Residents from May Apple Way showed up at the Malta Town Board agenda meeting Monday, Jan. 29, to voice concerns with the proposed Ellsworth Commons Project, citing as issues the size and placement of the development’s townhomes, as well as a lack of individual notification by the town of meetings dealing with the development.
In the project proposal, first presented to the town’s planning board in June 2006, four primary buildings would sit at the front of the site. The mixed use in these buildings would consist of retail, offices, apartments and restaurants. In addition to traditional parking lots behind these buildings, plans call for about 170 underground parking spaces. Also as part of this project, 22 townhomes, referred to in the proposal as brownstones, will be constructed at the rear of the property, with access from Route 9. Although they will be three to four stories tall, the buildings will give the appearance of being five stories tall.
Beginning her comments with an invitation to town officials to view the proposed project from her backyard, Patty Heidelmark called on Malta Town Board members to amend the plan.
Ellsworth Commons, as advertised in notifications to the Luther Forest Association, just said Route 9. No individual homeowners were notified of this development, nor did our neighborhood association realize that Route 9 meant right in our backyard . . . literally, said Heidelmark.
Heidelmark noted that her family has been living in Luther Forest since 1984 and has regularly enjoyed the natural trail system and wildlife they can view from their kitchen. She said the deer, wild turkey, red fox and raccoons that are regularly seen from her home will be replaced by the huge brownstones.
`The fact is one of the pro-posed brownstones will be 130 feet from my neighbor’s back door. I now look out and see trees and animals. If this development is approved, I will be staring at one of five enormous brick brownstone buildings,` said Heidelmark.
Barbara Fenton joined Heidelmark in her pleas to the town board to step in on behalf of the residents in that area. Fenton resides at 20 May Apple Way, and it is her home that will be just 130 feet from the nearest brownstone. Upon learning of the proposed project, Fenton hired someone to place bright yellow tape in the trees to give a visual marker of both the physical size and location of the proposed town homes.
`He could only go up 30 feet,` she told the town board, adding the buildings will be 20 feet higher than that. `I don’t think anyone came into our backyards. I have an issue that nobody took into consideration the impact on us.`
The comments of Heidelmark and Fenton come after a substantial amount of time and money has already been devoted to the project.
The project appeared in front of the planning board in August and September, with two public hearings held in October and November.
In August, resident Pete Shaw expressed concern that one of the front four buildings would be just 400 feet from his residence. At the September meeting, the developer, Neil Swingruber, had met with Shaw, walked property lines with him and addressed all of Shaw’s concerns.
After listening to the board’s comments from the August meeting regarding the need for smaller apartment units that might be more affordable, the developer returned with a revamped layout of the apartments to include 30 one-bedroom units of 676 square feet.
After the public hearing in October, the planning board approved a special-use permit for mixed use for residential and commercial/retail and restaurant. There were no public comments offered during that hearing. Similarly, there were no public comments offered at the November planning board meeting public hearing, which centered on the subdivision process.
Residents of May Apple Way suggested that their lack of appearances at previous meetings was a direct result of improper notification by the town. They said the town should have sent individual mailings to property owners near the proposed development.
The only entity to receive notification of the project was the homeowners association, which owns a 20-foot strip of property behind the May Apple Way houses, adjacent to the proposed project’s property. Fenton said that notification was `vague and offered no reasonable de-scription` of the proposed project other than to identify it as occurring on Route 9. She said no indication was given that the project would be coming back as far as it is.
Andy LaMothe, president of the Fox Wander West Home Owners Association, acknowledged several problems with the notification process. While the association does own the strip of land that serves as a buffer between the homeowners and the project site, all town mailings are sent to a management company, which then passes them on to an association board member.
Heather Mallozzi, building and planning coordinator for the town, reiterated that the town follows state law, which requires putting a notice in the town’s newspapers, The Schenectady Gazette and The Ballston Journal, and town code, which requires notifying all adjacent landowners.
`We’re assuming that the homeowners association is doing our job and notifying residents,` said Supervisor Paul Sausville at last week’s meeting. `What we’re doing is certainly good, but can we do better?`
`Those are our people, our customers, our residents. We should do whatever is practical and reasonable so that they are aware of what’s going on in their neighborhood,` said Sausville.
The town board passed a resolution at Monday night’s meeting which changes the neighbor notification law. While the town will continue to post notices in the newspapers and send out registered mailings to adjacent property owners, the planning department will also be required to use `its best efforts to notify land-owners and/or residents of parcels of real property within 500 feet of the boundary of a proposed subdivision or planned development district prior to public hearings with respect to such projects, when notice is otherwise required to be given to adjacent landowners.` Mallozzi suggested that notification would be in the form of a postcard.
The Ellsworth Commons project continues to work its way through the planning process. The planning board will hold a public hearing at 8:15 p.m. at town hall during their next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 27. “