At the Town Board's May 18 hearing on a new Lawton Road subdivision, a resident asked a simple question: if the land stayed zoned the way it is now, how many houses could go there? Commissioner of Planning and Development Brian Bender had the number ready. Eight to ten. The applicant, Cornerstone Homes CNY LLC, is asking the town for 61. That gap is the whole case for The Reserve at Clay, Town Board Case #1251: a zone change from RA-100 Residential Agricultural to R-7.5 One-Family Residential on 20.18 acres at 8201 Lawton Road and adjoining land to the west, tax map parcels 077.-26-01.1 and 077.-26-04. Tim Coyer of Ianuzi & Romans, representing the applicant, told the Town Board the existing house at 8201 Lawton Road would be demolished and the property -- south of the Lawton Valley subdivision and north of Cherry Estates -- would be laid out around a loop road extending Harriet Fisher Drive, split by two smaller roads, connecting back to Lawton Road at the site's northeast corner. The case has moved between the Town Board and Planning Board since May without reaching a final vote. The Town Board opened its public hearing May 18 and carried it forward without deciding. The Planning Board took up the zone-change referral May 27 and again June 10 before sending a recommendation back to the Town Board, which reopened its hearing June 15 -- the last session in the town's minutes. No final vote on the rezoning appears in the record. Coordination with a neighboring town slowed the Planning Board's review. Lawton Road is shared with the Town of Cicero, and Chairwoman Borton told the board on both May 27 and June 10 that Clay's planning department had reached out to Cicero for comment and had not heard back. On June 10, still without a response, the board voted anyway. Its recommendation, using the town's standard Form #50, passed 5-1: Henty, Guinup, Palumbo and Mitchell voted yes, and Borton -- who said R-7.5 could be appropriate as long as it is designed properly at the preliminary-plat stage -- made it five. Graves voted no, saying he "will go with the neighbors" and offered RA-100 as an alternate recommendation. The board's motion asked the Town Board to also contact Cicero about improving Lawton Road. Neighbors who came to both boards raised drainage, wildlife and traffic. At the May 18 hearing, a resident identified in the minutes only as Aman said he already has drainage problems and worried the development would make them worse; Coyer replied that state law bars new development from adding to a neighbor's drainage, and said the project would, if anything, improve it. The Deputy Supervisor added there are no wetlands on the property. Other residents, unnamed in the minutes, raised the trash already accumulating on Lawton Road, the loss of habitat for red-tailed hawks and blue herons, a fear that displaced wildlife would mean more rodents in nearby homes, and worry that construction vehicles would be parked on or damage their lawns. At the Planning Board's May 27 session, David Yates of 5404 Brisbane Trail asked whether the land could stay RA-100 so some trees could be kept, and raised his concern about Lawton Road traffic; Nick Gallipeau of 3201 Harriet Fisher Drive raised the same two points -- traffic, and the loss of trees neighbors had counted on for privacy. Bender told the board he had also heard from residents concerned about traffic, the loss of green space, "Micron buildings," and adjusting to the area's changes generally. The record itself is not settled on how much traffic the project would add. At the May 18 hearing, the minutes record Coyer telling the board the study found "no significant impact" on Lawton Road traffic. Four weeks later, at the June 15 hearing, the minutes record him describing the same study differently: it "suggested there will be impact with this construction." Neither session's minutes explain the shift. Resident Chris Underwood pressed the point directly, telling the board the traffic study dates to November 2024 and does not account for the increase in traffic associated with Micron's construction nearby. Underwood also raised safety concerns on Lawton Road, including speed and children riding e-bikes without helmets, sometimes altered to go faster than intended. The Onondaga County Planning Board, which also reviewed the referral, found no significant adverse implications but recommended the applicant coordinate wastewater extensions with the county health department and OCWA, design the site to connect walkably with the surrounding neighborhood, and keep stormwater facilities on their own lots rather than folded into individual house lots. As of the June 15 Town Board session, the public hearing on the rezoning remained open, with no final vote recorded. What happens next on Lawton Road depends on whether the Town of Cicero weighs in -- and on how the Town Board weighs 61 against the 8 to 10 the land is already zoned to allow.