Bethlehem records conditional approval of McCormacks Hollow amendment.

A certificate posted with the Town of Bethlehem Planning Board's August 18, 2026 meeting materials records conditional approval of an amendment to McCormacks Hollow Subdivision Section 2.

From eight residential lots to three

The original 2021 approval covered nine lots, eight of them intended for single-family homes. The amended plan retains three previously approved residential lots at 66, 70, and 75 North Street. The remaining lot lines are to be reconfigured into three parcels for conveyance to the Town.

The certificate also removes three elements of the prior approval. The applicant will not be required to improve North Street to Town standards, utilities serving the three homes may use existing overhead service rather than being placed underground, and a restrictive covenant affecting 10.48 acres is to be extinguished as part of the land transfer.

A 23.76-acre conveyance

Town planning staff described the land to be conveyed as adjacent to Normans Kill Ravines Park at the end of Wright Lane and to other open-space land recently acquired by the Town at the end of North Street. The approval certificate states that approximately 23.76 acres, together with portions of Wright Lane and North Street within the subdivision, will be conveyed to Bethlehem.

The acreage is not a substitute for the subdivision's separate recreation requirement. The certificate requires payment of the applicable fee in lieu of parkland before a building permit is issued for any of the three residential lots.

Conditional approval is not the final filing step

The certificate contains engineering, utility, stormwater, easement, and plan-revision conditions that must be satisfied before the plat can be endorsed and filed. It also establishes limits of disturbance, fencing and plan requirements related to wetlands and steep slopes, and conditions that apply before building permits or certificates of occupancy may issue.

The document expressly states that conditional approval does not authorize filing the plat with the Albany County Clerk or issuing building permits. It gives the applicant 180 days to complete the requirements associated with final-plat endorsement, followed by a 62-day filing period after endorsement.

The August 18 meeting minutes were not posted on the Town portal when this article was checked. The dated certificate is the operative public document reviewed here; later minutes or a filed plat may provide additional confirmation of the Board's action and the applicant's compliance.