Couple hopes to build luxury apartments

Enterprise file photo — Jo E. Prout

Zoning board member Edie Abrams, shown here at a February information session for the Tennesseee Pipeline, takes an interest in New Scotland development.

NEW SCOTLAND — The zoning board of appeals last week heard new owners request a variance for property for which the board had previously denied a similar request.

Owners Anna Umanskaya and her husband, Michael Gelfand, of Bethlehem, purchased three acres on Krumkill Road and want to subdivide the property into two lots. Their request would require a town variance to allow less than 50 feet of road frontage per lot.

The couple also requested an appeal of the building inspector’s determination to not allow more than one multi-family dwelling on the same lot, and asked for a special use permit.

Umanskaya and Gelfand purchased the land last summer, Umanskaya told The Enterprise. The couple wants to build small luxury apartments on the property, with two four-unit buildings facing each other.

“Because of the property, two buildings across from each other looks better, aesthetically,” Umanskaya told the zoning board. The previous owner told them they would be allowed to split the property, she said.

Zoning board Chairman Robert Johnson said that the property had been zoned for two building lots, but the maps were not filed and the variance for the subdivision disappeared. Since that time, he said, other building went on. Johnson said that the zoning board had denied a similar request by the previous owner.

Zoning board Attorney Jeffrey Baker said that apartments are allowed on the Krumkill Road property, but that only one building is allowed on a lot. The property is zoned for medium density residential use.

Jeremy Cramer, the town’s building inspector, said, “They’re applying to bring water down” to the property. Eight units is the maximum allowed on three acres, because of property septic fields, Cramer said. If the property is split into two parcels, the owners may be able to get two buildings, he said.

Zoning board members urged Umanskaya and Gelfand to talk to the planning board before coming back to the zoning board. Three of the current members, the board said, had not supported a similar proposal.

Neighbors had not supported the earlier idea of apartments, the board said, noting that getting road frontage from neighbors would alleviate the need for the property owners to come before the zoning board.

Baker suggested that the board send the application to the planning board for its opinion, and then make a state-required determination for potential environmental affects of the subdivision and building placements in time for the next zoning board meeting, on April 28.

“I would like to defer the action on the appeal,” Johnson said.

Cramer said that, because a multi-family dwelling is a commercial building, the county’s Department of Health does not design a septic system; the owners must hire an engineer.

Baker said that the owners would still need a special-use permit for the multi-family buildings, if the requests are granted.

Other business

In other business, the zoning board recently:

— Set a public hearing for April 28 for Kim Bylsma’s variance application to subdivide his Orchard Hill Road property into two lots.

“My kids get the house,” Bylsma said about the current dwelling on the property. “The house is too big for me and my wife.”

He said that he wants to build another home on the second parcel. The property is landlocked, but he has access to it by easement, he said.

“It will have a deeded shared driveway,” said zoning board member Lance Moore.

“It has to stay unpaved,” Baker said;

— Referred a Kensington Woods subdivision variance request to the planning board, and declared the town’s boards as lead agencies for the State Environmental Quality Review Act process.

Garrison Projects and the Masullo Brother Builders requested a variance to install a 91-foot water tank and a 10-foot antenna on top of that on Hilton Road.  The proposed water tower would serve the proposed Kensington Woods subdivision. Town zoning law allows accessory structures to reach a maximum height of 45 feet.

Zoning board member Edie Abrams recused herself from the discussion.

“Before I was a zoning board member, I was against the development as planned for various reasons,” she told The Enterprise. “I don’t think I should vote for their progress of the development. That is not fair to the town or the developer, and it’s what the ethics law requires.”

Scott Lukowski, an attorney with Stockli, Slevin, and Peters, LLP in Albany who represented Garrison Projects, told the board that the developer had previously been granted a permit for a water tower that was larger, but that the permit had expired; and

— Set a public hearing for April 28 for an application by Marc and Eileen Tyron for relief from setback requirements at 2040 New Scotland Road to allow construction of an additional storage structure within the front yard of the property that is zoned for commercial use.

The proposed new building is 60 feet long by 25 feet wide, Marc Tyron said.

“It’s actually smaller than the other two buildings” on the property, Cramer said.

“I hope this time we’ll get enough landscaping,” Abrams said. She said that the site’s square, plastic, and metal facilities can still be seen from the road.

The current landscaping met the application and approval criteria previously given to the Tyrons, Cramer said.
“Now, we have an opportunity to improve the situation,” Abrams said.

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