The owner of Stonewell Plaza has acquired an attorney who in turn has reached out to New Scotland planning and zoning board attorney Crystal Peck and is now trying to come up with a compromise that might work instead of paying for a parking analysis that is only going to show what is already known by nearly everyone involved: The site has too few spots to accommodate plaza businesses or to meet what is called for in the code.

The attorney representing three Berne residents who feel the town’s purchase of the 100-acre Switzkill Farm was illegitimate said earlier this month that he was seeking an unspecified document that he thought would give him leverage in an out-of-court settlement.

To deal with racial disparities in home ownership, the Albany County Land Bank is partnering with a not-for-profit housing development organization based in Syracuse.

Discussing the awarding of a contract for design and engineering services for the Voorheesville Quiet Zone during a February meeting of the county legislature’s public works committee, William Reinhardt asked Albany County Commissioner of Public Works Lisa Ramundo if the 18-month term of the contract meant quiet-zone construction would be completed by December 2022; Ramundo responded, “Yes.”

John Sweeney said that he believes there’s “an opportunity for a negotiated settlement” between the town, Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, and the three Berne residents he represents.

James Bacon, the group’s attorney, on March 1 was responding to Guilderland and Pyramid’s appeals briefs, filed on Jan. 28 and Jan. 25, respectively, both of which included “misstatements of fact and law which are herein corrected,” Bacon wrote in his filing

The disapproval relates to a new regulation passed by the county legislature that requires the county planning board to consider the Helderberg viewshed when reviewing projects, though County Legislator William Reinhardt, who helped develop the regulation, says it may not apply in this case. 

Since the plaza is owned by Jeff Thomas the addition would be an amendment to his existing special-use permit on Altamont Corners, not to the owner of Curry Patta, Nadia Raza.

“It’s been a place of worship and it will be the same — nothing changes,” It was said of the shuttered Mountainview Evangelical Free Church. “In fact, the sign doesn’t change, only the text in the sign will change, the name will change.”

The intent of the new legislation is clear, said Jeff Perlee, who represents Altamont in the county legislature, when the county planning board has jurisdiction, it is now “obliged” to consider the proposed development’s impact on the “critical viewshed” of the Helderberg Escarpment.