The Planning Guide covers an area of approximately 60 square miles encompassing the most dramatic portions of the escarpment from Knox to Coeymans as well as related lands to the east and west. The assessments of impacts and mitigation recommendations provided in the guide is applicable to this area.

Chapter Eight of the guide is devoted to aesthetics. This chapter considers the views both from and of Escarpment, the latter of which is applicable related to Resolution 384 of 2020. The chapter discusses the general principals of aesthetic review, mitigation alternatives and recommendations for aesthetic review and protecting visual resources at the municipal level. 

A preliminary Scenic Resource Inventory was compiled for the guide including scenic viewpoints, viewsheds, and corridors in the study area. Some were provided by the towns and some were identified by the Planning Committee. This inventory was intended to identify areas for developers, municipal officials, and local boards that merit special aesthetic concern. The scenic resources included were determined by rating criteria such as uniqueness of landscape elements, fragility, quality of view, and exposure.

• Planning Guide - Summary
• Planning Guide - Chapter VIII - Aesthetics

For information about how to view the full Planning Guide, please contact Gopika Muddappa at Gopika.Muddappa@AlbanyCountyNY.gov.

The members of the Planning Committee included representatives from:

• Town of Knox,
• Town of Guilderland,
• Town of Berne,
• Town of New Scotland,
• Town of Altamont
• The Albany County Planning Department, and
• The Albany County Department of Health.

Other contributors included:

• Albany County Soil and Water Conservation District,
• Bagdon Environmental,
• University at Albany Regional Planning Program,
• NYS Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation,
• NY Natural Heritage Program,
• and others.

Funding assistance was provided by NYS Council for the Arts and Open Space Institute.

In response to the Albany County Legislature's request that the Department of Economic Development Conservation and Planning provide a viewshed inventory of the primary public roadway corridors and viewsheds related to the Helderberg Escarpment, a map was prepared of scenic resources in the Escarpment area based on Appendix J of the Helderberg Escarpment Planning Guide. The viewshed from the Bender Melon Farm, recently acquired by the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy was also added as it was recently preserved in order to protect an important view of the Escarpment.

Helderberg Escarpment Scenic Views map