NEW SCOTLAND  — The town is soliciting résumés for openings on the planning and the zoning boards; due to term-limits enacted in 2011, board members can serve only two five-year terms. This month, zoning board of appeals Chairman Adam Greenberg will complete his 11th year, while planning board member Kurt Anderson is eligible to keep his seat for another five years.
The town is also seeking a person to serve on its ethics board. Each member serves a three-year term, with a limit of three terms. The ethics board meets only once or twice a year.

When the term-limits law was passed in 2011, according to Supervisor Thomas Dolin, no “grandfathering” was allowed; board members are limited to 10 years of service, regardless of when they were appointed.

During a transition, when a board member leaves or resigns mid-term, a new member filling less than half of a five-year term can still serve two full terms, Dolin told The Enterprise.

The relatively new term-limits law was accompanied with restructuring of the boards; the terms are now set up so that only one board members’s term expires each year, he said. Also, most boards were then set up to have five members with five-year terms, Dolin said; the planning board previously had seven-year terms for seven members.

“If you had a seven-year term, you could fill it out,” Dolin said about members serving in the transition. Planning board member Robert Stapf is completing such a term now, Dolin said.

Zoning board

“As is our custom, we’ve advertised that there is a possible vacancy,” Dolin said last week. “Mr. Greenberg is very disappointed that he won’t be able to continue. He’s been an excellent member of the zoning board of appeals.”

Greenberg, who attended the December zoning board meeting, set up the board’s calendar of meetings for 2015, and included his own schedule while doing so. “We’ll see what happens,” Greenberg said when asked if he thought he would be reappointed.

“I love my board,” Greenberg said, when asked if he wanted to be reappointed. Greenberg was out of town this week and unable to make further comments.

“Certainly, if there were an opportunity to reappoint him, he’d be reappointed,” Dolin said of Greenberg this week. “He’s done an excellent job. The [term-limit] law was passed unanimously.”

Planning board

Anderson told The Enterprise that he is willing to serve another term on the planning board.

“I haven’t had a chat with the powers that be. I’d be happy to continue,” he said.

Anderson said that some of the zoning laws are decades old and out of date.

“There needs to be periodic reviews and changes to zoning board regulations,” Anderson said. “The world has changed.”

Anderson said that many subdivisions have been approved in the town.

“The growth of the Capital District is going to be impacting the town of New Scotland,” he said. The development of areas near Vista Park in Bethlehem by the Slingerlands Price Chopper has already been approved, he said.

“I’m sure that will have an impact,” Anderson said.

Dolin told The Enterprise that residents have until Dec. 26 to apply for a zoning board position, the ethics board opening, or one full-time and one alternate position on the planning board.

“We will wait until after the deadline. We will not be in a position to appoint by Jan. 1 because of the holidays,” Dolin said. The town’s organizational meeting is Jan. 1 at noon.

“The January board meeting is the 14th, and probably the earliest we’ll get to filling the vacancies,” Dolin said.