To the Editor:

At the Oct. 7 planning board meeting, my comments were misrepresented in The Enterprise as if I were confused about which energy project was under discussion [“Strong opposition to proposed Feura Bush battery storage facility,” The Altamont Enterprise, Oct. 10, 2025]. That is not only inaccurate; it misses the larger point.

What I raised were clear and well-researched concerns about the pattern of planning decisions, land-use changes, and overlapping interests that have shaped energy development in New Scotland for years. What the public said that night, across project types and party lines, was simple: We do not trust the process.

For example, I referenced 6120 Johnson Road Rear, the Borrego Solar project approved in 2020. The Albany County Planning Board required an intermunicipal emergency access agreement between New Scotland and Guilderland because the site was landlocked and accessible only by a dirt road. That condition was never documented as fulfilled.

Then in 2023, that same access, now renamed “Cramer Lane,” was reclassified as a private driveway. On paper, this concealed its role as an industrial access road. That is not public transparency. That is regulatory erasure.

My concern was not limited to that site. It was about whether the town had learned anything from its past failures or whether it continues to approve projects with incomplete safety planning, unmapped access, and public input that arrives too late to make a difference.

Meanwhile, the same people who helped shape zoning, energy, and “open space” laws are now positioned to benefit from them. Councilman Adam Greenberg, whose family owns more than 300 acres of land in New Scotland, was first appointed to the planning board. The board later enacted term limits that allowed him to run for town board, where he now votes on laws that could increase the value of properties in which he has a personal or family interest.

Planning consultant Nan Stolzenburg advised the town in what was described in 2020 board minutes as an “informal capacity.” Since then, she has helped shape the Hamlet Plan, Natural Resource Inventory, and Open Space Plan. She also serves on the advisory board of ESG LLC, a private green energy organization, and consults for nearby municipalities on zoning and energy issues. That may not be illegal, but it raises serious concerns about the appearance of conflict.

One more silence speaks volumes. Dr. Lyon Greenberg, Adam Greenberg’s father, was a respected physician, community leader, and chair of the New Scotland Ethics Board. He passed away in June 2025. While his family published a moving obituary in The Enterprise, the town board has issued no formal acknowledgment. His name remains listed on the town’s website as Ethics Board chairman, and the seat remains unfilled. This is happening at a time when residents are raising important questions about oversight and accountability.

To be clear, I am not accusing anyone of intentional misconduct. However, under New York State Public Officers Law § 74, public officials are required not only to avoid conflicts of interest but also to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. When a town official votes on policies that may benefit his own landholdings, and the planner writing those policies also serves private energy interests, the appearance is unmistakable. The impact on public trust is undeniable.

New Scotland residents are not confused. We are doing the research, reviewing the documents, and connecting the dots. We are asking who benefits from these policies and who was left out of shaping them.

This community deserves better. We deserve transparency, ethical leadership, and a government that begins with the public, not ends with it.

Erica J. Smith

Voorheesville

Editor’s note: Albany County did not require an intermunicipal emergency access agreement for 6120 Johnson Road Rear. The specific Advisory language states, “Approval of future site plan will be conditioned on further explanation of intermunicipal agreements pertaining to site access, including emergency response, between the Town of New Scotland and the Town of Guilderland.” In municipal planning, an advisory is informal guidance or suggestions provided by a board, which may or may not influence the decision-making process. It serves to inform decision-makers of potential impacts, considerations, or community sentiments but lacks the formal weight of a recommendation.

Nan Stolzenburg “advised” New Scotland on the 2120 Johnson Road Rear solar facility because she was the paid town planner, from 2018 through at least Guilderland’s adoption of the project. She said she is not paid as an advisory member of the ESG board, and that she’d only been on “three phone calls” about the project, an “indoor integrated greenhouse.” She said she worked on both the Natural Resource Inventory and Open Space Plan, but only updated language to the existing Hamlet Plan.

Adam Greenberg served on the zoning board, not the planning board. 

Guilderland Town Planner Kenneth Kovalchik, in response to Enterprise fact-checking, provided the following on Cramer Lane:

“The private lane was a former farm access road to the fields previously used for agricultural purposes and to a pre-existing cell tower also located on the site. The farm access road was reclassified as a private lane, Cramer Lane, most likely for 911 addressing purposes once the solar facility was constructed. All solar facilities are required to have addresses for 911 purposes. This is done to allow emergency responders the ability to respond in an efficient time frame to a call to the solar facility. Authorizing the private lane name would have been processed by the Town of New Scotland as the access to the solar facility is from Krumkill Road, in the Town of New Scotland.   

“I’m not sure what the author means by ‘concealing its role as an industrial access road.’  A solar facility is not considered an industrial use according to Guilderland town zoning law. If it was then solar facilities would only be allowed in Industrial districts. The site of this solar facility is located in the RA3 District, one of the Town’s 3 agricultural districts.”