GUILDERLAND — After initially claiming it was under no obligation to disclose the document publicly, the town of Guilderland recently released the draft update to its two-decade-old comprehensive plan. 

A committee has worked for nearly two years with a consultant to draft the update, which the town supervisor hopes will be adopted, after public hearings, before the close of this year.

At 185 pages, the draft plan, per New York State Law, “provides the backbone for the local zoning law.” 

A municipality’s zoning laws are required to “be adopted in accordance with a comprehensive plan,” which itself “is the culmination of a planning process that establishes the official land use policy of a community and presents goals and a vision for the future that guides official decision-making.”

The Comprehensive Plan Update Committee was due to meet Wednesday, July 24, after this week’s edition of the Enterprise had already gone to print. 

Rather than use a traditional land-use map, Guilderland’s updated comprehensive plan uses a priorities map with six thematic categories forming the structure of the plan: agriculture; business, employment, and fiscal resources; environment, climate change, and resiliency; neighborhoods and housing; parks, recreation, open space, and historic resources; and transportation and mobility.

A key component of the plan is its vision statement, which the draft plan states is necessary for “articulating the future direction of the Town.”

Guilderland’s vision statement says:

“The Town of Guilderland is made up of distinctive, attractive neighborhoods, with abundant recreation, open space, and scenic resources that serve to connect the community and support a high quality of life for all residents. 

“Collaborative environmental stewardship of Guilderland’s land, air, and water reflects the community’s values and its commitment to forward-thinking resiliency planning. 

“Varied, productive agricultural operations link the Town to its proud agrarian history, while the architectural legacy of Guilderland’s past is honored through preservation and educational initiatives. 

“The Town is home to a balanced array of prosperous and well-loved businesses, whose success generates the economic base necessary to support quality public services. 

“Well-designed transportation corridors maximize safety for all travelers while facilitating efficient movement and incorporating relevant emerging technologies. Residents of all age groups and backgrounds contribute to the vitality of the Town, each proud to call Guilderland home.”

The draft plan lays out the challenges and opportunities identified through public input. Challenges include: balancing growth with preservation, establishing a cohesive community identity, potential loss of agricultural land, and addressing the needs of an aging population. 

While opportunities noted are: capitalizing on new public transit services, implementing traffic safety measures, leveraging proximity to the Albany Nanotech Campus, supporting local agriculture, and expanding pedestrian infrastructure. 

The plan then moves on to its six themes.

Agriculture 

The plan highlights the integral role of agriculture in shaping the town’s economy, landscape, and community identity. Historically significant since pre-colonial times, farming contributes economically, preserves rural aesthetics, supports ecosystems, protects watersheds, and provides locally-sourced products. 

The draft acknowledges the challenges to farming posed by development, which, while facilitating market access for farmers, also exerts pressure on agricultural lands due to population growth and expansion of water and wastewater systems.

Recently, agricultural lands have been used for renewable energy projects, offering farmers new revenue streams but posing risks to the town’s scenic vistas. The plan states that maintaining agricultural viability while balancing development pressures remains crucial to preserving the town’s character and economic variety.

The plan says that agritourism, including apple-picking and farmers’ markets, bolsters the local economy. While noting community support for farms, the draft plan underscores the need for sustainable practices and conservation easements to protect farmland and stimulate local agriculture.

Efforts to promote rural character include: integrating agri-tourism with infrastructure, preserving scenic views, and aligning regulations with agricultural events.

The plan also says a balanced approach to development and agricultural preservation is necessary, and recommends focusing on water security and infrastructure maintenance in populated areas.

The plan calls for a push in conservation easements and the purchase of development rights, both of which aim to safeguard open spaces and farmlands. 

Business, employment, and fiscal resources

The plan notes that the town’s strategic location within the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the broader Capital Region makes it a hub for various businesses. 

The area has seen diversified economic growth, the plan states, with significant developments in high-tech industries like semiconductor manufacturing and nanotechnology. Employment has shifted over the years, with decreases in the leisure and hospitality sectors, due primarily to the pandemic, and growth in other areas, like professional and business services. 

The plan claims the impact of COVID-19 accelerated such trends as remote work and e-commerce, which has prompted adaptations in office space and retail environments, including the transformation of malls into mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods. The adaptation, the plan states, aligns with Guilderland’s potential for developing similar mixed-use areas to meet changing consumer preferences and housing demands.

Strategies for economic resilience and development include: streamlining the approval process for redevelopment projects, fostering public-private partnerships, and incentivizing the adaptive reuse of vacant properties. This approach, the plan states, aims to balance commercial growth with maintaining the town’s character and addressing issues such as underused properties.

Environment, climate change, and resiliency

On the environment, the draft plan seeks to safeguard natural resources in order to maintain the town's quality of life. 

To do this, recommendations include: becoming a Climate Smart Community by 2030, converting street lights to light-emitting diodes, installing electric-vehicle charging stations, joining a solar-energy credits program, and planning a community solar facility. Tree preservation is also prioritized to mitigate urban heat and erosion. 

Strategies for resilience include: improving emergency preparedness, establishing alert systems, and preserving open spaces through the conservation-easement exemption program.

Neighborhoods and housing

Since 1930, the draft plan states, Guilderland has consistently grown (its current population is nearly 37,000), with the most significant increases in the 1950s, which influenced housing design and settlement patterns. 

Single-family dwellings dominate housing stock in town, at about 68 percent; the supply grew by 7.9 percent between 2000 to 2010 and 6.6 percent from 2010 to 2020. The median-home value in town is $276,100.

The town, grappling with middle-income cost burdens and an aging population, the plan says, reflects national home-buying patterns. The plan states challenges remain with housing affordability, especially for renters, who pay a median rent of $1,310, which is higher than the county median of $1,113.

Recommended housing policies include: streamlining permitting processes and adopting fair-housing policies. 

Plan strategies focus on: promoting modular and tiny homes, collaborating with housing agencies, and revising zoning codes to accommodate diverse housing types. 

Also recommended are: partnerships with not-for-profit organizations, inclusionary zoning requirements, and sustainable development practices. 

As well as: creating a mixed-use town center and smaller, more affordable housing to address the needs of seniors and first-time buyers. 

Parks, recreation, open space, and historic resources

The town’s parks, recreation areas, open spaces, and historic resources, the plan states, play an integral role in shaping the character and identity of Guilderland. 

Environmental and open-space preservation is a priority, with recommendations for: a town arborist, refining the definition of “open space,” and conserving natural resources.

Planned initiatives include: creating a network of multi-use trails to improve connectivity and accessibility, applying best practices in environmental protection, and formalizing resident input on park and recreation services. 

Transportation

The draft plan emphasizes the need for safe, convenient, and efficient transportation to support future land-use plans that will also have minimal negative impact on community character and quality of life. 

Public comments highlighted concerns about neighborhood connectivity, walkability, traffic congestion, and desires for traffic circles and pedestrian trails, while specific challenges, like those faced by Farnsworth Middle School due to congested access roads were also noted. 

To enhance transportation, the town aims to improve pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure by promoting electric and automated vehicles, expanding sidewalks and trails, and adopting a Complete Streets Policy. This includes enhancing walkability and connectivity, linking to regional trail networks, installing street furniture, and supporting use of public transit through incentives and infrastructure improvements.

Specific recommendations include: optimizing traffic signals; repairing bridges and culverts; promoting grid street patterns in rural areas to balance development and maintain rural character; and enhancing accessibility to schools, Farnsworth Middle and Guilderland High School, in particular.

There is also an emphasis on increasing use of public transportation — which less than 1 percent of town residents use — exploring options to extend rapid transit, promoting bike-share programs, and enhancing commuter connections.

The plan’s release 

The draft plan update was released just hours before resident Robyn Gray’s public records denial by Town Clerk Lynne Buchanan was due to be discussed during the Guilderland Town Board’s July 16 meeting.

Gray chairs the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth and has regularly attended update committee meetings, serving on one of the subcommittees.

At the very start of the July 16 meeting, Supervisor Peter Barber said, “The first matter … was to consider an appeal under the Freedom of Information Law. This is a request for the draft plan by the Comprehensive Plan Update Committee …[It] was posted on the website and then I provided a copy to the person who made a request … so I think that matter has been moot since the document has been produced.”

Toward the end of the July 16 meeting, Councilman Jacob Crawford asked Barber, “What do we believe their timeline is at this point with them having the draft plan?”

The supervisor responded, “I think that committee has to have a public hearing. And my guess would be that they’re not going to have a public hearing until the fall … with the vacations and whatnot.”

Barber said it would come to the town board “probably in October” and went on, “Whether or not we adopt it or send it back to do something with it, I think it would have a public hearing, maybe several public hearings, but I would hope it could be adopted before the end of the year.”

Gray, a mainstay at town meetings, told The Enterprise by email this week, “I have been through the plan a couple of times. On the surface, it looks like it meets the needs of the town. However, when you start digging, it does not.”

The town’s “Transportation Corridors are a mess and will get worse with the addition of Costco and [New York Oncology Hematology],” Gray said. 

She said, “I have no idea how this will be resolved or addressed because they have been approved. This also changes the character of these small neighborhoods to those of commercial and not supporting the one area this town has for affordable housing for those starting families or downsizing seniors. It does not seem congruent with what this town wants to aim for.”

As far as sidewalks, she said, “we still have a HUGE problem … In addition, there appears to be no consideration for the handicapped individuals in town who may use sidewalks to get to bus stops etc. This does not seem to be specifically addressed. For a town that is seeing the biggest growth in a senior population, it is something that needs to be seriously considered and addressed.”

On development, Gray said of the creation of a town center, “This was discussed at length in the Housing and Neighborhood Subcommittee meetings. I do not recall discussions about this ‘town center’ being located at the intersection of Route 155 and Route 20. I DO remember a discussion of it being located near the library. Pushing for a town center at one of the busiest intersections makes no sense because of ingress and egress … how do you justify another traffic light to allow for traffic several hundred feet from a main one? It is also a 5-6 lane road at that intersection. This makes no sense to me.

On town character, Gray said it was “addressed in the original Housing and Neighborhood subcommittee. It was taken out by the Consultants and they said is spread out in the other areas….I am not seeing it as we identified it.

As far as environmental and climate concerns, Gray said, “There is a huge conflict here. How do you promote resiliency when you allow 18 new gas pumps on your Main Street? What do we do, just focus on the western end of town? If we are to promote more energy efficiency, why are there not more car charging stations and less gas stations?” 

On housing alternatives, she said, “There are some good ideas such as [Accessory Dwelling Units] and smaller housing alternatives such as a cottage development. There needs [to be] a HUGE push for more affordable housing and affordable senior housing,” she said, adding, “Guilderland just received a designation as a Pro Housing Community, which is a good thing.”