Altamont committee recommends water for senior housing complex
waits until source is proven

ALTAMONT — The current village administration has taken a different tact than the previous one on granting municipal water to a senior housing complex planned for outside the village line.

Last Thursday, a committee headed by Mayor James Gaughan, empowered with making recommendations to Guilderland’s zoning and planning boards, said water should be granted to the senior housing project only after the village water supply was proven adequate.

In January, an earlier administration had granted water to the project with no conditions attached.

The village’s current water supply, from reservoir and well, is taxed so the village hired an engineering firm, which found a source on Brandle Road, just outside the village line. That source is not on line because of legal challenges.
Jeff Thomas, the developer of the senior project, seemed unperturbed after last Thursday’s meeting. "We’ve always planned on having an additional source," he said of his hopes to find a high-volume well on his Brandle Road property. "We’re going to continue to go forward," he told The Enterprise after the meeting.

About 20 people attended the committee meeting, a number of them elderly village residents who have been supporters of Thomas’s project.

The Enterprise reminded Thomas that less than 10 months ago he had stood in the same room and said the project would be dead if the village board didn’t promise him water that night; it complied.
Asked what had changed since then, Thomas said, "We would have lost interest. I had an option on the property."
Although Thomas had initially said he planned to open the complex, called Brandle Meadows, in January of 2006, he said, last Thursday, "This is a lengthy process."

He also reminded The Enterprise that, in response to a Jan. 13 editorial stating the then-village board would have been wise to wait to be sure it had a secure water source before granting water outside the village, he had written a Jan. 20 letter to the editor in which he said, "Let me also clearly state that I will not allow this project to in any way jeopardize the village water supply. If, by the time I am ready to break ground, it cannot be substantiated that our project will not put at risk the village’s water supply, I will delay the groundbreaking until such time that it can."
"We have a commitment not to jeopardize the village," said Thomas on Thursday.

Water promise

In January, under Mayor Paul DeSarbo’s administration, the village board voted, over the objection of its engineers and its superintendent of public works, to circumvent the moratorium on granting water outside the village and promised village water to the Thomas project, without any conditions.

Tim McIntyre, the superintendent of public works, had said at the January meeting that he couldn’t support giving water to Brandle Meadows until new water sources, in the works, were reliably functioning.

Keith O’Hara, project engineer with Barton & Loguidice, the firm hired by the village to oversee its water projects, disagreed at the January meeting with the developer’s water-need estimates for the complex. He said that the village's water system had been close to running out of water and cautioned that the added drain from the senior complex could be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
New wells were scheduled to be on-line in 2006 but O’Hara warned, "We just want everybody to be aware that we can't know if something comes up."
Paul Wein, Thomas’s lawyer, dismissed these concerns as "silly" at the January meeting and told the board that, if the engineers couldn't produce more water by January of 2006, when Thomas’s senior housing complex was to be completed, "then maybe what you should consider doing is not holding up this project, but fire your engineers and get some guys who can do it right."

Contingent upon proven water source

This month, the advisory committee members, who all said they supported the senior-housing project, agreed with the viewpoint Superintendent of Public Works McIntyre had expressed back in January.
McIntyre, who sits on the committee, said Thursday, "Once the connection is made, I don’t think there would be an issue. Once it proves itself."
"Proving itself is critical," agreed Maurice McCormick, another committee member who chairs the village’s zoning board.
He also said, "I don't have a problem with us supplying water and sewer. But you can’t do that if you jeopardize current village residents."
Stephen Parachini, another committee member who chairs the village’s planning board, agreed. He said it troubled him "to discuss extending water outside village boundaries; we basically have a moratorium."
Committee member Kerry Dineen, a village trustee, said, "I agree. It has to be contingent upon a new source."
Donald Cropsey Jr., a non-voting member of the committee who works as the zoning administrator for both the town of Guilderland and the village of Altamont, asked the mayor for "a history of what’s transpired."
In the spring elections, where water was a major issue, Gaughan and Dineen, running together, along with Dean Whalen ousted the incumbents. Gaughan responded to Cropsey’s question, beginning with that election: "This administration...began a set of processes to raise awareness." He referred to public-education sessions and website information on water needs.
"The bottom line," said Gaughan, "is the village has only one well and a sometimes reservoir...It needs to have a supplemental water source for it to deal with future expansion...We’re involved in a legal suit that has delayed our attempts to secure a water source. So we’re in suspension...It’s no secret the predilection of the current village is to be very circumspect about being sacrosanct...."
A bit later in the water discussion, Gaughan said, "We thought early on this issue would be resolved, but that’s on delay."
"If the village secures the additional source, is there a problem supplying this project"" asked Cropsey.
"I say no," replied Gaughan.
Although citizen member Chris Marshall and the mayor remained silent on the issue of making water for Brandle Meadows contingent on securing a proven source, Dineen said, "I think you have a consensus."
Gaughan responded by turning to McCormick and reiterating, "You said it would be contingent on another source with that contingency having been met."

McCormick said that, from being on the zoning board, he adopts the stance of always looking to protect the village first.

The new water source, also on Brandle Road, has been delayed by legal action.

Convoluted history

In July of 2004, the Guilderland Town board approved a re-zone for Thomas’s 15 acres on Brandle Road, without which the project could not have gone forward.

Guilderland Supervisor Kenneth Runion has said the re-zone was based on two facts — a need for senior housing was established, and the project would have water from the village of Altamont.

Thomas’s plans at the time — to develop 14.6 acres with 80 housing units — represented a tenfold density increase over what would have been allowed in an agricultural district. The town board approved the re-zone at the same meeting it also approved a moratorium on building in the rural western part of Guilderland.

The town would never have approved such a re-zone without the promise of municipal water, Runion has said.
The board based its approval on a letter it received before the vote from then-Mayor DeSarbo, Runion said. The letter stated, "The developer seeks village water and sewer services, a necessity to the project. The village can handle this, but will need to lift the moratorium on water service."

At the exact same time, on July 6, 2004, that the town board was meeting to approve the re-zone for Thomas, the village board was meeting and questioning DeSarbo about his letter. The trustees had not voted on the water commitment.

As the town board was approving Thomas’s re-zone, the village board was telling residents that it had not promised water to Thomas’s project.

In January, the village board then promised Thomas water, despite its moratorium, which is still ongoing.

Michael and Nancy Trumpler also own land on rural Brandle Road outside the village where Altamont drilled and found water. The Trumplers signed a contract last year agreeing to sell about five acres, with the wells, to the village.

The Trumplers were upset then to learn about Thomas’s re-zone because they had earlier had to scale back plans for a place for Nancy Trumpler’s elderly mother to live on Brandle Road since the town restricted building in an agricultural district. They also said they had been told that the wells on their land would be used only for water in the village, which they are still agreeable to, but not for an outside developer, and they had procedural concerns.

In March, the Trumplers filed papers in Albany County Supreme Court to have a judge decide whether the village’s contract for the five-acre site is legal and binding; they sought no money from the village.

The village responded by filing counterclaims, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, against the Trumplers. E. Guy Roemer, the village’s attorney, told The Enterprise earlier that the counterclaims were to enforce the contract and for damages due to the delay and increased costs to the village. Roemer is being paid $125 an hour to defend the village against the Trumplers’ suit.

In June, Thomas sued the Trumplers for $17 million, over what he called interference with his plans to build the senior-housing project. His lawyer said the suit was not over money; Thomas just wanted the Trumplers to drop their suit.
The Trumplers’ lawyer, Michael Englert, said Thomas filed the lawsuit for "retaliation against the Trumplers for daring to go to court" to seek direction on the option agreement.

In August, Runion suggested that, if the town had received village opinion on Thomas’s re-zone last year, the current litigation problems might not exist.

Guilderland’s zoning board will discuss the Brandle Meadows application for a special-use permit in November.

Other concerns

This is the second time the Altamont committee has met, Gaughan said. The first time was to advise the town on its rural agricultural plan for western Guilderland, which the town board adopted last week.

The committee was created by Guilderland town law this summer. Any proposals for land in Guilderland that is within 1,200 feet of Altamont’s border or its infrastructure is first reviewed by the committee.

If the Altamont committee disapproves of the project, it needs a supermajority from the town’s planning or zoning board to pass.
Gaughan said Thursday’s recommendations, because of the "high interest," will be presented at the village board meeting Nov. 1 and then hand-carried to Guilderland Town Hall to arrive by the Nov. 2 zoning board meeting.

In the past, the zoning board has declined to vote on cases where it has not received information a week in advance.

The Altamont committee also agreed on Thursday about the need to connect Brandle Meadows with the village by sidewalks. They discussed several options outlined in a memo from town planner Jan Weston.

Also, McIntyre recommended that a village engineer review the plans for water and sewer connections.

Cropsey asked if the village would take over maintenance of the system.
"It depends on the design," said McIntyre. "I’m not a big fan of pump stations." He said the village prefers gravity feed to the furthest point possible.
On water lines, McIntyre said, "I’m trying to avoid having a dead end...so you don’t have stagnant water, so you don’t have water sitting."

Marshall raised concerns about so much parking at Brandle Meadows.

Frances Bossolini, engineer for the project, said that Brandle Meadows will have 72 units with two parking spaces for each unit, plus nine or 10 additional spaces for guests.

Seventy-two of those parking spaces, one for each unit, will be inside a garage, he said.
"We gave a lot of attention to the fact none of this will be visible from the road," said Thomas, stating the parking spaces will be screened by trees.
"You’ll look into a village green with a pond," he said, describing it as "very aesthetic."

Throughout the 50-minute meeting, Gaughan reiterated his support for the Brandle Meadows project.
For instance, in talking about sidewalks, he said, "Rather than put the onus on one entity...this is a team effort...We need to add value to this...and show we’re in good faith to work with the developer."
He also said, "I want to make sure we’re not ordering a developer to do something unreasonable."
In the midst of the water discussion, Gaughan said, "In no way have I heard any objection to the project and the clients it is to serve, is that true""
"Totally," came the reply from committee members as several nodded their heads in agreement.
At that point, Cropsey, who looks to be in his forties, said, "I think they should lower the age to 45" — a comment that was greeted with widespread laughter.