Town Board, July 16, 2024

Recycling/transfer station  In response to my Courtesy of the Floor question whether the Board was considering either a moratorium on recycling applications while it considered amendments to the existing law – or – proceeding to draft amendments, Supervisor Lachterman said “no” to a moratorium and that the town attorney was working on new legislation.

AMS Rezoning for former Contractors Register site/800 East Main Street The plan is to construct 250 luxury senior units (200 rental and 50 townhouses) on the 35.5-acre site.

After a brief presentation, the Board accepted the developer’s 700-page Draft Environmental Impact Statement and set a public hearing on the document for August 8th.  The document will be available on the town’s website. As required by SEQRA, the developer will have to respond to all the questions raised at the hearing in a Final  Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).

As part of the DEIS, the developer looked at six alternative development options, including one that had only 185 units.

Toll Brothers Rezoning Hearing  The plan is for 118 luxury adult-only townhouses off Catherine Street, opposite the existing Glassbury adult community. As part of the plan, Toll Brothers would donate the existing vacant Field Home, once a home for indigent women, and the surrounding two acres to the town for some future, yet unknown use.

Several Glassbury residents expressed concerns about the proposed development including, but not limited to traffic, the condition of Catherine Street, noise during construction and from the development’s planned pickle board courts, and the overall density of the project. In response, Toll Brothers said it would work with Glassbury to mitigate some of its concerns, although there was no access to the development other than Catherine Street.

Lynn Briggs, chair of the Heritage Preservation Commission, citing the Town’s past history as the owner of historic buildings that deteriorated over time, urged the Board not to rezone the area around the Field Home, or accept the donation, until there was a plan for the building’s future use. She suggested that a multi-discipline committee be set to explore feasible uses. In separate comments. I made the same point.

 I also questioned whether the Toll Brothers plan to address some of the I&I (inflow and infiltration) problem that causes the Hunterbrook pump station to overflow during heavy rains was adequate.  I also raised a legal SEQRA question that had been raised by the NYS Watershed Inspector General’s office, but the Toll Brothers attorney and the town attorney dismissed the issue.

Two residents, citing both the AMS and Toll Brothers plans, expressed concern for the need for more affordable housing.

The hearing was adjourned and will be reconvened on September 3 at which time the developer’s traffic consultant will attend.

ATV legislation  Although several speakers, including me, raised problems with this fifth draft of the law, both textual issues and questions about whether the law, as written, could be enforced, the Board indicated that after making some text changes it would adopt the law and, if necessary, amend it later.  The Board felt that as written,  the police would be able to enforce the law if and when residents informed them when they witnessed ATVs on town property.

The law would prohibit ATVs and off-highway motorcycles, aka trail bikes or dirt bikes, from operating on public property and town-owned property.