Help the town preserve it!
The Town of Ballston is currently updating its Comprehensive Plan. I think it is important that residents be a part of the process. A great start to being involved is by filling out the Comprehensive Plan Survey by August 31, 2020. Without your input, we could end up with more apartment buildings and lose that small town feeling.
Over the past few decades, urban sprawl has overtaken areas of Saratoga County transforming much of the tranquil rural landscape into suburban developments and commercial strips, much like Clifton Park and Malta. It is not too late to save our Town of Ballston.
The rural character of this county is still here to be appreciated in the Town of Ballston. In the past ten years, our town’s character has begun to be chipped away as open spaces have been replaced with large multi-story apartment buildings and multi-unit condominiums. Other large developments have been built upon what once was farmland as well as clusters of homes built adjacent to fragile wetlands.
"A Farm's First Community" has been the Town of Ballston's slogan for many years. Go for a drive and take time to soak in Ballston's beautiful town roads surrounded by open green landscapes, rolling fields and pastures that are sparsely punctuated by homes and occasional early farmhouses with clusters of historic barns and outbuildings. Take the time to sit outside at night, surrounded by silence and the sounds of nature beneath the heavy darkness of a starry sky.
I chose to live here because of its unique rural character. We all need to preserve the character of our town. Our new neighbors that have invested in Ballston love the idea of living here. We need to sit back and appreciate what we have. If we do not stop this rapid development, the very reason we all chose to live here disappears as the open landscapes, rolling fields, pastures, and starry skies are replaced with more buildings, more traffic, more pavement, and more streetlights.
In the face of this change, the local citizens in our town spoke loudly at public hearings re-enforcing that the primary goal was to preserve the rural character of our town. In 2019 the residents voted for a new supervisor and two council members that ran their campaign on a platform dedicated to preserving the rural character of the Town of Ballston.
Now is the time to pause and correct our zoning to preserve the unique rural character of our town before it is lost forever.
The survey takes about 15 minutes and is totally worth the time to ensure the town has a record of your comments. To fill out the survey just click on the live link below:
https://www.envisionballston.com/survey
After you complete the survey, you can also write a letter to the Town Board this week at:
Town of Ballston Town BoardAttn: Town Clerk
323 Charlton Road
Ballston Spa, New York 12020
Read the Local Law by clicking on the link below:
http://www.townofballstonny.org/documents/LocalLawasnoticedfor3-10-20.pdf
Hope everyone stays involved!
Ruth Osterlitz, Ballston LakeBNU Volunteer
