In an August that has seen many rainy days and flooding streets, stormwater was the hot issue at the Guilderland Town Board’s Tuesday, Aug. 18, meeting, which featured a presentation for a townhouse project.
After hearing a detailed stormwater plan, residents and board members voiced concerns about drainage and taxing districts for the proposal made by Amedore Homes.
The board is expected to vote in October to rezone a parcel of land that could allow the builder to construct 42 townhouses.
The board decided to hold on a vote at the Aug. 18 meeting because of some lingering questions about managing the stormwater drainage district.
Town Board member Warren Redlich said the project’s stormwater mitigation plan will ultimately have a broad benefit to the town and the project should move forward.
The developer would greatly help the area with drainage, Redlich said.
Redlich said he is not a supporter of the town’s comprehensive plan, which calls for those types of developments, but in this case, the pros outweigh the cons.
`I think there’s plenty high-density residential housing already,` he said.
Redlich said he was apprehensive about the development’s traffic impact but was sold on the stormwater benefits to the rest of the area.
`If there’s basements that are getting wet, let’s fix them,` Redlich said.
The rezone is for a 23-acre parcel with 0.65 acres dedicated to non-retail professional, according to information presented at the meeting.
Bob Smith, who lives in a development to the south of the proposed project, raised issues related to stormwater.
`Basements that were dry are becoming wet,` he said.
By the end of Amedore’s presentation, Smith said he was satisfied with the mitigation plan.
Other residents who live on Old State Road, where the development will be built, voiced support for the development but had concerns with how the drainage will be managed and how much water will be mitigated.
Daniel Hershberg, of the engineering firm Hershberg and Hershberg, presented the stormwater drainage plan.
In addition to addressing the residents’ concerns about drainage, he discussed some terms that have been thrown around in describing storms in recent months that could possibly be confusing residents.
`The term ‘100-year storm’ should never have been made,` he said. He said so-called 100-year storms happen much more frequently than once every 100 years.
Hershberg addressed another common mistake people make when talking about stormwater. The plan he presented shows water slowing as it is constricted through the culverts, not speed ingup. He said making the pipes and culverts too big can actually do more harm than good, and this plan specifically deals with ways to make water flow at the right speed to prevent flooding.
Questions were raised about the possibility of basements being included in the plans for the townhouses. Hershberg said there are plans for basements in most, if not all, of the unit, but they will not penetrate the groundwater table.
Ken Johnson, an engineer with the town’s firm, Delaware Engineering, said he met with the highway department and is satisfied with the stormwater mitigation plan.
`You’re lowering the amount of water that’s going through the existing culverts,` he said.
Johnson said, though, that it would take about a month to work out language for a drainage district plan.
The town could opt to have a homeowners association run the district at first, before eventually creating a separate taxing district.
Roger Stone, the town’s zoning enforcement and stormwater management officer called the plan `very, very comprehensive.`
Town Board member Paul Pastor said the board is moving in the right direction, but said it might be prudent to delay a rezone based on the fact that the details of the drainage district have not been worked out.
Board member Patricia Slavick said the people involved need to come together and weed out the details of the drainage district and board member Mark Grimm said he supports allowing the HOA to manage the district, so as not to `further the reach of government.`
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