STILLWATER — With hundreds of additional homes possible in the next decade, the town should charge new fees to developers to pay for recreation facilities and preserve open space, according to a draft generic environmental impact statement.

The townwide growth impact study also finds a likely need for more municipal water and sewer service in the southwest part of town, where growth has been concentrated.

“Growth is not prevented as a result of this. The goal is to manage growth,” said Chris Round, project manager for The Chazen Companies, which is preparing the plan.

The generic environmental impact statement is looking at the cumulative impacts of the residential and commercial growth that could be spurred by development of the Luther Forest Technology Campus and other economic development projects.

About a half-dozen people spoke at a public hearing on the draft document Wednesday at the Stillwater Community Center.

“You want jobs, you’re going to have change, so you better prepare for it,” said Betty Blume of Route 9P, one of the residents who spoke.

The town in early 2007 hired Chazen Companies of Troy to do the impact study amid much public speculation about what will happen if Advanced Micro Devices builds a computer chip factory at Luther Forest, on the Malta-Stillwater town line.

Round said there’s the potential for Stillwater to have twice as many homes as it does now and lose parts of its rural character. Short-term, the prediction is 600 new homes by 2017.

That additional population will mean more demand for recreation facilities and a public desire to preserve some of the remaining open space, Round said.

Therefore, Chazen is recommending the town consider a new recreation fee of $913 per new dwelling unit to pay for ballfields and other recreation facilities.

Chazen also recommends creating a fund to buy the development rights to farms the town wants to protect from development, at a cost estimated at $13 million. A new fee of $3,160 per acre of new disturbance could help raise some of that money, according to the draft.

Some speakers at the hearing said those fees should be imposed on land developers but not on residents building a single home.

The plan also suggests specific areas to expand water and sewer service, generally on Viall Avenue, and in the area between Riverside and the village of Stillwater where a lot of new development is already occurring. Those projects would cost millions of dollars and have to be paid for by developers and local residents.

Round said the only major road improvement the study has identified is a need for a traffic light at Route 9P and Lake Road, on Saratoga Lake.

Some residents were skeptical of that conclusion, though.

John Basile of North Hudson Avenue said the consultants should also look at the potential of increased traffic from people just passing through Stillwater, particularly on the narrow roads in the village.

“People need lower cost places to live. I’m wondering how many people will build in Washington or Rensselaer counties and use the [Hudson River] bridge,” he said.

Carol Marotta, a member of the town Planning Board, said a traffic mitigation fee on new development may be needed, even though the draft plan doesn’t currently recommend one.

“I don’t believe there’s no need for mitigation. It’s all going to catch up with us,” she said.

Written comments on the draft plan, which is available on the town Web site, will be accepted at the town through Aug. 17.

Round said the next step will be for Chazen to prepare responses to all the public comments, and perhaps make some changes in the plan before submitting a final draft to the Town Board.

Any of the recommended development mitigation fees would require separate approval by the Town Board after it accepts the generic environmental impact statement.

Malta last year did a similar townwide growth impact study that led to creation of new development fees. Clifton Park and Halfmoon have done similar studies focused on specific geographical parts of those towns.