A public input session on a proposed mixed-residential development was held this week before heading to the full Moreau town board.
The proposed Jacobie Park Side Farms complex would turn abandoned farmland between Gansevoort Road and the Saratoga County park into more than 190 residential units of varying sizes.
Cerrone Builders and Environmental Design Partnership will construct the development. EDP Senior Landscape Architect Joe Dannible presented a sketch of the plan during Monday’s planning board meeting.
“These are two- and three-bedroom homes maybe as much as four bedrooms, attached two car garages being able to house at least two cars per every unit. And we do have some ancillary parking both to the east and the west on the property for overflow parking. The second style of home is a town home, a townhouse-style product, duplex. These would be attached single-family dwellings,” said Dannible.
The plan also includes two three-story, 50-unit apartment complexes with some commercial space available on the ground floors.
Dannible added that the district’s design, while not final yet, aims to create community connection.
“We’re promoting porches adjacent to sidewalks therefore the residents of those buildings sitting on their porches will develop a certain level of comradery with their neighbors as they walk by, creating that interaction that has certainly been lost in some of the modern housing styles where you have a garage facing the road, you pull into your house, people don’t go outside as much they go into their backyard. This is promoting the use of your front porch and the community walkways so that the residents of the community definitely know who their neighbors are,” said Dannible.
Traffic calming features will be implemented on the public road that dissects the complex and a dedicated community space could feature a greenhouse or other collaborative recreational space.
Addressing the board, Adam Feldman said his seven years directing the local Habitat for Humanity chapter led him to work with developers like Cerrone to bring homeownership to working-class families at scale.
“We would build two homes a year and at each home you’d have somewhere between 25 and 50 applicants apply for that house. And the folks who were applying were school teachers. They were the folks who worked at the YMCA. They were the person who checked you in when you were at the doctor. They were basically anyone under the age of 30 who wanted to own a home. Nearly all of them worked 40 hours a week. Many of them both a husband and wife worked 40 hours a week. And they loved this community and they did not have the opportunity to own here. They were stuck renting,” said Feldman.
New York state allocated $500 million to promote homeownership through funding housing projects aimed at first-time buyers as part of Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2024 five-year housing plan.
Feldman says this development is primed to take full advantage of the state’s support.
“And we are in a position to apply for that funding and our goal is to be able to sell some of these homes under $300,000. So, anyone else who’s been trying to buy a home, usually if you’re a single family home it starts at $600,000 and most of them are now $750,000. It’s almost impossible to find anything under $400,000,” explained Feldman.
While a traffic study found the project would not have an outsized negative impact, some residents in attendance contend traffic would worsen.
Starla Williams lives on one of the two roads that would feed traffic trying to avoid the proposed residential development.
“Again, I live on Thomas. There have been many nights I’ve looked out my window and watched that whole rec road backed up with cars. Because everyone’s trying to get out of there at the same time if there’s a thunderstorm, you know they’re hightailing it out of there. Then, ontop of that, we have tournaments that are coming. It’s just—I do think that there’s going to be a major issue with that and the traffic flow, I don’t see that working,” said Williams.
Other residents raised concerns over incoming families and their children straining local schools, as well as the development’s potential impact on home assessments.
In a four-to-two vote, the planning board sent a favorable recommendation to the town board on the condition that questions regarding security, emergency services access, and sewage capacity be answered before further approval is given.
The town board is set to hear from developers and the public Tuesday.
