NEW SCOTLAND – After sharp criticism from a few citizens, the drafter of a bill for a senior overlay zone agreed with the rest of the town board to send it to the planning board for further review and recommendations.
"This is exactly how the process is supposed to work," Councilman Richard Reilly, who wrote most of the bill, told The Enterprise this week. "It was an excellent public hearing," he added. "The town board was able to respond in thoughtful dialogue."

The planning board is chaired by Robert Stapf who also helped write the bill and has spoken in support of it.

Some residents and town officials had criticized the proposal for lacking standards to accommodate the needs of the elderly.
Another complaint was that the bill was drafted specifically for one developer. Charles Carrow is proposing a senior housing development on a 6.9-acre parcel located behind a medical building that he built on Route 85. Last year, he requested that the town adopt a senior overlay zone for his project.

The property is located in a commercial zone; — the senior overlay law would have allowed it to proceed.

The proposed overlay zone would allow for senior housing, with board approval, to be constructed in any zone in town. Current zoning has no provisions that specifically address senior housing.

Carrow told The Enterprise last week that he applauds the board for going back and reviewing the proposal. "It’s very important that they get this right," Carrow said.

The board — three Democrats and two Republicans — was divided on the issue. Supervisor Ed Clark and Douglas LaGrange, both of whom ran on the Republican ticket, told The Enterprise earlier that the proposal needs more specifics. Democrat Reilly supports it, as does Democrat Peg Neri. Democrat Deborah Baron said she will abstain from a vote on the bill because her husband, Robert Baron, is a business associate of Carrow. (LaGrange is running for supervisor on the Republican line, and Baron and Reilly are both seeking re-election on the Democratic line.)
LaGrange consulted planning experts regarding the proposed law. He wanted "to teach" himself and make an informed decision, he said this week. Gary Kleppel, a professor at the University at Albany who works with cluster housing, and Patricia Salkin, associate dean and director of the government law center of Albany Law School, both concluded, LaGrange said, that "zones should be at least partially residential so as not to seclude the seniors."

Public input
At last Wednesday’s public hearing, Reilly explained that the state of New York defines 13 types of senior housing. His intent with the law, he said, was "simply to encourage the construction of the entire spectrum of senior housing."

The board had continued the public hearing from its August meeting after complaints that the time was not sufficient and that many residents were not aware of the proposal or the hearing. The town has also accepted written comments; Supervisor Clark said that he had received remarks from seven residents.
Thomas Dolin, who is running for town supervisor on the Democratic ticket, told the board that he has looked over suggestions supplied to the town by resident Edie Abrams, and thinks that the proposal should be "further studied" by the planning board, and that affordability should also be considered.
"I think the only way a floating zone could ever work is if you have some definite criteria," said resident Katy O’Rourke. "If there’s no criteria set" It looks like it’s not fair."

Lou Neri, who is the counsel to the town’s zoning and planning boards and the husband of Councilwoman Peg Neri, said that the criteria is established in the zoning law. The planning board applies the regulations of the law, he said.
"Each project is taken and analyzed in the area that it’s placed," Neri said. Each project is "analyzed on its own merits" for the area it is proposed, he said.

O’Rourke said that she found the law confusing.

There is nothing in the current zoning law that prevents residential development in a commercial zone, Neri said, adding that O’Rourke herself built her home in a commercial zone.

Any single-family, two-family, or multi-family residential building is permitted in a commercial zone with a special-use permit, Paul Cantlin, the town’s zoning administrator, told The Enterprise this week. A developer could, with a special-use permit, construct a multi-family structure and call it senior housing, Cantlin said.
"We can work around the edges," said Reilly at last week’s meeting. The town can’t tell a developer that they must build a specific type of senior housing on a certain piece of land, because, he said, "if they don’t want to, they’ll just walk away."

Recommendations

Elizabeth Kormos chairs a senior services advisory board for the town. Her business, Kormos & Co., works in the areas of senior housing and commercial development.

At last week’s public hearing, Kormos commended the board for working to implement a senior-housing district.
"I just thought the proposal was a little open-ended," she told The Enterprise.
Senior housing that attracts residents from out of town isn’t such a bad thing, Kormos said at last week’s meeting. "They come with their visits to Emma Cleary’s and Olsen’s," she said, referring to a restaurant and a garden center on New Scotland Road.

Kormos is an advocate for new construction that has certain features that allows those who are disabled to at least visit the home, if not live there, she told The Enterprise. For example, having at least one at-grade entrance, and doorways wide enough for a wheelchair, she said.
"I don’t believe you should mandate elevators," she said, but a builder could stack two closets, which would allow for later installation of an elevator.
"I’d like to see the town have some incentives," she told the board. Usually a town offers some sort of a tradeoff to the developer, she said. The town may offer a developer to build more densely than zoning allows as an incentive to build senior housing, for example, she said.

The proposal has been placed on the agenda for the planning board’s Oct. 2 meeting, Cantlin said this week. If the planning board decides that it wants to hold a special meeting to discuss it, it can do that, he said.

The proposal is being forwarded to the planning board with written comments that were submitted to the town, and the minutes of last week’s public hearing will also be provided to planning-board members, Reilly said.
"The planning board will decide if any more specifics are needed," he concluded.