To the Editor:

I understand that the residents of the town of New Scotland are tired of going to meetings to repeatedly express their views about how the town should develop. Our vision has been consistently conveyed, but legislation takes time.

Our town board stopped “the Big Box,” and the financial depression forestalled development. The community sighed in relief that New Scotland was not becoming Bethlehem, as many voiced in multiple meetings.

After hundreds of hours of public hearings, workshops at locations around town, and research and discussion by volunteers and professional planners, New Scotland is on the verge of passing a re-written comprehensive plan and amendments to the zoning code to create a hamlet district by the junction of routes 85 and 85A.

What would new zoning look like? In essence, new zoning would create a typical village, like Voorheesville.

It would have affordable housing on denser, small lots in a town center. Like Voorheesville, it would have a commons, where people could socialize. Mixed-use would have ground-floor, small, independent businesses to provide services and goods to our community and apartments on top — all as expressed by our residents.

It would connect neighbors with sidewalks and trails, another vision of residents, and avoid elite communities, such as the ones being developed under current zoning law. Surrounding this center would be larger lots for bigger homes and office parks, as is usual for areas with a compact center.  

Zoning would set aside open space, as residents have requested, and ensure a walkable community connected to the Albany County Rail Trail, another vision of residents. Zoning would also better protect streams and other environmental resources.

Additionally, it would create a style of housing and commercial buildings, yet another preference of the community, that would prevent a structure like the Saab (now Sabre) building, so out of character with our town.

Now, let me tell you what this plan does not do: It does not tell a developer what he or she cannot build.  If any developer has an idea that differs from zoning, that developer may pitch it before town officials for approval.

On Feb. 14, the town board held a public hearing after various versions of the proposed law had been up for a year on the town website, and the latest version up since December.

The large landowners showed up in force to berate town board members for not especially “inviting” them to meetings. Some called the town board “elitist” for allowing 3-acre lots on the outskirts of the plan. Some even said that, if residents were allowed to pass by their homes, community members “would case their houses” in order to burglarize them!

The desire to rezone the area around routes 85 and 85A has not been a secret for the past 10 years, as suggested by the large landowners. One would expect that they would have taken responsibility to be aware of the discussions on rezoning. Nevertheless, the town board is willing to bend over backward to accommodate them again with another meeting — the second exclusively for them.  

The truth of the matter is that residents voted for this town board because they, the residents, rejected the supporters of the previous zoning code that left wide open the possibility of anything and everything. Our current board members have promised to protect and keep the town safe from rampant development, when the time came that money and water became available — which is happening right now.

Let’s face it. We don’t live near a major highway and our population is small. Businesses have to accommodate to this reality. The majority of people would like to keep the town similar to the way they found it — that’s why they moved here.

The draft zoning law does a good job between balancing and encouraging future development with maintaining the vision expressed by New Scotland residents. It may not be perfect, but it’s a good step in the right direction.

Edie Abrams

New Scotland

Editor’s note: Edie Abrams is a member of New Scotland’s zoning board.

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