NEW SCOTLAND – The developers who want to build a big-box mall in commercially-zoned now-vacant fields are bringing their plans to the public. At the same time, county planners have recommended the town extend its moratorium proposal from six months to 12.

Greg Widrick, the managing founder, and the other members of the Sphere Group have said that the moratorium is not necessary; they say the town could adopt a moratorium in the future and allow them to present their plan to the town and conduct studies. (His letter to the editor is on page 2.)

The development proposed for the intersection of the town’s two major thoroughfares, routes 85 and 85A, could be a “win-win” for the town, said Widrick, but a moratorium at this stage would force Sphere to “re-evaluate” the development.

The Sphere Group will give a public presentation of a possible design plan to the New Scotland Town Board and the community on April 30.  The presentation will be in the performing arts center of Voorheesville’s high school at 7 p.m.  The presentation is to include a concept plan by Saratoga and Associates.

Two sessions held by the town board have drawn hundreds of residents who are largely opposed to big-box development. A citizens’ group, New Scotlanders for Sound Economic Development, has also been formed, which is lobbying for the moratorium and against the development. It is holding a forum on April 27 at 7 p.m. at the Osterhout Community Center in New Salem.

The town’s reaction to the proposed development “doesn’t make sense,” said Widrick, in light of the Vista project. Developers are planning to build 250,000 square feet of retail and 1.2 million square feet of office space on a site straddling New Scotland and the neighboring town of Bethlehem; nearly a quarter of the proposed development will be in the northeast section of New Scotland, only a few miles from the Bender farm.  Saratoga Associates are engineering both sites.

New Scotland officials have seen proposals on the Vista Tech Park but no applications have been received, said Paul Cantlin, long-time New Scotland zoning administrator.

The portion of New Scotland that will be affected by the Vistas project is currently zoned residential, requiring each lot to be a minimum of two acres; New Scotland does not currently have a zoning option that would permit such a development as the Vista project and has taken no action as yet in creating a new zoning code for that area, according to Cantlin, who also said that no applications have been submitted for the Vista project.

Planners say extend moratorium

Last Thursday, the Albany County Planning Board recommended New Scotland’s town board adopt a moratorium on commercial development over 30,000 square feet, and advised the board to extend the proposed six-month moratorium to one full year.

The county board was entitled to comment on the proposed moratorium, “Local Law D,” before a public hearing is held.  New Scotland’s planning board is also entitled to comment; the next town planning board meeting will be on Tuesday, May 6.

Leslie Lombardo, senior planner for Albany County, said the recommendation for the year-long moratorium was because the county planning board didn’t think six months would be enough time to conduct the studies and schedule the hearings necessary to ascertain whether the current zoning laws accurately reflect the town’s desires for development.  She said the board approved the moratorium because large-scale development in that area would require modifications to the county roads and the town needed time to make the proper changes to zoning for such a development.

The county board determined that county roads would be insufficient for such a large-scale development and the town board could terminate a one-year moratorium early, but should a shorter moratorium be insufficient, the town board would have to go through the entire public hearing process in order to secure an extension, Lombardo said.

“Six months may be an ambitious schedule, but it isn’t unattainable,” said Cantlin. He said that extending the moratorium could unintentionally cause the necessary studies to be drawn out.

“Sometimes, when you have too long a time frame, you take longer getting around to it,” said Cantlin.

Current zoning laws would allow for large-scale commercial development of the type being considered for the Bender melon farm, which is being purchased by the Sphere Group for mixed-use development.

Property still in limbo

The Sphere Group was to close on the sale of the Bender farm over two weeks ago, but the sale, brokered by Platform Realty, has not been finalized.  Widrick said the closing has been postponed indefinitely due to title issues concerning the railroad tracks that run through the northeast portion of the farm, but couldn’t be more specific; he said he didn’t know when the sale would be closed. 

According to assessment maps at New Scotland’s Town Hall, the tracks are owned by the bankrupt D&H railroad. Cantlin said the county was considering buying railroad property for a hiking and biking trail.

Negotiations with Canadian Pacific Railway, which owns the old Delaware & Hudson line, have been underway for more than a decade, but have been derailed several times. The current stumbling block is that, in Canada, environmental liability falls on the buyer of a railroad while in the United States it falls on the seller, Martin Daley, project director for Parks & Trails New York, told The Enterprise earlier.

According to Widrick, the Sphere Group is planning to close on the property; he said the proposed moratorium is not the cause for the delay in closing.

Widrick concurred with an e-mailed statement from Sphere Group attorney Kathleen Bennett that said, “If a zoning amendment precluded large scale development, Sphere Development would suffer severe economic hardship and damages.”  He said the damage would be in projected profits from the project, however, and not from capital lost on the property itself.  The property, listed at $4 million, is assessed by the town at around $750,000. 

The Sphere Group has submitted no formal applications or designs.  Widrick wouldn’t comment on the number or specific variety of retailers that would be involved in the project, but told The Enterprise that the projected profits from the project would cover his investment.  He said that, as retailers typically announced themselves after site plans had been approved, it would be quite some time before residents could know exactly which retailers would be involved in the project.

Asked if the Sphere Group would proceed with plans to develop the Bender property if a moratorium were passed, Widrick said, “The answer is not that cut and dried.”

“There are other factors involved,” he said in a phone interview yesterday.  “We would have to check with our other tenants, we would have see where we stand as a company, look at our resources and decide whether we want to ride it out.”