As Luther Forest activity encourages growth, many business owners advocate development in Malta’s downtown. (ERICA MILLER/The Saratogian)
MALTA — Malta “needs to decide what it’s going to be when it grows up,” says Anthony Tozzi, the town’s building and planning coordinator.
With the largest construction project in the country happening in their backyard, town officials and residents are embroiled in a debate about what development in Malta’s downtown — the 1.8-mile strip centered on Route 9 between Knabner and Cramer Roads — should look like in the future.
Many business owners and residents say all new businesses should be encouraged. Others, including Supervisor Paul Sausville, believe growth needs to be curbed to preserve the town’s rural character.
Matt Little, whose family has owned and operated Just Meats deli in the town for 30 years, said he is “fine with Malta being opened up to every kind of business.”
Just Meats moved two years ago to a new location on Route 9 because new roundabouts near their old location made traffic too hectic for their customers. The roundabouts along that stretch of road were part of extensive infrastructure improvements that have accompanied the GlobalFoundries chip plant that’s under construction.
“I would hate to see our small business or other family businesses pushed out, but I think we have a great client base,” Little said. He added that the deli has already seen an increased lunch crowd since construction began at GlobalFoundries.
Malta’s master plan, adopted in 2005, lays out a vision for the downtown with a “dense development pattern … attractive streetscape and pedestrian access.” The document, which Tozzi calls a “guiding instrument” for his department, also states that “each successful business will improve the quality of downtown, add to the economic viability of the town and create a place where Malta residents can work and live.”
Sausville plans to propose several changes to the portion of the master plan that relates to downtown during rezoning workshops this week. One of those changes is deleting the text referring to a “dense development pattern.”
The town will host three workshops this week to consider rezoning areas of the downtown district. The workshops — set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at Malta Town Hall, 2540 Route 9 — are open to the pubic, but public comment will be limited to the end of the meetings.
Any way you slice it, changes are in store for Malta, particularly for its Route 9 corridor and downtown area.
GlobalFoundries broke ground last summer on a long-awaited microchip foundry located in Malta’s Luther Forest Technology Campus (LFTC). The $4.2 billion project is anticipated to bring 1,400 jobs; local leaders hope ancillary businesses will contribute another 5,000 new jobs to the region. Hudson Valley Community College recently opened a satellite campus adjacent to LFTC called TEC-SMART with a focus on training for careers in the nanotechnology and alternative-energy fields.
With that influx of financial investment and people headed toward Malta in the coming years, the town’s officials and residents want to encourage growth while discouraging sprawl. But striking the right balance and developing a clear vision have not been an easy process.
Earlier this month, Sausville proposed a building moratorium for the town while these possible zoning and master plan changes are considered, but he ultimately backed away from the proposal when developers, real estate agents and other residents said it could have a detrimental effect on the town’s economy.
“I didn’t want builders to continue to invest in a city-like vision when (that vision) might change,” he said in a recent interview.
Sausville said the goal of his proposed changes to the master plan is to reduce ambiguity in the existing document. His proposed changes also include increasing the distance buildings must be set back from the street and reducing the allowable height for new buildings from three to five stories to one to two stories.
Tozzi, the building and planning coordinator, said the current downtown zoning is designed to “create a town center and aggregate population in the town center and concentrate services to keep the outlying and more rural areas the same.”
“The zoning goes further to say development should be good for the town, create walk-ability and a sense of place,” he said.
Sausville campaigned for re-election in the fall on a platform of maintaining Malta’s rural character and controlling development. While campaigning, he distributed surveys with questions about how residents would like to see Malta grow, and he received about 140 completed surveys back.
Though far from a scientific survey, Sausville said the data he collected is “the best we have.” He says respondents overwhelmingly supported what he calls “hamlet-style” development with one- and two-story buildings, a departure from the town’s current master plan.
“It would be disrespectful of me to go out and ask people for their opinions … and then not honor them,” Sausville said. “I have to operate on the basis of what people tell me.”
To that end, he is proposing adding language to the master plan that would codify the “hamlet-style” idea. He wants to include a sentence stating that Malta should be “hamlet-like with one- and two-story buildings with green space and sidewalks in front.”
Bill Parker, a spokesperson for Malta Concerned Citizens, questions whether Sausville’s surveys are at all representative of the views of the majority of residents.
“We’re very concerned about the town supervisor and just a few constituents trying to … turn back the clock,” Parker said. “We want to see our current zoning stay the way it is and allow our town to develop.”
The town’s downtown is currently zoned to allow “high-intensity development.”
Sausville said he feels Malta needs to consider its future in a regional context. “Why would we want to create an urban environment right in the middle of three urban environments that already exist?” he asked, referring to Saratoga Springs, Ballston Spa and Mechanicville.
Malta’s Town Board has already taken steps to control the town’s growth. Tozzi said one of the most unique aspects of Malta’s development is the use of Planned Development Districts, or PDDs. The PDD process requires developers to go before the Town Board twice and allows the town to require developers to include something that would benefit the town, like a park.
There are 53 separate PDDs in Malta, compared to about a dozen in neighboring Clifton Park. “I think it’s a cultural thing in Malta,” Tozzi said.
The Luther Forest Technology Campus is one example of a PDD — the developers made large payments to Malta to fulfill their requirement to benefit the town. The State Farm Insurance building and Shops of Malta shopping center are also PDDs.
The PDD process “requires the Town Board to be accountable for growth,” Sausville said, adding that it has “worked very well for Malta.”
Parker is not so sure: “By virtue of the PDD process, we have squelched or killed projects,” he said.
The process is “lengthy and cumbersome and more expensive” for developers, he said, and discourages some good projects from locating in Malta.
Parker said many Malta Concerned Citizens members plan to attend the workshops this week to voice their opposition to changing the master plan.
Despite some opposition, Sausville said he feels his changes represent the will of the people, as evidenced by the results of his surveys.
“The aspirations and the vision of the town belong with the people,” he said.
