Guilderland

The board at its March 4 meeting unanimously approved the project as well as a variance request from the town zoning code that would require the new structures to be set back 100 feet from the single-family lots on either side of the property. 

The issue the applicant ran into was the town’s zoning code does not allow construction within the 250-foot setback to watercourses — in this case, the Bozenkill — feeding the Watervliet Reservoir. 

The town’s planner, Kenneth Kovalchik, recommended the PUD, citing ways in which the proposal follows recommendations of Guilderland’s recently updated comprehensive plan. Three people objecting to the proposal also cited the new comprehensive plan as they stated the importance of preserving the globally rare pine bush.

“We’ve been contacted by multiple residents interested in ADUs,” Kenneth Kovalchik, the town’s planner, told the board. “But it’s just we’ve got to get our code updated to match what people want to do.”

The 90 parking spots approved for 1671 Western Ave. are nearly triple the number of spaces the town’s zoning code allows but resolve what had become a persistent operational problem for the popular restaurant The Scene.

Altamont’s proposed tax rate for next year would rise to $2.29 per $1,000 of assessed value, up from $2.24 per $1,000 this year — a five-cent increase.

William Delanoy told the zoning board that he wasn’t looking for sympathy; he was looking for the board to act. “We’re working-class people,” he said, “and we rely on you guys to protect us.”

“The Vojnar Family Trust is in the process of evicting those tenants through counsel, and that process is ongoing. We have worked hand-in-hand with the Trust’s eviction attorney to ensure that the tenants’ legal rights are respected as that process plays out,” says the chief legal officer at Carver Companies.

The school board here will decide at its March 10 meeting on a $1.7 million vehicle-purchase proposition that does not include electric buses and on a capital-reserve proposition that would allow a maximum of $20 million in funding.

At its Feb. 3 meeting, the town board unanimously authorized issuing requests for proposals for the new scale and also allowed the use of the transfer station’s capital reserve funds to pay for it.