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2004-11-08 SP MTG53 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 11-08-2004 MTG#53 616 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING MTG#53 TH NOVEMBER 8, 2004 RES#550-554 7:00 P.M. BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT DEPUTY SUPERVISOR TIM BREWER COUNCILMAN THEODORE TURNER COUNCILMAN JOHN STROUGH COUNCILMAN ROGER BOOR BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT SUPERVISOR DANIEL STEC TOWN OFFICIALS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, MARILYN RYBA BUDGET OFFICER, JENNIFER SWITZER RESOLUTION ENTERING EXECUTIVE SESSION RESOLUTION NO. 550, 2004 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Theodore Turner WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. John Strough RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns from Regular Session and moves into Executive Session to discuss QDEC. th Duly adopted this 8 day of November, 2004, by the following vote: Ayes: Mr. Boor, Mr. Turner, Mr. Strough, Mr. Brewer Noes: None Absent:Mr. Stec RESOLUTION ADJOURNING EXECUTIVE SESSION RESOLUTION NO. 551, 2004 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Roger Boor WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. John Strough RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns from Executive Session and moves back into Regular Session. th Duly adopted this 8 day of November, 2004, by the following vote: SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 11-08-2004 MTG#53 617 Ayes: Mr. Turner, Mr. Strough, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Boor Noes: None Absent:Mr. Stec THOM MARTIN FROM NYS DEC – IP LAND IN ADIRONDACKS AND WORKING FOREST EASEMENT Presentation made by Mr. Martin regarding the IP land in the Adirondacks and Working Forest Easement. This is the largest Land Conservation Agreement in New York State history. It is a partnership between IP, DEC, and the Conservation Fund. The Conservation Fund is helping to provide financing to put this deal together. This deal doubles the amount of conservation easement lands in the Adirondack Park. This particular deal is a Conservation Easement Agreement. IP will continue to retain ownership of the land. It is two hundred and fifty seven thousand acres. We will be buying approximately two thousand acres small- detached parcels around the park primarily for access. The remaining hundred and fifty five thousand acreage will be an easement. It is divided into two types of easements A and B. The deal consists of twenty-one different separate tracks of land. Thirty-four Towns, nine counties, Queensbury is one of those Town’s. Deputy Supervisor Brewer-Where in Queensbury? Mr. Martin-There is a small piece out towards the Town line, Luzerne Road. Believes this is a win win situation. It’s a win for the environment, economy, a win for the future of the Adirondacks. Working forest to support the economies and families and communities in the Adirondacks will continue to be working forest. IP when they first announced this deal wanted to make sure that their mill in Ticonderoga continues to exist. We pay our proportion and share of local property taxes on these lands. The project focuses on retaining IP’s ability to have productive timberlands into the future and recreational opportunities for the public. We did a Conservation Easement specifically we didn’t want these lands to be forester we wanted them to continue to able to be managed for forest crops. All of the major forest cover types in the Adirondacks were represented someplace on these lands noting this is another unique characteristic. The forest has been managed for some time they contribute to the regional pulp and paper industry in this Country and in Canada. National resource traditional recreational values will be preserved this deal will allow hunting clubs to remain on the property. The State has the authority to do conservation easements under Article 49, Environmental Conservation Law. The State Land Master Plan talks about the State not buying large acreage of productive forestland to buy conservation easements instead. The desire in this deal is to prevent fragmentation of ownership keep the ownership on large blocks of land. We want to prevent subdivision and development for non- forest purposes. We want to make sure that the property remains open and available for recreational pursuits for future generations. We will provide a plan for recreational activities on the land so that it will balance both public rights and private recreational uses that have occurred there in the past. Deputy Supervisor Brewer-Will the State mark trails for hiking? Mr. Martin-Certain places. The property is segregated into twenty-one separate tracks. A track may include multiple detach parcels, but it is in an area that the State and IP agreed to as a single track. Those tracks will not be allowed to be subdivided in the future they will have to be sold as contiguous tracks. IP ownership of those lands they will be able to sell in the future, but they only will be able to sell as a whole track. Camp development restrictions the easement restricts IP’s ability to construct new camps. Noting they have about five hundred hunting camps scattered on the property. Allowed to keep all of those there will be an opportunity for IP to build a net increase of forty new camps. The Conservation Easement requires that IP maintain SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 11-08-2004 MTG#53 618 their lands in a productive manner. If they don’t maintain certification my staff will review their plans on an annual basis. Spoke to the board regarding the A and B areas of the map. Anticipate closing on seventy five thousand acres this year about eighty thousand acres next year, the remainder in the following year. IP has a five-year time frame to convert area leases to one-acre envelopes. The map depicts the phase in process. They pay the local government somewhere around fifty million dollars a year for Town, County, and School taxes. The local assessors decide the value for assessment. Funding will come from the Environmental Protection Fund also seeking funding from Forest Legacy, which is a program through the US Forest Service. This will provide some significant opportunities for people. The Town Board thanked Mr. Martin for his presentation. WEST GLENS FALLS RESCUE SQUAD BUILDING – SANDY BOUCHER AND JIM TOBIN Ms. Boucher spoke to the board regarding the West Glens Falls Squad Building. They have been working on this project for over six years. The road will probably be in 2005, 2006, which means it will affect our building. They need to find a home and a secure site. They have secured an architect, which they were told to do. Mr. Tobin-We can’t do anything without a site. Once that is determined where it’s going they need the size of the site. The property size based on an eight thousand square foot to ten thousand square foot building would require about three and a half acres, maybe four acres. We have to meet Planning Board requirements. The current site is small the building is about four thousand square feet the intent would be to double the size of the building. Has spoken to the Town Engineer who is putting the road in they estimate the project would start anytime after the right-a-ways are secured anticipating starting construction in 2005. If this happens the project ideally would go out to bid towards the end of March construction could start soon after that. The location of the site is critical if you want to meet that time schedule. The cost of the building at this point in time estimates that the project would run for the building alone, would run about a hundred and twenty five dollars a square foot. The site construction depending on what we had to do with the site would run between two hundred and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars an acre. This includes running water into the site, includes a sanitary system on site retainage, parking site lighting. Sandy Boucher- When we talked about the site that we were told to look at there is no water, no gas, there is nothing the closet thing is the Luzerne Road Firehouse. If the Town is taking care of that stuff that’s going to take a big cost off the project. Deputy Supervisor Brewer-The board has talked about different sites doesn’t think we have decided on a particular site. There has been a lot of conversation regarding the connector road noting he would try to keep it close to Main Street. Ms. Boucher-We need a decision in the next sixty to ninety days we need to know where our site is so we can move forward. Councilman Strough-Should bring the utilities down the connector road. Ms. Boucher-Asked when can decisions be made? Deputy Supervisor Brewer-Preference would be right along the connector road as close to Main Street. Councilman Strough-We should sit down and take a look at it to see if it’s going to be workable right in back of where you are. Ms. Boucher-The closer to Corinth Road the better we are for easy access to the Northway. Deputy Supervisor Brewer-Questioned how did they come up with eight to ten thousand square feet? Ms. Boucher-They started out with ten thousand square foot and the board asked us to go back towards eight thousand so we’re between eight and ten thousand for the size of the building we wanted. Deputy Supervisor Brewer-We need to do a map. Councilman Strough-We need a map with the surveyed connector road on it. Ms. Boucher-Even if the consolidation is still in thoughts of the Town that still would be able to utilize because we still have SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 11-08-2004 MTG#53 619 to keep the buildings in the other ends of the Town. After further discussion it was the decision of the board to reschedule this issue for a Workshop, to get a map regarding this property. Ms. Boucher-Questioned if everyone was in the general consensus that it will be the connector road at this point? Deputy Supervisor Brewer-Happy with that site. Councilman Boor-Wants to see the map. Deputy Supervisor Brewer to call Supervisor Stec to have him get the map. Maybe we can discuss this next Monday after our meeting or before the meeting will contact you next week. BAY ROAD PUD MODIFICATION /LAND SWAP REQUEST – TOM NACE DRAWING SHOWN TO BOARD Mr. Nace-Spoke to the board noting John Dreps owns a parcel of land north of Stewart’s on the corner of Cronin and Bay. The pink shows the configuration of the existing parcel. It has a small amount of frontage on Bay Road a fairly large chunk of land behind. The chunk of land is separated from Bay Road by a piece of land that is contiguous with the Golf Course property. Looking at the potential development of this parcel, which is highway commercial intensive. It makes sense to trade a piece of land whereby they would take a piece of land from the Golf Course and give another piece back to the Golf Course. It would make this property follow the yellow line; make it more contiguous a simpler piece of property to work with for development. It would also utilized or allowed to be utilized this piece of land that the Golf Course presently owns that is unusable now. The reason we’re here is the Golf Course property is a Planned Unit Development that was approved a couple years ago. It is part of the elderly housing project that was approved on Golf Course property for Queensbury Partners. Presently there is a zone line that goes along the backside and back along Bay Road where this is PUD and this is highway commercial intensive. If we didn’t have the zone line to deal with we would go to the adjacent property owner get his approval and do a boundary line agreement. Since there is a zone line we’re asking the Town to approve a revision of that PUD, which would reset the PUD zoning line. The reason it was configured the way we have it is we’re proposing to take this property once it’s reconfigured and develop it into five commercial lots with a cul-de-sac in here that would serve the five lots. Presently this proposed lot number one has a cross easement with Stewart’s whereby they would utilize this common access drive for access and the other four lots would be served off the cul- de-sac. Councilman Strough-Questioned what would be put there? Mr. Nace-The thought would be to make commercial lots that could be developed with commercial establishments to use some sort of an architectural theme that would be in conformance with Bay Road. There would be no new driveways on Bay Road. Mr. Nace-Looking for a modification of the existing zoning boundary to modify this existing zone line that comes here to one that comes here. Councilman Boor-Questioned the part that the PUD is picking what zoning will that be? Mr. Nace-It is part of the PUD that is already approved. The PUD allocated density to a development over on the other side of the Golf Course site no future development for the remainder. Deputy Supervisor Brewer-Questioned if the senior housing will always stay part in parcel with the Golf Course? Asked what would happen if someone came in and wanted to sell the Golf Course? Mr. Nace- That is a question for your lawyer. Councilman Strough-That is part of the PUD Agreement. Councilman Strough-It sounds reasonable. Councilman Boor-Noted he doesn’t have a problem with it. Deputy Supervisor Brewer-Need to set a public hearing. Executive Director, Ms. Ryba-There is a zone change quarterly review noted there was one done in August noting doesn’t have the schedule for the next one. Councilman Boor-Questioned how critical is the timing? Mr. Nace-Would SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 11-08-2004 MTG#53 620 like to move on this. Originally submitted this to the Town staff back in July for consideration. Councilman Boor-Questioned if they could go to the Planning Board contingent on the quarterly review? Ms. Ryba-It depends upon whether or not there is a project associated with it. Deputy Supervisor Brewer-Is there a project associated with this? Mr. Nace-The subdivision has already been submitted to the Planning Board. Ms. Ryba-He would still have to submit an application for the zone change. After further discussion it was the decision of the board to have Mr. Nace contact Ms. Ryba regarding the application process. RESOLUTION ENTERING EXECUTIVE SESSION RESOLUTION NO. 552, 2004 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Roger Boor WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. John Strough RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns from Regular Session and moves into Executive Session to discuss Fire/EMS Budgets. th Duly adopted this 8 day of November, 2004, by the following vote: Ayes: Mr. Strough, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Boor, Mr. Turner, Noes: Nones Absent:Mr. Stec RESOLUTION ADJOURNING EXECUTIVE SESSION RESOLUTION NO. 553, 2004 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Roger Boor WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. John Strough RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns from Executive Session no action taken. th Duly adopted this 8 day of November, 2004 by the following vote: Ayes: Mr. Brewer, Mr. Boor, Mr. Turner, Mr. Strough Noes: None Absent:Mr. Stec RESOLUTION TO ADJOURN SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING RESOLUTION NO. 554, 2004 INTROUCED BY: Mr. Theodore Turner WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING 11-08-2004 MTG#53 621 SECONDED BY: Mr. John Strough RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns its Special Town Board Meeting. th Duly adopted this 8 day of November, 2004 by the following vote: Ayes: Mr. Boor, Mr. Turner, Mr. Strough, Mr. Brewer Noes: None Absent:Mr. Stec Respectfully Submitted, Darleen M. Dougher Town Clerk Town of Queensbury