To the Editor:
Thank you for your article on the town of Guilderland taking over the administration of a housing program for the town of Knox [“Guilderland votes to administer Knox program for subsidized housing,” The Altamont Enterprise, Sept. 27, 2023]. 

After reading your article, I thought of a Guilderland Comprehensive Plan meeting I attended on or about Sept. 19 on the topic of neighborhoods and housing, noticing a selective group gathered including, Laurel Bohl, a former Guilderland Town Board member; Don Casposs, the town’s grant writer and chief executive officer of the Guilderland Industrial Development Agency; and Elizabeth Lott, who chairs the town’s zoning board of appeals.

Of course, the committee members told me I could not ask any questions. The only question I had was: Who picked this comprehensive plan committee?

I have been told that the comprehensive plan committee is a lot of work yet Laurel Bohl found the time [to serve on the Neighborhoods and Housing Subcommittee after she said she had] to leave her town board position, paving the way for Jacob Crawford to leap from his former Guilderland Democratic Party Chair and Tax Grievance Committee power positions and in a pole-vault style clear a hurdle off his ZBA member seat to the town board by appointment.

Donald Casposs and Elizabeth Lott were noticeably angry when I entered the room. Do you think they anticipated that I would let town residents know they were present and would question them?

I am questioning their agenda. When I arrived, the topic was accessory dwelling units. Ah, I thought that might explain Don Casposs in the room because Don Casposs is a grant writer and Elizabeth Lott, as a ZBA chair, would be making decisions on special-use variances.

I was angrily told by Casposs and Lott that I could not ask questions but one male committee member made sure to ask me to define easements. I know what an easement is ….

For insight [quoting from the New York state website on the Plus One ADU program]: “The 2022-2023 NYS Capital Budget made available $85,000,000 for the purposes of creating and upgrading accessory dwelling units across New York State, as part of a five (5) year Housing Plan. The Plus One ADU Program is an initiative to create and improve Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) across the state.

“The Plus One ADU Program provides grants to units of local government and not-for-profit organizations that are committed to crafting community-specific programs for generating safe, quality ADUs. By working with units of local government and community development partners, Plus One ADU will provide a full-service program to support low- and middle-income single-family homeowner occupants who wish to build a new ADU on their property or improve an existing ADUs that needs to be brought into compliance with local and state code requirements.

“Depending on the property and what the locality permits, ADU’s may be small, stand-alone (detached) units on single-family lots, basement apartments, garage conversions, or other permitted units …

“Either the governmental or non-profit entity may serve in the role of the lead Applicant and the proposal should specify which entity is the lead …

“The Plus One ADU Program is an initiative to create and improve Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) across the state. The program is aimed to support low- and middle-income single-family homeowners who wish to build a new ADU on their property or improve an existing ADU that needs to be brought into compliance with local and state code requirements. Select municipalities have been awarded to launch this program, and HCR anticipates more municipalities to be onboarded in the next few years.”

So, I am sitting at their meeting thinking about Governor Kathy Hochul’s ADU initiative and how will this ADU concept work in our smaller neighborhoods?

Thanks to the recent coronation of McKownville as an historical district (well played, in my opinion) does that position Westmere, Guilderland Center, and Altamont for ADUs?

Will Don Casposs be writing a grant to bring ADUs to Guilderland using the Knox administration of a housing program as proof of concept?

Will the two members that leapt from the ZBA to their appointments to the town board, namely Jacob Crawford and Peter Barber, be re-writing and voting to reduce our setbacks?

Christine Duffy

Guilderland

Editor’s note: The members of the Neighborhoods and Housing Subcommittee for the town’s Comprehensive Plan Update committee are: Lisa Hart, Dominic Rigosu, Elizabeth Lott, Laurel Bohl, Robyn Gray, Ellen Manning, Rosemary Centi, Gustavo Santos, and Don Csaposs. Hence, Csaposs and Lott were, among others, at the subcommittee meeting described in the letter.

Following Laurel Bohl’s resignation from the Guilderland Town Board on July 12, 2022, Jacob Crawford was appointed to the post on Aug. 16, 2022 after the July 28 deadline set by State Election Law to get a candidate on the November ballot had passed; no one besides Crawford was on the ballot. Crawford was then elected in November, unopposed, to fill out the term. 

Peter Barber was appointed as Guilderland’s supervisor on Dec. 1, 2015 after Kenneth Runion resigned on Nov. 25, 2015 before the end of his term; at that point, Barber was supervisor-elect. Barber, a Democrat, had beaten Brian Forte, running on the GOP line, in a close race in November 2015; on Dec. 1 of that year, Forte, a councilman, joined the unanimous vote to appoint Barber. Two years later, in 2017, in a rematch of the 2015 supervisor’s race, Barber handily beat Forte.