VOORHEESVILLE — Plans for Voorheesville’s future are underway.

The village board has chosen 14 villagers to serve on a committee that will develop a comprehensive land-use plan.

“We asked board members to submit names of people that would do a good job,” said Mayor Robert Conway after Tuesday’s village board meeting. “We tapped the planning board and zoning board for their expertise. We have representatives from the business community and a cross-section of residents.”

The committee met for the first time this month and members are deciding whether or not they want to choose someone to chair the committee, said Trustee Richard Straut.

He also said the committee includes owners of large properties and small, and representatives from a variety of neighborhoods and different age groups.

The group is being advised by Nan Stolzenburg, a certified planner who has worked with many local communities, specializing in small municipalities and rural areas. She was hired by the board as a consultant and at the trustees’ Dec. 14 workshop, the board further authorized Stolzenburg to add an economic development analysis to the comprehensive plan agreement.

Conway called the timeline for the committee to complete a master plan “aggressive.” He said, “We’re trying to do it in nine or 10 months.”

Richard Reilly, the village attorney, said that the committee would conduct a public hearing once it has completed a plan; the plan will then be passed to the trustees for study before the village board holds a second public hearing.

Until the plan is codified into law, it cannot be enforced.

Straut said that the target for completing the entire process is a year.

Reilly explained that Stolzenburg believes this is possible since she’ll “keep the board up to speed” on the committee’s work as it unfolds.

This will be the village’s first comprehensive plan. The village board decided a master plan was needed after two controversial matters packed village meetings earlier this year. One is Stewart’s Shops’ plan to build a gas station and convenience store on Route 85A where Smith’s Tavern now stands; Stewart’s is proceeding with its application before the village’s planning commission. The other was a proposal to adopt a planned unit development district. This would have allowed St. Matthew’s Church to build a 40-unit apartment complex on the seven-and-a-half vacant acres next to the church on Mountainview Street.

Faced with public outcry, the board set aside the planned unit development bill and decided instead to proceed with a master plan.

Conway at the time described a comprehensive plan as “a blueprint for village development.” Straut elaborated that the master plan would outline what kind of businesses were welcome in the village and where, and what sort of residences and where. “If we determine we are short on senior housing, how much and where would it be,” Strout said. “The zoning would follow that.”

The master-plan committee members are: Mike Bates, Dan Carmody, Dan Cronin, Nick Duncan, Kathy Fiero, Jim Giglio, Georgia Gray, Laura Minnick, Bill Pyke, Steve Reilly, Kat Schamberg, Jess Stewart, Brian Strauss, and Sarita Winchell.

Straut is the village board’s liaison to the committee.

Water

Discussions are underway about increasing water rates in the village. “It’s very preliminary,” said Conway on Tuesday night after the village board meeting.

Asked about the reason for a potential increase, he said, “The water fund is always close…Rates are usually barely enough to cover expenses, and expenses have increased.”

Conway said the board prefers to have a series of modest increases “to stay abreast” of expenses rather than to have a sudden and drastic hike to play catch-up.

The village is looking for a new water source. In September, Conway went over reasons for a proposed moratorium that would have suspended building gas stations in the village while the village looked for a new water source; the board put off the moratorium and allowed Stewart’s to proceed with its application.

Conway said that Voorheesville currently has three wells, all located within 200 yards of the railroad tracks in the Grove Street area.

The main well pumps 600 gallons per minute, he said, and the others pump 400 and 200 gallons per minute.

“There is always concern about contamination if there were an accident on the tracks with a spill of contaminants,” said Conway, noting that the wells are only 60 feet deep and close to the tracks.

“We have two water tanks to store water to use for pressure for the fire-suppression system,” Conway said of the village hydrants. The tanks would also serve as a backup supply in an emergency.

“With all the news on PFOAs in Hoosick Falls,” Conway said of the perfluorooctanoic acid found in water there, “we tested ours for our peace of mind. We were fine — no PFOAs.”

But, he went on, it “highlighted the unknown and the fragility” of water sources.

About 1,800 people currently use public water from Voorheesville, both village residents as well as outsiders, said Conway. The water system, he said, will “grow as much as the village grows; it can potentially supply all the undeveloped land in the village.”

In 2008, the village had its engineers, Barton & Loguidice, conduct a water-source capacity study for Voorheesville. (The village later switched engineers when Straut, who works for Barton & Loguidice, became a Voorheesville trustee.)

“The analysis indicates that there is sufficient water source capacity to supply potential build-out development within the Village,” the 2008 report says, “and that build-out of the Village would commit 100% of the current permitted water source capacity with no excess available for additional out-of-Village customers.”

The report made two recommendations to increase capacity: reducing leakage, which accounted for 32 percent of the amount pumped, and upgrading the well system

The mayor concluded, “We’re not looking to increase capacity. We’re looking at is as a back-up so we’d have an additional well if, God forbid, there’s a calamity.”

As a way of saying that development follows water, Conway said, “I always tell people: The town of New Scotland, with a population of about 10,000, is between two towns — Bethlehem and Guilderland — with populations of about 35,0000. Figure out why.”

Well drilling in Voorheesville is to begin in January. Earlier this month, the board agreed that CT Male would begin exploratory drilling on three sites with an amount not to exceed $52,240; money is to come from the fund balance in the water fund.

At the same time, the village is mapping its underground water lines. Some of the water lines are older than 70 years, said Mayor Conway.

There were a series of breaks in the water lines earlier this year but Superintendent of Public Works Brett Hotaling said at the time the breaks were not due to age.

The breaks were in the part of the village system that is about 40 years old, the Mayor said this week.

In August, an eight-inch main line in the Salem Hills development broke; two valves were used to isolate that break and then both of those valves broke, Hotaling said at the time.

In October, three water-line breaks occurred in a chain reaction. “It was just a stretch of bad luck,” Hotaling said at the time. “I hope it’s over.”

“The point of the mapping,” Conway said on Tuesday, “is to know where the valves are so they can be shut off, so you can work on the breaks quickly. A lot of time can be lost just depending on memory.”

Straut said the mapping could cost in the neighborhood of $20,000, to be hired out, and would probably involve ground-penetrating radar, metal detectors, and using GPS to locate coordinates that would then be translated to a map.

“We may not do it all in one shot,” said Conway.

Quiet zone

The board is still hoping to have a quiet zone, which would involve special gates near the train tracks in the village so that trains wouldn’t need to blow their horns. Conway said it would be built only if grant monies come through.

A group of villagers has been pushing for a quiet zone for several years.

Strout estimated the total cost at $400,000 and said that State Senator George Amedore and Assemblywoman Pat Fahy are working to secure state funds. Straut said county legislators had been contacted, too.