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1998-12-09 SP (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) QUEENSBURY ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS SPECIAL MEETING DECEMBER 9, 1998 7:00 P.M. MEMBERS PRESENT CHRIS THOMAS, CHAIRMAN BONNIE LAPHAM, SECRETARY LEWIS STONE DANIEL STEC ROBERT MC NALLY PAUL HAYES MEMBERS ABSENT BRIAN CUSTER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR -CHRIS ROUND CODE COMPLIANCE OFFICER -CRAIG BROWN STENOGRAPHER -MARIA GAGLIARDI NEW BUSINESS: AREA VARIANCE NO. 87-1998 TYPE II LC-42A RC-15 PREMIER PARKS, INC. d/b/a THE GREAT ESCAPE ROUTE 9 APPLICANT PROPOSES CONSTRUCTION OF AN ENCLOSED ROLLER COASTER RIDE AND REQUESTS RELIEF FROM THE HEIGHT REQUIREMENTS OF THE RC-15 ZONE. ALSO, SITE PLAN REVIEW IS REQUIRED FOR AMUSEMENT CENTER WITHIN RC-15 ZONING (CROSS REF. SPR 62-98, NOVEMBER 24, 1998 PLANNING BOARD AGENDA). (WARREN COUNTY PLANNING) 11/12/98 TAX MAP NO. 36-2-3.1 LOT SIZE: +/- 249 ACRES SECTION 179-21 JOHN LEMERY, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT STAFF INPUT Notes from Staff, Area Variance No. 87-1998, Premier Parks, Inc. d/b/a The Great Escape, Description of Proposed Meeting Date: December 9, 1998 “Project Location: NYS Rte 9 Project: Applicant proposes construction of a 17,000 square foot enclosed amusement ride. Relief Required: Applicant requests 20 feet of relief from the 50 height requirement of the RC-15 Criteria for considering an zone. The proposed structure is to be 70 feet tall from final grade. Area Variance according to Chapter 267 of Town Law: 1. Benefit to the applicant: 2. Feasible Applicant would be permitted to construct and utilize the desired structure. alternatives: Feasible alternatives may include lowering the overall height of the building by constructing the finished floor below final grade, relocation to another area within the park and no 3. Is this relief substantial relative to the ordinance?: construction. 20 feet of relief from the 4. Effects on the neighborhood or 50 foot height requirement may be interpreted as substantial. community: Moderate to substantial visual and audible effects on the neighborhood may be 5. Is this difficulty self-created? anticipated as a result of this action. The difficulty may be Parcel History (construction/site plan/variance, etc.): interpreted as self created. SP 62-98 - res. 11/24/98 Nightmare Ride Tabled SP 49-97 res. 11/18/97 The Bobsled SP 75-96 res. 12/19/96 The Boomerang SP 57-96 res. 9/17/96 Wave Pool SP 36-94 res. 11/15/94 Adventure River and Tube Slides SP 10-93 res. 3/16/93 Noah’s Sprayground 55 permits issued since Staff comments: 11/14/89 Moderate to substantial impacts may be anticipated as a result of this action. A primary issue, when dealing with height, is visual impact. Visual impact can be mitigated several ways: screening, grading, re-sizing, relocation, and no construction. While the construction of a ride with a portion of the ride being 70 feet tall may represent a minimal impact, this proposal is for a 170 foot long by 110 foot wide building to be 70 feet tall for the entire length of the building. However, this proposal is for a building within an amusement park where many of the buildings and structures do not conform to conventional sizing and shaping. If this proposal was located within the park in an area not visible from any place outside the park, the visual impacts would be greatly reduced, if not eliminated. With the proposed building in a significantly 1 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) visible location, the visual impacts may be prominent. Consideration may be given to what the SEQR Status: audible impacts may be of a structure of this size and location. Type II” MR. THOMAS-I think we want to change that SEQRA status to Unlisted. MRS. LAPHAM-Yes. MR. LEMERY-My name is John Lemery, Counsel for Premier Parks. We’d just like to make one correction. This is a 12 foot variance, not a 20 foot variance over and above the 50 foot. It was mistakenly written as 20 feet because the balloon, at the time that the balloon was put up, was put up eight feet too high. The building is 58 feet to the eaves, and then the peak of the building makes it 62 feet. So it’s 12 feet over the size permitted under the Ordinance, not 20 feet. MR. THOMAS-I see that in the Planning Board minutes from last meeting. MR. STONE-Are the pictures at 62 feet? MR. LEMERY-The pictures are all correct at 62 feet. MR. STONE-Okay. Question of Chris, it says Amusement Park under Type II, and the definition says a place with rides, Amusement Center I should say, not Park, Amusement Center. MR. ROUND-You’re confusing a site plan Type II activity with a SEQRA Type II activity. The SEQRA action is not a Type II, it’s not a listed Type II action. MR. STONE-Where is that in our literature? MR. ROUND-The SEQRA action is actually, in the SEQRA Regulations themselves, there’s a listing of Type II actions, and it lists specific activities, and the reason we identified it previously as a Type II action is that we commonly entertain height variances associated with residential developments, and it is, area variances with residential developments are Type II actions, but the fact that this is a commercial operation, it’s an Unlisted action. I don’t know if I’ve explained it as clearly as possible. MR. ROUND-It’s confusing as part of our, within our Zoning Ordinance we identify site plan review uses, and classify them as Type I and Type II uses, that has no bearing on the in our literature? MR. ROUND-The SEQRA action is actually, in the SEQRA Regulations themselves, there’s a listing of Type II actions, and it lists specific activities, and the reason we identified it previously as a Type II action is that we commonly entertain height variances associated with residential developments, and it is, area variances with residential developments are Type II actions, but the fact that this is a commercial operation, it’s an Unlisted action. I don’t know if I’ve explained it as clearly as possible. MR. ROUND-It’s confusing as part of our, within our Zoning Ordinance we identify site plan review uses, and classify them as Type I and Type II uses, that has no bearing on the in our literature? MR. ROUND-The SEQRA action is actually, in the SEQRA Regulations themselves, there’s a listing of Type II actions, and it lists specific activities, and the reason we identified it previously as a Type II action is that we commonly entertain height variances associated with residential developments, and it is, area variances with residential developments are Type II actions, but the fact that this is a commercial operation, it’s an Unlisted action. I don’t know if I’ve explained it as clearly as possible. It’s confusing as part of our, within our Zoning Ordinance we identify site plan review uses, and classify them as Type I and Type II uses, that has no bearing on the SEQRA status of the project, they’re totally unrelated. MR. STONE-Okay. Fine. MR. THOMAS-Okay. Was there anything from Warren County on that? MR. ROUND-There should have been. There’s a November. It was acted upon, and it was approved with a condition by the Warren County Planning Board. 2 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MRS. LAPHAM-Okay. “Warren County Planning Board Project Review and Referral Form Project Name: Premier Parks, Inc. Owner: Premier Parks, Inc. d/b/a The Great Escape ID No.: Queensbury Area Variance 87-1998 County Project No.: Nov98-30 Current Zoning: RC-15 Community: Queensbury Project Description: Proposed new amusement park ride, “The Nightmare” requires a maximum building height of 50 feet, which cannot be met by the project as proposed. Requesting 20 feet of relief from the Zoning Ordinance. Site Location: Route 9, north of Round Pond Road Tax Map No.: 36.-2-3.1 Staff Notes: Staff has long maintained that alterations to an existing park within the existing confines should not have significant impacts on County resource. This application, however, poses a significant height issue. Staff also feels that long term build out and parking issues need to be discussed, materials attached. Local Actions to Date, if any: None County Planning Board Recommendation: Approve with conditions that building blend in with surroundings. Discussed screening issues are addressed. A discussion regarding a pedestrian and traffic flow with Department of Transportation take place, and that the Warren County Planning Board is kept informed regarding these areas of discussion.” Terry Ross, Warren County Planning Board. MR. THOMAS-Okay. Mr. Lemery? MR. LEMERY-I’m going to refer to Jeff Anthony of the LA Group, the landscape firm which provided the information and the renderings for the project, and we’ll attempt to answer any questions you have, and he’ll go through the questions raised, and describe where it’s located in the Park, where it has the most significant visual impact, and try to address the areas that the Zoning Board normally looks at. Thank you. JEFF ANTHONY MR. ANTHONY-Okay. First off, for purposes of orientation, this is the proposed building, and this is a perspective, actually created with photographs taken from within the Ghost Town portion of The Great Escape, looking north. This is the Desperado Plunge queuing area right, and this little piece of green back in here is what would be visible of that building from within the Ghost Town area. Supposedly, the reason why that little is visible is because it’s screened by existing buildings within the Ghost Town area. First off, lets discuss quickly the siting of the building. The building is, actually, this is a hillside right in here. It’s a high point right in here on the Park site, and Route 9 is in this area right here, and we are grading into the hillside to the east side of the hill, within the Park, and tucking this building into the hillside. The reference that John Lemery made to dropping the building some 12 feet from the original application comes from the fact that we responded to actually the choices of relocating the building, lowering it, or not building it. We elected to lower the building some eight feet in elevation of the finished floor and actually drop it into the site deeper. So we’re excavating deeper, and the other four feet, to get our twelve feet of difference here, comes from the fact that when we flew the balloons originally, the balloon is four feet high. We measured the height from ground to the target, or to the top, to the end of the string, not the end of the balloon, and the balloon is the extra four feet. We don’t count that four feet because the balloon, depending on how it’s inflated and how much helium we put in it, can take different shape sizes and be not quite accurate to scale. So, that is the location aspects of the building. Other locations on the site, as you’ve mentioned, should be considered. There really are no other locations on the site that are feasible for this project. If we went over near the Round Pond Road area, closer to the road, there is some land over there, but that would put this building right out on Round Pond, and it would be highly visible. It would be right along the road. We could have dropped this building down in, behind the wave pool area, down below where we built the new food court, food service court, but in essence, it would have the same effect. It would not be visible from Route 9, in the vicinity of the Park, but it would still have virtually the same visibility as being viewed from the north, looking south on Route 9, as it could, as it’s located here. This view, by the way, is not highly visible looking south from Route 9 in the vicinity of the road, this little side road over to the lake. It’s highly filtered with vegetation. Even in its dormant state, there are a substantial amount of vegetation there that will filter any view of this building from that one view, and essentially, if we moved this building, essentially, down over to this area here, it would have the same visibility. Screening options, the top of the hill, as you can see right in here, we propose landscaping with evergreen vegetation. While in its initial stages, it could be 10 to 12 feet tall, in terms of sizes of plant materials, that will have an immediate effect on visibility as building from the Route 9 area. As it grows, it will be better. We’ve tried to show some of that in some of the visual simulations. The section down here, which I’ll bring up for you to see, this is the section looking straight into the Park from, a section looking straight into the Park, perpendicular off of Route 9. This is the unloading, is the area where the flume comes out, and the Desperado Plunge, and as you can see, if you’re on Route 9, and your view line goes up through here, the building, essentially, blocks your view, as you look over the proposed Nightmare Ride. 3 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) So, from Route 9, there is no visibility of this project in the vicinity of The Great Escape. It’s impossible. What we did, and I’ll bring some of these down in a second here, and these were submitted as part of your package. We did a series of photos, photo essays of the project site, and you have them all in your hands, and we studied the visibility of the site from surrounding areas, and these essentially confirm the fact that there are very few views into this piece of property from the surrounding areas, and they’re in your packages to look at. I don’t think I have anything else at this time. John, do you have anything else that I should be talking about? I mean, the application essentially said everything that we were going to review tonight. MR. LEMERY-I think the other reason that the building is located where it’s located is because of the Park’s need to try to spread out the patrons within the Park and get some more attractions up into the Ghost Town area. The way the Park is currently configured, there’s a lot of traffic over by the Comet, and the water area. So the Park is attempting to move patrons through the Park by trying to get some more attractions up into the Ghost Town area, so this is the reason why this particular ride is sited there, with the hope that it’ll move some of the people over to that side, and not cause long queuing areas in the area by the Comet and that side of the Park. MR. ANTHONY-The color of the building is also up for discussion. That was a suggestion. We’ve suggested it be green. It really can be any color that you wish. One of the comments by the County was to paint it out, put it into the background of the landscape, and as viewed from any possible vantage points, it can be colored to match the background. There’s one thing we’d like to correct. We received a letter from Queensbury on November 19, 1998, asking for additional information, and one of the requests was to discuss permeable area. Our answer discussed that, but our conclusion was exactly contrary to the discussion. It said, in summary, the level of permeable area has decreased over the last several years, where, well, that was a typo. It should have said the level of impermeable area decreased over the last several years. So that that’s a mistake. MR. STONE-It was obvious in the reading it was a mistake. I just went right over it. MR. ANTHONY-Thank you. I think that ends the applicant’s discussion. We’re available to answer any questions that you may have. MR. THOMAS-Okay. MR. STEC-My question is, you already discussed how you lowered it eight feet. Would you consider lowering it any further? Why not dig it to the hillside the full 20 feet? MR. ANTHONY-Well, the reason for that is that, and John Collins can continue with that discussion, if he wants, from his perspective, the entrance, let me get the right drawing here, what happens on this property is that we have the flume where the course that the Desperado Plunge goes on, as it exists right now, and to enter this, we’re going to have to be coming in under it, and in through. So the elevation of the flume for the Desperado Plunge has a lot to do with how we get through here into the building. That’s one reason. Secondly, there’s just a practical level of how far down into the earth can you take this? We were taking it down in. MR. LEMERY-Also, the flume ride is scheduled to go through the back of this building. MR. STONE-I was going to ask that question. It looked that way. MR. ANTHONY-Right. So that’s incorporated into the building itself, too, and the building is down as low as we could possibly get it at this moment. I mean, with existing conditions on the site, with the existing improvements, we cannot go any lower. MR. STONE-How deep do the footings for this thing have to go, out of curiosity? JOHN COLLINS MR. COLLINS-We’re getting the engineering done on that, when we go to drop the building down. We’ll hopefully have an answer shortly, but for the building, obviously, we’re going to have to have a lot more concrete than we anticipated originally. So Frank Hardick’s working on that now, our engineer. MR. THOMAS-Anymore questions for the applicant? 4 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MR. MC NALLY-When I looked at the originally drawings you submitted, there were balloons depicted above the building that was (lost words) into the photograph. Why was that? MR. ANTHONY-I don’t know the drawing you’re looking at. MR. MC NALLY-Those are the balloons, and the building is drawn in below the height of the balloons. That occurred in every photograph. MR. ANTHONY-That’s actually touching the balloons. MR. MC NALLY-Where is 70 feet and where is 62 feet with respect to these drawings? The written materials indicate that it’s. MR. ANTHONY-These are the correct drawings. This reflects the 12 foot difference right there. MR. MC NALLY-Okay, but you’re saying the balloons were raised to a level of 70 feet. MR. ANTHONY-The balloons were, we did not change the flight of the balloons. We kept the balloon flight of the original balloon flight the same. We just corrected the 12 foot drop in these drawings. So the balloons are flying. MR. MC NALLY-At 70 feet? MR. ANTHONY-Yes. Well, not 70 feet from the building, but they’re flying 12 feet above the correct peak height. MR. MC NALLY-So that would be at 74 feet? MR. ANTHONY-Seventy feet. When the balloons were initially flown, they were flown at incorrect height, and this building, drawn below, is shown for that correction, is showing the difference. MR. ANTHONY-Right. MR. MC NALLLY-And in these drawings it shows landscaping. Are these 10 to 12 foot trees? Are those trees after 20 years or so? MR. No. Those right there are shown at approximately about 15 feet. MR. ANTHONY-We draw the trees at about three or four years of growth. They could go in a little lower than that, and then three or four years grace to grow, and that’s about it. That’s the way we normally draw those for a visual study. MR. STONE-You’re still going to have, I guess, the south end of the building will be the most visible, but it will not be shielded? MR. ANTHONY-The south end of the building is depicted in this cross section right here, and that’s facing into the Park, into the Ghost Town area of the Park, and it will be visible from only within the Park. MR. STONE-Well, this picture here, where you have proposed mitigation, which is taken from the parking lot, it appears. This here, you’re not going to be able to put growth against. MR. ANTHONY-Right. That part of the building is viewed from out in the Route 9 area, or the Northway area, pardon me, the Northway, and that will be the view from the Northway. MR. STONE-Okay, which is up a little bit. MR. ANTHONY-Those depict, like Craig said, the 15 foot height of tree. That tree will grow, it’s pine or evergreen, that tree will grow to 60, 70 feet, eventually. MR. STONE-And those will be evergreen trees? 5 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MR. ANTHONY-Yes. We’re showing them at 15 feet, and they’ll go in something slightly lower than that. MR. THOMAS-The one question I have on that same drawing, it shows as Figure 2 in the application, that south view, it shows under the balloons. It looks like a huge billboard to me. Are there going to be any signs, any pictures, any drawings of any kind on that, or is it going to be painted the same color? MR. ANTHONY-The proposal is to paint it out in a background color of the landscape in the background. MR. THOMAS-Because I was looking at one that you’re, I think it was on the cross section, it showed a skull on there. MR. ANTHONY-That’s facing south into the Park, and as viewed from the Ghost Town area. That’s within the Park. MR. THOMAS-Okay. So that won’t be visible, above the, from the Northway view? MRS. LAPHAM-From Route 9? MR. COLLINS-Yes. That’s a ride sign. That’s an ID sign. That’s not necessary. If you don’t want that on the building, we can put it at ground level. That’s not a necessary. It was done by our design people, but the front of it will be themed as the rest of Ghost Town is, like a mine shaft, an old style western mining town. That’s the intention. So that sign was up there. If it’s visible from the road, we certainly can lower it. MR. STONE-The big sign on the flume is really the only sign that you have, currently, that tells who you are. MR. COLLINS-That’s correct. MR. STONE-You’re entitled to one. MR. HAYES-It’s got to be toward the Park. So that would be like toward Round Pond then, basically? MR. COLLINS-Yes, that side is the south facing side. That side would be the entrance and that’s an ID sign. It can be situated even at the front of the queue line. We can play with that. MR. THOMAS-Does anyone else have any questions? MR. MC NALLY-Is there going to be any kind of lighting used, as far as lighting on the building itself? MR. COLLINS-No. The only thing that will be lit is the queue line, which will be ground lighting. That was another thing about the 20 feet in depth. It has a lot to do with the queue line, because we’re entering at Ground Level, which is Ghost Town. We’d have to go down 20 feet, and with ADA and all, it would be impossible. We’d be almost 20 feet underground in the tunnel, but it will be queue lighting only. The building itself will not be illuminated. MR. ANTHONY-I think there’s a minor bit of confusion here, too. The Figures One and Two in your original application showed the building at the erroneous height of 12 foot higher than it’ll really be. So those two photos were not dropped 12 feet. MR. STONE-So these were not dropped? MR. ANTHONY-No, they were not dropped 12 feet. MR. STONE-Even though the balloons are up above them? MR. ANTHONY-No, this one. MR. STONE-Isn’t that a balloon? 6 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MR. ANTHONY-We have two right here, maybe we have different photos. MR. HAYES-Yes, they are different. MR. ANTHONY-You have a corrected one now, but this one that I have here, that I was pointed out to earlier by someone, was not corrected. MR. STONE-Okay, no, the ones we have are corrected. MR. ANTHONY-Okay. I’ve got the wrong ones. MR. THOMAS-Okay. Now comes the big question. Lets talk about noise. MR. ANTHONY-Well, the building is intended to contain the ride, and John can talk to this better than I can, but the intention is that the noise will remain within the building, and I can let John continue with that discussion. MR. COLLINS-Yes, obviously, when we thought about the ride, one of the things we wanted to do was mitigate the noise as much as possible, that’s the reason putting it indoors. It is a steel coaster. So you have lower noise level, just because it’s a steel coaster. It’s a family ride. It’s not very large. I am having a sound rating done at our similar ride down at our Park Six Flags Over Texas. I wish to have that today, but I don’t have that information. I was there last week, and when you’re standing right outside the building, it’s, you can’t even hear the ride, but I just want to verify that, and we talked to the Town about that at the Planning Board meeting, and hopefully we’ll have that this week, but definitely for that meeting. MR. STONE-You will have screams in that, too? MR. COLLINS-That’s the intention of putting it in an enclosed environment. The building is also insulated, so that will cut down on any noise that could possibly go through a steel structure, but it is a steel structure. MR. THOMAS-If you’re saying that building is insulated, how do you keep it cool? That thing should heat up like a tin box. MR. COLLINS-It’s going to be air conditioned. MR. THOMAS-It’s air conditioned. MR. COLLINS-It’s expensive. MR. STONE-I know it’s a competitor of yours, but would this be like Space Mountain, in a sense? MR. COLLINS-The same concept, not as elaborate a building, you know, that building is a multimillion dollar building, and it’s about ten million dollars, just in the building, but it’s the same concept, same ride manufacturer, dark ride. MR. STEC-Another question, I’m just flipping through the things that were said at the Planning Board meeting, and Mr. Martin said that other locations were checked. With this currently in operation, there was no measurable noise outside the building from the ride, but you just said you had a study underway. So, I mean, which is accurate, there are no measurable noises, or there’s a study underway? MR. COLLINS-We were verifying that through our sister Park. MR. LEMERY-The Planning Staff asked to provide the decibel level, as an item. So we’re attempting to get that decibel level, and we don’t have that item yet, but that’s one of the, that’s the reason for the. MR. STEC-Right, but my comment is that at the Planning Board it was told that there was no measurable noise. MR. LEMERY-We don’t think there is, but we have to try to get a decibel level, and report back to the Planning Staff. 7 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MR. MC NALLY-Do you have an idea when the study might be ready? MR. COLLINS-I had hoped to have it this week. I mean, they were supposed to do it this past weekend when they were open. MR. MC NALLY-So, shortly? MR. COLLINS-Yes. MR. STEC-What’s the typical decibel level ride for a roller coaster? Have you got an indoor number? MR. COLLINS-Well, I’ll just tell you right now. We did a sound study on part of our Health and Safety Plan. We monitor for, you know, we have an Environmental Engineer come in for our employees. The Dumbo ride, if you’re familiar with that, it’s a ride that goes up, you ride in an elephant, makes 80 decibels, is the level that it has. The Bobsled had a higher peak that than, but averaged around the upper 70’s. It had a peak, obviously, of a little higher than that. The Boomerang, I believe we have all this information, was around mid 80’s. So, that was all provided to the Planning Staff. MR. STEC-Forgive me, because I’m not overly familiar with how these sound experiments are run, but taken at a distance of, what 10 feet, 100 feet, 1,000 feet? MR. COLLINS-The ones that we did were right on the ride. For the health and safety, for our manual, we monitored an employee for eight hours because, you know, for OSHA Guidelines, it’s an eight hour exposure. Those were the readings we used. We’re talking perimeter noise, and we didn’t do one of those studies. We’re talking right at the ride. MR. STONE-The Boomerang is the one at the south end? MR. COLLINS-That’s correct. MR. STONE-The one that goes up twice? MR. COLLINS-That’s correct. MR. STONE-It seems to me the loudest noise from that thing is when it bangs when it releases, ratches up almost anything else. MR. STEC-Is there any intention of providing any acoustical insulation inside of the building? I wasn’t clear if you addressed that or not. MR. COLLINS-We are insulating it. I don’t have the insulation figures, but the building is, it’s building insulation. It’s not acoustic insulation. MR. STEC-Is that something, it seems to be a feasible alternative. MR. COLLINS-Well, we certainly want to find out what the noise is first, before we can comment on anything like that. We don’t believe it’s going to be necessary. MR. MC NALLY-When you do a sound study, do you make a distinction between the noise levels at the ride itself, versus noise levels, I think you said on the perimeter? MR. COLLINS-The question was, where did we take the noise readings. If we go back to, you know, a noise study, you would normally do it based on the perimeter of the Park. The noise information we submitted was right at the ride, so right in the station where the noise will be at its maximum, because you’re sitting right on top of the ride. MR. LEMERY-There were some noise studies done at the time the Comet was sited, at the perimeter of the Park, and it’s virtually impossible to get any kind of a reading of noise within the Park from the perimeters of the Park. It’s not, the only readings you get are the cars going up and down the road. You can’t get a reading. So, at the time the Comet was done, there was some question of the Planning Board, relative to the noise that that might make from the perimeter of the Park, and it was not able to be monitored. 8 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MR. THOMAS-Any other questions? MR. STEC-The north end, the end that’s built into the side of the landscaping, what is the clearance above the final grade there? As drawn, you’re not asking for 12 feet of relief over the length of the building? I’m just trying to get an idea for the contour of the building on the landscaping. MR. ANTHONY-No matter how we graded it, the building itself is 12 feet higher than the 50 foot allowable maximum. MR. STEC-Over the entire area? MR. ANTHONY-For the ridge line, the peak. MR. STEC-The peak. Okay. MR. THOMAS-Anyone else? If not, I’ll open the public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak in favor of this application? In favor of? Would anyone like to speak opposed? Opposed? PUBLIC HEARING OPENED MARY MC NALLY MRS. MC NALLY-I have a question. I am Mary McNally, and I live in Oakwood Drive, which is not really Twicwood, but it’s about a mile from The Great Escape, and as soon as they put up the Boomerang ride, I can hear it in my back yard, that whoosh, that low roar that it makes. I think it’s probably because it’s in a half a tunnel, instead of on rails, because I couldn’t hear the others, and my concern is, you know, nothing was ever done to minimize that noise. I’m living with it. I don’t want to live with it anymore, and if you can’t measure these noises from the perimeter of the Park, then why can I hear it in my back yard? I can’t hear people screaming. All I hear is this like howler monkeys in the jungle roar, the Bobsled, not the Boomerang. I can’t hear any of those other things. I never could. We’ve lived there for eight years, and those all have come in since then, never had a problem. MR. THOMAS-And you live up on Oakwood, which is up on top of the hill, up there behind Suttons? MRS. MC NALLY-Yes, and this is going to be way up on top of a hill. I’m really concerned that it’s not going to have enough insulation to keep it quiet. MRS. LAPHAM-Oakwood’s farther to the south. MRS. MC NALLY-Twicwood, Cedarwood, Oakwood. MR. THOMAS-Yes. MRS. MC NALLY-And the only problem is, like I said, this is a steel building, and that’s a steel half a tunnel. I can’t even describe the Bobsled, that makes a different pitched noise then those things on rails, and it carries farther, and if that building starts making noise, are they going to, you know, if they find a problem later, is anything going to be done about it? Then you’re sort of like stuck with it, forever. MR. THOMAS-Yes, well, I think we can take care of that, in the motion. MRS. MC NALLY-I mean, as long as they insulate it enough, it probably won’t be a problem. MR. THOMAS-That’s why we’ve been asking questions about noise for the last 20 minutes, you know, trying to get them to commit, MRS. MC NALLY-Right. If they had insulated or done anything to that scoop that the Bobsled’s in, I don’t think it would make as much noise as it does. MR. THOMAS-No. It does sound like low rolling thunder. 9 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MRS. MC NALLY-The only thing I could think of was the Howler Monkeys, because it carries for so far. I can’t believe how far it carries. I couldn’t figure out what it was, but that’s my biggest problem. Otherwise, we like The Great Escape. MR. THOMAS-Okay. Sure. AILEEN KANE MRS. KANE-My name is Aileen Kane, and I live on Glen Lake, and I can hear that Bobsled every time it starts up, it’s terrible, and we heard nothing before. I couldn’t figure out what the noise was when it first started, and now it carries so far down the lake, all the neighbors talk about it, and if you try to sit on your porch or on your dock, that’s all you hear. Is there nothing that they can do to stop that? No trees, no barriers like they put along the roads in Jersey? Anything to stop noise? They’re ugly, but they do stop some of the noise. Is there nothing that can be done? MR. THOMAS-Well, we’ll ask them when they come back up. Whereabouts on Glen Lake do you live? MRS. KANE-Fitzgerald Road. The little islands, do you know where the islands are? MR. THOMAS-Yes, over on the back side of the lake there, on the south side. MRS. KANE-The south side, whatever side, that’s where we are. MR. STONE-The Blind Rock Road side? MRS. KANE-Yes. MR. THOMAS-Okay. Is there anyone else that would like to speak opposed? Do we have any correspondence? MRS. LAPHAM-Yes. The one letter I have here, and the other one I’m trying to locate. I saw it when I first opened the folder. Well, why don’t I read the first one, and I can look for the other one, but I know there’s another one. Zoning Board of Appeals, Town of Queensbury, 12/8/98, “As I am unable to attend the hearing on Wednesday, December 9, 1998, regarding The Great Escape proposal to construct yet another roller coaster at the park. I greatly object and firmly vote “NO” to such a proposal or any variance in the zoning rules. The representatives for the park were told several years ago by your Board and the townspeople not to infringe upon Round Pond Road. Today, The Bavarian Palace has opened frontage to the road and at all large functions taking place there, the parking is not sufficient, so the cars park all over on the Road. This after these people reconstructed the hills across the street from me, shaking my house with their heavy machinery for two seasons! The noise from the bands is equally intolerable. I just don’t trust Premier Parks, Inc. to adhere to their agreements. Yours very truly, A very fed-up citizen, Betty J. Dayton” MR. STONE-What was her address? MRS. LAPHAM-She doesn’t give it exactly. She lives across the street from the Bavarian Palace. So that would have to be Round Pond Road. MR. THOMAS-All right. I’m going to leave the public hearing open, due to the fact that the, we can’t make a decision on this tonight because the SEQRA, instead of being Type II, is an Unlisted action, and that’s something we’re going to have to talk about toward the end of this hearing. Okay, are there anymore questions for the applicant? MR. MC NALLY-I don’t want to belabor the issue, but in your application, it says that there are other locations, but they can’t be improved without major investment. When you said that in the application, what was meant? What major investment are you talking about? What other locations might their be that were considered? MR. COLLINS-Are you asking what’s the other locations or what was the investment needed to be done? MR. MC NALLY-I’m asking what other locations were considered, or what the problem with those other locations are that would result in a major investment? What are we talking about? 10 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MR. COLLINS-Okay. First of all, can I go into, it was mentioned why we chose the site we chose was to spread the attendance. Obviously, when you look at your overall Park, you have to see, you know, where’s areas that, you have under capacity and under capacity. Ghost Town was a situation of major under capacity. If you go on a day where we had 10,000 people, you’d think there was a couple hundred people in the Park when you went up into Ghost Town. We have a lot of revenue centers up there, a lot of, you know, attractions that weren’t getting used, the Desperado Plunge, the Condor, all our theaters were up there, Red Garter Saloon, etc., but all the development had occurred across the river, if you will, in our Fest area, where we have the new wave pool, the new Bobsled, the water park was built back there, the Comet was built back there. So we’re, in that situation, we have a power problem. We cannot, you may have been to the Park this year, noticed that we didn’t run the Skylab. We don’t have enough power or additional power, to put any new attractions back there without investing in either a substation, which means easements or co-generating our own power. So we really didn’t have an option, unless we invested almost a million dollars in a substation. The other option was to take something out, and the site that we would, the logical place to put it would be where the circus tent is, and I didn’t want to lose an attraction to put one in, especially a roller coaster in exchange for a family attraction. So we had a cost associated with the power. I still won’t have enough power to run the Skylab, and then the second one, or the primary reason was to spread the attendance to make the best use of the Park, because it’s just so congested in the water area now that we need to do something to spread that out, so we could best service the guests. MR. THOMAS-Can you tell the Board of any long range improvements, expansion, modernization that’s going to occur here, say, maybe the next five to ten years? MR. COLLINS-That subject has come up before. If you would have asked me what I was going to put in this year, I would have never said a dark ride. The industry changes. We’re constantly trying to get out new technologies. If you’re asking my opinion, where I think the Park can go, I think we need to address our children’s attractions. For a Park that was geared toward kids, we really don’t have a big selection of kiddie rides. I think that would be something, but, you know, decisions like this are made on a corporate level, because with 31 Parks, they have to look at each piece. So that would be something that I would ask for. Each of the Parks is different. I think family type attractions would go over real well in this area. Exactly what those would be, it would be hard for me to tell, but I think that our kiddie rides need a little looking at, and, you know, maybe some additional water attractions, because our water capacity has gotten to the point where we may have to add another slide or they call them mammoth rivers, if you will, where it’s like a six person tube slide. That may be something. MR. STONE-You don’t see any hanging roller coasters? MR. COLLINS-That’s state of the art. I’d love to have one. I mean, I really would. It’s something that I could certainly see in a theme park down the road, but in our future, I don’t really see it within four or five years, no, but I can’t guarantee that. Next year that may be something we come back for. It is, it’s an industry staple now. Every park’s got one. It’s a state of the art attraction. MR. LEMERY-It’s not possible to determine what is going to go in the Park from one year to the next, because of the mix within the Park, and what seems to work and what doesn’t. The one thing The Great Escape did was to acquire the old Animal Land parcel across Route 9, last year, to provide for the excess parking. A parking plan has been prepared which provides for another several hundred parking spaces over there, in Animal Land on that site. With the sidewalks that are going in on both sides, including the sidewalk over the bridge, and with the traffic control device, and with the fact that the Park is talking to DOT about possibly putting a cross over bridge at some point there that will alleviate the traffic issues, that’s about the only thing, at this point, that the Park has taken a look at in terms of a long term plan. It’s just not possible. MR. STONE-Did the extended hours on those days, did they even out the flow of cars at all? I mean, I don’t go by that way very often. MR. COLLINS-I believe so. You’re talking sending out seven, eight thousand people all at six o’clock, versus a third at six, a third at seven, and a third at eight. I think, just in my experience watching the flow and hearing my employees tell me that it used to take them 45 minutes just to get out of the parking lot, versus what it does now, I believe that’s gone a great way toward cutting down that mass exit of traffic. A couple of things, you know, John mentioned the parking situation. We’re not just investing in additional land. We’re doing things, or trying to do things, to help the situation, things that weren’t done in the past. We’re packaging with hotels and motels. 11 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) So we’re pre-selling our tickets. That was never done before. What that does is that eliminates people having to buy tickets at the front gate, keeps the flow of guests through the front gate. You don’t get the back up, in most days, on to the driveway, which used to back traffic onto the road. That was the Number One, I walked in there the first day and saw them backed up into our driveway, and we were letting people drop guests off at the front. If ever there was a traffic jam happening, that was, let alone it was unsafe. So we went in and we went out to all the hotels and motels and stressed, we’re going to let you sell tickets. We know they’re going to make some money off of them, but we want to have pre-sold tickets so people don’t have to stand in line, and back up the traffic at the front gate. We’re co-oping with a lot of area attractions on the Glens Falls Transit show. I’m trying to stress people use the bus, especially if you’re local. It’s a great way to get to the Park. We have an express bus now. Hopefully, the people from the hotels, we can get them to take the bus, because that’s the whole philosophy, is the less cars, the better off we’ll be. We’ll do that. We’re doing a season pass now. The reason you do season passes is because those people can come in your non-peak hours. If they’ve got a pass, which this year is $49.99, I’ll plug it, we dropped it from $129.99 the first year, but people will come, spend three hours during non peak time, and leave, and figure they got their money’s worth, because they can come back during non busy times. They don’t have to come on a weekend. So we’re doing a lot of things besides buying additional land, that hopefully spreads people out throughout the day, after three o’clock promotions with Freihoffer. None of this stuff was done before, but it’s trying to get people to come in so we can make the best use of the parking that we have. MR. THOMAS-Okay. Are there any other questions? All right. No other questions for the applicant from the Board? Okay. Like I said, I’m going to keep this open because they have to do, like I say, we can’t do a decision tonight. We’ll have to do it next week. MR. STONE-Somebody just walked in. Do they know it’s open? MR. THOMAS-Yes. Would you like to speak, Mrs. Mozel? CHRISTINE MOZEL MRS. MOZEL-Since I missed most of the meeting, I apologize if I repeat anything. My name is Christine Mozel. I am President of the Glen Lake Association. I think our concerns with the new ride are mostly with the expansion the Park, and I just heard parking being discussed, and we’ve noticed that a lot of cars have been parked near the wetlands. We attended a meeting when they were doing Splash Water Kingdom, I believe, and it was contingent on their approval that they do park within 100 feet of the wetlands, I believe it is, and we just want to make sure that that’s being done. As far as the ride goes, this particular one, there’s no concern, but as President of the Glen Lake Association, this is not a, I’m not speaking as an individual property owner on Glen Lake. As President, this past summer, I’ve had several calls concerning the noise of the new ride that was, last year I believe the Alpine Slide. I’m not sure if I’m calling it the correct name. Usually, the Glen Lake Association does not get involved with like neighborhood dispute, political issues. We’re interested in water quality. This is not something that I have not documented because it is something that I have told people they have to represent themselves as an individual. If it’s noise that they’re concerned with, they do have to get in touch with someone other than me, because this is something that we do not address or represent ourselves against something that involves noise. If it’s water related, we do have a concern, which brings me back to the first point that we are concerned with additional rides, additional parking, and if they do honor the 100 feet buffer with the wetlands, you know, we have no problems. That’s really about it. MR. THOMAS-Okay. Thanks. MRS. MOZEL-Thank you very much. MR. THOMAS-All right. Since there’s no more questions for the applicant, this SEQRA thing, now how are we going to do this? This is, as if it were an Unlisted action, but we’re going to let the Planning Board do it? MR. ROUND-I think you should vote that, make a formal determination that you relinquish lead agency status to the Planning Board for this particular activity. MR. THOMAS-Okay, in the form of a motion. MR. ROUND-Yes. 12 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MOTION THAT WE RELINQUISH LEAD AGENCY STATUS CONCERNING THE SEQRA REVIEW TO THE PLANNING BOARD FOR THEIR REVIEW , Introduced by Chris Thomas who moved for its adoption, seconded by Lewis Stone: th Duly adopted this 9 day of December, 1998, by the following vote: AYES: Mr. McNally, Mr. Hayes, Mr. Stone, Mrs. Lapham, Mr. Stec, Mr. Thomas NOES: NONE ABSENT: Mr. Custer MR. THOMAS-Okay. So that takes care of that part. All right. Since there’s no more questions for the applicant, we’re going to talk about it. I’ll start with Lew. MR. STONE-I’ve heard everything, the questions that have been asked tonight. I’ve heard concerns with, at least one previous ride, in terms of noise. That, of course, is not really our call. On the Zoning Board of Appeals, we’re asked to look at one thing and one thing only, the height of the building. Obviously, if we were not to grant the variance, the project would have a problem. I think, as an observer of the Queensbury scene, that Premier Parks, doing business as The Great Escape, is a very positive asset to the Town of Queensbury. Not only does it provide a destination for outside tourists, it does provide summer jobs for a great many of our population. It obviously provides for tax revenue, both for the County and the Town of Queensbury. I am certainly pleased to see that the variance that is being requested is only 12 feet rather than 20. It’s hard to say 20 is not a significant difference. At 12 feet, 62 feet, I really have no problem with this. I would only ask that the applicant do everything in their power to make sure that it does not add a disturbing element to the current sound level created by The Great Escape. MR. THOMAS-All right. Jamie? MR. HAYES-Well, I certainly agree with a lot of what Lew had to say. I think that the Recreational Commercial zone is, as the applicant pointed out, to some extent a non-conventional zoning format. I mean, just driving by there and looking at the rides that are already there provides, that’s self evident to me. A lot of those rides are already over that height, and I guess, you know, like Lew as well, you know, going down from 20 feet to 12, in this zone, I really don’t have a problem with the relief that’s requested. I don’t think that it’s a hurdle that I can’t get over. So really, to me, it boils down to the effects on the neighborhood and the community, and again, I agree with Lew that I think that we have to view The Great Escape, you now, in the broadest sense, that it really does provide a lot to this community. It is a unique use, in that it’s providing jobs and opportunities, and adding to the overall attraction to our recreational industry, which is really important to this area, especially now days. So, in the broadest sense, if they were coming with an open roller coaster ride, I think this would be a tougher battle to view, because there have been legitimate concerns expressed by people on Glen Lake that I’ve talked to, particularly with the rides that are already there, but this is a dark enclosed roller coaster ride, and I’ve been on Space Mountain and the other ones, and the noise really is mitigated substantially, if not entirely, and if anything, I think the fact that that’s the particular roller coaster ride that they’re proposing to put in makes it easier for me, because it appears that they have at least researched this and understand the concerns of our community. So I don’t have any problem with this ride at all. MR. THOMAS-Okay. Bob? MR. MC NALLY-If I look at the five factors, about the only one that I really could say I have trouble with is the feasible alternatives. I understand that there may be additional costs or difficulties involved in putting in an entrance way, such that the finished floor should be, as they suggested currently as planned, but I don’t really see any extraordinary cost involved in configuring it to allow the building to be dug into the hill even further than it currently is, so it meets the zoning code requirement. Talking about a difference of 12 feet. When I was there today, there were a lot of, there was a dump truck, a bulldozer, a back hoe, taking away substantial portions of that hillside, and the hillside is not composed of rock or ledge, it’s basically sand. So from a physical or cross perspective, I don’t see any real problem with them lowering this building to meet the Code, to the extent they can, and I think that’s a feasible alternative. The relief that they’re asking for is 12 feet on a 50 foot height requirement. Now, if this were a simple instance of a single column ride, where only a tiny portion was above the zoning code requirement, that would be one thing, but we’re talking about one God awful size of a building, 170 feet long, 110 feet wide, and 62 feet high along it’s entire length. There will be visual impacts from the Trading Post, 13 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) and along Route 9 from the Trading Post downward, as far as I can see from the photographs. There are going to be visual impacts from the Northway, and I don’t think that planting 10 foot trees is going to really mitigate that over a period of time. The effects on the neighborhood or community can be substantial. There’s going to be some significant visual impacts. I think this difficulty is self-created. What they have done is basically designed a building which can be seen from the road, in many respects, to accommodate their ride, and I don’t see why I couldn’t be reduced even lower. There are alternatives open to them. It may be that there’s a need to move people from the water rides and the other parts of the Park to this area, but the applicant talked about other things that can do that. There are children rides. There are other types of rides that perhaps should have been considered other than this particular one that was enclosed, that would achieve the same objectives, and at the same time wouldn’t have the impact on the neighborhood. That’s what I think. MR. THOMAS-All right. Dan? MR. STEC-Well, I’d like to add to what Bob was saying, in that, I agree that that hillside is sand. You can’t ask for any easier construction media to work with as far as excavation, and I think that there are some feasible alternatives that would allow to further lower the finished height of the building. That really would, basically, we have to consider how this is going to affect the community. Clearly, Premier Parks, The Great Escape, has been a very good corporate neighbor over the years, and it provides a lot of benefits to all of the community, and I don’t think that’s under dispute, but the community is going to have two concerns. The concerns are the aesthetics from the roads and the community, as far as the visual effects of the building, and then the noise, and I think Jamie hit the nail on the head when he said that basically the building is mitigating the noise. So, the trade off is, the size of the building, as viewed by the eye, for the decibel level, and I think it’s important for us to consider that if we do grant this variance, that we stipulate that since the variance is for this enclosed ride, that basically the shell of the building is self created, the difficulty, that there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t make absolutely certain that the decibel level is zero at the perimeter of the Park. I think that’s very fair and very reasonable. Those are the two concerns that people are going to have, and if we screw this up, those are the two things that people are going to criticize about this decision, the height and the decibel level. So, as we grant one, the other should be mitigated, but I still feel that Bob hit the nail on the head when he said that they can lower it even further, the height of the building. Maybe 12 feet, maybe they can’t go the full 12 feet, but I think another six, I think another four, and you can’t anything easier to move than sand. Maybe it’s not absolutely necessary to have the flume ride go through the back of the building, and that’s a feasible alternative. Instead of having the queue line go underneath the flume ride, maybe a walkway or bridge over it. I mean, these are reasonable, feasible, and certainly not cost preclusive feasible alternatives. So I think more can be done here, but again, I think it’s very important for us to consider the trade off between the noise and the visual effects. As far as the other issues involved, the parking, that’s really more up to the Planning Board, I think, but the setback from the wetlands, I think that they’ve done an adequate job, considering those things. I know that a previous owner in the past has been issued a ticket by the Queensbury Forest Ranger many years ago for filling in wetlands over there by the. I was about eight years old, and I remember that. So I think that these are the two things that we have to balance these two variables, the noise and the height. MR. THOMAS-All right. Bonnie? MRS. LAPHAM-I tend to agree with the first three Board members, that Premier Parks, doing business as The Great Escape, has been a very good corporate neighbor. They’ve done a great deal for Queensbury, both sales tax and providing jobs for our college age children and senior citizens and so on. The biggest thing I’m concerned with is just the noise, because when I was there today, the General Manager, I’m sorry, I forgot your name. MR. COLLINS-John Collins. MRS. LAPHAM-John Collins, assured me that you could not see the building from either Glen Lake or Twicwood. As far as seeing it from the Northway and Route 9, I don’t see that as a problem, because that is a commercial area, and The Great Escape is a destination in itself, and it’ll become a landmark that people will see from the Northway and say, I’m supposed to get off here, you know, if I want to go to this particular Park, or Lake George is nearby because there’s The Great Escape, but the noise, which we’ve already heard from some people on Glen Lake, and people in Twicwood, that really concerns me, and I do agree with Mr. Stec at the other end that there ought to be zero noise from the perimeter. I don’t know how it would be achieved, but that’s basically what I would like to see. The rest of the height of the building, the fact is that large, and 14 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) it’s right, between being in the hillside, and it’s next to the billboard, it just will become another landmark for the Park. MR. MC NALLY-Could Premier Parks make that as a condition? MRS. LAPHAM-What? MR. MC NALLY-Zero noise at the perimeter? MR. STONE-Zero additional noise we’re talking about. MRS. LAPHAM-Well, zero additional noise, yes. You couldn’t say that at the whole Park. MR. LEMERY-At the perimeter of the Park, you mean? MRS. LAPHAM-Zero additional noise from that particular ride was what I was thinking of. MR. THOMAS-Yes. MRS. LAPHAM-At the perimeter edges of the Park, yes. I mean, we can’t do anything about the other rides. MR. LEMERY-It’s impossible to measure it. You can’t measure it. It’s not possible. MR. STONE-Until it’s built, you can’t measure it. MR. LEMERY-You can’t even measure it when it’s built. It’s not possible. You cannot get a decibel reading on anything that goes on within that Park at the perimeter of the Park. We’ve tried it. It can’t be done. MR. MC NALLY-Is that true of the Alpine Slide? MR. COLLINS-The lowest decibel level, to my knowledge, that you’re going to pick up on any sound reading is 70, which is ambient noise. So, I mean, you’re talking additional sound levels, you’ll never get below 70, so how would you know it would be less than that? So, that’s the problem. That’s what John said when he said about traffic noise, but we’ll get that sound reading from our sister park and provide that. MR. LEMERY-We can’t put conditions on this that can’t be measured and can’t be obtained. MR. STONE-One of the things, as I was listening to my fellow Board members, can we ask that this building not be used as a sign board? MR. COLLINS-Yes. MR. STONE-Okay. So there will be no additional, except for the name of the ride at some point? MR. COLLINS-Yes. MR. STONE-Okay. MR. ROUND-If it’s not visible from the adjacent property or roadway, it’s not regulated under the Sign Ordinance. MR. STONE-Right. MRS. LAPHAM-I meant that it would be plain I back of, then you’d see it in back of the billboard. MR. THOMAS-That’s why I brought it up for discussion. MR. HAYES-Do you have any idea of like the number of inches of that insulation? MR. COLLINS-I have all that weight information, and I can provide that information for you. I’ve got the R levels. I have all that. 15 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MR. HAYES-Because the insulation is actually what keeps the ride dark, too, right, to some degree? MR. COLLINS-That is correct. I mean, the building itself will, but the insulation itself is black insulation. MR. THOMAS-I agree with the other Board members, with Lew and Jamie about what Premier Parks has done for the area, and what it still does for the area and what it will do for the area in the future. As far as the height of the building, the height of the building is going to be 62 feet. It doesn’t matter how far you lower it into the ground. Lowering it farther into the ground creates less of a sight pollution, looking from the Northway and Route 9, but like Bonnie said, this is a commercial area, so you’re going to see buildings that aren’t like houses, tree lined streets and such, but I think the applicant has tried to mitigate that by putting in screening, creating a mural on the building which will more or less blend into the background of the mountain that does site behind this, as you look from Route 9, and from the Northway. As far as the noise goes, it’s like Mr. Lemery says, you really can’t measure it until the building’s there, and then you really can’t measure it anyway, but the one you can hear, and I don’t know if you can measure it or not, but the one you can hear is that Bobsled, and I’m kicking around the idea of putting, if and when a motion comes through, of putting in a reasonable condition that Premier Parks try and find some way of quieting the Bobsled ride. I mean, I’ve heard from people that live on Glen Lake. I’ve heard people from the Glens Falls Country Club. I’ve heard that people live over up in Twicwood, and they say, you know, it sounds like low rolling thunder, and when it first started, no one could understand what it was or where it was coming from. Everyone was looking for a jet plane, and they couldn’t see it. So, you know, to me, that would be a reasonable condition to the variance. Whether they can do something about it, I don’t know, but ask them to look at it, and as the applicant said, they’re going to blend the building into the background, and also they also mentioned there would be no signs visible from outside the Park on this building. I had mentioned the skull that was on the rendering that sits right there, that sits kind of high, that would be visible according to their photographic submission, but other than that, as long as it doesn’t create anymore noise, I would have no problem pushing this one through, especially since they don’t want 20 feet, they want 12 feet of relief. It was a mistake on their part, in their favor, really. So, that’s about as far as we can go tonight. MR. LEMERY-I don’t think we have any problem with trying to figure out a way to mitigate the noise caused by the Bobsled. So if that’s a condition, that there be some effort to try to do that, that’s fine. They’re going to try to figure out a way to muffle that sound. I’m not sure how they can do it. MR. THOMAS-Well, I’m not, either, but, you know, I’m not an engineer either. MR. STONE-I think an honest attempt is what. MR. LEMERY-They’re mindful of it, and they’ve talked about it, and they’re going to try to figure out a way to muffle it. MR. THOMAS-Okay. Is there anything else? MR. ROUND-I think you’ve touched on it all. MR. COLLINS-Can I just make one comment? We understand the impact we have on the community, and we did respond to calls we got about the Bobsled. I don’t test run it before nine o’clock in the morning, and I don’t run it at night. So, you know, we did respond to what we could on the short term. That’s why we’re willing to look at those things. It doesn’t run at night. It doesn’t have lights. MR. STONE-Are they on first, Wednesday? MR. THOMAS-They’re on the Planning Board meeting Tuesday, right? MR. BROWN-Yes, next Tuesday, the SEQRA determination. MR. THOMAS-And they’re going to take care of the SEQRA determination. That means Wednesday we can take care of the motion to approve, deny or table. 16 (Queensbury ZBA Meeting 12/9/98) MR. BROWN-Correct. MR. THOMAS-Okay. MR. MC NALLY-Will we have a report back from the Planning Board next week? MR. THOMAS-We’ll have their minutes, because we have their minutes from last night here already. MR. ROUND-That was from last week. MR. THOMAS-All right. Is there anything else before the Zoning Board of Appeals tonight? All th right. I’ll make a motion that we adjourn until Wednesday, the 16 of December, 1998. Do I have a second? MR. STONE-Second. On motion meeting was adjourned. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Chris Thomas, Chairman 17