Residents in the town of Glenville spoke out against a proposed resolution to create a vacant building registry in the town during the May 5 meeting of the town of Glenville.
The registry, which would catalog vacant homes and businesses in the community, would make the holders of the empty property pay to be added to the registry to create an incentive to renovate or fill the existing properties with businesses or homeowners.
According to a draft of the resolution, a vacant single family home would cost $100 in the first year to the property owner and would increase by the amount of the first year fee until the fifth year, where the fee for a single or two family residence would be $500. For other residential or commercial buildings not exceeding 10,000 square feet, the first year annual fee shall be $200, culminating in $1,000 after five years on the registry and any residential or commercial property over 10,000 square feet would have an annual fee of $300, culminating in a $1,500 annual fee on the registry after five years. Residents spoke out about the fees as a part of the registry and the addition of homes on the registry. Michele Draves, a homeowner who is trying to sell a home in the town of Glenville after the death of her parents in the 2008 ice storm, who were residing in the town.
I suffered a personal loss and the town of Glenville will profit for it, said Draves. `Why can’t we use current zoning and enforcement that is on the books? If the plan of this bill is to bring business into Glenville why are you fining homeowners?`
Zeb Johnston, a 17 year old student in the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district said that it is hard for builders to build in the town of Glenville and would like to see developers enter the town easier than before.
`There’s nothing for my generation that wants to stay here because everyone is moving out,` said Johnston. `There are a lot of Capital Region builders that don’t want to build [in Glenville] because its difficult to build here.`
Town Supervisor Chris Koetzle said he felt that there was a lot of misconceptions about the proposed bill.
`The intent is not to give residents a hard time but to take care of the blight in the town,` said Koetzle.
Koetzle also said that the town would make exceptions for instances such as a death in the family, where a home may quickly come on the market, but wants to create an incentive for property owners while getting rid of empty business space in the town.
`Generally speaking, the board’s goal is to mitigate empty business space in Glenville,` he said.“