As towns in the northern stretches of the Capital District grow and change, so does their land use. To better equip themselves with the necessary tools to manage growth, some towns are revisiting their zoning practices.
The Town of Malta recently adopted a new zoning system call form-based code zoning, for instance. Now Clifton Park is about to embark on an effort to overhaul its zoning practices to address issues like diversity of goods and services, walkability and streetscapes.
The first step toward implementing new zoning is a draft plan that includes recommendations for land use determined by public input. The plan focuses on the community’s vision for the town’s busiest area, the Town Center. It will be presented on Monday, June 4, during the Town Board meeting at 7p.m., which will provide the public a chance to review the progress before the board considers adopting it.
The next step is applying that vision as it relates to the area’s zoning, a process that is to take place over the next year. The town was recently awarded a $50,000 grant from the Capital District Transportation Committee to embark on a zoning study. The final product of this process will be the updated zoning plan, which then becomes part of the town’s comprehensive plan. A consultant firm to aid in the process will be determined via a bidding process.
Through the grant, officials will continue to study the community’s vision for the Town Center area and implement recommendations from the draft plan using zoning as a tool to achieve that visionary goal.
The town aims to “prepare strategic zoning code changes that will maintain and strengthen the Town Center area as an economic engine while ensuring local zoning laws allow for future growth that advances the needs and desires of the community,” according to a release from the town.
The center of the study area encompasses the intersection of Route 146 and Clifton Country Road. It then stretches from Moe Road to the town’s border with Halfmoon and from Plank Road on the north to Clifton Park Center Road and Sitterly Road to the south.
“We started looking aggressively at the area in 2000. The Exit 9area was suffering,” said Town Supervisor Phil Barrett. “We’ve worked so hard to have this rebirth of Exit 9 – we don’t want it to go backwards.”
Clifton Park has worked closely with Behan Planning, located in Saratoga Springs, in developing the draft, plan.
Michael Welti, director of planning services with Behan Planning said projects involved zoning upgrades to zoning are definitely something the company is “going to see more of” as suburban towns grapple with sudden growth.
According to Clifton Park Planning Director John Scovo, Jr, the existing zoning in the study area is a conglomerate of classifications. A majority of it is highway/business, followed by commercial/business, with some housing mixed in.
“We’re looking for some mixed-use opportunities too, of co-locating some of the uses together. This is where amendments will come in to play in order to fulfill intended land uses,” said Scovo.
Once adopted, Scovo doesn’t “expect any major changes” to the draft plan.
“That document was vetted out through a pretty significant public participation process and clearly reflects what residents and developers brought up. It was interesting because residents and developers were basically on the same page with what the idea is for the Town Center study, it was great to see.”
Once the plan is adopted, the town will receive a second grant to implement the land use recommendations outlined in the plan. That process will begin over this summer.
“We’ll be looking at our existing zoning saying ‘These are the land use controls in place to help accomplish it (the plan) and if not, what do we need to do to amend the code to accommodate these recommendations?’” said Scovo.
Buildings older than 30 years will also be examined. They are often prime locations for development.
Perhaps one of the biggest issues to be addressed in the study is storm water. An increase in hardscape, or impervious cover types (areas like parking lots covered in asphalt and sidewalks made of concrete) has resulted in an increase in storm water runoff for the area. To this end, careful attention has been given to storm water management in an effort to divert water to retention and detention areas.
“If you have an area that was built 30 years ago, the standards today are more strict and stringent than what was required back then and now the town is required for overseeing it. We have a vested interest in water quality in our watershed versus when the state would have issued the approvals,” said Scovo.
The Clifton Park Center Mall construction and redevelopment of the cinema has allowed for the installation of a system that stores, treats and cools storm water before it is released into streams, for example. This is especially important because naturally spawning brook trout that can’t tolerate poor water quality are present in the Dwaaskill and Bear Brook streams.
