GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Planning Board is reluctant to sign off on a subdivision for a project approved a decade ago in part because portions of what have been completed, haven’t been done to plan.

But the applicant argues there’s no timeline on the project, and said any promised site improvements will be completed, eventually — maybe. 

The applicant — 1700 South, a limited liability company owned by the Wolanin Companies — is requesting a four-lot subdivision of its property at 6270 Johnston Road Rear. This project, approved in 2015 as a planned-unit development (PUD), is situated behind Town Center plaza and the Seventeen Hundred Designer Residences on Western Avenue.

The subdivision would allow Wolanin to obtain separate loans for the project’s remaining development phases.

The PUD approval allowed for the construction of nine apartment buildings, a mixed-use office and retail building, and a clubhouse with a swimming pool, according to Wolanin’s subdivision application. To date, two of 11 proposed buildings have been built, while 64 of 210 apartments have gone up. 

Wolanin this week attributed the delays and proposed changes to, among other things, financial hardships due to “skyrocketing prices,” as well crew loss, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project was before the planning board a year ago, at which time Chairman Stephen Feeney did not mince words about Wolanin’s request of additional approvals even though the company had yet to follow through on past promises.

“My issue with this project is that it wasn’t built according to plan,” Feeney said to project engineer Peter Yetto during the board’s April 2024 meeting.

Feeney said at the time this stipulation hadn’t been met: an offsite sidewalk, a sidewalk through the plaza, end islands, landscaping, a sidewalk along the main entrance road, and a connecting sidewalk from the plaza to a bus stop.

The project was once again before the board during its June 11 meeting. 

As part of its application, Wolanin included a pedestrian connection plan, which essentially would add safety striping from the two apartment buildings to Market 32. The proposed area has been striped once already; however, the striping was placed in front of the end islands, in the traffic lane. The new plan would place the striping behind the end islands, out of the traffic lane. 

The board balked at the proposal in part because it was a scaled-down version of what the town board approved in 2015 for the connection plan: six new end islands connected by a concrete sidewalk. 

Board members were also skeptical of Wolanin’s promise that the reconstruction of the end islands would happen when the company began work on the project’s commercial building because, one, that construction may never happen, and, two, there was already a demand for the pedestrian connection because the two constructed buildings are occupied. 

The board decided to table the proposal, citing the need to speak with the town’s attorney and supervisor about what it could and couldn’t do in terms of approving changes to the site plan and if the town board, the lead agency for all PUDs, had to get involved because of the changes.