2010.09.30
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING
SPECIAL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 30, 2010
INDEX
Site Plan No. 57-2010 Paul Kasselman 1.
Tax Map No. 239.15-1-8
Site Plan No. 53-2010 Bob Pilarinos; Dennis Pilarinos 2.
Tax Map No. 302.5-1-97
Subdivision No. 11-2010 William VanGuilder 3.
PRELIMINARY STAGE Tax Map No. 308.11-1-53
FINAL STAGE
Subdivision No. 7-2009 Ernest Burnell 6.
PRELIMINARY STAGE Tax Map No. 271.-1-21
Site Plan No. 61-2010 David & Tanya Bruno 10.
Tax Map No. 228.-1-85
Site Plan No. 56-2010 Gregg Laber 11.
Tax Map No. 308.16-2-4
Site Plan No. 59-2010 Tom Wessling & Roger Brown 16.
Tax Map No. 296.17-1-50
Subdivision No. 13-2007 John Fedorowicz 26.
PRELIMINARY STAGE Tax Map No. 265-1-19.11
DISCUSSION ITEM Queensbury Partners 29.
THESE ARE NOT OFFICIALLY ADOPTED MINUTES AND ARE SUBJECT TO BOARD AND
STAFF REVISION. REVISIONS WILL APPEAR ON THE FOLLOWING MONTHS MINUTES (IF
ANY) AND WILL STATE SUCH APPROVAL OF SAID MINUTES.
QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
SPECIAL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 30, 2010
7:00 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT
CHRIS HUNSINGER, CHAIRMAN
DONALD SIPP
STEPHEN TRAVER
THOMAS FORD
DONALD KREBS
PAUL SCHONEWOLF
STEVEN JACKOSKI, ALTERNATE
LAND USE PLANNER-KEITH OBORNE
TOWN COUNSEL-MILLER, MANNIX, SCHACHNER, & HAFNER-CATHI RADNER
STENOGRAPHER-MARIA GAGLIARDI
MR. HUNSINGER-I’ll call to order the Town of Queensbury Planning Board, Thursday,
September 30, 2010. Our first item on the agenda is an Item of Expedited Review.
EXPEDITED REVIEW:
SITE PLAN NO. 57-2010 SEQR TYPE II PAUL KASSELMAN AGENT(S) DOUGLAS MC
CALL OWNER(S) SAME ZONING WR LOCATION 25 WILD TURKEY LANE APPLICANT
PROPOSES BOATHOUSE WITH SUNDECK. DOCKS WITH BOATHOUSES IN A WR ZONE
REQUIRE PLANNING BOARD REVIEW AND APPROVAL. CROSS REFERENCE AV 29-03,
AV 133-89 WARREN CO. PLANNING 9/8/2010 APA, CEA, OTHER L G PARK CEA LOT
SIZE 0.93 +/- ACRES TAX MAP NO. 239.15-1-8 SECTION 179-5-060, 179-9
DOUGLAS MC CALL, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. HUNSINGER-We don’t usually do Staff Notes on Expedited Review.
MR. OBORNE-Yes. This one, unfortunately, is kind of a thorn in my side.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. OBORNE-Due to Staff oversight, this was not physically referred to the County Planning
Board.
MR. HUNSINGER-That’s right.
MR. OBORNE-And as such the Board cannot do action, cannot take action on this until they
come back with any referral, any action on that.
MR. HUNSINGER-That’s right.
MR. OBORNE-The applicant’s agent is here, and he, I’m sure, would like to speak about it. This
is, again, an expedited boathouse. Typically it would be done like that, but because of a Staff
oversight, it cannot be approved tonight.
MR. HUNSINGER-Did you have anything else you wanted to add to that?
MR. MC CALL-Not really. Just looking to build a boathouse on an existing dock.
MR. HUNSINGER-One of the things that the new Code requires, and you might want to think
about this between now and the next meeting, is a shoreline buffer, 15 feet wide, and you might
want to refer to the Code, and when you come back in October to show us a planting schedule.
MR. MC CALL-And that’s a requirement to get a permit for this?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. MC CALL-All right.
MR. HUNSINGER-That way you don’t have to wait and then just get tabled.
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MR. MC CALL-Okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-I will open the public hearing, and we will leave the public hearing open.
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
MR. HUNSINGER-Was there anything else you wanted to add, sir?
MR. MC CALL-No, not at all.
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MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Would anyone like to make a motion to table this to October 19?
MOTION TO TABLE SITE PLAN NO. 57-2010 PAUL KASSELMAN, Introduced by Stephen
Traver who moved for its adoption, seconded by Thomas Ford:
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Pending County review, until October 19.
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Duly adopted this 30 day of September, 2010, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Ford, Mr. Traver, Mr. Krebs, Mr. Jackoski, Mr. Schonewolf, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
MR. HUNSINGER-My apologies. We’ll see you in a month. Thank you.
MR. MC CALL-Okay. Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Did we want to talk about the diner as the first item?
MR. FORD-Sure.
SITE PLAN NO. 53-2010 SEQR TYPE PREVIOUS EIS BOB PILARINOS; DENNIS
PILARINOS AGENT(S) JONATHAN LAPPER, B P S R TOM HUTCHINS, HUTCHINS ENG.
OWNER(S) PYRAMID MALL OF GF NEW CO. ZONING ESC LOCATION 518 AVIATION
ROAD APPLICANT PROPOSES DEMOLITION OF THE 8,800 SQ. FT. FORMER HOWARD
JOHNSON’S RESTAURANT AND CONSTRUCTION OF A 5,400 SQ. FT. DINER WITH
ASSOCIATED SITE WORK. FOOD SERVICE IN THE ESC ZONE REQUIRES PLANNING
BOARD REVIEW AND APPROVAL. CROSS REFERENCE SP 35-10, AV 63-08, SP 21-01
WARREN CO. PLANNING 9/8/2010 LOT SIZE 2 +/- ACRES TAX MAP NO. 302.5-1-97
SECTION § 179-9
JON LAPPER, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. HUNSINGER-On our meeting Tuesday evening, we discussed the Pilarinos diner, and we
had asked the applicant’s agent to come back this evening and present any new information that
they might have. I assume you have something to present, Jon?
MR. LAPPER-Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. LAPPER-Good evening. For the record, Jon Lapper. If I could read this into the record.
“Dear Chairman Hunsinger: We’re hereby committed to moving forward with demolition of the
hotel 14 days after the Planning Board grants Site Plan approval of the diner project. By
October 4, 2010, we’ll notify the New York State Department of Labor of our intent to commence
abatement and demolition within this timeframe. Completion of the work is expected to take 85
days. So, compared to where we were two days ago, they’ve now committed to not wait for a
closing on the diner, but to proceed, 14 days after Site Plan approval, to start the demolition, and
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they’ll take care of the pre-requisite to notify the Department of Labor on October 4 and send
them the plans. So this is a date certain, and the 85 days includes 20 days of asbestos
demolition and about 65 days of building demolition, asbestos remediation removal. You had
asked for a date certain, and this is a commitment to move forward without waiting for a closing
and a check from the diner purchaser. On the second issue, also to clarify my comments from
the September 24, 2010 letter, I want to acknowledge the existing FEIS for the redevelopment of
the hotel site will require the construction of a connector road to the Aviation Mall property. If the
hotel site is to be proposed to be re-developed in the future with a different project than was
contemplated in the FEIS, the Planning Board and the New York State Department of
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Transportation will determine if a connector road is necessary, and I hope that’s more along the
lines of the commitment that you wanted to see.
MR. HUNSINGER-Any questions, comments from the Board?
MR. SCHONEWOLF-No.
MR. FORD-Just a question of clarification on Paragraph One, or in Paragraph One. The date
specific would be what, Jon?
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MR. LAPPER-By October 4 they would notify the Department of Labor, and that would take
approximately two weeks to get clearance to start the project. Whatever date this Planning
Board approves the diner project, it would start 14 days later, the demolition, and continue for 85
days after that.
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MR. SCHONEWOLF-So I guess they’re not going to make September 30?
MR. LAPPER-No, certainly not, but it’s a set timeframe, and it’s not contingent upon a closing.
MR. FORD-But it’s a timeframe, not a date specific.
MR. LAPPER-Well, it’s a date specific that starts with the date of the approval of the diner
project.
MR. FORD-No, there’s an expectation that the demolition would take 85 days. That does not
specify a specific date for completion.
MR. LAPPER-Well, I don’t think anybody would know for sure how long a project like that would
take.
MR. FORD-Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Anything else from the Board?
MR. SCHONEWOLF-No.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you. No other questions?
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MR. SCHONEWOLF-No, we tabled this to the 19.
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MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, to the 19 of October.
MR. LAPPER-Can you give me some more direction?
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MR. SCHONEWOLF-Come back on the 19, I guess.
MR. LAPPER-Okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-Anything else from the Board? Okay. Thank you.
MR. LAPPER-Thank you.
SUBDIVISION NO. 11-2010 PRELIMINARY & FINAL STAGE SEQR TYPE UNLISTED
WILLIAM J. VAN GUILDER OWNER(S) SAME AS APPLICANT ZONING MDR LOCATION
397 LUZERNE ROAD PROJECT DESCRIPTION: APPLICANT PROPOSES SUBDIVISION
OF A 3.529 +/- ACRE LOT INTO 2 LOTS OF +/- 2.0 ACRES & 1.529 ACRES. SUBDIVISION:
SUBDIVISION OF LAND REQUIRES PLANNING BOARD REVIEW AND APPROVAL. AREA
VARIANCE: SITE SETBACK, LOT SIZE & ROAD FRONTAGE RELIEF. PLANNING BOARD
MAY CONDUCT SEQR REVIEW AND PROVIDE WRITTEN RECOMMENDATION TO THE
ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS. CROSS REFERENCE AV 50-10 LOT SIZE 3.5 +/- ACRES
TAX MAP NO. 308.11-1-53 SECTION CHAPTER A-183
WILLIAM VAN GUILDER, PRESENT
MR. OBORNE-I’ll read this into the record. Subdivision 11-2010 William VanGuilder,
Preliminary and Final subdivision review. Location is 397 Luzerne Road. Existing zoning is
MDR. This is an Unlisted. You have already accomplished that at the recommendation stage.
What we’re here for right now is Preliminary and Final review. I believe the Board is up to speed
on what the applicant is requesting, and with that I’d turn it over to the Board.
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MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Good evening.
MR. VAN GUILDER-Good evening. William VanGuilder.
MR. HUNSINGER-Did you have anything else you wanted to add?
MR. VAN GUILDER-No, I don’t.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Questions, comments from the Board? No questions or comments?
We do have a public hearing scheduled this evening. Is there anyone in the audience who
wants to address the Board on this project?
PUBLIC HEARING OPEN
MR. HUNSINGER-Any written comments, Keith?
MR. OBORNE-No.
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MR. HUNSINGER-The public hearing was held open from September 21. Okay. Well, if there
are no comments and no one wants to address the Board, I will close the public hearing.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. HUNSINGER-And if there’s no questions, I will ask the Board to move forward with
SEQRA.
MR. TRAVER-I think we already did SEQRA.
MR. HUNSINGER-That’s right. We had to do SEQRA for the Zoning Board. I’m sorry.
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MR. OBORNE-Yes, you did SEQRA. That was accomplished on the 21.
MOTION APPROVE PRELIMINARY STAGE SUBDIVISION NO. 11-2010 WILLIAM VAN
GUILDER, Introduced by Stephen Traver who moved for its adoption, seconded by Donald
Krebs:
A subdivision application has been made to the Queensbury Planning Board for the following:
Applicant proposes subdivision of a 3.529 +/- acre lot into 2 lots of +/- 2.0 acres & 1.529 acres.
Subdivision: Subdivision of land requires Planning Board review and approval. Area Variance:
Site setback, lot size & road frontage relief. Planning Board may conduct SEQR review and
provide written recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
A public hearing was scheduled and held on 9/21/ & 9/30/2010 and
The Planning Board provided a written recommendation to the ZBA on 9/21/10 & 9/30/2010; and
The ZBA approved the variance on 9/22/2010; and
This application is supported with all documentation, public comment and application material in
the file of record; and
MOTION APPROVE PRELIMINARY STAGE SUBDIVISION NO. 11-2010 WILLIAM VAN
GUILDER, Introduced by Stephen Traver who moved for its adoption, seconded by Donald
Krebs:
Paragraph A complies. We adopted a Negative Declaration on SEQRA.
1) Approved with the following statements and conditions:
a)Pursuant to relevant sections of the Town of Queensbury Zoning Code [Chapter
A-183], the Planning Board has determined that this proposal complies with the
requirements as stated in the Zoning Code; and
b)The requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act have been
considered and the Planning Board has adopted a SEQRA Negative Declaration;
and
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
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Duly adopted this 30 day of September, 2010, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Krebs, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver, Mr. Schonewolf, Mr. Jackoski, Mr. Ford, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
MR. HUNSINGER-We should acknowledge that waiver requests for topography, landscaping,
stormwater, and clearing in the Final.
MR. TRAVER-Okay.
MOTION TO APPROVE FINAL STAGE SUBDIVISION NO. 11-2010 WILLIAM VAN GUILDER,
Introduced by Stephen Traver who moved for its adoption, seconded by Donald Krebs:
A subdivision application has been made to the Queensbury Planning Board for the following:
Applicant proposes subdivision of a 3.529 +/- acre lot into 2 lots of +/- 2.0 acres & 1.529 acres.
Subdivision: Subdivision of land requires Planning Board review and approval. Area Variance:
Site setback, lot size & road frontage relief. Planning Board may conduct SEQR review and
provide written recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
A public hearing was scheduled and held on 9/21/ & 9/30/2010 and
The Planning Board provided a written recommendation to the ZBA on 9/21/10; and
The ZBA approved the variance on 9/22/2010; and
This application is supported with all documentation, public comment and application material in
the file of record; and
MOTION TO APPROVE FINAL STAGE SUBDIVISION NO. 11-2010 WILLIAM VAN GUILDER,
Introduced by Stephen Traver who moved for its adoption, seconded by Donald Krebs:
Noting that we are granting waivers for stormwater management, grading, landscaping and
lighting.
1) Approved with the following statements and conditions:
a)Pursuant to relevant sections of the Town of Queensbury Zoning Code [Chapter A-183],
the Planning Board has determined that this proposal complies with the requirements as
stated in the Zoning Code; and
b)The requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act have been
considered and the Planning Board has adopted a SEQRA Negative Declaration;
and
c)Final approved plans, in compliance with the Subdivision, must be submitted to
the Community Development Department before any further review by the Zoning
Administrator or Building and Codes personnel. The applicant must meet with
Staff after approval and prior to issuance of Building Permit and/or the beginning
of any site work. Subsequent issuance of further permits, including building
permits is dependent on compliance with this and all other conditions of this
resolution; and
d)Waiver requests granted: stormwater mgmt., grading, landscaping & lighting
plans; and
e)The limits of clearing will constitute a no-cut buffer zone, orange construction
fencing shall be installed around these areas and field verified by Community
Development staff; and
f)As-built plans to certify that the subdivision is developed according to the
approved plans to be provided prior to issuance of the certificate of occupancy;
and
g)If applicable, Item g to be combined with a letter of credit; and
h)If curb cuts are being added or changed a driveway permit is required. A building
permit will not be issued until the approved driveway permit has been provided to
the Planning Office
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Duly adopted this 30 day of September, 2010, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Krebs, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Jackoski, Mr. Traver, Mr. Ford, Mr. Schonewolf, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
MR. HUNSINGER-You’re all set.
MR. VAN GUILDER-Thank you very much.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you.
MR. KREBS-Would you like these drawings?
MR. VAN GUILDER-If you no longer have use for them.
MR. KREBS-No, we’re just going to toss them in a barrel.
MR. HUNSINGER-We’re just going to toss them. We know you need some of them.
MR. VAN GUILDER-I definitely made enough of them. Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-You’re welcome. Thank you.
SUBDIVISION NO. 7-2009 PRELIMINARY STAGE FRESHWATER WETLAND 4-2010 SEQR
TYPE UNLISTED ERNEST BURNELL AGENT(S) NACE ENGINEERING OWNER(S)
SAME ZONING RR-3A LOCATION 419 STATE ROUTE 149 APPLICANT PROPOSES
SUBDIVISION OF A 34.22 +/- ACRE LOT INTO 4 LOTS RANGING IN SIZE FROM 3.0 TO
21.06 +/- ACRES. SUBDIVISION OF LAND REQUIRES PLANNING BOARD REVIEW AND
APPROVAL. CROSS REFERENCE AV 43-10, SKETCH PLAN 12/15/09 WARREN CO.
PLANNING N/A LOT SIZE 34.22 +/- ACRES TAX MAP NO. 271.-1-21 SECTION CHAPTER
A-183
TOM NACE, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. HUNSINGER-Keith, whenever you’re ready to summarize Staff Notes.
MR. OBORNE-I don’t think that there are any representatives here for that. If you’ll give me a
second, let me run out and see if there’s somebody out there.
MR. HUNSINGER-Sure. Is there someone there, Keith?
MR. OBORNE-Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. You can go ahead and read Staff Notes while we’re waiting.
MR. OBORNE-Okay. Subdivision 7-2009 for Ernest Burnell. This is Preliminary subdivision
review. This is 419 State Route 149 is the location. Existing zoning is Rural Residential Three
A. This is an Unlisted, Long Form required. The applicant proposes subdivision of a 34.22 acre
parcel into four residential lots ranging in size from 3.0 to 21.26 acres. Staff Comments: The
parcel proposed for subdivision has approximately 750 feet of frontage on the north side of State
Route 149. The parcel has an existing single family dwelling on site and will be included in the
proposed subdivision. The parcel has many steep slopes and wetlands as noticed on the
survey. The applicant does not propose any clearing or grading within 100 feet of the identified
wetlands. The parcel is predominantly wooded; however, there does appear to have been some
logging on the parcel in recent years. What follows is soils. I will jump down to the application
protocol. All right. We’ve already completed, on 12/15/09, the Sketch Plan Review. You’ve
already completed your SEQRA review on 8/24/10. The Zoning Board has granted the
variances requested on 8/25, and now the applicant is before this Board, 9/30, for Preliminary
subdivision review only, not Final.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you. Good evening.
MR. NACE-Good evening. My name is Tom Nace, Nace Engineering, representing the client,
Burnell. I guess I’ll start with the fact that we are here for Preliminary. We have received
engineering and Staff comments. Some of them are detailed corrections that have to be, have
been actually made into the drawings at this point, in preparation of submission of Final. Most of
it is detail. I think the one thing that I would like to address a little bit, well, two. One is, I don’t
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know, has the Board been given the Bay Ridge Rescue Squad, or Fire Company, I’m sorry,
letter.
MR. HUNSINGER-I believe that that was discussed. I think that they’re aware of it.
MR. NACE-Okay. You’re aware there’s a letter.
MR. TRAVER-We didn’t get the letter, but.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, we didn’t get a copy of the letter.
MR. NACE-Actually that went to Craig.
MR. OBORNE-It should be in the file.
MR. FORD-Could that be read into the record?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, Keith, could you read that into the record?
MR. OBORNE-I shall. I just want to make sure. Bay Ridge Volunteer Fire Company. This is
dated August 25, 2010, Town of Queensbury, Craig Brown. “Dear Craig: I met with Tom Center
of Nace Engineering regarding the Burnell subdivision today. The only addition that I request to
be added is a 12 by 50 foot pull off located approximately 300 to 400 feet in from State Route
149. This could be utilized for water supply operations in the event of a fire within the
subdivision. Additionally, the fire apparatus responding to fire calls in the development on a
regular basis have a gross vehicle weight of 70,800 pounds, and a length of 37 foot 7 inches
with a wall to wall turning radius of 39 feet 11 inches. So I am requesting that the cul de sac at
the end of the road can accommodate this. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to
call me. Patrick Mellon, Sr. Fire Chief, Bay Ridge Volunteer Fire Company Incorporated” This
one is dated September 9, 2010. This is from Craig Brown, Stormwater Management Burnell
and Poirier subdivisions “Dear Mr. Center: I am writing to you in response to your letter of
September 2, 2010 in which you expressed your concerns and positions regarding the
applicability of the Town Stormwater Management regulations. I understand your position to be
that since the two above referenced subdivisions do not meet or exceed the thresholds as
outlined in Town Code Chapter 147-8, paragraph B, (2) you are not required to submit all
information as required in paragraph B (3) of the same section. I have reviewed Chapters, 147-
8, 179-6-080 and A183-31 of the Town Code and I agree with your position on this matter.
While you may not be required to submit this information, our Planning Board may request
additional information as part of their review of your projects. Please be sure to pay special
attention to the above referenced sections when preparing your submission materials. Should
you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact this office. Regards, Town of
Queensbury Craig Brown Zoning Administrator” One more, and I probably should have read
that one last.
MR. NACE-I was going to say.
MR. OBORNE-Now I do have, if you can remember what was just said, this is a response to this
following letter from Tom Center.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. OBORNE-Town of Queensbury Zoning Administrator, Burnell & Poirier Subdivisions “Dear
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Craig:” This is dated September 2. “We are seeking clarification on the stormwater pollution
prevention plan (SWPPP) design requirements for the Burnell and Poirier Subdivisions currently
in the Planning Board submission stages. As you know both projects are single family
residential subdivisions with no Town infrastructure and disturb a total of more than one acre but
less than five acres. Town of Queensbury Chapter A183 Subdivision of Land section A183-
31(A) titled Storm drainage and Chapter 179 Zoning section 179-6-080 titled Stormwater runoff,
both state that stormwater drainage shall be in conformity to Chapter 147. A review of Chapter
147 section 147-8 (2) describes criteria which if met by the land development activities would
require the SWPPP to include post construction stormwater runoff controls. Neither of the
proposed subdivisions meet the criteria in Chapter 147 section 147-8(2) and; by our
interpretation, would require the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan to only address erosion
and sediment control for the construction of single family home residences requiring no town
infrastructure. Our plan is to provide all required SWPPP information on the SWPPP drawing.
We believe a detailed Stormwater Management Report is not required based on the above
interpretation of the Town of Queensbury Zoning, Subdivision and Stormwater Codes.
Furthermore, NYS DEC General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Construction Activities
will only require the SWPPP to address Erosion and Sediment Controls for the proposed
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
subdivisions. (Reference NYS DEC SPDES General Permit For Stormwater Discharges from
Construction Activity Permit No. GP-0-10-001, Appendix B, page 35). We would respectfully
request a determination at your earliest convenience as we are preparing our response to
engineering and staff comments for the upcoming submission deadline. Please feel free to
contact me if you have any questions. Sincerely, Thomas R. Center Jr., P.E.” Of which he
made a response that agrees with the applicant. It basically states, the long and the short of it
is, you really don’t need a Stormwater Management plan, but you still need the E & S
requirements of the SWPPP.
MR. NACE-That’s correct, the Erosion and Sediment Control, which we’ll provide at Final. I do
have plans that show response to Staff and engineering comments. One of the things was the
turnout for the Fire Department. We’ve located a turnout here about 400 feet in, which is where
they’ve asked. We’ve also elongated the one leg of the turnaround, hammerhead, to
accommodate the fire truck length that they’ve specified. The rest of the Staff and engineering
comments are more detailed drafting corrections and details that we’ve addressed and will
include on the final submission. If there are any of those that you want to go over in detail, I’d be
glad to address.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Questions, comments from the Board? One of the engineering
comments was on the slope of the driveway, and it says that the cut and fill slopes on Lot Three
of the shared driveway exceed three to one. Were you able to correct that?
MR. NACE-That’s the side slopes here.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. NACE-And we have re-graded it so it is three on one now.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Other questions, comments from the Board? Do you have any
concerns with the Staff comment about no dwellings within a 50 foot radius of slopes greater
than 15%?
MR. NACE-No. We’ve made that correction. As far as the Site Plan Review?
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. NACE-No, we have no problems. We understand that you may want all of these lots to
come back for Site Plan Review, and that’s okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-How’s the Board feel about that? Okay. All right. Anything else? We do
have a public hearing scheduled this evening. Is there anyone in the audience that wants to
address the Board on this project?
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
MR. HUNSINGER-Any written comments, Keith?
MR. OBORNE-No, sir.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Let the record show that there were no comments received. I will
close the public hearing.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. HUNSINGER-Are there any final comments from the Board? Would anyone like to make a
motion for Preliminary? Would it be appropriate to do the Freshwater Wetland permit now or at
Final.
MR. OBORNE-I’d do it at Final.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Would anyone like to put forward a motion for Preliminary approval?
MR. OBORNE-If I could interject, as a condition of Preliminary approval, prior to the applicant
moving forward to Final, that engineering notes be addressed.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. He said he already has.
MR. OBORNE-It hasn’t been signed off by Clark.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. NACE-Prior to submission of Final?
MR. OBORNE-Yes. Prior to submission of Final.
MR. NACE-They can’t be incorporated in the Final for his review at that point?
MR. OBORNE-Well, I mean, if the Board’s comfortable with that. I’m just trying to protect the
Board at this point. You’re about to give Preliminary subdivision review approval, without
engineering signoff at this point.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. OBORNE-If you’re comfortable at Final with the signoff, that’s fine.
MR. KREBS-I am.
MR. TRAVER-Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-So we’d approve Preliminary with no conditions.
MR. KREBS-Right.
MR. TRAVER-Right.
MR. OBORNE-That’s fine.
MR. HUNSINGER-With the understanding that they would be addressed in the Final.
MR. NACE-Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-Is that clear to everybody? I mean, we could make the motion that way.
MR. TRAVER-Sure.
MR. HUNSINGER-Specifically that there’s no conditions, but it’s understood that engineering
and Staff comments would be addressed at Final.
MR. TRAVER-Second.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. I guess I made that a motion.
MOTION TO APPROVE PRELIMINARY STAGE SUBDIVISION NO. 7-2009 ERNEST
BURNELL, Introduced by Chris Hunsinger who moved for its adoption, seconded by Stephen
Traver:
A subdivision application has been made to the Queensbury Planning Board for the following:
Applicant proposes subdivision of a 34.22 +/- acre lot into 4 lots ranging in size from 3.0 to 21.06
+/- acres. Subdivision of land requires Planning Board review and approval; and
A public hearing was scheduled and held on 8/24/2010 & 9/30/2010; and
This application is supported with all documentation, public comment and application material in
the file of record; and
MOTION TO APPROVE PRELIMINARY STAGE SUBDIVISION NO. 7-2009 ERNEST
BURNELL, Introduced by Chris Hunsinger who moved for its adoption, seconded by Stephen
Traver:
There’s no conditions, but it’s understood that engineering and Staff comments at Final.
th
Duly adopted this 30 day of September, 2010, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Traver, Mr. Krebs, Mr. Jackoski, Mr. Ford, Mr. Schonewolf, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
MR. NACE-Thank you.
9
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. HUNSINGER-You’re all set. Thank you.
SITE PLAN NO. 61-2010 SEQR TYPE II DAVID & TANYA BRUNO OWNER(S) SAME
ZONING RR-5 LOCATION 119 GURNEY LANE APPLICANT IS CONDUCTING AN
UNAPPROVED AGRICULTURAL USE. AGRICULTURAL USE IN THE RR ZONE REQUIRES
PLANNING BOARD REVIEW AND APPROVAL. CROSS REFERENCE AV 51-10, AV 82-03,
SB 8-01 WARREN COUNTY PLANNING 9/8/2010 LOT SIZE 2.89 +/- ACRES TAX MAP NO.
228.-1-85 SECTION 179-9
SOPHIE BRUNO, REPRESENTING APPLICANTS, PRESENT
MR. OBORNE-I shall read this into the record.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. OBORNE-Site Plan 61-2010 for David and Tanya Bruno. Site Plan Review is the
requested action. Location is 119 Gurney Lane. Rural Residential Five Acre is the existing
zoning. It’s a Type II SEQR No additional review. Project Description: Applicant is conducting
an agricultural use, the raising of poultry, on a 2.95 acre parcel adjacent to Gurney Lane. Staff
Comments: Relief requested from minimum lot size and property line setback requirements for
the raising of poultry was granted by the ZBA on 9/22, and, basically, as a condition of approval,
if you are to approve this, the applicant is asking for waivers from landscaping, grading, lighting,
stormwater and scale requirements. With that, I’d turn it over to the Board.
MR. HUNSINGER-Good evening.
MS. BRUNO-Hi. I’m Sophie Bruno. My parents are on their way home from Albany. So I’m
stepping in for them tonight.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Were you asked to stall?
MS. BRUNO-No. I don’t actually know when they’re coming home, but. I don’t know what
they’ve already been through.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Was there anything else that you were going to add?
MS. BRUNO-Just that we’re taking care of the chickens one by one, actually. So they’re setting
them back. They haven’t been any problem to the areas around. There’s a lot of buffers and
what not so that the feces doesn’t get into the water area, the streams out there. They’re set
back far enough from the road that you really can’t see them. You can just see the top of their
hen house, which we actually are going to have to replace, due to the molding and everything.
So, all in all, they’re not going to be able to be seen. I don’t think it’s a very big problem.
They’re not a big problem to the area. They’re just little buggers.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Any questions, comments from the Board? We do have a public
hearing scheduled this evening. Is there anyone that wants to address the Board on this
project?
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
MR. HUNSINGER-Any written comments, Keith?
MR. OBORNE-Yes. I believe I read them into the record.
MR. HUNSINGER-You read them last week. Yes. Okay. And it’s a Type II SEQR action. Well,
unless there’s any questions or comments, I suppose I ought to close the public hearing first.
MR. OBORNE-Yes, sir.
MR. HUNSINGER-Let the record show there were no comments received.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. HUNSINGER-If there’s no questions or comments, would anyone like to put forward a
motion?
MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 61-2010 DAVID & TANYA BRUNO, Introduced by
Donald Krebs who moved for its adoption, seconded by Stephen Traver:
10
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
A site plan application has been made to the Queensbury Planning Board for the following:
Applicant is conducting an unapproved agricultural use. Site Plan: Agricultural use in the RR
zone requires Planning Board review and approval. Area Variance: Lot size & front setback
relief. Further relief requested from minimum parking requirements as well as minimum parking
space size and drive aisle widths.
The Planning Board provided a written recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals on
9/21/2010;
The ZBA approved the variance request on 9/22/2010;
A public hearing was advertised and held on 9/30/2010; and
This application is supported with all documentation, public comment and application material in
the file of record;
MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 61-2010 DAVID & TANYA BRUNO, Introduced by
Donald Krebs who moved for its adoption, seconded by Stephen Traver:
As prepared by Staff. Paragraph A complies. Waivers requested were granted for grading,
landscaping, and lighting plans, stormwater, and scale.
a)Pursuant to relevant sections of the Town of Queensbury Zoning Code [Chapter
179-9-080]], the Planning Board has determined that this proposal complies with
the requirements as stated in the Zoning Code; and
b)Type II, no further SEQRA review is necessary; and
c)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. The applicant must meet with
Staff after approval and prior to issuance of Building Permit and/or the beginning
of any site work. Subsequent issuance of further permits, including building
permits is dependent on compliance with this and all other conditions of this
resolution; and
d)As-built plans to certify that the site plan is developed according to the approved
plans to be provided prior to issuance of the certificate of occupancy; and
e)If applicable, Item d to be combined with a letter of credit; and
f)Waiver requests granted grading, landscaping, lighting plans, stormwater and
scale; and
g)The limits of clearing will constitute a no-cut buffer zone, orange construction
fencing shall be installed around these areas and field verified by Community
Development staff; and
h)If curb cuts are being added or changed a driveway permit is required. A building
permit will not be issued until the approved driveway permit has been provided to
the Planning Office.
th
Duly adopted this 30 day of September, 2010, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Traver, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Jackoski, Mr. Krebs, Mr. Ford, Mr. Schonewolf, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you very much.
MS. BRUNO-Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-You’re welcome.
SITE PLAN NO. 56-2010 SEQR TYPE UNLISTED GREGG LABER AGENT(S) JACK
KELLEY OWNER(S) MAUREEN IRELAND ZONING CLI LOCATION 319 CORINTH ROAD
APPLICANT PROPOSES WHOLESALE AND RETAIL ELECTRICAL SALES FACILITY WITH
ASSOCIATED WAREHOUSE. NEW RETAIL/COMMERCIAL BUSINESSES REQUIRE
PLANNING BOARD REVIEW AND APPROVAL. CROSS REFERENCE SUB 10-10; AV 49-10
11
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
WARREN CO. PLANNING 9/8/2010 LOT SIZE 12.95 +/- ACRES TAX MAP NO. 308.16-2-4
SECTION 179-9-020
JACK KELLEY & JOSH LABER, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. HUNSINGER-Whenever you’re ready, Keith.
MR. OBORNE-Site Plan 56-2010. The applicant’s name is Gregg Laber doing business as
Glens Falls Electric. Requested action is Site Plan Review for new retail commercial business.
319 Corinth Road is the existing location. Existing zoning is CLI, Commercial Light Industrial.
This is an Unlisted SEQRA action. Project Description: Applicant proposes wholesale and retail
electrical sales facility with associated warehouse and office located in a 17,340 square foot
building fronting on Corinth Road. The office portion will encompass 5,090 square feet in the
front portion of the building of which 1,000 square feet will be devoted to retail/wholesale space.
The remainder of the building will be dedicated to warehouse space. The proposal calls for
additional access to the rear of the site with installation of a 20 foot wide driveway. Staff
Comments: The main property was recently subdivided into four separate parcels (Sub 10-
2010) with this parcel designated Lot 2. Variances (A.V. 49-2010) for front, side and travel
corridor setback relief were granted on 9/22/2010. There appears to be no use intended for the
915 square foot wood frame house located on the northwest corner of the parcel; currently the
building is vacant. What follows is Site Plan Review, and I’ll just jump down to additional
comments. Fire Marshal comments hopefully are attached. I would like to see, from a planning
perspective, orange construction fence to be installed indicating the limits of tree clearing for the
proposed driveway. The Board may wish to ascertain what the proposed surface of the
driveway will be. The applicant has requested waivers from grading, landscaping and lighting.
The subdivision map must be filed before any C/O or Building Permit issuance. The Planning
Board may wish to make this a condition of approval. Just for your information issue, the mylar
was dropped off to my office yesterday, has been signed by the Chair, and just needs to be
submitted to the County for approval. And with that, I’d turn it over to the Board.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Thank you. Good evening.
MR. KELLEY-Mr. Chairman, members of the Board, my name is Jack Kelley. I’m the Director of
Economic Development for Prime Companies, and it gives me great pleasure to be back here
before you again this evening, and I would like to introduce to you Josh Laber who is the Vice
President of Finance for the Company. His dad, Gregg, is the President and principle
shareholder of the Company and he is in Ohio attending a lighting certification school, so that
the nice pretty pictures that he included in his portfolio, that he’ll be able to supply those to you
in the future as a consultant, if you so wish. I think it would be appropriate for me to ask Josh,
with your permission, to describe what they plan on doing. It’s really exciting that we can retain
a Queensbury company here in the community. Josh?
MR. LABER-Yes. Good evening. If you don’t know, Green Mountain Electric, third generation
family business, headquartered out of Newport, VT, purchased the Glens Falls Electric Supply
Company in September of 2008. Our intention in our business, we’ve got six other locations, is
to ultimately own our own real estate, in order to not only control costs, but to secure our future
in the communities that we’re in, and this property came up for sale, and we’ve been looking for
about a year now, and we feel this is going to be a good step in allowing us to have our own
building in this area, and also give us an opportunity to grow in the future in this community. So
that’s our plan.
MR. KELLEY-We’d be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
MR. HUNSINGER-I’d open it up for questions, comments from the Board.
MR. TRAVER-Well, you heard Staff’s comments. Can you talk a little bit about the driveway and
how you, what the surface of it would be? Do you have any problem with the construction
fencing, those types of issues?
MR. KELLEY-No, there’s no problem with that. The driveway that would come in and come
around the west side of the building would be ultimately blacktopped. The parking area in the
front , which I do have a parking layout plan that I can leave behind, there’s a couple of spaces
that currently are going to require some sod removal and we’ll put bluestone in behind the
building. We would not add any additional blacktop, but use bluestone in that particular location
also. With the permission of the Chair, I’d like to approach and give you a copy of the parking
map.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
12
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. KELLEY-This particular plan also gives you a layout of their racking plan in the warehouse
area, and the current intention is that the front office area, only a portion of that is going to be
utilized for the Company, and they’re going to probably sub-lease out some Class B office
space. Since we also applied for the application, the wood framed building, you’ll notice we did
put five parking stalls out there. Initially they would be used, since they are a Vermont based,
three hours away, that they would probably use this initially for their own housing, and then as
things become mature, this could be used as a small office facility at the same time, and the
layout and the planning design has been laid out and done in such a manner that they
complement each other.
MR. TRAVER-I see there are a couple of spots somewhat larger than others. Are those for
handicap parking access?
MR. KELLEY-Yes. That’s correct. Their particular Auto CAD system did not have that graphic
to fill in at that location.
MR. TRAVER-Right. Okay. Thank you.
MR. KELLEY-You’re welcome.
MR. HUNSINGER-Other questions? I had a question on the, I guess it’s on the elevations of the
house, the wood frame building, where it has the incandescent flood lights labeled.
MR. KELLEY-Those are current existing floodlights.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. So those aren’t the spec sheets that were provided?
MR. KELLEY-No. There are no spec sheets on the current existing lighting, only the lighting
that was going to be installed on the metal buildings.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Are those downcast lights?
MR. LABER-They’re cut off, dark sky friendly fixtures.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Good. I mean, I figured you were a lighting company, so, I mean, if
they weren’t the appropriate ones, you would have.
MR. KELLEY-You know why I brought Josh along.
MR. HUNSINGER-Exactly.
MR. KELLEY-And I think we gave you the specific specifications in the back here also.
MR. HUNSINGER-You did on the other ones, yes.
MR. LABER-Yes. Those are LED lights as well. So they’re white in nature, and use about 50 to
60% less wattage than the traditional metal halide did.
MR. HUNSINGER-We had a presentation from Stewarts last week where they talked about the
LED lighting and saying how easy it is now to comply with the Town lighting plans because of
the use of LED lights.
MR. LABER-Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. Any other questions, comments from the Board? We do have a public
hearing scheduled this evening. Is there anyone in the audience that wants to address the
Board on this project?
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
MR. HUNSINGER-Any written comments, Keith?
MR. OBORNE-No.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Let the record show that there were no comments received. I will
close the public hearing.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
13
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. HUNSINGER-This is an Unlisted SEQRA action, and I think they submitted a Short Form
for Site Plan.
MR. KELLEY-That is correct, sir.
MR. HUNSINGER-Steve, would you do us the honor of reading through SEQRA?
MR. TRAVER-I’d love to. “Does the action exceed any Type I threshold in 6 NYCRR Part
617.4?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. FORD-No.
MR. TRAVER-“Will the action receive coordinated review as provided for Unlisted Actions in 6
NYCRR, Part 617.6?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. KREBS-No.
MR. TRAVER-“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. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. KREBS-No.
MR. TRAVER-“C2. Aesthetic, agricultural, historic, or other natural or cultural resources; or
community or neighborhood character?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. KREBS-No.
MR. TRAVER-“C3. Vegetation, fauna, fish, shellfish or wildlife species, significant habitats, or
threatened or endangered species?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. KREBS-No.
MR. FORD-No.
MR. TRAVER-“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. FORD-No.
MR. TRAVER-“C5. Growth, subsequent development or related activities likely to be induced
by the proposed action?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. FORD-No.
MR. TRAVER-“C6. Long term, short term, cumulative or other effects not identified above?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. KREBS-No.
MR. TRAVER-“C7. Other impacts (including changes in use of either quantity or energy)?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
14
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. FORD-No.
MR. TRAVER-“Will the project have an impact on the environmental characteristics that caused
the establishment of a Critical Environmental Area?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. FORD-No.
MR. TRAVER-“Is there or is there likely to be controversy related to potential adverse
environmental impacts?”
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. FORD-No.
MR. TRAVER-Then I’ll make a motion that we find a Negative SEQRA Declaration.
RESOLUTION WHEN DETERMINATION OF NO SIGNIFICANCE IS MADE
RESOLUTION NO. 56-2010, Introduced by Stephen Traver who moved for its adoption,
seconded by Thomas Ford:
WHEREAS, there is presently before the Planning Board an application for:
GREGG LABER, 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.
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.
Duly adopted this 30th day of, September, 2010, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Jackoski, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Traver, Mr. Schonewolf, Mr. Krebs, Mr. Ford, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
MR. HUNSINGER-Would anyone like to put forward a motion?
MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 56-2010 GREGG LABER, Introduced by Stephen
Traver who moved for its adoption, seconded by Thomas Ford:
A site plan application has been made to the Queensbury Planning Board for the following:
Applicant proposes wholesale and retail electrical sales facility with associated warehouse.
New Retail/Commercial businesses require Planning Board review and approval; and
15
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
A public hearing was advertised and held on 9/30/2010; and
This application is supported with all documentation, public comment and application material in
the file of record;
MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 56-2010 GREGG LABER, Introduced by Stephen
Traver who moved for its adoption, seconded by Thomas Ford:
Paragraph A complies. We found a SEQRA Negative Declaration. Waiver requests are granted
for grading, landscaping and lighting plans.
a)Pursuant to relevant sections of the Town of Queensbury Zoning Code [Chapter
179-9-080]], the Planning Board has determined that this proposal complies with
the requirements as stated in the Zoning Code; and
b)The requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act have been
considered and the Planning Board has adopted a SEQRA Negative Declaration;
and
c)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. The applicant must meet with
Staff after approval and prior to issuance of Building Permit and/or the beginning
of any site work. Subsequent issuance of further permits, including building
permits is dependent on compliance with this and all other conditions of this
resolution; and
d)As-built plans to certify that the site plan is developed according to the approved
plans to be provided prior to issuance of the certificate of occupancy; and
e)Waiver requests granted: grading, landscaping & lighting plans
f)The limits of clearing will constitute a no-cut buffer zone, orange construction
fencing shall be installed around these areas and field verified by Community
Development staff.
g)Engineering sign-off required prior to signature of Zoning Administrator.
h)If curb cuts are being added or changed a driveway permit is required. A building
permit will not be issued until the approved driveway permit has been provided to
the Planning Office.
th
Duly adopted this 30 day of September, 2010, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Sipp, Mr. Schonewolf, Mr. Ford, Mr. Jackoski, Mr. Krebs, Mr. Traver, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
MR. HUNSINGER-Congratulations and good luck. Thank you very much.
MR. KELLEY-Just one added notes that they are accepting applications for employment.
MR. TRAVER-Good to know.
MR. KELLEY-Thank you very much.
SITE PLAN NO. 59-2010 SEQR TYPE UNLISTED TOM WESSLING & ROGER BROWN
AGENT(S) JEFFREY R. MEYER, ESQ. FITZGERALD, MORRIS BAKER FIRTH OWNER(S)
ESTATE OF CHARLES MOORE ZONING CI LOCATION 10 MONTRAY ROAD PROJECT
DESCRIPTION: APPLICANT PROPOSES REMOVAL OF TWO EXISTING RESIDENTIAL
STRUCTURES AND CONSTRUCTION OF A 6,000 +/- SQUARE FOOT BUILDING FOR
RETAIL BUSINESS, KARATE STUDIO, PROFESSIONAL OFFICES AND/OR OTHER
PERMITTED USES. SITE PLAN: NEW COMMERCIAL BUILDING IN THE CI ZONE
REQUIRES PLANNING BOARD REVIEW AND APPROVAL. AREA VARIANCE: FRONT,
REAR & TRAVEL CORRIDOR SETBACK RELIEF. FURTHER, RELIEF REQUESTED FOR
PARKING SPACE MINIMUM AMOUNTS, SIZE AND ACCESS AISLE WIDTHS. PLANNING
BOARD MAY CONDUCT SEQR REVIEW AND PROVIDE WRITTEN RECOMMENDATION TO
THE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS. CROSS REFERENCE AV 52-10; SV 53-10 WARREN
16
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
CO. PLANNING 9/8/2010 LOT SIZE 0.52 +/- ACRES TAX MAP NO. 296.17-1-50 SECTION
179-9
JEFF MEYER & TOM HUTCHINS, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. FORD-Mr. Chairman and Board members, I will recuse myself because I am the realtor
who has brought this transaction to contract.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ford. Whenever you’re ready, Keith. Brad, do you
want to sit in?
MR. OBORNE-This is Site Plan 59-2010 for Tom Wessling & Roger Brown. This is Site Plan
Review. Location 10 Montray Road. Existing zoning is CI. This is an Unlisted SEQRA. Project
Description: Applicant proposes removal of two existing residential structures and construction
of a 6,000 square foot building for retail business and karate studio. Staff Comments: New
commercial building in the CI zone requires Planning Board review and approval. The applicant
is not within a sewer district and as such will have an on-site wastewater system installed. The
Zoning Board of Appeals granted their approval on Wednesday of last week. Not much else to
say. I believe that the Board is up to speed on this application, and with that, I shall turn it over
to the Board.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Before I turn it over to the applicant, I did, last week, ask the applicant
to bring color renderings. So thank you very much for that. We don’t usually accept new
information the night of the meeting, but we did ask for it. So, good evening. If you could
identify yourselves for the record.
MR. MEYER-Certainly. I guess, left to right our direction, is Tom Wessling, myself is Jeff Meyer,
Tom Hutchins and Roger Brown.
MR. HUNSINGER-Did you have anything else you wanted to add?
MR. MEYER-No. We went through the Zoning Board. They had a brief discussion. They liked
what we were proposing and granted the requested variances and I believe the one thing that
you had requested of us was the possible color, which has just been presented to you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. I’ll open it up for questions, comments from the Board, then.
BRAD MAGOWAN, ALTERNATE
MR. MAGOWAN-Well, in the engineering aspect, I drove by and I noticed, and one of the
concerns I had, you know, it’s all sloping down Montray there. You’ve got that huge retaining
wall from Home Depot all around.
MR. HUTCHINS-That’s way down a ways, yes.
MR. MAGOWAN-I didn’t really see any stakes of the property marks, but I noticed the last house
you’re taking off, right, or are you taking both houses?
MR. HUTCHINS-Both, both houses are removed.
MR. MAGOWAN-All right. So, I mean, my concern is what is the guarantee to make sure that
the stormwater controlled far enough up where it wouldn’t create a, from the future, you know,
pushing on that.
MR. HUTCHINS-Well, we have re-worked stormwater in response to comments last week.
We’ve looked at it again. We basically, that basin shown there is going to be dry up to, it’s going
to take a 50 year storm to show any liquid in that, and that will be for a very short period of time.
It does not overflow under any model conditions, and we’re taking, we have added, which you
don’t see on your plans, but in response to some of the comments, we have added some
additional stormwater devices further uphill to capture more of it before it gets down in. So
we’ve increased the capacity of the basin area down here, and we’ve also decreased the, call it
the stormwater load that’s being directed towards it. So, we have looked at that, and especially
now, I’m quite comfortable that we’re okay in that aspect. It will have to be confirmed with soils
test data. Obviously we can’t do test data there now with the house there.
MR. MAGOWAN-Right. You mentioned that last time.
MR. HUTCHINS-But both myself and the Town Engineer who was with us are familiar with the
area and very familiar with the soils, and I’m much more comfortable with it than I was when we
17
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
talked about it last week, and it will go back to the Town Engineer, be it a condition of approval
or be it in the interim before the next meeting. So, I think we’ve addressed it and we’ve
improved it.
MR. MAGOWAN-Okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Any other questions from the Board?
MR. SIPP-That was my concern last time. You will provide us with a stormwater plan, and note
it on the plat?
MR. HUTCHINS-Well, we have provided a stormwater plan, but in response to engineer’s
comments, we have made some modifications to it, and, yes, I will re-submit. I haven’t had the
opportunity to re-submit that to him yet, but we will do that.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. There were a couple of Staff comments that I wanted to discuss. One
of them is on filter fabrics during site work, covering of inlet grates is not advisable.
MR. HUTCHINS-Yes, that’s a note that shouldn’t have been on my detail. That’s a formerly
acceptable method of doing it, which is no longer an acceptable method of doing it, because it
has caused some problems in some isolated incidences, and we will update that detail.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay, and the other one was on Page S-7, the lighting associated with the
eight fixtures appears excessive when viewed against the Code.
MR. HUTCHINS-Yes. We’ll back off the lighting plan, and re-submit it.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. HUTCHINS-They are higher than the numbers in the Code. We think it’s appropriate
lighting, but, granted, it’s higher than the values in the Code.
MR. HUNSINGER-Can you just back down maybe the wattage and, I don’t have that page in
front of me right here, but.
MR. HUTCHINS-Yes. Again, the pole mounts are 150 watt fixtures, and we can back those
down to 100, and we’ll look at the building mounts and back those down as well.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. JACKOSKI-The illumination plan for the signs?
TOM WESSLING
MR. WESSLING-Just a note included in there it’s internally illuminated.
MR. MEYER-Yes, on the sign drawing it mentions that it’s internally illuminated, internal lighting,
translucent panel with interior lighting.
MR. WESSLING-Maybe something similar to what’s in front of the Continental Insurance
building, like a nice brick base with a couple with the size light, not too bright lighting.
MR. JACKOSKI-What about on the building itself?
MR. WESSLING-That would be similar to like what exists on our current building, the translucent
kind of glass with the mild lighting behind.
MR. HUNSINGER-The building colors that you’ve presented, is that a, a lot of times when you
make photocopies, especially color, they don’t come out real good.
MR. WESSLING-The original was a little bit of a, what was it like a darker green?
ROGER BROWN
MR. BROWN-Yes. It’s a little off. It’s going to be a little darker.
MR. WESSLING-Closer to earth tone.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. So it’s not as blue?
18
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. BROWN-No, it’s not.
MR. HUNSINGER-It would be darker. Okay. Do you know what the, I didn’t see a name shown
on here.
MR. BROWN-For the actual color?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. BROWN-He didn’t put that on there.
MR. WESSLING-(Lost words) the palette of colors, but.
MR. BROWN-We could provide that if you need the actual colors.
MR. HUNSINGER-A lot of times, you know, we get a chip or something, and, you know, it’s so
you can specify the color and the brand. I think it’s an attractive enough building. I think it’ll look
fine.
MR. BROWN-It’s a really attractive building.
MR. HUNSINGER-Any other questions from the Board? No other questions?
MR. OBORNE-I have one, if that’s okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-Go ahead, Keith.
MR. OBORNE-Was there any proposed access for pedestrians off of Route 9 at all? There was
mention in my notes, store entrances should be placed in the front of the building. You do have
a vestibule. I was wondering if you’re going to have a sidewalk to the sidewalk, which is logical
for pedestrian movement.
MR. HUTCHINS-We’re not showing one, but you’re right, it’s probably logical.
MR. BROWN-I think it would be something that would help business.
MR. HUTCHINS-I think there’s probably relatively few pedestrian customers, but it’s probably
logical. Yes.
MR. JACKOSKI-I mean, Tom, doesn’t that slope toward the building, though?
MR. HUTCHINS-Yes. There’s stairs there now. There’d have to be some steps.
MR. MEYER-Yes. What they’re competing with is the Americans with Disabilities Act, because
there was a question about having to provide ramp access if stairs are present. Lucas was
looking into it. That’s one of the reasons why it wasn’t shown initially.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. JACKOSKI-I think, given that grade, personally, I don’t know that, in that.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, there’s a good drop.
MR. WESSLING-With ice and snow, that could be a problem. I think ideally the traffic, the
pedestrian traffic should follow along around the side of Montray and then up the blacktop
parking lot.
MR. JACKOSKI-You seem to be a destination business anyway, which tends to be vehicular. I
think the bus stops frequently along that route, on the corner.
MR. WESSLING-Yes, usually it’s not much pedestrian business. It’s vehicular.
MR. OBORNE-I will add that obviously you’re planning for the future also, so there may be a
different business in there in the future. So, and that may become a destination for pedestrians.
Not to countermand what you’re saying, though, Steve.
MR. JACKOSKI-You’ve got so much road frontage on this corner lot, I mean, it’s a non-issue,
but I’m only one person.
19
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. BROWN-We don’t have, at this point (lost words) walk-in, and if it is, it’s somebody that we
don’t want to walk in, I’ll be honest with you, quite frankly.
MR. JACKOSKI-Yes, and my thought is, if you have a change in tenants, they’d probably have
to come back for Site Plan anyway, change of use.
MR. OBORNE-I’m always going to side for the pedestrian. That’s just my nature.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, I mean, I agree with you. I mean, we spent a lot of money to put
sidewalks on Route 9. It seems kind of silly to have a storefront that close and not connect it. I
understand if it causes ADA.
MR. KREBS-But at the same time it’s a lot of expense if it’s never going to be used.
MR. HUNSINGER-If it causes ADA problems, and there is, in that corner, at that intersection,
there is a pedestrian crosswalk across Route 9, with a walk sign and traffic delay.
MR. WESSLING-Near Pizzeria Uno, you mean?
MR. HUNSINGER-No, right at that.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-Toward the Wood Carte.
MR. BROWN-The red brick that they put on there.
MR. WESSLING-There’s no safety device. There’s just a path. It doesn’t stop traffic.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. WESSLING-So in the future, if there’s a traffic light, I guess it’s ready, maybe was the plan.
MR. BROWN-You’re thinking of the one up, there is one up further next to Uno’s. There’s a, you
push the pole.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, that’s the one I was thinking of. I’m sorry, yes.
MR. MEYER-If they’re coming from the north, they wouldn’t necessarily be using that sidewalk
anyway. They’d come down the hill and enter through Montray.
MR. JACKOSKI-Keith, can you show the shot again that shows between the, to the right of the
yellow house? I’m sorry, go back. You were shooting right down the line, but, yes, thank you.
That’s relatively sloping straight back, Tom? I don’t see any topography lines leaning to the
south.
MR. HUTCHINS-It slopes from sidewalk directly toward the existing building. It drops off pretty
good, and then it’s relatively flat, but there is a nominally four foot grade difference between the
sidewalk and the front of the building.
MR. HUNSINGER-And there’s not enough room to put a handicap ramp there, is there?
MR. HUTCHINS-It would really be a, I mean, we could probably work out a ramp, but it would be
four feet of drop. It would have to be 40 feet long.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. That’s why I said there’s not enough room.
MR. HUTCHINS-So you’d have to swing it around to really.
MR. HUNSINGER-It’s really more like five feet almost. I think the reality is, if somebody’s
walking down Route 9 and they see the front door, they’re going to cut across the grass.
MR. WESSLING-That’s what I was going to say. They’d probably go right to the right of that
telephone pole and across the grass, because traffic does that now. If it’s trying to get to
Montray, traffic will cut, go through our parking lot and along that grass. Because they know
that building’s vacant, I guess.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Any other questions, comments from the Board? We do have a public
hearing scheduled this evening. Is there anyone in the audience that wants to address the
Board? Good evening.
20
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
MARILYN POTENZA
MRS. POTENZA-I would like to say good evening, ladies and gentlemen, but unfortunately I’ll
just say good evening gentlemen. My name is Lynn Potenza, Marilyn Potenza, and I own the
property south of the project. I own Miller Hill Mall which is south of the project. I did not receive
st
notice from the ZBA. So I’m here tonight to ask a few questions. On Tuesday, September 21, I
attended the first Planning Board meeting pertaining to this project where the recommendation
to forward this to the ZBA was approved. I was unaware that the ZBA meeting would be the
nd
following night, on September 22. My first question pertains to procedure. How would the
ZBA know the decision of this Board would be given to them, given them ample time to review
this in 24 hours? Considering the number of variances requested, I would think it a respectable
thing to do to give the ZBA ample time to review it. Of all the variances requested, setbacks,
stormwater runoff, etc., my biggest concern is parking. To allow 18 reduced size parking spots
for a 6,000 square foot building does not seem practical. Although one could argue for the
present occupants it may seem okay, may I assure you, I’ve been a landlord for 30 years, and
tenants and uses often change, especially on the corridor of Route 9, and parking will definitely
be an issue. R & T are moving from the cement building next door and although it may appear
they only have four parking spaces, it was the requirement of this Town to put additional parking
behind the building with access stairs to get them approved. Whether customers use that or not
is not the issue. Please take a strong second look. The Miller Hill Mall is approximately is
12,000 square feet, and that pertains to both buildings, and it required 60 parking spots for that
12,000 square feet. I have a layout, unfortunately I didn’t have time to make copies, but I do
have a layout showing the layout of the building and the parking spots required for Miller Hill.
So, you know, I hope that you will take a second look at this, and I thank you for your time and
your effort, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions.
MR. JACKOSKI-May I ask, of your, you said 12,000 square feet?
MRS. POTENZA-Right.
MR. JACKOSKI-What percentage of the parking spaces do you feel are not being utilized?
MRS. POTENZA-Well, out of the 12,000 square feet right now 9,000 is rented. We have a
vacancy of about 3,000 square feet.
MR. JACKOSKI-Is that a prime spot vacancy, or is that a more toward the rear vacancy?
MRS. POTENZA-Well, I have Subway. I have Papa John’s Pizza. I have Liberty Tax, and I
have R & T Antiques. What used to be in there was a mattress company, and they have filed
bankruptcy and left. So that is up for rent right now, but, I mean, when you look and you see
that Subway is basically an in and out business, although there are seats there for people to
come in and sit and enjoy their lunch. Papa John’s does not have seating. That is a take-out
business only. Liberty Tax, that’s basically a six month business, although they rent it on a year
round basis. A lot of their customers, or applicants are drop off and pick-up, too.
MR. JACKOSKI-So you’re thinking that the significant number of your parking spaces aren’t
getting utilized currently with the tenants that you have?
MRS. POTENZA-No. I think a good percentage of it is being utilized. For instance, I know that
a good percentage of Subway parks to the back, and walks up and has access to the front.
Papa John’s has access to the back of the building, just as R & T Antiques has access to the
parking to the back of the building.
MR. JACKOSKI-I ask because I’d gone back there since, it must have been yesterday. There
were only four cars back in that whole parking spot.
MRS. POTENZA-Well, whether they park there or not is not the issue. It’s required by the Town
for us to have those parking spots, and that’s my concern, and I know, believe me, as a landlord
I know that sometimes it’s over access, but to reduce a 6,000 square foot building to parking
spots of 18 parking areas, reduced size parking areas, I think is not practical.
MR. JACKOSKI-Okay. Thank you.
MRS. POTENZA-You’re welcome.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Thank you.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MRS. POTENZA-And I don’t know why I was not notified for the ZBA. Things happen. Mail’s not
delivered, you know, and I understand that, but I am concerned because it does directly affect
me, and affect my property and affect the neighborhood. I look forward to Roger and Tom in
their new building, and I assure you this could be mitigated. I know it could be mitigated.
MR. HUNSINGER-So the notice that you received, it was only about Site Plan Review?
MRS. POTENZA-Yes. I received one notice of Site Plan Review, and I was there. I heard you
say it’s being referred to the ZBA.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MRS. POTENZA-I did not know, nor was there any comment made, that the ZBA meeting would
be the following night, and I thought, well, by the time the ZBA reviewed it, it would be at least a
couple of weeks, and then I would be notified when it went before the ZBA, and until I read the
article this morning in the paper was I aware that it had gone through ZBA and was approved.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-There was a legal notice in the paper about this.
MRS. POTENZA-I did not pick up the legal notice.
MR. HUNSINGER-It is, we’ll talk about it in a minute, but just for your edification, it is pretty
standard protocol. It doesn’t happen 100% of the time, that an applicant will come before the
Planning Board for a recommendation, and that was something that’s new in the new Code, that
the Planning Board makes recommendations to the Zoning Board on zoning variances. So it’s
pretty standard practice that they come to us on Tuesday night, go to the Zoning Board on
Wednesday night, then come back here the following Tuesday. In fact, we arrange the schedule
for that to happen as often as possible.
MRS. POTENZA-In retrospect, Chris, I think that’s great, because I know that there is an awful
lot of lag time, there used to be an awful lot of lag time, between going to the respective Boards
and getting approval, and I’m thinking, how could we correct the situation, and I looked tonight
on your schedule, and I’m thinking, well, there’s six applicants before you tonight. Believe me, I
don’t want to do anything that will increase the taxes in the Town of Queensbury, nothing, nada,
zero, but I’m thinking maybe a phone call to the six people, a week prior to a meeting would,
from the Planning Board saying, are you aware that you are, the project or the project in or
around the property is going before such and such a Board. That may be the answer. I don’t
know. I never had a problem with the U.S. mail, but, you know, nothing’s ever perfect.
Nothing’s ever perfect.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. Okay. Thank you.
MRS. POTENZA-So, okay. You’re welcome.
MR. HUNSINGER-Anyone else want to comment on this project? Okay. For my own
information, Keith, is there typically a zoning notice sent out as well as the Planning Board?
MR. OBORNE-Absolutely, seven days prior to the meeting.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-It was in the paper. I saw it.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, but, you know, people don’t always see it when it’s in the paper.
MR. OBORNE-Yes. This is not the first time recently. Something’s going on, but we do follow
the typical protocol in Municipal Law, and it is seven days.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. OBORNE-It’s five days, I believe.
MR. HUNSINGER-So a neighbor, if there were a project coming before both Boards, would they
get two notices?
MR. OBORNE-They would get two notices, one for each Board, absolutely. Not, obviously, they
would get the recommendation notice, then the ZBA notice, but they typically wouldn’t get the
Site Plan notice because they’ve already gotten the recommendation notice.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right. Exactly. Okay.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. OBORNE-And it’s always seven days before.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Thank you. Any other questions, comments from the Board? Did you
want to comment on the parking? We talked about it a little bit, you know, last week.
MR. MEYER-We did talk about the parking a little bit last week, and the Zoning Board went over
it in detail, and they were more than comfortable with what was proposed and the numbers, and
I guess the substandard size is not entirely accurate. The width is accurate. They may be a foot
or two short, but it’s based on, the fact that the requirement is now 20 is almost based on a typo
and not actual, a prudent requirement per the Code. So, it’s, they are the properly sized parking
spaces. They allow for ingress and egress on the site. It’s more than ample parking. Actually
some of the Zoning Board members said they wish we had come in with fewer than 18.
Obviously they didn’t vote on that or anything near it. It was conversational amongst the Board,
but they were very comfortable with the parking proposed.
MR. KREBS-Well, and the more parking spaces you put, if you pave it, the more runoff you’re
going to have. So, I would prefer less and not have the runoff problem.
MR. WESSLING-They did say there’s often too many parking spaces. We pointed out, as we
look at the floor plan, there’s a lot of storage areas and office areas that, in quotes, aren’t truly
retail space. How they’re defined in the Code is different from how they exist in reality, and the
felt that the number of spaces met our, what is true retail space and they said often there’s too
many, like K-Mart was referred to, of course.
MR. HUNSINGER-That’s always talked about as the extreme. Yes.
MR. KREBS-I had a 14,400 square foot furniture store, and if I’d ever driven in and there were
20 cars there I would have fainted.
MR. HUNSINGER-Were there any written comments, Keith?
MR. OBORNE-No, there was not.
MR. HUNSINGER-So where are we at with this one this evening?
MR. WESSLING-I did speak to the Town Engineer. He felt that issues between him and Tom
could be addressed in a contingent approval, and that he didn’t think he had anything major and
he knows Tom well and they can kind of hammer it out, if that so pleases the Board.
MR. TRAVER-Yes. What I was hearing was the two items at plan revision, appropriate inlet
grate protection, revising the lighting plan. The only thing that might be an issue is the stone
color. You had commented that you wanted to take a look at the stone color, if I heard you right.
MR. HUNSINGER-No. I was concerned about the siding color more than the stone, but since
you asked, the stone color, is it dark gray as shown here?
MR. BROWN-Well, it’s not as dark as it’s shown on there. It’s like a natural, earthy tone.
Actually, if I could think of it, I think the new bank on Bay Road has the same, it’s kind of
Adirondack.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. BROWN-It’s not going to be as dark is it appears on here, but it’s going to be an earthy tone
and kind of to simulate the one on Bay Road, the new bank that was put in, the same kind of
stone that’s on there. A lot of the new houses, Schermerhorn and places like that, new places.
MR. JACKOSKI-With all the green space in front, is there any opportunity to maybe put a tree or
two? I know you don’t have a lot of large display windows, and the building is really very
attractive.
MR. KREBS-Even some lower shrubs.
MR. JACKOSKI-Yes, just to soften it up a bit.
MR. WESSLING-Did the landscaping plan show anything in front? There were plantings around
the sign as well.
MR. JACKOSKI-I saw them on the sign.
23
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. HUTCHINS-Yes. We’ve got one on the side. We’ve kind of left it open at the building, but,
with that said, with the grade, yes, t here’s probably room to.
MR. JACKOSKI-No, it was off to the side, I didn’t even see it.
MR. HUTCHINS-Okay.
MR. HUNSINGER-What kind of tree is that?
MR. HUTCHINS-A callery pear.
MR. HUNSINGER-That’s clear. How tall will it be?
MR. HUTCHINS-It will be, it’s a three, three and a half inch plant when it goes in.
MR. WESSLING-It’s probably going to be about 15 feet.
MR. HUNSINGER-I was going to say, 12, 14 feet tall, something like that. Yes. Okay.
MR. WESSLING-And we certainly agree to keep that siding in an earth, Adirondack natural kind
of green color and not a bright or obnoxious green, if that satisfies your concern.
MR. OBORNE-If I could, are you satisfied with that, not an obnoxious green? I mean, do you
want a palette, a pan tone or something along those lines?
MR. JACKOSKI-I don’t, but.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-I think it’s all right. It’s an Adirondack.
MR. JACKOSKI-An Adirondack evergreen.
MR. WESSLING-We’ll certainly maintain that standard. We understand exactly what you’re
talking about, if it’s a green color you want.
MR. BROWN-To go back to your comment, I can see what you’re saying. It’s not going to be
any neon, blues or greens, it’s going to be a nice, right, you know, Adirondack color with the
stone to compliment it. It’s going to be a very attractive building.
MR. HUNSINGER-Anything else from the Board? Are people comfortable moving forward, or
do they want to table this?
MR. KREBS-I’d like to move forward.
MR. JACKOSKI-I’d like to move forward.
MR. HUNSINGER-It’s an Unlisted Action. They gave us a Short Form. I’m sorry, before we
consider SEQRA, is there anyone that objects to closing the public hearing?
MR. TRAVER-No.
MR. HUNSINGER-There were no other written comments, right, Keith?
MR. OBORNE-No, sir.
MR. HUNSINGER-All right. We’ll close the public hearing.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. HUNSINGER-And Short Form SEQRA.
MR. TRAVER-I could do that.
MR. HUNSINGER-Thank you.
MR. OBORNE-I think, if I may, I believe SEQRA’s already been accomplished on this, to be
st
honest with you. We did that back on the 21.
MR. TRAVER-You are correct.
24
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
st
MR. HUNSINGER-The 21, you’re right, Keith, thank you.
MR. OBORNE-By all means, if you care to do it again.
MR. HUNSINGER-No, that’s okay. Okay. Would anyone care to put forward a resolution?
MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 59-2010 TOM WESSLING & ROGER BROWN,
Introduced by Stephen Traver who moved for its adoption, seconded by Paul Schonewolf:
A site plan application has been made to the Queensbury Planning Board for the following:
Applicant proposes removal of two existing residential structures and construction of a 6,000 +/-
square foot building for retail business, karate studio, professional offices and/or other permitted
uses. Site Plan: New commercial building in the CI zone requires Planning Board review and
approval. Area Variance: Front, rear & travel corridor setback relief. Further, relief requested
for parking space minimum amounts, size and access aisle widths. Planning Board may
conduct SEQR review and provide written recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals; and
A public hearing was advertised and held on 9/21 & 9/30/10; and
The Planning Board provided a written recommendation to the ZBA on 9/21/2010; and
The ZBA approved the variance on 9/22/2010; and
This application is supported with all documentation, public comment and application material in
the file of record;
MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 59-2010 TOM WESSLING & ROGER BROWN,
Introduced by Stephen Traver who moved for its adoption, seconded by Paul Schonewolf:
Paragraph A complies.
a)Pursuant to relevant sections of the Town of Queensbury Zoning Code [Chapter
179-9-080]], the Planning Board has determined that this proposal complies with
the requirements as stated in the Zoning Code; and
b)The requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act have been
considered and the Planning Board has adopted a SEQRA Negative Declaration;
and
c)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. The applicant must meet with
Staff after approval and prior to issuance of Building Permit and/or the beginning
of any site work. Subsequent issuance of further permits, including building
permits is dependent on compliance with this and all other conditions of this
resolution; and
d)As-built plans to certify that the site plan is developed according to the approved
plans to be provided prior to issuance of the certificate of occupancy; and
e)The Sanitary Sewer connection plan must be submitted to the Wastewater
Department for its review, approval, permitting and inspection; and
f)The limits of clearing will constitute a no-cut buffer zone, orange construction
fencing shall be installed around these areas and field verified by Community
Development staff
g)Engineering sign-off required prior to signature of Zoning Administrator.
h)If curb cuts are being added or changed a driveway permit is required. A building
permit will not be issued until the approved driveway permit has been provided to
the Planning Office.
i)The applicant must submit a copy of the following to the Town:
1.The project NOI (Notice of Intent) for coverage under the current NYSDEC
SPDES General Permit or for coverage under an individual SPDES prior to
the start of any site work.
25
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
2.The project NOT (Notice of Termination) upon completion of the project; and
l) The applicant must maintain on their project site, for review by staff:
1.The approved final plans that have been stamped by the Town Zoning
Administrator. These plans must include the project SWPPP (Storm Water
Pollution Prevention Plan) when such a plan was prepared and approved;
and
2.The project NOI and proof of coverage under the current NYSDEC SPDES
General Permit, or an individual SPDES permit issued for the project.
k) This plan is approved with the following two conditions:
1.Final plans to be revised to show appropriate inlet gate protection during
construction.
2.Lighting plan on final plan modified to obtain compliance with Code. The
lighting plan shall be modified to alter the fixtures from 150 watt to 100 watt,
to obtain compliance.
3.Engineering signoff.
th
Duly adopted this 30 day of September, 2010, by the following vote:
MR. HUTCHINS-Who’s going to look at the lighting? Is Keith going to look at the lighting, the
revised lighting?
MR. HUNSINGER-I thought you agreed to put in 100 watt instead of 150.
MR. HUTCHINS-Right, I agreed to do that. Okay, but that’s not exactly how the motion was
worded.
MR. OBORNE-Could you amend that to replace the 150 with 100 watt?
AYES: Mr. Schonewolf, Mr. Magowan, Mr. Jackoski, Mr. Krebs, Mr. Traver, Mr. Sipp,
Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
MR. HUTCHINS-Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-You’re all set. Good luck.
MR. WESSLING-Thank you very much. If we got through the Planning Board tonight we were
hoping for a winter construction. So that’s still the plan.
MR. HUNSINGER-Great. Good luck.
SUBDIVISION NO. 13-2007 PRELIMINARY STAGE JOHN FEDOROWICZ AGENT(S) B P S
R OWNER(S) WILLIAM J. JR. & JUDITH RICHARDS ZONING RR-3A LOCATION 1433
BAY ROAD APPLICANT PROPOSES SUBDIVISION OF A 10.14 ACRE PARCEL INTO 2
RESIDENTIAL LOTS OF 3.7 AND 6.44 ACRES. SUBDIVISION OF LAND REQUIRES
REVIEW AND APPROVAL BY THE PLANNING BOARD. SEE RETURN ON APPEAL DATED
10/9/09 CROSS REFERENCE SUB 8-99, SUB 1-00 LOT SIZE 10.14 +/- ACRES TAX MAP
NO. 265-1-19.11 SECTION A-183
JON LAPPER, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. HUNSINGER-Keith, whenever you’re ready to summarize Staff Notes.
MR. OBORNE-Sure. Okay. Application Subdivision 13-2007 Preliminary Stage, preamble will
go as this. This application was denied by the Planning Board on March 24, 2009. As a result,
this decision was subsequently challenged by the applicant in New York Supreme Court and a
decision was rendered by the court on October 9, 2009. The court has remanded the
application back to the Planning Board on the basis that the Board acted arbitrarily and without
rational basis. Further action to include SEQR and Preliminary subdivision review is now
before the Board. Note: It has been determined by the New York State Supreme Court on
August 17, 2010 that the public hearing has been closed by this Board and cannot be re-
opened. See attached documentation from Town Counsel and the Supreme Court. The
applicant is John Fedorowicz. Requested action: Subdivision of land. Location is 1433 Bay
26
(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
Road. Existing zoning is RR-3A. This is an Unlisted SEQR. So Long Form has been
submitted. Project Description: Applicant proposes subdividing a 10.14 acre parcel into 2 lots
of 3.7 and 6.44 acres. Prior subdivision that created this parcel (Sub 1-2000) included the
condition of no further subdivision. The project proposes an approximately 840 linear foot gravel
driveway at an average grade of 9.19 percent. Erosion and sediment controls are proposed as
well as permanent stormwater management practices. What follows is Staff Comments which
gives a history of the subdivisions, and I’ll just go over what the application protocol is at this
point. Sketch Plan Review was accomplished on 11/27/2007. Approval of the SEQR Negative
th
Declaration did not happen as the application was denied on March 24. The Planning Board is
now tasked with Preliminary subdivision review, which is front ended by a SEQR review, and
with that I’d turn it over to the Board.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Thank you. Good evening.
MR. LAPPER-For the record, Jon Lapper and John Fedorowicz. I think the record’s pretty
complete. We’re here to answer any questions.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Questions, comments from the Board?
MR. TRAVER-One of my concerns is the, I know that we need to talk about SEQR at some
point. One of my concerns is the driveway and the visual impact that has on the wetlands in the
Dunham’s Bay area. This property is, can be seen from that area, and I’m wondering what is
being proposed to make sure that this driveway is not impacting on the view shed in the Park.
MR. LAPPER-The answer there would be that because the driveway is curved, if it was a linear
driveway, you would see the length of the driveway, but because it’s curved, it will be buffered
by the vegetation along the driveway, and the fact that from any point where you’re looking at it,
you’re only looking at a portion of it because it comes around. So if you’re in the wetlands, you
would only see a small portion of the driveway. Also the trees are tall on the side of the
driveway and would block the cut.
MR. TRAVER-Okay, and what about the house site itself, up on top?
MR. LAPPER-The house site is very well buffered. What would you say about the view?
JOHN FEDOROWICZ
MR. FEDOROWICZ-Is on the front side, and actually (lost words) where the wetlands you’re
talking about, and you cannot see it from the wetlands in any direction, because it actually faces
away, on an angle from the wetlands, and there’s no runoff to the wetlands when through that
review.
MR. LAPPER-But in terms of the trees around the house.
MR. FEDOROWICZ-In terms of the trees, there’s probably about, if you look at it from the cliff
back, there’s probably 100 feet back there’s mature trees there that are well, big canopies. I
mean, it’s not going to be seen from any of the wetlands.
MR. TRAVER-Thank you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Anyone else?
MR. FORD-Will blasting be required?
MR. LAPPER-The records show that there would be minimal blasting. That was asked, and that
was in the record.
MR. FEDOROWICZ-Which is pretty average for the area around Lake George and Queensbury.
As everybody knows there’s a lot of blasting in the area around Lake George. I mean, that’s
pretty typical.
MR. FORD-Would you address the issue of stormwater control, please.
MR. LAPPER-Well, the stormwater controls have been completely designed and reviewed and
signed off by the Town Engineer. The Town Engineer signed off on that. There have been
many levels of review and modification, but there’s vast stormwater controls capturing the runoff
along the road, and there’s a basin at the bottom of the driveway to capture and treat the
stormwater coming off the driveway, before it gets to the road.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. SIPP-Is there a maintenance plan for the stormwater coming off the road?
MR. LAPPER-Yes. That was in the record, that was all in the record that there’s a maintenance
plan.
MR. SIPP-For all the check dams and?
MR. LAPPER-Yes. It’s all part of the stormwater report.
MR. SIPP-Do we have that?
MR. LAPPER-Yes.
MR. FEDOROWICZ-Yes, you do.
MR. HUNSINGER-Other questions, comments? Going back to the blasting, do you know the
approximate locations of where blasting will occur?
MR. FEDOROWICZ-Approximately, you could say area from, say from Area 116 to possibly
128.
MR. HUNSINGER-And where will the rock go that’s removed?
MR. FEDOROWICZ-We have cuts and fills. It’ll be probably put in that area for (lost words)
runoff. It’ll be like when you dynamite the shot small enough, you can grade on the sides, use
for bank slope, so on. That’s pretty typical in any construction area.
MR. HUNSINGER-One of the other concerns that was addressed I think at the last meeting
where we reviewed this project was the stabilization on the sides of the driveway and what the
slopes of those fill and cuts were.
MR. FEDOROWICZ-There would be a three on one slope. We talk about the natural drainage
as it shows on here, it shows what the slopes are.
MR. LAPPER-What the finished grade will be.
MR. FEDOROWICZ-Right. It’s, we addressed that last time a three on one slope. It’s done
pretty much everywhere, to direct it back into the basin and so on.
MR. HUNSINGER-Other questions, comments from the Board? I know what the other question
I was going to ask was. On the cut and fill for the driveway, some of the area of disturbance
crosses over into the other lot.
MR. FEDOROWICZ-Yes, and we addressed that with the easement that we have.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. FEDOROWICZ-That has been addressed.
MR. HUNSINGER-My recollection was that the comment was that it was owned by one person,
so an easement wasn’t necessary.
MR. LAPPER-And in this case there’s a 20 foot grading easement that’s shown on the map that
goes to the other.
MR. FEDOROWICZ-At your request it was to be put in.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. What else, questions comments from the Board?
MR. TRAVER-I may have some additional questions once I review the maintenance plan, and
look at the map again in terms of this, the blasting at 116 and 128, and I would like to also return
to the area and check out the view shed again. Those are my main concerns.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Anyone else?
MR. KREBS-We may want to do it as a Board, go again and visit the site.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. I mean, one of the unusual things is, you know, the judge had ruled
that we can’t re-open the public hearing. We can’t ask for new information. I think our
inclination this evening is going to be to table this to October, to a meeting in October.
MR. LAPPER-We understand.
MR. HUNSINGER-So that we can complete our review of the record and address any additional
concerns that we have.
MR. LAPPER-You certainly have every right to review the record. There’s no issue there.
MR. HUNSINGER-We do have draft agendas put together, and there certainly is remove on the
th
October 26 meeting. Would that be your recommendation, Keith?
MR. OBORNE-Yes. That would be fine. Does that work for the applicant? Does that work for
you, Jon?
MR. HUNSINGER-Is there any other questions or comments that the Board wants to get on the
th
record this evening? Would anyone like to put forward a motion to table this to October 26?
MOTION TO TABLE PRELIMINARY STAGE SUBDIVISION NO. 13-2007 JOHN
FEDOROWICZ, Introduced by Stephen Traver who moved for its adoption, seconded by Donald
Krebs:
th
This application is tabled to the October 26 meeting.
th
Duly adopted this 30 day of September, 2010, by the following vote:
MR. LAPPER-I just have one quick comment before you close this.
MR. HUNSINGER-Go ahead.
MR. LAPPER-The Staff Notes talked about four or five waivers, and only one of those is still
requested, and this went on for years, so I can understand, the record’s voluminous and I can
understand that Staff missed that, but all of those were supplied with the exception of the
location of the septic systems on the adjacent lots because they were built at a time before
those records were kept by the Town, and since they’re subsurface, there’s no way to tell where
they are, but the point in the record was that the well on this site, all the wells on the adjacent
sites are shown, and the well on this site is more than 150 feet from the property boundary, so
that even if they were immediately on the property boundary, which it’s not likely that they are, it
would still be sufficient. So that’s the only waiver is because we have no way of knowing where
the adjacent septic systems are.
MR. HUNSINGER-So all of the other waiver requests have been complied with?
MR. LAPPER-Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Thank you.
MR. LAPPER-Thank you.
AYES: Mr. Krebs, Mr. Traver, Mr. Jackoski, Mr. Ford, Mr. Schonewolf, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. We’ll see you next month.
DISCUSSION ITEM: QUEENSBURY PARTNERS
MATT FULLER, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. HUNSINGER-Good evening.
MR. FULLER-Good evening everybody. It’s good to be back here before you all. For the
record, I’m Matt Fuller with Fitzgerald, Morris, Baker, Firth, and I’m joined with Dan Galusha
from Queensbury Partners and Dave Bogardis from Northeast Land Survey. We’re here on the
property, of course, across the street, kitty corner here, at the corner of Bay and Blind Rock. It’s
about 34.050 acres, to be exact. So just over 34 acres of land. Just, I know that many people
know about the project and the site in general, but I’m going to just recap a couple of things and
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then kind of discuss where we are tonight and why we’re here, just getting your initial thoughts
on it. As proposed back in, and I have a cover letter here that I gave you. As proposed back in
2004, the project was originally 174 units on the entire parcel, consisting of 17 multi-family
buildings, about 10 units per building, and then a clubhouse with an additional four units, a pool,
and that encompassed the entire property, from Bay and Blind Rock, you know, basically from
Bay Road back, I think, which was the contentious issue back then. When the project was
originally proposed, it was Site Plan 56-2004. What would have been allowed under the zoning
is 192 units, and again, 174 was planned. That, as we know, that project didn’t go anywhere.
The zoning got changed. Things happened in the Town, and we’re back. Some different
changes with the project. I think if, I noticed stuff in the letter, some of the minutes and things,
seemed to be the concern along Bay Road and keeping the office look there, and that is what
we’ve done now. The subdivision was approved. There is a filed subdivision map. We’ve got
shown now five commercial lots along Bay Road. They range in size from 1.14 acres. We’ve
got the commercial lots right here along Bay, ranging from 1.14 acres up to 1.72 acres. As far
as the units hat we’ve got, we’ve got proposed 98 total units, residential units. There’s five, 12
unit buildings, three 10 units, one an office and eight dwelling units here, and a pool area, and
the residential part of it now is just over 26 acres. I gave you the initial development specs,
26.396 acres to be exact. So there’s about 10 and a half acres of wetlands. There are some
upland pockets of land within the wetlands which we’re not going to be developing because
they’re in the middle of the wetland. Twenty percent slopes are about .96 acres, and that’s
generally this area here. You can see from the initial topo, and the balance is about 14.49
acres, and under the density that’s allowed in the zoning, that would be 116 units, and we could
have crammed 116 units in there, but the site just didn’t work if we tried to do that, and so we put
a lot of thought into it, and Dave, various different ideas going back and forth, and the number
that we think works for the site initially here is 98 units. Just looking at the site a bit, the
impermeable is 5.73 acres, about 22%, leaving over 20 and a half acres permeable land. The
clearing, the total clearing, is 2.87 acres. There’s no wetland disturbance. We’re not going to
need any wetland disturbance variances or anything like that. None of the buildings will be over
40 feet. I think they gave you a picture. That’s a couple pictures, actually, of a project Dave has
done. That’s kind of the idea that we’re looking at. That was initially here to give you an idea of
for the building. The parking we’ve got meets the zoning. Again, we’ve got, I think it was 257.
That might be off.
DAVE BOGARDIS
MR. BOGARDIS-257 places with a ratio of 2.62 per dwelling.
MR. FULLER-Okay. As far as the internal improvements, originally when the subdivision was
done, and there will be a subdivision modification coming back with it. We were going to have a
public road in there, and I think Dan and his partners have looked it over with Dave, and that’s
going to be private . They’re going to keep this as an internal association, so that that road will
be part of a development, part of this development, and these commercial lot owners in the
front, I think for marketability purposes, won’t have any obligation, and you can correct me if I’m
wrong, any obligation on that. Two access site points inside, and you’ll note right off of Blind
Rock here there’s another curb cut, I guess you could say, access point. That was a carryover
from the original plans. I know Keith and I talked about that, why is that there. When we do
come back with formal plans, we’ll have a better, you know, a vertical look at that. That’s a fire
access gate. It’s not a full time open area. We were looking back through the minutes, and that
was a topic that came up is another access for these units that were over in this area, off of Blind
Rock, just in case something happened internally. So we’re going to keep that on the plan, and
proceed with that, because I think actually there was a letter in the old file from the fire
department asking for that. So it seems like a good idea. Right along Blind Rock here, and in
the past, again, looking at what past issues or comments that came out, there’s going to be an
earthen berm with plantings, and again, we would come back with, you know, more detailed
plans and sketches on that, and a site plan, the same along Bay. That’s part of the Bay Road
corridor requirements as you know. Right behind that will be the stormwater basins, instead of
in front of it, and we think it gives it a cleaner, you know, look from the road, and again, all
access. There won’t be any driveway access onto Bay directly. It’ll be all internal to the road.
Utilities, water, sewer, electric, gas, it bears commenting again, when the project was originally
before the Town, there was some issues with the sewer up in the neighborhood here, and Dan
and his partners put that sewer line in. That was about a $900,000 project, and the next effect
was that the Town Hall here tied into that. It’s already tied in. I know because I was working on
it from the homeowners side. There was an issue in Surrey Fields, and we were going to have
to go after the prior developer, we’ll leave them nameless, but there was a big issue with the
septics in there, and they’ve been able to tie in, and that, and I should say the senior center right
down here also ended up contributing part and helping out offset some of that cost, but still, a
$500,000, over $500,000 project, to Dan and his partners. Again, not to impact the application,
but just to show you that there was a lot of work and forethought that went into this before the
zoning was pushed back to 1,000, and it’s all been sited for the whole area, you know, not just
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
this project, but that sewer line that’s there, and again we’ll have those specs for the actual site
plan, but that whole sewer system right there was sized for the whole area. So it’s not that, you
know, the project’s going to eat up a significant portion of that. It was designed with 174 units in
mind and beyond. So the whole neighborhood in general. Dave, did I miss anything, Dan? All
right. I’ll sit back down then.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay. Input from the Board?
MR. KREBS-This is indicated as a senior property, right?
MR. HUNSINGER-No.
MR. TRAVER-Not necessarily.
MR. FULLER-Higher end apartments, yes, not excluding, obviously, not exclusively.
MR. HUNSINGER-I’ll jump in if no one else has any other comments. I commend you for
putting the sewer in. I mean, that solved all kinds of problems for, you know, a lot of this area of
the Town, and I think that was great. I remember years ago when the Town was debating about
putting it in and, you know, couldn’t seem to find a way to do it, you know, it took private
developers like yourself to get it done, and do it, and I was really excited when I heard we were
going to have a workshop discussion item on this property, but I’ve got to tell you, I’m
disappointed in the design. Part of it is my own preconceived bias, I guess, when I looked at,
because when I first looked at the plan I said, you know, it looks like they just didn’t pay any
attention to the commercial part of it, now I know why. I had forgotten that we had already
approved a subdivision for that, but, you know, my thought on that property, and it goes back to
actually a couple, three comprehensive plans ago, where they talked about, you know, this
being the center of Town, and creating something at this corner that would create a sense of
community and a sense of, you know, what Queensbury is all about, and with that piece of
property, we have an opportunity to do that, and, you know, these are very attractive houses.
Don’t get me wrong, you know, I’d probably be happy to live there. I mean, I lived in a
townhouse a few years ago. I loved living there. There was no maintenance. I had a nice
garage to drive into, you know, you didn’t have to go outside, but I’m sitting here listening to your
presentation, and you’re talking about putting berms in so you can’t see it from the road, and I’m
thinking to myself, you know, what’s wrong with that picture, you know, why can’t we do a nice,
tasteful smart growth development that has a nice presence on Bay Road, and it’s something
that everybody can be proud of, and you think about some of the issues that are going on in this
section of Town, and you have the opportunity to solve a lot of them with this project, and, you
know, just kind of thinking a little bit out of the box, maybe, but traffic’s an issue, and why is
traffic is an issue, because of Adirondack Community College, and it’s, you know, kids driving
back and forth to class. Well, ACC’s talking about putting in dorms. Maybe there’s an
opportunity, with part of this project, to put in, you know, student housing for people at ACC, and
it’s not kids. I mean, you look at the demographics of, you know, the typical student at ACC, and
I think the average age is like 32, you know, I mean, it’s a lot of adults, too. It’s not just 18, 19
year old kids out of high school, and then, you know, the commercial piece, you know, there’s lot
of discussion and, you know, I mean, if you Google smart growth on the Internet, there’s a site
that comes up, I think it’s the EPA website, actually, and they give examples of projects of, you
know, mixed use development where you have a mix of, you know, a walkable community with,
you know, retail and commercial space and housing mixed in together, and I think you have an
opportunity to do that here, and I know the Town code says you’ve got to have this in 300 foot
setback before you can build houses, but I think if you could come in with a plan that had, you
know, maybe commercial on the first floor and maybe apartments on the second floor for part of
the development, I think, you know, that could be the kind of thing that the community could
really endorse. So, that’s my soapbox for this evening.
MR. KREBS-See, I like the berms because if you’re a resident, the berm is going to reduce the
road noise that you’re going to have from Country Club Road.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, but if you’re driving down Bay Road, what kind of a presence does the
development have on the street, you know, and that’s something, you know, the Bay Road
corridor, we were chastised for some of the developers for some of the projects we’ve put in
across the street here because they don’t front Bay Road. I mean, this is designed so it’s not
going to front Bay Road. So you’re going to see the back of the building, with a big berm. I
don’t know.
MR. FULLER-Chris, I’ll tell you, in talking about it, those berms were addressed at prior Planning
Board comments, and solely, you know, from my standpoint, I tend to agree with you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
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MR. FULLER-I’d rather see tasteful buildings there and not a big mound of dirt with trees on top
of it. That was solely, maybe it was the wrong Planning Board’s comments we were looking at,
but that’s where that came from. It was solely to address, we don’t want to see it from Blind
Rock. That’s where that came from, and I was mistaken along Bay. It’s not a berm area along
Bay. It’s just trees.
MR. HUNSINGER-The other thing about that site, and I was negligent to not mention it, that’s
one of the most beautiful views in the whole Town of Queensbury. I mean, you know, I can
envision a courtyard up there on that hill where you could sit out there and drink coffee and have
an outdoor café or something, you know, looking out over the fields and the mountains in the
background. That’s one of the most beautiful views in the whole Town.
MR. BOGARDIS-You’re taking the approach of a mixed use project which we would have taken,
except that the last people that had this project in here, it got kicked out of here because of the
residential in the front and it didn’t conform to zoning. So this was put together so it exactly
conforms to the wishes of the Planning Board minutes at the time it was reviewed before and
rejected.
DAN GALUSHA
MR. GALUSHA-Chris, I was there. I was a partner back then, and I own it now, but the real
problem was originally when we came in, we spent a lot of time and a lot of dollars and cents,
that doesn’t make a difference here or there, but when we came in, and I think you were there
at that meeting that night, I mean, we walked in and we didn’t even really get a chance to really
present anything. We pretty much pretty much got booted out, which you were there. You
realize. So, you know, after you go through those things, you get a little gun shy.
MR. HUNSINGER-Sure.
MR. GALUSHA-I agree with you, you know, and I think, not for this project, for the Town, they
ought to look at having workshops so you can come in with your ideas and look at them and
have this type of discussion, before you come and you spend all this money and time trying to
present to a Planning Board exactly to what their Codes are, when you’re sitting here saying,
well, that’s not really what we want, and I know that happens in other towns because I develop
in other towns, and we do a lot of projects all over, and it’s nice to have, to be able to just sit
down and here’s my idea, what do you guys think, and get some direction. So when you and
start doing a preliminary plan, at least you’ve got an idea of what they’re looking for. You’re not
guessing at it thinking, is this going to be right, or they don’t like this. I mean, it’s a lot of
commonsense to be quite honest with you. That’s kind of why we’re here.
MR. FULLER-That’s why we’re here. It never got this far last time.
MR. HUNSINGER-And quite frankly what you presented is exactly what our Code encourages,
and we talked about that a lot with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, that, you know, if you
have, you know, there’s a vision for the Town, and we try to put forth the vision in the Plan, but
then when you write the Code, and when you’re sitting there kind of like in a vacuum, like, you
know, you were, you’re going to say, okay, this is what the Code tells me I should do, so this is
what you do, and this is what you come up with, and it’s nice, but we could do better.
MR. GALUSHA-Well, you’re exactly right, but in doing better, you know, being able to come in
and sit down and go through some ideas would help this Board, not only on this project, but on
many other projects. It may solve a lot of problems.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. GALUSHA-I’m just speaking from what I’ve been through with this Town and other towns. I
just think it would be very productive in a lot of things that you folks do.
MR. FORD-You mean a Planning Board that would actually be involved in planning. Son of a
gun. What a concept.
MR. GALUSHA-That’s just my opinion.
MR. HUNSINGER-Just for edification, I went to the, you know, I Googled smart growth and I
saw the EPA site, and you know, a lot of the stuff that’s on there is for big cities, you know, it’s
transit related development and stuff like that, but, I mean, you have a big enough lot there, and
maybe the topography eliminates some stuff, but I think there’s an opportunity to do something
great there.
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MR. BOGARDIS-That wasn’t where we were headed with this because of the professional office
along the Bay Road corridor, and we were trying to be strictly conforming to your zoning code,
which I think we were.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right.
MR. KREBS-Right, and see what I like, too, was the fact that you don’t have five or six road cuts
with those individual commercial lots. I like the idea that they go in, you know, and if you’re a
commercial business, you’re still going to put enough of a front on Bay Road to attract people to
your business.
MR. BOGARDIS-Well, it’s that corner lot that would be the key, on Blind Rock and Bay, that the
use of that would be the most instrumental thing.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-Are those all individual stores?
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, these are apartments.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-No, what’s the blue in the front?
MR. FULLER-That’s the stormwater.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-Okay.
MR. BOGARDIS-But there’s five or six commercial lots along Bay Road, which can be.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-Which will match the rest of the commercial lots that are along Bay Road.
MR. BOGARDIS-Right.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-Okay.
MR. BOGARDIS-And they, you know, they can be combined into, they’re divided now I think into
five or six commercial lots, but they can be added up to be one or two, depending how they’re
subdivided.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-Because there are some nice, well, the one dentist that just put his office
up there and so forth. There are some nice establishments that are set aside, and they look like
they fit. When I first looked at that, I thought it was going to look like horse stalls. Now I realize
what it is.
MR. FULLER-Is retail allowed in office?
MR. OBORNE-Retail? I’d have to look at the use charts to be honest with you. I believe so.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-Didn’t they just change that?
MR. OBORNE-I’m not sure.
MR. SIPP-Not too long ago.
MR. OBORNE-One thing I know is if you’re going to put, if you’re going to develop any of those
front lots there, you’re going to need variances for access, but that’s not a huge issue.
MR. HUNSINGER-I don’t know, I mean, maybe I’m naive, but I think, again, if you brought in a
smart growth plan that everyone could rally around, I don’t think the zoning issues would be a
problem.
MR. BOGARDIS-Wouldn’t that require zoning variances?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, probably.
MR. SIPP-Yes.
MR. HUNSINGER-But, you know, again, I think the community could rally around it.
MR. BOGARDIS-Would it focus on professional office along Bay Road?
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. FULLER-We can do, retail’s allowed, a permitted use.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, you know, that’s the trick, and, personally, I never understood the 300
foot. That didn’t come out of the Planning Ordinance Committee, because what we, I mean,
some of the concepts that were talked about were performance zoning and we were like, the
use doesn’t matter, it’s the design.
MR. GALUSHA-I think that comes because it was basically, originally, like what I would call an
overlay zone, and then it just kind of gotten taken out of context, and then it got taken out of
context, and, to be quite honest with you, it got taken out of context to push it out. I know that, I
think everybody does.
MR. HUNSINGER-But I mean, I think if you came in with a mixed use project, where you took a
look at the acreage that’s within 300 feet of Bay Road and said, you know, the maximum
development you could put, commercial development would be, you know, x square feet. Well,
we have that x square feet, but we have it spread out over the course of the lot, and, you know,
again, and it’s just my thought. I don’t know how well it would be received, but I just think that
was one of the things we were looking for with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan.
MR. OBORNE-Just to clarify, retail use is an allowable use in the office zone.
MR. FULLER-It is? Permitted use.
MR. OBORNE-Exactly.
MR. HUNSINGER-And if you try to tie the development in with ACC, you know, I think you could
have a captive audience with the students for some of the goods and services that might be
marketable there.
MR. SCHONEWOLF-A bookstore and a coffee shop.
MR. HUNSINGER-It’s a very common thing now for colleges to take their bookstore off campus
to help support the community.
MR. GALUSHA-Yes. Well, just looking at this, too, I mean, it’s a blank slate, so as far as lots
and things go like that, I mean, the sky’s the limit as far as what we want to come up with, but we
could, since it’s going to be private, internal roads, we may not even need that road lot. We
might be able to bump the boundaries right to here, have the internal driveways right in here,
like you’re talking about, have mixed use along here, you know, sidewalks out to here so that
you can get over to the community center, then you get more creative back here with these
buildings, with the mixed use that you’re talking about.
MR. HUNSINGER-Maybe have like an inner courtyard or something with no traffic, pedestrian
friendly.
MR. FULLER-Almost have this road come in here, and then have the access off the back of
these commercial lots internally. Eliminate that road lot all together.
MR. BOGARDIS-Right. What we want to do is to get in front of that, you know, we always
agreed, even though some people didn’t, we always agreed that that should be commercial or
whatever, kind of follow down Bay Road, but what there was was originally, and I think there still
is, there’s a transition, they talk about in your plan a transition zone from commercial to
residential, and that’s kind of what we’re trying to do back in there. I mean, that was part of the
whole plan.
MR. GALUSHA-And what the Chairman is saying is forget that and join the project as a mixed
use project, and maybe make some of that in the back strictly residential, but make some of that
stuff along Bay Road and Blind Rock Road a combined commercial restaurants bookstore and
maybe apartments or something over that for student housing. Is that what we’re saying?
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, you know, a walkable mixed use community.
MR. GALUSHA-We have to see if that works with our business plan.
MR. OBORNE-And that would require a Use Variance.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes. I’m sure it would.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. FULLER-That’s why I think we’ve got to get creative with the lot line. With that 300 feet,
just work it so that you may need Area Variances, but the Area Variance.
MR. FORD-It’s going to require variances. We know that.
MR. HUNSINGER-I mean, what you’ve designed.
MR. FULLER-Meets the Code.
MR. HUNSINGER-It meets the Code. I mean, you know, like I said.
MR. FORD-Thank you for that effort.
MR. SIPP-Matt, what killed the project last time was the traffic and the citizens in that area were
very annoyed with the fact that they would have 300 and some odd cars, probably a good share
of them moving out between seven and eight or eight and nine, and the traffic there is bad
because of ACC. Now you’ve got an exit there onto Blind Rock Road, coming out of the center
of this project. You know you can’t make a right turn on the end of Blind Rock, and those cars
stack up pretty well. So anybody coming out of there may be hung up for five minutes because
the light is not with them in the sense of the timing of it, and I would like to see some of this
commercial, as it has been stated, moved back into the interior a little more or blocked off in
some way. Cars should be parking in the rear of it so they can’t be seen from either Bay Road
or Blind Rock, and you’ve got fewer cars, but I don’t think that’s going to fly with the
neighborhood, again, just like it didn’t before.
MR. KREBS-Yes, but, Don, one of the things that I like about this design is that these people,
when leaving, have a choice of either coming out here or coming down here and going on to Bay
Road. So the population, depending on where you’re coming from in here, could go out two
different exits.
MR. SIPP-You sit down there between seven and nine, and see the number of cars turning right
there to go to ACC.
MR. OBORNE-Yes, I would say the level of service would have to be reviewed.
MR. KREBS-Well, there’s another alternative, and that is to have the Town put a turn lane in
here, so that in fact you could make a right hand turn.
MR. FORD-These thoroughfares are going to have to be addressed as this development
proceeds.
MR. HUNSINGER-This light’s getting to be a problem. If you’re coming down Blind Rock Road
and you want to take a left onto Bay, what happens is if the first or second car is turning left on
Bay, they’re yielding to all the traffic coming straight. The light turns red, one or two cars go, and
you’re sitting there for two and three turns of the light.
MR. FORD-That intersection will just have to be addressed from both Bay and Blind Rock.
MR. HUNSINGER-Which is why I started by saying what are the issues in this part of Town,
and, you know, maybe there’s a way that this development can actually eliminate some of those
issues instead of, you know, make them worse.
MR. SIPP-You’ve got to have a good traffic study done.
MR. BOGARDIS-Well, you also have to keep in mind, if you have that access road, people
waiting at that light are going to want to have to cut through and get onto Bay so they can make
that right if it’s not addressed by the Town.
MR. OBORNE-There will be cut through traffic.
MR. FORD-Yes, that’s right.
MR. OBORNE-Especially if the Level of Service on that road is at a C or a D, somewhere
around there. They’re going to be hanging a right coming.
MR. FULLER-Going east on Blind Rock, if they can’t get right, they’re going to cut through the
development.
MR. KREBS-But, Matt, that may be good for the commercial businesses.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. OBORNE-I mean, there are ways you can get around it, with traffic control devices.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, that might be a mitigation issue, that, you know, that might be
encouraged. Seriously.
MR. GALUSHA-Well, that’s why we left the front commercial. As you folks well know, is that
comes with time, and we could kind of build that out. We don’t know what we’re going to do, but
we kind of left it open, as things come along, so we have options.
MR. HUNSINGER-And I think, you know, with this design here, I think you’re going to have
some opposition from the school, because we’ve heard that before, with more apartments,
townhouses, come more school children.
MR. GALUSHA-We have some information on some existing ones.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. GALUSHA-That will actually show you people that go rent luxury apartments, don’t usually
rent them with very few kids, and my ex-partners, which we still do a lot of work, they’ve got how
many, 1500 of these, Dave, over 1500, and they’ve actually got the records of all of their, they
brought this concept in years ago. So they have all the records of exactly how many kids they
have in those, and it’s, I don’t have the numbers with me, but I’ll share them with you. It’s not a
lot. Because like I say, they’re not $600, $700 rent a month apartments. So it kind of separates
the clientele.
MR. HUNSINGER-I just remember that was one of the issues before, and it’s been an issue, it
was an issue with the Comprehensive Plan, too.
MR. FULLER-And when we were talking with the Town Board about what that setback was
going to be, it came up again, and I contacted Queensbury, for the population figures, the
Superintendent’s office, and the enrollment, it’s been plummeting, pretty good.
MR. BOGARDIS-It seems to be somebody my age or older, who’s kids have moved away and
they don’t need a big house, or the younger professionals that don’t have children, they don’t
want children yet. They’re in their career years.
MR. KREBS-I know they’re multiple buses, but I often go up and down Meadowbrook Lane, and
at the time the kids are getting off the bus, and there’s only six or seven kids getting off the bus
at Schermerhorn’s apartments, that are 200 apartments back there.
MR. BOGARDIS-Impact on school is very small, and we can demonstrate that for you.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. OBORNE-Yes. I can’t stress due diligence more than anything. You know that.
MR. BOGARDIS-Small economy suites, that type of thing, and try to get it in a real low, get a
component of this project where you could get it into something not too expensive and not too
large, 700 square feet, 650 square feet.
MR. HUNSINGER-I mean, I know the College is looking at putting up dorms, and the only thing
that’s holding them back is financing it. So maybe there’s an opportunity to partner with the
College and do something there.
MR. BOGARDIS-We’ll take all this into consideration, what you’re saying.
MR. HUNSINGER-I’m just telling you what issues I know that are in this part of Town.
MR. GALUSHA-I’m just trying to follow what’s there for all the right reasons.
MR. HUNSINGER-I understand.
MR. FORD-I also have, as a realtor, an increasing number of people who are looking for
housing, good quality housing, with masters on the first level and close to services, in
Queensbury.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes, this is on the bus line. You cross the street from Town Hall.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. KREBS-The other thing is, if you look at the ACC students, there’s more than enough
property at ACC to put the dorms over there, and personally I would rather see you not have that
traffic back and forth across Bay Road if you could avoid it.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, it’s already there, though.
MR. KREBS-Either pedestrian traffic or, yes, but if they’re in the dorms and they’re on ACC’s
property, they’re just going to go directly to.
MR. GALUSHA-We were really looking to do high end luxury. That’s what, that’s kind of where
we’re headed. That’s what we’d like to do. The residential helps the commercial. The
commercial helps the residential. All of one or all of the other just doesn’t work.
MR. FORD-I think the College housing can be taken care of on the campus.
MR. BOGARDIS-In a project like this where there’s a commercial component and a professional
office commercial component and then a residential component, it usually works out that the
residents have gone to work before the businesses and offices open up, and the residents come
back, you know, there’s an interchange where the traffic isn’t all at the same time, because of
the hours of business operation.
MR. HUNSINGER-Well, yes, I understand what you’re saying. I mean, I would hope that one of
the goals here would be that people would live there and work there.
MR. GALUSHA-You’re exactly right.
MR. HUNSINGER-I mean, that would be the ideal work, you know, and that’s what helps
eliminate traffic.
MR. BOGARDIS-The ideal world would be to live there and have a daycare center there, all in
one.
MR. HUNSINGER-Right, yes.
MR. BOGARDIS-But that project site isn’t big enough for some of those goals.
MR. HUNSINGER-I feel like I dominated the conversation from the Board’s perspective. Sorry.
Anyone else have anything else to add?
MR. GALUSHA-One of the other reasons, just so you know, like where we put the berm, up
along Blind Rock, that was done for a couple of reasons. One, to kind of try to burn that up and
put some trees on the other. If you look at those units, when you actually sit in your units (lost
words) and you sit out on your back deck, you’re looking down into where it’s wooded. It isn’t
going to be disturbed, and we try to put some of that in, because you have, you know, we’re
trying to build luxury, high end apartments, and some of those amenities, as you can see laid
out, make it very attractive for people to rent. So, you know, some of those, we tried to follow
the Code you’re doing, but we tried to use some commonsense and what looks nice and what
you would want to see if you lived there, and that’s how we kind of laid a lot of this out. We
spent a lot of time on it.
MR. FORD-First floor master suites.
MR. FULLER-Well, honestly, I think, from our standpoint, (lost words) we understand you don’t
like that, but if it gives us, I think, a little bit more flexibility to kind of work with the site, to be
honest with you. We were kind of pushed in a direction based on the comments from before,
what the zoning allowed, what it didn’t allow, and not knowing what comments we were going to
get.
MR. HUNSINGER-Yes.
MR. FORD-Just don’t wait too long to come back, because it may be a different Board you’re
confronted with.
MR. BOGARDIS-Well, I think we have an opportunity to take a look at that professional office
commercial area and try to plan something different with that, as maybe even a second phase of
the project.
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. GALUSHA-I’ve always wanted to be flexible. We need the residential. We need the
commercial. I mean, I’ve got to figure out a way that I can have and do both, because I think
that really is the thing that makes the most sense. If not, it remains vacant.
MR. HUNSINGER-I couldn’t agree more.
MR. GALUSHA-And I can’t pay the taxes.
MR. HUNSINGER-I’m sure.
MR. KREBS-And you might even consider, for the ACC students on the commercial buildings, if
you built second stories or third stories, where you put small apartments up there.
MR. GALUSHA-We talked about that early on. A piece of my flesh is still in the wall I think
because of that. So we did look at the last time with looking at doing a residential commercial.
That’s what’s kind of happening in other areas, they start to do that. They’re putting residential
up and commercial at the bottom. What that does, it allows you to get at least dollars and cents
coming in. As you know there’s a lot of commercial vacant, good new commercial.
MR. KREBS-In fact that’s exactly the concept we have for Main Street in our Zoning Ordinance
is to have commercial with apartments on the top.
MR. HUNSINGER-Exactly, yes, and again, I just think when you look at the award winning
designs, you know, around the country, I think, in fact for years I had this one saved, and I don’t
think it was even 30 acres, and I remember when I found that one, I was like, that would be the
perfect thing to do here. I no longer have that bookmarked, so I can’t remember where the
development was, but it was met with the skepticism by the community, but it was wildly
successful, and, you know, became a destination, and the community really endorsed it and
embraced it.
MR. GALUSHA-We build a lot of different, we’re in the construction business. So we’re seeing a
lot of new things, and a lot of really neat things. I mean, this product was the first product we
built in ’01, I mean, it was (lost words) apartments with pools and a clubhouse and luxury.
That’s not going to fly. So there’s a lot of different ideas, and I’ll just say one thing, coming back
to a workshop type thing could help all this, similar to what we did tonight. I thank you for that.
MR. FORD-Yes, we loved it. Let’s do it again.
MR. HUNSINGER-We’ll do it again, absolutely.
MR. KREBS-We’d be more than willing.
MR. HUNSINGER-And I mean, if we need to, we haven’t done this in a long time, but we’ve held
joint workshops with the Zoning Board, too, so, if you think whatever you’re going to be
designing is going to require a variance, we could do a workshop with the Zoning Board. I’m
sure they’d be willing to do that.
MR. GALUSHA-We’ll go back and we’ll sure come up with some things.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. GALUSHA-Tell us what you’re looking at.
MR. HUNSINGER-Okay.
MR. FORD-Great. We’d welcome you back.
MR. FULLER-Thank you for your time.
MR. HUNSINGER-Absolutely. Thank you. Any other business before the Board this evening?
MR. FORD-Yes, I just want to compliment our Chairman for expressing the views you did
tonight.
MR. HUNSINGER-I’ve been thinking about this site.
MR. FORD-It showed. It showed, Chris.
MR. HUNSINGER-Sitting on the Board for 10 years, you learn something. Right?
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(Queensbury Planning Board 09/30/10)
MR. JACKOSKI-I move to adjourn.
MR. FORD-Second.
MOTION TO ADJOURN QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 30,
2010, Introduced by Stephen Jackoski who moved for its adoption, seconded by Thomas Ford:
th
Duly adopted this 30 day of September, 2010, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Ford, Mr. Jackoski, Mr. Krebs, Mr. Traver, Mr. Schonewolf, Mr. Sipp, Mr. Hunsinger
NOES: NONE
On motion meeting was adjourned.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
Chris Hunsinger, Chairman
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