Displaying items by tag: Tom Samascott, Dorothy Christiansen, Michael Toohey, Joseph Dannible, Wade Carter, Bruce Boghosian, Dan Lewza, Milton, Hutchins Road, Margaret Drive

[Front photo shows town officials and the crowd at the Milton Community Center on July 19; gallery photos show a map prepared by Environmental Design Partnership (EDP); and Joe Dannible of EDP (at left) and attorney Michael Toohey. Photos by Larry Goodwin.] 

MILTON — A lively public hearing was held Wednesday inside Milton’s popular community center on Northline Road, focusing on the merits of a construction project that is planned about a mile away.

At the outset, Supervisor Dan Lewza said there was “not going to be a give-and-take between the resident and the applicant,” or Malta Development owner Tom Samascott.

Yet, through the course of about three hours, that’s basically what happened.

A majority of nearly 50 speakers were opposed to Samascott’s proposal to build a “senior apartment complex” of 83 leasable units in serene woods between Hutchins Road and Margaret Drive. Most cited concerns about increased traffic and the impacts on existing neighborhoods of single-family homes.

However, a vocal contingent of Samascott’s supporters showed up to argue in favor.

The formal public hearing was preceded by a lengthy presentation from Saratoga Springs attorney Michael Toohey.

“I’m very proud to be representing Tom Samascott,” Toohey told Lewza and the other four Milton Town Board members. “Very seldom in my career have I heard or read as much vehemence, as much misinformation...as I’ve heard with regard to this particular project,” he added.

For Samascott’s proposal to move forward, the town board would have to approve changing the current residential zoning to a Planned Development District. A vote on that change is expected soon.

Samascott, who also owns the much larger Winner’s Circle apartment complex off Geyser Road, grew up close to the intended project site. His mother still resides in the same house around the corner on Coachman Drive. (A family member of this writer lives on Coachman Drive as well.)

“I can only speak to the fact that I’ve been involved, and worked with Malta Development for nearly 30 years,” offered Randall Countermine, owner of the New Dimensions landscaping company in Gansevoort that maintains the lawns and shrubs at Winner’s Circle. “They deliver what they promise, and they better the communities that they choose to deliver in.”

Several Winner’s Circle residents also appeared at the podium in support.

“I grew up with Tom Samascott. He’s a very honorable man,” stated Wade Carter, whose family owns the 14-acre property off Hutchins Road that would be sold to Malta Development. “It’s time for us to sell. We have no choice,” Carter added, noting how his family has seen many changes in Milton. “I don’t feel we should be denied because some people are nervous about what it’s going to do.”

Hutchins Road homeowner Dorothy Christiansen led the opponents—both longtime area residents like her and newer arrivals. “We neighbors are not in opposition to having senior housing,” she said. “We are opposed to having it in the middle of an R-1 residential district.”

In the days before the July 19 hearing, Christiansen posted comments in an online forum called “nextdoor.com” that encouraged a large turnout and summarized her views.*

“The developer is promoting this as a 55-plus age housing community,” she wrote. “As anyone who lives in Milton has seen, there is a saturation of these housing offerings throughout the town, with more being built, and there is no dire need for more.”

“To allow such a development would detract from us being a well-balanced ‘family’ community as well as it undermining the community’s vision as expressed in the Comprehensive Plan,” Christiansen argued, referring to a document approved long ago by town officials. “Let your voice be heard as citizens, like myself, refusing to swallow the spot-zoning/anti-Comprehensive Plan pill that the developer has prescribed.”

Lewza repeatedly granted Christiansen opportunities to reiterate such points when numerous speakers had yielded their time to her. Early on the supervisor joked that she would “wear a path” to the podium.