planner Jan Weston.

The diocese and First Columbia are working together to develop the property, Bette said. After the assisted living facility is built, Bette said, senior condominiums are planned nearby.

Bette said that his plan did not call for pedestrian areas.

The board said that sidewalks were necessary.
"Someday, this could be something else," Feeney said.
"We understand development issues and town issues," Bette said. "If the town wants to make it a town center"money is a factor."

The Guilderland Hamlet Neighborhood Association sent a letter to the board, and member David Reid attended the meeting.
"We feel that the sidewalk is logical to put in right now," Reid said.
In a GHNA letter signed by Reid and President Gene Danese, the group wrote that it supports First Columbia’s proposal with its own conditions, including "antiqued" lighting, sidewalk construction, and the creation of a four-way stop at the intersection of Windingbrook Drive and Mercy Care Lane.

Board member James Cohen said that a four-way stop there would create more east-bound traffic.

Lindsay Childs, of the Pathway Committee, agreed with the need for sidewalks near the library and the YMCA, particularly at a medical home facility.
"These people need a safe place to walk more than any other population," Childs said.

Other business

In other business, the planning board:

-- Heard a concept presentation by Troy Miller, who wants to subdivide three acres on Siver Road into three lots. Feeney told Miller that, because the project would disturb more than one acre, he must file for a permit with the state Department of Conservation, and present an erosion and sediment control plan.