Foothills Builders of Queensbury brought a 19-house development project to the Queensbury Town Planning Board last Aug. 18. Placed across the street from the Ridge/Jenkinsville Park in north Queensbury, the site garnered favorable reaction from the board, although the builders were asking for a variance to have more houses than allowed by code on the site.
It was only a “sketch plan,” a plan designed to get the ball rolling without all of the detail and data that comes with the full plan.
Matt Huntington with Studio A architects represented Foothill Builders at the planning board meeting. He gave a preliminary pass, explaining the location, the land, the ease of construction and drainage capabilities of the soil.
When he was finished, planning board member David Deeb said, “One of the concerns I have is the old landfill up the road. Are you going to have wells for drinking water?”
Huntington replied, “I’m not familiar with how proximal we are to the landfill. That’s something I can get more information on.”
“I think that is something that probably should be investigated,” Deeb said, according to the meeting minutes.
From there, the discussion turned back to lot size, set-backs and garage locations on the properties. Board member Jamie White told Huntington just before the end of the discussion that she was happy to see smaller, more affordable, houses being developed.
“We don’t need another development with 4,000 square foot, $500,000 homes,” she said.
The board wished Huntington luck, then adjourned for the evening.
It is unclear from the minutes whether the planning board knew that the state departments of Environmental Conservation and Health were looking at the Town of Queensbury landfill for leakage of chemicals at that time.
Since then, five wells in Jenkinsville homes have been found to contain elevated levels of 1,4-Dioxane, and the study has moved from the town's landfill to all four landfills in the area. Although the DEC and DOH cannot yet say how long the chemical has been in the drinking water, they do say that in small quantities for short periods, the chemical is not known to harm people.
Chris Harrington had already been talking to the DEC and DOH last summer, and the water superintendent and wastewater director of Queensbury, discouraged Studio A and Foothills Builders from pursuing the project.
"I did recommend that maybe they’d want to hold off,” he said in a phone call this week.
Town of Queensbury board member Harrison Freer agreed with the water superintendent. It was best to wait, he said to FoothillsBusinessDaily.com. The town has been talking with the DEC and DOH since that time and there is still studying to do, he said.
Foothills Builders was on the agenda for a December planning board meeting, but they did not join the first or second monthly meeting.
Huntington of Studio A confirmed that they were waiting to see just what comes of the water and well testing that the state is conducting, and they have shelved the project until then.