Colonie town officials approved Local Law 1 of 2007 at last week’s Thursday, Jan 4, organizational meeting.
The law changes townwide zoning and land-use ordinances in line with the comprehensive plan approved last year.
Throughout the process, only a handful of parcels became the focus of review as board members left the public comment period open for several months. After reaching an agreement with landowners and residents of the Omega Terrace development in northwest Latham, the board unanimously approved the new law.
The law rescinds town land ordinances that had been changed over the course of 75 years, since the formation of residential zones and uses in 1932.
The one parcel in question marks the divide between residential and office residential zones to the north of Troy Schenectady Road, west of Interstate 87.
We have evaluated these to the best of our ability. Everyone is not totally happy, but everyone is not totally unhappy, said Supervisor Mary Brizzell, before planners unveiled the last of changes to be made to the plan before adoption.
Senior Town Planner Kevin DeLaughter presented the changes.
After proposing the mixed-use office residential zone to abut the residential properties to the north, town planners began to meet with area residents after they expressed concerns of changing undeveloped zones predominately in residential areas to mixed use.
The new zone follows original zoning lines predating the proposed changes, but offers a buffer between the two that prohibits building of any sort other than public utilities and connector roads. That buffer extends the length of the residential-commercial boundary beginning at Forts Ferry Road and extending east. The buffer provides anywhere between 200 and 300 feet in some areas.
However, members of the West Latham Neighborhood Association are opponents of provisions in the new law that change undeveloped properties of the southern Delphus Kill area, beginning at Wade Road Extension and running north along I-87, to office residential.
`The recommendations that have been made are not reflective of the neighbors,` said Ed Dombroski of West Latham. `The only people that support this are Saratoga Associates.`
Saratoga Associates are the engineers charged with formulating the zoning and land uses ordinances based on the recommendations of the comprehensive plan, in which they also had a hand.
Dombroski pointed out to town officials and planners that all studies done in the area over the course of 20 years showed that residents favored keeping the area residential. The only ones that had made the suggestion to make it mixed use were Saratoga Associates, he said.
However, town officials and planners have repeatedly made the case that the proposed ordinances and zones are rooted in years of public meetings and surveys use to formulate the comprehensive plan.
`This is a plan put together by the residents of the town. It is this plan for the future that will move us ahead,` said board member J. Brian Hogan after making a motion to adopt the plan.
Other last-minute changes to the plan included removing hotel and motel uses from light industrial and office residential zones. Brizzell also requested that a parcel off of Albany Shaker Road abutting The Crossings Park remain single family residential rather than change to a land conservation zone.
Brizzell assured residents that the town would continue to work with and for residents when the time comes for changes to the plan.“