2007-07-17
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING
FIRST REGULAR MEETING
JULY 17, 2007
INDEX
Site Plan No. 3-2007 Vance Cohen 1.
Tax Map No. 295.8-1-2
Site Plan No. 22-2007 Jolley Associates 8.
Tax Map No. 288.16-1-3
Site Plan No. 8-2007 Stewarts Shops 22.
MODIFICATION Tax Map No. 303.19-1-61
Subdivision No. 13-2006 Thomas Brennan 25.
PRELIMINARY STAGE Tax Map No. 315.0-1-12.1, 12.2
Site Plan No. 20-2007 Agnus J. Vincze-Rosen 32.
Tax Map No. 226.16-1-49.1
Subdivision No. 10-2007 Gary Markwell 39.
SKETCH PLAN Tax Map No. 309.18-1-18
THESE ARE NOT OFFICIALLY ADOPTED MINUTES AND ARE SUBJECT TO BOARD
AND STAFF REVISIONS. REVISIONS WILL APPEAR ON THE FOLLOWING
MONTHS MINUTES (IF ANY) AND WILL STATE SUCH APPROVAL OF SAID
MINUTES.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING
FIRST REGULAR MEETING
JULY 17, 2007
7:00 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT
CHRIS HUNSINGER, CHAIRMAN
GRETCHEN STEFFAN, SECRETARY
THOMAS SEGULJIC
TANYA BRUNO
MEMBERS ABSENT
THOMAS FORD
DONALD SIPP
STEPHEN TRAVER
SENIOR PLANNER-STUART BAKER
TOWN COUNSEL-FITZGERALD, MORRIS, BAKER FIRTH-MATT FULLER
STENOGRAPHER-SUE HEMINGWAY
MR. HUNSINGER-The first item on the agenda is approval of minutes from the month of
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May. May 15, May 24, and May 31.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
May 15, 2007
May 24, 2007
May 31, 2007
MOTION TO APPROVE THE QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING MINUTES
DATED MAY 15, MAY 24, AND MAY 31, 2007, Introduced by Gretchen Steffan who
moved for its adoption, seconded by Thomas Seguljic:
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Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
AYES: Mrs. Bruno, Mr. Seguljic, Mrs. Steffan, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp
SITE PLAN NO. 3-2007 SEQR TYPE UNLISTED VANCE COHEN AGENT(S) RON
MOGREN SARATOGA ASSOCIATES OWNER(S) DR. MITCHELL COHEN ZONING
HC-INT. LOCATION 1159-1161 STATE ROUTE 9 APPLICANT PROPOSES AN
18,000 SQ. FT. PUBLIC PARKING FACILITY. PARKING FACILITIES IN THE HC
ZONE REQUIRE SITE PLAN REVIEW BY THE PLANNING BOARD. CROSS
REFERENCE AV 7-2007 NOA 4-06 WARREN CO. PLANNING 2/14/07 LOT SIZE
0.57 ACRES TAX MAP NO. 295.8-1-2 SECTION 179-4-020
DAVE ALBRECHT, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT; V. COHEN, PRESENT
MR. HUNSINGER-Good evening. I don’t know how far we’re going to go with this this
evening. There’s only four members here, and because of the County denial, you need
a super majority, which means even if all four of us voted in favor of your site plan, we
couldn’t approve it this evening. I guess I would like to give you the opportunity to table it
until next month.
MR. ALBRECHT-It looks like we have no choice.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. Okay.
MR. SEGULJIC-Can I make some comments?
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. HUNSINGER-Go ahead.
MR. SEGULJIC-All right. I have some questions about the landscaping.
MR. ALBRECHT-Go ahead. I’m not the landscaper, but I’ll do what I can.
MR. SEGULJIC-I guess part of this is directed towards Staff also, a clarification. As I
read the landscaping requirements, under 179-8-040, E in particular, exterior, exterior
parking lot landscaping. As I read it, since the site, the parking lot is greater than 10,000
square feet, they need to have a tree every 250, five foot wide buffer, and a tree every
250 square feet.
MR. BAKER-Yes, you’re looking at Sub E?
MR. SEGULJIC-Yes.
MR. BAKER-Yes.
MR. SEGULJIC-And I don’t believe I see that on the plans. I could be incorrect. So you
need to have at least two trees on the south side and north side, as I read it, and in
addition, if I’m interpreting it correctly, this is the Upper Glen Street design standards?
So that would mean you need a tree every 35 feet along Route 9, which would make you
have to have five trees when you have four trees, and the other thing is you have to have
a minimum of 18 inch grass area along the road. I don’t think you have that, on Route 9.
MR. ALBRECHT-Along the road in between the sidewalk and Route 9?
MR. SEGULJIC-Yes.
MR. ALBRECHT-Well, that’s an existing condition right now.
MR. SEGULJIC-But you’re re-developing the site.
MR. ALBRECHT-That’s within the DOT’s right of way.
MR. SEGULJIC-How does that pan out? I believe you have to bring it up to standards.
MR. BAKER-I’m sorry?
MR. SEGULJIC-If I’m understanding it correctly, this is under the Upper Glen Street
design corridor, shall we say? And it refers you to Figure 11, I believe.
MR. ALBRECHT-So I guess the question is do you defer to the DOT design standards,
and what was done originally, or is it a Town regulation?
MR. BAKER-What Mr. Seguljic is referring to is a Town regulation.
MR. SEGULJIC-I guess that they’re saying that they’re in a DOT right of way, which
everywhere would be, and we have these design standards. So who’s Code takes
precedent? Would it be Queensbury?
MR. BAKER-That’s correct. We can’t require planting within the right of way. We’re
talking about plantings on the applicant’s property.
MR. ALBRECHT-No. You’re talking about a strip between the sidewalk and the road,
which is within the right of way.
MR. BAKER-Okay, between the sidewalk and the road. All right. Then that is an
interesting question.
MR. SEGULJIC-I mean, our design code says that.
MR. ALBRECHT-But is that for a Town owned street? I don’t know.
MR. SEGULJIC-I mean, I’m just a Planning Board member.
MR. ALBRECHT-I mean, we’ve already provided at least an additional 20 feet of lawn in
front of the site from what’s there now.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. SEGULJIC-I’m just asking for the Code.
MR. HUNSINGER-I don’t know if we can require them to put grass in a DOT right of way
though.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, that’s what our Code says. The question is, does DOT or
Queensbury?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. Well, I think it’s a good question.
MR. SEGULJIC-I mean, we have this design corridor. I’m sure DOT’s all along there.
So someone wasted their time writing this Code.
MRS. BRUNO-That certainly seems like something that we might be able to get clarified,
if we do, indeed, table this evening, which I have a feeling that we will need to, and I can
go into that further, but I don’t want to take from this discussion.
MR. BAKER-You can certainly do that.
MR. HUNSINGER-I’m sorry. Mr. Seguljic started asking questions before you had a
chance to identify yourself.
MR. ALBRECHT-I apologize. I’m Dave Albrecht with Saratoga Associates.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Good evening.
MR. ALBRECHT-Thank you.
MR. SEGULJIC-And the other thing is the interior parking lot, design standards for that.
As I understand it, you need at least five percent, and my rough calculations are it’s
18,000 square feet, which would mean 900 square feet, and as I see it, you have like
660 or something like that.
MR. ALBRECHT-Well, we do have an exhibit that would show our interpretation of the
interior landscaping which does meet the five percent requirement. We could provide
that to you.
MR. SEGULJIC-If you could.
MR. ALBRECHT-I don’t know how to present this, other than to show you that including
the interior aisle, the corners, and the sign.
MR. SEGULJIC-Now, I guess that’s a question for Staff, then. Do those corners get
included in the interior parking lot? I thought it was everything inside the curbs, and that
would not be inside the curb.
MR. BAKER-I’m sorry. Could you repeat the question?
MR. SEGULJIC-I’m talking about the interior parking lot requirement of five percent.
They’re taking into account the north, south, east and northwest corner, if I’m correct, but
that’s not inside the curb. I thought interior parking lot was everything inside the curb.
MR. BAKER-That’s my understanding.
MR. SEGULJIC-So that would not meet the requirement, then.
MR. BAKER-No, I don’t believe it would.
MR. COHEN-Is there a set rule of interpretation of that?
MR. HUNSINGER-We had talked about this a little bit the last meeting.
MR. SEGULJIC-Yes, I brought it up last meeting.
MR. COHEN-I was talked to several times about it.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
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MR. SEGULJIC-I guess you need to sit down with Staff. I mean, I’m just looking at the
Code.
MR. COHEN-We’ve sat down with Staff several times to go over all this. That’s why
we’re at the final, should be the final points here. Every time you’ve addressed the
concerns for the green space in the front, we’ve made our changes to it, and it seems
like every time we come back up you’ve got something else that you want to throw out
there.
MR. SEGULJIC-No, I don’t agree with that comment. Because I referred to the exact
same Codes I did last time, and I recall looking the perimeter and saying it’s 250 square
feet, you needed three.
MR. ALBRECHT-Based on the last review letter from Staff, we were 40 square feet
short. Now I don’t know what the basis of their calculation was, but.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, the Staff Notes say it appears to be consistent with the
requirements of the Zoning Code. However, I don’t agree with that comment.
MR. COHEN-But it’s Staff who you keep referring to us to go see, and if they’re saying
that it’s sufficient, shouldn’t it be?
MR. ALBRECHT-They’re saying that you need 792 and they’re saying that the calculate
755.
MR. SEGULJIC-Shall I read Section E to you?
MR. COHEN-Well, it’s all based on interpretation, you’re interpretation.
MR. SEGULJIC-179-8-040 E. It says a tree every 250 square feet around the edge,
excluding along the roadway. There’s no trees to the north and south.
MR. COHEN-That’s who’s interpretation now? That’s your two interpretation? Because
the Staff is the one who’s accepting our changes, and that should be sufficient for you,
right?
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, when the issue came up at the last meeting, and I don’t have
the minutes right in front of me, you know, we did have a general discussion about it, and
we had asked that you show us your calculations so that we understand how you arrived
at what you did, and you just did that. So this is really the first time that we’re fully aware
of how you calculated the green space, and so I think what we’re saying is that’s not the
intent of the Code.
MR. COHEN-Okay, but Staff has agreed that that would count as the green space?
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, Staff can only advise you. It’s up to the Board to decide, and
give you final approval.
MR. COHEN-And that’s who you guys keep asking us to go see. So if they’re not
advising us in the way that the Board thinks, then, you know, you guys have kind of got
to get on the same page, too.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. COHEN-It’s not very fair for us. This has almost been a year that we’ve been
coming to you guys to do this small project.
MR. HUNSINGER-I realize that.
MR. COHEN-And I’m only working with a half acre here, and I was looking to get a little
leniency based on the fact that, you know, everything’s changed around us and we have
to change to our environment, for our business, and it just seemed you guys are being
very nitpicky and it’s not, it doesn’t seem very fair the way you’re coming at us every
week with something new.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, I believe if you look at the minutes from the last meeting, I brought
up the exact same points.
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MRS. BRUNO-And I only came in at the tail end of the environment with which you set,
that you just mentioned, and things were pretty nitpicky with that corporation as well.
We’ve talked about the fact that we’re right next to the waterway, and we are, you know,
in the Upper Route 9.
MR. COHEN-Right, and to mention that, I was here at the last meeting when The Great
Escape was looking to make some additional changes, and I mentioned these green
spaces I’m now being questioned on, for my property, and they’re not being held to the
same standard as I am, for the amount of trees. They have not one single tree across
the street, and they put up all new fencing. You guys are not making them do the same,
you know, treatment to their property that you’re requiring of me, of 200 feet of road
frontage, and they’ve got, you know, three-quarters of a mile, and there’s not one single
tree on that side of the road. So, you know, I’m just trying to see where you guys are
coming from, and, you know, for you to see the position we’ve been put in here.
MRS. BRUNO-Those are certainly interesting points. I don’t think I was at that meeting.
I think I missed, if I remember right. If I could just address my concerns, and if you’re
looking to finally finalize this, just our report that we got from Vision Engineering states
that there are at least three things that were asked for by the previous Town’s engineer
that have not been addressed, and that concerns me considerably, since a lot of them
have to do with stormwater management, stormwater designs, and like I say, we’re right
next to the waterway.
MR. ALBRECHT-Okay. We’re in a position to address that, but I don’t know if you want
to do it tonight or at the next meeting when everybody that would be voting on it is going
to hear it.
MRS. BRUNO-Right.
MR. HUNSINGER-I guess that would be your preference.
MRS. BRUNO-Yes.
MR. COHEN-I’m not looking to waste my time.
MR. HUNSINGER-Were there any other issues from the Board that we want to mention
to the applicant? There are still some engineering issues, based on the current
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engineering letter from Vision Engineering dated July 10. So that’ll also give you time
to correct those. We did have a public hearing scheduled. Is there anyone here that
came this evening to make comments on this application? Okay. I think I will hear the
public comment, and I’ll open the public hearing. Sir, if you want to come forward. Just
please state your name for the record.
PUBLIC HEARING OPEN
DON DANIELS
MR. DANIELS-I’m Don Daniels. You know I’ve been watching the news, the Post Star
and some of these Town Board meetings about the flooding problems that we have
throughout the Town, Meadowbrook Road, for one, over where they have Morse Field, a
lot of the homes that are flooded, and all these projects were all approved by different
Boards. Maybe your Board, some of them, the Town Board. Everybody in this Town
that has approved all these projects where we have these flooding problems, and I heard
you mention the environmental problem and the Halfway Brook that’s just north of the
Cohen property, and ten years ago, on the north side of that property, there wasn’t a hill
there. This property was maybe a few inches over the top of that Brook, and the water
naturally flowed, and over the last ten years with The Great Escape buying the motel
next door, which had a lot of trees, on the south side of Cohen’s property, and they
knocked all the trees down, and Mr. and Mrs. Canistrary that had that motel had nice
lawns, beautiful lawns, and plantings, and they mowed them all the time, and that dried
up a lot of the moisture, and when The Great Escape turned that into a parking lot, and
the trucks came in and it got blacktopped and the heavy trucks crushed everything down
and compacted that soil, the Town came in and put the pumping station right up in the
corner just west of Cohen’s property. They have the pumping station for the sewer line,
and then the parking lot was all approved when The Great Escape was forced to build
the bridge, and all of a sudden The Great Escape put a great big hill and compacted that
soil and blacktopped it on the north side of Cohen, and stopped the flow of water, and
then Mrs. Bruno says, well, where’s your stormwater going to go, and I heard that
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
mentioned the last time. You have to get rid of the stormwater. Well, it was naturally
flowing until The Great Escape piled all that dirt in there and compacted it and actually
squeezed them in a little hole there. So there are a lot of problems, and they were
approved by everybody in this Town, and I’ve heard some other mentions here, because
I’ve been to three or four of these meetings. I think I might have spoke at the last one,
when the bridge was put in and the fences were put up, and that would solve all the
problems, but it hasn’t solved the problems. It’s created a lot of problems there. The
lights were taken away. The crosswalks were disappeared, and New York State passed
a law that says when people step on the road everybody’s got to stop, and Sunday I was
driving north and I stopped for two different pedestrians up by, people crossing where
the new motel is there, the Comfort Inn or Country Inn or whatever it’s called, and they
were people wanted to go across the street to Martha’s and up by the Six Flags Hotel
people were walking across the street there, and everybody’s just crossing, they’re the
ones that are just walking the sidewalk. We’ve got two nice sidewalks. So people are
walking on both sides of the road. There’s no place directing them where to cross, so
they just have to cross, and I know Mr. Cohen mentioned about the crosswalk
disappearing in front of his property. Well, all about three o’clock in the afternoon
Sunday I was there. The parking lot at Cohen’s property was full. Nobody was crossing
there because everybody had already gone in the morning, but there was a lot of people,
and I had to stop twice for people, along with everybody that was driving, without any
lights everybody’s driving really nice now, 45, 50 miles an hour. So it’s kind of
dangerous for all the pedestrians, for all the businesses, and then you go up by the
Outlet stores and people are crisscrossing, 1,000 of them going back and forth. I don’t
know if we’re going to have to demand that the Outlets build a bridge, but I don’t know if
that, that’ll probably exacerbate the problem even worse up there, and then I think last
year, because the problem has really gotten worse there with The Great Escape boxing
everything in like a prison sort of, they removed their fast food stand, the grill, that’s
gone, and Martha’s Restaurant is not open this year, because their business was
slashed in half themselves, and they can’t get people to go over to even Martha’s ice
cream, if you don’t see that get knocked down this year, because their ice cream
business is half of what it was. So there’s lots of problems that have happened there,
and I know the Cohens have had trouble renting those two buildings there, and there has
to be some way for them to get some income, I would think, and that place has always
had parking. People have always parked there. That’s all I have to say tonight.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Thank you. Was there anyone else? Okay. I will leave the
public hearing open. I don’t know if you had anything else you wanted to add, Mr.
Cohen.
MR. COHEN-I think that’s pretty much it for right now.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. I mean, again, I apologize that we don’t have enough members
on the Board here to hear your project this evening. Would someone like to make a
motion to table?
MRS. STEFFAN-Tom, you specifically were talking to the applicant about the interior
landscape requirements?
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, I would say the landscaping requirements, to comply with the
landscaping requirements under 179-8-040, that would include the interior parking lot
and the perimeter parking lot, and then also Figure 11 of the Code, which is the Upper
Route 9 streetscape, which is something the applicant brought up since it’s the DOT can
they do it, but I’m just looking at the Code.
MR. ALBRECHT-Just so you’re aware, as it is right now, the DOT, because of the DOT
right of way, and the existing pavement in there now, we have to remove that pavement,
which is currently used for parking, out of the right of way and landscape it. Just to
clarify that.
MR. HUNSINGER-I think the date we would be looking for is the first meeting in August,
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which is the 21.
MR. COHEN-Is there any way of knowing who’s going to be here when, as far as Board
members?
MR. HUNSINGER-I mean, it’s really unusual for us to only have four members. In fact,
in the seven years that I’ve been on the Board, I think this is really the first time. It’s not
uncommon for maybe one person to be absent. It’s a seven member Board.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. COHEN-Right.
MR. HUNSINGER-And it’s actually, a majority of the time we do have a full slate of
seven members. We do need an alternate on the Board, which we don’t have. So we
only have one alternate to pick from. So if more than one regular member is not
available for that meeting, you know, we do have an opening, but this is really unusual.
MRS. BRUNO-I can say that I do know that I cannot attend that meeting. That week is
our vacation week. So we’ll be down at least by one.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, maybe we should put it off to the following week, then, if we
know that going in.
MRS. BRUNO-What’s the date of the following week?
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MR. HUNSINGER-The 28.
MRS. BRUNO-That’s fine.
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MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. Why don’t we table it to the 28.
MRS. BRUNO-I apologize for that. We’ve actually already switched our vacation once.
MR. COHEN-I appreciate that, actually.
MRS. BRUNO-I should be on it right now. -8-040, is that what you said, Tom?
MR. SEGULJIC- -8-040.
MRS. BRUNO-Right, and that was in the previous resolution, Number Two.
MR. COHEN-And out of curiosity, you’re going to be requiring this of every business in
Queensbury that comes in front of you?
MR. SEGULJIC-It’s the Code, unless you get a waiver.
MR. COHEN-Unless you get a waiver.
MR. SEGULJIC-As I understand it.
MR. COHEN-And who issues the waiver, the Staff or the Board?
MR. HUNSINGER-No, this Board. Staff does not have authority to do anything.
Anything that requires Site Plan Review is the purview of this Board.
MRS. STEFFAN-So if you review the criteria and then decide that there’s just, for
example, if there’s no way, based on your plan, that you could meet those, then you
would ask the Board for a waiver.
MR. COHEN-Which sounds like it’s something that I should probably look into doing.
MR. SEGULJIC-I don’t see any reason why you can’t meet the requirements. It’s your
option.
MR. COHEN-Okay. All right.
MRS. STEFFAN-Often when folks require waivers, you know, we’ll ask the reasons why,
and if there’s some site constraint or some.
MR. COHEN-Like the hardship our business is facing over there. Maybe that would
qualify.
MRS. STEFFAN-Whatever seems reasonable.
MR. COHEN-Okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Do you have the motion ready?
MRS. STEFFAN-I’ll make a motion to table.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MOTION TO TABLE SITE PLAN NO. 3-2007 VANCE COHEN, Introduced by Gretchen
Steffan who moved for its adoption, seconded by Tanya Bruno:
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Tabled to the August 28 meeting. This application is tabled so that the applicant can
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address the Vision Engineering comment letter of July 10, and so that the applicant can
also comply with perimeter and interior landscaping requirements per our Code, 179-8-
040. Also, that the applicant will examine and comply with the Route 9 streetscape
guidelines per our Code 179-7-050.
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Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
MR. SEGULJIC-Excuse me. It should also comply with 179-7-050, the Route 9 corridor,
and that’s the streetscape requirements, that directs the 35 foot trees 18 (lost word)
along the road.
MRS. STEFFAN-That’s what I had just asked. Okay. Tom, it’s 179-7-050?
MR. SEGULJIC- -050.
MRS. STEFFAN-Okay, and I would add to the tabling motion that the applicant will
examine and comply with the Route 9 streetscape guidelines per our Code 179-7-050.
AYES: Mr. Seguljic, Mrs. Bruno, Mrs. Steffan, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver
MR. HUNSINGER-Again, I apologize. Good luck.
MR. ALBRECHT-Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-We’ll see you next month.
SITE PLAN NO. 22-2007 SEQR TYPE UNLISTED JOLLEY ASSOCIATES AGENT(S)
NACE ENGINEERING OWNER(S) SAME ZONING HC-INT. LOCATION 1412
STATE ROUTE 9 APPLICANT PROPOSES REMOVAL OF EXISTING GAS STATION
AND CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW 4,250 SQ. FT. GAS STATION AND CONVENIENCE
STORE, NEW GAS ISLAND AND CANOPY, ALONG WITH ASSOCIATED SITE WORK.
GAS STATIONS AND CONVENIENCE STORE REQUIRE SITE PLAN REVIEW BY
THE PLANNING BOARD. CROSS REFERENCE BP 05-923 WARREN CO.
PLANNING 5/9/07 LOT SIZE 1.5 ACRES TAX MAP NO. 288.16-1-3 SECTION 179-
4-020, 179-8-050, 179-6-020
TOM NACE, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. HUNSINGER-Stu, if you could summarize Staff Notes, please. While Stu’s doing
that, I would like to deviate from the agenda, if there’s no objections from the Board, and
I would like to move up the Stewarts site modification following the discussion on this
item, unless there’s objections from members of the Board. So don’t go far, Mr. Lewis.
Okay.
MR. BAKER-Okay. Staff comments on Jolley Associates. The applicant has submitted
a stormwater management plan and report as part of the application materials, and that
was forwarded to Vision Engineering for their review and comment. Are there other uses
such as restaurants proposed for the site? If so parking will be needed for those uses as
well as the convenience store use. Parking requirements for restaurant uses are 1 per 4
seats plus 1 per every two employees. This parking will be required in addition to the
parking required for the convenience store. The lighting plan submitted shows lighting
levels underneath the gas island canopy to be compliant with Zoning requirements. The
plan also indicates compliant foot candle levels in the parking area; however there
appears to be some light spill near the two curb cuts on Route 9. A traffic study was also
prepared by the applicant. This study has been forwarded to Vision Engineering for
review and comment.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Thank you. Good evening.
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MR. NACE-Good evening. For the record, Tom Nace, Nace Engineering, Wendy Cimino
from Creighton Manning and Sean Crumb from Jolley Associates. Okay. As has been
indicated, we’ve submitted a revised site plan package which we feel addresses all of the
comments the Board had had before and also the comments that Vision Engineering had
had on the previous submittal. The one, well, one of the additional items that the Staff
has brought up is the parking with the restaurant use. There is a Dunkin Donuts co-
brand in the facility. What I have done, after receiving the comment, was looked at it two
ways. One is the whole store is a convenience store. How much parking is required?
That comes up to 28 spaces. The second is to take the whole store, deduct the Dunkin
Donuts lease, come up with the area that’s used for a convenience store, okay, do that
on a square foot basis, then take the Dunkin Donuts and do that on a per seat basis, plus
employee, and that, if you do it all, the math also comes out at 28 spaces.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. NACE-I mean, you can’t count area in the store twice. Okay. So the whole store is
4250 square feet. Dunkin Donuts lease is 1,030 square feet. That leaves 3220 square
feet for a convenience store, which gives you 22 spaces required, 21 and a half, round to
22, Dunkin Donuts has 10 seats. At one space per four seats, that’s two and a half or
three seats. They also have a max of five employees at any one time. At one space per
two employees, that’s another two and a half or three seats. So 22 and three and three
is 28.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. NACE-Yes on the other comment on lighting by Staff. We’ve complied with the
Code as far as the parking area and the gas canopy. There is a little bit of spill. A lot of
that’s from the existing street lighting that we show out on Route 9, which is typical of
that whole area, and there is a little spill from the two new lights that are not out at the
street, but back into the site a ways, but if you look at it, that light level is very similar to
what’s spilled onto the street from the existing street lighting. So we’ve tried to keep it
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fairly uniform, and I think that’s all I have. Vision Engineering had a letter of July 10 that
suggested that the final site plan show the physical location of that drop off in the back
that’s off our property on the adjacent property. There’s a six foot bank there, and we will
have the surveyor show that, locate it and show it on the final plan.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. NACE-Wendy, did you want to address the traffic issues?
WENDY CIMINO
MS. CIMINO-Yes, just the Vision Engineering letter had just mentioned a few items, and
I guess one of it was regarding the adequacy and safety of the existing, you know, the
existing entrances, and I guess the point there is they’re DOT approved curb cuts.
They’re obviously designed to their standards, and, you know, that’s what will be there in
the future. So, you know, as far as the safety and adequacy, you know, that site met the
DOT standards at one point, and would, you know, remain to be so. Another comment
was regarding the spacing between the Route 9 and the Exit 20 signal, which is over 300
feet, which more than adequately meets the DOT standard for driveway spacing with a
driveway and a signalized intersection, and again, it meets it and, you know, that’s how
this driveway got there in the first place is they met all those standards. Just as far as
the operation, which is something we did talk about in our letter, is with the two way left
turn median there, you know, that definitely is a benefit to that corridor. There’s no doubt
that that corridor gets congested during the peak times, and that that center median
allows for a left turn in and out for a refuge area to make what we call like a two step turn
so you don’t need to, you know, cross two lanes of traffic at the same time, that it allows
for that, which obviously is a benefit to the site with the upgrades and the additional
traffic that would be added. I think that wraps those questions up, unless there’s any
others.
MR. HUNSINGER-Any questions from the Board?
MR. NACE-I think at the previous meeting you had asked to see samples of materials
that the building would be constructed of.
MRS. BRUNO-Yes.
MR. NACE-And I think Sean is prepared with that information.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
SEAN CRUMB
MR. CRUMB-Unfortunately, I was only able to come up with full size prints. This is
called Keystone Blend, and as well there’s a sampling of, you had asked for the window
screening and particularly the material around the doors. That would be this. The upper
area of the building is color. So that would be around the window area, and that color is
a fairly close representation of that. I was unable to come up with the exact,
circumstances. You had also asked for some samples of our other buildings, and these
photos represent the colors of the trim a little better, at least for the green here, and
there’s several shots of those. I had also said I would provide you with measurements of
the signage. Now we had switched to the brick because of an earlier conversation, and
some earlier approvals that you had given, and that’s obviously a clear indication of how
we build our stores and landscape our properties.
MRS. BRUNO-These colors are typical of the company?
MR. CRUMB-Yes.
MRS. BRUNO-Okay.
MR. CRUMB-And again, I would ask you to refer to the photographs for the absolute
color on the window trim.
MRS. BRUNO-It looks like it has a little more green to it.
MR. CRUMB-It is, and it’s a metal façade, and I was unable to come up with a sample for
you. So I tried to get as close as I could.
MR. HUNSINGER-Are these pictures all the same store?
MR. CRUMB-No, there’s two separate stores there.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, I can tell that now.
MR. CRUMB-And I tried to give you also some interior shots of, we take great pride in
the stores we build.
MRS. BRUNO-I believe Mrs. Steffan had asked you, at one of the prior meetings, about
the front door, the fascia around it.
MR. CRUMB-Yes.
MRS. BRUNO-And you had stated that that’s something that you’d try to maintain?
MR. CRUMB-Yes, it is.
MRS. BRUNO-Looking at these second sets, the second set of storefronts, I see that it’s
not on there.
MR. CRUMB-That one was, I didn’t permit that store. However, we would like, that is a
signature of our stores. If possible we would like to see it there.
MRS. BRUNO-I think I would like to not see it there, just a personal opinion.
MR. SEGULJIC-Excuse me. What are you speaking of, again?
MR. HUNSINGER-The green vertical.
MR. SEGULJIC-Okay.
MRS. BRUNO-Yes, around the.
MR. HUNSINGER-This one doesn’t have that, though.
MR. SEGULJIC-Okay. Yes.
MRS. BRUNO-I think given your neighbors, the Church and the School.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. CRUMB-Well, this is Exit 20. This is on Route 9.
MRS. BRUNO-I apologize.
MR. CRUMB-We’ll be back next week for the other.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, next week’s the next one.
MR. CRUMB-And again, and to go back to that, Exit 19, Aviation Road, we had proposed
this in brick. Due to the fact that if we’re going to do 19 in brick, we’d like to see the
same façade for both.
MRS. BRUNO-That explains why some of their earlier comments I was saying, wait a
minute, I didn’t see that on that site. Okay. Definitely then, I know that’s embarrassing.
Definitely up at the Route 9, because of the previous comments that we had made about
another company, I still stand by my comment about the front door and what is around it.
More so because we’re more on the northern section of Town, which we’re trying to get
more of an Adirondack, natural.
MR. CRUMB-Quieter look.
MRS. BRUNO-Quieter look, yes.
MR. CRUMB-If that’s a deal breaker for you, you know, we would certainly talk amongst
ourselves, and my company and decide that I think we could probably remove that.
They would very much like to see that, but if it came down to being a deal breaker.
MRS. BRUNO-Right.
MR. SEGULJIC-I would agree with that. I think we need more of an Adirondack theme.
MR. CRUMB-Okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-In terms of the brick colors, then, you have four samples there.
What’s your thought? What’s the concept?
MR. CRUMB-Those are a mix and match. If you take a look at the lower brick façade on
those buildings.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. CRUMB-That’s the same Kingston Blend that would be used throughout the
building, if you go back to the color rendering I provided in the earlier meeting.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. CRUMB-These photos here are just photos that Mrs. Steffan had requested to see
the split block masonry building that we have. So that’s not an indication of what we’re
looking to build. You would need to go back to the color rendering. So I added a little
confusion to you there. I apologize.
MR. HUNSINGER-I do like this look better than the stripes, personally.
MR. CRUMB-Okay, and we like it as well, but again, with the fact that you’d requested
that up on Aviation Road, we thought it appropriate to do both buildings the same.
MR. HUNSINGER-So the choice is for the lower brick portion with one of those brick
colors?
MR. NACE-It’s a mix.
MR. CRUMB-A mix of all of those.
MR. HUNSINGER-It would be a mix, okay.
MR. CRUMB-And if you’d like to see it in person, there’s a store going up in Clifton Park
off of Exit 9 in front of Clifton Park Center that they’ve just begun. They have the lower
brick done. It’s going to be in the split block. However, the lower brick is in this format
here, with the blend.
11
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. I think that’ll look good.
MRS. BRUNO-I’m sorry. Will you still incorporate the brick ledge, what is that, it’s about
chest high, just to break the wall up?
MR. CRUMB-We can. We certainly, to break that up? We certainly could do that. It’s
not in that drawing currently.
MRS. BRUNO-Actually, with the amount of windows that you have, it would be so
minimal, it would probably wouldn’t even be, it’s just an added, strike that comment.
MR. CRUMB-Okay.
MRS. STEFFAN-In some of these pictures you have awnings. Is that part of it, or?
MR. CRUMB-Those are not represented there. The second store there, those stores are
both in South Burlington, Vermont. They’re about a mile from each other, and I have no
idea why the change was done from one Board to the next. One required it and the other
did not. We, personally, do not want it.
MRS. STEFFAN-There was probably a western exposure or something, the afternoon
sun blinded people.
MR. CRUMB-Actually, it is. It is, and as to your comment from the last meeting, Mrs.
Steffan, regarding the cases of Coke and the windshield wash and so forth, I think as
you’ll see, they are, we have none of that in front of our stores.
MRS. STEFFAN-Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Any other questions or comments from the Board?
MR. SEGULJIC-A question on parking. You’re referring this as a restaurant, then?
MR. NACE-Well, Staff asked us if there’s a restaurant service or food service in the
building, it would count for parking for that, okay.
MR. SEGULJIC-Correct.
MR. NACE-I’ve looked at it in both ways. I’ve looked at it just as a convenience store,
okay, with the entire square footage used in their parking calculation. That comes up
with 28 spaces. I’ve also looked at it as the area inside that store that’s leased to Dunkin
Donuts being a restaurant, with your parking based on the number of seats plus the
number of employees, and then the remaining area as convenience store based on
square footage, and they both come up the same.
MR. SEGULJIC-All right. Not that I like more parking. I don’t like asphalt personally, but
when I look at the definitions, this is a fast food restaurant, not a restaurant. That,
dramatically, a fast food restaurant is one space per each 25 feet of gross leasable floor
area.
MR. NACE-One space for 25?
MR. SEGULJIC-For 25 square feet. I came up with something astronomical, 41.
MR. NACE-That doesn’t make any sense.
MR. SEGULJIC-No, but it’s the Code.
MR. NACE-Well, only if you define it as a fast food restaurant, and it’s really not. I define
it more as a convenience store. I mean, most of your convenience stores have some
sort of a food service in them, a sandwich shop. In Stewarts they have ready made
sandwiches. It’s not much different.
MR. SEGULJIC-Fast food restaurant is defined as an establishment who’s principal
business is the sale of pre-prepared or rapidly prepared food meals directly to the
customer in a ready to consume state for consumption, either within the establishment or
off site. Fast food establishment may include a drive thru window, which you have.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. NACE-Read that again. I’m sorry.
MR. SEGULJIC-An establishment who’s principal business is the sale of pre-prepared or
rapidly prepared food meals directly to the customer in a ready to consume state for
consumption, either within the establishment or off the premises. A fast food
establishment may include a drive thru window.
MR. NACE-Okay, but if you take that definition, I think almost every convenience store in
Town should better be defined as a fast food restaurant than, and I don’t think that was
ever the intent of the Code.
MRS. STEFFAN-I don’t see this as serving meals.
MR. NACE-No.
MRS. STEFFAN-I mean, a Dunkin Donuts franchise is usually, you know, the principal
behind it is grab and go, which fits the criteria, in my mind, of a convenience store.
MR. NACE-Exactly.
MRS. STEFFAN-You’re on the road. You’re getting gas, you’re grabbing something,
you’re out of there.
MR. SEGULJIC-So we can consider it a whole convenience store then?
MRS. STEFFAN-I would think that would be a more suitable definition.
MR. HUNSINGER-And convenience store definition does say, which may offer limited
seating without wait service.
MR. SEGULJIC-All right. So that would meet it more than a restaurant.
MR. NACE-Yes, and that’s the way we defined it originally. The way we looked at the
parking area.
MR. SEGULJIC-Okay. That makes more sense.
MR. NACE-We really don’t need 100 parking spaces.
MR. SEGULJIC-No, you definitely do not.
MR. HUNSINGER-Any other questions or comments from members of the Board?
MRS. STEFFAN-We have all these colors going on. I think, as I read through the plans,
you’ve got green street light, green poles, right?
MR. CRUMB-They’re a dark, like a forest green street light. They’re not bright at all.
They blend in.
MRS. STEFFAN-Okay.
MR. CRUMB-More so than they would. They are green.
MR. HUNSINGER-We do have a public hearing scheduled this evening. Is there anyone
in the audience that wanted to address Board on this application? I would ask that you
identify yourself for the record and address your comments to the Board.
PUBLIC HEARING OPEN
DAVE BENGLE
MR. BENGLE-Good evening. My name’s Dave Bengle, a resident in Queensbury, and
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at the Planning Board meeting May 24, presented our objections to the proposed
project, and I was hopeful that you had the opportunity to review those written comments
and the engineer findings that we had submitted, particularly the parking requirements. I
don’t mean to sound redundant. I couldn’t hear everything that was being discussed
regarding the parking initially. So if this is irrelevant, I apologize, but what I’ve handed
you are just recalculations of the parking requirements. The Town of Queensbury states,
unless specified as gross leasable floor area, computing parking requirements need not
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
take into account basements, cellar and attic, and the plans do not indicate that all or
part of the basement is to be leased. However, we can assume that Dunkin Donuts will
have some storage in its basement. Therefore, some consideration should maybe
possibly be given to the additional parking requirements for the basement, but from this
point on, I’m going to exclude any reference to the basement, since we don’t know. On
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the site layout, SP-1, submitted by the applicant on May 24, they stated that 28 parking
spaces are required for a convenience store. However, it doesn’t seem like that’s really
what the plan is. The plan is to have a convenience store and a fast food restaurant with
seating, and I know that you’re just trying to differentiate the difference, but drive thru
would most likely indicate fast food, but however you take that. Originally the plan
included two fast food restaurants. We believe the applicant maybe intentionally did not
include the restaurant in order to avoid having to go before the Zoning Board in attempts
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to obtain a variance. That’s the issue, and on the Nace Engineer’s letter on June 15 to
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Mr. Craig Brown, which was a follow up to the May 24 Planning meeting, they continue
to refer only to the convenience store requirements and avoid referencing the
requirements for a fast food restaurant with seating, and any engineer, architect
preparing the plans would have to be familiar with the zoning regulations, 179-4-040.
They have to know that fast food restaurants require one parking space for every 25
square, one space per every four seats, and one for each two employees employed by
the restaurant. To further substantiate our belief that the exclusions were possibly
intentional, I refer to the Jolley similar submittal which you just discussed, less basement
at the Aviation Road Queensbury location. Sheet Three of the site plan prepared by
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Bohler Engineering on December 11 of last year clearly states the parking calculations
required. They include 67 parking spaces for the fast food restaurants, plus an
additional 26 for the convenience store. They acknowledge the need for one parking
space for every twenty-five square feet of restaurant and one space for every four seats,
in addition for parking for employees. So that was clearly stated on those plans, and in
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reviewing the Staff Notes from July 12, it was noticed that they didn’t really address the
need, which I think I heard earlier, of the 25 square feet of restaurant, which we thought
was probably just an oversight. So the question I guess we had was why they didn’t use
the same formula on this project as they did for the Aviation Road project, and I’m just
wondering if that was an attempt to try to slide it through. So that was, I guess, the issue.
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In addition to the parking, there are other issues outlined that we presented May 24,
that included the National Grid line. I’m not sure if that had been addressed, but it just
appeared that they planned to build over it, which may or may not be the case. The
internal traffic motions, particularly the RV’s towing boats, I thought maybe that was still
going to be an issue, and there’s no escape lane at the drive thru. That was noticed, and
again, that may have been changed since. The impact of traffic that we discussed
before is still obviously a concern of ours. For the connection onto the neighbor’s
property, which they admit cannot safely be done, if you look at paragraph four of the
Nace report that Mr. Brown had obtained, and, you know, in addition to the
environmental issues, filling in that lot, that we outlined the last time we were here.
Primarily, though, stated in my earlier comments, the parking proposal didn’t seem to be
anywhere near what is required by the Queensbury Zoning Board regulations. What
they’re trying to accomplish requires 60 spaces. They have 28, or 46% of what is
required. These calculations exclude any basement requirements. Just to be safe. So
based on the lack of parking alone, we do not feel the Planning Board can approve this
proposal at this time. It just seems they’re simply trying to put too much into too small a
piece of property, and that’s all I’ve got to say about that. Thank you for your time.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you. Anyone else have comments? I’ll leave the public
hearing open for the time being. If the applicant would like to come back.
MR. NACE-I guess to start, obviously parking is the issue. When we initially started this
project, we talked to Craig Brown about the parking requirements. He was the one that
directed us to use the convenience store, which is the definition for the use. He was
aware at that time that there were to be co-brands. I think originally we were talking
about two co-brands, and he is the one that advised us that that was a requirement for a
convenience store, and we felt that it fit. We looked at the actual needs, based on
Jolley’s past experience with these types of stores, and felt that the 28 parking spaces
were adequate.
MR. CRUMB-I don’t have a lot to comment about the gentleman that was just up here,
other than regarding the Subway and the removal thereof basically had to do with we felt
that we didn’t have enough floor space for the convenience store, and that was the need
for the removal. I would tend to agree with him that up at Aviation Road, that, yes, you
may be able to consider that as fast food because it is a sandwich shop. However, Exit
20 is not a sandwich shop, and we had also, if you go back, and this is really irrelevant to
tonight’s meeting, but if you go look at the resubmission for Aviation Road, we’ve also
14
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
added 1,000 square feet, or requested the addition thereof, and in explaining in my
narrative there was for the increased need for the convenience store space. So, to
answer his question regarding the Subway, that’s the specific reasoning. We could not
find the space. We would have liked to have had it, but due to the fact that we didn’t feel
we could increase the size of the building any further, we chose to remove the Subway.
MR. HUNSINGER-What about the comment about the National Grid gas main on the
site?
MR. NACE-The gas main?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. NACE-There’s, it’s on an easement, okay. It won’t, our construction won’t affect,
you know, the fact that it’s there, it’ll remain there. We’re not building a store over it. So I
don’t see it as an issue.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MS. CIMINO-The only traffic comments really were about the trailers, the boats, and that
is something that we addressed in our study. We have figures in there that showed
internal circulation and how all those different types of vehicles coming to that area can
ingress/egress through the site, and the general traffic comment, I mean, I did briefly go
over the few minor comments that Vision Engineering had, but in general they did state
in the beginning of that comment that there will not be any substantial impacts to traffic.
MR. HUNSINGER-Any other questions or comments from members of the Board? Are
members comfortable with the discussion and analysis on the parking? Are people
comfortable in moving forward with SEQRA?
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, we still have the last outstanding issue, the building appearance,
correct?
MRS. STEFFAN-We were going to ask them to take the green fascia off the entry way.
MR. SEGULJIC-Right, and are we going to want to see that design again? Then I guess
my only other problem is, if we had a Dunkin Donuts come before us, we wouldn’t
consider that a convenience store. Would we? So I’m confused about that. Not that I
want to see more parking.
MR. NACE-If we felt we needed the parking to serve the need, we’d be the first ones
here asking for it. It does no good for a retail business to have inadequate parking.
They’re the ones that are hurt, not the Town. So if Jolley felt they needed more parking,
we certainly would have proposed it.
MR. SEGULJIC-That’s my only comment.
MRS. STEFFAN-I have to admit, I weighed and considered what the existing site was
like currently, any of the traffic issues that were there. I considered the investigation and
discussion that we had on the site up the street, which was also a convenience store with
a Dunkin Donuts and another, I think it had two different franchises?
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MRS. STEFFAN-And then I looked at the Dunkin Donuts that we have, although I wasn’t
on the Board when we approved that, but the one down on Route 9, and this certainly
has a better traffic flow than the Dunkin Donuts that’s down on Route 9, and so when I
was weighing and considering all those factors and this site plan, I didn’t think there’d be
a problem. I don’t think there’d problem with a shortage of parking, and the current
convenience store has Subway in it.
MR. CRUMB-Has a deli, yes.
MRS. STEFFAN-It was a Subway.
MR. NACE-Correct.
MR. HUNSINGER-Is there anything else, Tom?
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. SEGULJIC-No, that’s it.
MR. HUNSINGER-Are you comfortable in moving forward?
MR. SEGULJIC-Let’s move forward.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. I will close the public hearing.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. HUNSINGER-The applicant has submitted a SEQRA Short Form.
MRS. STEFFAN-“Does the action exceed any Type I threshold in 6 NYCRR Part 617.4?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
MRS. STEFFAN-“Will the action receive coordinated review as provided for Unlisted
Actions in 6 NYCRR, Part 617.6?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
MRS. STEFFAN-“Could the action result in any adverse effects associated with the
following: C1. Existing air quality, surface or ground water quality or quantity, noise
levels, existing traffic patterns, solid waste production or disposal, potential for erosion,
drainage or flooding problems?”
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MRS. BRUNO-No.
MRS. STEFFAN-“C2. Aesthetic, agricultural, historic, or other natural or cultural
resources; or community or neighborhood character?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
MRS. STEFFAN-“C3. Vegetation, fauna, fish, shellfish or wildlife species, significant
habitats, or threatened or endangered species?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
MRS. BRUNO-No.
MRS. STEFFAN-“C4. A community’s existing plans or goals as officially adopted, or a
change in use or intensity of use of land or other natural resources?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
MRS. STEFFAN-“C5. Growth, subsequent development or related activities likely to be
induced by the proposed action?”
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
MRS. STEFFAN-“C6. Long term, short term, cumulative or other effects not identified
above?”
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MRS. STEFFAN-“C7. Other impacts (including changes in use of either quantity or
energy)?”
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
MR. HUNSINGER-My only hesitation is the amount of fill that’s going to be brought in.
MRS. BRUNO-I agree with that. That’s my hesitation as well.
MR. HUNSINGER-And it really doesn’t fit under one through six. I don’t think the impact
is significant, and it is, of course, being mitigated by the stormwater prevention plan
that’s been submitted, but I think it should be identified as part of the consideration for
SEQRA, as being a small to minor.
MRS. BRUNO-As well as in order to do that, I believe there’s going to need to be quite a
considerable amount of trees, foliage that will have to be removed. Remember that’s
completely wooded behind there.
MR. CRUMB-Not entirely. We do have a septic in the back.
MRS. BRUNO-Okay. I probably should have asked this earlier, but have you calculated
the square footage of the forested area that will be removed?
MR. NACE-The disturbed area? It’s all in the erosion and sediment control report.
MRS. BRUNO-Okay.
MR. NACE-I don’t recall what it is right offhand.
MRS. STEFFAN-Shall we proceed?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MRS. STEFFAN-“Will the project have an impact on the environmental characteristics
that caused the establishment of a Critical Environmental Area?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MRS. BRUNO-No.
MRS. STEFFAN-“Is there or is there likely to be controversy related to potential adverse
environmental impacts?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. SEGULJIC-No.
MRS. BRUNO-No.
MR. HUNSINGER-You can go ahead and make the motion. We just wanted to identify
that there is small to moderate impacts that are mitigated by the stormwater
management plan.
RESOLUTION WHEN DETERMINATION OF NO SIGNIFICANCE IS MADE
RESOLUTION NO. 22-2007, Introduced by Gretchen Steffan who moved for its
adoption, seconded by Thomas Seguljic:
WHEREAS, there is presently before the Planning Board an application for:
JOLLEY ASSOCIATES, and
WHEREAS, this Planning Board has determined that the proposed project and Planning
Board action is subject to review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED:
1. No Federal agency appears to be involved.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
2. The following agencies are involved:
NONE
3. The proposed action considered by this Board is Unlisted in the Department of
Environmental Conservation Regulations implementing the State Environmental
Quality Review Act and the regulations of the Town of Queensbury.
4. An Environmental Assessment Form has been completed by the applicant.
5. Having considered and thoroughly analyzed the relevant areas of environmental
concern and having considered the criteria for determining whether a project has
a significant environmental impact as the same is set forth in Section 617.11 of
the Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations for the State of New
York, this Board finds that the action about to be undertaken by this Board will
have no significant environmental effect and the Chairman of the Planning Board
is hereby authorized to execute and sign and file as may be necessary a
statement of non-significance or a negative declaration that may be required by
law.
th
Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
AYES: Mrs. Bruno, Mrs. Steffan, Mr. Seguljic, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver
MR. HUNSINGER-I know you’ve been working on a motion.
MRS. STEFFAN-And there was no discussion on the retaining wall.
MR. HUNSINGER-Has preliminary engineering of the retaining wall been reviewed by
the Town Engineer?
MR. NACE-Yes, it has. We’ve provided, Schoder River who’s engineering did the
structural for the wall, and we provided those drawing to Dan to review, and I think they
were part of your last submission process.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. NACE-Or they may have just gone to Dan. I don’t remember.
MR. HUNSINGER-I remember it was in their comment letter, previous, which is part of
th
the reason why I asked, because it wasn’t mentioned in the July 10 letter.
MRS. STEFFAN-I just wanted to bring it up to make sure. It’s been a hot topic recently.
So I just wanted to make sure that there were no issues.
MR. NACE-And we did provide you, I believe, with the agreement with the adjacent
landowner to tie the walls together.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right, that was there. Okay.
MRS. STEFFAN-All right.
MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 22-2007 JOLLEY ASSOCIATES, Introduced
by Gretchen Steffan who moved for its adoption, seconded by Thomas Seguljic:
According to the resolution prepared by Staff. Paragraph Four complies. Paragraph
Five Negative. Paragraph Eight does not apply. This application is approved with the
following conditions: That topographical and adjacent building notations should be
depicted on the final documents. That the applicant will eliminate the green front door
fascia, and that the applicant notes the design of the building will include the brick façade
as presented to the Board.
th
Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Seguljic, Mrs. Steffan, Mr. Hunsinger
18
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
NOES: Mrs. Bruno
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver
MR. HUNSINGER-We need four. Would anyone like to put forward a different resolution
for the Board to consider?
MRS. BRUNO-Well, it would probably, my reasoning is, is I believe at the last meeting I
had mentioned that I thought, given the site, understanding that there is fill coming in
and, you know, a larger level area is planned to be made, I just still think that it’s too
much for the site. So I don’t know how we would make a motion that could combine that.
I appreciate that he has looked at, that Jolley Associates has, you know, the architectural
updates and everything. I’m just very concerned that.
MR. HUNSINGER-This is an unusual position for me on the Board. If we don’t have
enough votes to carry or deny a project?
MR. FULLER-It’s a denial.
MR. HUNSINGER-It’s a denial?
MR. FULLER-Anything but an approval’s a denial.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. NACE-Can we, since, okay, do they have to pass a denial vote to do that?
MR. FULLER-They just did. I guess that’s the concern.
MR. NACE-Is there a way we can table this until there are sufficient members?
MR. FULLER-Unfortunately, no. You just denied it.
MR. SEGULJIC-So that means a whole new application?
MR. FULLER-Well, unfortunately, now they cannot submit on the exact same facts
anymore either. Once you’re denied, you’re denied. You can’t come back with the exact
same application on the exact same set of facts.
MR. SEGULJIC-What if tonight we ask them to, I forget what the building is, 4300 square
feet, let’s say reduce it to 4,000 or 3500?
MR. FULLER-Already denied it. That’s the concern is we’re in a situation. I just
commented to Stu that we have issued a Negative Declaration again, but then ultimately
you adopted a denial. Some of the issues that you just raised are certainly quasi-
environmental issues. So it’s been issued. Yes, ultimately it’s a denial right now.
MR. CRUMB-If I may ask, how is it bearing when there’s three members of the Board not
here who’s opinions have not been heard?
MR. FULLER-In order to have a meeting, under the Open Meetings Law, you need a
quorum of the Board. They have that, four out of seven. In order to pass something,
you’ll need that same quorum of the Board, four out of seven. Not quorum of the, not
majority of the people present.
MR. CRUMB-That doesn’t seem fair to me when we didn’t have the opportunity to come
in here and count votes and say, you know what, we’d like to pull our application for this
evening and come back when all seven members are here. How is that fair?
MR. FULLER-The same reasoning could have been made before they took the vote on
the Negative Declaration. It’s the same.
MR. NACE-And you’re sure that not to pass a positive vote is the same a negative
denial?
MR. FULLER-Yes, it’s not approved.
MR. NACE-Can the same Board go back and pass a tabling resolution?
19
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. HUNSINGER-That’s why I asked the question.
MRS. BRUNO-Yes.
MR. FULLER-Unless you were now going to adopt a resolution to rescind the previous
resolution you just entered into. Again, that’s on somewhat.
MRS. BRUNO-I, quite frankly, did not realize that we needed all four. I thought it would
be based as well as exactly what you’re saying, that it would be based on this evening’s
balance.
MR. NACE-The majority of those present.
MR. FULLER-Now you know that it’s four.
MR. NACE-Okay, but does the Board have the option of rescinding that, under a positive
resolution, and tabling it?
MR. FULLER-You could do that. The risk to the applicants.
MR. CRUMB-I would ask that it be tabled and we be allowed to come back and review
this with the entire Board, once again, to get the feeling of everyone on the Board.
MR. SEGULJIC-But we’d have to make a motion to rescind it, right? And then have a
motion to table it. How do you feel about that?
MRS. BRUNO-I think that’s fine.
MRS. STEFFAN-We’re on shaky ground, aren’t we?
MR. FULLER-You are, but again, it’s purely the applicant’s risk. If somebody challenges
that aspect of the decision.
MR. HUNSINGER-I guess I don’t understand how it’s at the applicant’s risk.
MR. FULLER-If somebody overturns that decision.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. FULLER-A higher authority overturns any future Planning Board action by saying
you’ve already denied it.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. FULLER-I can’t answer that question sitting here for you.
MRS. BRUNO-If we rescind it, the original denial is still in play by a higher authority?
MR. FULLER-It’s on the record right now.
MR. SEGULJIC-Now explain to me again how it’s at the risk of the applicant?
MR. FULLER-They want to go forward with their project. If somebody came in and
challenged.
MR. SEGULJIC-Who’s somebody? Some outside group, some member of the public?
MR. FULLER-Exactly. Somebody, the gentleman that had concerns with it now. If
someone with standing tries to oppose the project.
MR. SEGULJIC-Say it was voted on denial, and brought it to court.
MR. FULLER-And then says, hey, the Planning Board then rescinded that vote because
they didn’t have enough votes to approve it, and then tabled it, that’s the risk you run is
that some court could say that that was improper, and again, ultimately they want to
move forward. It would be your decision being overturned.
MR. SEGULJIC-Right, but they’d have 30 days to challenge that.
20
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. FULLER-Right.
MR. SEGULJIC-So do they go out and start a whole new application?
MR. NACE-He just said we can’t submit the same.
MR. SEGULJIC-Right, a whole new application.
MR. SEGULJIC-What do we do?
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, we heard Counsel say that we could rescind the vote that was
taken, and the dissenting vote said that she would be in favor of that.
MR. SEGULJIC-Is there a risk to the Board in doing that, setting precedent?
MR. FULLER-Do you want to take a break?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, why don’t we take a break? Or shall we go into Executive
Session?
MR. FULLER-Yes.
MOTION TO GO INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION, Introduced by Thomas Seguljic who
moved for its adoption, seconded by Gretchen Steffan:
th
Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
AYES: Mrs. Bruno, Mr. Steffan, Mr. Seguljic, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver
MOTION TO COME OUT OF EXECUTIVE SESSION, Introduced by Gretchen Steffan
who moved for its adoption, seconded by Tanya Bruno:
th
Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
AYES: Mrs. Bruno, Mr. Steffan, Mr. Seguljic, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver
MR. HUNSINGER-And I appreciate the public’s patience. Our attorney has some
comments to make relative to our discussion.
MR. FULLER-The discussion is of Town Law 271-16. There wasn’t an affirmative vote,
or enough votes to approve the project, which is where the majority here tonight went.
You need four out of seven votes to make that affirmative approval, and I think what Mr.
Nace has said is does that automatically vote denial, and what we’re going to do is allow
your attorney, whoever you’re working with, the opportunity to call me to discuss it, and
we will have a resolution to that question by the next meeting, and I think that’s where
the Board would be heading would be to put you on for that next meeting for clarification.
MR. CRUMB-That’s fair enough.
MR. NACE-So that’ll be next week?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. FULLER-So you’ll just have to let me know who you’re working with so they can.
MR. CRUMB-If you can give me your card, I’ve just gotten off the phone with him as well.
MR. FULLER-I will do that.
21
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. HUNSINGER-And part of the discussion is for the public’s benefit is there have
been occasions in the past where there wasn’t enough vote to affirm a resolution that
was offered, and there has been cases where multiple resolutions were offered before
one was ultimately adopted. So there was some precedent for that conclusion.
MR. FULLER-Where the concern was tonight is that difference is we didn’t have another
resolution.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. FULLER-So what do we do with you without another resolution coming forward, and
I think that’s what we need to resolve.
MR. HUNSINGER-And in those other cases we had a full slate in attendance as well.
MRS. BRUNO-Right.
MR. FULLER-Right.
MR. HUNSINGER-Or I’m sorry we had six out of seven. Okay.
MOTION TO TABLE SITE PLAN NO. 22-2007 JOLLEY ASSOCIATES, Introduced by
Gretchen Steffan who moved for its adoption, seconded by Thomas Seguljic:
Until our next meeting on July 24, 2007. The Planning Board has decided to allow our
Town Counsel and the applicant’s counsel to further discuss this issue and procedural
matters. We do not have enough votes to resolve this issue tonight, and that’s why we’re
tabling this application.
th
Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
AYES: Mrs. Bruno, Mrs. Steffan, Mr. Seguljic, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver
MR. NACE-Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you.
SITE PLAN NO. 8-2007 MODIFICATION SEQR TYPE UNLISTED STEWARTS
SHOPS AGENT(S) SAME OWNER(S) QUAKER & DIX NORTHERN DRIVE LLC
ZONING HC-INT. LOCATION 777 DIX AVENUE APPLICANT PROPOSES A
MODIFICATION TO THE APPROVED PLAN. MODIFICATIONS INCLUDE CHANGES
TO THE GAS ISLANDS, BLACKTOP REDUCTION; RELOCATION OF TANKS;
REDUCED SITE LIGHTING. CROSS REFERENCE SP 59-2004, OPS 27-07
WARREN CO. PLANNING 3/14/07 LOT SIZE 1.5 ACRES TAX MAP NO. 303.19-1-61
SECTION 179-4-020
TOM LEWIS, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. LEWIS-Good evening.
MR. HUNSINGER-Good evening. I guess before you start, in light of the past
application and what occurred, I will give you and any other applicants this evening the
option to table our discussion to a future date.
MR. LEWIS-Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. You’re welcome.
MR. LEWIS-I’m Tom Lewis. I’m the real estate representative of the Stewarts Shops,
and I have been in this exact situation maybe five or six times, and each time when the
Chairman either said that or even if they didn’t, I would ask is it okay if, as I go over our
application, if I could get a sense from the Board as to where they might be and there
was only one time when I was ever denied that, and there was a vote and I was
unanimously defeated. So it really wouldn’t have mattered anyway. We have been
before this Board a number of times and were approved last month and Mr. Dake, who
22
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
you’ve occasionally heard me refer to, is what I would describe as relentless. He never
stops, and even after we were approved, he looked at the site plan and said, you know,
Tom, you really screwed up, because when you look at what we had asked for, that you
were so gracious as to approve, which is on the big sheet, which you’ll see we were
approved on the right, the four islands, and he explained to me how, that it’ll be difficult
for a car if there’s a car at one of these islands here, and then they have to go here, it’ll
be hard getting around. So even though, Tom, you thought we needed four islands, we
really only need three. So we’re asking for a modification for less than we were
approved, and we’re actually reducing our island by 50% from 2808 square feet to 1400.
There will be a very modest increase in the blacktop, but we still have over 40% of green
space. We have relocated the underground tanks to a more sensible spot because of
this, and might I mention that the lighting will be, as a consequence, decreased. Now I
wish I could say Mr. Dake had looked at that sheet, with all the numbers on it, the lighting
sheet, and said, oh my God, I’m blinded by the light, but that’s actually not what
happened. So then there’s a second sheet which I’ve enclosed where I’ve highlighted in
yellow what’s new and in green what was approved, and you’ll see that the numbers get
lower and the overall site goes from .61 down to .53. So with that brief presentation, I
wonder if I could ask the Board for a sense of where they may be on this, before I
actually ask whether the Board would consider an approval.
MR. SEGULJIC-I’ll ask for clarification. So you’re reducing the number of pumps from
four to three?
MR. LEWIS-Correct.
MR. SEGULJIC-That’s the only change, then, other than the increase in the asphalt?
MR. LEWIS-Yes, modest increase, and where the tanks, where the underground tanks
are moved.
MR. SEGULJIC-Why, I would think if you’re decreasing your number of pumps, you
would decrease your asphalt, not increase. Why are you increasing?
MR. LEWIS-Well, because you’ll see that we needed more room to go around the pump,
which is why I gave you the sheet that shows both the increase is right over here, sorry,
wrong site plan, wrong town. See, we had the blacktop here, and in order to have the
cars go around this way, we had to add about 1400 square feet of blacktop, which
actually also by the way gave us an extra parking spot, but this, this is really about the
ease of our customers. This is about making things easy for them, and even though
there’s one less island, which in theory means we’re going to make less money, if you’re
good to your customers, you usually get it back. So, it’s just a modest amount right up
here, with lots of green space.
MRS. STEFFAN-But it doesn’t affect that garden that was right (lost words)?
MR. LEWIS-We also added those whiskey thingies are on the plan. So we’re happy to
do that.
MR. HUNSINGER-And the building hasn’t changed at all?
MR. LEWIS-Nothing else has changed. Only those two items, the tanks, and one less
pump, less light.
MR. SEGULJIC-I’m okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Tanya?
MRS. BRUNO-Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MRS. STEFFAN-Do we have to reconsider SEQRA?
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, we do have to consider it, but we don’t have to go through the
whole thing. If there’s any changes, then we would have to, but.
MRS. BRUNO-No changes in the stormwater. It doesn’t affect anything.
MR. LEWIS-Nothing.
23
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MRS. STEFFAN-Ready to go forward?
MR. HUNSINGER-Are we okay?
MR. BAKER-If the Board is so inclined, you could simply state for the purposes of the
addressing SEQRA that you don’t feel there are significant changes, that the changes
that are proposed to the site plan, rather, are significant enough to change your previous
Negative Declaration.
MR. SEGULJIC-So is that two separate motions?
MR. BAKER-You could do it as part of the same motion.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, we do have the language about SEQRA in the standard motion,
as Item Five, and usually we just modify that to say that we had previously adopted a
SEQRA Negative Declaration, and the proposed modifications do not result in any new
or significant environmental impacts. Okay. Gretchen has it.
MOTION TO APPROVE MODIFICATION TO SITE PLAN NO. 8-2007 STEWARTS
SHOPS, Introduced by Gretchen Steffan who moved for its adoption, seconded by
Thomas Seguljic:
1. WHEREAS, a site plan application has been made to the Queensbury Planning
Board for the following: Applicant proposes a modification to the approved plan.
Modifications include changes to the gas islands, blacktop reduction; relocation of tanks;
reduced site lighting.
2. WHEREAS, a public hearing is not required for a modification.
3. WHEREAS, this application is supported with all documentation, public comment and
application material in the file of record; and
4. WHEREAS, pursuant to relevant sections of the Town of Queensbury Zoning Code
[Chapter 179], the Planning Board has determined that this proposal complies comply
with the requirements as stated in the Zoning Code; and
5. The requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act have been
considered, and the application is a modification, the requirements of the State
Environmental Quality Review Act have been considered, and the proposed
modification[s] do not result in any new or significantly different environmental impacts,
and, therefore, no further SEQRA review is necessary; and
6. WHEREAS, final approved plans, in compliance with the Site Plan, must be submitted
to the Community Development Department before any further review by the Zoning
Administrator or Building and Codes personnel. Subsequent issuance of further permits,
including building permits are dependent on receipt; and
7. The applicant will provide as-built plans to certify that the site plan is developed
according to the approved plans prior to issuance of the certificate of occupancy; and
8 If applicable, Item 8 to be combined with a letter of credit; and NOT
APPLICABLE
9. The Sanitary Sewer connection plan must be submitted to the Wastewater
Department for its review, approval, permitting and inspection. NOT APPLICABLE
10. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that we find the following:
MOTION TO APPROVE MODIFICATION TO SITE PLAN NO. 8-2007 STEWARTS
SHOPS, Introduced by Gretchen Steffan who moved for its adoption, seconded by
Thomas Seguljic:
According to the resolution prepared by Staff. Paragraph One, it says blacktop
reduction. Reduction should be struck from that paragraph, blacktop reduction should be
struck. Paragraph Two is fine. Paragraph Three is fine. Paragraph Four complies.
Paragraph Five the requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act have
been considered. This application is a modification. The requirements of the State
Environmental Quality Review Act have been considered, and the proposed modification
24
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
does not result in any new or significantly different environmental impacts. Therefore,
the Board determined that no further SEQRA review is necessary. Paragraph Six is fine.
Paragraph Seven is fine. Paragraph Eight and Nine do not apply.
th
Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
AYES: Mrs. Bruno, Mrs. Steffan, Mr. Seguljic, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver
MR. LEWIS-Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-You’re all set.
MR. LEWIS-By the way, we bought the property.
MR. HUNSINGER-You did.
MR. LEWIS-We avoided foreclosure. The bank said we’re probably their best bet. We
are. Thank you very much.
MRS. BRUNO-I have one other curiosity question. You know how last time you had said
that you could not sell any meat products because of McDonalds, like the agreement
with the.
MR. LEWIS-There is a deed restriction which lists specific meat items.
MRS. BRUNO-Specific. That was my question.
MR. LEWIS-We’re not allowed to sell, and so we bought a modification that will allow us
to sell what we now sell, but I can’t add something new like, you know, double decker
hamburgers or something.
MRS. BRUNO-Right. Okay. Thanks.
MR. LEWIS-Thank you very much.
SUBDIVISION NO. 13-2006 PRELIMINARY STAGE SEQR TYPE UNLISTED
THOMAS BRENNAN AGENT(S) B P S R OWNER(S) SAME ZONING SR-1A
LOCATION 751 CORINTH ROAD APPLICANT PROPOSES SUBDIVISION OF A
22.70 ACRE PARCEL INTO 16 RESIDENTIAL LOTS RANGING IN SIZE FROM 1.0 TO
2.33 ACRES. SUBDIVISION OF LAND REQUIRES PLANNING BOARD REVIEW AND
APPROVAL. CROSS REFERENCE SKETCH: 10/17/06 WARREN CO. PLANNING
4/11/07 LOT SIZE 22.70 TAX MAP NO. 315.0-1-12.1, 12.2 SECTION A-183
STEPHANIE BITTER, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MS. BITTER-Good evening.
MR. HUNSINGER-Good evening.
MS. BITTER-Stephanie Bitter for the applicant, together with Dave BOGARDIS, the
project engineer, and Tom Brennan, the applicant. I know that in order to do a brief
overview of the Staff comments, I know our submission was extensive to review the
items that were deficient at the last meeting. Just to highlight, two of the items that are
still of issue, or could be of concern, the length of the cul de sac. We are seeking a
waiver, after requesting a determination from Craig Brown, he said that that was the
adequate procedure to follow. We feel that this waiver is a reasonable request,
considering that there’s four other subdivisions that have a similar type boulevard style,
in addition to the fact that the 1,000 foot requirement is actually met from the last
landscaping island to the end of the cul de sac. So we feel as if the spirit of the
regulation is being addressed. The next item would be the sidewalks. I know that the
sidewalks were requested at Sketch Plan review. Due to the fact that originally we were
trying to incorporate a connection with the bike path. We understood that that was
something to at least try and consider for the purposes of protecting the pedestrians that
would be trying to connect to the bike path. Unfortunately, during this review, Hudson
Pointe’s property is actually between this parcel and the bike path, and we would have to
25
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
get their approval in order to make that connection. They’ve declined that request. As a
result, since the bike path is no longer an issue, we have removed the (lost word) of the
sidewalks. In addition to the fact that the sidewalks would just be leading pedestrians to
Corinth Road, which do not have sidewalks, it’s our understanding, in speaking to
members of DOT, that that’s considered a hazard to try and lead individuals to
destinations of high volume traffic that don’t have sidewalks. Before I turn it over to Dave
BOGARDIS to go over the engineering comments, I just want to note that we did have,
or we did anticipate that stormwater would still possibly be a concern, based on the
engineer’s review. We did try and reach out and have a meeting with the Town Engineer
prior to this meeting, to try and iron out those issues, but unfortunately it wasn’t able to
be met. So we are willing to try and meet with them to discuss this, and we apologize
that we couldn’t do it beforehand, but we did try to.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MS. BITTER-I’ll turn it over to Dave.
DAVE BOGARDIS
MR. BOGARDIS-I’m going to go through the Staff comments first, which I received on
Friday. The first one Stephanie reiterated is the length of the cul de sac. The second is
the density calculations. We did revise those density calculations and submit those with
this package. There was a question about the habitat for the new Karner blue butterfly.
We submitted a letter dated May 15 with our package. I believe that’s complete. The
next comment was the percolation test. The comment Staff made is they were provided.
The results of those are on the plan sheets that you do have. Stephanie talked about the
sidewalks. Stephanie talked about the pedestrian bicycle connection. The next item
was missing information from the previous submittal, and, Stephanie, why don’t you
reiterate on that.
MS. BITTER-Those items have been met, which Stu acknowledges, but based on our
letter of submission.
MR. BOGARDIS-Okay. The comments, the last comment from the Staff is that they
recommend that these issues, the issues regarding stormwater be addressed with the
th
Town Engineer prior to granting Preliminary approval for this plat. On July 10, we did
talk to Mr. Dan Ryan, and he said that we would have to get permission from the
Planning Department to have a meeting, and it wasn’t appropriate to do so at that time.
So we did not have a meeting. We attempted to have one. So I apologize. We can’t
address all of these stormwater management issues and Vision Engineering. I can talk
about them, but I’m not the stormwater engineer. The stormwater engineer is Phil Culzy
from Edwards and Kelcey. I can talk about them. I’m knowledgeable enough to talk
about them, but I can’t answer the specific questions about the stormwater management
report which you do have. The first comment from the engineer was he wanted back up
information for our traffic count, which I have given Stephanie a copy to provide to you
tonight and we will provide additional copies. The second comment addresses the
stormwater management, and I think that the problem that we’re having with the
stormwater management is that we’ve designed the stormwater management system for
this project so it’s pretty much a mirror image of what’s on the street next door at Quincy
Lane. It uses drywells. We had initially went one step further than that and used a pre-
treatment system to filter out the contaminants before they get into the drywell so there
are no problems with the drywells plugging up with silt, and that was something that the
engineer had not seen before. It’s something that’s relatively new. It is posted on DEC’s
website. It is approved, but given the fact, in his comment letter, that he didn’t like it, we
removed it. So now we have conventional drywells, just like, I think most of the new
subdivisions in Queensbury. His last comment is that it is recommended that the
applicant obtain a ruling clarification from DEC as to the necessity of a permit coverage
corresponding to the design requirements. The project is designed so that it is
completely self-contained. There is no stormwater passing from this site onto another
property. No stormwater comes on this property and no stormwater leaves this property.
What I think that his, let me go on to the next comment. His comment was about the
percolation test and the deep test holes. We did do five deep test holes and four perc
tests, and I believe that he’s satisfied with those. Under a general, we had some
stormwater inlets that were 310, 312 feet apart, and your regulation calls for 300. We
modified our plans so the stormwater catch basin inlets are 300 feet apart. So I believe,
from reading his comment, that he’s satisfied with that. The basic comment of the
drywells and the infiltration, this is where we need to talk to him, because he makes a
comment, consideration should be given to providing other stormwater practices which
are able to be better managed by the Town, such as infiltration basins and conveyance
26
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
through the use of a swale and channels. Well, we’re anticipating this to be a high end
residential subdivision, and if he’s implying that he would like to use road ditches for the
collection of water and the pre-treatment of stormwater, that is something that we were
trying to avoid, using road ditches. What we’re using, the Queensbury road cross
section that has a wing curb to contain the water in the street and to direct it into an inlet.
So I can’t comment on what he means by swales, other than thinking that he might want
roadside swales instead of your curb section. So we really do need to have a meeting
with Mr. Ryan to understand what he’s looking for, and when he talks about infiltration
basins, I don’t think that he, I think that he’s looking for a detention pond type of system
where you have an open detention area, like a shopping center, something like that,
which is something that, which is something that we haven’t seen used in any of your
residential subdivisions, at least in this area, and particularly Quincy Lane, which has an
identical stormwater management system that we have proposed. Quincy Lane is the
next street over. The topography for Quincy Lane actually duplicates exactly what we
have. It’s right next door. The ground contours are the same, and the engineer that did
that design, and this Board approved it, uses drywells and infiltration trench which is
what we had proposed. Comment Number Six, I believe he’s looking for a typical
erosion and sediment control plan should be completed for each individual lot
construction. Well, in this plan we’ve given a complete sediment and erosion control
plan and a grading plan, and naturally it’s based on the actual road design, but it is
based on speculative of where houses would go because every person may not choose
to have the same style of house we have. So it’s a demonstrative grading plan that
shows that the lots are buildable, and that stormwater can be managed, but when a
buyer chooses to build a home and chooses to put it on the lot, as long as it fits zoning,
and reasonable engineering practices, you know, the house that gets constructed may
not be exactly the house that’s shown on this grading plan. So what we normally do, and
I’m sure what you require, is to do an individual plot plan for each individual house for a
building permit which shows grading, stormwater management, septic design, etc. So
we would propose to do the sediment and erosion control on a per lot basis, on the
actual house that’s going to be constructed, along with the demonstrative plan that we
have to provide to DEC. He asked for a note be added to the lot layout plan indicating
that roof drains shall be guttered and piped to the drywell depicted on the detail. That
note is on there, but we can include the word “shall”, which we do not have, if it’s more
clear. Number Eight, the limits of disturbance should be indicated on Drawing Number
Six. The limits of disturbance are shown on Sheets Numbers Nine and Ten, and Sheet
Number Five, and I don’t know how they got deleted. That’s my fault. They’re shown
properly on the clearing plan, but on the grading plan they got omitted on one sheet. We
will correct that. The statement is made, the Town Code requires any proposed grades
greater than one on three to be specifically landscaped so that mowing will not be
required. I’ve reviewed the grading plan, again, and there are no grades on this project
that exceed a slope of one on three. Number Ten, the typical lot diagram should indicate
a minimum of 20 feet separation from the roof drywell to any sewage component. I
agree with that totally. This plan is marked up to include that note, and this last comment
requires, again, a meeting with Mr. Ryan. The statement is made, the erosion and
sediment control notes and requirements need to be clarified on the plans, and I don’t
find anything that I don’t understand, so they’re standard notes and standard detail. So
we need to talk to him about that. And he makes the comment, also, steeper slopes
will require temporary and permanent stabilization, which should be clearly indicated,
and I’ll have to review that with him also.
MR. HUNSINGER-Anything else?
MS. BITTER-Not at this time.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. I’ll open it up to questions and comments from the Board.
MRS. STEFFAN-How do we feel about the cul de sac issue? There have been some
past decisions made where the length of the cul de sac was determined based on the
end of the boulevard. I think that’s an issue brought up by Staff. It’s something we
should discuss and decide on.
MR. SEGULJIC-I believe, if I recall there was a letter from Craig Brown, saying it’s 1,000
feet. You can’t take into account the boulevard.
MRS. STEFFAN-The boulevard.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
27
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. SEGULJIC-I guess with regard to the cul de sac there was also a letter in the
package saying that the Hudson Pointe Homeowners Association was not in favor of a
connection to that road. Have you approached them at all?
MS. BITTER-Right, we did. They were at the last meeting, so we discussed it with them.
That’s why they sent the letter saying they didn’t want that.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, you know, it’s in our Code for 1,000 feet. I, for one, would have to
stick with that, and I think you should go back and talk to Hudson Pointe.
MS. BITTER-Well, we did. That’s the problem, and I think that’s why Craig Brown’s
indicating that the waiver is what the next procedure would be, and it seems to me,
unfortunately, I FOIL’d the four subdivisions that I referenced, but I haven’t received
those resolutions, but they’re of the same type of situation where the 1,000 foot was
either measured from the end of the landscaping or a waiver was granted. That’s why
we’re proposing it in the same instance.
MRS. STEFFAN-Tom, the issue of the Homeowners Association not wanting to have a
connection, path connection to the Hudson Pointe, I think their Homeowners Association,
especially the folks that bordered where a possible connection would be, the folks who
lived in that area didn’t want the traffic. They were concerned about the safety of their
children and some other issues.
MS. BITTER-I think they made comments at the public hearing at the last meeting.
MRS. STEFFAN-Yes.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, how much traffic would there really be?
MS. BITTER-I think it’s a matter of not only the homeowners of Brennan, but also
whatever thru traffic it could produce, which was their concern.
MR. SEGULJIC-Isn’t one of the things we’re trying to do is promote more connectivity in
the community?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, absolutely.
MR. SEGULJIC-And I think, I don’t know how you approached Hudson Pointe. I’ve got
to believe they’re not interested in connecting, nor are you. So you didn’t really address
it with them.
MS. BITTER-Well, honestly, we were trying to obtain a resolution. So we did approach
them, but, you know, as their spirit at the last meeting showed that they weren’t even
interested in entertaining the idea of the bike path, nor the connection.
MR. BOGARDIS-If you look at our cover sheet, Quincy Lane is shown. We’re the
shaded property, and Quincy Lane is the property up sheet, and that’s an 18 lot
subdivision with a road about equal to our length, that was approved by Queensbury,
what, three years ago, Tom, and, you know, as the Staff Notes for the original review of
this project state, that would have been the time that we could have worked together and
put a connection between these two projects, and unfortunately we don’t have that
option now.
MR. HUNSINGER-And they made the argument, we’ve talked to all the neighbors,
nobody wants to work with us, and therefore this is the only feasible option.
MR. BOGARDIS-He was the neighbor, and I think he probably would have went for that.
MR. HUNSINGER-I voted against it, by the way. So I remember it well.
MS. BITTER-And that’s why I got the letter from Hudson Pointe, just to show that we did
make an attempt to reach out to them.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. Sure.
MR. SEGULJIC-So you approached, they did not approach you, Quincy Lane did not
approach you? And it was presented to us that they did. Is that what I’m hearing here?
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. HUNSINGER-I don’t remember exactly what the argument was, but they made an
argument for all the reasons why, you know, they couldn’t make a connection.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, I think we ought to start having connectivity in this community, and
we’d appreciate it if you’d work with us.
MS. BITTER-Right, and that’s what we tried to do, Tom.
MR. BOGARDIS-We certainly agree with you, and from an engineering standpoint, we’d
love to loop our water line also, but we don’t have the opportunity left to do either one of
those two things anymore.
TOM BRENNAN
MR. BRENNAN-They were adamant about when a convenient store was going at the
end. A road was supposed to go all the way through. They fought that.
MR. HUNSINGER-I know. I remember that, too.
MR. BRENNAN-They don’t want it connected it, and that would be with no houses.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, and it’s really in their best interest, and I felt that all along. I
mean, they complained that there would be additional traffic, but it’s still the same
neighbors, you know.
MR. BOGARDIS-We have no opportunity, other than Hudson Pointe.
MR. BRENNAN-Can’t even get to the Town of Queensbury (lost word).
MR. BOGARDIS-We’ve had quite a number of discussions with them.
MR. BRENNAN-They won’t even let me put an easement to get to the bike path, to ride a
bicycle.
MR. HUNSINGER-Do you have any thoughts, Matt, on how, you know, and maybe not
even for this application, but in the future we can, you know, force neighbors to provide
better connections, whether it be subdivisions or commercial properties? Because we sit
here and hear the same arguments every meeting, and people saying the neighbors
don’t want it.
MR. BOGARDIS-I’m (lost word) as a member of a Planning Board in my community, and
not as the applicant here. In a lot of cases, you would mandate that an easement be
held there in place, with a provision for it to be tied into, whether it ever happened or not.
MR. FULLER-You already do.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, that’s what we do for commercial properties.
MR. FULLER-It’s in your Subdivision, too, A-183, in the Subdivision Regs, 183-23 F.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, we haven’t had a lot of success with that in subdivisions.
There’s been maybe two or three that have been able to do that.
MR. FULLER-Yes, that’s how you do it.
MR. HUNSINGER-And when it works, it works really well. It does.
MR. FULLER-Is there vacant land adjacent to this one?
MR. HUNSINGER-There used to be.
MS. BITTER-This was it.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, maybe you ought to talk to someone on Quincy Lane and build
them a new house over here, with a loop through. Have you considered that?
MR. BRENNAN-I don’t think that would even, it wouldn’t work because there’s
Homeowners Association property.
29
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MS. BITTER-So the covenants and declarations are incorporated as well.
MR. BRENNAN-It wouldn’t be buying a house, it would be buying, trying to buy a piece,
buying a house and a piece of the Homeowners Association, which we’d never get that
to happen. You could buy the house, but you wouldn’t ever get the Homeowners
Association to sell you a piece.
MRS. STEFFAN-Yes, you’d have to get 16 folks, or however many lots there are, to
approve it.
MR. SEGULJIC-It’s something that could be evaluated.
MR. BRENNAN-I mean, we just spent about a half an hour with the President and some
other gentleman that was a member of the Homeowners Association in discussion, very
nice polite discussion, amiable, but no.
MRS. STEFFAN-Will your development have a Homeowners Association?
MR. BRENNAN-We’re going to try.
MRS. BRUNO-Right behind the Quincy Lane area, there’s a small, basically a margin in
between the back lots and I guess the folks that come off of Kettle’s Way. Is that a
NiMo easement?
MR. HUNSINGER-I think it’s a buffer. I’m not sure why.
MRS. BRUNO-A Hudson Pointe buffer?
MR. HUNSINGER-I’m not sure. I think it was put in to satisfy the people at Hudson
Pointe.
MR. BRENNAN-Yes, I recall that.
MRS. STEFFAN-So it’s probably owned by the Homeowners Association?
MR. BRENNAN-I believe so, but I don’t know that for a fact, but I believe so. I remember
that gentleman telling us that was part of Quincy Lane.
MR. HUNSINGER-One of the questions I had was on the letter from North Country
Ecological Services regarding the Karner blue butterfly. Usually we get something from
DEC that confirms those findings.
MS. BITTER-We could confirm that if you’d like us to.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Yes. I always forget the woman’s name at DEC that issues
those letters. I mean, it’s basically a signoff saying, you know, we agree with the
Findings and Conclusions offered.
MS. BITTER-Okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-Anything else? We do have a public hearing scheduled. Is there
anyone here that wanted to address the Board on this application? I will open the public
hearing.
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
MR. HUNSINGER-And I will leave it open.
MRS. BRUNO-I’m very interested, my initial step would, in terms of the cul de sac, would
be exactly what you’re doing, the FOILing. I’d like to se some of those decisions, too,
just to be able to compare.
MR. HUNSINGER-Which were the other ones, other than Quincy?
MS. BITTER-Quincy Lane, Surrey Lane, Grandview Boulevard is the most recent, and
Western Reserve Trail.
MR. SEGULJIC-But just because we made mistakes in the past doesn’t mean we should
continue with them.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. HUNSINGER-I know. I agree.
MRS. BRUNO-That’s true.
MR. HUNSINGER-Any other questions, comments from the Board? Would anyone like
to offer a tabling resolution? Do you know what the agenda looks like for August, Stu? I
haven’t seen any mark ups yet.
MR. BAKER-I believe it’s looking fairly light. Craig mentioned to me earlier that there
were 11 applications for August.
rd
MR. HUNSINGER-If we got submissions by the 3.
MOTION TO TABLE PRELIMINARY STAGE SUBDIVISION NO. 13-2006 THOMAS
BRENNAN, Introduced by Gretchen Steffan who moved for its adoption, seconded by
Thomas Seguljic:
stst
Tabled to the August 21 meeting, which is the 1 Planning Board meeting in August,
rd
and extend the submission deadline to August 3, which is a Friday. I’d like to table this
with the condition that the applicant will address the Vision Engineering comments of
thth
July 10 in their letter of July 10, and so that the applicant can also arrange a meeting
with Vision Engineering through our Town of Queensbury Community Development
Department to address specifically Item Five regarding stormwater design. A further
condition for this tabling motion is that the applicant will provide information on the
similar cul de sac approvals from the Town of Queensbury.
th
Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
MR. SEGULJIC-Do you want to advise them with regards to the cul de sac at this point?
MRS. STEFFAN-That is an issue in the Staff Notes, and they do know that we’re looking
for information, but the agent for the applicant said that they were FOILing some
information, so I think that will come back as an open issue.
MR. BAKER-Do you want to specify that you want that information in the re-submittal?
MRS. STEFFAN-Okay.
AYES: Mrs. Bruno, Mrs. Steffan, Mr. Seguljic, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver
MR. BRENNAN-I have a question on protocol.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. BRENNAN-How do I arrange a meeting with Dan Ryan, other than calling Dan Ryan
and asking for a meeting? I was told that a meeting had to go through Craig Brown.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, they should go through the Town.
MRS. STEFFAN-Right, I said the Town of Queensbury Community Development
Department.
MR. BRENNAN-So call Craig Brown and get a meeting scheduled?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MRS. STEFFAN-The reason for that is because any services that the contract engineer
provides gets billed to Community Development Department. So he can’t charge
something to someone’s account without their knowledge.
MR. BRENNAN-Sure.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. HUNSINGER-And we had had problems in the past with the Town not getting
copies of information. The engineers would work things out and we wouldn’t have the
information to know what had been worked out.
MR. BRENNAN-Thank you so much.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, you’re welcome.
MS. BITTER-Thank you.
SITE PLAN NO. 20-2007 SEQR TYPE UNLISTED AGNUS J. VINCZE-ROSEN
AGENT(S) CIFONE CONSTRUCTION; LITTLE & O’CONNOR OWNER(S) SAME
ZONING WR-1A LOCATION 262 CLEVERDALE ROAD APPLICANT PROPOSES
REMOVAL OF 1250 SQ. FT. BOATHOUSE WITH 307 SQ. FT. SUNDECK AND
REPLACEMENT WITH 1220 SQ. FT. BOATHOUSE AND 745 SQ. FT. SUNDECK.
SUNDECK/BOATHOUSE REQUIRES SITE PLAN REVIEW BY THE PLANNING
BOARD. CROSS REFERENCE AV 24-07 WARREN CO. PLANNING 5/9/07
ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY YES LOT SIZE 0.84 ACRES TAX MAP NO. 226.16-
1-49.1 SECTION 179-5-050; 179-6-060
MICHAEL O’CONNOR, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. HUNSINGER-Stu, do you want to summarize Staff Notes, please.
MR. BAKER-Yes. Following the Planning Board action on this application on May 24,
2007, the applicant has submitted a site plan for the walkway and stormwater infiltration
trench that are proposed as part of this project. The main issue with this current
application appears to be stormwater. The applicant has designed an infiltration trench
to intercept water from the proposed walkway. The figures provided on the site plan
indicate that the infiltration trench will adequately manage stormwater from the proposed
walkway. Vision Engineering has reviewed the stormwater portion of this plan and a
comment letter has been included with the Staff Notes.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you. Good evening.
MR. O'CONNOR-Good evening. We have not seen that comment letter. So I really
can’t respond to it. Basically, for the purpose of your record, I’m Michael O’Connor from
the law firm of Little & O’Connor, and I represent the applicant, and with me at the table
is Matt Cifone who is the contractor for the applicant. As I understood your comments
and concerns last month with regard to stormwater, you had concerns as to whether or
not the walkway, even though it is a very minor area, which was 316 square feet, which
actually is less than 316 square feet, within the 50 feet of the lake, but the total walkway
that we’re talking about here is 316 in square feet. Whether or not that would be
influenced by the stormwater for the house that was shown, and that the fact that there
wasn’t any test pit for the area, the infiltrators that was part of the house stormwater.
That has been shown. It does seem to be in compliance with the regulations of the
stormwater. So I think that that should answer those questions. The other question was
that, as you were getting a look at this as being lakefront property, would the owners be
willing to install a buffer, landscape, along the seawall or along the edge of the seawall,
and that they’ve done, except for an area which they’ve left open for access to the
swimming area and for the two walkways to the two existing docks, and if you have
questions, we’ll be glad to try and answer them.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Thank you. Members of the Board, questions, comments?
MRS. STEFFAN-There’s a note on the Vision Engineering regarding the rain garden,
and the notation, the last sentence, it says, presumably the garden will be stone lined
which should also be specified. Apparently it wasn’t specified on the plan. Do you have
a copy of Vision Engineering?
MR. O'CONNOR-I just have it right here right now. Yes, I’m looking for the rain garden.
Right here. We can do that and put that on a final plan that would be satisfactory or get
approval by Vision Engineering, if that’s a condition. Jim Miller actually designed that. I
can’t tell you, there is detail as to the trenching that goes alongside the walkway. I don’t
see detail here as to that rain garden, which may be correct. It probably would put
something like river stone in there. So it would not be out of character with the rest of the
lawn and the landscaping, which I don’t think it makes a difference what type that’s in
there.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. SEGULJIC-One of the things I believe last time you were asked if a stormwater
permit was issued under 146 for this project.
MR. O'CONNOR-I believe you asked Staff that, and I don’t know what, we’ve never, I’ve
never seen a stormwater permit, and I think that, in part, they applied for the building
permit, obtained the building permit. I don’t know if they had a separate stormwater
permit issued in connection with the building permit, but part of it is, I think, that there’s
less runoff after construction than prior to construction. As Jim Miller was here. He
explained that we probably fall within the exemptions of the stormwater because we’re
not increasing in any manner the discharge. That was my understanding of his
comments last month.
MR. SEGULJIC-Now, for the record, there is a stormwater permit for the site.
MR. O'CONNOR-Okay.
MR. SEGULJIC-I’m a little disappointed here that the contractor for the site is not aware
of that. Number Two, the total area of land disturbance on the permit indicates 15,606
square feet.
MR. O'CONNOR-Right.
MR. SEGULJIC-That means it’s a major project.
MR. O'CONNOR-Okay. You’re back, again, to the issuance of the building permit for the
house.
MR. SEGULJIC-I’m back to the issuance of the stormwater permit for the site.
MR. O'CONNOR-Which was issued in connection with the building permit for the house.
MR. SEGULJIC-A portion of the area we’re looking at is included within the area of land
disturbance. The 50 foot setback includes the area of disturbance.
MR. O'CONNOR-If you take a look at the map, the lining of the heavy broken line is the
area of disturbance, and the only reason I know that is I couldn’t figure out what that line
is. There is probably seven, maybe five square feet of this walkway that’s included
within that area of disturbance that you just referred to, and that area is outside the 50
foot setback from the lake. So it’s not really within the purview of this Board for hard fill
within 50 feet of the lake.
MR. SEGULJIC-The 50 foot setback line continues back to the house, that includes the
infiltrators.
MR. O'CONNOR-Not over on the corner where the walkway is, Tom.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, it includes the infiltrators. So a lot of this area has been disturbed,
and as the permit indicated, as it was filled out by, there’s a signature of the agent, I can’t
tell who it is. It’s also signed by the owner, and it’s signed by Craig Brown, I believe. It
says 15,606 square feet, which makes it a major project.
MR. O'CONNOR-I understand the dimensional requirement within our stormwater
regulations. It says that if a project is in excess of 15,000 square feet, it’s a major
project.
MR. SEGULJIC-Correct.
MR. O'CONNOR-But I don’t know the significance of that with the.
MR. SEGULJIC-You can’t have infiltrators within 100 feet of the lake, Number One. You
can’t have infiltration within 100 feet of the lake.
MR. O'CONNOR-I think it says, when you get into those regulations, they can be
adjusted and waived.
MR. SEGULJIC-I don’t see a waiver here.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. O'CONNOR-Well, I did not make that application or get that permit, and I don’t know
if, truthfully, it has jurisdiction or if it has anything germane to this walkway. You want to
go back and review the permit. When was the date of that permit?
MR. SEGULJIC-It was signed 11/2/05. So I guess, and it expires 11/2/06. So I guess,
in looking at it further, you don’t have a permit for this project, now that I think about it.
You’re constructing a project without a permit which you’re required to get.
MR. O'CONNOR-I’m sure that the building permit was renewed.
MR. SEGULJIC-I guess that’s something I’d like the Staff to look into for me, and I think
that’s a violation. You have an expired permit.
MR. O'CONNOR-No. I’m told they renewed the building permit. If the Staff here did not
renew that permit, I can’t tell you, I don’t know, does that permit have an expiration date
written?
MR. SEGULJIC-Yes.
MR. O'CONNOR-Okay. Has it been renewed? I don’t know that.
MR. SEGULJIC-Your contractor doesn’t even know he had a permit. 11/2/06. I guess
the infiltrators are in. They’ve been installed, correct? They have not been installed?
MR. O'CONNOR-The infiltrators are 400 square feet of stormwater capacity, I believe.
MATT CIFONE
MR. CIFONE-No, they’re not in. They’re not done. We’re not even close to being done.
MR. SEGULJIC-And you don’t even know if you have a stormwater permit.
MR. CIFONE-Yes. I’m remembering now, because it was a few years back we did it, two
and a half years ago.
MR. SEGULJIC-Is that a violation? I believe it’s a violation of Town Code if you don’t
have a stormwater permit, and they’re still constructing.
MR. BAKER-I’d have to look into it further.
MR. SEGULJIC-And there’s still open land there. Under, I’d just like to make Staff aware
and I’d like to have them take action on this. Under 147-15, it says Notice of Violation.
When the Town of Queensbury determines that an activity is not being carried out in
accordance with the requirements of this Chapter, it shall issue a written Notice of
Violation to the owner. As far as I can determine, you don’t even have a permit. Your
permit, your expired permit, indicates that a land disturbance of 15,606 square feet.
Personally, I’m very disappointed, I believe that the Zoning Administrator assigned this,
and said it was minor. When you look at the back, anything over 15,000 is a major
project. They can’t have infiltration within 100 feet of the lake. I see a number of issues
with this project that need to get sorted out. To say nothing of the fact you have all this
open area without any cover for it, and I believe there’s a comment that’s been submitted
to Staff about all the runoff after the last rain storm, which I believe is also another
violation.
MR. O'CONNOR-Where is that comment? I don’t have that comment.
MR. BAKER-There was an e-mail sent to Code Enforcement Staff, I believe.
MR. O'CONNOR-By who?
MR. BAKER-By Al Chanese, of 266 Cleverdale Road.
MR. O'CONNOR-And was there a follow-up by Staff on that?
MR. BAKER-I believe there was a follow-up response, and I may actually have access to
th
it. Okay. We actually have two correspondence from Mr. Chanese. The one of July 13
was actually sent to the Planning Board courtesy of Pam Whiting and Tom Seguljic.
th
There was also an e-mail sent to Craig Brown by Mr. Chanese on the 12, which
th
included some photography. In his response of Thursday, July 12, Craig Brown noted,
34
(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
actually, I’m sorry. This was regarding the, the e-mail was primarily regarding the, I’m
sorry, Craig Brown’s response was primarily regarding the Long property. He stated this
was the first time he had heard Mr. Chanese’s comment, concerns about the Rosen
property, and that he will visit the site in the near future. It goes on to ask Mr. Chanese
to contact him during a rain event when such runoff is witnessed, as well as contact the
Park Commission. I don’t know if Craig Brown has done a follow up visit to the property
since this e-mail.
MR. SEGULJIC-There’s pictures associated with that, I believe.
MR. BAKER-Yes, there are. I don’t know which properties these pictures go with.
thth
Although this is, again, the July 12 e-mail. On the July 13 e-mail there are pictures
that are presumably of the Rosen property. I haven’t been out to the site. So I can’t
confirm these are of the Rosen property, but that’s what Mr. Chanese states.
MR. O'CONNOR-That’s the first notice that we’ve had of that.
MR. CIFONE-Nobody’s stopped by or said anything to us.
MR. O'CONNOR-We have siltation fence up and we have hay bales up.
MR. SEGULJIC-They’re not working.
MR. O'CONNOR-Well, I don’t know that, Tom.
MR. SEGULJIC-We have pictures here sent by Mr., I’m not sure of his last name
indicating they’re not. I’d like to point out, under 147-10, Erosion and Control Measures,
it says Temporary erosion control shall be provided for all disturbed areas in accordance
with New York State….temporary erosion control measures shall be maintained
continuously. Apparently something happened.
MR. CIFONE-Can I see the picture? Nobody’s stopped around and said anything to me.
MR. O'CONNOR-This is not an enforcement proceeding, that I’m aware of.
MR. SEGULJIC-I’m requesting it become one.
MR. O'CONNOR-Okay. I understand that.
MR. SEGULJIC- I see a number of violations here.
MR. O'CONNOR-Mr. Chairman, I would request that we table the application. We’re
getting off into left field. I’ll talk with Counsel and see what the problem is. I’m not aware
of what took place in 2005 with regard to the permits. I know the last time we were here
we talked about that, and we asked Staff to investigate that, and no communication was
had with me as to whether they found something or didn’t find something, and I don’t
think Staff did that. You apparently found that on your own.
MR. SEGULJIC-Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-I have no problem tabling this, and I’ve got to say, I have a problem in
getting new information the night of a meeting, too. I hadn’t seen these pictures or made
note of these e-mail either until this evening.
MR. O'CONNOR-I know how it comes if I offer the new information, but apparently it may
be different if you offer the new information.
MR. HUNSINGER-No, I think the same rules should apply, and I think, Mr. Seguljic,
when you’re going to present evidence and information like this, you should share it with
the rest of the Board.
MR. SEGULJIC-Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, as I was directed, when you get information
from the public, you forward it to Staff.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. SEGULJIC-That’s exactly what I did.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. SEGULJIC-Staff is then supposed to forward it to us.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. SEGULJIC-So the issue is with the Staff.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. BAKER-I was unaware that this e-mail had been sent. It was addressed to Pam
Whiting, who stuck one copy in the project file, and to Tom Seguljic. I hadn’t seen that
until today.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. SEGULJIC-Because what had happened is I got it and there were a number of other
people that got it, and I said, you should still send it to Staff.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. I apologize for singling you out. Obviously, the same rules
apply, wherever the information comes from.
MR. CIFONE-All those pictures weren’t of the Rosen property. That real dirty one is not
our property.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. I was wondering the same thing. I was trying to look to see
where that could be.
MR. CIFONE-The last one where it’s all muddy, that’s not the property. It’s the last page
there.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, the last one, there aren’t docks that are that close together.
That’s not underneath the boathouse.
MRS. BRUNO-We have a public hearing scheduled?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. We do have a public hearing.
MR. O'CONNOR-It’s still open.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, we do. We do have a public hearing scheduled. Is there
anyone here that wanted to address the Board on the application? I will open the public
hearing. Did you want to come up, ma’am? If you could just state your name for the
record.
PUBLIC HEARING OPEN
KATHY BOZONY
MS. BOZONY-I’m Kathy Bozony from the Lake George Association. Some of those
photos are the Long’s property, and some of them are down at the Rosen. Al Chanese
lives between the two properties. So I’m sure, you know, you can identify which ones
are which, but regardless, there has been exposed dirt there for a long time, and a
couple of things I wanted to comment on tonight were the actual site plan that was
submitted with the buffer strips. I would like to give to the Board some additional
suggestions about the buffer stripping. What they’ve presented here is excellent. There
are a lot of areas that really need some sort of rain gardens and/or more permeable
vegetation than a lawn that is, I’m presuming, will be lawn on this entire parcel. This
parcel is 21,000 square feet. The house is 6100 square feet. So you do calculate it as a
31% FAR. It was never brought before the Zoning Board for that FAR calculation. Now,
granted the additional square footage has been added across the road at a later date.
The building permit was signed on November 3, 2005. In the building permit that I
looked at today, with both Chris and Dave, the infiltration for the absorption field for the
septic is still on this current parcel. I don’t know where it’s going to actually be per the
site plan that was presented for this project, the sidewalk and the boathouse. It looks like
it’s across the road. When I asked both Dave and Craig today, they said, no, it hasn’t
been changed. It’s on this parcel, this 21,000 square foot parcel. So, I mean, again, this
is an old issue, but that FAR calculation should have been, at least from what I’m looking
at, should have been brought before the Zoning Board for a variance, and at a later date,
this other parcel, they’re calling it 260 Cleverdale instead of 262. I don’t know what it is.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
So I would like to present to the Board and to the applicant additional areas that I think
are really necessary on this parcel, because there’s very little, it’s a very small parcel for
this 6100 square foot house, and where the beach is, that’s understandable that they
want a beach. I would say behind the beach you put some sort of infiltration with a, I’ve
just kind of circled where I think additional gardens and vegetation should be planted, as
opposed to having just grass there, and I’d like to give this to you and have you look at
that. At the end of the driveway, perfect opportunity for a rain garden there. One of the
things that I really wanted to share with the Board tonight, and with the applicant, is a
product that was presented at the Lake George Watershed Conference. A company,
and I don’t know the company. They do not have a site as a demonstration project yet in
the Lake George area or this area. So I’m working with them to try and get a couple of
demonstration projects. This is a product called Flexi-Pave, and, you know, I’d like to
share it with you, if you want. The interesting thing is, if you open the cover, and you
see, they’re holding this pavement, and the water’s going right through it. So it’s a much
better product than a stamped concrete, which I thought I saw on the drawings, and/or
permeable pavers that often get clogged. Again, we do not have an actual project here,
but there are several I have in mind. He did tell me, and I was asking for a price quote
per lineal foot, or however this is actually sold, and I never got the quote today. I asked
him to please leave me a message, and I never got it. So he did tell me it’s a lot less
expensive than stamped concrete. So, something like this is, and they make it for, it’s
ADA accessible. It exceeds their qualifications for disabilities. So Mrs. Rosen’s
wheelchair would be fine on it. There are, you know, this is not a very attractive color,
but it comes in a lot of other colors. I would just like to propose this to the Board, so that
we can all start looking at products like this. We talk about permeable pavers, but they
often don’t work that well.
MR. HUNSINGER-What is it made out of?
MRS. BOZONY-It’s made out of recycled tires, with aggregate, and it’s made right on
site. It’s poured right on site. It can be poured at a 90 degree temperature day or a 20
degree or 20 below, I think it says. It’s a very interesting product, and again, I really
would like to start proposing this for use around the lake, but I would ask that you look at
what they’ve submitted for their buffers, which is excellent, excellent use of plantings,
and possibly require more because they do not have, they really have a very large house
on a very small piece of property, as much natural infiltration that we can get would be
really beneficial.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you.
MRS. BOZONY-Sure. Should I give this, should I just share it with you? I’m just
proposing that some of these areas really need a lot more. I don’t know if that’s a
retaining wall there. What is this right here, that line? It’s a silt fence. Okay, but
anywhere, you know, around the house, around here, to keep it so that you really have
full coverage throughout. What you want to do is if you don’t have, if you have minimal
space, you want to put an enhanced buffer in so that you put more vegetation and get it
to do a better job if you’re limited with space. So if there’s a beach there, you put your
buffer on either side. Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you. Anyone else that wanted to address the Board on this
project? I will leave the public hearing open. The applicant has requested we table the
application. Would someone like to put forward a tabling resolution? Was there
anything that you wanted to add, Mr. O’Connor, before we entertain a tabling resolution?
MR. O'CONNOR-No. I should add for the record, just so there’s no question and fact
later. My understanding that to get the building permit the Town asked that all three
parcels be combined on one deed, and they were done that. I, in fact, recorded the
deed. These properties were bought in a manner so that they were preserved as three
separate parcels. You could have three separate houses on there. It was between the
husband and wife an one of the children or maybe two of the children, and before the
building permit was issued, they were requested to show that all the parcels had been
put in either Agnus Rosen’s name, I forget at the moment, or the husband and wife, but
in the same joint ownership, or the same form of ownership, so that they would lose their
grandfathering as pre-existing lots. So I don’t think there’s an issue at all with regard to
the Floor Area Ratio. In fact, I think their lots are, their construction is much less than
what they would be permitted to have.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Do you have a, would you be willing to put in some additional
plantings as suggested?
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. O'CONNOR-We use, I’ll have to ask the clients. I’m not putting them in, to be
honest with you. You gave us a dimension, and we took the plants that were offered by
Mr. Sipp and incorporated them into it, and I think, as was said, it’s an excellent plan. I’m
not sure what additions Mrs. Bozony has suggested, truthfully. I’ll talk to Mrs. Rosen and
see.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. O'CONNOR-And can I ask the Town to find out where they’re at with regard to the
issues that Mr. Seguljic raised?
MR. FULLER-I think the Zoning Administrator is going to have to make that
determination.
MR. O'CONNOR-Okay.
MR. FULLER-Ultimately it’s not for any of us sitting here to decide.
MR. SEGULJIC-As far as?
MR. FULLER-Violations.
MR. SEGULJIC-I guess the first question is, they have an existing permit? The permit’s
expired.
MR. FULLER-Again, all those need to be addressed.
MRS. STEFFAN-But they’re not for our conditioning. That’s enforcement.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, can we determine that there is a stormwater permit in place?
MR. FULLER-Sure.
MR. SEGULJIC-I think we’d like to determine that. Number Two, we’d like to have a
determination on the adequacy of the existing, or the temporary stormwater controls,
because they don’t appear to be functioning properly.
MR. O'CONNOR-I would object to that. I think that’s outside of this application.
MR. FULLER-I think ultimately that whether or not there are violations or the existing, if
they haven’t acted in accordance with the previously approved stormwater plan, that’s an
issue that needs to be dealt with.
MR. O'CONNOR-But outside of this application, I believe, is my position. I don’t know if
you agree with it or don’t agree with it.
MR. FULLER-We’ll take that into account.
MRS. STEFFAN-So I don’t put anything in the motion about permitting.
MR. FULLER-His question was do we have a valid permit. I think that’s a question that
can be answered.
MR. SEGULJIC-Beyond that, has a valid permit been in place during the construction.
MRS. STEFFAN-Okay. I’ll make a motion to table.
MOTION TO TABLE SITE PLAN NO. 20-2007 AGNUS J. VINCZE-ROSEN, Introduced
by Gretchen Steffan who moved for its adoption, seconded by Tanya Bruno:
th
This application is tabled to the August 28 meeting, with an application deadline of
rd
August 3. With the following conditions: That the applicant amend the plan to indicate
the size of the rain garden depression/volume, and to indicate that the garden will be
stone lined, or to obtain a Vision Engineering signoff. That the applicant will consider
additional plantings on the site, and the third condition is to determine if the project
permitting is current, up to date, and valid.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
th
Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Seguljic, Mrs. Bruno, Mrs. Steffan, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver
MR. O'CONNOR-Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you.
SUBDIVISION NO. 10-2007 SKETCH PLAN SEQR TYPE UNLISTED GARY
MARKWELL AGENT(S) LELAND JAROSZ OWNER(S) SAME ZONING WR-1A, SR-
1A LOCATION 61 TWIN CHANNELS ROAD APPLICANT PROPOSES SUBDIVISION
OF A 4.3 PARCEL INTO TWO (2) LOTS OF 1.2 & 3.1 ACRES. SUBDIVISION OF
LAND REQUIRES PLANNING BOARD REVIEW AND APPROVAL. CROSS
REFERENCE AV 35-07 WARREN CO. PLANNING N/A LOT SIZE 4.3 ACRES TAX
MAP NO. 309.18-1-18 SECTION A-183
LELAND JAROSZ, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. HUNSINGER-Stu, if you could summarize Staff Notes, please.
MR. BAKER-Yes, I can. The applicant’s requested waivers from the following items,
Two-foot contours, well and septic information, property location and width, property
arrangement size and dimensions of the new lots to be created, grading and drainage,
as well as a requested waiver from Preliminary and Final Stage review. Information
required in Sketch Plan that wasn’t provided was Areas of existing vegetation, including
trees greater than 6” diameter breast height and areas within the floodplain. Staff
recommends that the Board allow the applicant to combine Preliminary and Final
approvals into one submission, but certainly those shouldn’t be waived, and that the
combination only be allowed if all the information required for proper review is submitted.
Just an additional note on the waiver request from the contour. A quick review of the
slopes on the property using the Town GIS shows that there are slopes over 15 and 25%
on the area of the new lot.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Good evening.
MR. JAROSZ-Hi. I am Leland Jarosz. I’m the prospective buyer, and this is Mr.
Markwell, the property owner. We have a lot of issues. I’m trying to figure out where to
start. Okay. I’m going to start with, they’re talking regarding areas in the floodplain. It is
marked on the survey map. Approximate location, and he has a note.
MR. BAKER-You are correct. I apologize for the error.
MR. JAROSZ-All right. As far as the trees. He had marked the trees, but this is heavily
forested. You can look on the GIS. Basically it’s all treed all the way up, the whole
property is treed. Right off Twin Channels Road, where he shows the markings, and all
the way up it’s all treed. It’s heavily forested there.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. JAROSZ-All right. Now, this all started up over the Twin Channels Road. We had
to get a variance. That’s all Mr. Markwell does, and I want to purchase the piece of
property. He wants to keep the back property and another piece on the river which
adjoins other property that he owns. We are addressing, all right, on Number F,
applicant has requested a waiver from Preliminary and Final Stage review because there
are not proposed developments of the lot being retained by Mr. Markwell. The plan
submitted with this application indicates otherwise. We never wanted to put a house.
Mr. Markwell has never wanted to put a house up on top. Mr. Brown stated that we had
to show a proposed house. The survey was denied four times.
MR. HUNSINGER-Do you understand why?
MR. JAROSZ-No.
MR. HUNSINGER-I’ll explain it very easily.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. JAROSZ-Okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-Once you create a separate lot, you have the right to put a house on
it. So that’s why, in order for us to consider the subdivision, you have to show the ability
to put a house on the lot, because once this Board approves any subdivision, you can
then go down to the Community Development Office and take out a building permit to put
a house up.
MR. JAROSZ-But doesn’t the building permit also, if the lot is not buildable, the building
permit takes care of all that, doesn’t it?
MR. HUNSINGER-Not necessarily. Not necessarily.
MR. BAKER-Part of the intent of Subdivision Regulations is to make sure unbuildable
lots aren’t created.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right. Yes, it’s the other way around. So that’s why you had to show
a lot on that site. Even if you have no intention, the ability down the road is still there.
MR. JAROSZ-Okay. I understand that. Now, with the septic, we were told we needed
an engineered septic. Now how do you do an engineered septic on 3.1 acres when you
could build up on top? You’re talking 500 feet here. An engineered septic would not, if I
built up here, and I had the septic down here, an engineered septic would be a waste of
money because you would have to have the engineered septic where you built the
house, correct? Within the vicinity.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. JAROSZ-So why was I told you have to have an engineered septic? The land is big
enough where it’s not going to encroach on any of the neighbors, no matter where you
put the septic in, unless you put it, you can keep it 100 feet from the property line, and it’s
not going to get near anybody else’s well or anything like that.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, I guess that begs the question of what are you going to use the
lot for?
MR. JAROSZ-The lot is basically going to stay empty until someone decides to buy it or
Mr. Markwell decides to build on it, if he should, and then the regulations are going to,
you’re going to have to follow whatever regulations the Town of Queensbury, the
Building Department says.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, we can’t create a lot unless it’s buildable.
MR. JAROSZ-Okay, but now what about the septic?
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, it includes the septic.
MR. SEGULJIC-Does it have to be engineered, or does he have to just show that you
can install a septic?
MRS. BRUNO-Well, in order to show that it can be, you’ve got to have your test pits.
MR. SEGULJIC-You just have to have your test pits to show it can be done. You don’t
have to design the whole septic.
MR. JAROSZ-We were told you had to have an engineered septic, which you’re talking a
lot of money that.
MR. HUNSINGER-That is a lot of money, yes.
MR. SEGULJIC-Is that correct?
MR. BAKER-I don’t believe an engineered septic is part of our, data to show that it would
support it.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right. You have to show that it would support a septic.
MR. JAROSZ-Well, I know people that are in the septic business. A perc test.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. JAROSZ-That would be no problem. I was never the fact that just do a test pit. No,
you have to have engineered septic.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. JAROSZ-Which is you’re talking a lot of money.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, that’s a huge difference.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, I guess that’s a clarification that we’d need to.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. JAROSZ-And the other part is you can’t do an engineered septic on 500 feet.
MRS. STEFFAN-Well, part of the issue may be that it’s identified in the Staff Notes that
there are slopes on the property, and based on the GIS report that came back to us, that
identified that there are slopes greater than, you know, between 15 and 25%. You’ve
also got an area where the slopes are greater than 25%.
MR. JAROSZ-But these are at the edges of the property that go to his adjoining property.
MRS. STEFFAN-That may be one of the reasons why they required that, and for
example in area where there’s bedrock or where there’s very poor drainage, that’s one of
the reasons why the Community Development Department might have asked for an
engineered septic because if there are site restrictions.
MR. JAROSZ-Well, this is, the perc in that whole area is excellent, on Big Boom and
Twin Channels. You’re basically, you have very porous, sandy soil.
MRS. STEFFAN-And unfortunately one of the things that’s happened in the Town of
Queensbury, as it’s continued to develop, is that we can no longer take people’s word.
MR. JAROSZ-Well, if they told me I had to have a perc test, I know three or four septic
people that I work with, and that will do it, with no problem, but when you’re talking
engineered septic, now you’re talking big money, and where do you do the engineered
septic?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. Well, I was going to ask, maybe it’s because of where you
showed the potential house location.
MR. JAROSZ-We were told that you had to put a potential house. So we just put a
potential house.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, I’m saying, maybe it’s because of where you put it.
MR. JAROSZ-There is no large slope here.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. I don’t know, can you shed any light on that, Stu, at all?
MR. BAKER-I guess all I can say, I can’t speak to what he was told by other Staff, but the
application materials for Sketch Plan level clearly don’t require an engineered system.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. BAKER-In fact, perc test isn’t even required until Preliminary.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. SEGULJIC-And I believe you only have to show that there is a spot that he can do
it, and not a specific spot.
MR. BAKER-That’s correct, and part of the purpose of showing the existing on site
septics and wells within the 500 foot radius is indeed to show that there is space to put.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. JAROSZ-So do we have to show the neighboring septic in that, even though this lot
is large enough to hold the septic and system and well without encroaching on any, no
necessary variances or encroaching on any of the neighboring properties or wells?
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, you have to show that you have the minimum separation
between your well and other septics and between your septic and other wells.
MR. JAROSZ-But the lot is large enough.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, if the lot’s large enough, then you just.
MR. SEGULJIC-You just need to pick that spot and demonstrate that you can do it.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, exactly.
MR. JAROSZ-But the spot that’s picked there is large enough for.
MR. SEGULJIC-So you just have to be able to show that there’s no wells within 100 feet
and no septic, the septic system has got to be 100 feet away and that that has adequate
soils to sustain a system.
MR. JAROSZ-So basically, where it is right now, it doesn’t matter where the neighbor’s
septics or wells are, because it’s far enough away where this house is proposed.
MR. SEGULJIC-I believe you are correct. You just have to be able to show you can
sustain those systems on your lot, within the requirements of the Code.
MR. JAROSZ-Okay. So I would need a perc test.
MR. SEGULJIC-I believe so.
MR. HUNSINGER-You didn’t need it for this evening, but you’d need it to go to the next
step.
MR. JAROSZ-To go to a further step.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MRS. STEFFAN-But without knowing where your neighbor’s well is, that this piece of
property, even though you do have a large piece of property, it’s narrow, and if, for
example, the neighbor’s.
MR. JAROSZ-No, it’s not that narrow. It would support, with the well in place, it falls
within all criteria of Queensbury and the State of New York as to distance from, if the
neighbor had his well on the edge of the property here, it would still, you could put in the
septic, it would be 100 feet from the well. Mr. Markwell owns all the rest over on this
side, which is all vacant land. So you don’t have to go to the neighbor’s site at all.
MRS. STEFFAN-You just have to identify it on the plans.
MR. JAROSZ-It’s identified.
MRS. STEFFAN-That it will not encroach on anybody’s wells.
MR. JAROSZ-Yes, it’s identified as, you know, the make believe house.
MRS. STEFFAN-It’s on the Tubbs property, though.
MR. SEGULJIC-Correct.
MRS. STEFFAN-That’s the concern.
MR. JAROSZ-There should be no concern because Mr. Tubbs’ property is far enough
away. If his well was right on the border line, we would still be far enough away to do the
septic properly.
MRS. BRUNO-Not necessarily. If you had your septic right in the middle of your piece of
property.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. JAROSZ-Well, it’s labeled that the septic will not be there. With the proposed
house, that it would be away from, it’s over 100 feet away from the.
MR. HUNSINGER-See how there’s a little sliver, there’s a circle around your proposed
well location? There’s a dotted circle.
MR. JAROSZ-Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-That circle goes onto the lands of Robert N. Tubbs. If his septic
happened to be within there, within that area, then you wouldn’t be able to put your well
there. Do you see what we’re saying?
MR. JAROSZ-Then the well could be moved.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. JAROSZ-Over, the well could be moved over and stay within the.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. So that’s all you need to do then is move your well location so
that it doesn’t, so that that circle doesn’t go onto your neighbor’s property.
MR. JAROSZ-So I need another survey now?
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, you don’t need another survey. You just need another drawing.
You just need to change the drawing.
MRS. BRUNO-You just need to adjust this one. The surveyor needs to go back and
adjust the drawing. Either that, or locate on the adjoining property where their septic is.
So you’ve got two choices. If you can prove that where the septic, your location is right
now isn’t within the 100 feet, you could do it that way, but it sounds like you don’t want to.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, I mean, his property is 181 feet wide.
MR. SEGULJIC-And you thought this was going to be easy.
MR. HUNSINGER-I mean, certainly there’s the ability for him to locate the wells. That’s
not an issue.
MR. SEGULJIC-Do you understand what we’re getting at?
MR. JAROSZ-Yes.
MR. SEGULJIC-You just have to show us that this site is buildable, even if you don’t plan
on building on it.
MR. JAROSZ-It’s a terrible way to do business, because of the variance. If it wasn’t that
20 feet, and that’s an issue also, because the County states that there’s 49.5 feet, and if
you talk to a County engineer, he says because of use, that no one, they have the right
to use the right of way that was never taken because it was, because it has been used in
the past.
MR. BAKER-What right of way are you referring to, sir?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. JAROSZ-The road, Queensbury states there’s only 20 feet of roadway. They never
took right of way. The County says there’s 49.5 feet.
MR. BAKER-So you’re talking about the Big Boom Road right of way.
MR. JAROSZ-Yes.
MR. FULLER-Or Twin Channels, which one?
MR. JAROSZ-Twin Channels. (Tape turned) …okay, where are all the surveys on
everybody’s land, where are the pegs, the survey pegs? They don’t come up to the road
at 20 feet. They’re back at the 49.5. They come back from the center of the road 10 plus
the.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. FULLER-Again, if it’s a highway by use, only the actual occupation of the road is a
highway by use, regardless of 189 which says three rods. If it was never accepted as
dedication, and it’s a highway by use, only the part of the road actually occupied.
MR. JAROSZ-But if the Town wants to do something on that land, they don’t have to go
to the homeowner.
MR. FULLER-They have to go to whoever owns that land.
MR. JAROSZ-No one owns that land. Who owns that land?
MR. FULLER-Somebody owns that land. There’s no land that’s un owned.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. JAROSZ-Well, the surveyor said he couldn’t find out who owns it.
MR. FULLER-I know I’ve had those discussions in the past. It’s an untruth that there’s
un owned land.
MR. JAROSZ-Well, who owns the land?
MR. FULLER-Ultimately, if no one else lays claim to it and it’s abandoned, it’s the State
of New York.
MR. JAROSZ-All right. So what do I have to do?
MR. HUNSINGER-No, again, you need to show, on this plan, that the lot being created is
a buildable lot.
MR. JAROSZ-Now, Mr. Brown stated, I asked him if I could shorten this process, do, you
know, this should have been a simple matter, which is blowing up into a, and he stated
no. I came in with a site plan and looked at me and he said, you know, we probably
really didn’t need this, after I spent another couple hundred dollars, and had the surveyor
come. What do I have to do? This has been going on for probably nine months or
better.
MR. HUNSINGER-Wow.
MR. JAROSZ-I would like to purchase the land. Mr. Markwell made some money. He
would like to continue on with his life, and we’re just stonewalled. Do I need the site
plan? Could I go into the rest of it, and do I have to do the signs, subdivision signs when
it’s not really a subdivision? All this kind of stuff. It should have been just, like they said
in the beginning. If the road wasn’t there, it would have been just a simple office
procedure, signed, over.
MRS. STEFFAN-Unfortunately you will have to go through signing it, because
subdivision requests, and that’s the zoning in the Town, which is the law of the Town.
MR. JAROSZ-Well, I can get the signs up.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, you will have to place the signs on the site, and we go out and
do site visits and we will look for it and Staff will look for it, too.
MR. JAROSZ-So do I have to continue with this?
MR. HUNSINGER-I’m not sure what you mean by that.
MR. JAROSZ-With the site plan?
MR. BAKER-The subdivision application process?
MR. JAROSZ-No, can I go to three and four together, which he suggested?
MR. SEGULJIC-You mean Preliminary and Final?
MR. BAKER-Preliminary and Final.
MR. JAROSZ-Yes, Preliminary and Final, or do I have to continue with the site plan?
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MRS. BRUNO-I think you’re confusing just some of the vernacular. I think you’re saying,
can you continue with the Sketch Plan and then do the second two together?
MR. JAROSZ-Could I do the two together, but can we not have to do this?
MRS. BRUNO-The drawing and the update with the surveyor? Is that what you’re
asking?
MR. JAROSZ-Would it go into this part, or do I still have to update the well thing?
MR. SEGULJIC-If I’m correct, Mr. Chairman, the next time you come back could
potentially be Preliminary and Final.
MR. JAROSZ-Yes.
MR. SEGULJIC-The information, the location of septic system and well, the fact that
there’s no other wells around, gets put on the map, and with whatever other information’s
required, we can go to Preliminary and Final hopefully in one step.
MRS. BRUNO-Well, I’m not sure that Mr. Brown, Staff maybe could correct me. I’m not
sure why he said that we may not have needed the site plan, because for any
subdivision we need the plans.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, we need the plans.
MR. BAKER-I can’t speak to that.
MRS. STEFFAN-The other thing is, based on the GIS that was provided to us in the Staff
notes, it talks about, given the slopes on the property, the Board may wish to require
detailed plans for the new proposed building site. We do need to see the slopes noted
on the plan, because this becomes a document in the Town. If this one came back, you
submitted plans to us, and we approve the subdivision.
MR. JAROSZ-Does he have to do it in two foot intervals, or?
MRS. STEFFAN-Based on the amount of slopes on the property, I think that that’s a
good recommendation.
MR. JAROSZ-If someone came out and looked, the slopes are behind the house going
up where the lot is going to divide. The slopes are all in front of the property that I’m
buying going to the river. Those are the major slopes. The top part doesn’t have any
issues. The biggest slopes are off to the left where they took the sand for the Northway,
but it’s at the edge of the property, which you would not build there.
MR. SEGULJIC-I’m just thinking out loud here. Can we just get a survey of the area that
would be buildable? We don’t need the entire site, just to show that it is buildable.
MRS. STEFFAN-Well, it has to accurately the site. Obviously there’s been a lot of stuff
that’s been going on there, and, you know, Stu asked for the vegetation, and there is
some vegetation noted, but one of the things that Mr. Jarosz just said is that there’s
vegetation all over. That’s not indicated here.
MR. JAROSZ-Mr. Brown said that you can just show, to show where it is. If he went out
and did every tree all the way up, it would be full of trees.
MR. SEGULJIC-I guess what you’re saying is, you show trees here. You’re saying all
the way back is trees?
MR. JAROSZ-All the way back, and the other thing, I did about roadways and stuff.
There is no road going down in there. This is a driveway going down in, and it says
about, you know, roadways and all that. There are no roadways on this lot, and there
aren’t going to be any proposed. You’re talking subdivision, but this is an old driveway
that went down in. It’s not a road. It’s not a proposed road or anything.
MRS. STEFFAN-So on the lot that you’re buying, there’s no house currently. You want
to build a house?
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. JAROSZ-No, the house, I’m buying the house. He’s keeping the back, but there is
no road. There’s no proposed subdivision for roads.
MRS. STEFFAN-So you’re buying both the lot and the house.
MR. JAROSZ-One hundred ninety feet on the river, yes.
MRS. STEFFAN-Okay.
MR. JAROSZ-Mr. Markwell’s keep 310 feet on the river, along with, he owns over to the
south of this.
MR. BAKER-Legal counsel just pointed out another issue that I missed in my review of
this plan. If you look at it closely, it’s showing the lands to be conveyed to Mr. Jarosz of
two separate parcels to be retained by a Mr. Markwell.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. BAKER-One of those parcels shows a potential house location has the frontage on
Big Boom Road. The other has river frontage, but would be left without any road
frontage, and would be effectively landlocked, and certainly the Board can’t approve the
creation of a landlocked parcel.
MR. JAROSZ-It’s not a second parcel. He’s keeping this with this parcel.
MR. BAKER-That’s correct, but they’re separate deeds. So Mr. Markwell would actually
need to combine those two parcels in order to avoid the creation of a landlocked parcel.
MR. FULLER-That would be my question, Mr. Markwell. Just to give clarification and
explain to you, how did I just come to this when I asked the question, but you own these
two parcels right now that we’re looking at, right? Your one deed references Book 964,
Page 101. That’s the parcel that you’re subdividing. Your other deed reference is Book
1084 Page 250. Now, the concern is that you could, if this scenario were approved, you
could sell off all of these lands that are Book 1084, Page 250, okay, separate, without
any other approvals from the Town, separate from the remaining holdings of the lot
you’re subdividing from Mr. Jarosz. In which case all that you have, if you look at your
subdivision map, the northwest corner of the parcel to be conveyed to Mr. Jarosz, you
see that iron rod found right there? The sole connection between the upland lot and the
river lot would be that point, which would be equivalent to this. So as this map is set out,
the only joining part, you’re in that same scenario we had earlier with the subdivision at
Hudson Pointe. The sole access you have is across that pin. It’s landlocked. You two
may be cooperative, and it may be fine, but someday down the road, Mr. Jarosz,
someone else could own your property. Mr. Markwell, someone else could own your
property. They get into a squabble, you’re cut off. So my question to you was would you
be merging, and that takes a deed, to merge these parcels, these two parcels that you’re
going to be left with, with the one larger parcel to the west?
MR. BAKER-Essentially you would be merging this portion here with this parcel.
MR. FULLER-So as part of this application, you would be willing to do that, that it would
be merged? Now what is does is that no longer is a separate parcel. You understand
that distinction is it’s not, even though it shows it on this map, it would forever be merged
with that other property, then this land lock issue goes away.
MR. BAKER-And again, the reason for this whole concern goes back to the earlier
concern we discuss which is the Planning Board cannot approve a subdivision plan that
creates an unbuildable lot. That three acre parcel here that you’re proposing to be
landlocked, under the Town Zoning Code, a building permit couldn’t be issued because it
doesn’t have public road frontage. So, again, this is all for the purposes of making sure
that the lands created after this process are all buildable, both from their physical
conditions and from the application of the Zoning Code in the future.
MR. JAROSZ-All right, but that little piece wouldn’t be buildable anyway.
MR. FULLER-That’s fine. Then you end up with a scenario even worse. You end up
with a parcel on the tax rolls that cannot be used. It ends up in tax foreclosure. That’s
also a concern that goes down the road.
MR. JAROSZ-So he would have to take this parcel and take it to his large parcel?
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. FULLER-Exactly.
MR. BAKER-Yes. Connect this parcel to here.
MR. JAROSZ-Before any of this can go any further?
MR. FULLER-It could be part of any Final approval. Actually, if he says right now on the
record that that is going to be part of the subdivision that he’s proposing would be to
merge that lot with his remaining lands, that’s fine.
GARY MARKWELL
MR. MARKWELL-No, that’s fine. I agree with that.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. FULLER-You see that concern, though, is that it creates a lot that has no access.
MR. HUNSINGER-It would then have to be a condition of any approval. That’s all.
MR. JAROSZ-So it would have to be an addendum to the proposal, or in writing or?
MR. FULLER-What the surveyor should likely do is, see where he has the part right
down by the lake, it says lands to be retained by Gary Lee Markwell?
MR. JAROSZ-Yes.
MR. FULLER-He could add a note right there that says, and to be merged with the lands
in Book 1084, Page 250. Now, the one piece of advice I would give you sitting here is I
don’t know what mortgages or anything else you may have on your property. You need
to look into that with your attorney, because it may be easy for us to sit here and say
we’re going to merge those lots, but if you have mortgages or anything that are on those
parcels, that would, it impacts that, because banks start to get nervous when you change
their mortgages. Good. That solves that then.
MR. JAROSZ-All right. So I have to have this re-done to show where, or find out where
Mr. Tubbs’ well is in relation to this.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, his septic.
MR. JAROSZ-His septic, or just move the well over closer to the other side.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. JAROSZ-Which is not an issue.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. JAROSZ-So is this going to hold us up from going to Step Three and Four?
MR. HUNSINGER-I guess I’m not sure what you mean by Step Three and Four.
MR. JAROSZ-To the Preliminary and Final approvals?
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. JAROSZ-So, if we do this, and present it when we present the Preliminary and Final
together?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. JAROSZ-All right.
MR. BAKER-Here’s my recommendation, sir. Have your surveyor make the changes
we’ve discussed to the plan. Give the Community Development Department a call
before you make any copies of that revised survey, and we’ll be happy to look over it with
you to make sure everything you need is there.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. FULLER-Well, it would be better to do a preliminary conference and have the
surveyor come to a meeting.
MR. BAKER-A very good suggestion.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. FULLER-Ultimately your surveyor should know, has done enough of these to know
the exact requirements of the subdivision law. It is straightforward. He should be able to
take those comments and the notes and the requirements that are in there and plot all
that for you.
MR. JAROSZ-All right. I have no further questions.
MR. SEGULJIC-Well, the last issue, though, is the contours.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. SEGULJIC-Can you get the two foot contours across the site? Can you get a
survey at a two foot contour across the site?
MRS. STEFFAN-They’ve got 20 foot contours on here already, some of them.
MR. JAROSZ-At probably a great cost, yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, actually, they do have the 20 foot contours. They’re just hard to
read.
MRS. STEFFAN-Yes. I’m not really sure they’re so light, because they’re there. I mean,
there’s like, at the top of the page there’s a 360 foot contour, and then at the bottom of
the page there’s some contours.
MR. JAROSZ-Like I say, large contours right after the house to the river, and then just
north of the house, to the top of the bank, are the big contours. There’s contours to the
left of the property where it adjoins, but it’s at the edge of the property, which would not
affect any of the building area, and I talked with Russ Howard about it, and he said I
don’t see where there should be a problem with that.
MR. HUNSINGER-Is it steep closer to big Boom Road?
MR. JAROSZ-No.
MR. HUNSINGER-That’s where it’s flat, right?
MR. JAROSZ-All flat out here. It’s all flat right down to that tree line that you see just
north of the house.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, which, if you can read these contours, is really what it says.
MRS. BRUNO-Here, I’m going to highlight them, because that’ll show you where the
steepness is.
MR. JAROSZ-It would be a major expense for him to do the two foot contours. It would h
have been a major expense for him to go out, that’s why they did the trees, and I talked
with Mr. Brown about that, and he said just show it and explain it to you people, because
if he went up, this is basically all treed up through there.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, the point of the contours is you have to subtract out excessive
slopes from the building lot. You have to have a minimum of an acre, and it’s a one acre
zoning. So if you have an acre. I’m on my own here. So I don’t know if the rest of the
Board is going to follow me, but if you have more than an acre close to Big Boom Road
that’s flat, and you can show that on the map.
MR. JAROSZ-The only slope is from the trees basically to the top of the lot here, where
they divide.
MR. BAKER-I guess I feel at this point I should point out to the Board Number Nine on
this current plan, and that notes that the 20 foot contours shown on the map are scaled
from the USGS maps. So those aren’t even as a result of on site survey work.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. JAROSZ-But he’s been on site.
MR. BAKER-That’s correct, but the contours, he didn’t take the contours from his on site
work. His note on the map says he took the contours from existing US Geological
Survey maps.
MRS. STEFFAN-Which, and would that be the same source as the GIS maps?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. JAROSZ-Yes.
MRS. BRUNO-And have been found to be somewhat inaccurate as land bodies change.
How often do they update those, every?
MR. BAKER-I don’t know. I don’t think there’s been any updates in our region in
decades, to be honest with you.
MRS. BRUNO-That’s what I thought, at least 20 years.
MR. JAROSZ-But they can pinpoint right off the satellites. They can come in on the
property.
MR. BAKER-They can, but they haven’t.
MRS. BRUNO-Right.
MR. JAROSZ-But you can come in on the property, even, off the satellite.
MR. BAKER-That’s not a service the Town provides. That’s a service.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, what if we were just to ask him to depict on the plan the areas
where the slopes are greater than 25%? Because that’s what we have done in the past
with other projects. I guess that would be your other option, to have him mark on this
plan the areas where the slopes are greater than 25%.
MR. BAKER-You may want to specify that that determination be made based on on site
work.
MR. JAROSZ-Okay. Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-So it’s either two foot contours or show where the slopes are greater
than 25%, one or the other, whichever is easier and cheaper.
MR. JAROSZ-Okay. It’s late. I know you people want to go home.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, we want to make sure that we have everything.
MRS. BRUNO-It’s a tough process to go through.
MR. HUNSINGER-I think that is everything then.
MR. JAROSZ-It’s a terrible process to go through. I’m not going to throw the Town guys
in, but they just shook their heads, they go, why.
MR. HUNSINGER-It’s the way it is. Anything else?
MR. JAROSZ-So I can proceed with the next two steps.
MR. HUNSINGER-Preliminary and Final.
MR. JAROSZ-And bring this in with it corrected?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. JAROSZ-All right, now on the Preliminary and Final, they talk about roadways
again. They talk about drainage. I can ask for waivers on all this?
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(Queensbury Planning Board 07/17/07)
MR. BAKER-There’s going to be a lot of information requested in the Preliminary and
Final application form that isn’t applicable, and Page Three on the form itself, mark not
applicable.
MR. JAROSZ-All right. Like I say, you know, it’s not a major subdivision. It’s a nothing
subdivision. It’s a paper subdivision. That’s all it is. There’s no development being
done. There’s no affecting drainage. There’s no tree cutting. There’s nothing. It should
have been just a simple, but, you know, we have to go through the procedures. So,
okay. I’ll get this changed and hopefully we can proceed. Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-You’re welcome. Thank you.
MR. MARKWELL-Thank you.
MR. JAROSZ-It tells you the size of the signs and when they have to be posted.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MRS. STEFFAN-The Town has a template for you. Stu, the Town has signs for their
subdivisions?
MR. BAKER-That’s correct. You can pick up a sign from the Community Development
Department?
MR. JAROSZ-You can?
MR. BAKER-Yes, we’ve got those printed out and available for you. You just fill in the
information.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, and it has to be posted at least 10 days before the meeting.
MR. JAROSZ-All right.
MRS. STEFFAN-So put it on a board and nail it to a tree.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, and we’ll look for it.
MR. JAROSZ-Nobody’s going to look at it.
MR. HUNSINGER-We will.
MR. JAROSZ-You will, because the variance covered so much of this, and we had one
person come who was all concerned about the roadways and all that sort of stuff, and
when it was explained, they just walked away, shook their head and said why did we get
the letter. Okay. Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you. Any other business before the Board?
MRS. STEFFAN-I’ll make a motion to adjourn.
MOTION TO ADJOURN THE QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING OF JULY
17, 2007, Introduced by Gretchen Steffan who moved for its adoption, seconded by
Thomas Seguljic:
th
Duly adopted this 17 day of July, 2007, by the following vote:
AYES: Mrs. Bruno, Mrs. Steffan, Mr. Seguljic, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ford, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver
On motion meeting was adjourned.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
Chris Hunsinger, Chairman
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