Preserve"
Concerns about traffic, wildlife raised



GUILDERLAND — A 75-lot subdivision is being proposed for 214 acres that stretch across town lines from Guilderland into New Scotland.

At last Wednesday’s planning-board meeting, neighbors on heavily-traveled Church Road questioned the effect the subdivision would have on traffic and on the wildlife harbored on the property.

Scott Lansing, of Lansing Engineering in Malta, described the acreage on Church Road in Guilderland as stretching south to Krumkill Road in New Scotland. The neighborhood is tentatively named the Normanskill Preserve.

Town planner Jan Weston said the site has two major ravines that feed into the Normanskill Creek. She said that the property is on the open-space registry for the state, and that portions of it have wetlands, farmland, and steep grades. An Environmental Impact Statement should be required for the property, she said.

Weston said that 53 of the lots only have access to Krumkill Road in New Scotland; the two towns would need agreements for road maintenance, she said. The proposed infrastructure crosses municipal lines, too, she said.
"This conventional layout is not realistic and cannot be approved by the planning board," Weston said.

Lansing also proposed a clustered layout with two curb cuts on Church Road. In the northern section, he proposed 22 lots for large, expensive estate homes. Moderate- to high-priced homes on half-acre lots are planned for the western section, and lower-cost starter homes are planned for the southern section. Lansing said that only about .65 of an acre of wetlands would be affected with the conventional layout, and that none would be with the clustered layout.
"We’re looking for guidance from the town" for the type of clustering that will work on the site, Lansing said. Regarding inter-municipal agreements, he said, "We feel that there can be a resolution."

Planning board Chairman Stephen Feeney said that the foremost issues with the proposal are the grading, clearing, and storm-water management of the site. He asked Lansing to provide more information about the plans.

Feeney said that, when he walked the property recently, the wetlands seemed to have changed from those mapped for the Department of Environmental Conservation.
"The .65 acre wetlands disturbed on the conventional layout seems kind of low," Feeney said.

Town regulations require applicants to show a conventional layout that accounts for permits that might be needed, he said.

Plot thickens
"It seems like the DEC would consider it all one wetland. Maybe not. Summarize the wetland impacts, then it seems to me there’s acres," Feeney said.

Lansing said that the Albany County Health Department approved a proposed packaged wastewater treatment plant for the subdivision. He said that 120 units on 29 acres in New Scotland would be included in the project. In New Scotland, the neighborhood would require rezoning, Lansing said.
"The plot gets even thicker," Feeney said. He said that Guilderland would have to "reach out" to New Scotland to see what board members there think of the proposal. If it goes through, Feeney said, the project would require a forced main upgrade and an upgrade to the nearby pump station.
Feeney later said that he was "a little shocked at the density [proposed] over there," because of the lack of sewer and water services in New Scotland.
"It does seem out of character for that area" of New Scotland, he said.

Lansing said that the plan calls for Guilderland water to be used on the New Scotland side of the subdivision. He said he would go before the New Scotland Planning Board soon.
"I expect something from them," Paul Cantlin, the zoning administrator for New Scotland, told The Enterprise this week. He said that, so far, there is nothing about the subdivision on the New Scotland planning board agenda for next month.

Robert Stapf, who chairs the New Scotland Planning Board, told The Enterprise that he saw a presentation on the subdivision a month ago, but that it has not come before the planning board. He said that, because the proposal is for a Planned Unit Development, the application must go before the town board before a possible hearing with the planning board.
Asked if the town was likely to approve the subdivision, Stapf said, "I don't know. It's got positive aspects to it."
Once public water and sewer are in, Stapf said, other sanitary facilities could be built in the area, too. Also, he said, the types of homes to be built would "be a positive to the tax base of the town."

Residents’ concerns

Former Guilderland Planning Board member Regina DuBois, who lives on Chaucer Place, said at the meeting that intermittent streams on the property will empty into the Normanskill Creek. She agreed that an EIS is needed for the site.
"Church Road is really substandard for the amount of traffic traveling on it," DuBois said. She asked that a traffic study be done in the area.

Sandy Smith lives across from the northern section proposed for the development.
"Church Road is an absolute nightmare," she said. Children in the area are not allowed to cross the road because of the fast traffic, she said. She said that cars from other subdivisions drive on Church Road to get to the Thruway entrance.
"It’s an issue that is way overdue to be looked at," Smith said. "You need to remember the people in this town who lived in this town who like this town. It’s becoming a city."

T. R. Laz, who said that his wife Desiree’s family has lived in the area for 50 years, said that the survey flags on the property do not match his idea of the property line.
"Preserve’s a nice pretty name," he said, noting that the subdivision is a housing complex.

Feeney said that a clustered subdivision keeps its open space undeveloped, because the open land is deeded to the town or a property owners’ association.

Andrew Mackie, who works for the New York Audubon Society, said that the area is worthy of protection. He said that the property is home to five state-listed species of special concern, and to hundreds of other species.
Board member Paul Caputo said that he wants a definite answer from New Scotland before the next concept presentation in Guilderland. He agreed with Laz’s comments. "You really don’t develop anything in a preserve," Caputo said.
Weston noted that a boulevard is proposed to link two of the developed sections. "A boulevard is expressly forbidden," she said.
"We won’t belabor it," Feeney said. "If you get us that info, we owe you a decision."