GLENMONT, N.Y. (WRGB) — Neighbors in one Capital Region community are pushing back as town leaders look to make zoning changes they say could change their town’s charm and character.
Colleen Scott and her husband have lived in the hamlet of Glenmont for 13 years and love the neighbors who live behind them. Those neighbors aren’t very chatty, though it’s a herd of cows.
“There’s cows, there’s tractors that go by,” she said. “It’s a great backyard neighbor.”
But she’s worried that zoning changes being proposed by the Town of Bethlehem could mean changes to the character of her town. Scott said she’s not opposed to development but wants to see it done right.
“I mean, obviously we would love for it to stay a farm forever, but we knew when we bought our house that could change,” she said.
The town board is working on a major overhaul to the zoning. The plan would include changing zoning in some residential areas to allow small apartment buildings. Those buildings would have a maximum of six multi-family units, with no more than seven such buildings per acre and a limit of two stories in height.
Scott said the hamlet can’t handle the traffic it already has, much less the amount of traffic she fears multi-unit housing would bring.
“Residential growth has happened, commercial growth has happened, and all of that has impacted our traffic,” she said.
Last month’s town meeting included two hours of public comment about the zoning plan, with a majority of the speakers opposed to it. Among them was firefighter William Collins, who said traffic already slows him from getting to the fire station in emergencies.
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“I need to get to the station and that’s impossible at some points during the day,” he told the board.
David VanLuven, town supervisor, said the board is listening to neighbors. He said he knows change is unpopular.
“People don’t like seeing green spaces in their communities suddenly grow houses and businesses,” he acknowledged. “But it’s going to happen and has happened.”
He insists the town must be proactive.
“We have to work proactively with interested landowners to protect land if they’re willing to do that,” he said.
“If they’re not, we have to have strong guidelines in place to ensure that any development that happens is good for the community as a whole,” VanLuven said.
Scott knows the hamlet has charm, making it attractive for folks to move here, but worries it could be lost.
“We just don’t want it to be a massive suburban sprawl,” she said.
The board will hold a public hearing on the issue in either July or August before the town board signs off on changes.