A large crowd attended the April 6 Schoharie County Planning Commission meeting to hear more about the Shad Point housing proposal in the Town of Cobleskill. Photo by Chris English.
COBLESKILL — A mixed-use residential development in the Town of Cobleskill has been recommended for approval by the Schoharie County Planning Commission, but not before another intense round of debate and objections from many Shad Point Road residents who would be the project's neighbors.
The real action at the SCPC's Monday, April 6 meeting didn't start until the Commission had voted with only one dissent to recommend approval of the project to be constructed by Chacho & Sons Holdings on 33 acres on Shad Point Road.
As PC Chair Denise Lloyd was about to move on to the next agenda item after the vote, several Shad Point residents in the audience of about 50 spoke up to ask what about us and our concerns? After a discussion among PC members, they decided to allow residents to have their say despite there already having been a vote.
Before that vote, Engineer Brendon Becker, representing the developer, went through recent changes in the proposal Chacho felt addressed concerns of the nearby residents.
After the vote, Steve Hendrickson— speaking for a large group of Shad Point residents— went through a long list of why the residents feel the project is still unacceptable as it currently stands. The list included continuing worries about water runoff, placing storage units for use by residents of the new development on land zoned residential and other concerns. Hendrickson added there have been "inconsistencies and discrepancies" in various aspects of the plan from meeting to meeting.
"We're not looking for a fight, we're looking to have things done right," he said. Hendrickson said he didn't live at Shad Point but in the Town of Middleburgh but has been a contractor for 40 years and worked on many major projects. He added he had been asked to represent a large group of Shad Point residents along with Joe Stahl, a Delanson resident who owns property on Shad Point Road.
"We're done being cordial," Hendrickson stated at the April 6 County PC meeting. "We're not asking, we're telling. This will be done right."
Before Hendrickson spoke and the vote, Becker opened the Shad Point discussion by going over recent changes in the plan. He said he believed the developer had addressed a big concern by changing the main access to the new development from one off Shad Point Road to now being off Route 7. Becker said an easement obtained from the owner of the neighboring Club East property made the change possible. The Shad Point Road access will now be only for emergencies, he added.
Becker continued that the main access road will be built to Town of Cobleskill specs but that Chacho has not yet decided whether to eventually turn the road over to the town or maintain ownership.
Becker stated he has talked to officials from the Village of Cobleskill, whose water and sewer treatment plants will serve the new development, and that both plants have more than enough capacity to accommodate the addition.
Chacho will install a booster pump station to ensure proper water pressure, Becker said. It would be maintained by the Village, he continued. Also, the developer has bolstered the vegetation screening plan to include larger caliper evergreen trees, Becker said.
The project's stormwater management plan— which is the only part of the plan that has not been finalized according to Becker— is required to and will meet state Department of Environmental Conservation standards, he noted.
The lead agency on the project is the Town of Cobleskill Planning Board, which has stated the project in general passes muster but has not yet received final approval. Hendrickson complained at the April 6 County PC meeting his belief that concerns expressed by Shad Point residents at Town PB meetings "had fallen on deaf ears."
Two town PB members who attended the April 6 County PC meeting, Art Boreali and Mary Ann Wollaber-Bryan (former Schoharie County Treasurer), denied that assertion. They said the town Planning Board had done its best to conduct a fair and thorough review under all applicable codes and laws.
"I don't want to hurt my community, I don't want water in peoples' basements," Boreali said. "We've acted within our scope. I have a professional engineer telling me this will work. It seems no matter what we say, you won't be satisfied."
Wollaber-Bryan added "We don't want to be doing anything incorrectly. Mike West (attorney advising town PB on the matter) said the application was complete and done correctly."
But Shad Point Road residents insist they will be the ones bearing the brunt of what they feel will be negative impacts of the new development. One resident said it will only worsen already-existing water problems on her property. Other of the many Shad Point residents did not get up to formally speak at the April 6 County PC meeting, but made their displeasure clearly known with comments shouted from their seats.
After the initial vote and all the subsequent discussion, county Planning Commission members talked about whether they wanted to reconsider and vote again but decided to stay with the original vote. Lloyd reminded Shad Point residents they can still bring up concerns at Town of Cobleskill Planning Board meetings.
"We're not involved to the level of the municipality. We feel we have done our due diligence," she said. The April 6 vote came after the county PC at its March meeting had deemed the Shad Point application incomplete, with members saying they wanted to see a lot more information.
"I think it's a good faith thing that they moved the road (changed the access)," county PC member Becky Leggieri said at the April 6 meeting. "If you (Shad Point residents) keep bringing up concerns, it comes down to the contractor hearing them and making changes."
The Chacho & Sons plan calls for eight single-family homes, 18 duplexes (36 units) and 32 apartments in five buildings (a slight change from the previous four apartment buildings but same number of units). All the various residential units would be rentals, with no subdivision planned and Chacho & Sons maintaining ownership of the entire 33 acres.
Paul Chacho reiterated that construction (if eventually approved) will be a phased operation to be hopefully fully completed in about five years. Becker added that the specific types of residential units that will be built first will likely depend on market conditions at the time.
The company's proposal and the concerns it has aroused among Shad Point Road residents comes at a time when Schoharie County Board of Supervisors members and others across the county have talked often about the urgent need for more housing in the county.
"It's obvious the residents don't want this," Paul Chacho said after the April 6 meeting. "We keep addressing concerns and they keep coming up with more."
Becker added that he felt his client had "bent over backward" to address all the concerns.
