Clifton Park residents voice traffic concerns over 79-home plan

PHOTOGRAPHER: Photo Provided

Part of the layout plan.

CLIFTON PARK — Residents at Tuesday’s town Planning Board meeting expressed concerns about traffic related to plans for a 79-home housing development.

Applicant Vincent Riggi wants to build the single-family homes on the east side of Miller Road, just south of Route 146, on three separate parcels.

The homes would be built on three different lot sizes: carriage lots with a minimum size of 10,000 square feet of land; executive lots no smaller than 16,000 square feet of land; and estate lots that will encompass at least 20,000 square feet of land.

The development also calls for a trail and a community park.

The Planning Board previously considered the project in September. It reviewed project updates on Tuesday and has not taken any action on the project.

The land is vacant and comprises approximately 72.6 acres of buildable space. The entire project space is 106.44 acres. Access points into the neighborhood are planned from Miller Road.

Miller Road residents, however, expressed concerns about the new neighborhood becoming a cut-through for backed-up traffic coming from Route 146.

“This is going to become one heck of a cut-through, once it’s done,” said resident Jeff Miller, president of the housing association for Brookhaven Estates.

He said that not only would drivers coming from Schenectady cut through the neighborhood to get into Clifton Park, but they will most likely speed through the neighborhood, as well.

Miller expressed further skepticism when board Chairman Rocco Ferraro suggested that installing stop signs in the neighborhood could deter speeding.

Miller noted modern GPS systems can take into account side roads and sometimes direct drivers to those routes.

“Now with the GPS’, a lot of towns are having these problems because the cars are seeing, ‘Oh, these side streets go where I’m going, and there’s no traffic.’ So that’ll become a glaring cut-through once the GPS maps it,” he said.

In response to the traffic concerns, Scott Lansing, project engineer, said a study will be conducted to gauge how much traffic the neighborhood would generate at peak hours each day, and to analyze how the possible development might affect nearby neighbors.

Board members also pointed out that the state Department of Transportation is conducting a traffic study to determine what improvements could be made to lessen traffic at the busy Route 146 intersection, which they said could also alleviate some of the concerns expressed.

Board member Andy Neubauer acknowledged the Route 146 area as a trouble spot and assured residents that, as fellow town residents, board members drive on the same roads and take traffic concerns seriously.

“I hope everybody understands that it’s most definitely not falling on deaf ears with this board or with the town,” he said.