Foothills Builders (2021)
Foothills Builders has come back to the Queensbury Planning Board with a proposal to build 18 homes in the Jenkinsville area. The proposal at the planning board meeting last night was for discussion only. No votes were taken.
The developer first came to the planning board with a 19-unit development last summer and were to return in December but pulled their appearance from that meeting after county staff said some Jenkinsville-area drinking wells were contaminated with elevated levels of 1,4-Dioxane. [Read our coverage here.]
The residential areas of Jenkinsville sit southeast of four landfills; three are private, and one is the former Town of Queensbury landfill. The state Department of Environmental Conservation is considering designating the former Queensbury landfill as a state Superfund site. [Read our coverage here.] At least a dozen houses in the area receive free bottled drinking water from the state as a stop-gap solution to the contaminated wells.
Matthew Huntington, the representative for the developer, told the board Tuesday night that the developers drilled two potable water wells that they used as test wells on the site.
"These were tested, and they were tested for 1,4-Dioxane,” Huntington said. The results came back "pretty substantially below" state maximum levels.
The tests gave them a baseline reference for further testing, Huntington said. He is an engineer with Studio A landscape architecture and engineering of Saratoga Springs.
Huntington said he and the developers have been in touch with the state departments of Environmental Conservation and Health, and his client was encouraged by the mitigation efforts and planning being conducted by the state. [Read our coverage here.]
“We feel that, with that knowledge, we would like to continue to pursue a development here,” he told the board.
The board asked Huntington if he knew how close the nearest contaminated well was and the location and depth of the test wells his company drilled. Huntington admitted that the entire situation was evolving and he did not know how close the tainted wells were.
Since the DOH is still testing wells, the location of the closest could change. Planners said the wells his company drilled were likely not testing ground water but just the drinking water.
Asked what would happen if future events threatened the project, Huntington said the company planned to coordinate with whatever plan the DEC and DOH prepared. The applicant’s intent was to get the ball rolling now since a development of this size will take time and therefore can adjust as the DEC makes recommendations.
“No one here wants to propose selling a site with contaminated water,” Huntington said.
The proposal now has 18 homes instead of the original 19, largely to help mitigate storm water, Huntington said. The one- and two-storey, three-bedroom houses range in size from about 1,300 to 1,800 square feet. According to the Queensbury GIS system, the property is 16.89 acres and is owned by Foothills Builders.
The development proposes more houses than current zoning allows, so the plan must seek a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals. This development is contiguous to homes on Rainbow Trail, and the parcels in the proposal are larger than those on Rainbow Trail, Huntington has said.
Huntington asked the planning board for feedback. Despite concerns about well water, the board was generally positive.