<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2c1JUg_1EBqkljy00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2c1JUg_1EBqkljy00" width="375" height="339" ></figure>GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Planning Board recently reviewed a concept plan for a 16-lot cluster subdivision in the Albany Pine Bush for a third time without getting the number it has now asked for twice: How much land does the developer propose to preserve that is usable open space, rather than land no one could build on anyway.On July 22, engineer Jamie Easton, representing applicant Frederico Polsinelli, estimated that usable land at the 22-acre site addressless site located between 3095 and 3097 Old State Road accounted for “anywhere between 15 to the low 20 percent” of the proposed preservation area. The board, Town Planner Kenneth Kovalchik said, “may require that at least two-thirds of the open space be active open space.”“It’s nowhere near 66,” Easton responded.The distinction matters because cluster development is a trade-off. An applicant receives relief from lot-size minimums and road standards, which can mean lower project costs, in exchange for permanently preserving land. For example, Polsinelli's conventional layout places the 16 proposed lots of at least 30,000 square feet on 2,000 feet of road, disturbs about 15 acres, and leaves 5.33 acres as open space. The cluster design keeps the 16 lots but shortens the road to 1,120 feet, disturbs about 10.5 acres, and designates 11.18 acres as preservation land, according to the July 22 plan.Chairman Stephen Feeney estimated during the board’s June meeting that road installation costs can run between $1,600 and $2,000 a linear foot.“We significantly reduce the amount of road that needs to be constructed to put the same number of lots in, which I think is a huge benefit to everybody,” Feeney said. “But with that there’s some give and take.”The 22-acre East Old State Road property lies in a residential district as well as the Albany Pine Bush Preserve study area, and is recommended for partial protection.What Feeney kept returning to on July 22 was the composition of the preserved land, not its total.Kovalchik said open space ought to be be provided on one or more undivided parcels, at least one of them a minimum of three acres exclusive of street rights-of-way, and that the board “may require that at least two-thirds of the open space be active open space,” but that’s two-thirds of the open space, he emphasized, not of the entire property.Easton argued that the two-thirds standard applies to public access, which the project does not propose. Feeney said active open space means usable, unconstrained land, and that a cluster’s open-space parcel must be accessible at least to subdivision residents. Ownership and management of the preserved parcel also remain unsettled. Open space for a handful of lots would be preserved under deed restrictions rather than inclusion in the open-space parcel. “I appreciate that land's preserved, but it's not calculated as part of the open-space lot,” Feeney said.Kovalchik said cluster regulations require acceptable corporate ownership and urged the applicant to consider management by the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission. Private ownership, he said, would prevent management under the commission’s partial- or full-protection standards.Feeney said the town has accepted open space in previous Pine Bush clusters and dedicated it to the commission, but those owners volunteered. “If they have a strong feeling of maintaining it in private ownership, I'm not sure I can mandate it,” he said.The board took no action. Easton agreed to return with a revised plan, usable-open-space calculation, and a position on open-space ownership, among other things. “We're pushing the glacier forward,” Feeney concluded.</div></body>

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GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Planning Board recently reviewed a concept plan for a 16-lot cluster subdivision in the Albany Pine Bush for a third time without getting the number it has now asked for twice: How much land does the developer propose to preserve that is usable open space, rather than land no one could build on anyway.

Developer still can’t answer open-space question

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GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Planning Board recently reviewed a concept plan for a 16-lot cluster subdivision in the Albany Pine Bush for a third time wit

Developer still can’t answer open-space question

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