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Luther Forest.com Messageboards Local Politics How dense should Malta’s ‘downtown’ be? Article in today's GazetteGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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What is your thought on this? Suburban towns like Malta don’t want to be like cities Re Oct. 5 editorial, “How dense should Malta’s ‘downtown’ be?”: Funny that your editorial embraces the city-like projects that are planned for Malta. If you look at a picture of the project and the build-out that will occur if we continue, you’ll find that it looks a lot like Schenectady. What is happening to our urban centers? Now that the Tri-Cities of Albany/Schenectady/Troy have the dubious distinction of being ranked sixth on the Forbes list of abandoned cities, one has to wonder where our planners and thought leaders are headed with their ideas of urbanism in the country. From where I sit, it seems like their answers are to let the cities continue to decay and build new urban centers in Malta and in other semi-rural areas where development is cheap and taxes are low. I, for one, believe this is a lose/lose situation for everyone. Should we be undermine the urban centers by building another city in Malta? Should we create high density housing in Saratoga County so more commuters can clog the Northway each morning? No, it just doesn’t make sense. Let’s rebuild our cities and let Malta and the rest of our suburbs be the small towns that people want them to be. Malta residents overwhelmingly like our small-town charm — a hamlet with one- and two-story buildings with green space and sidewalks in front; a hamlet with local jobs and services that meet our needs. Walkable, yes, but not another urban center. Paul J. Sausville Malta The writer is Malta town supervisor. | ||
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s/b "The writer is Malta town village idiot." The supervisor is delusional. Malta will not remain a small town and the small-town charm will become a mid-sized town charm or a fugly sheet of asphault. The cities he's comparing to have skyscrapers and towers. Are there towers planned in the downtown district that I just haven't seen yet? On an completely unrelated note: have any of you gone to Schenectady and seen the downtown revitalization? It looks pretty good. | |||
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For those that have not seen the plan http://www.malta-town.org/docu...adesignstandards.pdf http://www.malta-town.org/docu...geisfindingsstmt.pdf | |||
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Does anyone know what firm prepared this GEIS? Or a better question would be, what firm does Malta usually contract with for environmental/engineering reviews? | |||
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Malta's main engineer is Chazen, because all of the reputable engineering firms are working for AMD/Globalffoundries. I believe chazen and/or Clough Harbour helped them with the GEIS.... And for the record, I disagree with Sausville's diatribe. As we have said on here before, growth is coming to Malta. The only choice we have is how we shape that growth. If Paul wanted to keep Malta "small" and if he really cared about the "dying cities"he would have told AMD/Globalfoundries that they weren't welcome in this town. Instead, all we see is him gladhanding and kissing up to the GF people and at every ribbon cutting ceremony....not the activities of someone that doesn't want development Pauly boy...... | |||
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I participated in writing the legislation for our Downtown Plan. It took about 18 months to design it, at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars, and much citizen input. This was thoughtfully and throughly thought out. To think that developers will buy the land on Route 9 to put up small 1 and 2 story buildings is living in a dream world. The land is too expensive. If we don't want a Town Tax or our school taxes to go out of control, we must have smart growth...that means, no sprawl. With the density in the Downtown, we can strive for rural areas on the outskirts of town. To change this plan, is basically dishonest. We expect developers to do what they say they will, and they should expect the same from their elected officials. Land in this area was purchased under this zoning, and to pull the rug out from under someone is shameful. I am still running for Supervisor on Nov.3rd with a write in vote. Lift the door above Supervisor and write-in Sue Nolen, close the door and vote for your other choices and then push the lever to open the curtains. | ||||
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Pray tell, what exactly does that mean? What are you supporting and what are you opposing? Since you participated in the process, you had access to ideas and information...please elaborate with specifics. We seek info...not hackneyed phrases that communicate nothing. | ||||
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Clough Harbor helped with the Townwide GEIS. It was then reviewed and voted on by the Town Board at the time, including Paul Sausville. I don't understand how he can now claim that SEQR was not done. Ellsworth complies with the Zoning that was enacted by the Town Board and drafted by a committee chaired by Paul Sausville. | ||||
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Agreed and thank you Peter. Now my 2nd question is according to this article in today's TU http://www.timesunion.com/AspS...RATOGA#ixzz0TR2rMBn6 Paul claims "a survey he sent to 1,400 Malta families. About 100 people returned the survey and 78 percent said they want downtown to remain a hamlet with green space along Route 9 and one- to two-story buildings." I live in Luther’s - I didn't see this survey and how representative is 100 responses to 1,400 sent out? I live, work and play in Malta. I like the idea of Ellsworth and how it's designed. It bothers me to know that many businesses have looked at our town - businesses that would be a real asset to the residents and left because of this kind of crap, because it’s hard to do business in Malta. If the town makes it difficult for the businesses to succeed, don't the residents suffer in the long run? When the GF plant opens and we need paid firefighters, EMS personnel a larger police force, we are the ones who are going to be paying for that. Having businesses in the area to off-set that cost via taxes can only be a benefit. Plus, it will give us more options on where to shop, eat, etc. I didn’t get to make the town meeting last week - but I heard it was a real fiasco. Is this really how we want our community to be seen? Our government leaders need to put aside their own personal preferences and move toward a united community vision, one that supports controlled growth and most of all – good will! Most importantly, they need to keep their word. I realize honesty in politics is seen as an oxymoron, but with us in the global spotlight, I’d like to think we’d attempt to put our best foot forward. | |||
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Ellsworth was approved. Law says 2 years from approval. 2 years is up. Why so worried that the plan won't simply get the rubber stamp again from the all too powerful planning board? Why does this town board want to make special exceptions for a group of developers that sued the Town of Malta over another project? I would think that if it went quietly back to the planning board for re-approval, none of this nonsense would be taking place. | ||||
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My question is: will the town of Malta be able to support all the new businesses coming in? It's going to take a lot of people to make a business profitable. The restaurant business is hurting because of the economy, how will we support a new restaurant? Can Malta support a card shop? You can buy cards at Price Chopper and CVS and Apple Pharmacy. Can Malta support a bakery? There WAS a great little bakery next to Price Chopper that went out of business. The "plan" all looks good on paper but it takes money to run a business. I'd sure hate to see a whole bunch of empty store fronts. Maybe 10-20 years from now Malta will be all grown-up, then this plan will be workable. Right now, it's just a "dream". | ||||
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I don't know, as far as the restraunt issue goes, seems like I can't go to a local restraunt at dinner during any time of the week without having to wait to be seated. | |||
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Ellsworth will be back to the Planning Board on Oct 20 for such a decision. This law has not been enforced on other projects. Its sudden enforcement on one project and not on others is ethically and perhaps legally problematical. Citing Ellsworth Commons with respect to the Town's property maintenance law in a new and novel way was also unfair. Past practice has been to informally discuss complaints with the parties, not to draft citations first. Attempts to better define when a project starts, when it is completed and to provide consistent mechanisms for extensions or renewals, or to provide realistic time frames in the first place, are being resisted and characterized as being rushed through. Delays will bring on the possibility of a brand new Town Board, with no knowledge of history, making these decisions. I suppose they can just rely on the information provided by the one who is responsible for their nomination. | ||||
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I know nothing of any such survey. I'd be very interested in hearing about it. Part of the "fiasco" was the refusal to put the discussion on the agenda in the first place, as was requested. Another part is that since we are not supposed to talk with each other apart form an open meeting, the public gets to "see the sausage getting made". Clarifying the code is not actually a rocket science issue. Yes, I thought we could do it without going through the Planning Zoning Update Committee. Yes, I argued and pressed my view. That's what five Board members are supposed to do. What more than one editorial criticized me (us) for was for what we decided not to do. | ||||
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If it was random, it's statistically significant, but that response rate is abyssmal in comparison to the population of the town, so it's not really enough information to determine. I could find 100 people in the town that support giant topiaries depicting the orgy scene from Rocky Horror. It doesn't make it a good idea. | |||
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There was a survey attached to Mr. Sausville's campaign brochure. | ||||
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Polling Republicans makes it less "random". I have visited hundreds of homes in Malta in support of Cynthia Young (and not just Democrats). We have heard far more support for the current plan than we have heard opposition. | ||||
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This was part of the campaign advertisements that were mailed out. The survey could be completed and mailed back. I have no idea who received the mailings. While 100 responses doesn't seem representative, there are a number of studies that show that a relatively small number of people answer questionnaires anyway. Also, just look at the ultimate survey, the ballot box. What percentage of people show up for that. While I don't necessarily know what a 78% response to one philosophy really means, it can't be ignored. I admit to not completing and returning the survey. You could add another two votes for smaller scaled buildings if my husband and I had returned the survey. | ||||
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78% of 100 families who responded to a survey of 1400 families in a town of an average 5000 families is 78/5000= 1.5% And that's assuming that everyone that filled out the survey was speaking for the whole family. And the ultimate survey is not the ballot box- it's my generation's dissatisfaction with the mess you MRC assholes are creating by politicizing the future of my town. | |||
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Part of the "fiasco" was the refusal to put the discussion on the agenda in the first place, as was requested. What you were being criticized for was making the attempt to do what you ultimately were shamed into not doing. In addition, I saw on the agenda posted on the Malta site, that the sunset clause discussion was on the agenda. Not quite sure what you are talking about. | ||||
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Luther Forest.com Messageboards Local Politics How dense should Malta’s ‘downtown’ be? Article in today's Gazette© Malta Interactive, Inc 2009
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