1997-04-15
QUEENS BURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING
FIRST REGULAR MEETING
APRIL 15, 1997
INDEX
Site Plan No. 15-97
Dale Campbell
Tax Map No. 5-1-11
1.
Cont'd Pg. 41.
Site Plan No. 16-97
Newton's Auto Sales, Inc.
Tax Map No. 109-1-7
4.
Site Plan No. 17-97
Catherine M. McDonough
Tax Map No. 68-1-1
20.
Site Plan No. 18-97
Steven & Donna Sutton
Tax Map No. 68-1-15
24.
Subdivision No. 1-1997
FINAL STAGE
Cerrone Builders
Tax Map No. 48-3-51.1, 53
31.
THESE ARE NOT OFFICIALLY ADOPTED MINUTES AND ARE SUBJECT TO BOARD
AND STAFF REVISIONS. REVISIONS WILL APPEAR ON THE FOLLOWING MONTHS
MINUTES (IF ANY) AND WILL STATE SUCH APPROVAL OF SAID MINUTES.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting
4/15/97)
QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING
FIRST REGULAR MEETING
APRIL 15, 1997
7:00 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT
ROBERT PALING, CHAIRMAN
GEORGE STARK
ROGER RUEL
TIMOTHY BREWER
DAVID WEST
CRAIG MACEWAN
MEMBERS ABSENT
CATHERINE LABOMBARD
PLANNER-GEORGE HILTON
TOWN COUNSEL-MILLER, MANNIX & PRATT, JEFF FRIEDLAND
STENOGRAPHER-MARIA GAGLIARDI
NEW BUSINESS:
SITE PLAN NO. 15-97 TYPE II DALE CAMPBELL OWNER: SAME ZONE:
WR-1A, C.E.A. LOCATION: DUNHAMS BAY REMOVAL OF EXISTING "F-
SHAPED II DOCK - RECONSTRUCTION OF NEW DOCK AND OPENSIDED BOATHOUSE.
LGPC WARREN CO. PLANNING: 4/9/97 TAX MAP NO. 5.-1-11 LOT SIZE:
2.50 ACRES SECTION: 179-60
STAFF INPUT
Notes from Staff, Site Plan No. 15-97, Dale Campbell, Meeting Date:
April 15, 1997 "The applicant proposes the construction of a new
F shaped dock as well as the construction of an open sided
boathouse with a deck and stairway." Access will be granted only
from the dock and not from the shore onto that stairway. liThe
length of the dock and the setbacks conform to zoning requirements.
The height of the covered boathouse must conform to the Ordinance
requirement of 14 feet. The applicant should indicate what the
proposed height of the boathouse will be. The stairway will be
attached to the boathouse and access will not be available to the
roof top deck from the shore. Comment on possible impacts this
dock and boathouse may have on the surrounding neighborhood may be
provided at the public hearing. II
MR. HILTON-George, we're going to have to ask you tonight a little
bit different than other nights. I don't mean to put the pressure
on you, but you're going to comment on County impact and so on.
MR. HILTON-Sure.
MR. PALING-Would you tell us what's different from the two packets
that we have, because the one tonight we haven't, and I hope you
can do that okay.
MR. HILTON-Okay.
MR. PALING-Is there anyone here representing the applicant?
MR. HILTON-There shouldn't be anything different from this
application. No additional information was received this evening.
MR. PALING-We do have questions of the applicant, or the
applicant's representative. So if no one's here from the
applicant, we'll open the public hearing on the Dale Campbell
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application. Does anyone care to speak about it, pro or con?
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
BRIAN KING
MR. KING-My name's Brian King. My wife and I are co-owners along
with RaYmond and Joanne Maddox of the camp just to the east of the
Campbell property. We've owned this property now for approximately
11, 12 years, and are concerned by the new dock, as to how it's
going to impact on our enjoYment of our present situation. By
that, I mean this covered boathouse is going to be coming out at an
angle into the bay. From our dock, and we went up there this
winter, I did submit some pictures of how this is going to impact
our enjoYment of the lake. We enjoy greatly looking out to the
west toward the main body of the lake and right where the sunsets
with the mountains in the background, and it is our feeling that
this boathouse is going to obstruct that view considerably, and
(lost words) with the fence that they're going to have around the
deck. It looks to me like it's going to be well over 14 feet high,
and the view will be greatly impaired, and would object for that
reason. I would strongly support their concept of putting a new
dock in. I think they need a new dock. I don't object to that at
all, but we would greatly prefer to see it just be a flat dock, and
not the covered boathouse attached to it.
MR. RUEL-Your property is where, east or west?
MR. KING-To the east, just a little inside the bay from them.
MR. STARK-That's the big white house that sits up high?
MR. KING-No. It's an almost identical house to theirs. It's a
red. We just have a U-shaped dock. The other thing I might add is
it's considerably bigger than any structure on that side of the bay
going in. It's much bigger, much larger than anything along that
side. (Lost words) unusual design that's on that side.
MR. RUEL-You mean as far as the deck is concerned?
MR. KING-Yes.
MR. PALING-You mean as far as the 40 feet is concerned.
MR. KING-Forty feet is going to be large.
MR. PALING-I didn't see any in that similar dimension in that area.
MR. KING-Absolutely not. Forty feet long. The decks are going to
be, I think, 12 feet across. It's going to be a large structure.
MR. PALING-Okay.
Dale Campbell.
MR. KING-Those are some photographs we took this winter, and tried
to sketch in according to the information we had as to how this is
going to change the appearance.
There's still no one here from the applicant,
MR. PALING-Okay. The built up part here, the sketch is sketched
in.
MR. KING-Yes, and there's one that shows as it is, and one with
just what would be sort of a flat dock.
MR. PALING-Okay.
MR. MACEWAN-Is there a height to a proposed covering that would be
acceptable to you, other than 14 feet?
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. KING-I think 14 feet is
than, it looked to me like
might be as high as 16 feet.
any bit of difference as to
not going to be a whole lot different
they were saying in their drawing it
I'm not sure 14 feet is going to make
what they're trying to do.
MR. RUEL-There's no indications of the height on this drawing
anywhere. That's why if the applicant was here.
MR. PALING-Have you talked to Mr. Campbell, between the two of you,
to discuss it?
MR. KING-We have corresponded with him and expressed our
displeasure with the design, yes.
MR. STARK-Anything else, Brian?
MR. KING-No.
MR. PALING-Thank you.
Campbell matter?
MR. HILTON-I just have one written comment that I'll read in. It's
a letter to the Planning Board dated the 11th of April, 1997. It
says, "I have reviewed the file on the application of Dale &
Catherine Campbell to construct a new wharf and open-sided
boathouse on Dunham Bay (Tax Map #5-1-11). We have no objections
to this new construction. Douglas A. Wrigley (Tax Map No. 5-1-7)"
Is there anyone else here to speak on the
MR. PALING-Okay. Is there anyone else, for the moment? All right.
We're going to leave the public hearing open. Because there is no
one here representing the applicant, I don't see that we have any
alternative but to table it. Now what does this do to the
applicant?
MR. HILTON-One thing, if you'd like, one thing you could do right
now, and this is entirely up to the Board, but you could put this
item off until later in toniqht's meeting, and see if the applicant
does show up, maybe they're running late or something, and then we
could pick it up then, and then if need be, you could table it for
another evening, another meeting.
MR. PALING-Okay. I guess that's about the only thing we ~ do.
If that's okay with the Board if we just let this go until later on
in the evening, and then if necessary, we'll table it.
MR. RUEL-Yes. If he doesn't show up this evening and we table it,
can we table it so that the applicant can set his own date?
MR. PALING-Well, he'll have to confer with the Planning Staff, and
he may have to re-notify the, send out another notice.
MR. HILTON-Well, with the public hearing, if the public hearing is
left open, there'd really be no need for further notification. We
could hear it, we could say the first meeting in May, bring it up
on that evening.
MR. PALING-Well, what do we do about the person who testified
tonight, make sure he knows?
MR. HILTON-Well, we'd certainly let them know. We'd give them a
call or something and let them know when the meeting would take
place. We would plan for the first meeting in May, the first
regular meeting in May, which would be the third Tuesday.
MR. PALING-All right. Well, lets see what happens then, and see if
he shows up, and we'll come back to it. Lets just move on to the
next item, then. Okay. Do the minutes.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. STARK-Okay.
CORRECTION OF MINUTES:
February 20, 1997: NONE
February 25, 1997: NONE
MOTION TO APPROVE THE MINUTES DATED FEBRUARY 20TH & 25TH, 1997,
Introduced by Roger Ruel who moved for its adoption, seconded by
Robert Paling:
Duly adopted this 15th day of April, 1997, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Stark, Mr. Ruel, Mr. West, Mr. Brewer, Mr.
Paling
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mrs. LaBombard
SITE PLAN NO. 16-97 TYPE II NEWTON'S AUTO SALES, INC. OWNER:
BOYCHUCK - c/o BOB SEARS ZONE: HC-1A LOCATION: EAST SIDE RIDGE
ROAD - CORNER OF QUAKER AND RIDGE ROAD USED AUTO SALES. PER
SECTION 179-23 AUTOMOBILE SALES IS SUBJECT TO REVIEW AND APPROVAL
BY THE PLANNING BOARD. WARREN CO. PLANNING: 4/9/97 TAX MAP NO.
109.-1-7 LOT SIZE: 1 + ACRE SECTION: 179-23
ALBERT ZITO, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
STAFF INPUT
Notes from Staff, Site Plan No. 16-97, Newton's Auto Sales, Inc.,
Meeting Date: April 15, 1997 "The applicant is seeking approval
to allow a used auto sales business on property located at the
northeast corner of Quaker Road and Ridge Road. The applicant
plans to provide parking for 40 vehicles. Due to the location of
the building and the limited width of this property there may not
be enough room on this lot to park 40 vehicles along with vehicles
used by employees and patrons of this site. The applicant has
indicated that they are seeking approval to allow parking of
vehicles on Niagara Mohawk property to the south. Without this
approval staff believes it would be difficult to park 40+ vehicles
on this property. The Planning Board may also wish to require
landscaping be provided by the applicant along Quaker and Ridge
Roads as has been done with other commercial projects throughout
Queensbury. "
MR. HILTON-This project was reviewed for Warren County Planning
Board, on the ninth of April, and No County Impact was found, and
there's a resolution signed by Tracey Clothier, Chairperson.
MR. RUEL-George, could you explain further how you arrived at the
inadequate parking area?
MR. HILTON-In looking at the site plan, if you look at the
distances between the building and each property line, and you take
into account that each parking space has to be nine feet wide by
twenty feet long, as per our Zoning Ordinance, it seems kind of
difficult, in measuring it, that you would be able to fit 40
automobiles on the site, and at the same time have enough drive
aisle to maneuver cars in and out of the site.
MR. PALING-And what's the difference in the information, the two
packets of information.
MR. HILTON-The information that you received tonight is the same as
you've received before.
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MR. RUEL-It's identical.
MR. PALING-Is there anyone here representing the applicant? Okay,
would you come up, please, and identify yourself?
MR. BREWER-George, haven't we, in the past, as far, I'm trying to
remember Barrett's. Did we require a car lot to be nine by twenty?
MR. HILTON-Well, each parking space, if the use primarily involves
the parking of vehicles, then you've got to have enough room for
the car and also a drive aisle.
MR. BREWER-But isn't that for patrons?
MR. HILTON-I think the thing to do, and the applicant can speak to
this, but I think they plan to do some minor maintenance of the
automobiles on site, and our concern would just be that if you're
going to be doing the maintenance in the rear of the building, and
you've got cars parked up along, up and to the front, it may be
difficult maneuvering cars around there.
MR. BREWER-I don't disagree with the drive aisle, but I mean as far
as cars on display, I don't see a need for having them that far
apart. I mean, he might pick up two or three or four spaces if he
put them closer together.
MR. PALING-Yes, and I think there's evidence that they have two
repair doors back there now. So maybe we'll, a lot of this will be
clarified from the applicant.
MR. ZITO-I'm Al Zito. I'm the applicant from Newton's Auto Sales
Incorporated.
MR. PALING-Okay. Would you want to tell us what you're going to do
there and you might address some of the comments that have been
made so far.
MR. ZITO-As far as the parking, we've sought permission from NiMo
to use that property out in the front. There should be sufficient
parking. They're just for display, there would be a maximum of 40
(lost words) and they'll go, if I have 100 feet you could be 25
cars straight in a row.
MR. PALING-Did you say you've qotten approval or you're qettinq
approval?
MR. ZITO-We're seeking. They've indicated there should be no
problem with that. We don't have it yet, and in the back, we only
do, as the cars come in, we just do a check out there, make sure
that they're in good condition. Repairs are sent out. So we
actually have no reason for moving them around, and there's a large
square area, right in the back, that we could probably park 12 or
15 cars right in that area, where the property line comes this way
and juts out that way, coming across this way in the back. So from
this area here, you could probably put 12 or 15 vehicles in there,
for display only.
MR. RUEL-None of this area is paved, right?
MR. ZITO-It's all stone.
really good.
We (lost word) the stone so it looks
MR. STARK-What are you going to do with the shed in the back, to
the north of the building?
MR. ZITO-That little shed to the side? Nothing.
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MR. STARK-Leave it there?
MR. ZITO-Leave it there, take it down, if you want it down. It's
of no use to me.
MR. PALING-The only business you're going to run there is used
cars?
MR. ZITO-Automobile sales. No public repair.
MR. PALING-No. I mean, any other business besides selling of used
cars?
MR. ZITO-No.
MR. PALING-You can't display a car in the front, inside of the
building, can you?
MR. ZITO-Yes. We have made provision for putting (lost words) we
can put three vehicles inside.
MR. PALING-Peeking through the window, it doesn't look like there's
room for a car to get by with the new wall going up.
MR. ZITO-If you look to the left, right where we're putting a big
showroom door in there. You'll be able to drive in and put two
this way and one straight across the front.
MR. RUEL-Could you tell me what your request to NiMo is?
MR. ZITO-It's just the use of the property from that point to
Quaker Road, and we'll keep it maintained. We'll keep it the grass
cut.
MR. RUEL-You wouldn't use this for anything?
MR. ZITO-No, just for display.
MR. RUEL-Is that on the north side of the building?
MR. ZITO-The Quaker Road side. It would be the south side.
MR. RUEL-That's where you're going to park the cars?
MR. ZITO-That's where we're going to park the cars.
MR. RUEL-Not on NiMo property?
MR. ZITO-No, not now until we get permission from them.
MR. RUEL-But if you got permission from them, then you'd have
space.
MR. ZITO-We'd have additional space.
MR. WEST-You could park them two deep along there?
MR. ZITO-Right now we could park them two deep and still have
probably a 25 or 30 foot drive through and access to the back.
MR. RUEL-And your hours of operation are until six p.m. did you
say?
MR. ZITO-Six o'clock.
MR. RUEL-Yes. You don't anticipate putting lights out there, do
you?
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MR. ZITO-We would put private lighting, but we'd lease that from
NiMo. They'd put it on the poles out there.
MR. RUEL-There is some existing poles.
MR. ZITO-Yes, the NiMo poles.
MR. RUEL-I see.
MR. ZITO-We'd just lease.
MR. BREWER-What kind of lighting?
MR. ZITO-They put these privacy parking lights up. I have them in
my other location.
MR. RUEL-Yes. NiMo does that.
MR. ZITO-Yes, and you pay so much a month for the lighting and
maintenance.
MR. PALING-Privacy parking, what is that? I don't know what kind
of a light that is.
MR. ZITO-It's mercury vapor light. Instead of it facing the road,
like a street light, it would face the building and the parking
area.
MR. RUEL-I have a question for George. Should this go before the
Beautification Committee for landscaping?
MR. HILTON-There was no landscaping proposed as a part of the site
plan. The site plan only indicated that they moving into an
already built building. So therefore the decision was made to
forward it to the Planning Board. If you feel that you'd like it
referred to the Beautification Committee, you can certainly do
that.
MR. BREWER-There's a comment in here about it.
MR. RUEL-Should there be some landscaping?
MR. ZITO-(Lost words) will maintain the shrubbery and the green
area, the front lawn and so forth.
MR. RUEL-You can't tell from the plan whether there's any
landscaping or not.
MR. ZITO-Yes.
MR. PALING-Well, there is some landscaping there, yes.
MR. ZITO-The front of the building has shrubbery, and down the
side.
MR. RUEL-Yes, but Staff comment indicates to me that perhaps they
thought there was a lack of it.
MR. PALING-Well, I think they're right, and we can get to that I
think maybe toward the end when we cover other stuff, but I think
there should be additional plantings there, yes, but we can get to
that.
MR. MACEWAN-I want to get clear on something. Without NiMo's
permission to utilize their property, how many cars can you store
in that lot do you think?
MR. ZITO-We can still put 30 to 40 cars comfortably.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. MACEWAN-And with NiMo's blessing, how many more cars could you
put on there?
MR. ZITO-You could go to 100.
MR. MACEWAN-How many do you anticipate having at anyone time?
MR. ZITO-We've never had more than 30 or 40 cars.
MR. PALING-Okay. Would you care to put a number on that? As a
maximum you'd be held to?
MR. ZITO-Forty, even with NiMo's property.
MR. PALING-Okay, and that's the maximum you'd park on your property
for re-sale?
MR. ZITO-Yes.
MR. PALING-Okay. Lets go to the public hearing. I'll open the
public hearing on the Newton Auto Sales matter. Is there anyone
here that would care to speak about it? Please come up and
identify yourself.
KEN ELLIS
MR. ELLIS-Good evening. My name is Ken Ellis,
approximately 100 yards from the proposed site. I
with lights on. First off, the north side of
within 50 feet of a dwelling.
385 Ridge Road,
don't sleep well
the building is
MR. PALING-Okay. Is that where you live or is that your property
there that you're talking about?
MR. ELLIS-385 Ridge.
opposite side.
I'm approximately 100 yards north, the
MR. PALING-Okay.
MR. ELLIS-Now the existing building right now is approximately 50
feet from an occupied dwelling, okay. That may be acceptable.
That's within the minimums. The front of the building, to the
front paved area of the highway, is less than 40 feet, or
approximately 40 feet.
MR. BREWER-Thirty-two feet.
MR. RUEL-Thirty-two.
MR. ELLIS-Thirty-two feet, I guesstimated it. As for the paved
area on the south side of the building, adjacent to Niagara Mohawk
property, that was recently paved with stone, right up to four
o'clock yesterday afternoon, the 14th. No more than approximately
20 feet was paved, prior to this recent development. So now
there's no green space to the south of the building. None
whatsoever, right up and adj acent to what appears to be the
property marker for Niagara Mohawk property on the south side of
the building, and from Ridge Road, it's approximately 120 some odd
feet deep.
MR. BREWER-The paving is you mean?
MR. ELLIS-The stone and the pre-existing macadam.
MR. PALING-Explain that 120 again. That seems a little shy.
MR. BREWER-No, the paving.
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MR. PALING-East to west, okay.
MR. RUEL-He's talking about Ridge.
MR. PALING-Well, this is the area, here, that he's talking about,
the paving that runs along side of the building.
MR. ELLIS-The south side of the building, parallel with Quaker
Road. That has all been stoned.
MR. BREWER-What he's saying is, the pavement they have put down is
120 feet.
MR. PALING-From where?
MR. ELLIS-From the road area.
MR. PALING-Road area, okay. It doesn't run the whole length of the
building, then.
MR. ELLIS-It runs well beyond the length of the building.
MR. PALING-And if it goes from the roadway, it's got to be more
than 120 feet.
MR. ELLIS-I don't know the exact dimensions of the building.
MR. PALING-The building's 100 feet long.
MR. ELLIS-So I'd say it's 140 feet of stone now. So there is no
green space to the south side of the building. None whatsoever.
MR. PALING-Yes, until you hit the NiMo property.
MR. ELLIS-That's right. One of my main concerns is there are no
sidewalks anywhere on the Ridge Road, either side. The children
congregate on Meadow Lane, immediately opposite that driveway, the
only existing driveway to that property. The children have to pick
up the bus there. They congregate for the bus there. That is a
very busy intersection with children all the way around that
intersection, that corner, and every evening when they disembark
from the bus. That originally was all developed residential, and
gradually it's encroaching, and I realize you can't stop progress,
but that's still a residential area. Now however that was zoned,
we have to live with it, but clearly, that area cannot stand
anYmore density on that particular road, and I would beseech anyone
here to try and cross Quaker Road, right now, within 100 yards of
that intersection. You take your life in your hands. You have to
go 100 yards either way and cross traffic, and everyone is taught
to cross at a light. You can't. People making right turns on red.
They have green arrows. It's impossible to cross that intersection
right now. Right now I'd say that that existing parking area is
clearly 60% more than is was a few weeks ago, and that's a
conservative estimate. I think that's all I have to say.
MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else? Please come
up.
BONNIE GLENDENNING
MRS. GLENDENNING-I'm Bonnie Glendenning. I live at 395 Ridge Road,
which is a little farther up Ridge from where the existing
structure is. We also own a business on Ridge Road, and we've
spent the last 24 years here trying to maintain a building and a
business in a residential area so it would conform to any aesthetic
quality for this residential area. I see progress as being very
important, and having a commercial property in a residential area,
I'm sort of sitting on both sides of the fence, but I think that
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the commercial property which would be on that corner would be
mostly (lost words) to the entire community of residents around
there. It would be something that could retain a residential
appearance. We're losing that very definitely. By allowing
something like that to go in there, it changes the entire
complexity of the entire area around that four corners. Yes, there
are two other commercial properties, but in the evening there is
nothing is left for an aesthetic quality it looks very nice on
those corners, and I have nothing against car dealerships. My
father was a car dealer for many years, but you can't put it away.
You can't plant your flowers (lost words) Halfway Brook on the
weekends and so on and so forth. (lost words) I think that it is
imperative that at some point we retain a more aesthetic quality.
Having the lawns, having the flowers, having it look like it fits
into a residential community, and that's what Ridge Road has been,
and I think it should remain that way.
MR. PALING-Thank you.
MARJORY JOHNSON
MS. JOHNSON-I'm Marjory Johnson. I agree with everything Bonnie
has just said, and I have several letters here from my neighbors,
all opposing this lot being used as a used car lot.
MR. PALING-Well, really they should be read. Give them to George
and they should be read into the record. If we have them, they're
not going to do any good in the envelope.
MS. JOHNSON-Thank you.
MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you.
STEVE GUZIK
MR. GUZIK-My name is Steve Guzik, and I'm the Plant Manager at AVS
Engineered Systems. Of course we're not in close proximity as some
of the other people that have just spoken, but we are not here to
hinder free enterprise at all. What we do ask for, though, is that
the proprietor of this establishment try and maintain this property
as well as or at least as well as the other auto dealerships on
Quaker Road.
MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you. Who else would like to talk?
MATT HARRISON
MR. HARRISON-My name's Matt Harrison. I own the property on 1
Meadow Lane, which is as soon as you enter into Meadow Lane off of
Ridge Road you come to my property. Certainly this property in
question is very visible from my property in the day time, and
certainly with any kind of lights, I won't be able to sleep, but
more importantly, it is important that I got almost sick to my
stomach when I got this letter. I have a two year old daughter,
and I bought a house in the neighborhood so that she could ride her
bike, be in the neighborhood and be safe. A used car dealership or
car dealership, when someone's going to buy something from a car
dealership as opposed to a restaurant or any other commercial
enterprise, they've got to test drive this vehicle. I think that
if you talk to any car dealership in Queensbury, anybody takes
their car and test drives it on Meadowbrook Road. It's probably
the only road in Queensbury where you can drive 55 miles per hour.
Obviously, anybody that's going to test drive a car, get in the
car, exit Ridge Road, go right across Ridge Road, into Meadow Lan~,
directly over to Meadowbrook Road. One way to get there. I'm not
the only one in this neighborhood with children. These people that
are test driving the vehicles don't know there are children, and
what type of neighborhood this is. I work out of my home. I see
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kids in the street, riding bikes, roller blading all day long.
They're not going to understand this increased density. I mean, I
dare say there's maybe 10 cars a day that drive down Meadow Lane.
This is, at best, going to double the traffic. I just can't sleep
at night thinking about what could happen. That's all I've got to
say.
MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you. Who else would like to speak?
DOUG IRISH
MR. IRISH-Hi. My name is Doug Irish, and I'd just like to speak on
behalf of Mr. Zito. I think, for one it is a permitted use in the
area. I think I was up here a couple of weeks ago when
Passarelli's application was up here, and I didn't think it was a
good idea having a dealership on Route 9, but I do think that
Quaker Road is conducive to car dealers. I think that's kind of
where they should be in Queensbury. The problems that they had
with Meadow laying across from the business, it's not actually
right across the street from the driveway. It's probably 35 feet
down the road, and I have kids. I wouldn't want my kids out on
this corner either, but that's really something that they could
take up with the School Board, move the bus stop if that's a
problem. I wouldn't want my kids out on that road whether there
was a business there or not. It's a dangerous road, Ridge Road in
itself. As far as walking across Quaker Road, anywhere on Quaker
Road you couldn't do that, safely, and the intersection is
controlled by a traffic light. I don't think you can really expect
a business to control the traffic that's not coming to his
business, that's traveling up and down the road. He has no control
over that. I've know Al Zito probably for between five and eight
years, and some of you may know him from, he's the former owner of
Adirondack Power Products, and I don't think he's ever done
anything in the Town that he didn't check and see if it was
authorized first. I think when they put the sewer thing up here,
he was one of the first businesses to tie into it, and I don't
think that he would do anything that's going to harm the community,
and if anybody's got a complaint and they want to talk to him, he's
the kind of guy that will listen to you, and, you know, if it's
something he can control, he'll do everything in his power to
control it, and again, I would just go back to the fact that it is
a permitted use. It's Highway Commercial, and I don't think that
it's something you can just turn down because it's not something
that somebody wants in their backyard.
MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you. Would anyone else care to talk?
George, how far north does the Highway Commercial extend from this
property? I've got the map in front of me.
MR. HILTON-I think this is the last lot with Highway Commercial.
The lot to the north had a re-zoning to Neighborhood Commercial,
and then from there north it's a Single Family Residential zone.
MR. PALING-Single Family Residential One Acre, yes. So that's the
last property.
MR. HILTON-That's the last Hiqhway Commercial property.
MR. STARK-There's a realtor office next door.
MR. PALING-And what's after that, did you say?
MR. HILTON-The insurance company, at the north there, and that's
Neighborhood Commercial.
MR. PALING-Yes, Neighborhood Commercial. There's a little block,
and that's north of, or abuts the north side of this property.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. HILTON-Yes.
MR. PALING-Yes, okay. Now does the Board concur we should hear the
letters that have been sent in?
MR. STARK-We've got to hear them.
MR. MACEWAN-On the record.
MR. PALING-Go ahead.
MR. HILTON-All right. A letter dated April 14, 1997. It says,
"Dear Sir: I am writing this letter because I am very much
concerned over the proposed use of the property on the corner of
Ridge and Quaker Roads. I have owned a home in the subdivision
directly across the street from this property for many years. This
neighborhood has always been very quiet. Many residents walk the
streets of this neighborhood every day, and many children can be
seen riding their bikes at almost any time of day. These streets
in this neighborhood are our "safe haven" since the nearby Quaker
and Ridge Roads are so heavily congested. Most residents in this
area are aware that all of the car dealerships on Quaker Road have
their customers test their vehicles up Meadowbrook Road because it
has little traffic and a 55 mph speed limit. This is accepted by
our residents and the children are told to avoid Meadowbrook Road
just as they avoid Quaker and Ridge. This new car dealership poses
several problems. First of all, it is much too close to the
subdivision. The distance between the driveway of the property and
the subdivision is less than 50 feet. Also all the traffic from
this dealership will drive across Meadow Lane in the subdivision to
get to Meadowbrook Road for their test drive. I have lived in the
subdivision for many years and have seen many young children grow
up here, but now I am haunted by what may happen if this business
is allowed to occupy this property. Sincerely, Pearl Johnson" A
letter dated April 15, 1997. "To Whom It May Concern: We are
absolutely opposed to having a car sales business at Quaker and
Ridge, Queensbury, NY. School buses drop off and pick up children
there on Ridge - the traffic and people "trying out" the cars,
through our neighborhood, is a real danger - Why not be on Quaker
Rd. like other auto dealers? This would be a terrible move, plus
lowering the values here in Ridge Meadows - Sincerely, Joan & Jack
Carson" A letter addressed to the Planning Board. It says "We
would oppose any business on this property which would give the
residential surroundings a commercial appearance. The existing
commercial properties on Ridge Road have worked hard to blend into
the neighborhood. A used car lot does not blend into the
neighborhood. Edmund and Dorothy Clark" A letter which states,
"The placement of a used car dealership concerns us because - a.
it may allow a "j unk yard" look to develop on prime Ridge Rd.
property. b. it may allow the dealership to open another
business, such as, car repair. c. we would not like this area to
develop into an auto junk yard. We object to any business being
established which will lower any of our neighborhood real estate
values. George G. Thurston Nancy P. Thurston" A letter dated
April 15th. "I am opposed to having a used car dealership at the
corner of 72 Meadow Lane and Ridge Rd. due to the already busy
traffic and lots of our young children that have to be bussed at
that immediate site. It will be very unsafe and inconvenient. I
hope you will give us as taxpayers your kind consideration. Thank
you, Mrs. Johnson White" A letter dated April 14th, "To Whom It
May Concern: We, the undersigned, wish to go on record voicing our
protest to any person or persons doing business as a used car lot
on the property at Ridge and Quaker Roads in Queensbury. We
believe this type of business will affect the value of our
properties in Ridge Meadows, aside from causing a disturbance on
our quiet streets. Sincerely, Virginia A. Sanford 43 Meadow Rd.;
Sally C. Sanford 71 Meadow Drive; Richard L. Sanford 71 Meadow Dr."
A letter dated April 14th, it says, "Gentlemen: I have just
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learned that you are considering allowing a used car ~usi~ess ~n
the former Conklin Plumbing corner. Those of us who 11ve ln thlS
area of Ridge Road are constantly having to come before boards and
do battle in our attempts to retain the value of our properties and
the residential appearance of our neighborhood. Would you like a
used car lot next to your home? We realize no one can stop
progress - but a used car lot? This is not progress. There is
much vacant land along Quaker Rd. but the prices are probably high.
The price for the Conklin property should be some indication of
deteriorating values in our area. We ask you to please be
considerate of our properties in your decisions. Dorothy A.
Chartier" "To Whom It May Concern: We are very much opposed to
having a used car dealership open in the former Conklin Plumbing
location on Ridge Road near Meadow Lane. Ours is a quiet, low-
traffic residential neighborhood, and a business such as that would
have a very adverse effect on the family quality of our immediate
area. Please don't let this happen! Respectfully, Barr S. Morris
Margaret M. Morris" A letter dated April 15th, "We own Hair
Designs on 384 Ridge Rd. Our concern with a used car dealership is
that it was very important to this neighborhood to have a
residential look within a commercial property. We feel it would be
a hard business to keep the look that this area would enjoy living
with. We work very hard to keep the look our neighbors live with
daily. Thank you, Rick and Karen Cunningham" And that's about it.
MR. PALING-Okay. The public hearing is still open. Is there
anyone else that cares to speak? Okay. If not, then we'll close
the public hearing.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. PALING-Would the applicant want to come back up, please. Did
you want to address any of the comments that have been made?
MR. ZITO-Yes. As far as the look, maintaining the look of our
location, we maintain a very clean location. We don't keep junk,
or vehicles of late models. Our projected sales are only 15 to 20
units per month, and we're not talking about a lot of test drives.
I, myself, did not even know that you could go through Meadow Lane
to get to Meadowbrook. My intention would be if someone wanted a
test drive, they would go up Quaker Road or down Ridge Road, not go
all the way across to Meadow Lane. I can understand their feeling,
but we do maintain a clean area. It does look nice. It'll look
nice. It looks nicer now than when Conklin's had it. I mean, we
still haven't cleaned up the lawns or anything, but, you know, I
don't see why we should be denied use of what's usable property.
As far as the price of Quaker Road, it's too costly, and I don't
own it. I'm just renting it. I'd appreciate it if you'd give
consideration to that also.
MR. STARK-When we were there yesterday, Bob and I, we came up with
a little list of things for you to do that would kind of dress it
up. Like, immediately to the south of the entrance way, there's no
shrubs there. To the north, there's those three spreading yews,
you know, shrub that area, keep the lights facing in, not out.
MR. ZITO-Yes. The lights would never face the development or
anything. They would only be facing toward the back, toward the
vacant property, you know, not facing the road, toward that back
lot.
MR. STARK-One of the other things, too, is the shed, and there was
stumps in the ground, although I think today they did clean the
stumps up. Anyway, did you plan on having a dumpster or anything?
MR. ZITO-Yes, we did.
MR. STARK-And that has to be enclosed.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. ZITO-Yes, we know. We just want to see where the trash company
would want it, and we'd put a stockade fence around it.
MR. STARK-And you don't plan on having anything outside at all,
like fenders or batteries?
MR. ZITO-No. We don't do any of that kind of, no body work at all.
We're just strictly sales, basically. It's just light brake work,
nothing that's going to accumulate any kind of garbage. Any trade-
in vehicles we usually ship away.
MR. PALING-When I think of this, I guess we have to think back to
the traffic that was there when Conklin occupied the building, too,
to make a comparison as to how it would look or be with the way it
would be with a used car business, and I kind of visualize that in
my mind.
MR. WEST-Did Conklin have a showroom there? Was that a showroom
there?
MR. PALING-Not really a showroom. Not on display, inside.
MR. ZITO-It had a (lost word) showroom where he did sell fixtures
and that type of thing. We have a lot of people drive in still
looking for Conklin's, right now while we're working. Fifteen or
twenty vehicles a month, we don't get that kind of (lost words)
twelve or fifteen customers there at one time. I've never seen
that. We get one, run in an run out, two. Maybe on a Saturday
morning you'll have four at one time. That will be a lot. I've
been in that business a long time, and I've never been congested
that way. We're not a big operation. We're not a super store.
We're very low-keyed actually.
MR. PALING-And you have one other lot?
MR. ZITO-We have a lot off Exit 17 in South Glens Falls, and we
maintain our repair facility over on the Boulevard.
MR. PALING-And that's where you'd have the major repairs done is
over there?
MR. ZITO-Yes.
MR. PALING-Why do you have two rolling overhead doors in the back?
MR. ZITO-Because the pole's going down the center, we couldn't
access the full garage without having two doors.
MR. PALING-Okay, because you had a build a new entrance to get to
one side, one door. Okay. What other comments do we have, or
questions?
MR. RUEL-Board members may be satisfied with the plan that was
submitted, but I feel it lacks a lot of details, and I think that
the plan should be re-submitted, and that you should show, One,
crushed stone area, Two, show the location of the NiMo property,
Three, show the location of lighting fixtures, how many and the
hours of operation, Four, show the landscaping, both existing and
what you propose, Five, the condition, a maximum of 40 cars to be
parked on property should be a note on the plan, Six, show the
removal of the shed, Seven, show the dumpster location. I think
all of these items should be on the plan, as part of this
application. I looked at the plan and, believe me, it doesn't show
any of these things.
MR. WEST-You should also show the location and proximity to the
other neighborhood areas.
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MR. RUEL-Yes that would be nice, too, to have, as Dave said, to
show this pa;ticular piece of property and it's relationship to the
surrounding properties, not extensive, but to show at least the,
what they call the Neighborhood Commercial property and perhaps the
closest residential plats, and also that, what's that, Heather Lane
or someone mentioned that road across the way.
MR. BREWER-Meadow Lane.
MR. RUEL-Meadow Lane, and I feel that all these things should be
shown on the plan, as part of the application. I mean, all these
questions came up, and I can't see how we could possibly approve an
application like this and make all of these conditions. They just
aren't there. They're not in writing, and they're not on plans.
Those are my comments.
MR. PALING-All right. Who else has got comments?
MR. BREWER-I would agree with Roger, and I think one more further
step we should take is, if we're going to have an access, define
the access in the front of this place.
MR. RUEL-He says on this plan that he will use existing driveways.
MR. BREWER-Well, maybe reduced, then.
MR. RUEL-But they're not shown.
MR. BREWER-Exactly. That's my point, and something else comes to
my mind is access. It is a Highway Commercial, but if we think
about all the car dealerships, they have access from Quaker Road.
There is no access from Quaker Road to this property, and to me,
that, I have a little bit of a problem with it, only because they
are going up toward a residential area where the children are. I
just have a problem with it, as far as that goes.
MR. RUEL-Yes. I don't think I'm asking for anything unreasonable,
because this is the same request we have for other applications.
MR. WEST-I agree with Roger.
MR. STARK-Well, the only thing wrong with that is the Adirondack
Animal Hospital probably has five times the amount of traffic that
this guy will generate per day, coming in and out. Is that true?
MR. BREWER-I don't know.
MR. STARK-Well, we'll get Mrs. Glendenning back up here and we'll
ask her then, okay, how many customers she has a day. I mean, that
generates, and that's way up the road.
MR. RUEL-That has nothing to do with this.
MR. STARK-That's a residential area where she lives, even though
it's the Animal Hospital. It used to be, next door, was All Good
Realty, and now it's an insurance office.
MR. RUEL-Well, what's the relationship to this application?
MR. STARK-Well, Rog, did you go there and look at it?
MR. RUEL-Newton's?
MR. STARK-Yes.
MR. RUEL-I know where it is. Yes. I know where Conklin's is.
MR. STARK-Did you see where the crushed stone was or the shed
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behind the place and all that and everything?
MR. RUEL-No, I didn't see the crushed stone. That's why I'm asking
for it. Apparently, someone said this evening that there was more
crushed stone that was placed just recently.
MR. STARK-That was placed yesterday.
MR. PALING-I think George's point is that this is an existing
building, existing land, existing access, and I agree with some of
the things you're asking for, but not necessarily all of them,
simply because it is an existing building, existing land and
existing access.
MR. BREWER-But the use is what is more intense about it, Bob.
MR. MACEWAN-I think what we need to clarify and have Staff look
into is to find out how many cars can actually be kept on this lot,
both with the usage of the NiMo property and without the usage of
the NiMo property. Is there a way that you guys can get back up
there and figure that out?
MR. HILTON-Well, in our parking schedule, a used car lot isn't
something that's a listed use. So the parking requirements would
be determined by the Planning Board. My comment earlier was based,
you know, as I said, on the zoning Ordinance, which says that a
parking space is nine feet by twenty feet, and I think that's a
pretty safe measurement of what you need to fit a car in,
especially on a used car lot where the vehicle type and make can
vary. So, ultimately, I think the number of cars that can be
parked here is a Planning Board decision, but we would just want to
make sure that you keep in mind the dimensions and the requirements
within the Ordinance.
MR. MACEWAN-I'd like to have something to go by. I mean, his
application says that they plan on storing up to 40 cars, and your
Staff Notes say you doubt that it can store 40 cars.
MR. HILTON-Well, then, maybe the applicant, you know, if you're
asking for more information, he can certainly put a parking layout
on the plan and show us how he plans to store the cars.
MR. BREWER-Demonstrate exactly how he's going to do it, without
NiMo's permission and with. I mean, if you don't get NiMo's
permission, it does us no good to approve you the use of it.
MR. ZITO-NiMo's position is not going to change the fact that we're
only going to have 30 to 40 vehicles there at any given time.
MR. BREWER-But lets hypothetically
permission, you've only got SO feet.
lane, and the space has got to be 20.
say you don't get their
You've got to have a drive
MR. ZITO-We'd have one line across, and the property is how deep?
MR. BREWER-Well, to here it's 150 feet. So you've got 15.
MR. ZITO-You (lost words) and just put them straight in a row.
Could we make it?
MR. BREWER-You can get 15 in there.
MR. ZITO- I can get 15 across the front that way, and then the
square area in the back.
MR. PALING-If we had a drawing that showed it, I think it would be
much simpler.
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MR. RUEL-That's another item you can add on to the new plan.
MR. PALING-I think we've got quite a list of things that the Board
is requesting you to do, but I'd ask the Board this. Lets assume
that we make this list of necessary things, and the applicant
complies with it. Now, how are we going to vote? Are we going to,
lets not have the man do it just as an exercise. Will it be
acceptable to the Board if he meets all the criteria we're talking
about?
MR. RUEL-I won't know until I see the plan.
MR. BREWER-Exactly.
MR. MACEWAN-And I would ask that he be asked to go see the
Beautification Committee for their input. That's why we have them.
MR. PALING-Yes. I agree with that. We're going to do some
requiring in that regard, but if that's going to be the route, then
let the Beautification Committee take over.
MR. RUEL-This should be put off until all this information is
available.
MR. PALING-All right. Roger, read your list, and I'll go to mine.
MR. RUEL-AII right. A new plan showing, Number One, crushed stone
area and show the parking area for each car. Two, show the
location of NiMo property.
MR. BREWER-Why don't we just make a list for the guy right now.
MR. STARK-Roger, if you went up there, you would see where the
stakes are for the edge of the crushed stone, and the NiMo
property's in front of that, from there to Quaker Road.
MR. RUEL-Yes, I know. You're telling me that. Is it on this plan?
MR. STARK-No, but I go over a lot of plans once a month, and, you
know, they don't have other people's property listed.
MR. BREWER-No, we just want to see his property, George.
if he shows us his property, another point that should be
that if he's going to get permission from NiMo to put
there, we ought to know where they're going to be.
I mean,
made is
cars on
MR. STARK-The same as they are at Della and Queensbury Motors,
right on the grass.
MR. BREWER-Fine.
MR. RUEL-What's wrong with asking for a complete plan?
MR. STARK-There's nothing wrong, Rog, but when you start saying
that, you know, where's NiMo property, it's right in front of the
place.
MR. RUEL-I want to see it on a plan.
MR. PALING-Okay. Lets go ahead. Number One, we're going to have
a plan.
MR. RUEL-A revised plan showing the crushed stone area and parking
of cars, the location of parked cars.
MR. BREWER-How are we going to say this, show stone area? What are
we going to say, Roger, show the stone area? I just want a
definition of where you're going to park cars.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. MACEWAN-I don't think it's necessary to show the crushed stone
area. I want to see, for my piece of mind, how he plans on storing
the cars with NiMo's property being used and without NiMo's
property being used.
MR. BREWER-Perfect.
MR. BREWER-Okay. We've got one thing. Now we're saying we want a
parked car layout. A, the way the existing property is, and, B,
with NiMo property.
MR. RUEL-Okay. Fine.
MR. PALING-Okay. There's one.
MR. RUEL-And then I'd like to see the location of the lighting
fixtures and the hours of operation.
MR. BREWER-We've got the hours of operation.
MR. RUEL-Not of the lighting fixtures.
MR. BREWER-I'm sorry.
MR. PALING-Lighting hours.
MR. RUEL-And then I'd like to see landscaping, both existing and
proposed.
MR. PALING-Yes. Landscaping, and somehow or other, you should meet
with this young lady in the front row, from the Beautification
Committee, on that, perhaps it would make a short cut, but I know
we're going to ask you to do more, okay, a landscaping plan.
MR. RUEL-And the last item I have is the removal of the shed and
the location of the dumpster.
MR. PALING-Okay. Now the removal of the shed, I don't know. Why
do we want the shed removed?
MR. RUEL-Because the applicant said he was going to remove it.
MR. WEST-He said he'd be willinq to.
MR. RUEL-The applicant didn't say he was going to remove it.
MR. STARK-It just doesn't look good there, Rog.
MR. ZITO-We'll remove it.
MR. PALING-It's okay with you?
MR. ZITO-As long as it's okay with the (lost word) .
MR. RUEL-Okay. Removal of shed and the location of dumpster.
MR. PALING-Shed, show dumpster and enclosure.
MR. RUEL-Yes. Could you also show on the plan the location of the
driveways? I want to see it on the plan.
MR. BREWER-Yes. Does anybody have a problem if we asked them to
reduce that rather than have it the whole 121 feet?
MR. PALING-There is no curbing there.
MR. MACEWAN-Isn't he allowed 24 feet? Isn't that what the zoning
says?
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MR. BREWER-Some definition of a driveway.
MR. PALING-All right. Just show the driveway, show driveway.
Okay. Anything else? All right. So far I've got, Number One,
that he should have a layout plan showing the parked car layout,
with and without NiMo property. So they would show two things on
the same print, how it would be with NiMo, how it would be without
NiMo. It might take two prints. State what hours the lights are
going to be on.
MR. BREWER-And where they're going to be.
MR. PALING-Lighting hours and location. Landscaping plan, remove,
just to verify that the shed will be removed.
MR. BREWER-I don't have a problem with the shed.
MR. PALING-Show dumpster and enclosure, and then define the
driveway on a print. Okay. I've got this all down here, but I
want to re-do it.
MR. MACEWAN-You also need to put in there, Beautification Committee
review.
MR. PALING-Yes, and the landscaping plan. I'll put Beautification
Committee review and recommendation. Okay. All right. Is there
anything else from the Board? Okay. Now, I ask the question
again. If we ask the applicant to go through all of this, and he
does it.
MR. RUEL-Lets wait until it happens.
MR. BREWER-I mean, how can we decide how we're going to vote, Bob,
if we don't see it.
MR. PALING-All right. Then let it be. The public hearing is
closed, but go ahead, if you want to make a comment, make it quick.
Come on back up to the mic, if you're going to do it. We try to be
loose on this public hearing thing.
STEVE GUZIK
MR. GUZIK-It'll just take a second. I'd like to ask if you could
consider whether or not there's going to be a public address system
with this business that's going to be perhaps asking Uncle Fred or
Fred if Joe or somebody could report to the sales lot, because we
hear that allover the neighborhood, and on a summer day, we can
hear it from the muffler shops and everything else farther down the
line on Quaker Road.
MR. PALING-Okay.
MR. ZITO-This is not a super car operation.
little used car lot.
This is a small,
MR. PALING-Okay. Will you have an outdoor?
MR. ZITO-No, we will not have music, no outdoor PA system.
MR. PALING-No OD PA System. Okay.
MR. RUEL-This will be in the form of a letter to the applicant?
MR. HILTON-He'll get the resolution, and if you specify in the
resolution what you're looking for, he'll have it all outlined
right there.
MR. PALING-Then you can just give him a copy of this resolution as
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quickly as tomorrow.
MR. HILTON-Right.
MR. PALING-Yes. That would be a better way than me trying to do it
from here. All right. This is going to have to be tabled.
MOTION TO TABLE SITE PLAN NO. 16-97 NEWTON'S AUTO SALES, INC.,
Introduced by Roger Ruel who moved for its adoption, seconded by
Timothy Brewer:
Until the meeting of May 20th and receipt of further information
requested by the Planning Board as follows: One, revised plan
showing NiMo property and the parked car layout, proposed NiMo
property and existing property. Two, lighting hours and location
of lighting. Three, landscaping plan as per Beautification review
and recommendations. Four, remove shed. Five, show dumpster and
enclosure. Six, define driveway. No outdoor PA systems.
Duly adopted this 15th day of April, 1997, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Stark, Mr. Ruel, Mr. West, Mr. Brewer, Mr. MacEwan,
Mr. Paling
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mrs. LaBombard
MR. PALING-So work with the Planning Staff here, you can probably
get a copy of the resolution tomorrow morning, and then we'll point
for the first meeting of the Planning Board in May to review this,
then everything should hopefully take place that night, but the
acceptance of these conditions and the tabling of the motion
doesn't tell you how we're going to vote or how this thing is going
to turn out, and at that time, we should re-open the public
hearing, for anyone, or open it now and leave it open. Okay. I'll
re-open the public hearing.
PUBLIC HEARING RE-OPENED
MR. PALING-And we'll leave it open into the May 20th meeting.
MR. FRIEDLAND-Maybe you want to clarify that the public hearing is
not being closed tonight, but being adjourned.
MR. PALING-Okay.
MR. FRIEDLAND-So if you don't close it tonight, just adjourn it,
and re-open it again on May 20th. If you close it tonight, then
you have to re-notice it for the next meeting. So maybe you want
to clarify that the public hearing is not being closed tonight, but
simply adjourned and will be re-opened again at the next hearing.
MR. PALING-The public hearing is adjourned until May 20th. Okay.
See you then. Thank you.
SITE PLAN NO. 17-97 TYPE II CATHERINE M. MCDONOUGH OWNER:
THOMAS J. MCDONOUGH ZONE: HC-1A LOCATION: 1088 ROUTE 9 TO
PURCHASE AND LOCATE A ROLLING TEMPORARY HOT DOG CART ON THE
PROPERTY APPLICANT HAS EXISTING BUSINESS ON SAME PROPERTY.
WARREN CO. PLANNING: 4/9/97 TAX MAP NO. 68.-1-1 LOT SIZE: .384
ACRES SECTION: 179-23
CATHERINE MCDONOUGH, PRESENT
STAPF INPUT
Notes from Staff, Site Plan No. 17-97, Catherine M. McDonough,
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
Meeting Date: April 15, 1997 liThe applicant is seeking approval
to allow a hot dog cart business on commercial property on Route 9.
This new use would operate at this site with another current use.
Staff feels the operation of this new use would not have any
negative impacts and recommends approval of Site Plan No. 17-97."
MR. HILTON-Because it is a permanent use, it is not subject to the
Transient Merchant law, and is not considered a Transient Merchant
business. It's a permanent business that will operate on the site.
Warren County Planning Board resolution, dated April 9th of No
County Impact, signed Tracey Clothier, Chairperson.
MS. MCDONOUGH-I'm Catherine McDonough.
MR. PALING-Thank you. Any comments, questions at the moment?
MR. RUEL-I've got a couple of questions.
MR. PALING-Go ahead.
MR. RUEL-The application indicates temporary. I want a definition
of temporary, and also the hours of operation and whether there's
any lighting.
MS. MCDONOUGH-Temporary meaning June, July, August, September.
During the day, it's rolled out probably eleven 0' clock, say
possibly as late as six or seven o'clock in the evening, and then
put away for the evening.
MR. RUEL-What months?
MS. MCDONOUGH-May, June, July, and August, warm months.
MR. RUEL-AII summer.
MS. MCDONOUGH-Right.
MR. RUEL-The lighting and hours of operation.
MS. MCDONOUGH-It will be during the day.
MR. PALING-No lighting.
MR. RUEL-Okay. Thank you.
MR. PALING-All right. Is there anything that you want to tell us
about it that we don't perhaps already know? We've visited, most
of us visited the site.
MS. MCDONOUGH-There's a photograph of what the proposed cart will
look like in the packet.
MR. RUEL-You have three pictures, which one is it?
MS. MCDONOUGH-The main one in the middle.
MR. RUEL-The big one? What's the other ones? The other ones are
just extras. Mexican Fiesta and condiment dispensers.
MR. PALING-Okay. Lets go to a public hearing on this matter. Is
there anyone that cares to address the McDonough application?
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
NICK CAIMANO
MR. CAIMANO-Nick Caimano from Queensbury. Just a question, Mr.
Chairman. Staff feels there is no negative impact here. I guess
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
this place is where McDonough the lawyer is, and there's going to
be a hot dog cart, presumptively, you're marketing to transient
traffic, which is 40 mile an hour traffic on Route 9, and there's
no impact? That's hard for me to believe. I mean, where else is
she going to get customers, other than Route 9? Which has just
gone from four lanes to two lanes going north. It's 40 miles an
hour. It seems like a relatively dangerous situation.
MR. STARK-I would think that she probably gets most of her
customers from the motel, people that stay at the motel.
MR. CAIMANO-So the cart then will be toward the back of the
property?
MR. STARK-I don't know where the cart is.
MR. CAIMANO-My point is, if it's on Route 9, does it then become a
traffic hazard, for people, especially tourists who don't know any
better and who already travel Route 9 in a relatively haphazard
manner, who would all of a sudden stop because they see a hot dog
stand, and that's my concern.
MR. RUEL-Is there a shoulder there at all?
MR. CAIMANO-No. There's a curb. As I remember the property,
there's a curb and there's a cut where you go into Mr. McDonough's
law office, that's my fear. My fear is that that cart would be
there. I'm a commercial person, too, but my fear is we're going to
have this business. You're asking when it's going to be, the
obvious answer is, June, July and August because there aren't many
people buying hot dogs outside in January. That same situation
causes me concern because of what could happen with somebody
saying, gee, lets get a hot dog on Route 9.
MR. RUEL-You say there's one curb cut going into that parking area?
MR. CAIMANO-As I remember it. I haven't visited that in a while.
MR. STARK-There's two curb cuts.
MR. RUEL-Two? So they could go in one, into the parking area, and
back out again?
MR. CAIMANO-Well, you could, but what you'd be doing is you'd be
driving 40 miles an hour and you'd see a hot dog stand and say,
lets go in here, and put your brakes on and make a right hand turn.
MR. RUEL-That's what she's hoping for.
MR. CAIMANO-I know that.
MR. WEST-The same thing would apply for Martha's, right? There's
a hot dog stand.
MR. STARK-It applies for Suttons.
MR. WEST-It applies for any place.
MR. CAIMANO-No question. You're right. It does. I just want to
know if you want another one.
MR. PALING-Thank you. Who else would like to talk on this matter?
CHARLES MCNULTY
MR. MCNULTY-I'm Charles McNulty. I live up on Twicwood Lane,
roughly behind this general area. I hadn't really intended to make
comment on this one tonight, but it strikes me that I'm one of the
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
few people that (lost words) allow a miniature golf course and a go
kart track to go in across from this property on Route 9, and I
don't see how, fairly, you can deny the hot dog stand when you
allowed those other two businesses directly across on the other
side. I'll agree you may have some traffic problems there, but you
allow one, you need to allow the other.
MR. STARK-We didn't deny anything yet.
MR. MCNULTY-No, but countering the concerns about traffic. We've
already got a traffic problem there, and I doubt this will make it
much worse. So if you're going to have a problem, you're going to
have to address is some other way anyway, and eliminating the hot
dog stand is not going to solve the problem.
MR. PALING-Thank you. Who else would care to speak? Okay. If
not, the public hearing is closed.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. STARK-Ms. McDonough, where were you going to put the hot dog
stand? By the office where you register, or by the pool?
MS. MCDONOUGH-I have a picture of it right there, right by the big
sign by the shop, on the grass right next to my shop, on that side.
MR. PALING-So that's back from the road.
MS. MCDONOUGH-Considerably. It's going to be parallel to the
building. It's not going to be way out by the road.
MR. PALING-Okay. Do you mind stating that that is where that will
be located?
MS. MCDONOUGH-Yes.
MR. PALING-Okay. Then that commits you to it.
MS. MCDONOUGH-Right.
MR. RUEL-It's shown on the plan, isn't it?
MS. MCDONOUGH-Right.
MR. PALING-Okay. All right. Then this is a Type II. We don't
need a SEQRA. SO we can go right to a motion.
MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 17-97 CATHERINE M. MCDONOUGH,
Introduced by Roger Ruel who moved for its adoption, seconded by
George Stark:
As written.
Whereas, the Town Planning Board is in receipt of Site Plan No. 17-
97 CATHERINE M. McDONOUGH to purchase and locate a rolling
temporary hot dog cart on the property; and
Whereas, the above mentioned application, received 3-26-97,
consists of the following
1. Application w/drawings.
Whereas, the above file is supported with the following
documentation:
1. Staff Notes
2. Warren Co. Planning Bd. resolution dated 4/9/97
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
Whereas, a public hearing was held on 4/15/97 concerning the above
project; and
Whereas, the Planning Board has determined that the proposal
complies with the site plan review standards and requirements of
Section 179-38 of the Code of the Town of Queensbury (Zoning); and
Whereas, the Planning Board has
factors found in Section 179-39
Queensbury (Zoning); and
considered the
of the Code of
environmental
the Town of
Whereas, the requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review
Act have been considered; and
Therefore, Let It Be Resolved, as follows:
1. The Town Planning Board, after considering the above, hereby
move to approve Site Plan No. 17-97 CATHERINE M. McDONOUGH.
2. The applicant shall present two copies of the above referenced
site plan to the Zoning Administrator for his signature.
3. The Zoning Administrator is hereby authorized to sign the above
referenced plan.
4. Recreation Fees are to be paid at the time a building permit is
applied for.
5. Engineering Fees are to be paid prior to issuance of a building
permit.
6. The applicant agrees to the conditions set forth in this
resolution.
7. The conditions shall be noted on the map.
8. The issuance of permits is conditioned on compliance and
continued compliance with the Zoning Ordinance and site plan
approval process.
Duly adopted this 15th day of April, 1997, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Ruel, Mr. West, Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Stark, Mr. Paling
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mr. Brewer, Mrs. LaBombard
MR. PALING-Thank you.
MS. MCDONOUGH-Thank you.
SITE PLAN NO. 18-97 TYPE II STEVEN & DONNA SUTTON OWNER: SAME
ZONE: HC-1A LOCATION: EAST SIDE RT. 9 SOUTH OF ROUND POND ROAD
PROPOSAL IS TO CONSTRUCT AN 8,000 SQ. FT., 2 STORY ADDITION TO
EXISTING FURNITURE STORE. ADDITION TO BE USED AS SHOWROOM. WARREN
CO. PLANNING: 4/9/97 TAX MAP NO. 68.-1-15 LOT SIZE: 5.833 ACRES
SECTION: 179-23
TOM NACE, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
MR. HILTON-Okay. Just a correction on this one. The agenda that
you have lists the SEQRA as a Type II, and it's actually Unlisted,
and the applicant has attached a Short Form Environmental
Assessment Form. So we will have to do a SEQRA review for this
this evening.
MR. PALING-And is Short acceptable?
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting
4/15/97)
MR. HILTON-Short is acceptable.
MR. PALING-Okay.
STAFF INPUT
Notes from Staff, Site Plan No. 18 - 97, Steven & Donna Sutton,
Meeting Date: April 15, 1997 "The applicant proposes the
construction of an 8,000 sq. ft. addition to an existing furniture
store. The building which will be a two story building, will be
built to the rear of the existing Suttons furniture store on Route
9. The site plan does not indicate the height of the proposed
building. The new building must conform to the 40 foot height
requirement of the HC-1A zone. Permeability, setback and parking
requirements will meet HC-1A zone standards. The Planning Board
may wish to require the applicant to eliminate one of the cµrb cuts
on Route 9 and provide green space and landscaping as has been done
with other commercial properties along Route 9. GFTC is expected
to comment on this issue before the April 15 meeting. Comments
f+om the Town Engineering Consultant should be addressed prior to
any Planning Board action."
MR. HILTON-However, we have a letter from the New York State DOT
we've received with their comments on this letter and how it
complies with their overall access management plan for Route 9.
I'll read that letter into the record.
MR. RUEL-Also, George, you could tell Bob here that there are two
new letters that were furnished to us tonight, the GFTC letter and
Rist-Frost.
MR. HILTON-I believe it's a New York State DOT letter that you
have.
MR. PALING-Yes, that's the one you referred to.
MR. HILTON-Right.
MR. PALING-He's going to read that, and we're going to get the
engineering comments, also.
MR. HILTON-Okay. Also with this the Warren County Planning Board
reviewed it on April 9th, recommendation to approve. There's a
resolution signed Tracey Clothier, Chairperson. I guess I will
read the letter from the State DOT on this. It's a letter from
Jeff Marko, Planning and Program Management, addressed to me. It
says, "Dear George: Thank you for sending me information on the
Sutton's Furniture expansion on Route 9. I reviewed the site plan
and also spoke with our designers of the Route 9 resurfacing
project, which includes the roadway in front of this site. We have
no comment on the proposed expansion. The placement of the
driveways is consistent with state guidelines and with our access
management plans for the corridor. For your information, our Route
9 project will widen the island between the roadway and Sutton's
parking area to provide a sidewalk. ADA-compliant wheelchair ramps
also will be installed to transition between the sidewalks and the
driveway pavement. If you have any questions, please call me at
474-6215. Very truly yours, Jeffrey Marko, P.E. Planning &
Program Management" Now as far as the engineering comments go, I
believe there was something that was handed in your packet, a blue
letter, which was dated today. It was a follow up to an April 11th
letter stating, "We have received Nace Engineer's letter of April
15, 1997 in response to our comment letter of April 11, 1997. The
responses are acceptable to this office. Please call if you have
any questions. Very truly yours, RIST-FROST ASSOCIATES, P. C.
William J. Levandowski, P.E."
MR. PALING-Now that had to do with the location of the septic
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
system and the nature of the, not the nature of the business, but
the store itself.
MR. HILTON-Right, and how to determine the capacity of the septic
system.
MR. RUEL-It's all been resolved, though.
MR. HILTON-It's all been resolved.
MR. RUEL-There's no problem there.
MR. PALING-Okay, and do you have any letters on this one, George,
beyond this?
MR. HILTON-We have no letters of public comment in the file.
MR. PALING-And no Beautification or anything.
MR. RUEL-No.
'.
MR. PALING-Okay.
MR. STARK-George, why are we doing the SEQRA on this?
MR. HILTON-Because it's over 4,000 square feet of area that's being
constructed, and because of that it's a Type Unlisted. If it were
under 4,000, it would be Type II.
MR. RUEL-I was just wondering if you could elaborate a little bit
on the widening of the Route 9? They're going to widen the island
between the roadway and the parking area?
MR. HILTON-Right. I spoke to Jeff after this letter was issued,
and he said that they do plan to widen the aisle between the road
and the parking lot. That's something that they're going to
undertake. That's something that, it's going to be their project
completely. He didn't really outline a time frame, but they plan
to put sidewalks in there.
MR. RUEL-Sidewalks where, just on Suttons property?
MR. HILTON-Between the road and the parking lot. They would widen
the aisle to accommodate the sidewalk.
MR. RUEL-Just that property?
MR. HILTON-Well, I think all along Route 9.
MR. RUEL-AII along? Okay. That was my question. All right.
MR. NACE-For the record, my name's Tom Nace, representing Steve
Sutton.
MR. STARK-The building is the back is going to be the same height
as the building in the front?
MR. NACE-It's actually going to be lower. I have an elevation if
you'd like to see that.
MR. PALING-Yes. I would.
MR. NACE-The building, as you view it now, has a, view from Route
9, has a peak that comes out on the left hand side, and it's a
little lower ridge going to the right, to the south. The building
in back will have a flat roof and will be substantially lower than
both of those roof lines that you see now. 80 from the road it
will be invisible.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. PALING-Okay.
MR. STARK-Is it going to be sprinkled, sprinklered?
MR. NACE-The construction, yes.
MR. STARK-Okay.
MR. PALING-And what will it be used for?
MR. NACE-It'll be used simply for showroom area.
MR. PALING-Showroom.
MR. NACE-It's to allow, if you've been in there now, they have a
lot of furniture.
MR. PALING-The summer furniture.
MR. NACE-No, this is all regular furniture.
MR. STARK-They've got a lot of furniture outside right now.
MR. NACE-Everything there right now is inside, is regular
furniture.
MR. RUEL-And no connection between the two buildings?
MR. NACE-The two buildings will be, yes, totally connected.
MR. RUEL-Okay.
MR. NACE-It would simply allow them to have larger displays and
more displays.
MR. PALING-Okay. Any other comments, questions at the moment?
Lets open the public hearing on the Sutton application. Does
anyone care to comment, pro or con?
PUBLIC HEARING OPENED
LINDA MCNULTY
MRS. MCNULTY-I'm Linda McNulty. I live at 14 and 16 Twicwood Lane.
We live almost directly behind Suttons. Since they have begun
expanding, they have been doing an enormous amount of clearing of
the property to the rear of the (lost words). We are now very
exposed to Route 9, and it's not a very pleasant thing. I really
would like to know whether they have any more clearing (lost
words). When we purchased our home about 24 years ago, we were
told there was going to be 10 foot buffer between our property and
the property behind us, so that we would be forever green. We are
not. So if there's anYmore clearing to be done, I would highly
recommend some substitute be put along the back of the property so
that we are more protected. Our property values have gone down
enormously (lost words) .
MR. PALING-I think that's, perhaps, not so much for us to address,
but for the Compliance Officer to look into, if they're violating
any buffer zone or whatever was set up.
MR. HILTON-Right. There is a requirement between the commercial
and residential zone that there be a 50 foot buffer, and I don't
know the history, if there have been past site plans or past
variances to reduce that SO foot buffer, but certainly that is
something that we could have our enforcement staff look into.
MR. PALING-Okay. Could we ask you to refer this to John?
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. HILTON-Sure.
MR. PALING- It'll be referred to the Compliance Officer, John
Goralski, and you can work through them, but that we can't address,
but they can. Okay. Is there anyone else that cares to talk about
this? Okay. If not, we'll close the public hearing.
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. PALING-Any other comments, questions?
MR. STARK-Let Tommy address the buffer in the back. You know where
the houses are up on top, Tommy?
MR. NACE-Yes.
MR. STARK-Not her house, Steve's house.
MR. NACE-I don't know which one is her's exactly.
MR. STARK-No, but I mean Steve's house, the house up there and
everything.
MR. NACE-Yes.
MR. STARK-There's woods behind there, isn't there?
MR. NACE- Yes. There is. I don' t know where this clearing is
taking place, or when it took place. With this project proposed
here, there will be no clearing involved.
MR. PALING-Yes, there is no clearing.
MR. NACE-It's all constructed down into level flat space.
MR. BREWER-Down under the hill anyway.
MR. NACE-There's no disturbance of that area.
MR. PALING-It'll be in the right hand.
there.
So it'll be taken from
MR. MACEWAN-If they were to be found to be in violation of that SO
foot buffer, what course could your Department take? Could you
make them re-vegetate?
MR. HILTON-Well, that's one option. They could apply for a
variance to reduce that SO feet. They could come in and propose to
re-vegetate it with a re-vegetation plan. There are a number of
things they could do.
MR. MACEWAN-That require them, a re-vegetation plan, to come back
in front of us, or is that something that's just done internally?
MR. HILTON-I think it's something that's done internally. The only
thing is that if it violates a previous site plan approval, it may
need to come in as a modification of some sort, of the past site
plan.
MR. MACEWAN-I don't recall anything where we've done in the recent
history that has even taken something that back parcel.
MR. BREWER-The only thing I recall, he took an old barn or
something up there, and he added on to it.
MR. PALING-He had a storage building that we approved not too long
ago, but that still was not up in on the hill. That was down on
the lower level.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. WEST-That was down below.
building.
MR. NACE - Yes, that's the receiving building, right behind the
store.
That was over here , receiving
MR. BREWER-Well, maybe I'm going before that time, but I remember
up on top of the hill we did a building at one time.
MR. PALING-Yes, that must have been before my time.
one, that storage building, and now this one.
We did the
MR. BREWER-But I think maybe five or six years ago, way up on top,
but there wasn't any clearing then, that I remember.
MR. PALING-Okay, but still it's in your hands.
MR. HILTON-Yes, we'll take a look at it.
MR. PALING-Okay. All right. Then we'll go to the SEQRA.
MR. RUEL-Environmental Assessment.
MR. PALING-Yes.
RESOLUTION WHEN DETERMINATION OF NO SIGNIFICANCE IS MADE
RESOLUTION NO. 18-97, Introduced by Roger Ruel who moved for its
adoption, seconded by George Stark:
WHEREAS, there
application for:
is presently before the
STEVEN & DONNA SUTTON, and
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 15th day of April, 1997, by the following vote:
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
AYES: Mr. Brewer, Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Stark, Mr. Ruel, Mr. West,
Mr. Paling
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mrs. LaBombard
MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 18-97 STEVEN & DONNA SUTTON,
Introduced by Roger Ruel who moved for its adoption, seconded by
George Stark:
As written in the resolution.
Whereas, the Town Planning Board is in receipt of Site Plan
No. 18-97 STEVEN & DONNA SUTTON to construct an 8,000 sq. ft.,
2 story addition to existing furniture store. Addition to be
used as showroom; and
Whereas, the above mentioned application, received 3-26-97,
consists of the following:
1. Application
2. Map dated 3/23/97 - Sutton's Furniture Proposed Addition
Whereas, the above file is supported with the following
documentation:
1. Staff Notes
2. Rist Frost comments dated 4/11/97, 4/15/97
3. Response from Tom Nace dated 4/15/97 to Rist Frost
3. Warren Co. Planning Bd. resolution dated 4/9/97
4. Letter dated 4/8/97 to Jeff Marko - NYS DOT
5. Letter dated 4/10/97 to George Hilton
Whereas, a public hearing was held on 4/15/97 concerning the
above project; and
Whereas, the Planning Board has determined that the proposal
complies with the site plan review standards and requirements
of Section 179-38 of the Code of the Town of Queensbury
( Zoning); and
Whereas, the Planning Board has considered the environmental
factors found in Section 179-39 of the Code of the Town of
Queensbury (Zoning); and
Whereas, the requirements of the State Environmental Quality
Review Act have been considered; and
Therefore, Let It Be Resolved, as follows:
1. The Town Planning Board, after considering the above,
hereby move to approve Site Plan No. 18-97 STEVEN & DONNA
SUTTON.
2. The applicant shall present two copies of the above
referenced site plan to the Zoning Administrator for his
signature.
3. The Zoning Administrator is hereby authorized to sign the
above referenced plan.
4. Recreation Fees are to be paid at the time a building
permit is applied for.
5. Engineering Fees are to be paid prior to issuance of
building permit.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
6. The applicant agrees to the conditions set forth in this
resolution.
7. The conditions shall be noted on the map.
8. The issuance of permits is conditioned on compliance and
continued compliance with the Zoning Ordinance and site plan
approval process.
Duly adopted this 15th day of April, 1997, by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. West, Mr. Brewer, Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Stark, Mr. Ruel,
Mr. Paling
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mrs. LaBombard
OLD BUSINESS:
SUBDIVISION NO. 1-1997 FINAL STAGE TYPE: UNLISTED CERRONE
BUILDERS OWNER: CERRONE BUILDERS (UNDER CONTRACT) ZONE: SR-1A
LOCATION: EAST SIDE OF BAY ROAD SOUTH OF STONEGATE SUBDIVISION
APPLICANT PROPOSES RESIDENTIAL CLUSTERED SUBDIVISION AND IS
REQUESTING FINAL STAGE APPROVAL FOR PHASE I WHICH IS 16 LOTS.
CROSS REFERENCE: P6-96 TAX MAP NO. 48-3-51.1, 53 LOT SIZE:
57.97+ ACRES SECTION: SUBDIVISION REGULATIONS
TOM NACE & MICHAEL O'CONNOR, REPRESENTING APPLICANT, PRESENT
STAFF INPUT
Notes from Staff, Subdivision No. 1-1997 - Final Stage, Cerrone
Builders, Meeting Date: April 15, 1997 "The applicant is seeking
final stage approval to allow the development of 16 single family
lots. The lots, which are being developed under the Town's cluster
provision, range in size from just under one half acre to 1.7
acres. The applicant is proposing to connect to Field View Lane to
the north and construct a new road off of Bay Road in order to
provide access to this subdivision. Staff recommends a stipulation
that the road shown connected to Bay Road be constructed first
before any certificates of occupancy are issued for lots in the
subdivision. The applicant proposes to connect to Stonegate
subdivision by constructing a connection to Field View Lane. As a
part of this construction the existing cuI de sac in Stonegate will
be straightened as the through street is constructed. Staff
recommends that the applicant be required to construct a drYWell on
the east side of Field View Lane in the Stonegate subdivision in
order to manage stormwater runoff from the construction of Field
View Lane. The applicant will be responsible for the paYment of a
$500 per lot recreation fee. This fee must be paid when
applications for building permits are filed for each lot in this
subdivision. All comments from the Town Engineering Consultant
should be addressed prior to Planning Board action on this
subdivision."
MR. HILTON-And we have a letter that you just received this
evening, dated April 15th. It was in response to an April 11th
letter. It states "We have received Nace Engineering's letter of
April 15th submitted in response to our comment letter of April
11th. The responses are satisfactory to this office. William J.
Levandowski, P.E., RIST-FROST ASSOCIATES"
MR. PALING-George, I think I'd like to have you read Tom Nace's
letter on this, because this, we're just getting this. So lets
read that.
MR. HILTON-Okay. Sure.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. BREWER-What are we reading?
MR. PALING-Tom Nace's letter of April 15th. It's right behind.
MR. HILTON-There's a few items in correspondence from Tom Nace to
Bill Levandowski he outlined. Number One states that he "spoke
with George VanDusen at Warren Co. DPW this morning who informed me
that they have reviewed and approved the plans for the connection
to Bay Road and approved the plans for the connection to Bay Road
and will issue a permit pending receipt of an issuance certificate
from the developer. Their approval will be in place prior to
signing by the Planning Board Chairman. 2. I have not yet been
able to obtain all of the locations of wells and septic systems for
the adjacent properties. I am enclosing a partial plan showing
which ones we have located. The rest of these will be located and
shown prior to the NYSDOT approval. 3 . I have inspected the
existing drainage conditions on Field View Road and Stone Gate
Drive. There are two existing drYWells at the intersection of
these roads which take all of the drainage from Stone Gate Drive.
Field View Road south of this intersection generally has a cross
slope carrying any drainage to the low (east) side of the road.
However, a small section of the existing road and one of the
properties to the west side of the road will drain into the wing
swales along the new section of road replacing the existing turn-a-
round. This will improve the existing drainage problem on the lot
on the east side of the existing turn-a-round. However, it will
add some storm water to the proposed drainage system. I have
revised the drainage calculations to reflect this change and am
attaching copies of the revised pages with the changes underlined.
As you can see the additional drainage is not significant and does
not alter the conclusions of the original report." And in response
to this, as I've mentioned, today Rist-Frost stating that the
responses were satisfactory.
MR. PALING-Okay, and that's all you have, George?
MR. HILTON-Yes.
MR. PALING-Okay. Would you identify yourselves, please.
MR. NACE-For the record, my name is Tom Nace with Nace Engineering
representing Al Cerrone.
MR. O'CONNOR-I'm Mike O'Connor from the law firm of Little &
O'Connor, also representing the applicant.
MR. PALING-Okay. Would you gentlemen want to summarize for us what
you're doing, and I'd like, Tom, if you could, I'd like you to go
through especially the last paragraph of your letter on this, okay.
MR. NACE-Okay. The question was raised by Rist-Frost regarding
drainage which might be tributary to our drainage system, coming
from the section of road where we're replacing the existing cuI de
sac. It's in the background here, the existing cuI de sac.
Presently, up here at the intersection where Stone Gate comes down,
there are two drYWells that pick up the runoff along the sides of
Stone Gate Drive, before they cross Fieldview. Then Fieldview
drains from that location generally across the road, there's a
cross slope draining toward the east, and toward the south. What
happens, some of that runs off between these two lots here, and all
of the area in here plus this lot, and a little bit of a portion of
this lot, drains into a low portion at the back of the cuI de sac
and runs off to the east, partially down this person's driveway
here on the adjacent lot. When we replace this cuI de sac, we're
going to be changing grade, so right now this comes down to a low
point right here around the throat of the cuI de sac and goes back
up toward the back end. We're going to be grading that all out, so
that everything continues down to where we have catch basins at the
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
intersection here. We are bringing wing swales all the way back up
into what is presently the throat of the cuI de sac, and those
wings will prevent that runoff from going on across the road and
will bring what comes into the road from above here down to our
catch basin and to our drainage system. So it will improve some of
the problem with this low area in here. What we ,can al~o do, I
know this man has been at one or two of the publ~c hear~ngs and
voiced some concern, we also can open up an area in here where this
hedgerow sort of blocks the drainage off of this la~d. We can open
up a small ditch in there and allow that to dra~n down on the
hedgerow. That'll take care of any drainage outside of the roadway
which collects in here.
MR. PALING-Okay. All right, any questions by the Board or comments
at the moment?
MR. BREWER-Tom, you note on the septic systems, you've got
replacement area on all of them.
MR. NACE-That's a requirement by DOH for drainage.
MR. BREWER-I've never seen that on a plan before.
MR. NACE-They're generally requiring that we show it somewhere in
the approval process, where we would locate, 50% replacement area
is what they require, and so on subdivision plans the easiest thing
to do is show it right on the plan.
MR. BREWER-It's not an indication that there'd be a problem then?
MR. NACE-No. It's just any subdivision that DOH approves, in their
approval process, at some point, whether we show it on the plan or
sit down with them in a review session, we have to show them that
we can provide 50% of replacement areas.
MR. BREWER-Okay.
MR. RUEL-Okay. I have two items on the plan. Number One, you have
a landscaping plan for the entrance, very elegant. However, how do
you explain that all of that landscaping is not on your property,
it's on Lot 29?
MR. NACE-That will be on the property of Harris', and there will be
an easement to locate, most of that is the subdivision sign, and
when it's done, because our property comes out to a 50 foot wide
neck here that's taken up entirely by the access road, Town right-
of-way for the access road. So in order to meet the setbacks for
the sign, the setbacks are 15 feet from the property lines. So we
had to put it over here and we'll have an easement.
MR. RUEL-But you'll have a documented easement to that effect?
MR. NACE-We will. That's correct.
MR. RUEL-My other question had to do with, apparently you intend to
do away with the turnaround on that, what is it Fieldview Road?
MR. NACE-That's correct.
MR. RUEL-Shouldn't that be shown on the plan as to be removed?
MR. NACE-It is. It's shown with notes, on the grading and drainage
plan. There's some fairly extensive notes there, requiring
removal, re-grading, and we've got to take these existing driveways
that are there and extend them out to the new road. It's covered
in notes.
MR. RUEL-So these people will have more property then?
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. NACE-That's correct.
MR. PALING-All right. Now what's the status of the public hearing?
It says April 1st?
MR. STARK-That was a special meeting, Bob.
MR. HILTON-Yes. That was a special meeting. There was Preliminary
approval. There was a public hearing that night. There's no
scheduled public hearing tonight. However, if the Board wants to
accept public comment, you're certainly free to do that.
MR. PALING-Yes. I would be in favor of public comment.
MR. BREWER-I just have one more comment. Didn't we have a list,
maybe you've got a copy of it, Mike, that we had at the last
meeting that was going to be done for this meeting or not?
MR. NACE-That was, I believe, for the Preliminary.
MR. BREWER-That was just Preliminary?
MR. RUEL-It was between Preliminary and that special meeting.
MR. BREWER-All right.
MR. O'CONNOR-The only issue that we haven't touched on yet that I
knew that we talked about at the time of the Preliminary was the
ownership of the common lands, and I've made a presentation to the
Town Board for dedication to the Town Board without credit to the
Recreation Fee, with the proviso that we also will be making
contributions to them of $1500 for the purpose of setting up a land
conservation trust that would manage the land, and they didn't take
a vote. It was at a workshop meeting, but it seemed to be
something that was acceptable to them. I think it's a good
planning concept. It may be something that you're going to do more
often, as more people get into this cluster type of development.
MR. PALING-And that's pending
MR. O'CONNOR-That's pending. I would ask you to make that, if you
would, a condition of your approval, the same as you do the Health
Department approval that we don't have, permit that we don't have.
We would accept those as conditions.
MR. RUEL-Isn't that part of the cluster requirements, though, to
have that green space and open land?
MR. O'CONNOR-There's a requirement of open space, but there's no
real definition of who will own it in the future. There's
different ways of doing it. We could create a paper mountain here
and have a homeowners association approved by the Attorney
General's Office, which in my own personal opinion throws a lot of
money away and doesn't give you a lot of benefit. I think you're
better off (lost words) some type of conservancy, some type of open
space trust that the Town would take.
MR. PALING-Okay. We'll make that part of any resolution. Okay.
Now, with the Board's concurrence, I'm going to allow public
comment. Is everybody aboard on that? Do you have anything
further before we do that? Okay. If anyone cares to talk on the
Cerrone Builders application, please come up.
MARY LEE GOSLINE
MRS. GOSLINE-Mary Lee Gosline. I have a question.
clustering, you have to have density, right?
When you do
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. PALING-Yes.
MRS. GOSLINE-Now what land is he talking about that they're going
to donate to the Town (lost words) the same property?
MR. NACE-No.
MRS. GOSLINE-More property?
MR. PALING-We'll have that clarified.
MRS. GOSLINE-What do you do to save the land, the density land?
How do you protect it from future development? Is that with deed
restrictions or anything like that for saving that property, so
later on, say 15 or 20 years from now, someone says, there's one or
two good lots in here we can get into it from Hiland Park, can we,
you know, buy a lot here and there?
MR. PALING-There can be deed restrictions. We'll ask the applicant
to comment on that.
MRS. GOSLINE- I really think deed restrictions should be put in
these densities because look what Top of the World's doing right
now. I mean, it is something that's possible. People have to put
up with clustering and not have the one acre lots, they should be
protected with these open spaces.
MR. PALING-Thank you. If you'd take note of them and comment on
them later, if you would, please.
CHARLES WEINGART
MR. WEINGART-Hi. My name is Charles Weingart. I live right on the
corner of Fieldview Drive where the new road looks like it's going
to be built. My question is, with the new road that's going in,
how long are you going to be tied up in front of our property? The
last meeting you said it would only be one day to a week. With
this new drYWell going in, it seems like they might be down there
for a couple of weeks. Secondly, if there's going to be a lot of
holes dug, left out in front of the yard, we'd want a temporary
fence to be put up, an orange fence, just for the safety of the
kids. Another reason is, if the road is going to be done, we would
like it to get done first, get it over with, since you're taking
out the circle in the cuI de sac. We don't want to wait until the
end of the summer to get it done. The last thing, we know the last
time that since they're putting a new road in, our biggest concern
was, with the new properties going in, our biggest concern was for
the safety of our kids, and we still would like to see if a speed
bump could be put at the end of that property, and the end of our
property where the new road is being accessed. Just because we've
only lived there two years, but the number of kids that live, that
congregate at the end of that street warrants a safety factor, I
believe. I know there's no stop sign at the end of (lost words),
and my idea of just a gravel road didn't fly, but a speed bump, I
think, would be a reasonable request to put in there. Thank you.
That's all I have.
MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you. Who's next?
TOM CICCONE
MR. CICCONE-My name's Tom Ciccone. I live on Fieldview. My land's
adjacent to the land that's on the east side of Fieldview, and it's
adjacent to the land of the new fellow. The question I have is,
seeing that the new road is coming through, they talked about
drywells or whatever to take care of the runoff. I appreciate
that. Right now there's a turnaround, and I have these, I guess
they call them Canadian Elms, and they kind of go with the
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
turnaround, and they're not very big trees. They're kind of tall
but they're not big in diameter, and I was just wondering if thos~
trees will be, I'd say right now they're probably five feet from
the road, and I was just wondering, when the road gets straightened
out, if the trees will get straightened out, too, to go along with
the road, because I don't know, I'm not sure how much footage I'm
going to have in the front, but the trees are way back too far so
I'd like to bring the trees up to the road and just have them
straighten them out, and I was just wondering if the developer
could do that.
MR. PALING-We cou ~ find out, sure.
MR. CICCONE-Thank you.
MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you. Who's next? Okay. No one else cares
to speak? If that is the case, then we will close the public
comment. The public comment is closed. Okay. We'll get the
applicant back up and comment, and then if you miss any, I'll use
my list.
MR. NACE-The first issue, I think, was the open space lot, and
whether deed restrictions.
MR. PALING-Yes.
MR. NACE-Okay. The open space area is Lot 28 here. It' s
approximately 6.15 acres. It's about halfway back through the
parcel and on the west side. It adjoins the property line on the
west side. There are, on any of the lots that are large, there are
deed restrictions, and I think it says right up here in the notes.
It says deed restrictions will, okay, Lots 7 and 8, which is the
big lot in the back, and Lot 8 here is 2.6 acres. Lot 7 and 8 will
be deed restricted to prevent further subdivision. So it's already
there.
MR. O'CONNOR-Also on that same issue, that is part of the reason
for making an offer of dedication to the Town as well. If the Town
has it, nobody can then go in and use it for anything other than
open space. Nobody can go in and subdivide it. Nobody can go in
and develop it. Typically, we would do restrictive covenants that
would cover every lot in the subdivision that says that the lots
cannot be subdivided so as to create an additional building lot.
From time to time, somebody will run into a reason to adjust the
boundary lines, and we've got to come back here and ask for a
modification of it, if necessary, or simply a boundary line
agreement between the two lot owners.
MR. MACEWAN-Early on in your application there was some discussion
regarding preserving those hedgerows. What was formally put in
writing to protect those hedgerows?
MR. O'CONNOR-On the plans I think we've got no cut restrictions,
which will also be carried forth in the deeds.
MR. MACEWAN-In the deeds as well.
MR. NACE-Here it says deed restrictions will be included in all
lots (lost word) cutting of trees over two inch caliper, existing
hedgerows, except for necessary removal of dead and diseased trees.
MR. MACEWAN-Very good. Thank you.
MR. RUEL-So that dedication of land includes access paths or
whatever to that land?
MR. O'CONNOR-Yes, 20 foot, and it's situated so that if the
adjoining property is every developed, this could be carried forth
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
onto the additional property or the adjoining property as well, and
have a bigger area than the 6.15 acres and get into a larger open
space park area within both properties.
MR. RUEL-Yes.
length?
MR. O'CONNOR-From the proposed road to the area itself.
the width of the lot.
How far does that 20 foot strip extend, the full
It runs
MR. NACE-From the right-of-way up here all the way back to the lot.
It's about 350 feet until it opens up into the lot.
MR. RUEL-That's where that cuI de sac is?
MR. NACE-That's right. The cuI de sac here, and then the access
right-of-way goes back.
MR. RUEL-Yes, and even if that was eliminated and made a road, it
would still be road, right?
MR. NACE-Correct.
MR. O'CONNOR-The other questions I heard, maybe you could correct
me or not, but there was a question about how long it was going to
take us in front of this fellow's house because there's going to be
a drywell. If I understand the comments that were finalized with
Rist-Frost, there was an agreement that there's no need for a
d~ell there, because the drainage will be taken care of by the
change of grading at the end of the cuI de sac, by the swale along
the side of the road.
MR. PALING-It carries it further in.
MR. O'CONNOR-It carries it into our development (lost word) their
lot.
MR. PALING-The only time involved is grading time?
MR. O'CONNOR-Yes.
MR. RUEL-And how much time would that be?
MR. O'CONNOR-If it's directly in front of that property, you're
probably talking a week, from the time it's commenced.
MR. RUEL-Yes.
MR. O'CONNOR-You're talking rough grading time of a week, and then
they have to prepare with (lost word) before they come in and do
the paving, and then when they come back it'll probably be a day of
paving directly in front of that property, and if he's just added,
and we're willing to accept, we would try and re-plant the trees as
part of that, somebody else has some trees that are planted in
accordance with the curb in the cuI de sac, and they would like to
have them straightened out, we're going to have somebody that's
going to do some landscaping in connection with our entrance. We
would try and have them transplant those trees in a reasonable
manner along the road and along the newly established property
line.
MR. RUEL-On these properties adjacent to the turnaround, will their
lawns and driveways be disrupted, and if so, will you be
responsible for replacing it?
MR. NACE-Yes. There are notes on the plans that maintenance must
be maintained, the driveways, during construction, okay. 80 that
would be gravel surface access into and out of each driveway,
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
throughout the construction period. When the road's finished the
driveways will be paved and the edge of the new road up to ~here
the old right-of-way line was, okay, and into the existing cuI de
sac, and the area, once the old cuI de sac is removed, that area
has got to be re-graded topsoiled and re-seeded.
MR. BREWER-Is that going to occur first?
MR. NACE-What's that?
MR. BREWER-The area where the cuI de sac is down, and they asked if
it could be done first.
MR. NACE-It'll occur very early on, yes.
MR. O'CONNOR-That can be done as part of Phase I.
MR. NACE-The road has to be constructed and accepted by the Town
before any CO's are issued. That's a standard requirement.
MR. PALING-Okay. Now the order in which the roads are going to be
constructed, the one off of Bay is the first one, isn't it?
MR. NACE-They'll both occur.
MR. PALING-At the same time you'll do Bay and
subdivision, okay. All right. So that'll all be done
I have two other comments, protection against kids.
any comment on that?
go into the
at one time.
Do you have
MR. NACE-Yes. It's a construction site.
with orange safety fencing.
It will be fenced off
MR. PALING-Okay. Good, and then, well, there was a request for a
speed bump, but I think that might not be the way to go.
MR. BREWER-I don't think we have the authority to do that. Do we,
on a Town highway?
MR. PALING-No, I don't think so, either.
would refer to someone else.
I think that, that I
MR. O'CONNOR-I don't think we'd get the road accepted if we put it
in.
MR. BREWER-I don't think so, either.
MR. NACE-We've been through that with (lost words) and it's not
been acceptable.
MR. RUEL-This is something that the residents would have to ask for
from the Town Board or the Highway Department after the road is
constructed, right?
MR. PALING-Or whenever they want to, the speed bump.
MR. BREWER-I don't think you can put them in a Town highway, a
parking lot or something maybe.
MR. PALING-No, that was part of the list I had, so I thought I'd
make note of it. So far on the list I have is that there will be
the transplanting of trees for the gentleman that talked about them
being in existence on a cuI de sac right now. You would try to put
those back in align with the road.
MR. O'CONNOR-Yes.
MR. PALING-And then there's the small ditch to the south side of
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
the property, which you'll be digging to facilitate the drainage
from, is there a lot number for that?
MR. NACE-I don't have a lot number, no. It's the very southeastern
lot of the existing subdivision.
MR. PALING-Okay. That's the southeastern lot, okay, and then is
the easement on the Harris property pending, what you wanted to do
at the entrance there?
MR. O'CONNOR-It's not been executed, but Mr. Harris is here and has
agreed to it.
MR. PALING-Yes. We can make that a condition, however, and then
the recreation fee/dedication is another pending item before the
Town Board.
MR. BREWER-It's got nothing to do with us.
MR. PALING-Yes.
MR. O'CONNOR-We have withdrawn our request for a waiver of the Town
Board. So we're going to have to pay a fee.
MR. PALING-Do we need to concern ourselves with that?
MR. HILTON-No, that's just a general comment, just to make them
aware.
MR. PALING-And then I have the last item, road cut permit.
MR. O'CONNOR-We need a highway permit from the County to attach to
Bay Road. We have that in process.
MR. PALING-That's in process, okay. Okay. Where are we on this
thing now? SEQRA's been done.
MR. HILTON-Yes. It was done with Preliminary.
MR. PALING-So we can go directly to a motion, then.
I'll make the motion.
All right.
MOTION TO APPROVE FINAL STAGE SUBDIVISION NO. 1-1997 CERRONE
BUILDERS, Introduced by Robert Paling who moved for its adoption,
seconded by George Stark:
As requested, with the following conditions: That the particular
trees along the cuI de sac will be re-planted, roughly in alignment
with the new road that will be cut in. That a small ditch will be
dug on the south side of the most southeasterly lot to facilitate
drainage, and that the final approval from Mr. Harris for easement
at the entrance on his property, for an easement at the entrance to
the property. Finally, that a road cut permit will be obtained
from the County.
Whereas, the Town Planning Board is in receipt of Subdivision No.
1-1997 CERRONE BUILDERS, Final Stage, Phase I - 16 lots; and
Whereas, the above mentioned application, received 4-3-97, consists
of the following:
1. Application
2. Map - CP-1 revised 4/2/97
Map - C-1 revised 4/2/97
Map - C-2 revised 4/2/97
Map - P-1 revised 4/2/97
Map - D-1 revised 4/2/97
Map - D-2 revised 4/2/97
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
Map - L-1 dated 4/3/97
Whereas, the above file is supported with the following
documentation:
1. Staff Notes
2. Rist Frost comments dated 4/11/97.
3. Rist Frost comments dated 4/ /97.
Whereas, a public hearing was held on 3/25/97 and 4/1/97 concerning
the above project; and
Whereas, the Planning Board has determined that the proposal
complies with the subdivision requirements of the Code of the Town
of Queensbury (Zoning); and
Whereas, the Planning Board has considered the environmental
factors found in the Code of the Town of Queensbury (Zoning); and
Whereas, the requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review
Act have been considered; and
Therefore, Let It Be Resolved, as follows:
1. The Town Planning Board, after considering the above, hereby
move to approve Subdivision No. 1-1997 CERRONE BUILDERS, FINAL
STAGE, PHASE I - 16 lots.
2. Recreation Fees are to be paid at the time a building permit is
applied for.
3. Engineering Fees are to be paid prior to issuance of building
permit.
4. The applicant agrees to the conditions set forth in this
resolution.
5. The conditions shall be noted on the map.
6. The issuance of permits is conditioned on compliance and
continued compliance with the Zoning Ordinance and subdivision
approval process.
Duly adopted this 15th day of April, 1997, by the following vote:
MR. RUEL-I agree with the final subdivision application, with an
exception. To be consistent with my vote at the Preliminary
subdivision application, where Stone Gate citizens requested no
through road through their development, which I believe was a
reasonable request, it could have been granted, and it violated no
regulations. I, therefore, vote no on this application.
MR. PALING-Okay. The motion's been made and seconded. So we can
have discussion. George, do you care to comment on that in regard
to the Highway, I'm not sure you realize what happened.
MR. HILTON-Well, there's really nothing I can add to this. We had
the letter from the Town Highway Department which stated that, in
their opinion, they wanted to see the connection. The connection
shown on the Final, as was shown on the Preliminary as approved,
Mr. Ruel voted against the motion to approve the Preliminary, and
I think he's pretty clearly stated that he's going to vote against
this motion also.
MR. PALING-Okay. Well, I think it was taken at the time that we
didn't know what the Highway Department would say.
MR. RUEL-Yes, we did. We had a letter.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. PALING-All right.
MR. RUEL-AII the facts, then, were the same as they are now.
MR. PALING-Okay.
AYES: Mr. West, Mr. Brewer, Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Stark, Mr. Paling
NOES: Mr. Ruel
ABSENT: Mrs. LaBombard
MR. NACE-Thank you.
MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you. Okay. Is anyone here, a
representative, from Mr. Campbell? Okay. If not, then I'll
entertain a motion for this to be tabled. Do we need a motion?
MR. HILTON-Yes.
MR. WEST-We didn't already table it?
MR. PALING-No. We just put it aside.
MR. BREWER-We don't need a motion to table?
MR. HILTON-No, I think you should have a motion to table. There
was some discussion on this, obviously. However you want to handle
it. I know the public hearing is left open. We can schedule this
to be heard on the first meeting in May.
MR. PALING-The only thing I was concerned with, George, was the
notification to the public. Different things happen when the
applicant's here.
MR. HILTON-You can require further notification.
MR. RUEL-Why don't you call him.
MR. HILTON-We're going to.
MR. PALING-All right. I would be in favor of a re-notification to
the public, if that's the case.
MR. MACEWAN-If you table it, there's an opportunity that it could
slip through the cracks and the public wouldn't be re-notified. If
you just take no action on it, it would have to be re-advertised
anyway, guarantee that the public would be notified.
MR. BREWER-It's a whole new application, isn't it? Lets table it
with the condition that the notice be re-done.
MR. FRIEDLAND-It's up to the Board, but this is the same thing I
said before. If you open the public hearing, which I think you did
already, and just adjourn it, don't close it, keep it open, and
just adjourn it, you do not have to re-notice it for the next
meeting. That's one way you can do it. It's up to you.
MR. PALING-It's my opinion, however, that we should re-notice,
notify in this case. I think it's only reasonable. They didn't
show up, didn't tell us they're not coming, and you can disappoint
too many people.
MR. STARK-Bob, until he talks to the applicant, we don't know
anything. Maybe he did notify him and he's got the proof that he
notified him. I don't know, but until he talks to the guy, how do
you know?
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. HILTON-No. The notices went out. That's not a problem. I
just don't know what happened to the applicant tonight.
MR. RUEL-George, why can't we have an application that has no
action, period?
MR. PALING-All right. Then that requires are-notification.
MR. RUEL-What do we need a motion for?
MR. FRIEDLAND- If you want to, you can close the public hearing
tonight, okay, you still have 62 days to make a decision, okay.
That means the public hearing is closed, though, okay. If you want
to have another public hearing at the next meeting, then I suggest
you either keep this one open, don't close it, or you'd have to re-
notice it again for the next meeting. You have a choice.
MR. PALING-Well, my opinion is that we have re-notification.
MR. WEST-We had the public hearing, and we heard from everybody
except the applicant. So what effect does re-noticing it have,
continue with the public hearing, what does that accomplish?
MR. PALING-The only point, and maybe it's too fine a point that I
see, there could be someone out in the audience, having heard what
the applicant said about something, then wants to discuss it, but
they didn't have that opportunity, and they go away tonight not
realizing what might have been brought out and what they might have
commented on.
MR. RUEL-You should re-open it.
MR. BREWER-Lets re-notice the thing. I'm in favor of re-noticing
it.
MR. PALING-Now, do we table it to do this?
MR. FRIEDLAND-Yes.
MR. HILTON-Yes. You've closed the public hearing, table it with
the condition that re-notification.
MR. MACEWAN-I'll attach one more condition to that if I could,
please. I, for one, would like to know the exact height he plans
on building that roof line.
MR. BREWER-Well, when he comes back we'll ask him, Craig.
MR. MACEWAN-Save him the trip. Have him ready when he gets here.
MR. BREWER-Whatever, that's fine.
MR. PALING-All right.
hearing is closed.
So the first thing is that the public
PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED
MR. PALING-And then we'll entertain a motion, now, to table it, and
re-notification.
MR. BREWER-Yes.
MOTION TO TABLE SITE PLAN NO. 15-97 DALE CAMPBELL, Introduced by
Roger Ruel who moved for its adoption, seconded by Timothy Brewer:
With the condition that it be subject to re-notification.
Duly adopted this 15th day of April, 1997, by the following vote:
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(Queens bury Plann1ng Board Meeting 4/15/97)
AYES: Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Stark, Mr. Ruel, Mr. West, Mr. Brewer,
Mr. Paling
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: Mrs. LaBombard
MR. MACEWAN-Did you put in that condition about asking for the
addition?
MR. BREWER-I think if George calls him and tells him we want to
know that, that's fine, isn't it?
MR. MACEWAN-Okay.
MR. STARK-Okay. What about Schermerhorn? We've got a letter from
Schermerhorn here.
MR. BREWER-Yes. We've got the Schermerhorn letter.
MR. PALING-I didn't see it. Where is it? Okay. George, do you
want to read this?
MR. HILTON-I'm not even sure I have the letter myself.
MR. STARK-Okay. The next order of business is a letter concerning
the Town Board's acceptance of land dedicated in lieu of recreation
fee for Rich Schermerhorn. George wasn't there some land the
Michaels Group wants to dedicate some land that's attached to this
land that Schermerhorn proposes to dedicate.
MR. BREWER-I think, if I remember, George, we tabled it so we could
go walk the land. Didn't we not do anything with this so that we
could go look at it? As I recall.
MR. STARK-Roger and I did go look at it.
MR. BREWER-I did, too.
MR. HILTON-We also had to send out notification to the Town Board
and the Recreation Commission.
MR. STARK-What did they say, the Town Board?
MR. HILTON-The Recreation Commission, I don't, for some reason,
have the file with me. The Recreation Commission, my understanding
is that they felt that acceptance of this piece would be kind of,
maybe just wouldn't work without any dedication from the Michaels
Group to the north. The status of that is still unknown. They're
going before the Zoning Board tomorrow night for a variance
connected with that dedication. We don't know what's going to
happen right now with the Michaels Group property.
MR. STARK-We don't have to act on this tonight anyway.
MR. BREWER-Why don't we wait until next month and get written
comment from the.
MR. STARK-We'll see what The Michaels Group is going to do.
MR. BREWER-I don't care what the Michaels Group is going to do,
because it has nothing to do with this.
MR. STARK-Well, they do connect, Tim.
MR. BREWER-Yes, but the point is, The Michaels Group isn't here
trying to give us land. Schermerhorn is. Why don't we wait and
get written comment from the Recreation Commission.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. STARK-It doesn't have to be tonight.
MR. BREWER-No.
MR. HILTON-I think the Rec Commission, if they get some more
information on The Michaels Group, they may re-Iook at this a
little bit differently. So if we get, you know, get another month
into it and find out what's going to happen with The Michaels Group
property, maybe we can get some further comment from the Rec
Commission and we can discuss it then.
MR. BREWER-I think we should wait until we get written comment.
MR. STARK-We'll put it off until next month.
MR. RUEL-Yes, lets do that.
MR. PALING-Is there any other subjects that anyone would like to
bring up before the Board? Please come up.
DOUG MILLER
MR. MILLER-Doug Miller. For the record, I just would like to
determine and maybe the attorney will have to help with this, or
George, regarding the Indian Ridge application, and the legal
proceedings that are going on. The 60 day time frame, is that in
effect? Is it on hold?
MR. PALING-The 62 day time frame, I believe, is not in effect yet
because the public hearing is still open. So the clock doesn't
start to tick until the public hearing is closed.
MR. MILLER-That's when the 62 days start. Thank you.
MR. PALING-Okay. Anything else anyone would care to talk about?
Yes, come on up.
DOUG IRISH
MR. IRISH-Doug Irish. You'll have to excuse me. I've got some
stuff I want to read out of. I don't have as much experience up
here as some of you guys. Some of the things that have been coming
in front of the Board concern me because they haven't really raised
any kind of response from the Board as a whole. One of them was a
question that one of the Stone Gate residents raised today, and
again, you'll have to forgive me because I don't know the
requirements or the computations that you guys make when you come
up with zoning for density, or high density zoning, but I do know
that in the Town Law, Article 16, it says that a developer sets a
site forever wild areas on their own, and restricting their use to
residents of the tract, effectively eliminating these areas from
consideration in determining density requirements for the balance
of the parcel. These areas cannot be used for computing density on
the project for anything that's re-zoned. Now again, I don't know
what the density requirements are and how you arrive at that
figure, but I'm concerned because a lot of the times when I come up
here, and I realize that the developer wants to get the property
off of his tax roll so if he donates it to the Town as parkland or
forever wild, they don't pay any taxes on it. I can understand
that. My concern is that I don't think the public understands how
you guys arrived at how many houses you could put on a piece of
land, or if they can actually do it once they turn that property
over to the Town. I mean, if they come to the Town Board and say,
we're going to give this to you without the Town Board asking them
for it, then effectively they've taken that out of that computation
and it shouldn't be used for the zoning.
MR. PALING-Well, there's one thing if the Town accepts it, and
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
another thing if they don't, but, George, I think you might be the
best one to comment on that.
MR. HILTON-Yes, and this was something that was handed to me after
the last meeting with Cerrone, and I did look into it. Our
Subdivision Ordinance complies with that because it states that in
order for a cluster, well, in computating the density of a cluster
subdivision, what you do is you take out the area of the roads, the
area of the open space to be dedicated, and there's certain
guidelines, it's in Section 183-34, and then you computate the
density. With the Cerrone Subdivision, they have 58 acres. When
you take out the open space and you take out the roads. The 27
lots that they're going to develop is well within the one acre
density that they have there.
MR. IRISH-Because I know some of them were concerned about that.
The other thing that I wanted to, I spent a lot of time at the
library. There was a comment made during one of the meetings about
what the actual authority of the Site Plan Review was with regard
to the Planning Board. Specifically access, and according to,
again, Town Law Section 274, the Planning Board has the authority
to, it's Section 274A, Page 175, Traffic Concerns. It says the
Planning Board may be authorized to review the means of access, and
it goes on to state some case law, and the second part, I found the
Planning Board's consideration of traffic congestion during Site
Plan Review as both a proper subject of concern and also mandatory
subject of review under the provisions of the Town Code. Traffic
congestion on the streets from which the proposed development's
customers would enter and upon which they would exit is within the
Board's Site Plan Review jurisdiction. It goes on to cite a couple
of other traffic concerns, and it does say that consequently the
existing case law indicates that the provision authorizing Site
Plan Review of the means of access is not limited to consideration
of the traffic circulation on the site. A Planning Board may be
delegated the authority to consider the effect of a proposal on
immediate adjacent roadways and intersections and the adequacy of
those means of access. Although a Planning Board may be delegated
the authority to consider the effect of proposed development on
adj acent roadways, a Board does not possess the authority to
require an applicant to improve an existing road not located on the
site. It goes on, consistent with the rationale of Site Plan
Review to control the layout and design of a site, this element
enables the Planning Board to modify plans, condition an approval
to minimize the impact of a site plan proposal on adjacent
properties or to deny an approval if a proposal will have a
demonstrative serious and unmitigatable effects on neighboring
properties, and you know there's a big concern with that. Myself,
I'm real concerned with Indian Ridge. I wanted to make sure that
there wasn't, somebody didn't pass up your authorization and say,
the Town Board has already taken that into effect and has
effectively taken you out of the loop, which in case is not the
fact.
MR. PALING-I'd like to comment on that, because normally it's not
a problem. Access is pretty well defined and there's not a
disagreement. There is a disagreement in this case, as to where
the location of the access is and how it should be treated, and the
next part of the next meeting, probably, that the Planning Board
would have will contain testimony in that regard, and we have to
wai t . We have no choice really, and I think it should be that way.
We're waiting on that testimony, because we haven't said anything
yet.
MR. IRISH-No, I know.
MR. PALING-And prior to that we're going to be exposed to quite a
bit of information, and I don't think we could say much prior to.
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(Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 4/15/97)
MR. IRISH-No. I really wasn't looking for any explanation or
anything. I just wanted to get that on the record so that
everybody was aware of what our position was on that, and that I do
think there's some case law that supports the fact you do have the
authority to review that part of the development.
MR. PALING-And you'll have opportunity to come back again at any
meeting we might have, too.
MR. STARK-Bob, if our attorney says we can review it, we can, but
we're not going to go by what YOU say. We go by what our attorney
says.
MR. IRISH-I understand. I just don't want somebody else's attorney
coming up and telling you that you don't have to look at that.
MR. STARK-No. We listen to Schachner when he's here, or Jeff, and
if they say something, we're not going to go against what they say,
what they recommend.
MR. IRISH-No, that's not a problem.
MR. PALING-We've got to take that information into consideration,
all of it.
MR. IRISH-Thank you.
MR. PALING-Thank you. Anybodyelse? Okay. I think the meeting's
over.
On motion meeting was adjourned.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
Robert Paling, Chairman
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