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GLOVERSVILLE — Gloversville’s first rezoning proposal in seven years has cleared its first hurdle.
Councilors on Tuesday voted to initiate a multi-level government review process of the proposed map, which includes two new districts, and eliminates the last remaining heavy manufacturing district uptown.
Fulton County and city planning officials are expected to provide feedback on such modifications within the next month. An environmental impact must be completed before the Common Council can open up a public hearing on the matter.
If approved, Gloversville Mayor Vincent DeSantis hopes it will make a largely residential pocket near Rose St, East 8th Avenue and East 11th Avenue appear more welcoming. The area would be rezoned for mixed-use development under the city’s pending proposal.
“The developers that we’re attracting want to be able to do a mixed use development,” said DeSantis. “They’re looking for a place where they can have, residential on the upper floors of the building and commercial space on the first floor.”
The area’s current designation, he said, signals “don’t go here” to outsiders.
“[It says] you don’t want to live here,” DeSantis said. “This is going to be noisy, smelly, there’s going to be tanneries and environmental issues. That’s not the way the industry is today.”
At the height of Gloversville’s dominance in the leatherstocking industry, laborers used to live near tanneries where they worked. The once-nationally recognized industry began to shrivel up starting in the Great Depression and never made a comeback.
Concurrently, Gloversville’s roughly century-old zone mapping system has gradually caught up with the changes. Much of the city’s remaining pockets of heavy industry straddle the southern terminus of the city.
“The manufacturing base has changed in the county over the years and zoning is important,” said Ron Peters, president & CEO of the Fulton County Center for Economic Growth. “It depends on how a zoning change can impact the current residential structure, the integrity of the neighborhood and the ramifications of it will have on future uses for that particular area.”
Since 2022, DeSantis, local planner Aaron Enfield, Planning Board Chairman Geoffery Peck and building inspector David Fox have been piecing together an adjusted map.
Modifications also include separate zoning districts for cemeteries, and recreational areas. In effect, this would move the FJ&G Rail Trail out of the several existing districts zoned for residential, manufacturing and mixed-use.
Tyler A. McNeil can be reached at 518-395-3047 or [email protected] Follow him on Facebook at Tyler A. McNeil, Daily Gazette or Twitter @TylerAMcNeil.
