GUILDERLAND — The owner of Albany Country Club has submitted a formal application to the town of Guilderland seeking a rezone that would allow for the development of 254 housing units on approximately 192 acres of land that the club owns off of Wormer Road.

The town board, the lead agency for such rezone requests, is due to take up the application at its Dec. 6 meeting. 

The club has seen its membership decline over the past two decades, from an annual average of 423 in 2003 to 347 today, and anticipates new members due  to the development. 

 Albany Country Club is seeking to rezone around half of its 800-plus acres from rural agricultural and residential to that of a Country Hamlet District.

The 254 units are to be built on approximately a third of the development’s 192 acres, with:

 — 88 single-family homes located on about 27 acres; 

 — 116 townhomes on about 23 acres; and

 — 50 condominiums on about 4 acres.

According to the town, the development itself would maintain approximately 121 acres of deed-restricted open space, with another 300 acres of land remaining open as: 

— 203 acres of deed-restricted golf course land;

 — 5.4 acres as a town park; and 

— 81.3 acres as a town park. 

“There have been many proposals over the years to develop ACC’s property, including the Toll Brothers’ efforts in 2010,” the project narrative states, “none of the proposals have come to fruition due mainly to the challenges of bringing sufficient water to the site.”

However, in 2018, the narrative says, the club partnered with the town on an engineering analysis that determined the new development could tap into Weatherfield’s existing water and sewer systems at a cost of $3.6 million in infrastructure upgrades. 

The proposed project, according to Creighton Manning’s traffic study, will generate 158 new vehicle trips during the a.m. peak hour and 194 new vehicle trips during the p.m. peak hour.

The proposal meets the criteria of a Type I State Environmental Quality Review Act action, meaning its construction would likely have a significant adverse impact on the environment. In his memo, Town Planner Ken Kovalchik recommends that, if the town board accepts lead agency status on Dec. 6, it begins a SEQR coordinated review process, listing eight other interested parties, including the Voorheesville Central School District, where the proposed development would be located, and Town of New Scotland.