M'burgh Building Project Clears Village Hurdle

By David Avitabile

MIDDLEBURGH - A controversial housing development in Middleburgh jumped a major hurdle last week.

Middleburgh village board members last Monday made two major approvals and sent the housing development proposal by Fred Risse to the town planning board and county planning commission.

Village board members completed their review of the state environmental quality review for the project and approved a negative declaration. In addition Monday, board members approved the Valley View Estates Development with four stipulations.

Valley View Estates is planned for a large field off of upper Main Street basically behind Andy's Auto.

Now that the village has signed off on the development, it now goes to the town planning board for comments and the county planning commission for approval. The village board kept the public hearing open on the issue.

The stipulations include:

* Roads in the development, Valley View Lane and Vroman's Way, will conform to the village zoning law's specifications for design ns regulations. The roads cannot be accepted by the village until there are at least three year-round residents.

* Water mains and laterals must be installed prior to to the placement of roads. The developer is responsible for all costs for the extension of the village water system. Future property owners in the development will be required to pay the connection fee for a new connection to the water system. Parts of the village may be without water while the system hookup is connected. If there is a water outage, officials said it should not be long.

* Fire hydrants must be installed as per code standards and recommendations of the fire department.

* At least three to five streetlights need to be installed to ensure pedestrian and vehicle safety in the development. The number and location of the streetlights need to be approved by the village streets superintendent prior to installation.

The negative declaration for the SEQR and the stipulations were approved by a 4-0 vote with Trustee Kevin Young, who was a member of the town planning board, abstaining. Mr. Risse is chairman of the planning board.

In February, Mr. Risse presented the board with an engineer's report and a historical review. He said that crews dug about 90 test holes by hand on the property to search for historic items. They found a "couple of bottles, but they were not that old and nothing of significance was found.

There are 11 parcels, Mr. Risse noted, two are in the commercial zone and the rest in a planned development district. The parcels are just under a half acre each. He did not know the cost of each parcel.

Mr. Risse proposed an affordable housing complex about 20 years ago that did not proceed.