Raising concerns about reservoir water
Plans to store salvaged cars at NEIP



GUILDERLAND — Concerns were raised last week about wrecked vehicles being stored at the Northeastern Industrial Park in Guilderland Center and possibly affecting the Watervliet Reservoir, the town’s major source of drinking water.

The Black Creek flows from the industrial park to the reservoir.

The planning board last Wednesday approved a plan by Insurance Auto Auctions, of Chicago, to store salvageable vehicles on 16 acres of the park, contingent on a guarantee water quality would not be adversely affected.

IAA representative Michael Madden told the board that his company has 83 facilities in the United States.
"This is one of our targeted areas for growth," Madden said. "We are a service provider for" the insurance industry."

Madden said that the company does not sell vehicles to the public.
"We’re a highly-regulated industry, which used to be publicly traded," he said.

Madden said that most vehicles are sold and removed from the property within two months.
"These are total-loss vehicles. We do not get paid unless we sell the cars," he said. His customers are "junk shop guys, and cannibalizers. Some people rebuild them," he said.

Engineer Daniel Hershberg, of Albany, said that traffic at the site will be about five tow-truck or car-carrier trips per day. That’s an average of 15 wrecked vehicles, he said.

The facility will have state-of-the-art oil and grit separators, he said. The only ground disturbance involved in renovating the site would be to install pipes, Hershberg said.

Town planner Jan Weston’s concerns, read before the application, included run-off of oil and other fluids from the cars.

Hershberg said that most fluids come out of the vehicles at the sites of their accidents.
"There’s not an awful lot left," he said.
Nearby resident, Sue Green, told the board, "I am just unbelievably distressed. When are we going to meet the saturation point"where the Black Creek is completely polluted" My neighbor, myself, and another neighbor all got cancer."

Green said that their diagnoses could be coincidental or related to contamination of the Black Creek. She said that each drop of auto fluid, taken over a 10-acre site, would be detrimental.
"You really need to think hard and fast. Every bit of it is going to leak into the reservoir," she said.

Steven Porter, attorney for the NEIP, jumped up to tell the board that it has no jurisdiction, and that it serves only to advise the zoning board.
"We know what our job is," said board chairman Stephen Feeney said. "If we feel there’s a lot of issues with a project".In this case, the main issue is water quality. I’m no expert. That does need to be addressed."

The board approved the plan, allowing that a town-designated engineer would review it. Approval was contingent on a guarantee that water quality would not be adversely affected.

Rural subdivision

The board gave preliminary approval last week for a farm subdivision with rural road designs based on town-wide plans that have yet to be officially written and adopted.

Engineer Mark Jacobson, whose parents, Howard and Linda Jacobson, own farmland on Furbeck Road, proposed a five-lot clustered subdivision of 28 acres, with a large sixth lot. Lots are two to three acres each, around a rural cul-de-sac, he said in August. Homes on the sites would use wells and raised beds for septic systems. The remaining 14.85-acre parcel will be kept by the Jacobsons for agricultural uses, he said last week.

Jacobson told the board that his family hopes to sell the newly-formed plots, now called Manor Line Estates, in the spring. The subdivision plans show a 16-foot street that is not paved, Jacobson said.

Feeney told Jacobson that private roads are not allowed according to town standards, and that town roads must be paved.
"I’m not against what you’re proposing. We need to develop a rural road standard," Feeney said.
"The town will go to a rural-road standard," said Weston. She said that, once standards are in place, a town-designated engineer would need to review Jacobson’s road proposal.

The preliminary approval is conditional on the town highway superintendent’s approval of the road plan, after the rural road standard is in place.
"First, we have to let you know what to submit," Weston said.

Feeney said that the planning board, which will send its final approval to the zoning board when all conditions are met, will not keep Jacobson’s proposal unresolved indefinitely.

The board asked Jacobson to show the calculated buildable area on the lots and the limits of grading when he submits his refined plans.

Other business

In other business, the planning board:

—Continued a public hearing for a request by Michael Cleary, unrelated to board member Michael Cleary, to realign four existing lots on 33 acres at 5545 Depot Road. The project was approved in 2000.

Cleary must submit a grading plan and an erosion and sediment control plan before his project can be approved, the board said.

Feeney also said that the presence of endangered Indiana bats must be checked.
"We do have hibernating Indiana bats in the escarpment area," Feeney said.
After some mild joking from the board, Feeney said, "I don’t make these things up"; and,

—Gave conceptual approval to Linda Livingston, who wants to split 10 acres from her 14.8 acres on Altamont-Voorheesville Road. An existing home is on the remaining 4.8 acres.

Livingston said that a neighbor may buy the property.

Weston said that a neighbor could merge the property to his own to avoid paying taxes on a buildable lot. In that case, the proposal would not need to come before the planning board, she said.

Otherwise, Livingston would need to show the proposed location and a well and septic system on the 10 acres, which would be considered a buildable lot, the board said.