How to resolve AdBlock issue? WILTON — Two local developers are in the early stages of seeking approval from town officials to build a new neighborhood north of the Wilton Mall retail district.
At its regularly scheduled meeting on March 15, the Wilton Planning Board discussed the formal pre-applications submitted by DCG Development and Belmonte Builders.
The two Clifton Park developers are proposing separate projects for the construction of about 250 single-family homes on nearly 550 acres northwest of the Jones Road and Putnam Lane intersection.
The new homes would occupy land behind the Wilton Emergency Squad building on Harran Lane.
The application by DCG Development details construction of the 193-lot Forest Grove subdivision on 424 acres, while the Belmonte Builders application specifies a 60-lot subdivision on 122 acres.
“It’s a considerable amount of property,” said Lucy Harlow, executive secretary of the Wilton Planning Board. The homes “are not all going in at once,” she added, but “in phases.”
Harlow could not say for sure when the Planning Board is expected to give final approval to the developers’ applications. “There’s several approval levels,” she said, noting how environmental and traffic impacts still have to be studied and considered.
Also, public hearings for the projects have yet to be scheduled.
Several months ago, the Wilton Planning Board referred the DCG Development proposal to the Town Board for review, even though the former body is empowered to give such projects their final approvals.
According to minutes of the December 1, 2016 town board meeting, Councilman John McEachron and other board members discussed the importance of extending water and sewer lines to the project site.
State rules mandate that subdivisions of 50 lots or more have to be serviced by public systems rather than private wells or tanks, Harlow said.
“There are a lot of people in town who had their wells dry up,” McEachron said, according to the meeting minutes. “We can’t see that in the future.”
The Wilton Water and Sewer Authority currently provides public services to homes and businesses on the western side of the Adirondack Northway, but not on the eastern side of the highway where the new developments would be located.
Michael Mooney, director of the authority, expressed confidence that there would be no difficulty meeting any demand from the new development.
“We have plenty of water. We’re not even at our capacity now,” Mooney said, noting how Saratoga County supplies hundreds of thousands of gallons each day to the authority.
On a daily basis, Mooney added, the typical home uses 200 to 300 gallons of water.
Harlow explained that approvals of the construction projects largely hinge on the provision of water and sewer, and who will incur the cost of installing new service lines. The developers also would have to construct roads for the new neighborhood.
“All of that’s very costly,” Harlow said.
