NEW SCOTLAND — After coming to the town a year ago with a 72-unit apartment proposal, spurring the town to update parts of its zoning code, Richard Long is back with a scaled-down project. Now he’s just waiting on the update. 

In June 2021, Long proposed and then tabled the plan for 72 apartments for his property at 2080 New Scotland Road, approximately a quarter-mile from Town Hall. The issue, in Long’s estimation, was the town’s zoning code wasn’t clear as to allowable density of his proposed development.

Representatives for Long at the time argued there were different housing standards in the hamlet district: one standard specified only one home per acre while another allowed a residential unit every 3,000 square feet.

Building Inspector Jeremy Cramer had decided that the one-acre zoning applied and allowed Long’s application to move forward to the zoning board, where Long would be able to challenge the one-unit-per-acre determination. 

In April, the town board introduced a local law to deal with the issue and was due to discuss the bill further at its meeting on Aug. 10, but had to push the discussion until its September meeting.  

At the Aug. 2 planning board meeting, Bill Mafrici, Long’s engineer, said that, even though the town board has yet to adopt new zoning for the hamlet district, “We thought it was prudent to at least get a first” look at the new site plan. 

The plan shows 13 buildings “in a semi-linear configuration coming off of [Route] 85,” Mafrici said; each two-story building would contain four units, condominiums as opposed to apartments. 

The roadway to the proposed 52-unit development is going to be private, he said, “so it’s not intended to be dedicated to the town.”

Mafrici said the provided density was intended to align with the proposed hamlet zoning — which the town board has yet to take up — but which he expected would be a maximum of 40 units per acre. But he added, “Maybe it’s not going to be 40 units, I don’t know what the board’s going to decide.”

He said the developer got to 52 units because of density bonuses, for example, the project “would have a heavy senior [housing] component.”

Local Law B of 2021

The New Scotland Hamlet is bounded by the town of Bethlehem to the east, the village of Voorheesville and railroad to the west, the Helderberg-Hudson Rail Trail to the north, and commercial and medium-density residential districts to the south of Route 85.

The zoning adopted in 2018 had a hamlet center subdistrict that included Stonewell Plaza and part of the former Bender melon farm bounded by the property lines of 1891 and 1903 New Scotland Road on its east with an imaginary line running west from the most northern point of the 1891 New Scotland Road property to the 0.7-acre parcel adjacent to 386 Maple Road, where Fred the Butcher’s shop is located. 

The expansion and development area subdistricts radiate out from the hamlet center. The proposed Long development is located in the expansion area. 

The new law clears up the old law’s permitted uses.

Specifically, the new law would allow for multi-family housing in the hamlet center subdistrict with a special-use permit. But the housing would be allowed only as part of a mixed-use building and the units couldn’t be placed on the first floor of “any commercial or mixed residential/commercial structure,” according April’s version of the proposed law. 

This piece was added to the new law in support of the town’s vision for the hamlet center subdistrict: Bolstering town support of both business and mixed-used development. To that end, the new zoning would permit multi-unit housing in the hamlet center subdistrict so long as it’s part of a mixed-use building.

The proposal replaces the current law’s subsection on base density, which became an issue with Long Lumber. 

The new law calculates base density in the hamlet district by using net buildable acreage. This clarifies how the base density is calculated for the hamlet districts by first subtracting the environmental constraints on a parcel (like wetlands) before determining how many residential units can be built on the entire parcel.

In all three hamlet subdistricts — the center as well as the expansion and development areas — the proposed law explicitly states 40 total units would be allowed. However, developers would be eligible for a density bonus “in return for providing certain amenities to the town.”

Among the eight amenities (allocated on a point system) that a developer can provide the town in exchange for additional units — up to a maximum of 10 — is dedicating 25 percent of total units to affordable senior housing; allowing public use of permanently preserved on-site open space; and a number of energy-related provisions.