GUILDERLAND — Planning Board Chairman Stephen Feeney hit the nail on the head: “So I don’t know, I usually associate homeschool with schooling at home.”

Feeney’s obvious observation was in response to an application submitted by Acton Albany to open a community resource center at 6378 Gun Club Road.

“Yeah, it’s a place where families who are homeschooled can come bring their kids just to have open play games, projects,” project applicant Katie Coffey told Feeney.

“So to have some socialization, if you will,” the planning board chair responded. 

The building at 6378 Gun Club, which had been vacant for years, started as a dance hall called Pat’s Ranch, then became home to the Helderberg Bible Chapel, after which Jeff Thomas bought it as a home for the Community Caregivers. After the Caregivers vacated, Ed Frank ran an anti-drunk-driving campaign from the site, which hosted school field trips. Thomas, through his family foundation, still owns the property. 

The center, which is already in operation, was before the planning board for a site-plan review on Dec. 10; the zoning board is the lead agency for the project. 

While the planning board’s only real issue was adequate parking, Mayor Kerry Dineen of Altamont was on hand to voice concern about the village supplying the site with water.  

“It is very public that we have a capacity limitation for water in the village of Altamont. We are currently working with the town on establishing a transmission line for emergency purposes only because one of our sites is not used as it should be because of a high manganese content,” Dineen said. “It has been in the papers; it is very public.”

In February 2022, Altamont was notified that a sample from the Brandle Road wellsite contained 0.59 milligrams of manganese per liter; the maximum contaminant level allowed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency is 0.3 milligrams per liter. 

The village shut down the wellsite soon after; when operating, it produces about a third of Altamont’s drinking water but has largely been closed save for periods of peak usage, at which point the Brandle Road supply gets mixed into the village’s other water supply, from Gun Club Road.

Dineen told the board on Dec. 10, “We have cut off all applications. There are no more being accepted for outside users outside the village. We have submitted many different places. We have actually turned down about three people this summer/fall.”

Dineen told the planning board that she is concerned about there being dozens of people on site at one time. Coffey told the board there are currently about 10 people on site at any given time, and that that number would likely increase to between 20 and 30. 

“This is going from what should be a residential zoning, which would be one single-family house, to something that is 20 to 30 people plus staff, possibly in the future,” the mayor said. “That is something that would be equivalent to five houses, then you take away the use for showers and stuff like that. I get that. But you are talking that many more people.”

She continued, “So the village will have concern with that since we have turned others away that came previously this summer.” Dineen’s request to the board was that an analysis be performed that looked at on-site water usage.

“So you would be asking … that the applicants provide some engineering calculations,” Feeney responded. 

“Yes, because I know the committee is going to ask for that,” Dineen replied, because “as soon as I schedule a date for them to meet, they are going to be asking me for that. I would have to do that within 30 days. That would be one thing.

Dineen was referring to the Rural Guilderland Referral Committee, created by a 2005 law to weight in on town actions to real property within 1,200 feet of the village boundary, or 1,200 feet from a current or future Altamont water system.

The planning board voted to move the application on to the zoning board with the stipulation that Coffey provide the engineering estimate of daily water usage.