NEW SCOTLAND — The planning board last Tuesday gave Engineer Francis Bossolini preliminary plat approval for six lots, on the corner of Krumkill and Font Grove Road; each is expected to have a home rangeing from $500,000 to $700,000 in price.

Subdivision approval is still pending.

This allows the applicant to keep moving forward, but also keeps the developement under the board’s control, planning board chairman Robert Stapf told The Enterprise this week.

With preliminary plat approval, the applicant can now invest the money into the project and explore and drill for wells, Stapf said. This approval also allows Bossolini to go to the Albany County Heath Department and work on getting the specific approvals that he needs, Stapf said.

If he doesn’t find water, Stapf went on, then Bossilini will have to come back to the board and re-configure the subdivision of the property. Where he finds water will determine how many lots he can have and also where the septic systems will have to be placed.

Stapf said that there is not yet a set developer tied to the project. The land is still owned by Jeremiah Manning and there is an agreement for Bossolini to do the engineering work, but who the land will be sold to for development is not yet determined.
Since neighbors had expressed concern about well drilling affecting their water quality, the planning board has asked Bossolini to collect water samples from neighboring wells, and sending those samples to a lab to be tested so that a base-line condition can be recorded, Stapf said. This way, if water quality does change, Stapf said, "We can have him correct it."

Other approvals

In other business, the planning board:

— Approved a special use, so that Michael Arel can keep the pond he built last fall on his property on Pauley Road. He said he didn’t know he needed a permit until after he dug it. Stapf said that the board approved the pond because it’s an in-ground pond that is just catching the natural drainage with no dam; and
— Permited Howard Amsler to construct a 1,152-square-foot pole and screened-in structure at the Tastee Treat Ice Cream concession-stand site on Route 85. "He’s been improving" that property, Stapf told The Enterprise. Amsler said last month he plans to place the new structure where the gazebo was, and place 8 to 10 picnic tables inside.