GUILDERLAND — Against neighbors’ wishes, the planning board last week approved a proposal to create four lots on 1.13 acres on McKown Road. The board also approved a compromise on property slated by the Albany Pine Bush commission for full-protection status.

Bill Strassburg’s proposal for property on McKown Road had been continued in February when the board and Strassburg’s engineer learned of a possible oil spill from a nearby defunct gas station.
Planning board Chairman Stephen Feeney said last week that, although he had been unable to contact a state Department of Environmental Conservation project manager, he believed that the gas tanks were "still an issue," with "volatile materials" in the ground. He said that the spill was migrating east, away from Strassburg’s property.

Drainage issues also delayed approval in February. The plan that engineer Zareh Altounian presented last week eliminated ponding on the property, Feeney said. According the planning board, the town’s highway superintendent, Todd Gifford, favors an underground system over proposed swales.
"It’s not typical to have a swale" in a neighborhood like this, Feeney said.

Town-designated-engineer Nadine Medina of Barton and Loguidice said that results of soil borings to test the water table level would determine whether or not a swale would work on the property.

Residents in the audience laughed loudly when Altounian said that no neighbors had water back-up issues. Resident Henry Tedeschi said that many basements near the proposed subdivision now flood.
"They can’t exacerbate it," Feeney said, and he added that he hoped the proposal would make the flooding troubles better.
Neighbors concerned about ditches full of standing water, both currently and even more so after development of the proposed subdivision, told the board that development was not an "acceptable solution."
"The neighbors know we’re going to look at this very carefully," said board member Thomas Robert.

Pine Bush compromise

The planning board approved an application from Black Creek Associates for a two-lot subdivision of about 35 acres on Lydius Street. The Albany Pine Bush Commission had recommended that the property be given full-protection status, but the lot is zoned for residential use and has a house on it.

Black Creek Associates representative Paul Sciocchotti said that five or six acres around the house will be cut from the 35 acres.
"We are the contract vendees to purchase this property," Sciocchotti said. He said that he is under contract to buy the entire parcel, to sell the house parcel, and to sell the other parcel to the Albany Pine Bush. He said that milkweed and not lupine, the plant crucial to the survival of the endangered Karner blue butterfly, was found on the site.
"There are no intentions whatsoever to subdivide this five- or six-acre parcel," Sciocchotti said. The house has an existing driveway, but the house will not be resold intact.
"You can’t really live in it," he said. "We’re not buying it to hold it. We may make a single-family or larger single family, but there are no plans at this point."
Neil Gifford, of the APB, said that the commission’s goal to acquire 4,610 acres has been realized by 3,000 acres. The purchase of the 30 acres on Lydius Street "does represent a reasonable compromise," he said.

He requested that the board require notification on the deed to future buyers of the remaining five acres that the Albany Pine Bush uses fire management. He also requested that future buyers protect dunes on the property and refrain from introducing invasive species.

Gifford said that there are 44 other species of concern in the pine bush besides the Karner blue butterfly.
"It seems like a nice deal," Feeney said.

Other business

In other business, the planning board recently:

— Approved a request by James Brust to subdivide 15 acres on Route 146 into two lots. Brust wants to sell an existing house on one acre, and keep the remaining 14.3 acres. The board said that Brust must show the septic field on his map, and keep it 10 feet from the property line when the land is surveyed;

— Approved an application by Brian Jackson to divide 8.9 acres on Ostrander Road into two parcels;

— Approved a request by Dan Santabarbara to divide 6.5 acres off Curry Road into two lots. The board recommended that he hire an engineer to do a traffic study; and

— Approved a request by Maple Leaf Daycare owner John Moran and his wife, Linda, to turn a second-story storage area into an office break room. No children would be allowed in the new area, he said.