More of Luther Forest to be lost after new Malta subdivision approval
MALTA — Residents who bought homes among the pines in Luther Forest and have been battling to stop a State Police barracks from rising in their backyards say they are now burdened with another project that is destroying the trees around their homes — the Dunning Street subdivision of single-family homes and duplexes.
The complex of 10 homes, six duplexes and two loop roads to navigate the subdivision is upsetting those along May Apple Way whose homes back up to the Degraff Bloom Custom Builders’ project.
“I don’t like it,” said Donna Kessler, who has lived at May Apple Way since 1982, “I feel like the town of Malta is taking away every conceivable plot of land. The charm of Luther Forest is disappearing.”
Pat Regan echoed that, adding the 6-acre parcel on Dunning Street was graced with “beautiful large pine trees” and was home to many deer and turkeys that are now roaming their neighborhood, apparently displaced as the land is being cleared.
“To me, it’s just another raping of the environment for profit,” Regan said. “At the town meeting, they said the animals should go to the 1,000acres near GlobalFoundries. I wonder what kind of sign deer and turkey can read to move them over there.”
Both are also upset that the sign welcoming people to their neighborhood that read “To Live in a Forest” has disappeared — something Kessler sees as symbolic of the direction the town is headed.
Supervisor Cynthia Young explained there is not much the town can do to stop the development. The area of the subdivision is in the downtown corridor and the project fits its 2013 form-based code. Therefore, the planning board only played an advisory role in the approvals. The Town Board, she said, only approved maintenance of a road that will run from the project into the
CVS parking lot. The Town Board also approved a special tax district for residents of the subdivision to pay for the town’s maintenance of the stormwater drainage tunnels. Other than those two items, the town is leaving its fingerprints clear of the project, she said.
The subdivision also has an exit out to Dunning Street. Kessler believes that traffic through the neighborhood will grow to be a nightmare as Dunning already gets backed up every afternoon, and more homes will prompt drivers to cut through the new subdivision to get to Route 9, CVS and Price Chopper more quickly.
“That will become a thoroughfare,” Kessler said. “The town doesn’t seem to care. I feel sorry for the people who will live there. What happens when the second (GlobalFoundries) chip plant goes online? Traffic will become worse.”
These same neighbors have been fighting to stop the construction of State Police barracks that is slated to be built next to their homes. Their objections are the same — loss of