1994-09-27
QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING
SECOND REGULAR MEETING
SEPTEMBER 27, 1994
INDEX
Site Plan No. 32-94
Barrett Auto Sales, Inc.
8 .
Site Plan No. 28-94
Leonardo Lombardo
9.
Subdivision No. 7-1994
PRELIMINARY STAGE
Daniel R. Barber
28.
Site Plan No. 25-94
Hudson Pointe, Inc.
36.
THESE ARE NOT OFFICIALLY ADOPTED MINUTES AND ARE SUBJECT TO BOARD
AND STAFF REVISIONS. REVISIONS WILL APPEAR ON THE FOLLOWING
MONTHS MINUTES (IF ANY) AND WILL STATE SUCH APPROVAL OF SAID
MINUTES.
--'
.....r
QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING
SECOND REGULAR 'MEETING
SEPTEMBER 27, 1994
7:00 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT
TIMOTHY BREWER, CHAIRMAN
GEORGE STARK, SECRETARY
ROBERT PAl_ING
CRAIG MACEWAN
JAMES OBERMAYER
CATHERINE LABOMBARD
MEMBERS ABSENT
f~OGER RUEL
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-JAMES MARTIN
PLANNER-SCOTT HARLICKER
PLANNING BOARD CHAIRMAN-MARK SCHACHNER
STENOGRAPHER-MARIA GAGLIARDI
CORRECTION OF MINUTES
July 26, 1994: NONE
July 28, 1994: NONE
August 16, 1994: NONE
MOTION TO APPROVE THE ABOVE SETS OF MINUTES, Introduced by Craig
MacEwan who moved for its adoption, seconded by Robert Paling:
Duly adopted this 27th day of September, 1994, by the following
vote:
AYES: Mr. Stark, Mr. Obermayer, Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Paling,
M'"" Br ewer
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mrs" LaBombard, Mr. Ruel
MR. BREWER-We might as well do the Resolution of Intent next,
George, and then we'll do Mrs. Brunso.
SEQRA REVIEW:
RESOLUTION OF INTENT OF PLANNING BOARD TO BE LEAD AGENCY IN THE
REVIEW OF VARIANCE AND SUBDIVISION REQUEST FOR FLORENCE SMITH.
MR. MARTIN-I think if you just, so moved and second.
RESOLUTION OF INTENT OF PLANNING BOARD TO BE LEAD AGENCY IN THE
REVIEW OF VARIANCE AND SUBDIVISION REQUEST FOR FLORENCE SMITH,
Introduced by Timothy Brewer who moved for its adoption, seconded
by Craig MacEwan:
Duly adopted this 27th day of September, 1994, by the following
vote:
AYES: Mr. Obermayer, Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Paling, Mr. Stark,
Mr. B'" ewer
NOES: I\ONE
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ABSENT: Mrs. LaBombard, Mr. Ruel
MR. MARTIN-I know it's not noted on the agenda, but I know
Town Board is getting prepared to consider the Schermerhorn
zoning that the Board had before it several weeks ago now.
think they're also going to be requesting lead agency status
review of that, and as an involved Board, they usually ask
your consent. Do you want to consider that, or do you want
more time to think?
tlìe
re-
I
for
for
some
MR. BREWER-No, that's fine. They just need our consent for them
to be lead agent.
MR. MARTIN-If I could have a resolution to that effect.
MOTION THAT THE PLANNING BOARD CONSENTS TO THE TOWN BOARD BEING
LEAD AGENT IN THE SEQRA REVIEW OF RICHARD SCHERMERHORN RE-ZONING,
Introduced by Timothy Brewer who moved for its adoption, seconded
by Craig MacEwan:
Duly adopted this 27th day of September, 1994, by the following
vote:
AYES: Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Paling, Mr. Stark, Mr. Obermayer,
Mr. Brewer
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mrs. LaBombard, Mr. Ruel
MR. BREWER-Okay. We have an item that's not on the agenda. I
guess Mrs. Brunso's going to give us a brief presentation.
MR. MARTIN-It was on last week, and we got it mixed up.
MR. BREWER-Right. She's going to give us a brief presentation of
access management.
JOANNA BRUNSO
MRS. BRUNSO-To begin with, I don't think you people understand
what a metropolitan organization is, or what the Glens Falls
Transportation Council is. So I'm going to give you something to
read. You referred to me as someone from the State, and, yes I
am a State employee, but that's not quite true. An MPO is an
organization that is required by the Federal government for any
urban area over 50,000. Glens Falls, that's the Glens Falls
urbanized area, that includes all the densely populated areas, by
the census definition, regardless of whether it's inside or
outside the City boundaries, and for us, now, our forecasted 20
year metropolitan area boundaries includes the City of Glens
Falls, the entire Town of Moreau, the entire Town of Fort Edward,
the entire Town of Kingsbury, the entire Town of Queensbury, and
the entire Town of Lake George. So it's a large area, over which
we do the transportation planning. Now, the requirement by the
Federal government is that the Staff of the MPO, of which I'm a
Director, has to prepare a list of projects, which have to be
endorsed by elected officials, and one of those elected
officials is Fred Champagne, the Supervisor of the Town of
Queensbury. Victor Grant is another one. Harry Booth from the
Board of Supervisors in Washington County is another, the Mayor
of Glens Falls, the Mayor of South Glens Falls, and on and on.
Those people get together once or twice a year, and they go over
our materials. The important business is taking place at our
monthly planning commission meetings, and those people consist of
the DPW Chairman of the County and the Towns, or the Planners,
such as Jim Martin, who's a regular attendee. Now, in most of
the urban areas, the Staff is not a State employee, but when GFTC
started, nobody in this local area was willing to come up with
the 20 percent. The Federal government provides 80 percent, and
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.1....--_.---->-_.__,____...____
the local area, somebody in the local area has to come up with
the 20 percent, and without that work being done, no Federal
money can be spent on the highways and the bridges, or the
bicycle trails or the transit projects in this area. So here was
a whole area over which the State knew that without an MPO in
place, without a Director, without some set up, there would be no
Federal money being able to be spent, and so they said, well, if
the local people won't contribute that money, then we, the State,
will have to do it, and we will provide the 20 percent in in kind
service, and that is how we make up the Staff, the people who
actually crunch the numbers and write the documents and print the
booklets, and so while, yes, I am a State employee, my allegiance
is really to the Glens Falls Transportation Council, and I'm
working for you. Sometimes, I make the State a little angry, but
right now I've come to talk to you about access management, what
it is, and what ,you need to do about it. Access management of
curtailing congestion along transportation corridors. The
typical way that you do this is by reducing the number of
driveways along congested arterials. You combine driveways.
Where it's possible, you should insist that driveways be off
lower volume roads, mostly local roads, not on an arterial. You
build service roads. If you can, get developers to build service
roads, create zoning that encourages dense development for
commercial purposes, so that it's easy for pedestrian and bicycle
traffic to get around, and you insist on site plans that are
friendly to transit, bicycle and pedestrians. Now, this is
really the job of the Planning Board. GFTC can offer you
guidance, but the reason that you, the Planning Board, have to do
it is that you can't just turn around and say, well, we'll pass
everything and we'll expect DOT, through it's permit process, to
say no to these developers with their site plans. The basic
reason is that in DOT there are two different groups. There's
the planning groups that offer advice on things like access
management, and site development, and access to State highways,
and then there's the highway work permit section, and the highway
work permit section is bound by a lot of local laws, a lot of
State laws on what they can and can't do, and also a lot of DOT
and motor vehicle regulation on what they can't do. So,
therefore, as in the case, if you remember the case of Passarelli
on Round Pond Road, where L advised that you grant only one
access to that entire parcel, and let the two subdivided sites
share that one access off of Route 9. You were the only people
who could demand that of the developer. By the time you approved
the subdivision and created two separate lots, the permit section
of DOT must grant access, individual access, to those two
parcels. I also remember a case that I sent some planning
guidance up to you for the Carvel subdivision down on Route 9,
south of the intersection of 254, and at that point, I
recommended that you not allow as many driveways as they had, and
I guess, in that particular instance, you didn't enforce my
guidance, and the permit section, you might have heard it
referred to as traffic and safety, highway permits, or Mark
Kennedy. They're all one and the same. By the time it got to
him, he couldn't do anything to materially change the site
development. So it's got to be up to you people to take guidance
on access management. The fact is that GFTC has invested quite a
bit of money in studies of congested corridors, throughout the
Glens Falls area. We've done a study of Quaker Road. We've just
come through an exhaustive study of the area around 9 and 254,
and that study recommends a new road called the Greenway North
connector. It also recommends some service roads to be developed
by developers, provided zoning was changed. It recommends that
no new curb cuts be allowed in that area, and this is the type of
thing that we are looking for from the Planning Boards, some help
in reducing the number of intersections on our major corridors
through the area. Now, just on the 9 and 254 study alone, that
study cost GFTC $60,000. Now, it really doesn't make sense for
us to go out and do all these studies if the Planning Boards
aren't going to implement the plans that come up, and a little
bit further, at DOT, they've discussed the fact that we really
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don't., the DOT really doesn't feel that it should add capacity to
the highways in the Queensbury area if the Queensbury Town
Planning Board is not going to cooperate in reducing congestion
through access management. It just seems a waste of money to
continue to add lanes to the highways, to add turning lanes, if
the congestion is just going to build up again. So, at the last
Planning Board meeting of GFTC we brought up the recommendations
in the 9 and 254 study, and I think you've all seen them.
Haven't they?
MR. MARTIN-Yes. I sent the Executive Summary and the Access
Management section out of the Study.
MRS. BRUNSO-I guess I'd like to read those, and I'm going to pass
them out to you. This is the approval of the recommendations of
the 9 and 254 Corridor Study. "GFTC has received the final
copies of the 9 and 254 Study. J. Brunso asked the Committee to
approve the recommendations because of the impact it would have
on the Town of Queensbury, and because the Greenway North
connector, which was recommended in the Study, is scheduled for
construction on the Tip for $2.6 million. The recommendation
also includes an access management plan. J. Brunso explained to
the TAC" , that's the Technical Advisory Committee, "that a
consequence of accepting the conclusions may be that capacity
improvements may not be put on the TIP if the Town of Queensbury
does not implement access management. Jim Martin reported the
Queensbury Town Board has set aside money as the local match for
the Greenway North connector. The Town of Queensbury has also
gone forward with the plan for the improvement on Weeks Road, as
recommended by the Corridor Study. The access management portion
of the plan has been distributed and accepted by the Town
Planning Board. On September 27th, J. Brunso was also scheduled
to talk to the Town of Queensbury Planning Board about their
responsibility for access management. J. Brunso added that she
and Richard Carlson of New York State DOT's Region 1 have
discussed the possibility that no capacity improvement project
should be funded along the two corridors until the Town of
Queensbury agrees to implement the access management. This
comment was made in view of the increase in commercial
development along Routes 9 and 254. Jim Martin made a motion to
approve the conclusions of the 9 and 254 Corridor Study. This
motion was seconded by Jack Dixon and carried by the TAC. He
asked GFTC to send copies of this discussion and the motion to
the Queensbury Town Planning Board as an indication of GFTC
support for the Study's recommendations." So, now I think that's
probably the end of my conclusions, and I'm wondering if you have
any questions for me.
MR. BREWER-Well, I have
talked to, what's the
State?
a question.
fellot,.J's name,
In here,
Carlson,
ì'OU say you've
from New York
MRS. BRUNSO-Yes.
MR. BREWER-You and he agreed that no funds should come to the
Town of Queensbury until the Town of Queensbury implements access
management?
MRS. BRUNSO-No. That's not quite what we said. We said that we
should not fund capacity improvements in the Town. Right now,
for example, we have the Greenway North connector, on our Tip.
We also have capacity improvements to Route 9. Route 9 is
scheduled for a simple re-paving job. We've added a considerable
number of funds to add addition right turn and left turn lanes in
the area of Exit 20 and Route 149. Those are in question, as a
result of this discussion here.
MR. BREWER-Okay. I guess what my question would be is, how can
we implement access management if there's, the problem pre-exists
you asking us to implement it? In other words, 9 and 254 is a
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.....1..---._._'____._...____
problem. It's been a problem. How can we implement something
when we have no power to do such?
MRS. BRUNSO-You have the power. For example, when Passarelli
came in for his subdivision of those two lots, you had the power
to demand that only one access, that there be a shared access to
those two subdivided properties, and the only thing you can do is
to go forward from this point on, and we see some concrete
evidence that you're not just allowing every single curb cut to
come out onto Route 9 and 254.
MR. BREWER-I agree with you there.
MRS. BRUNSO-You can't do anything about what exists at the
p'"esent time.
MR. BREWER-Right.
MRS. BRUNSO-I think there are certain things that GFTC needs to
do, and there are also certain things that the Town of Queensbury
Planning Board needs to do here, and the first of that is to
understand what permits can and can't do, and I hope I've
explained that well to you. If you look at the following pages,
these are some charts that we recently had developed about the
increase in traffic, and what these charts show is the increase
in DMVT's, that's a Transportation Planner's term for the number
of people times the number of lanes times the length of each
segment on these roads, and this is being contrasted by the
change in compilation and the change in the numbers of
households, and in most of the areas, you see that the change in
these DMVT's pa,-allels the change, or the increase in the number
of households in the Town of Queensbury, but when you get down to
the corner of 254 and Dix and 32, you see a remarkable change,
and the traffic is increasing down there way beyond the increase
in the number of households in the Town of Queensbury, and the
Town of Kingsbury, and I feel that a Study similar to the 9 and
254 Study should be done in that area by GFTC, together with an
access management plan for that area, but I also think that in
view of the new opening up of the K-Mart, the super saver down
there, and all of the new developments that are coming in there,
that you ought to be very careful about the numbers of curb cuts
that you allow. Try to have adjoining lots share driveways. Try
to have driveways go from one development to the next
development, so that if somebody wants to do business at both
places, you don't have to come back out to Quaker Road, or out
onto Dix Avenue, because it's going to become increasingly
congested in the area.
MR. BREWER-Okay. I was just going to mention that, that we did
have K-Mart make improvements on Dix Avenue and Quaker Road. We
did have them tie in to Livingstons.
MRS. BRUNSQ-That's right.
MR. BREWER-Gardentime was in this month. We had him tie into
Sport Line Honda, which was in several months ago, and we made
bim lea\/e the possibi 1 i ty for an adjoi ni ng neighbor to access his
property. So I don't think it's fair to say that this Planning
Board is not trying to do that. I think we are trying to do
that, and I think maybe, for myself maybe, we could have a
workshop with you, and not maybe just you, but members of the
Council, and we can sit around a table and you can tell us what
you think we should do, and we can tell you what we have done.
MRS. BRUNSQ-Okay. That sounds very good.
MR. BREWER-I mean, you take note to the things that we
done, but I haven't heard anything mentioned about the
t.hat we have done, and I don't think that's fair to us.
!!l.l::. speech.
haven't
things
That's
- 5 -
---------------
MR. PALING-I'd just like to add something to what Tim has said.
MR. PALING-Now ,'oU talk about the 9/254 Study, and yOU want us to
adapt it, and we've been given a copy to read, but yet we haven't
been given the opportunity to question you or someone else about
the things in there, and this questioning would be just probably
in the way of understanding, rather than objecting to it, and I
think Tim is exactly right, that we try to vote the right way,
but if you're going to lay something down and say, here it is, do
it, don't ask questions, I think the,· <':3 will be trouble.
MRS. BRUNSO-Yes, but on the other hand, we did have three public
meetings in this room on that Study.
MR. PALING-I haven't been given the opportunity to talk about the
9/254 Executive Summary since I received it, unless I'm
remembering wrong.
MR. BREWER-No.
got that.
I don't think there's been a meeting since we've
MR. MARTIN-The only thing I should say, there's a full copy of
the whole Study, which is literally about eight inches high, is
available in my office, if anybody wants to come.
MR. BREWER-No, but I think Bob's talking about the Summary that
we got. When did we get that Summary?
MR. PALING-That's got to be a month ago or more.
MRS. BRUNSO-Yes. That Summary was not written until we had the
final public meeting on that Study, so that we knew what the
public comments were.
MR. BREWER-Okay.
MR. PALING-You make a lot of statements in the report which I
know are true, but we don't know the rationale behind them, and
that's the kind of thing I'd like to find out.
MRS. BRUNSO-Okay.
workshop, then.
Well, Jim, I think you should set up a
MR. MARTIN-Yes. Next month is a particularly good month. We've
got a particularly light agenda.
MR. BREWER-Yes. That would be fine.
MRS. BRUNSO-I don't know that I can do it next month, not in the
month of October, because we're racing to get our long range plan
done by the 1st of November, but we can do it in the month of
November, if that's okay.
MR. BREWER-Okay.
MR. MARTIN-What L would like to suggest is a spirit of
cooperation here, and the Board's just trying to understand, and
I don't think there's an attitude on the part of the Town, as a
whole, to warrant such harsh penalty.
MRS. BRUNSO-Well, it sounds harsh because it's abbreviated here.
MR. MARTIN-But to take away the installation
are sorely needed on the upper Route 9,
perception of a Board's unwillingness to
management is, I think, a little harsh.
of turn lanes which
as reaction to a
undertake access
MR. BREWER-I agree with you, Jim, and they're only stating one
case. They're talking about the Passarelli case, and, I mean,
what was the vote on that, four to three?
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.-
MR. PALING-Five to two.
MR. BREWER-Five to two.
MR. MARTIN-That is one notable case, and I think that's one, in
my view, I think we missed the boat.
MR. BREWER-I agree with you.
MR. MARTIN-But there are other cases, like even the Glen Square
site plan that was in. It is not simple enough to say that the
curb cuts were just left as is, and no reason. There was a value
judgement there on the part of the Board. There were a lot of
things that were given with that application that would have been
lost, had we forced them to give up a curb cut, and weighing
those things out, the Board got a lot of good out of that, by
giving on one thing, and that wasn't exactly a complete give away
either. We did get some restricted turning movements out of
there, and Mark Kennedy did approve that approach. So I think
there has been some work done, and I agree it could be better,
but I think there's a willingness, certainly on the part of the
staff, I know, and from what I'm hearing from the Board, a
willingness to do better, and I think we will, but I'd hate to
see a penalty handed down, that we don't get capacity
improvements funded, because I think there's no need for that.
We're trying.
MRS. BRUNSO-Okay. Well, one of the things that I see, and I must
admit, the Town of Queensbury is one of the few Towns that will
send their site developments to me, prior to enacting any
approval or denial process. That's a big help. From some of the
other towns, I get the final recommendations by the Planning
Board. I don't get that from the Town of Queensbury. So I don't
know what you have accomplished unless I specifically go and ask
Mark Kennedy or Jim Martin, and on things that I work hard on,
and take quite a bit of time to think over what should be done,
then I usually have an interest in going and trying to find out
what the final determination of the Planning Board was.
MR. MACEWAN-Would it help if we established a program to send you
final approved site plans of any project within the Corridors to
you?
MRS. BRUNSO-I don't have room for those.
MR. MACEWAN-What can we do to give yoU feedback?
MRS. BRUNSO-A summary.
MR. MARTIN-Maybe if we just sent yOU
the resolutions of the Board, what
meeti ng .
a copy of our resolutions,
they enacted on a given
MR. MACEWAN-Yes. That's what I was looking at.
MR. MARTIN-They're just on 8 and half by 11 paper, and you could
discard them or record them, or save them or whatever you want to
do. I can do that as a matter of practice every month.
MRS. BRUNSO-Okay. If that explains what has been enacted, the
curb cuts and the lights and the signals.
MR. MACEWAN-Sometimes that wouldn't even say.
refers to a site plan drawing.
Sometimes it just
MR. HARLICKER-Yes.
MRS. BRUNSO-Maybe you could just call me up and tell me.
MR. MARTIN-As a practical matter, there's really not that many
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items that warrant your concern or interest. So it wouldn't be
hard to send you a spare copy of the final site plan.
MR. BREWER-How about, rather than belaboring this, we'll go on
and make a date for the 10th of November.
MRS. BRUNSO-That's okay with me, I think.
MR. BREWER-I mean, if there's a problem, you can get back to us,
and there's plenty of time.
MR. MARTIN-Do you want to do that in the other room, downstairs?
MR. BREWER-Yes, that's fine.
MR. PALING-I can't do the 10th.
MR. STARK-It's no problem with me.
MR. BREWER-What º-ªI! you do?
MR. MARTIN-We're going to have one of our neighborhood meetings
that night, too, for the Comprehensive Plan.
MR. PALING-Anything but the 10th or the 17th.
MR. BREWER-How about the 9th?
MR. PALING-The 9th is fine.
MRS. LABOMBARD-The 9th would be better.
MR. BREWER-The 9th is good.
MR. STARK-That's fine with me.
MR. MARTIN-Any time you want. You can make it 7, 7:30.
MR. BREWER-Whatever's good for you.
MRS. BRUNSO-How early can you meet? The only thing, I'm thinking
about if I can get some of the DOT employees up to work with us.
MR. BREWER-How about 6:30? Is that too late?
MRS. BRUNSO-Okay.
MR. BREWER-Six thirty November 9th, downstairs in the Conference
Room, and you'll ask members of the Council to come, or whoever.
MR. MARTIN-Doesn't the central office have an access management
division? Who was it that came and spoke to us?
MRS. BRUNSO-Steve Munson.
MR. BREWER-And maybe we can get a feel for what you want us to
do, and we can tell you why we do or don't want to do it.
MRS. BRUNSO-Okay. All right. Thank you for your time.
MR. BREWER-Thank you very much.
NEW BUSINESS:
SITE PLAN NO. 32-94 TYPE: UNLISTED BARRETT AUTO SALES, INC.
OWNER: SAME AS ABOVE ZONE: LI-1A LOCATION: QUAKER RD.,
ADJACENT TO CAR WASH & SOUTHEAST OF GARDEN TIME PROPOSAL TO
CONSTRUCT A 71' X 115' BUILDING TO BE USED FOR SALES AND SERVICE
OF AUTOS AND TRUCKS. CROSS REFERENCE: SP 65-90 BEAUTIFICATION
COMM. - 9/12/94 WARREN CO. PLANNING - 9/14/94 TAX MAP NO. 110-
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--'-~"'--"'----'--'-------
1-1.23 LOT SIZE: 85,500 SQ. FT. SECTION: 179-26
DANIEL BARBER, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. BARBER-Good evening. I~y name is Daniel Barber. We have some
drainage situations we have to solve, here, with Bill MacNamara,
and we'd like to have it tabled until next month, please.
MR. BREWER-First meeting next month.
MR. MARTIN-You just might want to open the public hearing, Tim,
that was scheduled for tonight.
MR. BREWER-Okay. I will open the public hearing.
anyone here that cares to speak about Barrett's?
Is there
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
MR. BREWER-I'll leave the public hearing open.
somebody want to make a motion to table?
Okay.
Does
MOTION TO TABLE SITE PLAN NO. 32-94 BARRETT
Introduced by Craig MacEwan who moved for its
by Robert Paling:
AUTO SALES. INC.,
adoption, seconded
Until our October 18th meeting.
Duly adopted this 27th day of September, 1994, by the following
vote:
AYES: Mr. Stark, Mr. Obermayer, Mrs. LaBombard, Mr. MacEwan,
Mr. Paling, Mr. Brewer
t'10ES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ruel
SITE PLAN NO. 28-94 TYPE: UNLISTED LEONARDO LOMBARDO OWNER:
LEONARDO & CALLIOPY LOMBARDO ZONE: HC'-lA LOCATION: NORTH OF
RT. 9 - WEST SIDE OF RT.9 AT LAKE GEORGE TOWN LINE. FOR
ADDITION AND ALTERATIONS TO EXISTING RETAIL STORE. ALSO,
CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW BUILDING FOR FUTURE RETAIL STORES.
BEAUTIFICATION COMM. - 9/12/94 WARREN COUNTY PLANNING - 9/14/94
TAX MAP NO. 33-1-10, 11, 13 LOT SIZE: 3.851 ACRES SECTION:
179-23
RON RUCINSKI, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
STAFF INPUT
Notes from Staff, Site Plan No. 28"94, Leonardo Lombardo, Meeting
Date: September 27, 1994 "pROJECT ANALYSIS: Staff has reviewed
the project for compliance with Section 179-38 A., Section 179-38
B., Section 179-38C and to the relevant factors outlined in
Section 179-39 and offers the following comments: 1. Traffic
access is a concern with this project. The site is currently
serviced by 4 curb cuts. With some minor modifications to the
plan the southern most curb cut could be eliminated and the
enlarged retail stores could be adequately serviced by upgrading
the existing center curb cut. The project was compared to the
following standards found in Section 179-38E. of the Zoning Code:
1. The location, arrangement, size, design and general site
compatibility of buildings, lighting and signs; No elevations
were submitted with this application so it is difficult to assess
the compatibility of the new structure with what is existing. In
general, in order to keep the exterior of the building uniform
and to avoid a piecemeal put together look of placing several
additions on to the existing structure; the applicant should
consider upgrading the exterior of the existing building so that
the new construction will be compatible with the existing
- 9 -
structure. No new lighting or signage is proposed. 2. The
adequacy and arrangement of vehicular traffic access and
circulation, including intersections, road widths, pavement
surfaces, dividers and traffic controls; Vehicular traffic
access is a concern. There is currently an excessive number of
curb cuts on this property. The southern curb cut could be
eliminated and the shopping plaza adequately serviced by
upgrading the existing center access. It could be upgraded so
that there are two exit lanes, one for left turns and one for
right turns and a single entrance. The exit and entrance would
have to be separated by a barrier or preferably a raised island.
The parking spaces facing Route 9 and the existing non-conforming
sign could be relocated to provide room for an access drive. 3.
The location, arrangement, appearance and sufficiency of off-
street parking and loading; There are a sufficient number of
parking spaces provided. The applicant is proposing to locate 10
of them along Route 9. These could be moved so that they front
the shopping plaza and the existing sign could be removed so that
an access drive could be placed along the front of the building.
The 5 spaces just to the north of the center curb cut would have
to be removed to provide room for the upgraded curb cut. These
spaces could be eliminated and the applicant could still meet the
parking requirements. The handicapped spaces could be placed at
the front of the building reducing the walking distance needed to
enter the building. A loading area is to be provided in the
rear. 4. The adequacy and arrangement of pedestrian traffic
access and circulation, walkway structures, control of
intersections with vehicular traffic and overall pedestrian
convenience; Pedestrian access is adequate. If the parking
spaces fronting Route 9 are moved so that they front the
building, the handicapped spaces will be more certainly located
and provide better access to the stores. 5. The adequacy of
stormwater drainage facilities; The adequacy of stormwater
facilities will be reviewed by Rist-Frost. 6. The adequacy of
water supply and sewage disposal facilities; The building will
be serviced by well water and a new on-site septic system. The
adequacy of these facilities will be reviewed by Rist-Frost. 7.
The adequacy, type and arrangement of trees, shrubs and other
suitable plantings, landscaping and screening constituting a
visual and/or noise buffer between the applicant's and adjoining
lands, including the maximum retention of existing vegetation and
maintenance including replacement of dead plants; The applicant
is proposing Junipers along Route 9 and upgrading the existing
planters around the building. The comments of the Beautification
Committee should be incorporated. 8. The adequacy of fire lanes
and other emergency zones and the provision of fire hydrants;
The emergency access appears to be adequate. 9. The adequacy
and impact of structures, roadways, and landscaping in areas with
susceptibility to ponding, flooding and/or erosion. The project
involves the regrading and work within a drainage easement. This
should be done so that erosion is kept to a minimum.
RECOMMENDATION: One of the means to address traffic congestion
is through access management. This can be accomplished on the
site by eliminating the southern curb cut. The property will
still be adequately serviced with the remaining two curb cuts
that service the residence and the restaurant and an upgraded
central access to service the stores. The two northern curb cuts
can be looked at when the applicant files an application for the
future expansion. The parking spaces fronting Route 9 could be
relocated so that they front the stores and the existing non-
conforming sign removed to provide room for an access aisle. The
5 parking spaces on the south side of the lawn should be removed
to provide room for the upgrading of the access."
MR. HARLICKER-There are also Engineering comments. Warren County
approved it without comments, and there's a p1-epared resolution,
also.
MR. BREWER-Okay. Bill.
- 10 -
MR. MACNAMARA-Okay. We had a number of comments on the first
submittal, of which I believe we actually looked at during the
I t t th t I attendDd I~o~t of those comments have been
as mee i ng , a ~ _ ,- "'. '-
addressed. The only remaining comments that I had went out on
the September 21st date, of which Ron and I actually, as of late
today, had a number of phone calls and faxes back and forth, and
have addressed most of them. I'll summarize, briefly, what are,
not so much outstanding, but what we talked about today.
Basically, there's a ditch along the south side of the project,
which, depending on what state of completion it is, these
comments may not be directly applicable, but he's going to show
some additional silt fence, or location of some that may be there
but not shown on the drawing, and also put a note about, when the
ditch is re-located, there'll be some specific vegetation and
mulching steps taken, and immediate grading. Next is, I'm not
sure. We never did really figure this out, if you're looking for
approval of the future retail building as well, tonight. There
isn't any stormwater management for that portion included. So we
didn't look at any stormwater issues associated with the future
building.
MR. BREWER-The future building will come back for site plan
,"eview.
MR. MACNAMARA-That's what I really didn't know. I wanted to just
make it cleaì".
MR. MARTIN-I think if that's the case, then, a note on the plan
should be to that effect.
MR. MACNAMARA-The next item which we had most of the discussions
about was essentially how the applicant was proposing to handle
the runoff from both the roofs and the parking lots. When some
additional grade lines were shown, it became clear what the
intent was, which we talked about today. Essentially, although
not conventional, it will meet the storage, in an infiltration
type of an approach, for some stormwater. Essentially, it
appears he's using a lot of the parking lot itself, to be graded,
in a sense, as a bowl, as he put it, to store stormwater, and
he's very optimistic that it infiltrates quick enough so that it
won't actually be a puddle. Normally, I'd look at that, and
based on just the view of it, consider it to be a ponding effect,
typically not desired in a parking lot, but I understand that
it's a seasonal operation, and that it certainly would be
appropriate, as far as in this application.
MR. BREWER-What's seasonal? The only thing that's seasonal is
the golf, isn't it? Or is the restaurant?
MR. RUCINSKI-Except for the house, everything's seasonal.
MR. BREWER-It is? Okay.
MR. MACNAMARA-Okay. Lastly, he gave me some additional
information on the trench drains, which showed them to be
adequate for the design he showed, and, lastly, I had some
comments on the sewage disposal system of which I subsequently
have learned that a building permit was already issued previously
to the submittal of the site plan for those changes, which have
already been substantially completed. So those notes would be
not be applicable. That's all we have.
MR.
make
BREWER-Okay.
any comments
Sir, ¡"Jould
toward Staff
you care to
Notes?
identify yourself and
MR. RUCINSKI-Good evening. I'm Ron Rucinski. I'm the architect
for the project, representing Leo Lombardo. I'll take these
comments right, more or less, in order. We did not present it.
I do have with me. This is preliminary, but this is the Route 9
view of the building, showing all of the stores, as what it might
look like. In terms of the immediate project, this is the
- 11-
existing building, a portion of which has a gable roof and a
portion of has the flat roof. We'll be gable roofing the entire
existing building, and we'll have a gable roof on the new
addition as well, and we will be upgrading the facade, so that
there is a uniformity of materials, and some consistency of
design. This is not a final, however, it's the general direction
that we're going in.
MR. OBERMAYER-Okay. Are you going to put a new gable roof on the
existing building, now, did yoU say?
MR. RUCINSKI-On the existing flat roofed portion of the building
will receive the gabled roof, and then all of the new additions
will have gabled roofs, creating some kind of a pattern that are
relatively small scale buildings. We really can't separate. very
well, the parking in front of the building, and the access. Let
me go through it again, similar to what I did when we were here
in August, and Warren County Planning asked the same questions,
earlier this month, when we made the presentation to them. They
approved the curb cuts as they are, and for your benefit, ma'am.
There are four curb cuts into the site. They were created when
the State widened and improved Route 9 the last time, whenever
that was. Was that in the 70's, I believe, and at the same time,
the State took a taking of right-of-way that created a property
line that's directly in front of the restaurant building, and not
many feet away from the existing retail buildings. Those
existing conditions which were not done by my client have created
problems. It makes it a very, very difficult site to work with.
MR. BREWER-Can I stop for one second? Mark, I just want to ask
you a question. On this site plan, he shows 17 or more parking
spaces on the State's property. Is that not a problem, or is it
a problem?
MR. SCHACHNER-I think we talked about that some months ago, and I
guess the answer is.
MR. BREWER-I can't remember.
MR. SCHACHNER-Yes, that's because I gave sort of a waffly answer,
and that's because, in practice, it's done all the time.
Technically, if push comes to shove, there could be a problem
with that, and I can't remember the application that we talked
about, but it was one in which there was an existing, it was an
existing situation. There was existing parking on the right-of-
way. and as I recall that particular application, that previous
one I'm referring to didn't propose to do much different than
what was already being done. I'm not familiar with what's being
done currently on this site, so I don't know if this is new
parking in the right-of-way, or it's existing parking in the
right-of-way.
MR. BREWER-Existing. I mean, clearly not even half on their
lands. It's clearly outside their property boundary.
MR. SCHACHNER-Yes. Very, very common in practice, and I think
what I said at that. time, and \.Jhat I \·JQuld reiterate nO\fJ, is that
I don't think we should be endorsing new project plans that call
fo,- a substantial D..ê.li parking on State right-of-\¡Jay, but I don't,
from what you're saying, Tim, I don't think that's the case,
here, and it wasn't the case previously, either.
MR. RUCINSKI-The parking that is in the right-of-way has been
there right along.
MR. BREWER-Right.
MR. RUCINSKI-And I believe, for instance, the parking lot that is
in front of the retail store is partially stone and partially
blacktop. I believe the blacktop was put in by the State.
- 12 -
MR. BREWER-But I guess what we're talking about right now is,
right in front of the existing building, where all the A's and
the S's are, or whatever they are, fives.
MR. MACEWAN-Those are the plantings.
MR. BREWER-The plantings, is that where the parking was and you
moved it back?
MR. RUCINSKI-The parking, now, goes all the way out to the curb
line that is in front of that planting. We're moving the
pavement line back, and creating a planting area along Route 9.
MR. BREWER-So actually, then, that's new planting?
MR. RUCINSKI-That is new planting, removal of pavement.
MR. BREWER-New parking, right?
MR. RUCINSKI-We're pushing it back.
MR. BREWER-So why wouldn't we push that parking right back to the
building?
MR. RUCINSKI-We could. That's where they
now, up against the building, and to get
other, they go around the existing sign.
putting the parking on the Route 9 side,
create that green space.
park now. They park,
from one side to the
All we're doing, by
is we've been able to
MR. HARLICKER-Well, why couldn't you just put the parking up,
facing the building, and have the area where you have the parking
now, an accessway, and eliminate that nonconforming sign that you
have there, and have that, there's room, there's 22 feet there,
to provide access across the front of the property?
MR. RUCINSKI-Well, I think you're at least in part to the nub of
the question, is the nonconforming sign, a couple of reasons.
One, I don't think it's fair to ask my client to remove a
planting box and a sign, etc., and relocate it, unless it creates
a real problem. It's not creating a real problem. Secondly, the
building, if you're coming up hill, if you're northbound at Route
9, YOU cannot see that building until you're right on top of it.
So he depends very much on that sign for identification that
you've arrived at the site, and we've taken pains with the
reconstruction, or the construction, of the sewage disposal
system for this addition, to maintain tree cover at the south end
of the site. So we need the sign for identification. Thirdly,
and I haven't looked at your Sign Ordinance, but my gut reaction
would be that if your Sign Ordinance is like everybody else's, if
we try to relocate that sign, we'll need a zoning variance to do
it. As it is now, a bit of the sign is actually in the right-of-
way, and I certainly know that DOT isn't going to let us put a
new sign in their right-of-way. So what we're really saying, at
least I think what we're really saying, is we're not going to
relocate the sign, we're going to do away with the sign. I think
that's unfair.
MR. MARTIN-Why can't you relocate it to the southern part of the
property, by the septic system?
MR. RUCINSKI-Well, then we'd be putting a sign a long ways away
from a curb cut, and I think that's plain hazardous.
MR. MARTIN-Why is that hazardous?
MR. RUCINSKI-Well, people see the sign, they're looking for where
they're going to turn. I mean, usually you put a sign some place
near where you're going to turn. Here's the sign, now turn, slow
down, and prepare to turn, but lets just go on, because the sign
- 13 -
and the parking kind of work together with the curb cuts. The
curb cuts have been there, as I said, since some time in the
70's. The northernmost curb cut services the residence where the
Lombardos live, and it is the only access, or the only reasonable
access, for deliveries and trash pick up for the kitchen, which
is at this end of the building. It is also the only curb cut
that is kept open, and that's plowed in the winter time, as
access to the residence. The second curb cut is the primary
access to the restaurant and to the restaurant parking, which is
in front, and at the rear, and is the most convenient for
customers using the restaurant. The next two curb cuts, the
middle one referred to in the Staff report and the southern one
referred to in the Staff report, are used primarily by customers
of the miniature golf, and customers of the retail store. With
the proposed addition to the retail store, and the rearrangements
I just showed you on elevation, the parking lot at the south end,
and the parking in front, will be the primary parking for the
retail store. We also need loading/unloading access for the
retail stores, and this we've provided for out back. The only
way we can maneuver a truck through this site, as it's presently
constituted, is to bring a truck in or out through the south
entrance, and around and back out through the so called center
curb cut. We cannot get a truck up and around the miniature
golf, and out that entrance. It's just too tight. There's an
existing sewage disposal system behind the miniature golf course.
We don't have an opportunity to do anything.
MR. BREWER-You couldn't go in the, where your arrow is shown,
where he comes out, he couldn't go in there, and make a loop and
come back out?
MR. RUCINSKI-He can go in here, and come out there, or he can go
in here and he can come out there. He can't get behind the
miniature golf course.
MR. BREWER-I'm not talking that way. What if he went in where
your second arrow is, in the middle there, go in there and loop
around those stores, come right back out there?
MR. RUCINSKI-Coming back, and then coming back out the same curb
cut?
MR. BREWER-Go right around the building.
MR. RUCINSKI-Around the building, and this way?
MR. BREWER-Yes. Didn't we talk about that in August?
MR. RUCINSKI-Yes. There's not really room to do that either,
very well, if you're going to have a full sized tractor trailer
in there.
MR. BREWER-But you told us last time you were here.
MR. RUCINSKI-I don't think we are, but your Ordinance doesn't
give me that luxury.
MR. BREWER-Well, I mean, for the amount of
you're going to have in there, for the one
the driver to go around that building, I
big of a deal.
tractor trailers that
inconvenient time for
don't think it's that
MR. RUCINSKI-If I may, let me just continue.
MR. BREWER-Well, let us make our points as we go along.
MR. RUCINSKI-Okay. We certainly, if we were going to do that, we
would have to maintain the aisle in front of the building, or
maintain the pavement, as far out in front as it does now, if we
were going to put the parking in front of the building, but some
- 14 -
--',
place we need a big aisle to get that truck through, if we're
going to do that.
MR. BREWER-How much area do you need to get a truck through and
have the parking places?
MR. RUCINSKI-Certainly a 24 foot aisle, but where the problem
comes is at the turns. A truck needs a better turning radius
than an automobile to get in and out.
MR. BREWER-Is that radius figured on here anywhere?
MR. RUCINSKI-Well, it's allowed for, coming through the back, but
a truck coming this way, and trying to go out on Route 9, has to
make a u-turn, and it's tight. It's very tight, but let me move
on, because that's one issue, but t.he other issue is this. When
we put this addition on.
MR. 08ERMAYER-How about if you were to widen that access, double
it., make t.hat access wider and then eliminate the other one, so
t.hat you Ç,§Jl get that?
MR. RUCINSKI-Make this one wider?
MR. OBERMAYER-Right.
MR. RUCINSKI-It's already 40 feet. I think DOT's standard is 34,
something like that, right now. I mean, it's wide enough. It's
the radius that's the problem, the radius of the turn. A truck
would have to probably pull back and forth a little bit, but lets
just leave that aside for a moment. When we put this addition
on, and we do away with the miniature golf, and we will relocate,
at the same time, the sewage disposal system that is behind the
miniature golf, now we have a route that will let a truck go
t.hrough readily, either this way or that way, using these two
curb cuts, and at that point, we no longer need, or even want,
the curb cut in the middle, and at that point, it becomes a pain
in the tail.
MR. BREWER-Right, but mayor may not ever happen, too.
MR. RUCINSKI-Well, the game plan is t.o build, do this work t.his
fall, and do the other work the following fall. That's certainly
our plan, or we wouldn't even have this on the drawing. So what
I'm saying is, if we close this curb cut now, and use this one,
even if we can solve the truck problems, we'll be back here next
year asking you to reverse the two for us, because if we wind up
using just this one, and we put the retail here, now every
vehicle coming in and out of here has got to make a left hand
turn or right hand turn under tight circumst.ances, or we'd have
to start cutting down those 80 foot pine trees, and I don't even
want to bring that up. It's not an easy site.
MR. MACEWAN-Maybe this site's just not developable for as much as
you want to put on it.
MR. RUCINSKI-By your formulas for density,
mean, the problem is where the propert.y
buildings are, and they preexist all of us.
we're well under. I
lines and where the
MR. BREWER-The problem is the configuration of everything on the
property. I mean, I don't see, to me, this front, or the most
northerly entrance or exit. for a resident, I don't see why they
have to have, I don't know how wide that driveway is, but why do
they have to have that. entrance and exit for the residence. I
don't know how many people live in the house, but why couldn't
they come in the second one? I mean, a curb cut that wide for
somebody's house, on Route 9 doesn't make any sense to me.
MR. RUCINSKI-Well, now you're creating a maneuvering problem for
- 15 -
the delivery trucks and the garbage trucks servicing the
restaurant, which have to get to this end of the building.
MR. BREWER-Put the dumpster on the other end of the building. I
mean, there's got to be kind of a compromise somewhere.
MR. RUCINSKI-To put the dumpster on the wrong end of the building
from the kitchen, I don't think that's even realistic. We're not
trying to be a pain in the neck to this Board. I certainly
sympathize with what was said earlier. I'm an architect. I've
sat on a Planning Board for 11 years down in Colonie. I dealt
with Wolfe Road. They're still dealing with Wolfe Road. I know
what your problems are, and I'm just telling you, we have some
problems trying to eliminate this curb cut. We see a way to
eliminate this curb cut next year, and we'll commit to that. I
don't have any problem committing to that. My client doesn't
have any problems committing to that.
MR. BREWER-I can't see why, really, that a garbage truck couldn't
come in here and go back up to this. I mean, they go down narrow
streets. I mean, I can't understand why you need an entrance and
exit that wide for a house.
MR. RUCINSKI-Whether it's a garbage truck or the truck delivering
lobste,"s, or whatever the case is, if he has to come in this
entrance, it's fairly narrow, because of the trees. He has to
turn instantly, especially if there are any cars parked in the
lot, if he happens to come during hours when that the restaurant
is open, which is, in the summer time, for all practical
purposes, could be 11 o'clock in the morning on, he has to get in
here. He has to get turned around somehow, in a fairly tight
area, because it's not very big, and he does that by going back
and forth a couple of times, and then comes back out. If he
wants to go back north, he's right back to making a U-turn again.
MR. BREWER-Well, what if it was a one way street?
MR. RUCINSKI-If it was a one way street, U-turns are not quite
the same problem as they are.
MR. OBERMAYER-You're going to
whether you go north or south.
a U-tur n .
MR. BREWER-I don't see the big problem if we eliminate this curb
cut right here. I mean, if a garbage truck can't come in here,
pull in here, and then back in there, something's wrong.
Eliminate one parking place here, and one here. Then you've got
enough room for, I mean, they do it right over here on Quaker
Road, between the fence and where Boardmans used to be. Surely
if a tractor trailer can get in there, he sure as heck can get in
where you're talking about.
have that situation no matter
You're always going to be making
MR. RUCINSKI-Again, I
that he's got to plow
winter long.
think it's unreasonable to tell ~ client
another 100 feet or so of driveway all
1'1R. BREIrJER-Then
t.he people go
SomelrJhere along
think.
close the second one and leave that one open, let
in for the restaurant. right in the' first one.
the line, we're going to close a curb cut, I
MR. RUCINSKI-Well, we're agreeing to close a curb cut. All we're
saying is, we'll close it. with the next addition. Warren County
found that reasonable. The Beautification, although it's not
their bailiwick, the Beautification folks.
MR. BREWER-Hypothetically, if it doesn't happen next year,
though, what do you do? You just close it anyway?
MR. RUCINSKI-Until the miniature golf course is gone, we still
- 16 -
need that curb cut to bring those trucks around.
MR. BREWER-Then you agreed to Warren County to close it next
year.
MR. RUCINSKI-I agreed to Warren County we'd close it when we
built the retail.
MR. BREWER-Suppose it doesn't happen for 10 years?
MR. RUCINSKI-Until the miniature golf is gone, we need it.
MR. BREWER-Okay. Lets go on.
about the curb cuts?
Any other comments from anybody
MR. HARLICKER-Ron, let me understand you. You're saying, you
can't eliminate the middle curb cut, because you can't have
trucks get behind the existing miniature golf area, correct?
MR. RUCINSKI-Yes. If they get in there, they can't get out.
MR. HARLICKER-They couldn't circle around behind the golf course,
then come in between, on the south side of the restaurant, and
use that?
MR. RUCINSKI-The problem is the turn right back here, at the
corner of the miniature golf. It's very narrow between the
miniature golf and the restaurant. For truck traffic, that's one
way at a time, but aside from that, it's making that turn, right
back here at the back corner. Where the miniature golf is, it's
fenced. It's concrete, and immediately outside the fence is a
sewage disposal field, but even if the sewage disposal field
weren't there, it's still a miserably tight turn.
MR. OBERMAYER-You're going to have parking back there, right?
You are going to have parking back in there?
MR. RUCINSKI-Yes. It's basically overflow parking, restaurant
parking, but, yes, we've shown it to meet your requirements.
See, once we get the miniature golf course out there, we really
open that corner up, and we've got a lot of opportunities to do
something, but until that happens, we're kind of locked in.
LEO LOMBARDO
MR. LOMBARDO-My name is Lombardo. If I don't want to build a
store, I wouldn't put a septic system that costs twice the money
I'm spending right now. I'd go the cheapest way possible. As it
stands right now, I want to build this store, that's why I went
with a septic system so expensive, and the cuts that people are
talking about, the one is for my house. It's very small. You
can't try to go in back of the restaurant with a truck. It's
impossible to make it. Then you've got one entrance in the back,
it goes in back of the restaurant, and it's very narrow, it's
about 20 feet long (lost word), the miniature golf, and the
restaurant. When you reach the end of the fence of the miniature
golf, you can't make a left turn because of the right there, on
the right side, you've got the brook, and on the left side,
you've got the leach field. The other entrance is for the store,
right now. Now, people go in, if you close one entrance, how are
they going to make a U-turn? How can you close that up, and once
you're in, you're in. You can't back up anymore. You've got 10
cars at one time, how can you expect those people to get out,
with the people coming in? They go out the other end. Like I
say, when the miniature golf isn't there, and we're going to do
the store, then I'd close, and I did it with the intention to
build the store. Thank you.
MR. BREWER-Thank you. Okay. Continue.
- 17 -
MR. RUCINSKI-I think we've covered everything else, unless the
Board has additional questions.
MR. PALING-When you said the restaurant is seasonal, what do you
mean seasonal? What are the dates that it's opened and closed?
MR. LOMBARDO-From May until November.
MR. PALING-May to i~ovember. Well, I'm a little confused, because
when we start talking about putting trucks one way and another
way, and maybe a parking space eliminated here and there could do
it, L would like to see this lot limited to two curb cuts, and
have them go back and do a complete plan, along with a time
schedule, as to when it's going to be accomplished, but right
now, it's so ify about what's going to happen when, and what's
going to be done, I couldn't even vote on it either way, and I'd
like to see them really try to get two curb cuts, and give us the
long range plan, with a schedule as to what you're going to do
and when you're going to do it, but right now to tell us that
when and if the miniature golf comes out, you can do something
with a truck doesn't do much good.
MR. RUCINSKI-Well, we don't have any problem committing ourselves
to three curb cuts, but committing ourselves to two, in any case,
we really want to retain the one curb cut for the residence, and
we have to have the ability, for instance, to sell that
residence. In fact, as it is now, there's a property line
through here some place. This is really, on the tax maps, or on
the tax rolls, it's two parcels, at least two. We're treating it
as one, and we'll consolidate it into a single parcel.
MR. MACEWAN-Does that send up a flag over there?
MR. BREWER-He's saying this is one parcel?
MR. MARTIN-That's the first I've heard of that.
MR. HARLICKER-Yes.
MR. LOMBARDO-It's three parcels.
MR. BREWER-It's three parcels?
MR. HARLICKER-Yes, it is. Lot sizes, 10, 11, and 13.
MR. MARTIN-Okay. Yes.
MR. BREWER-Where are the property lines?
MR. RUCINSKI-We've eliminated them from that drawing, because
we're turning it into a consolidated parcel.
MR. BREWER-So you're going to eliminate the subdivision and turn
it into one parcel?
MR. RUCINSKI-Yes.
MR. BREWER-Then you shouldn't have to worry about selling the
house then.
MR. RUCINSKI-Well, I would think he'd want that flexibility of
being able to sell the house.
MR. BREWER-Well, it's either got to
going to be a subdivision. I mean,
be a subdivision or it's not
it can't be both, can it?
MR. MARTIN-You've either got to eliminate the, consolidate the
parcel, or retain the lots.
MR. RUCINSKI-I'm missing something here. We're consolidating the
- 18 -
parcel. This proposal consolidates the parcel.
ideally, he would have the opportunity to sell
which would be a subdivision, I suppose.
I said that,
that house off,
MR. SCHACHNER-Precisely. That's all the Board is saying is that,
in terms of retaining flexibility to sell off the residential
portion of the property, by submitting this application for this
Planning Board's review, if this application is approved as
currently configured, you will no longer have a separate lot on
which the residence lies, and if you want to do that, you'll have
to come back to this Board for subdivision approval, which mayor
may not be granted. Is that a fair summary of the Board's
position?
MR. MACEWAN-Absolutely.
MR. MARTIN-So when this application's approved, we have one deed
for one lot, right?
MR. RUCINSKI-That's correct, as proposed.
MR. MACEWAN-Can we do that under site plan?
MR. SCHACHNER-Yes, sure.
consolidating, and ~ou're
it. It's not a problem.
You're not
not. doing it..
subdividing.
The applicant's
You're
doing
MRS. LABOMBARD-Well, I just thought maybe we could make a little
trade off, here, because four curb cuts do seem like an awful
lot, and they are, that, as Mr. Lombardo says, you're pretty
definite, I'd sa)' yOU are definite, for the amount of money that
you've put into this, that you are going to take out the
miniature golf course and put in a building there, but until that
time, which you said is, tentatively, well, a year from now, t.hat
we still would have to leave this middle curb cut open, the
second from the left. Well, why don't we, until this year is up,
take the second from the right away, and that will bring us down
t.o three, and then reinstate that one after the big building has
been constructed, and I don't think t.hat t.hat would, I'm not a
builder or a Civil Engineer, but I don't believe that would be
that much of an expense, t.o close up t.he second from the right,
at this date, and then open it up again a year from now.
MR. F;:UCINSKI-·You'n3 t.alking about closing this one?
MRS. LABOMBARD-Yes.
MR. RUCINSKI-Which is the primary access to the restaurant.
MRS. LABOMBARD-But we have t.hese two. You can still come in from
the very last one on the right, into the restaurant, because the
majority of the parking spots are close to the one on the far
right, to the restaurant. So I don't think that's going to be a
deterrent at all, for customers.
MR. OBERMAYER-Actually,
existing plan, it. looks
ent.ire lot..
in lookinø
like you
at
can
the existing retail,
drive around the whole
MR. RUCINSKI-Yes.
and the pine trees.
There's a driveway between the miniature golf
There's a one lane driveway.
MR. OBERMAYER-It appears like there's a driveway even on the
north side of Leo's Lobster there, to drive around even,
indicated on the other drawing. It's on the existing.
MR. RUCINSKI-Yes.
carport.
You can't go beyond the parking shed, t.he
MR. OBERMAYER-Why not?
- 19 -
MR. RUCINSKI-It's now closed off. You can't get through there.
MR. OBERMAYER-Why can't we open it up, to allow for a little more
continuity around the site?
MR. RUCINSKI-There's all kinds of stuff back there. Even this
drawing doesn't show you having the capability of driving through
there. It just happens to be parking that's contiguous.
MR. OBERMAYER-Wel.l, if you look at your existing plan, on one of
the back sheets, you can see a little bit better what you have
existing now.
MR. RUCH1SKI-Well, even on this plan you don't have
to drive through there. There's a sewage disposal
. I
1 n ,ìe,-e.
the ability
system right
MR. OBERMAYER-You park on that sewage disposal system right now.
MR. RUCINSKI-If he is, he's not supposed to, but parking on it is
one thing, as opposed to running a truck over it, but even, the
turn is too tight even if the sewage disposal system isn't there.
It's just too tight, and it's not as though, if the miniature
golf were just some lawn with some putting holes in it, we could
take a look at rearranging that corner of the miniature golf, but
it' s concn3t~3.
MR. BREWER-Okay. What do you think you want to see, Jim?
MR. OBERMAYER-I don't know. I kind of agree with Cathy. It
would be nice to eliminate possibly the second driveway, it seems
like, if we needed to compromise. I mean, do you want to
compromise? I think you want to compromise.
MR. LOMBARDO-If I eliminate a cut, on one side I've got the
restaurant and on one side is the house, okay. Now you can't
make a turn with a truck there. I park my car up to the shed,
and then my wife parks up to the shed, and that's it. Now, one
side you've got (lost word), on the left side you have a walk-in
freezer. (lost word) In between the restaurant and the miniature
golf, I've got one where you go in the back of the restaurant,
okay, now you close that up and you leave the one on the south
side, you're going to go to the restaurant and then walk half a
mile to go park the car?
MR. OBERMAYER-I guess I don't understand. Maybe you could show
me on the plan. I don't understand your logic.
MR. LOMBARDO-You've got the miniature golf on one side, okay.
MR. OBERMAYER-Right.
between. We're just
t.hat point.
We're not saying eliminate the
saying that you can't enter Route
road in
9 from
MR. LOMBARDO-How are you supposed to go in back of the
restam"ant?
MR. BREWER-Why does anybody have to go behind the restaurant?
MR. LOMBARDO-Well, if you want to go park you car to go into the
restaurant, which way.
MRS. LABOMBARD-But you can still get around in back without
having a curb cut.
MR. LOMBARDO-Are you going 250 feet? I've never seen a guy, to
go to a restaurant, go 250 feet, or go back to the miniature
golf, and then to the restaurant. I've never seen it.
MR. OBERMAYER-Well, then why do you have parking back there?
- 20 -
MR. LOMBARDO-We've got parking, because you drive right in and
back.
MR. OBERI'1AYER-No, you have parking in the back, though.
MR. RUCINSKI-You dì- i \ie straight in and stîaight out.
MR. LOMBARDO-The other way, did you take a look at the pr oper t )/?
MR. OBERMAYER-Yes, we went up there.
MR. LOMBARDO-Okay.
entrance to Route
golf, how far have
waste your time to
You were there. Now if get too close to that
9, in between the restaurant and the miniature
you got to go into the restaurant. You would
go all the way around like that?
MRS. LABOMBARD-Well, coming in on the far right,
yourself around, has you drive an extra distance
which is two seconds, in an automobile, going about
hour. I don't think it's going to be a deterent.
suggest something that would hinder the customers.
and bringing
of 60 feet,
25 miles per
I l.Jouldn' t
MR. RUCINSKI-I don't think we're tracking together. If we
eliminate this cut, or close it temporarily, we're going to push
the restaurant customers into this curb cut, and they're now
going to have to come like this, to get to the parking at the
rear of the restaurant.
MR. OBERMAYER-If there's no parking in the front.
MR. RUCINSKI-Well, there's only a few spaces in the front.
MRS. LABOMBARD-There's 17.
MR. OBERMAYER-Okay. So they paîk out in back, right?
MR. RUCINSKI-So they park out in back.
MR. OBERMAYER-But they have to do that anyway, no matter what
driveway they come in.
MR. RUCINSKI-They're going to have to do this.
MR. BREWER-Right, well, if they come in the other driveway and
there's no parking spaces in the fîont, they'd still have to go
out back. So that's what we're saying. There's no difference.
MRS. LABOMBARD-But he says they go out back in a straight line.
MR. RUCINSKI-I'm missing something. You understand that across
here it's only a one lane dîiveway, just between the fence and
the miniature golf, and the existing pine trees, there's a one
lane driveway. It's 10 or 12 feet wide. If that were wide
enough so that traffic could freely move down into this parking,
I would agree with you.
MR. BREWER-That's how wide there? That's got to be?
MR. MARTIN-That can't be widened, Ron?
MR. RUCINSKI-Not without cutting pine trees.
MR. BREWER-How many would you have to cut, one?
MR. RUCINSKI-Two or three, I believe. Well, maybe five. They're
nice trees, and, again, we're talking about a short term thing,
whether it's next year or the following year. I can't Justify
cutting down those, those are really nice pine trees. They're
probably in the neighborhood of 80 feet tall, and we're cutting
them down for a short term problem.
- 21 -
MR. BREWER-Could you come here and show me what you're talking
about, where there's one lane?
MR. RUCINSKI-This driveway right here is one lane wide.
MR. BREWER-By the scale, how wide is that?
MR. OBERMAYER-One inch equals thirty.
fifteen feet.
You're talking about
MR. PALING-It's about 18 feet.
MR. BREWER-All right. So it's 18 feet right here. So if you
took this tree down and that tree down, that's two trees. You
could come back to here, okay. Then you could almost double
that. So what ~ position is going to be is like Bob said.
Limit it to two curb cuts. Eliminate the north and the south
entrance and the restaurant and the home could be serviced by the
second one here. The retail and the miniature golf could be
serviced by this entrance and exit. That's what L would like to
see. I don't see why, a reason in the world that it couldn't be
done, and the only compromise you'd have to do is cut two trees
dO~..Jn. I can't see why it can't be done. That's ~ position.
MR. MARTIN-Staff concurs with that position.
MRS. LABOMBARD-So you want to eliminate.
MR. BREWER-I want to eliminate the north and the south entrance
and exit. He'd have to cut down two trees here, widen this lane
right here to, it would be approximately 20 feet, which is plenty
of travel area. He'd have to cut two trees, and use this to
service the restaurant and the house, this to service the
miniature golf and the retail.
MR. OBERMAYER-Why wouldn't you eliminate the two inner ones and
keep the two outer ones, so that you spread your access?
MR. PALING-You could do it either way.
MR. BREWER-Either way.
MR. PALING-Whichever's easiest or the best.
MR. BREWER-I think it gives it more control, Jim, if you can keep
them, how far would this be?
MRS. LABOMBARD-About 65.
MR. BREWER-Between the two center?
standards, Jim?
Would that
meet the
MR. MARTIN-What's that, for separation distance?
Mf~. BREWER-Yes.
MR. MARTIN-Actually, none of these are going to.
MR. BREWER-So, no matter what you do.
MR. OBERMAYER-Yes, but what I'm saying is like, future, if they
build the building here, this would allow them to.
MR. BREWER-Yes. If he's going to build a future here, then that
curb cut's there for him, Jim.
MR. RUCINSKI-What we're saying is if we build a building there,
we don't want that curb cut there.
MRS. LABOMBARD-No. He wants to take that middle one out.
- 22 -
MR. BREWER-Well, then when you get to that bridge you can cross
it. I mean, we can always open that back up down here.
MR. OBERMAYER-Well, lets just think about what's the benefits of
eliminating those two outside ones.
MR. MARTIN-This is back for a second time, I might add. This was
one when L was on the Board, about two years ago, three years
ago.
MR. BREIrJER-That's just ~ recommendation. I don't know if you
want to agree with it or disagree with it.
MR. RUCINSKI-Yes, and the curb cuts were approved as is. That's
when we put the addition on the restaurant.
Mf~. BREWER-Okay.
MR. PALING-Tim, we didn't resolve
we'd go along and we'd come back
was, that the permeation there was
the ponding issue. You said
to that, where the parking lot
at question.
MR. RUCINSKI-Bill and I are satisfied with it.
MR. BREWER-I think Bill said he was satisfied with it.
MR. PALING-You're satisfied with the May to November that there
won't be ponding?
MR. HARLICKER-Well, what happens when this business
and he decides to keep the retail open year round?
that effect the permeability and the drainage on site?
takes off,
How would
MR. RUCINSKI-If it became a problem, we'd have to add some
drywells, inside the parking lot.
MR. MACNAMARA-Right. What we had said was it wasn't
conventional, nor did we particularly, 100 percent, understand it
until it was explained explicitly with some additional grading
shown. As it was finally explained and shown, it will handle
expected runoffs adequately during seasonal operations, although
we don't find it typical that people induce ponding on parking
areas, although I don't see that that is forbidden.
MR. RUCINSKI-The south parking lot has been that way since 1990,
and it's worked fine. It's not been a problem.
MR. BREWER-Okay. Sir, I'm going to open the public hearing.
I'll open the public hearing. Is there anyone here that would
like to comment on this project?
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
NO COMMENT
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. BREWER-Did we do the SEQRA on this?
MR. MARTIN-I don't believe that you did it yet.
MR. MACEWAN-Yes, we did, last time they were here.
MR. BREWER-Are you sure?
MR. HARLICKER-No. I think it was just tabled because of
insufficient, a lot of things were missing.
MR. MARTIN-As a matter of course, you don't usually do the SECRA
until you've had the public hearing.
- 23 -
MR. RUCINSKI-SEQRA was not done at the last meeting. That was an
informational meeting.
MR. BREWER-The Chairman concurs.
MR. MACEWAN-Short?
MR. BREWER-Yes.
RESOLUTION WHEN DETERMINATION OF NO SIGNIFICANCE IS MADE
RESOLUTION NO. 28-94, Introduced by Craig MacEwan who moved for
its adoption, seconded by James Obermayer:
WHEREAS, the,-e
application for:
is presently before
LEO LOMBARDO, and
the
Planning
Board
an
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 27th day of September, 1994, by the following
vote:
AYES: Mr. Obermayer, Mrs. LaBombard, Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Paling,
Mr. Brewer
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Stark, Mr. Ruel
MR. BREWER-Okay.
motion's offered?
Any more questions or comments before a
MR. OBERMAYER-Tim, do we want to talk to the applicant, just to
make sure he's in agreement with the? Are you guys in agreement
to what we've recommended?
MR. BREWER-Naturally, they're not.
want to close any curb cuts.
The,' said, no.
They didn't
- 24 -
~_,c
MR. OBERMAYER-I'd like to hear your feedback
recommendations that were made, before L vote.
on those
MR. RUCINSKI-We have no problem closing this curb cut, when the
retail store is expanded. We'd have problems with anything other
than that, and if the Board is inclined to go in some other
direction. Maybe we ought to meet on the site together and look
at it together, so that ~.,¡e can try t.o show you ~'Jhat we percei\/<3
are the problems.
MR. BREWER-I don't have a problem doing that, but I'm still going
to think the same way, I think. I don't see why we couldn't have
you cut down two trees, increase the size of that lane, and make
it safer, and I think a more sound operation. I mean, that's
just my opinion. If everybody else wants to go up there, we'll
go up the"e.
MR. RUCINSKI-I hear what you're
looks good, but when you go up
congestion.
saying,
there
and on that drawing it
and look at it, it's
MR. MARTIN-Yes, but, see, the concern
Board is the congestion in the public
congestion on a private piece of property.
of the public Planning
right-of-way, not the
MR. BREWER-Exactly. I mean, if it's, the congestion's on your
property, like Jim said, that's LQUI.. problem. Well, does
somebody want to offer something? I think you've all got an idea
of what I'm going to offer.
MR. PALING-Why don't you go ahead with your proposal.
MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 28-94 LEONARDO LOMBARDO,
Introduced by Timothy Brewer who moved for its adoption, seconded
by Robert Paling:
With the following conditions: That the most northerly and
southerly curb cuts be eliminated. Erosion control measures be
put into place during construction. Future development of the
retail area where the golf course is, a site plan be required.
That the three parcels are now consolidated into one parcel.
Duly adopted this 27th day of September, 1994, by the following
vote:
AYES: Mr. Paling, Mr. Brewer
NOES: Mr. Obermayer, Mr. MacEwan, Mrs. LaBombard
ABSENT: Mr. Stark, Mr. Ruel
MR. BREWER-Okay.
MR. OBERMAYER-Deadlocked.
MR. BREWER-It's not deadlocked. Somebody can offer something
else. What don't you like about it, Cathy?
MRS. LABOMBARD-Well, I was originally proposing just taking away
one at this time. I think I would like to see, go up and walk it
with him, probably now, because this really means a lot to him,
and I know it does to us, and then maybe when this big building
fi nall y has. been constructed, then we can see exactly I.>Jhat ' s
going on, but right now, I only propose, my original proposal was
just taking one curb cut out. I'm still concerned about the
turning, the traffic, the trucks coming back onto the highway,
with enough, without making a U-turn to get. on, and I think
that's a major safety factor for the traffic on the road, too,
those trucks pulling out. I'm worried about, I know how fast the
traffic goes along that route, and I'm worried about the trucks
- 25 -
pulling out onto Route 9 with more of a right angle than they're
accustomed to doing, and I do think that it's a very difficult
site to plan, and I'd like to go up there again, to be quite
honest with you.
MR. BREWER-Okay, but what, necessarily, makes you think that a
truck is always going to go in and always going to have to go
back out the same way it came in?
MRS. LABOMBARD-That's true. I can't disagree with you there. I
mean, I just don't feel comfortable at all right now.
MR. OBERMAYER-I, myself, I didn't want to vote, I voted no
because, arbitrarily, I just didn't want to eliminate two curb
cuts just for the sake of eliminating two curb cuts, because the
Glens Falls Transportation Council person was here. I would like
to see, however, a better parking arrangement plan, and access
plan, for the whole entire site, taking into account the future
retail space, for future parking, instead of just saying, you
need some now, better planning on the site for accessing and
egressing off of Route 9.
MRS. LABOMBARD-And I feel that this lawn area that jettisons into
the area, aesthetically, it's nice, but I think, for what you
finally have proposed, that may have to go.
MR. MARTIN-The other thing to bear in mind, here, is that you're
looking at striping for the purposes of showing that there is
enough area for parking. This is a gravel lot. You're never
going to have any stripes, you know, people are going to park
pretty much as the first guy in the lot did, follow him.
MR. BREWER-Okay, and I'd like to just make one statement, in
defense of what you said about Mrs. Brunso being here, to
eliminate the curb cuts. I think in August, before we knew we
were going to meet with Mrs. Brunso in September, we talked about
eliminating curb cuts. 50 I don't think that's even an issue, to
me.
MRS. LABOMBARD-No, we did, definitely, on this.
MR. BREWER-Okay. So I don't think an issue should even have been
brought up about that, but that's here nor there.
MR. BREWEF\-C,"aig, what don't you feel right about?
MR. MACEWAN-I don't feel comfortable with the amount of curb
cuts. I don't feel comfortable with intrusion on the State
right-of-way, and I think that it's just a little bit too much
development for what the site can handle. I've heard nothings
but problems with it, reasons why one thing or another can't be
accomplished, and I think it's just over development of the site.
I don't think the site is physically able to handle it. Even
though the density says it can, I just don't think the
constraints with the site itself can handle the development.
MR. BREWER-So what do we do?
MRS. LABOMBARD-You hate to say it, living in the Adirondacks, but
that lawn part, for what you want to make out of this piece of
property, like Craig says, this lawn part coming in here is
mainly the thing that's causing the problem, L feel, as far as
all these little turns, and right angle turns and everything
else.
MR. OBERMAYER-There's really no
whatsoever.
flow to the parking area
MRS. LABOMBARD-But that jettison in there, it just might have to
be cut down to the same size as the A's and the S's, those shrubs
- 26 -
on the left, and you hate to get rid of beautiful old trees.
MR. BREWER-So what are we asking for, a better plan?
MR. OBERMAYER-Yes. I would like to see that.
MR. MACEWAN-I'd like to see a plan put together that utilizes one
curb cut, with an internal traffic flow. I think that would be
the answer right there.
MRS. LABOMBARD-That's the bottom line.
MR. MACEWAN-That would solve a lot of problems, because internal
traffic flow seems to be the p)-oblem, with the applicant needing
to have four curb cuts.
MR. BREWER-We just had a motion to eliminate two curb cuts, and
two Board members said they weren't comfortable taking two away,
and now they want to take three away. I don't understand it.
How does the developer feel? Can you come back with a better
pIa n?
MR. LOMBARDO-I don't want to take any curb cuts for anybody.
MR. RUCINSKI-If I could take one of your plans
it, because mine is all scribbled up. When this
have a fairly straightforward building,
straightforward parking area going behind it,
landscaping. You have a curb cut there, a curb
curb cut there. That's pretty straightforward.
and sc," ibble on
is completed, we
with a fairly
a little bit of
cut there, and a
MR. BREWER-You heard what the Board said.
MR. RUCINSKI-I can sit and work on this thing forever. I'm not
going to get it more straightforward than that, working with the
constraints that are on the site, which are primarily the
buildings. I can't move them.
MR. BREWER-Okay. Sir, you heard what we said, that we thought we
wanted, I think !6!..ê.. were p,"etty st,-aightfo,-wa,"d, too.
MR. RUCINSKI-I'll go back to my suggestion that we ought to go
out on the site and look at it together.
MR. BREWER-We can do that, too.
MR. RUCINSKI-And if I can't persuade you after doing that, then
we'll have to go back and do some more homework.
MR. BREWER-I'm willing to do that.
MR. MARTIN-Tim, if there's some fundamental design problems here,
or a discussion of that, why don't you table it for a workshop,
or something like that?
MR. BREWER-That's fine. I'm willing to do that.
MR. MACEWAN-Do you want me to offer a motion?
MR. BREWER-Sure.
MOTION TO TABLE SITE PLAN NO. 28-94
Introduced by Craig MacEwan who moved for
by James Obermayer:
LEONARDO LOMBARDO,
its adoption, seconded
Until a future meeting, that we go
applicant, and we set up a workshop
possible remedies we can come up with.
visit the site with the
session to discuss what
Duly adopted this 27th day of September, 1994, by the following
- 27 -
\lote:
MR. BREWER-Lets make a date right now. When does everybody want
to go there?
MR. MARTIN-You have an opportunity, again, in October, you have a
very light agenda, so you have an opportunity for a workshop.
MRS. LABOMBARD-How about the first week, Thursday the 7th?
MR. BREWER-How about we go there on the day we normally do our
site visits?
MR. OBERMAYER-Yes, that's a good idea.
MR. BREWER-That would be the 12th. October 12th, we meet at four
o'clock for site visits. We'll go there first. We'll be there
at 4:15.
MR. SCHACHNER-Tim, you're talking about a site visit and then a
workshop, correct? I misunderstood. What exactly are you
talking about?
MR. BREWER-I think what we're going to do is go out and
the site and he's going to explain to us why he can't
things we asked him to do.
look at
do the
MR. SCHACHNER-Okay. My concern is strictly that substantive
discussion, you'll recall from a different application two months
ago, I mentioned that substantive discussion of applications is
supposed to occur here, or wherever, at an open public meeting,
and I don't want the Board to get involved in lengthy discussion
on site. Remember when we talked about it at a different
application. If you have some factual questions you want to ask
at that time, I would like to keep that to a minimum. That's all
I ' rn sa y i ng .
MR. OBERMAYER-We'll see the site by ourself, then we'll, again,
have a \",or kshop .
MR. BREWER-I think what we should do is go out and look at the
site ourselves, and have him on for the next agenda, next
scheduled meeting. I mean, it's only a week away from that. I
don't see anything getting resolved that way, though. I mean,
for us to just go out there. We already went out there.
MR. SCHACHNER-You can have the applicant there.
debate what you're going to decide.
Just don't
MR. BREWER-All right. You meet us there.
MRS. LABOMBARD-We can ask him questions, and you can show us your
opinion as to why your proposal works and ours doesn't.
MR. BREWER-Okay. That's fine.
MRS. LABOMBARD-All right. October 12th.
AYES: Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Paling, Mr. Obermayer, Mrs. LaBombard,
M,". Br e\lJer
t'WES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Stark, Mr. Ruel
SUBDIVISION NO. 7-1994 PRELIMINARY STAGE TYPE: UNLISTED
DANIEL R. BARBER OWNER: BARBARA L. BARBER ZONE: SFR-1A
LOCATION: WEST SIDE BAY RD., NORTH SIDE TEE HILL ROAD. TO
SUBDIVIDE 14 ACRES INTO 10 LOTS FOR SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCES.
TAX MAP NO. 48-3-49.55 LOT SIZE: 14.32 ACRES SECTION:
- 28 -
'-0
SUBDIVISION REGULATIONS
DANIEL BARBER, PRESENT; MICHAEL O'CONNOR, PRESENT
STAFF INPUT
Notes from Staff, subdivision No. 7-1994 Preliminary Stage,
Daniel Barber, Meeting Date: September 27, 1994 "PROJECT
ANALYSIS: The applicant has addressed most of the items raised
earlier. The amount of clearing is still a concern. Staff would
like to see more of the trees remain. It would seem the houses
could be placed so that less area would have to be cleared. At a
minimum the lots are large enough so that there is no need to
remove the trees within the setbacks or where there are slopes
greater than 25%. The outstanding engineering issues also have
to be addressed."
MR. BREWER-Okay. Can we just go over the engineering comments
that have to be addressed, Bill, rather than read all of them?
MR. MACNAMARA-In a nutshell, this afternoon there were some new,
revised drawings submitted. In addition to that, the applicant's
engineering staff and surveyor had stopped in to the office and
had verbally gone over a number of these. At this point, all of
them are being addressed in some fashion. Some, most are needed
to be shown on revised drawings, some of which I have and were
going to be delivered to the Town as well today. So I'm not sure
if you want me to summarize what the concerns were, in a
nutshell, if you will? Essentially, we had concerns regarding
the slope of the road in relationship to the lots on the, I
believe it would be the south side, because those grades were
lower, as were shown on the initial submitted drawings, and the
concern was runoff, essentially, from the road going on to the
lower lot properties, and how is it going to be handled. They've
indicated there's additional grading that's going to be done on
all of the lower lots that Wasn't shown, will be shown, as well
as some additional swales and some culverts that will be added to
address the concerns. Other concerns we had were some separation
distances with some of the leachfields and the wells on the lower
two lots on Tee Hill Road. They've addressed those. Some other
concerns we had were with some erosion and sediment control
concerns regarding silt fencing and some reseeding, timing and
mulching, and they've indicated they're going to address those.
We had some concerns about the stormwater coming off of what I
call the rental units area. I'm not sure whether that's the
right way to refer to it or not. They're going to install some
additional drywells and some swales to take care of that. That
was it in a nutshell. Thank you.
MR. BREWER-Okay. Mike.
MR. O'CONNOR-Mr. Chairman, basically, I'd just state, I'm Mike
O'Connor. I appear on behalf of the applicant. We're here
looking for preliminary approval. I think we can address all of
the comments in our submission for final approval. I don't think
any of the comments that we've had, that we are aware of, are
substantial comments. With me is Charles Scudder who has done
the engineering, if there are specific questions, or if you have
a comment without specific questions, as to the engineering
aspect of what has been submitted. The applicant here is Barbara
Barber and Daniel Barber. The title is in the name of Barbara
Barber. Danny Barber is going to be the builder. He has been
building in the Town. He is the one that established the houses
in Sherwood Acres, and some of the other houses on Bay Road that
are adjacent to this, and I mention that simply to give you an
indication of the flavor in which he does his buildings. If you
go through Sherwood Acres, you will see that the natural ground
cover or trees were greatly preserved there, probably more so
than a lot of other subdivisions. He basically cleared, for the
areas of construction, whether it be the house, the driveway, the
- 29 -
I
septic area, and maybe the front yards. We are conscious of
Scott's comments as to the better definition of clearing
limitations. If you take a look at the, there is a clearing plan
that's been submitted. There is extensive notes, up in the left
hand corner, on the clearing, I (lost word) we can get together
with Scott, maybe embellish that to some degree. (lost word) in
Section III of the Pines, there are some clear cutting
prohibitions, if you will, that are applicable, that I think we
can adopt. I agree with Scott's comments that the lots are
generally large. They are all in excess of one acre. So we
really don't have ~ny difficulty with satisfying Staff at the
time of final submission, and satisfying the engineering
concerns.
MR. BREWER-Does Paul have to approve the road?
MR. MARTIN-Yes.
MR. BREWER-Okay.
i'1R.
will
also
It's
MACNAMARA-Let me just bring up one item on the road, that he
obviously have to get into, and I believe the County may
have to have an issue of. I call it a curb cut permit.
probably not the right semantic.
MR. BREWER-It's just an extension of the road that's existing.
MR. O'CONNOR-We have given the plans to Paul. He's had him for
about six weeks. We have given the plans to the County. We will
need a permit from the County to establish the road entrance.
MR. MACNAMARA-The only thing that I want to bring up regarding
the road is that, in the subdivision standards, there's an item
that talks about a maximum three percent grade for one hundred
feet for roads that would adjoin a road such as Bay Road. In
looking at the profile, it doesn't appear that that three
percent, that one hundred foot is met. 50 we talked, that was
one of the items we talked about today, and because there's so
many players involved in this, there's us, there's Paul Naylor's
got to review it, and then there's the County, that I basically
had said that if it were up to me, I'd like to see the three
percent held, and if not, then a variance would probably be
appropriate, and then we~ll see what Paul and the County have to
say.
MR. BREWER-So how does
he's still got to
preliminary anyway.
that affect our approval tonight?
come back for a final. This is
So at final we can have that done.
Well,
only
MR. O'CONNOR-Let me ask you on that question, if Paul is
satisfied with the grade that we've established, the permit will
issue based upon that same grade. Is that satisfactory to this
Boa ," d?
MR. BREWER-He's the one that's got to plow it.
MR. O'CONNOR-We would submit, if we don't comply, we would then
submit, we know we have to have their approval, we would then the
written request for a waiver and ask you to consider it on final
approval.
MR. MACNAMARA-I just haven't talked to Paul about it. I'm
curious to see what his thoughts are on it.
MR. BREWER-With some kind of a letter from Paul we can get. It's
not a problem. Okay.
MR. MACEWA\-The only question I've got is for Scott. What,
exactly, are you looking for, as far as the clearing compromise?
- 30 -
.~
MR. HARLICKER-Well, it Just seems that, if you look on, you've
got Sheet 4 there?
MR. MACEWAN-Yes, the clearing plan.
MR. HARLICKER-Yes. It just seems that there's a lot of areas,
especially, for instance, Lot 9, the back slope of there, most of
the back part of that lot is in excess of 25 percent. It just
doesn't seem, if the house was shifted more toward Lot 10, you'd
be able to save a lot of the trees on that steep slope,
situations like that. It seems like there's room within the
setbacks on each property line to save trees. It just seems like
the building envelope for these houses are excessive, and they've
agreed to come back and work with Staff on coming up with a
clearing plan that saves more of the trees.
MR. MACEWAN-My thoughts, too, would be to maybe keep enough trees
right along all the property lines, like maybe 20 feet at his
side of the line.
MR. HARLICKER-That's what I was saying, if he could save them
within the setbacks.
MR. MACEWAN-Would that be okay with the applicant?
MR. BARBER-We had that intention to do that.
MR. BREWER-Dan, are you going to build the house and then sell
it, or are you going to sell it and then build it?
MR. BARBER-It would be a package situation.
MR. O'CONNOR-That doesn't raise a concern.
I'1R. BREI,.JER-No.
MR. MACEWAN-No. I guess what I'm driving at, here, is to get the
plan better representation of what Staff is looking for and maybe
what the Board is looking for.
MR. O'CONNOR-I would like to try and do that in a narrative form,
to the satisfaction of Staff, as opposed to trying to do a
drawing, because I've run into problems in the past where
somebody decides that they want the driveway on that side of the
lot. Unless you exclude, narratively, areas devoted for
driveway, house construction, or septic fields.
MR. MACEWAN-Well, maybe where
particularly with Lot 9, if you
more toward Lot 10, that would
indication of where the builder
begin with.
Staff is coming from is,
show the footprint of the house
give a prospective buyer a good
plans on setting the house to
MR. BREWER-I think, though, when you look at where he placed it,
though, Craig, he placed it so it would be easy access to the
cul-de-sac, or to the road. If he puts it back toward Lot 10,
then you' ,-e go i ng t.o cn:~a te mor e of a cause for a c)- i vev~ay ,
whatever he has to do to get into the lot, or to the house.
MR. MACEWAN-I don't share that same t.hought. You can see where
the setback limitations are, and you could put the house right up
against it, closer to Lot 10, just by mirroring image over the
septic with the house.
MR. BREWER-I'm not saying that couldn't be done. I'm just saying
that's what it looks like he did to put it on the map.
MR. O'CONNOR-Scott, your comment on Lot 9 was that sloped area in
the back (lost word) trees on it?
- 31 -
I~----L-.._.___._··__·__-___
--
-'
MR. HARLICKER-Yes. That was the main concern with 9.
MR. O'CONNOR-That may be some area we can isolate, as a no cut
area, without interfering with how the house slides back and
forth. These are typical formats, as to house placement, and
somebody buys a lot within there, they're going to, with us, work
on setting up the house.
MR. MACEWAN-I'm just curious, what's the Town's policy on cul-de-
sacs and leaving natural vegetation within the circle of the cul-
de-sac?
MR. O'CONNOR-That changes from time to time.
MR. BREWER-Yes.
MR. O'CONNOR-I think the current thought is that it should be
cleared.
MR. MACEWAN-As far as cul-de-sacs and the median portion of the
cul-de-sac, why would you want to clear it? Why wouldn't you
just leave the natural vegetation?
MR. BREWER-Because when they plow snow, they want to push the
snow into the center of the cul-de-sac.
MR. MARTIN-Yes. I think the latest thinking, Tom was in there
all the time, too, was that Paul likes to have those cleared, and
I think what we've been trying to suggest is then a reseeding
with a low maintenance ground cover, you know, a perennial ground
cover, but do you agree, Tom, that's his current thinking?
TOM NACE
MR. NACE-Yes.
MR. MARTIN-I think, in regards to that clearing, Bill raises a
good point, I think Charlie maybe can chime in here, as it
relates to the stormwater and drainage, the amount of clearing, I
think, if you overlay your clearing plan on your stormwater and
drainage plan you'll see that you're trying to achieve a three on
one slope there I would assume, right, Charlie, on Lot 9, and
that's what's resulting in the excess amount of clearing? Is
that con"ect?
CHARLES SCUDDER
I'1R. SCUDDER-Yes.
would f:3ay that.
I didn't do the clearing plan, but, yes, I
MR. MACNAMARA-What he's saying is, I guess,
clearing, some of that that Scott wants to
guessed was shown simply to meet the three
that's in the subdivision.
that as much of this
do away with, I had
on one requirement
MR. SCUDDER-Right. So we have competing interests here.
MR. MACNAMARA-Exactly. That's the point I'm trying to make.
MR. MARTIN-Yes. I'm trying to raise a point that it might be
worthwhile considering a waiver on that three on one requirement,
in the interest of saving the natural vegetation along that
slope.
MR. MACNAMARA-Particularly, based on what has been exhibited or
what has been transmitted to me as being routinely exhibited with
your construction methods of using large cobble and things of
that nature to bring about grade changes.
MR. MARTIN-It might be better, from the standpoint of drainage
- 32 -
and all that, just to leave the natural vegetation there. I've
got another question, too. Just from a density standpoint, I see
the notations were made on Page 4 to the slope over 25 percent.
I assume that the calculations were done with the 18322 for
density, the 25 percent slopes being subtracted out. I know
you're only getting 10 lots on 14 acres. So I'd just like
verification on that density, after we back out the slopes and
the roadway. I think that's the only thing out of the four
criteria that apply in this particular case, because there are no
proposed park lands, and there's no other public easements or
public rights-of-way, other than the road.
MR. BREWER-Okay. No other questions from the Board? All right,
I guess we'll open the public hearing. Is there anybody here to
comment on this?
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
l..II\jDA HIGGINS
MRS. HIGGINS-I'm Linda Higgins, and I live on adjoining property
from this property. I'm curious to know what average value of
this property is going to be, the average value of the homes that
are being built on this property.
MR. OBERMAYER-One hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand.
MR. BARBER-It would be the same as Sherwood Acres, something like
2,000 square foot, and that kind of situation.
MRS. HIGGINS-That was my concern.
MR. BARBER-The same thing that you have in that area.
deed restrictions also.
The same
MRS. HIGGINS-Two car garages also?
r1R. BREWER-O kay .
MRS. HIGGINS-I was just concerned that the homes be similar to
the homes in my neighborhood.
MR. BREWER-Okay. I think he indicated last meeting that they
would be similar homes. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else?
SANDY POWELL
MRS. POWELL-I'm Sandy Powell. I have property which adjoins this
property on Tee Hill Road, and I just want to make sure that the
driveway access on the two lots on Tee Hill, visibility is taken
into consideration. There's a hill right there. at the Bay Road
side, there's a crest there.
MR. BREWER-I'm not sure I quite understand your question.
MR. MARTIN-See, Tim, where Country Colony Drive intersects with
Tee Hill Road and Hall Road?
MR. BREIrJER-wYes.
MR. MARTIN-In between there, that's somewhat of a slope there,
and it peaks right about, right before you get to Country Colony
Drive, coming from the Hall Road direction.
MR. BREWER-So she's concerned about?
MR. MARTIN-The blind hill there and those driveways coming out
for those two houses shown there on Lot Six and Seven.
MR. BREWER-Okay. Is there anyone else?
- 33 -
--_.._.__._------_._._~
BARBARA TOOMEY
MRS. TOOMEY-I'm Barbara Toomey. I~y property borders the east
side of the proposed development, and my husband and I, we looked
at the map of the proposed development. We think the lots are
very desirably sized and spaced, and can see no reason why it
isn't just an improvement to the area.
MR. BREWER-Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to
comment? Question? Okay. Mike, maybe you could answer the
questions that were, I'll close the public hearing.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. BREWER-Okay. Mike, maybe you could answer the questions that
were, I guess the price range of the house was answered, $150 to
$200,000.
MR. O'CONNOR-Generally, we will have the same restrictions on
these lots that we have on the other lots that were put into
Nottingham Drive. It'll be different in one sense, that the lots
that face on, that actually adjoin this on Nottingham Drive,
there are permitted two family homes there, we may not be into
the two families yet, but ev'eì-ything on this side of Nottingham
Drive was preserved to be two family because that was, I think,
the zoning at that time. It's not the intention to have two
family on here. The lot size, or house size, will be generally
the same. It will be the same type of architecture.
MR. PALING-Could something be said in that case, though, that
cars wouldn't be liable to back out on the road? They'd have
some sort of turn in that they could head out, rather than back
out. Lot Six and Seven.
MR. O'CONNOR-Six and Seven?
i"1R. PALING--Yes.
MR. O'CONNOR-We can look at that, as far as, and show you, if
you're satisfied as to visibility, or we might be able to work in
east side driveways, if that's a suggestion.
MR. PALING-Yes.
MR. O'CONNOR-I'm thinking of the Rockwell house down below. That
has a (lost word) driveway for a turn around area.
MR. MARTIN-That's
the,-e.
MR. BREWER-Well,
next.
true.
Just off of Hall Road,
there's one
you can take a look at it between
nOIrJ and the
MR. O'CONNOR-Some type of key driveway, so that people have the
ability to get out around, back around and then come out onto the
highway facing the highway. It's a simple accommodation.
MR. BREWER-Okay. So that answers that.
MR. O'CONNOR-Danny made one other
You're suggesting a waiver, Jim,
slopes. That also might be on Lot
more of the trees on both of those
comment, too, Danny Barber.
on Lot Nine for three on one
Eight, and that would preserve
lots.
MR. MARTIN-I mean, if that could be accomplished and still hold
the bank there and the slope, and not create a drainage problem,
I think that almost might be preferred, rather than seeing a big
swathe of trees cut, just to meet a grading requirement. I'd
just like to say, I've often times commented to some of our Staff
members about the appearance of the entrance of this. I think
it's very nice. I think it's a good, the rental units there, the
- 34 -
-....'
filtering of the trees, the existing trees that were left, I wish
we saw more of that type of treatment to entryways around here.
It's a very nice, scenic view up there. You hardly get a feel
for that with rental apartments in through there, and I always
liked the look of that.
MR. O'CONNOR-I never actually did a study, but I think if you go
through the subdivision approvals for Sherwood Acres, and that
was under a different type (lost word). A lot of the lots were
given up by the developer, which was Danny, when he actually just
fitted the houses into the landscaping. He lost lots by doing
that. Those lots (lost word) what the approval was.
MR. MARTIN-And I think that's an example of what, you know, you
hear us often times speak to working with the topography and
achieving development, and those rental units are cut into the
side of the hill there without really any intrusion into the
natural slope or the vegetation. That's working with the natural
grade, rather than trying to make it conform.
MR. BREWER-Okay. That was the only other questions we had.
We've got to do a SEQRA.
RESOLUTION WHEN DETERMINATION OF NO SIGNIFICANCE IS MADE
RESOLUTION NO. 7-1994, Introduced by Craig MacEwan who moved for
its adoption, seconded by George Stark:
l"JHEREAS, th'3re
applicat,ion for:
is presently before
DANIEL R. BARBER, and
the
Planning
Board
an
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:
I'~ 01''-1 E
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 lS 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 27th day of September, 1994, by the following
vot.e:
AYES: Mr. Stark, Mr. Obermayer, Mrs. LaBombard, Mr. MacEwan,
Mr. Paling, Mr. Brewer
- 35 -
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ruel
MR. BREWER-Okay. We need a motion. There's
stipulation, that we're going to get a letter from
regarding the slope on the road.
only one
Paul Naylor,
MR. MARTIN-And an investigation into the three on one slopes.
MR. MACEWAN-They're going to redefine the clearing.
MR. MARTIN-And the clearing plan.
MOTION TO APPROVE PRELIMINARY STAGE SUBDIVISION NO. 7-1994
DANIEL R. BARBER, Introduced by Catherine LaBombard who moved for
its adoption, seconded by Robert Paling:
With two stipulations:
regarding the slope onto
of on Lots 8 and 9.
a letter to be received from Paul Naylor
the road, and to redefine the clearing
Duly adopted this 27th day of September, 1994, by the following
vote:
MR. O'CONNOR-Tree cutting, possibly a waiver for Lots 8 and 9,
three on one slopes, and show a design for turn around.
MR. BREWER-That shouldn't be a stipulation. I think you're going
to agree to do that.
MR. O'CONNOR-It's in our notes.
AYES: Mrs. LaBombard, Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Paling, Mr. Stark,
Mr. Obermayer, Mr. Brewer
NOE~3 : NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Ruel
SITE PLAN NO. 25-94 TYPE r HUDSON POINTE, INC. OWNER: NIAGARA
MOHAWK ZONE: PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT LOCATION: SHERMAN
ISLAND ROAD, EAST OF CORINTH ROAD PROPOSAL IS FOR FINAL APPROVAL
OF PHASE I (34 LOTS) OF THE PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT. DISCUSSION
IS EXPECTED REGARDING THE SITE PLAN ELEMENTS AS WELL AS AN
ACCEPTABLE TIME TABLE FOR SUBMISSION OF OUTSTANDING ITEMS
REFERENCED IN THE TOWN BOARD RESOLUTION PROVIDING PUD DESIGNATION
SUCH AS THE LAND CONSERVATION PLAN. WARREN COUNTY PLANNING:
6/8/94 TAX MAP NO. 148-1-2.1 LOT SIZE: SECTION: 179-58
MICHAEL O'CONNOR, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. MACEWAN-Okay. Any Staff comments or notes?
MR. HARLICKER-What you received was a copy of a memo to the Town
Board regarding some outstanding issues, as of a meeting that we
had with the applicants. The first few here relate to
conservation easements and documentation regarding the open
space. We received, that Jim will read into the record in a
minute, they've been reviewed by the Town Attorney and they seem
to be adequate for that. An outstanding issue that we haven't
received any information on relates to Health Department permits.
There's an issue regarding Number Five, on the rear setbacks,
that have to be revised to reflect the 20 foot setbacks.
MR. MACEWAN-Are you referring to the memo of August 16th?
MR. HARLICKER-August 29th.
MR. MACEWAN-August 29th, okay. Why don't we take these down one
- 36 -
-...,
at a time, and we'll just click them off.
MR. HARLICKER-Yes.
MR. MACEWAN-What's the deal with the conservation easement, and
the Committ.ee?
MR. HARLICKER-That's the documentation that we received today.
MR. MARTIN-Okay. I'll read into the record the letter from Paul.
I think it was in your packets. It came just today at 4:30.
"Dear Mr. Chairman and Planning Board Members: In accordance
with a request made by Jim Martin, I am writing to advise the
Board that I have received an executed copy of the Development
Agreement and also a copy of the executed Declaration of
Covenants and Restrictions. In view of this, it. is my opinion
that the requirements set forth in the Hudson Pointe Planned Unit
Development Legislation that these document.s be completed and
executed before the Planning Board renders its decision on a site
plan, have been satisfied. I note that the legislation did
require several other matters to be addressed or included in the
site plan review, which I am sure you are aware of. For your
information, also attached is a copy of the Hudson pointe Planned
Unit Development Agreement., as well as t.he Declaration of
Covenants and Restrictions. I trust that you will find the above
information helpful. If you should have any further quest.ions or
wish to discuss this matter, please do not hesitate to contact
me. Thank YOU for your attention to this matt.er. Very t.ruly
yours, Paul B. Dusek Town Attorney" Now, in terms of an open
space plan, we have received that in my office. That is going to
be distributed to the Town Board, the Planning Board, and members
of an advisory committee that. was created by the Town Board to
review that document. That's Just going out, probably, tomorrow.
I got. the one last att.achment t.o that. tonight.. That'll be going
out in that fashion tomorrow, and I'm proposing, in a memo
t.ransmitting that plan, that a meet.ing of that committee occur
next week, after the members get a chance to review it. So
that's the latest on the open space plan. It's been submitted in
a draft form.
MR. MACEWAN~Okay. Item Two, then.
MR. OBERMAYER-Excuse me. Is that the 97 acres, Jim?
MR. MARTIN-Yes, that's correct.
MR. MACEWAN-Okay. Then Item Two, we'll move on to that one.
MR. MARTIN-"Details regarding
completed. The applicant. is
area. The applicant indicated
as of the end of August.
the archeological site have to be
required to survey and deed the
that it is in process." That was
TOI'1 ¡''-Ii-iCE
MR. NACE-Yes. We have verified that the archeological sites are
all within the OSI plan, (lost word) on those maps. Those do not
show the archeological sites. I believe it was the intent to
keep the location of those off of any public documents.
MR. MARTIN-Right.
MR. O'CONNOR-I would also note that we have submitted to Paul
Dusek an executed deed of the open space, with t.he grantee in
blank, which is part of this agreement, for approval, with the
proviso on there that the property would be subject only to
passive recreation, and as defined in Exhibit A, which is to be
att.ached by the Town, after the Town Committee and the Town Board
agree on how they're going to define.
- 37 -
MR. MACEWAN-So the Town and the Committee are going to define
what the passive recreation is in that area?
MR. MARTIN-The definition of that is essentially in that plan,
and, like I said, that'll be distributed tomorrow.
MR. O'CONNOR-I want it on record, Paul (lost word) his letter. H
He has the actual executed deed.
MR. MACEWAN-Okay. Item Three.
MR. MARTIN-Okay. liThe applicant is in the process of receIvIng
the necessary Department of Health permit. The application has
been submitted and is currently under review. II
MR. NACE-That is still under review. Trying
Department to move, these days, seems to be
process. The fact is that we cannot file the
they have stamped it. So, they won't stamp
totally done and have the variance issued. So
check and balance on that.
to get the Health
a long, involved
subdivision until
it until l-Je're
that's yOU," last
MR. MACEWAN-Does it look like it's going to be much longer before
they render an approval?
MR. NACE-With a little luck, it'll be two to three weeks, but
I've heard that before, too.
MR. MACEWAN-Okay. Item Four.
MR. MARTIN-liThe issue of camps on the point will be addressed in
the context of the open space plan. II
MR. MACEWAN-Does any
regarding our hopes
be down there, would
Committee?
of the discussions that we'd had as a Board,
of what we thought passive recreation would
any of those notes be passed along to this
MR. MARTIN-Well, that's why we wanted to have a member of this
Board on that Committee, and I think it's Cathy is serving in
that capacity. That's the reason why a Board member was
included.
MR. MACEWAN-I don't know. I'm just speaking for myself. I
thought it kind of was the consensus of the Board that camping
wasn't something that we were overly fond of seeing down there.
MRS. LABOMBARD-You're right about that.
MR. MACEWAN-As long as any specific trails or anything like that.
It would just kind of be left open.
MR. MARTIN-Well, if there's anything we can do to make those
issues or comments, whatever you want to refer to them as, known,
through copies of minutes, or whatever. We can supply them to
Cathy, and she can take them to the Committee meeting. I'll be
there as well.
MR. MACEWAN-That would be a good idea.
MR. MARTIN-If she wants to come in, and the minute books are
available. She can bring with her whatever she needs.
MR. MACEWAN-Okay. Item Five.
MR. MARTIN-liThe rear setbacks on lots 45-49 will be revised to
reflect the required 20 feet. II
MR. NACE-We have several drafting changes being made right now,
will be submitted to the engineer for his final sign off.
- 38 -
----1___
MR. MARTIN-Okay. "A note regarding conveyance of the 60 foot ROW
from Corinth Road is required in any approving resolution. The
applicant stated that it will be written in the deed and noted on
t.he plan."
MR. NACE-Again, noted on the plan before they sign off.
MR. MACEWAN-Okay. Item Seven.
MR. l'1ARTIN-"A
con\/eya nce of
the project.. "
note will be placed on the plan regarding the
the 5 acre parcel adjoining the western boundary of
That's conveyance to the Town, right?
MR. N!'iCE-Yes.
We will put that on there.
MR. MARTIN-Okay. Eight. "A note will be placed on the plan
indicating that traffic associated with construction will utilize
the Niagara Mohawk service road."
MR. NACE-Likewise.
MR. MARTIN-Okay. Nine. "On corner lots with frontage on both
the loop road and a cuI de sac, access will be from the cul de
sac to the maximum extent possible."
MR. NACE-Do you want to note that to that effect on the plan, or
how do you want us to handle that?
MR. MARTIN-I think that would be as good as any.
MR. NACE-It's to our advantage, too. That's what our (lost word)
is.
MR. MARTIN-Number Ten. "The applicant will consider realignment
of the greenway connection between lots 63 and 90 to a location
t.hat is in line !,oJi th the access beÜ..,¡een lots 89 and 64."
MR. MACEWAN-Would you define that a little bit, please?
MR. MARTIN-I think the best way to look at that is on the plan.
Between 63 and 90 is this aCC<3SS, to a locat. ion t.hat is in line
with the access between 89 and 64, and that really doesn't work.
This access here is access back to the OSI land, even though it's
retained by the homeowners, for their use, and realignment of
those two just doesn't work. We've used those access ways to
help segregate a little bit between the types of the lots and
sizes of the lots, and it really doesn't serve that much purpose.
This is going to be a fairly seldom used road in through here, or
low traffic. There's no reason that homeowners from this area
can't walk down the road.
MR. MARTIN-I think that was more of a comment for the purpose of
investigation.
MR. MACEWAN-Those access point.s, are they going to be
any such way, so that the general public knows that
access to get into those open space lands?
marked in
that's an
MR. NACE-Well, the general public will have an access, actually,
in the final plan we've moved this lot over, the three acre lot,
over to about here, and the access to the OSI land, you'll see on
the maps that we've given you, is here. Okay. That is the
public access to the OSI land, and, yes, that will be marked.
MR. MARTIN-I think
like, four or five
your plan calls for
cars, I thought I saw
a small parking lot
mentioned.
of,
MF;. Mi~~CElrJAN-(..md !,oJ her e !,oJ ill that be?
AU'i~~ OPPENHE I M
- 39 -
MR. OPPENHEIM-Right at the corner.
MR. NACE-Right in here.
MR. MACEWAN-Like a gravel area or something?
MR. MARTIN-Yes. I think it was to be gravel. It states in the
plan. Okay. Eleven. "The PUD agreement states that there will
be a maximum of 32 one-half acre lots; the site plan had 34 one-
half acre lots. The applicant has agreed to make adjustments to
the plan so the plan will comply with the 32 one-half acre lot
limitation."
MR.
the
hal f
NACE-We have, yes, that's a drafting change. We're reducing
size of some of the lots, from a half acre to less than a
acre.
MR. O'CONNOR-Is that a requirement, or are yOU just making a
notation? I thought, when we did the sizing of the lots, the
idea was that we would not have any excessive number of third
acre lots, and that everybody would be pleased, if, in fact, we
increased the larger lots a little bit, in number. Why are you
concerned that we have a couple of lots that are?
MR. HARLICKER-We ran that by the Attorney's Office, and it was
his interpretation that it was, had to be (lost word) Queensbu,'y
Forest.
MR. MACEWAN-The last time we met, that was one of the questions
we were going to ask.
MR. O'CONNOR-I withdraw my comment. You're telling us that we've
got to have smaller lots instead of larger lots.
I'm. MARTIN-Twelve. "The applicant's engineer is working with
Rist-Frost to address any engineering concerns."
MR. NACE-We coordinated with Bill. I'll have a last set of plans
for him to look at, probably, in three or four days.
BILL MACNAMARA, RIST-FROST
MR. MACNAMARA-I think it might be a good idea, here, that if
there's anything in particular, here, that you want to discuss
further, that might require more input than just myself, I don't
know if there's any here.
MR. NACE-Do you want to go through them real quick?
MR. MACNAMARA-Only the ones that you think don't make any sense,
or that you don't agree with, or that you think might need to be
discussed.
MR. NACE-Okay. Out of the Rist-Frost letter of August 12th, the
comment on the open space and conservation area, OSI Plan, we've
already addressed. There's a comment on minimum topsoiling
required on the landscape plan should really be six inches
because of the droughty soils. We'll change that to six.
Pavement radius at cul-de-sacs, your Code says 50 foot, but Paul
Naylor doesn't like to plow that wide throat. So we're doing
what Paul Naylor requires.
MR. MACNAMARA-All I ask there, does that require a variance, or
is that something we don't even do? I mean, I'm trying to learn,
here, is what I'm trying to do.
MR. NACE-It's normally not been done in the past.
plans the way Paul will approve them.
v,Je made the
MR. MACNAMARA-I guess that brings up a point, at what point do we
- 40 -
-"-'--
change things in the subdivision Regs, plain, out right, because
you're clearly going against whatever regulation is in there.
That's just for my own information, for further review, so I
don't have to bring them up anymore.
t-1R. '1f~CE"'JAI\I·-I¡.Jhat' s Staff's thoughts on that?
MR. MARTIN-Staff thoughts on that are that we defer
Highway Superintendent. He's the guy, you know, he's my
He's the guy that's got to accept this, maintain it.
defer, completely, to what's acceptable to him.
to the
expert.
I will
MR. MACEWAN-Okay. Good enough.
MR. NACE-Okay. McDonald Drive intersection, I can show you,
Bill, but it is 71 degrees now. So we are above 70, and I have
not taken care of the median. We're going to pull the medians
back a little further for access. I'm going to add a note to the
plan on the minimum site slopes, and plus the drainage, takes
care of the next item. The last item on Page One is just a
detail we're going to correct. The next two items on Page Two
are septic system details. We are changing the details to
conform with what Bill wants. The DOH waiver or the variance
from the 49 lots we discussed, and the labeling of the lots out
on Corinth Road, we're going to take care of that. The last
issue was the noting of the seasonal high ground water. We did
borings down to 50 feet and didn't find any groundwater. So it's
unreasonable to expect that it would be anywhere close.
MR. MACEWAN-Is that okay with you, 8ill?
MR. MACNAMARA-Well, as long as it was done during the time period
that was.
MR. NACE-That it's not going to come from 50 feet up to 4 feet
within a seasonal variance.
MR. MACNAMARA-I think, if you look to see where the 50 foot was,
your 50 foot was probably down closer to the river.
MR. NACE-There were scatterings, there was a 32 footer up in the
middle of the site.
MR. MACNAMARA-All I'm looking to do is have it conclusively shown
by somebody that's approved by the Town to say that seasonal high
groundwater is there, that's all.
MR. NACE-Okay. Well, I'm approved. I wasn't there, because of
the time period, I wasn't there for the initial test pits. I was
there when the borings were done. So I can attest to those. I
was there when the perc tests were done, and I can attest to the
material that came out of the perc test holes, and I can
guarantee yoU, that groundwater is 10 feet (lost word).
MR. MACNAMARA-The reason for being so
been other cases in the recent past,
misleading, shall I say.
concerned is
l--Jhere the test
there have
pi ts l--Jer e
MR. NACE-Well, I will add a statement to that effect. I
understand your concern.
MR. OBERMAYER-What was groundwater at, did you say?
MR. NACE-We never hit groundwater, in anything we did. We did,
as Bill pointed out, a 50 foot boring down toward the bluff. We
did a 32 footer up in the middle of the site.
MR. MARTIN-You didn't hit it at 50 feet?
MR. NACE-No.
- 41 -
MR. MACNAMARA-I think if you look, there's going to be a couple
where you stopped at eight foot, and if you look to see where the
bottom of the septic disposal field is, you don't actually have
the minimum distance shown from the bottom of the disposal field
to where you stop your test pit. That's really the item that I'm
talking about.
MR. NACE-Okay.
MR. MACNAMARA-So if you
seasonal high groundwater
belts and suspenders, but.
just come
we know,
for"'Jard
is, barn,
and say, yes, the
no problem. It's
MR. NACE-Okay. I have no idea whether it's 60 feet or 80 feet.
MR. MACNAMARA-Or eight foot, for that particular test pit.
MR. OBERMAYER-Did you hit bedrock?
MR. NACE-No. We hit cobbles. It's all sandy materials. So it's
unreasonable to expect that groundwater will be perched in any
area.
MR. OBERMAYER-Sure. There's no clay there at all.
MR. MACEWAN-Staff, do you have anymore comments, issues?
MR. MARTIN-I would just like to get this in a mode,
develop a punch list of items that are outstanding,
this to the point of, on a schedule and to the
conclusion.
no~..¡, that we
and just get
point of a
MR. O'CONNOR-I would ask for a resolution approving the Phase I,
and giving us the preliminary approval on the balance that I
think is such of a site plan manner that you could do it under
your PUD Regulations, with the condition that before the Chairman
signs, or the Acting Chairman signs, we satisfy those engineering
concerns that were listed.
MR. MACEWAN-Are you looking for us to make an approval tonight?
MR. O'CONNOR-Yes.
MR. MACEWAN-That's not the impression I had, that we were going
to have this discussion. This was a discussion item only.
MR. O'CONNOR-Not to ~ knowledge.
MR. MACEWAN-That was the conversation you had with Tom Nace just
the other day.
MR. MARTIN-And I talked to Alan and I talked to Tom.
MR. O'CONNOR-What are we going to come back with?
poi nt, I guess.
That's my
MR. MACEWAN-The thing that L brought up and questioned about this
was, was there going to be any kind of approval given tonight
without having the plan accepted by the Open Space Institute and
that Committee set up by the Town.
MR. O'CONNOR-That is not a condition of ~ approval, and we may
or may not have that.
MR. MACEWAN-That's what I was told it was. It was a condition of
getting final approval, was acceptance of that plan.
MR. O'CONNOR-Because you've got the Planned Unit Development
agreement in front of you, but you also have the PUD legislation
in front of you, and that was a condition before we get building
- 42 -
...I--__-...i_______-_____ ----
-
permits.
MR. MARTIN-That's true about the Open Space plan.
MR. O'CONNOR-Before any residences in the subdivision. We have
no control. Now, that's in the control of the Town Board and the
Committee that the Town Board has set up.
MR. MACEWAN-I'm being told by Staff that that was a part of being
app'- oved .
MR. O'CONNOR-Lets talk about it, because that's not a condition,
that I'm awa'"e of.
MR. MARTIN-The Open Space Plan approval was set up as a condition
for building permits to be issued.
MR. MACEWAN-I asked you that very point last week, Jim, and you
told me it was a condition of getting final approval for this
site plan, was the acceptance of that plan. That's the reason
why you called Tom Nace.
MR. MARTIN-I called him because you had a concern, and so did
some members of the public, about, if this was going to be up for
approval tonight. I was not at the last meeting that this was
discussed, and I, quite frankly, didn't have any personal
knowledge of the exact position of this application. So, in
light of that, I called Alan and I called Tom to say, I don't
know exactly ItJhere this stands. t:1x:. impression is that this is
coming forth tonight for an update as to the various issues that
are outstanding and to arrive at a punch list and get through
tI'''ii s .
MR. O'CONNOR-I thought that was the purpose of your August
meeting, in which you issued that letter?
MR. MARTIN-Right, and I didn't know where those issues stood on
that memo. I find out tonight exactly what this situation is.
MR. STARK-Craig, right on the agenda it says,
final approval".
"Proposal is for
MR. MACEWAN-That's news to me.
MR. OPPENHEIM-Well, from a practical standpoint, as far as Open
Space Institute goes, that is moving forward. I think that for
those, and you haven't had a chance to look at the plan, but I
think it's a plan that people are going to feel good about. It's
just a question of (lost word) to meet with the Committee, but it
is clear in the legislation that that's triggered upon building
permit, and that might, we might have a meeting or two on that,
but that's something that we're very close on. The thing with
these other items, it's just minor fine tuning.
MR. MACEWAN-Well, I mean, it's a pretty long laundry list of
minor fine tuning to do to give them approval. I mean, we're
looking at 12 items that have to be addressed and completed.
MR. NACE-Okay. First of all, ln all
discussion was, is it going to be
going to be an approval, and at the
determine what was the status, where
fairness to Jim, he did, our
a discussion item or is it
time, we had meant to really
ItJe I¡Jere going.
MR. MfCìC:E~MN-'Tom, ~'Jas it YOU'- irnpn3ssion that it was goin9 to be a
discussion item, when you spoke about this last week?
MR. NACE-My impression, when I talked to Jim, was that his
feeling was it was a discussion item. We didn't have heads
together yet to say whether it was or not. We talked with Alan,
at that point, and went from there. My thinking, now, is that,
- 43 -
- ------ ~.~------------~--------.~,.-
if it comes up before you again, whether it's in two weeks, three
weeks, or a month, all that it's going to be is just come before
you and have your engineer say yes to the plans, now have all
those drafting modifications made to address these comments.
What is the difference? There's not going to be any meaningful
input, either from us or from the Board. It's just going to be a
question of, yes, have they all been checked off, or, no, have
they not been checked off?
MR. MACEWAN-What about the DOH permit?
MR. NACE-That's a condition of your approval, regardless. We
have to have the DOH stamp on it before we can file it.
MR. O'CONNOR-This is a combination site plan and subdivision.
Typically, you don't have your DOH stamp on your map, on your
final approval for subdivision. You make your approval, which is
what we're asking you for, Phase I Final approval, subject to us
getting the DOH stamp. We can't record Phase I in the County
Clerk's Office without the stamp.
MR. MACEWAN-I mean, this is a big surprise to me tonight, because
I didn't know that you guys were coming in here looking for an
appr ova 1 .
MR. O'CONNOR-Maybe I'm coming from a different avenue
and Tom have. They're looking at it from engineering.
running around getting the developer's agreement,
declaration for deed restrictions.
than Alan
I've been
and the
MR. MARTIN-It's like I explained to Alan on the phone,
I'm not looking to prolong this process, believe me.
I mean,
MR. MACEWAN-I'm not, either.
MR. MARTIN-But if there's a certain level of comfort, for
whatever reason, the Board wants to arrive at, that's fine, too.
I just want to see, like I said, get this in the mode where the
issues are known and they're addressed, and be on with it, and
the evidence of, in terms of the Open Space plan, if I gave you
that impression, Craig, then I stand corrected, and I apologize,
but the evidence of that being the case, that's why the Committee
had to be formed to review the plan, and it wasn't a matter of
site plan review. We had to have a special Committee formed to
review that, for approval by the Town Board, ultimately, in
issuing building permits.
1'1R. STAR~(-"Well,
agenda, it says,
let me just say this, okay, Craig. Right on the
"Proposal is for final approval of Phase I".
MR. MACEWAN-I believe what you tell me is on the agenda, yes.
MR. STARK-If
says, l.->Jell,
difference?
hea Y" i ng, and
we put it off until next month,
okay, everything's noted on the
I would say, lets go ahead with
then we'll have a vote, and we'll
and Bill, then,
plan, what's the
a vote, the public
see.
MR. OBERMAYER-Yes. I agree with George.
MR. STARK-I mean, waiting a month
anything except postponing it again.
is not going
That's all.
to accomplish
MR. OBERMAYER-I don't think there's really any major issues,
unless the public hearing.
MR. MACEWAN-Well, there's not really any big, outstanding issues.
I guess there's a lot of little loose ends that have got to be
tied up. I guess the point that I'm making here is that I was
told and lead to believe that this was going to be just a
discussion item, and update the way things were going.
- 44 -
--'------'--1_
MR. STARK-Well, Jim mis-spoke, then, or you misheard him, that's
all.
MR. MARTIN-Well, he was in the office when I called, I think it
was Tom. You were right there when I talked to him and I,
essentially, said the same thing to Alan, and I had no
expectations of this being approval tonight. I thought it was
just going to be going through this list, getting an update on
the status.
MR. O'CONNOR-I spoke with Scott earlier this morning and we said
that's what we anticipated. We had to come to the Town Board,
not this past Monday, the Monday before, actually we came the
Monday before that, to amend the Developer's Agreement, to amend
the Declaration of Restrictions, to get them so that they were
workable. We then put it before the Town Board. It was revised
by Paul Dusek. It was presented to them last Monday. It was
approved on that Monday, and we've been chasing documents up and
down the Northway to Syracuse to get them back out here, so that
they're in Paul Dusek's hands today, so that we could keep them
on the agenda, and that we would get our approvals. I guess I go
back to my basic question. If you look at it as a subdivision
approval, it's no different. We're not asking for anything
different than any other subdivision approval. We've got some
engineering concerns to note on the map before the map is signed
by the Acting Chairman. We've got to get the DOH approval.
MR. MARTIN-There was one other issue we talked about the day you
were there, Craig, the road. How is that going to be treated?
MR. MACEWAN-Yes, the abandonment of Sherman Island Road.
MR. MARTIN-The Sherman Island Road, after Phase I. Is that going
to be just abandoned?
MR. MACEWAN-I know there were some members that had some concerns
about that, myself included.
MR. O'CONNOR-Part of Phase I, we've got to go to the Town Board,
not t.his Board.
MR. MACEWAN-No, no, no. We're talking the long term. Alan had
ment.ioned what the long term proposed use of that road was going
to be, and it was, I guess, your position, stop me if I'm wrong,
that your position was that yOU guys were just going to abandon,
maybe assumed by the Homeowners Association, and I think a few of
us found, maybe the Board felt. that maybe a better thing to do
would be just kind of drop soil over it and maybe seed it or
something other than lett.ing the road itself just deteriorat.e.
We were looking for, actually, the road to be covered over.
use
the
that
O'CONNOR-Our Developer's plan provides that we will barricade
road where it intersects the new, improved system. That's
that we've put into the Developer's program. Whether people
it for a walk area, bike area, we were going to leave it to
Homeowners Association t.o determine, and the residents in
area, what they were going to do.
MR.
tl'''le
all
MR. OPPENHEIM-To take that one step further, Craig, and I recall
that discussion, and particularly in the intersections, there's
going to be definitely be a commitment to topsoil. We might well
topsoil the whole thing. I think at this point, rather than
commit. to it, we wanted to leave some flexibility at the center
portion, where there weren't any intersecting roads, but I think,
rest. assured, no matter what happens, it's going to be properly
mai ntai ned.
MR. MACEWAN-I know that Jim and I spoke about this last week, and
our concern was t.he liability st.andpoint, for the Homeowners
Association down the road, and maintaining that abandoned road.
- 45 -
~-..---._.'--.-'-.
MR. O'CONNOR-I understand, but that's no different than if they
maintain the walkways, they maintain the roofs. It's not a (lost
word). They have no liability on open land in the State of New
Vor k.
MR. MARTIN-I would defer to an attorney's opinion on that. Is
that a liability concern?
MR. O'CONNOR-That's one of the most expensive issues on
Homeowners Associations is carrying the liability.
MR. MACEWAN-I mean, wasn't it your position that you thought,
that you felt that the road should be covered over?
MR. MARTIN-Yes. I just think, again, looking for the character
you're trying to establish here. I think that's going to be sort
of an eyesore and a detraction from the development, and I would
think it would be to your advantage just to get rid of it, once
it's served it's purpose.
MR. OPPENHEIM-Jim, I don't disagree. I guess, I think that we're
going in. That's something that we're willing to get into the
project, to make that final judgement on, and it seems as if
that's not even really part of Phase I.
MR. MACEWAN-No, I mean, we were talking, I think, Phase III.
MR. NACE-That's right.
MR. MACEWAN-Something along the lines of that. Would you have a
problem if, down the road, we made that a condition of approval
of Phase III?
1'1R. O'CONNOR-We may have a problem. I,.Je may IrJant to talk about
it. We won't give up any options. I use the trite phrase, and a
say this seriously, this is a very nice project, but the more you
hang on the Christmas tree, the more questionable the viability
of it becomes. You're talking about erosion, topsoil, the Board
of Health.
MR. OPPENHEIM-Well, why don't we just leave it?
got to come back for site plan approval and it's
we'll address at that point in time.
I mean, IrJe've
an issue that
MR. MACEWAN-Okay. The public hearing was left open. Is there
anyone from the public who would like to speak?
PUBLIC HEARING OPEN
JEFF FRIEDLAND
MR. FRIEDLAND-Hi. I'm Jeff Friedland. I represent the Brewers
and the Aikens, as you know. I guess I'm sort of shocked and
surprised that this would be up for any sort of final approval
tonight. It seems to me this whole project has gone through an
admittedly long and painstaking approval process, for very good
reason, because there's a lot of environmental concerns out
there. It would be a shame, I think, to sort of rush through it
right now at the last moment and just push it through like this,
and with all due respect, George, I think the agenda does say
"Proposal is for final approval", but if you keep reading, it
says, "Discussion is expected regarding site plan elements as
well as an acceptable time table for submission of outstanding
items referenced in the Town Board resolution". When I read
that, I had no doubt in my mind that this would not be up for
approval tonight, only discussion. It says it right there,
"Discussion is expected regarding site plan elements as well as
an acceptable time table for submission of outstanding items".
That lead !:!l.ê. to believe that there was more to be submitted and
it would not be up for approval. I believe the Planning Board
- 46 -
_---....L....-.-..--.J-
has a schedule it follows, that items have to be submitted X
number of days ahead of the meeting. I don't remember if it was
a week, ten days, or two weeks, but there's some things that
haven't even been submitted yet. The final plan, the site plan,
is being worked on now, and it's not done yet. I can't see how
this Board can approve anything without a final site plan. Some
of the documents, the Planned Unit Development Agreement was
submitted today. Paul Dusek's letter is dated september 27th.
The Agreement is dated September 27th. Again, I can't see how
you can vote on something you've just received minutes ago.
There's some other requirements I don't think that have been met.
For example. the deed, as L understand it, has to be approved by
the Town Board before this Board can approve the site plan. I
don't know if that's happened yet or not.
MR. PALING-I'm sorry, you said the, what, has to be approved?
MF~. FRIEDl_AND'-I'm sonoy. The deed, or the conse,"vation area, to
the third party, which is (lost word) Open Space Institute, that
deed is supposed to be approved by the Town Board before this
Board approves the site plan, or votes on the site plan. I don't
think that's happened yet. I might be mistaken. The deed is
also supposed to define passive recreation. That has to be in
the deed, according to all of the approval documents, the Town
Board approval documents. I mean, we haven't seen that yet. We
have no idea how passive recreation is defined, and that was a
crucial element during this whole entire final review process,
what's going to be allowed in the conservation area. Another
item that, I don't know if it's been addressed yet, this is in
the Haanen Engineering letter, July 27th. It's responding, I
think, to the Town Engineer's concern. This is Item 3D on Page
Two. It talks about the stormwater management report, and why
the back half of the lot and the back half of the roof was not
included in the stormwater runoff calculations. I don't know
that the Town Engineer has addressed that?
MR. MACNAMARA-That was satisfied. That was discussed at the last
meeting, as well as, it's actually contained in the stormwater
management report, where it speaks of the ground surface
available in the rear yard portions, which is where you would
design for that back half of that runoff to be infiltrated.
That's the recollection.
MR. FRIEDLAND-Okay, and you don't need to include that in the
calcul,;;;¡tions?
MR. MACNAMARA-I believe that was in the stormwater management
repo,"t.
MR. FRIEDLAND-All right. We've had several other issues that I
wasn't going to spend time talking about tonight, because I
assumed there was to be no vote on the approval. I was just
going to submit a letter, but I think at this point I need to at
least address them briefly, if this Board is considering voting
on this. You talked about these previously, but I think they
might have sort of fallen between the cracks. Number One is
construction hours. We believe, my clients believe, that to
protect the residents that currently live there, that
construction hours for the project should be restricted to some
sort of reasonable hours, for example, no work on Sundays,
reasonable weekday hours, maybe seven in the morning until six at
night, or something, no heavy equipment on Saturday, that kind of
thing, and I think that should be a condition of the approval.
Sherman Island Road is supposed to be blocked off, as part of the
plan. As yOU recall, the southern end will be closed. We
request that that be done early in the process, so that no one
uses that for access onto the site.
1'1R.
was
MACEWAN-That was already agreed
going to be one of the first
to by the developer. That
things that was going to be
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done.
MR. FRIEDLAND-Okay, and I think that could be a condition of the
approval. I guess that's it. Again, I'd like to really
emphasize that we certainly did not expect there be any
consideration for final approval tonight. I think the agenda
reflects that. The documents have been submitted tonight. The
site plan's not even done. I really can't see how you could vote
on the final site plan approval tonight, and I thank you for your
time.
MR. MACEWAN-Thank you. Is there anybody else from the public who
wants to speak? As kind of a follow up to Mr. Friedland's
comments regarding some of the documents being accepted by the
Town Board, we have a member of the Town Board in attendance
tonight. Betty, have you folks accepted anything or made a
motion on anything?
BETTY MONAHAN
MRS. MONAHAN-I won't comment on something
document in front of me, and only the Town
something like that.
like that without a
Clerk could certify
MR. MACEWAN-Okay. Thank you. Has anybody on the Board got any
comments, questions?
MRS. LABOMBARD-Yes. I have a question regarding a final
plan. I have a feeling that, do you, gentlemen, Tom, do you
a final site plan?
site
ha\/e
MR. NACE-The final site plan was submitted to the Planning
Department on July 27th. What we're talking about now are the
final drafting clean up to the site plan, which is normally, you
know, if we had been on the August agenda, we'd be right where
we're at now, and we'd be saying, okay, there are some minor
corrections we need to make. Can you give us approval contingent
upon our making those corrections acceptable to the Town
Engi neer .
MRS. LABOMBARD-Is it correct to say that this is the first time
you've heard of those final little things that need to be taken
carB of?
MR. NACE-No. We've had the Town Engineer's letter for quite a
while. There's no question there. We just want to get all the
things together at one time, rather than having to resubmit time
after time, get them all together and taken care of.
MR. 08ERMAYER-Okay.
questions to you?
Has the Town Engineer submitted all those
MR. NACE--Yes.
MR. OBERMAYER-And you are acknowledging that you're going to?
MR. NACE-Yes, that's correct.
MRS. LABOMBARD-So, in other words, it could be feasible to
propose that the site plan be, propose the final approval
contingent upon all of those little extra addendums that their
attorney has mentioned, just all the little extra things that he
mentioned tonight? See, that's what I'm confused.
MR. NACE-What he mentioned, most of it has already been taken
care of.
MRS. LABOMBARD-That's what I'm saying.
MR. NACE-The berm is already shown.
The plans already show that
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to be constructed as the first item of work.
issue?
What's the other
MR. OBERMAYER-Traffic.
MR. NACE-The traffic, the NiMo traffic being diverted. that,
again, is one of the drafting changes we are making, which will
be on the drawing.
MR. MACEWAN-Are all your drawings updated to reflect the latest
engineering changes?
MR. NACE-They're in red on that set of plans that you see there.
MR. MACEWAN-Which is the only set of plans right now that's been
updated or revised.
MR. NACE-If you want to stipulate that, for next Monday, they be
submitted to the Town Engineer for his final approval.
MR. MACEWAN-I can tell you flat out. I'm not comfortable making
an appro\/al on this tonight. That's m.L. opi nion.
MR. O'CONNOR-I would like to answer some of the comments, not in
an adversarial manner, although perhaps my nature is that I will.
You know, I'm sorry that he's shocked and surprised, and I'm
sorry that he uses that type of terminology. The time table, or
the discussion of the time table of submission of the outstanding
documents were what was required to be submitted to the Town
Board, and to the Town Attonìey, not to this Board. As far as L
understand the intention was to determine when they would get
them. When we were on an agenda a long time ago, we asked to be
tabled, because at that time, we could not sign the Developer's
Agreement. We could not sign the Declaration of Covenants. We
had to go back and discuss it with the Town Board, and get an
amendment to those documents in order to sign those. Those
documents were submitted by courier, running between here and
Syracuse, based upon the Town Board's approval last Monday. As
of yesterday, to Paul Dusek, by hand courier. but their his
documents. He drew the documents. He, representing the Town
Board, submitted the documents to us for signature.
1'-1R. MACEIrJAN-And representing this Board, in that instance.
1'-1R. O'CONNOR--And representing t.his Board. The deed that Jeff
talks about being incomplete, is purposely incomplete and gives
the Town Board authority to settle what they want with the Open
Space Institute. We've dictated that it be subject to passive
recreation. We believe that the Town Board's going to get into
other definitions, more better, or more detailed definition of
passive '"ecreation. It's not an omission on our part, ~'Jith any
intention. It's a release of our control over that issue. So
that you are totally comfortable that the product that is planned
to be signed and accepted, is ì"eco,"ded in the County Cleì"k's
Office, is what the Town Board wants. If you look at the other
issue, as to the shutting off of Sherman Island Road, and the
NiMo traffic. They're on the plot plan. The only thing we can
do from this point, when we get your final approval, is being the
road abandonment process with the Town Board. The first thing
we've got to do is we've got to go in and change the MacDonald
Subdivision. We've got to take the cul-de-sac out of the end,
change the configuration of that road. We've got to shut off
Sherman Island Road. We've got to begin construction of the
Boulevard. We've a long, long way to (lost word) any type of
building permit. Now we're not running out of here, and you're
going to all of a sudden see 96 houses.
MR. MACEWAN-The part that's confusing me about all this is that,
it was ~ understanding it was going to be a discussion it.em.
Then the letter that was put on the table tonight from Paul
- 49 -
Dusek, and in the letter, in the second paragraph, he says, "in
view of this, it is my opinion that the requirements set forth in
the Hudson Pointe Planned Unit Development legislation that these
documents be completed and executed before the Planning Board
renders its decision on the si te plan". So ",¡hat are ~ supposed
to do?
MR. O'CONNOR-He's
~-equi rements.
telling you that we've
fulfilled those
MR. MARTIN-Yes, but if you read on, it says that those have been
completed.
MRS. LABOMBARD-Yes, it does.
MR. O'CONNOR-We've completed, or we've fulfilled the requirements
that the Town Board put upon us, as to those documents, and the
one other issue I haven't talked about is work hours. We went
through long discussions with the Town Board and objected to any
conditions in the legislation for work hours. We've, basically,
got a 96 lot subdivision. It's in a very isolated area.
MR. MACEWAN-So, Jim, you're comfortable that everything has been
satisfied to Staff's needs?
MR. MARTIN-You heard our position of what's outstanding. Like I
said, it's a level of comfort the Board has to arrive at. If you
feel comfortable that you can approve with conditions, and that
those conditions be met, you know, our Staff comments and
Engineering comments, fine. If you're not comfortable, and you
want to see those things submitted prior to, that's fine also.
We're going to be checking them either way. They're going to be
submitted, and we're going to check them.
MR. MACEWAN-Well, how do we put together an approval that has
those conditions, you know, that's a pretty long list of
conditions that have to be checked off. That's a lot of homework
for you guys to do.
MR. MARTIN-Well, then, if you're not comfortable with that, then
the answer is to table it until that's completed.
MR. MACEWAN-How does everybody else feel about it?
MR. O'CONNOR-Aren't the only
satisfy the comments of the
app~-oval?
conditions you have, One, that we
Rist-Frost letter, we obtain DOH
MR. MACEWAN-I don't know if it was so much that. I think there
were some other things, you know, it was the engineering, or the
revisions that had to be made to the drawings and such like that.
MR. O'CONNOR-They're all related to that letter.
MR. NACE-They're either on the Rist-Frost letter, or on the Note
to File from the Planning staff.
MR. STARK-Craig, why don't you
everybody's comfortable and would
That's all.
poll the Board and
like to go ahead with
as kif
a './ote.
MR. MACEWAN-I asked.
everybody else feel.
No one answered.
I said, how does
MR. STARK-I feel comfortable, and I'd like to vote on it.
MR. OBERMAYER-I would like to vote on it.
MR. MACEWAN-Do you feel comfortable voting on it?
- 50 -
MRS. LABOMBARD-Yes.
I'1R. PALING-Yes.
MR. MACEWAN-Okay. Does somebody want to make a motion?
MRS. LABOMBARD-All right. I'll make a motion, and if it goes,
fine, if it doesn't. A motion that we vote to approve, for the
final approval of Phase I Site Plan 25-94, 34 lots of the Planned
Unit Development, with the following stipulations: that the
comments be satisfied from the Rist-Frost letter, and there's a
Note to File with the Planning Staff.
MR. OBERMAYER-And the Department of Health approval also.
MRS. LABOMBARD-And with the Department of Health approval.
MR. MACEWAN-That's it?
MRS. LABOMBARD-Unless you have anything to add to it.
MR. MACNAMARA-I'm going to ask one more thing that had to do with
the stormwater issues. At last month's meeting, just to answer
'i.9JJ..L question, yes, I v~as comfortable that back half of the roof
runoff would be handled by the back yard, but as a follow up to
that, at the time, you had indicated you either had or were going
to submit to the DEC some stormwater management plan that was
required. I'm just curious if that's been completed, because
that is an item that needs to be done, before final approval.
MR. NACE-Yes. The Notice of Intent, it's the DEC/EPA Notice of
Intent for construction sites over so many acres, and, yes, that
is being filed.
MR. MACNAMARA-But it's effective 48 hours after you submit it.
MR. NACE-Yes.
MR. MACNAMARA-Okay.
yet.
I'm just curious if you've submitted it,
MR. NACE-No. I have not. I still have to get the client's
signature, and then that goes to the (lost word).
MR. MACNAMARA-I would suggest that that be a condition also, that
that be submitted.
MR. NACE-No problem.
MR. MACNAMARA-It's an easy one, but, I mean, it does satisfy the
n~qui rern(3nts.
MR. NACE-Actually, that's in your letter anyway.
MR. MACNAMARA-That's in the June 28th one. It's not in the last
one that they're referring to.
MRS. LABOMBARD-All right. So, wait a minute.
comments of the Rist-Frost letter dated?
To sati~3fy the
MR. NACE-No. It is in your August 12th letter.
third paragraph on Page Two, and submission
management plan to DEC.
It says, the
of stormwater
MRS. LABOMBARD-So are we just talking about the letter that was
dated August 12th, and that's the final? That's the letter that
encompasses everything?
MR. NACE-That's correct.
- 51 -
MR. PALING-How about the Staff letter of August 29th? Should we
include that in the motion?
MR. NACE-She did already.
MR. PALING-You did include it. Okay.
MR. MARTIN-As with these, I would suggest a date for submission
to us by.
MR. OBERMAYER-A week?
MR. NACE-Well, with the exception of the Department of Health
approval. That's out of our control.
MR. O'CONNOR-We could submit compliance with the Rist-Frost
letter, notes of Staff, and as soon as we get the Health
Department letter, we will be up here looking for a signature.
MR. MACEWAN-And you shall get it.
MR. STARK-Include that, Cathy. The final plan to be submitted
with all changes within one week.
MRS. LABOMBARD-And within one week of the Health Department
letUn" .
MR. NACE-No, one week from today. The Health Department letter
will follow when we get it.
MRS. LABOMBARD-All right. The compliance with the Rist-Frost
letter is one week from today.
MR. NACE-Rist-Frost letter and Staff notes.
MRS. LABOMBARD-And Staff notes, and then the Health Department
immediately following.
MR. NACE-Health Department when we can get it. I have no control
over that.
MR. MARTIN-Ten complete sets, as with the final subdivision.
MR. NACE-Sure thing.
MRS. LABOMBARD-I have a question. All of these things cannot be
put down unless it's in an open meeting like this, public
meeting. In other words, if we all went together and sat down
and got everything written down, in a big, long list, and didn't
do it here, that would not be, you couldn't do that.
MR. MACEWAN-Right.
MRS. LABOMBARD-Okay. All right.
MR. MARTIN-All right, and the deed for the property, is that the
five acre parcel to be conveyed to the Town?
MR. O'CONNOR-You can either do it now, or you can do it, accept
the first road, before you accept the first road. I don't think
we have a concern one way or the other.
MR. MARTIN-And you mentioned earlier you submitted a deed for the
95 acres. That's been submitted to?
MR. O'CONNOR-Paul.
MR. MARTIN-Paul. All right, and that that's in proper form,
because he didn't reference that in his letter, and the deed for
the five acres.
- 52 -
.-...--
-
M . O'CONNOR-We have no problem. I can get that done.
MARTIN-Prior to?
O'CONNOR-I think I need the survey description, the survey
T (1 t d) wltlìl1- 1-"JO "'AAks l"i= l·t's <al.l ri__1ht.
e o~"n os _ wor , "_: I _v' V. -' _ ' , ~- ::J
MACEWAN-You ought to tie everything in to one date.
MARTH-I-Yes.
e erything.
I'd like to have one date, two weeks for
MfS. LABOMBARD-I agree with you on that. Two weeks from today is
0' tobe,- 11th.
MI. MARTIN-So we have two parcels, the 97 acres and a deed
a :ceptable to the Town, in a form acceptable to the Town
A.torney, and conveyance of the five acres next to the water
p ,ant to the Town Board.
M.S. LABOMBARD-All right.
M.. O'CONNOR-I don't want to confuse the issue, but the bells and
wìistles here is that we have to go to the Town Board for about
1~ different things before we get it done. Nobody's running away
w:th something. (lost word). I would like to defer that, simply
b3cause I don't know what my real time constraints are,
i ternally, with NiMo, as far as signing that. I don't know if
tley can sign that without the person's approval in hand. They
C3n't do anything. They can start building the roads and
e1erything else, but they won't be able to get any building
p:~nnits.
OPPENHEIM-I think what was discussed, this was dealt with at
Town Board, was whether or not they can give a deed or not.
could give all the same rights, and that would be something
would be dealt with at the Town Board level.
MONAHAN-If there's anything in the agreement that has to be
to make sure that's done, Jim.
MARTII\--Yes.
M~. O'CONNOR-Before final approval, I went through the agreement.
The only thing that was required was the 95 acres, and signing of
the Developer's Agreement, and the Declaration of Covenants, and
that we've complied with. Before we can get our building permit,
we've got a whole lot of things to do, and I don't mean to be coy
with you. I'm not the in-house corporate attorney for Niagara
ohawk. David Hatch is the one who's the corporate attorney,
who's had direct conversations with the Town as to Open Space and
Ĺ“ome other things, and I know in my discussion with him, at one
time or another, he talked about (lost word), and I know that
rart of that perc line goes through that part of the parcel.
They have to give their blessing. I would like to make it as
,our legislation provides it, and as the Declaration provides it
and the Developer's Agreement provides it, before we get building
~ermits, because that's also an offer we made in lieu of
recreation fees. We're not going to get our building permit
lntil we do that.
R. MACEWAN-Do you want to read that back one more time to make
you've got everything?
LABOMBARD-Yes. Just, again, about the 97 acre parcel.
R. MARTIN-Submit a deed in a form acceptable to the Town
ttorney, and the Town Board.
R. MACEWAN-You can just say deed acceptance by the Town.
- 53 -
MR. MARTIN-I'd say Town Board, as the controlling.
MR. O'CONNOR-The 95.31 acre parcel.
MRS. LABOMBARD-All right. Plus there's the other five acre one,
too, near the water plant.
MR. MARTIN-That's what he was just talking about.
MR. O'CONNOR-The five acre deed is not a condition to this. Per
the legislation, it should be a condition to us getting building
penni ts.
MRS. LABOMBARD-Okay. So then I don't have to do anything about
the five acres, on this at all. All right.
MOTION TO APPROVE PHASE I OF SITE PLAN NO. 25-94
INC '.' Introduced by Cather i ne LaBombard v~ho
adoption, seconded by James Obermayer:
HUDSON POINTE,
moved fOì" its
For the Planned Unit Development, for 34 lots, with the following
stipulations: That before it is approved, that all the comments
from the Rist-Frost letters dated during the month of August,
1994, be satisfied, with Staff Notes, and that a final approval
from the Health Department, when it can be obtained, and that the
deed for the 95.3 acre parcel be obtained in a form that's
acceptable to the Town Board and the Town Attorney, and that 10
complete sets of plans also be given, by the 11th of October.
Duly adopted this 27th day of September, 1994, by the following
vot.e:
AYES: Mr. Stark, Mr. Obermayer, Mrs. LaBombard, Mr. Paling,
1'1r. MacE~"'a n
NOES: '\lONE
ABSENT: Mr. Brewer, Mr. Ruel
MR. MACEWAN-I didn't close the public hearing, but does this
letter from the Homeowners Association at Inspiration Park been
read into the public record?
MR. MARTIN-It should have been.
MR. MACEWAN-If not, would you?
that note.
I'll end the public hearing on
MR. MARTIN-I thought that was done.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
On motion meeting was adjourned.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
Timothy Brewer, Chairman
- 54 -