Residents voice concerns over housing proposal
MILTON, N.Y. » Town residents were on hand at the town Planning Board meeting on Wednesday to voice their concerns once again over the revised Hutchins Road senior housing development.
Attorney Michael Toohey gave an overview of the downsized housing plan on behalf of the Malta Development Project and owner Tom Samascott, which was rejected by the Town Board in 2017. The original plan for the 14.1-acre site, located in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the community, included 83 apartments, with two entrances, which town residents said would create serious traffic and safety issues.
The proposal that Toohey summarized for the Planning Board included 26 duplexes, resulting in 52 new housing units, with only one entrance on Hutchins Road in what he called a “boulevard” system, meaning two lanes traveling in each direction. Toohey said that the boulevard configuration would sufficiently address concerns for ease of traffic in and out of the development and would be able to accommodate any emergency vehicular traffic.
Toohey said that the 42 percent reduction of housing units and the increased buffer zones and green spaces around the development were significant and rendered the previous entrance way from Margaret Drive unnecessary. All traffic into and out of the proposed development would now be contained to Hutchins Road.
He also addressed the water concerns that townspeople had raised in 2017. The original project had called for on-site wells. Instead, the new proposal would utilize water from the nearby Heritage Springs and Rowlands Hollow water companies, piped into the development underground
by way of Margaret Drive. Toohey added that this arrangement would also potentially benefit existing homes in the immediate vicinity, who might want to tap into the water system, but he did not comment on how that would happen or who would pay for it.
The issue of parking continued to remain a bone of contention for members of the Planning Board. The new arrangement would include one garage per unit, plus one and one-half surface spaces. Planning Chairman Larry Woolbright commented that past experience has shown that to be insufficient. Other board members agreed, suggesting that the plan be amended to include at least three spaces per unit.
Other concerns raised by the board included the density issue. Board member John Whittel said that he would like to see the project be reduced even further, down to 42 units. Woolbright said that major subdivisions are required to have two separate connections and he did not see the boulevard system as solving that problem.
Woolbright also raised a concern, that was echoed by town residents, concerning the timing of the new proposal. In 2017, the Town Board approved changes to the PDD regulations. The new proposal was submitted two days before the town gave final approval on the new PDD regulation and Woolbright asked for clarification from the Town attorney as to which PDD regulations this new proposal would fall under. The attorney stated that the question would have to be reviewed to determine whether the new zoning, R1, would now apply or if the proposal would be “grandfathered” in under the old regulations.
As of Wednesday, there were 62 days left to make a recommendation to the Town Board regarding the project. Woolbright also stressed that this was not a site plan review; rather, it was simply a recommendation for whether the town board should consider the revised project and if the Planning Board thinks there are things the Town Board should take into consideration during the process. “The issue is not whether we approve it – but rather whether we think it should be considered by the Town Board,” said Woolbright.
A public comment segment followed the new proposal, with several residents voicing their concern over the project and their frustrations that they were now forced to fight the same battle once again. Most people who commented remained staunchly opposed, despite the reduction in the size of the development. Many also questioned the need for yet another senior housing development, citing the proposed rents of between $1,700 and $1,800 as being too high for most seniors. According to Malta Development, the rent figures are in keeping with the going rate in the area.
Dorothy Christiansen, who has lived in the Hutchins Road neighborhood for 43 years and who has been opposed to the project since its onset, reiterated her previous concerns about the project, in particular, the serious traffic and safety issues. In 2017, she collected 220 signatures from residents to fight the proposal and she called for it to be rejected once more.
The issue of parking continued to remain a bone of contention for members of the Planning Board.