Princetown and Guilderland residents came together Thursday, Nov. 15, at the Cider House Restaurant to discuss the future of growth and development along the 4-mile stretch of Route 20 between Route 158 in Guilderland and Duanesburg.
The towns of Guilderland and Princetown recently received a grant from the Capital District Transportation Committee to support a study, which is being jointly managed by the committee and Behan Planning Associates.
The goal of the Route 20 Land Use and Transportation Study is to identify future land use and transportation patterns along the corridor and ensure that town plans, codes and development guidelines support these patterns.
Melissa Barry of Behan Planning Associates said the study would provide a blueprint for the overall vision of the corridor for the next 20 years.
Improvements could include bicycle paths and pedestrian sidewalks, as well as shared driveways with rear parking areas, natural greenways, gateways and signage. Roundabouts were also mentioned, but some people voiced dissent, comparing them unfavorably to the roundabouts in Malta.
Currently, the Route 20 corridor is lined with farms, forests, rural homes and a few clusters of commercial businesses.
Sree Nampoothiri of the CDTC said the committee studied traffic patterns on the corridor, and counted between 4,500 to 6,000 vehicles per day.
This is not huge compared to other corridors with not much growth, Nampoothiri said. `When volume and development increase, quality will decrease.`
Behan Planning Associates principal John Behan said a plan for the future of the corridor will work best if everyone is on the same page.
`This must be a win-win situation between the landowners and developers,` Behan said.
Guilderland’s 2000 comprehensive plan and the 2005 Rural Guilderland Plan called for the preservation of rural landscape characteristics in the western part of town.
Princetown is currently in the midst of a comprehensive planning process.
`We are trying to prevent pressure from building before they come by putting up protections and designing it (Route 20) the way we want it,` said Paul Hasbrouck of Princetown.
Hasbrouck, who is also an advisory board member for the Route 20 corridor land use transportation master plan committee, said people need to be prepared to plan ahead for what is likely to come, such as new companies like Sematech locating in the area and bringing in more people.
`West is where they will have room to move to, which is right here,` he said.
Local farmer Richard Friedlander said the only problem he faces is with water for farm use.
`They should talk about farm development, not bicycles,` he said. `This is the rational way you have to have development.`
Behan Planning Associates and the CDTC will draft design guidelines from ideas that came out of the workshop and present them again in the early spring with the final master plan expected in May 2008.“