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SCHENECTADY
City Council OKs comp plan
Years of work redrawing zoning draws to close
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com

    The City Council voted unanimously Monday to change huge swathes of zoning throughout the city and adopt ambitious goals to improve each neighborhood.
    That vote followed a marathon reading session in which one council member finished leafing through the comprehensive plan just hours before the council meeting.
    The plan has been three years in the making, but a final version was hammered out just one week ago — forcing the council to read quickly in preparation for Monday’s vote.
    They all said they made it through the 55-page zoning code, complete with technical charts, and the much thicker set of plans for each neighborhood and the city as a whole.
    But Councilwoman Barbara Blanchard confessed she nearly missed the deadline.
    “I finished it while I was on jury duty today,” she said Monday. “I guess I gave it a cursory read — we only just got the zoning plan, you know.”
    During the meeting, she said the council should have more time to review the plans before a fi nal vote.
    “I don’t think the council has had enough time to consider this plan since the public hearing,” she said. “That said, I do not want to vote against this plan...much of it is great. As the plan is a living document, I look forward to working with my colleagues on items that need more attention.”
    She voted in favor of adopting the plans. Her colleagues did the same without any hesitation over the amount of time they’ve had to read the final version.
    Several said they “looked at” the zoning code but declined to estimate how thoroughly they’d read it.
    “Are you going to ask me a trick question?” asked Councilman Gary McCarthy.
    But Councilman Mark Blanchfield seemed eager to be tested. He went so far as to list two grammatical errors that he found in his reading.
    “I had a lot of time last week on the train,” he said. “I went through this extremely closely.”
DISSENTING VIEWS
    Two city residents weren’t convinced. They told the council that it hadn’t read the plans closely enough.
    “They weren’t even put online with all of the changes...how can we vote today?” said resident Jason Planck.
    Resident Jim Livingston, who has argued vehemently against rezoning Union College from multi-family to institutional, said the council clearly had no idea what the impact of such a change would be.
    “I went to all the meetings. I watched as you puzzled and struggled as the zoning officer tried to explain it to you,” he said.
    He told the council to adopt just the neighborhood plans, not the zoning plan, because residents said little about zoning during the “visioning” meetings that were intended to guide all of the plans.
    “Generally that came out pretty well...but none of these discussions concerned the zoning plan,” he said. “There are too many private agendas and industrial agendas that made their way into this [zoning] plan. It’s really a shame. Adopt the neighborhood plans. People did participate in those.”
    Blanchfield defended the zone change to institutional, which will affect Ellis Hospital, St. Clare’s Hospital, Union College and Schenectady County Community College. Many uses are now prohibited in those areas and the institutions must get a special use permit for any development around the exterior of their property. Work in the center of their property must be reviewed by the Planning Commission, but will not require a special use permit.
    “I’ve gone through it extensively. There’s some uses that are not permitted that were permitted. It’s not overly permissive,” Blanchfi eld said. “I think we’ve gone over it in great detail.”
    He also argued that residents discussed zoning during their public meetings, whether they knew it or not. The biggest change in the zoning plan is a down-zoning of most residential areas, limiting the number of apartments that can be made from one house. Many multi-family districts have become two-family neighborhoods, while many areas with a two-family zoning have been reduced to one-family zones.
    Blanchfield said the zoning change would protect neighborhoods by encouraging owneroccupants and prohibiting the wholesale “chopping” of houses into apartment buildings. Many residents complained during the meetings that their neighborhoods were losing integrity because they were overwhelmed by short-term tenants who did not value the neighborhood.
    “To do anything but make some of these zoning alterations really puts some of these neighborhoods at risk,” Blanchfield said.
    Blanchard agreed that the zoning change, which dramatically affects her Union Triangle neighborhood, would help preserve the residential areas.
    “I think that’s one of the best things in this plan,” she said.

Rotterdam better hurry up and plan.......hello did anyone hear that or do I have to send it in to the newspaper???? Dont make me do it.....oh, East vs. West Rotterdam right???  

Kevin--how about that MFH going on in Rotterdam East???

There's a brand new one that just went up (or is in the process of going up) on Mariaville Road.  I don't know where there might be more going up, but remember when they rip down the Army Depot, they'll probably just be building up new MFRH right there.

I remember a plan was proposed to build MFRH to be built near Mariaville Rd and Burdeck St only if a sewer line was to be placed first. It would tie in with the Rte 7 and I 88 corridor.

MFH? MFRH?

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I remember a plan was proposed to build MFRH to be built near Mariaville Rd and Burdeck St only if a sewer line was to be placed first. It would tie in with the Rte 7 and I 88 corridor.

I recall it in the same way. I thought sewers had to be in place first.

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MFH? MFRH?

Multi-family housing.  Multi-family Residential Housing (e.g., condominiums, apartment buildings, other high density housing).

MFH and MFRH---almost vulgar language......

I just wish that they'd get around to building the MFRH at the Curry Road Shopping Center so we can get that eyesore gone...and spread the property values a bit thinner.