Managing growth.
Two words that can send many property owners and most local officials running screaming into the bushes (if they can find any) are instead being used as a springboard for thoughtful discussion and research by the town of Glenville’s Open Space Committee.
Town resident Mark Storti, who has chaired the committee since its inception last May, said the goal is to present a blueprint for the town’s future that echoes the ideas and opinions of all Glenville home, business, and property owners.
Having lived in this town for more than 20 years, I have the sense of community that we all share, said Storti. `For the last four or five years, people have been talking about how Glenville is being developed, and that they want to have a voice in what the future brings.`
According to town planners, approximately 1,025 acres of open space, or 3.28 percent of Glenville’s total land area, is owned by the town of Glenville, Saratoga County, or the state. Some of those spaces include the Sanders Preserve, Indian Meadows Park, Indian Kill Nature Preserve, the Lock 9 Canal Park, Daly’s Island, and the Freemans Bridge boat launch.
The committee sent an open space survey to residents at the end of last summer, collecting thoughts on everything from town parks to parking lots. Tabulated throughout the fall, the committee received 473 surveys, representing a rate of return of just more than 4 percent. `We were pleased with this rate of response,` said Town Planner Kevin Corcoran. `If you get five percent returned on anything you mail out, you’re doing really well.`
The responses indicated resounding support for preserving undeveloped land, with a distinct caveat.
`People want open space, but they don’t want to raise taxes to buy land and protect it,` said Corcoran. `They agree the town is losing valuable land to development, including streams, wetlands, forests and farms. Now they want to know what can be done about it.`
Committee members have been researching various avenues for safeguarding natural space, including options available in the state such as clustered subdivisions, planned unit developments, setting land conservation areas, and even putting fees on developers for the town to purchase and set aside undeveloped land.
Some town residents who already own property with historic significance and innate beauty have been working to create conservation easements with the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy (MHLC). Last month, the MHLC signed land conservation agreements protecting 141 acres with two land owners in the town of Glenville. Dudley Crauer’s land located in Wolf Hollow and Calvin Schmidt’s property along Hoffmans Fault will be permanently protected from development under terms of the conservation agreements, assuring the long-term protection of their properties.
`People worry they won’t have any rights to build on their land if they enter this type of agreement,` said Storti. `They want the freedom to put up a house for their son or daughter 10 years from now. These easements protect the space, but still give the owners a couple of lots to build on.`
In December, the open space committee held a public forum to hear firsthand the thoughts, concerns, and visions of residents.
`We were thrilled to see that people want a voice in this, that there’s a partnership; we’re not here to be heavy-handed,` said Storti.
One of the committee’s major concerns is halting the prevalence of `fragmentation,` where streets are boxed in without access to other roads nearby.
`All suburban towns face fragmentation where you can’t get from one neighborhood to another,` said Storti. `We need to bind those corridors so neighbors are able to visit one another without having to drive in other directions.`
After watching the nearby town of Ballston spend months wrestling with updating the master plan and bracing against big-box development, Storti said his committee isn’t averse to inking `mini master plans.`
`There won’t be one cookie-cutter approach,` said Storti. `The master plan along Freemans Bridge Road has been written and should be approved shortly. There are other areas of potential development that may need tools for the planning and zoning commissions and the land conservancy groups. We’re not going to be Draconian about this.`
At its February meeting, the open space committee will continue fine-tuning goals and suggestions to be culled into a preliminary open space plan. Later this spring, the plan will be scrutinized by members of the public at a hearing, re-worked as needed, and then put on the table before the town board. Storti said he hopes to have an approved plan in place by the end of this calendar year.“