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1997-07-30 SP ~, '- QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEBTING SPECIAL MEETING JULY 30, 1997 INDEX Site Plan No. 22-97 Tax Map No. 134-6-1, 14, 2 Double A Provisions 1. Site Plan No. 29-97 DISCUSSION ITEM Tax Map No. 59-1-5.5, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19.1, 19.2 Newman Development Group of Queensbury, L.L.C. 6. 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. .---' ~ "-- ~ "-" (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting QUEENSBURY PLANNING BOARD MEETING SPECIAL MEETING JULY 30, 1997 5:20 P.M. 7/30/97) MEMBERS PRESENT ROBERT PALING, CHAIRMAN CATHERINE LABOMBARD, SECRETARY TIMOTHY BREWER LARRY RINGER CRAIG MACEWAN GEORGE STARK MEMBERS ABSENT ROGER RUEL PLANNER-GEORGE HILTON STENOGRAPHER-MARIA GAGLIARDI OLD BUSINESS: SITE PLAN NO. 22-97 CR-15 DOUBLE A PROVISIONS OWNER: BEN ARONSON LOCATION: 64 MAIN STREET APPLICANT PROPOSES TO CONSTRUCT AN ADDITION TO AN EXISTING MEAT DISTRIBUTION BUSINESS FOR A DRY GOODS WAREHOUSE TAX MAP NO. 134-6-1, 14, 2 LOT SIZE: .3625 ACRES SECTION 179-24 FRANK LEO & BEN ARONSON, PRESENT MRS. LABOMBARD-And the public hearings on June 17th and July 22nd have been left open and tabled. MR. PALING-Okay. George, do you want to update us on the ZBA and other things? MR. HILTON-Yes. Where we're at right now is I've handed out a letter and a map, the letter is dated July 30th, today's date, and I've indicated, just outlined that the application needs a Use Variance, an Area Variance and a Site Plan approval. The Use Variance and Area Variance have already been granted. The applicant proposes an addition to an office/warehouse addition, and the only note I would make is that I've stated that the applicant proposes to construct additions which will go 177 feet into the required buffer area. That figure should be changed to 97 feet, but that's really something that the Zoning Board has addressed already, and granted the right amount of relief. So we're all taken care of. You've got updated plans before you, showing the additions and the property that the applicant now has acquired, and I guess the only issues, well, the main issues would be storrnwater management and any possible traffic impacts in this area. That I would leave to the Board's discussions. MR. PALING-What's this second map we've got, George? MR. HILTON-That's the properties, which are attached. MR. PALING-Okay. That's the new property lines. MR. STARK-This d~ell, George, the d~ell is the limit of the property now, not Jim's, it doesn't go down, that d~ell where it's proposed, it's the limit of the property now, right? MR. HILTON-The applicant could probably answer that. I don't think it's been constructed. - 1 - (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) MR. STARK-I know it hasn't been constructed. I'm just asking you a question. MR. LEO-I'm Frank Leo. MR. PALING-Okay. You represent the applicant. MR. LEO-Ben Aronson. This is Ben Aronson. MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you. MR. STARK-Where is the drYWel1? MR. LEO-The drYWell is here. That's where the proposed right-of- way. We own all the way to here. MR. STARK-Okay. Then Jim's Glass is down here? MR. LEO-Right. This property used to belong to (lost words) . MR. STARK-Okay. That's what I'm saying. This is the house. This is the edge of the stones right now. MR. LEO-Right, the end of the parking lot. MR. STARK-That's what I meant. Okay. So this is going to be constructed where the stones are now, the drywell? MR. LEO-Right, by the fence. MR. STARK-Okay, but you're going to move the fence back to here? MR. LEO-Right. MR. STARK-Okay. Now, you know, Tim, you know Randolph, the guy who was here the last time? He's got like a picket fence back on his property, and then the picket fence was splitting him and Whittemore there. MR. BREWER-Which lot is his? MR. STARK-Right here. Here he is over here. Okay, and this is Whittemore's in here. Okay. Randolph owns this stuff over here, this property over here. This is a split rail fence down here, and it was nice. Now Mr. Aronson is purchasing, bought this property from, what's the guy's name, Whittemore. Okay, and then Randolph had a complaint about, you know, what's over here. What is going to be there? What's going to be here? Grass? MR. LEO-Just grass, and we're going to take the existing six foot stockade that we have here now. MR. STARK-He says he's going to take the existing stockade fence and run it down this side, so Randolph can't see over her~. This is going to be all grass over here anyway, where it's grass now. MR. PALING-Okay. Now Randolph's the guy that was before the Board last time. MR. STARK-He lives here. MR. PALING-Okay. Yes, right. MRS. LABOMBARD-That wasn't his last name. Winslow. It was Winslow, Randy MR. RINGER-You're going to take that whole fence that's on the back and put it on the front? - 2 - -- "- ~ (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) MR. ARONSON-Back and put it right down the side. MR. STARK-I'll tell you, Jim's Glass can't complain. His place is a mess. MR. BREWER-These right here, Frank, is that going to be for future expansion if you need it? MR. LEO-Yes. Where you put the X? No, down at the bottom. MR. BREWER-Down here if you need it? MR. LEO-Yes. MRS. LABOMBARD-Where that X is you're going to keep grass? MR. LEO-That's grass, because we have a parking lot across the street. This is Double A now, this is the Whittemore, the Whittemore property is here. Our addition is coming out here, and the stockade fence that we have around here, over across here. This is going to be all grass back here anyway. We're not going to have any parking or anything. There's going to be no open doors, no way to get in or out back there. MR. BREWER-Nothing on the back side, then? MR. ARONSON-No. No entrance directly. MR. BREWER-Actually, it would be on the east side, and there'll be no doors or anything. MR. ARONSON-Just a fire door that's required by the Town. MR. BREWER-You'll have a door on the south end of the building? MR. LEO-As far as overhead goes, there's no more overhead doors going in. This is all strictly warehouse space. MR. BREWER-So you're not even going to load or unload back there? MR. LEO-Where we're loading now is where we're going to stay loading. There'll be no large doors going in. MR. STARK-This 2,000 gallon drYWell, is that enough to handle the overflow, do you think, there without anything going down the street? MR. HILTON-It looks like we've got a 2,000 and a 1500 gallon drYWell that are, they're both going to go in. I can't give you an engineering calculations. It will certainly improve things. MR. STARK-Right now, there's a lot of wash from the unpaved area, stoned area and everything, going down Richardson Street, or Second Street. Bob and I go down there, we go in front of Jim's Glass and there's stones and dirt and crap and everything washed down there. MR. LEO-Well, some of it comes out of our yard. Some of it comes out of Jim's yard, too. MR. PALING- I'm going to read something here from the Zoning Ordinance, and it's under this CR-15, which is the zone you're in. It says, "The purpose of this zone is to allow for this kind of, for transition from residential to commercial in a manner which permi ts the widening of the arterial route and encourages safe traffic patterns, an aesthetically pleasing environment and safe pedestrian circulation. II And I guess I want to come at you in two ways. One is paving, and one is the appearance of the property. You've got that great island out there in the corner near the - 3 - (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) street on Main Street. I guess it looked great once, but now it's absolutely untended and it looks terrible, and that would dress up that property so much if it were maintained to what it was intended to be originally. MR. ARONSON-You're absolutely right. MR. PALING-Will you tell us that you will correct it? MR. ARONSON-We'll maintain it. MR. PALING-Okay, and how about some paving? That would, I don't know how much you can do because of permeation, but it would help the dust. MR. ARONSON-We're a little afraid of a lot of paving, because of the way the trucks coming in, but we're planning on paving across on Main Street, right to that little island. MR. PALING-That would be a help, and any paving you would do would be a help. How about around on Second Street, can you do any there? MR. LEO-It's kind of hard to do, because the way the trailers corne in, they turn, and the back wheels just tear it right up, you know, because they can't come in straight. They've got to come in at an angle over there. MR. ARONSON-When a tractor trailer turns, the back wheels actually drag. Paving would, I think it would not last very long. MR. LEO-Yes, then it's going to look a lot worse with biq potholes. MR. ARONSON-I contacted your Highway Department as to what they do to keep their dirt rows in a little better shape, and they gave me the name of the chemical they use, and we're going to spread that and try it and see if we can keep the dust down. MR. BREWER-Well, if he put some kind of a, you're saying it's corning out here, George? This is going to trap a lot of the wash right here. MR. STARK-Yes, it is. MR. BREWER-But what's going to happen is, is the rain going to wash all the stone into the drYWell? MR. ARONSON-That's our question. MR. LEO-Well, most of the stone that's in the lot doesn't move around. It's just the dust on top that's flowing with it. The stones aren't really rolling out of the yard. MR. STARK-Don't forget, that's going to be back another 100 feet, or 90 feet, you know, to Jim's driveway, what he bought. He bought that house. Are you going to knock that house down? MR. LEO-Right. MR. STARK-There's a swimming pool in the back, people still swim in the swimming pool. MR. ARONSON-The people have a lease there. They'll be there for a while. MR. STARK-In the house? When are you going to do all this? MR. ARONSON-As soon as they're out. They've got about a year left - 4 - '- "---' -- (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) on the lease, and the minute they're out, it's coming down. MR. STARK-I thought the house was abandoned, to tell you the truth. There's no meter on the front of the house. MR. LEO-I think they just put a new entrance in there not too long ago. MR. PALING-Yes, because they were out in the back in the pool with the kids and all, when we were there. Okay. Are there any further questions? What I've got in my notes so far, in regard to a motion, would be a dust suppressant and to maintain that existing island. MR. BREWER-Do we have a copy, Bob, of all the concerns that the neighbors had last week? I don't want to try to remember them. MR. STARK-The woman said that the papers blowing allover the place, and down the street, down Second Street and all that, and then the other guy said that he didn't want to sit in his back yard and look over and see trailer trucks there, which he wouldn't because it's going to be all grass and there's going to be no trailer trucks over there anyway. MR. PALING-I've been there several times. I've never seen evidence of paper or anything like that blowing around. MR. ARONSON-I bring a crew on every site and clean up the inside, and they make a tour of the entire property, every Sunday morning, pick up soda bottles and beer cans that people parking and throwing them out the windows of their cars. It's just inevitable. Our own trash we take care of pretty good, and it's done once a week, like clockwork. MR. PALING-Okay, and then there was a guy that George referred to, but I think with the direction of this fence, I think he'll (lost words) . MR. BREWER-So the only thing we've got to have mentioned is to maintain the berm area where the plantings are. Well, there was an island and then it got run over or something, didn't it? MR. ARONSON-Yes, a few times. MR. BREWER-You had to put the four by fours up, or whatever. MR. PALING-But that would make that corner look very good, if that were maintained. I've got, I'm calling it a dust suppressant, and then maintain, correct, bring the island up to speed and maintained. Now, the public hearing was tabled. So it's still open, and there's no one here to comment, and we have no letters or anything like that. PUBLIC HEARING OPEN NO COMMENT PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED MR. PALING-And this is Type II. We can go right to a motion. MOTION TO APPROVE SITE PLAN NO. 22-97 DOUBLE A PROVISIONS, Introduced by Timothy Brewer who moved for its adoption, seconded by George Stark: Two conditions, that he refurbish and maintain the island on the corner of Second and Main, and he's going to use a suppressant for the dust in the parking lot. - 5 - (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) Duly adopted this 30th day of July, 1997, by the following vote: AYES: Mrs. LaBombard, Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Stark, Mr. Ringer, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Paling NOES: NONE ABSENT: Mr. Ruel MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you. MR. ARONSON-Thank you very much. MRS. LABOMBARD-Do we have anything else tonight? MR. RINGER-We've got the other group coming in. MR. PALING-Okay. We don't actually have an agenda item on this, but I'll open it up for, this is the Newman Development Company. They've got the prints for the proposed project that they have, and tonight we're going to have the applicant review this project for us, and then we're going to answer a request in regard to whether we should be lead agency on this. That's all we can accomplish tonight. We're going to talk about what we'll do after, but that's as far as we can go tonight to determine whether we want to be lead agent, yes or no. I'd like George to tell you a little bit more about this, and then we can go from there. MR. HILTON-Okay. At this point, what we have before us is an application for, I guess, a retail development, is how I would word it, preliminarily, and in terms of its SEQRA designation, it is a Type I action. With any Type I actions, they're required to be coordinated reviews, and with a coordinated review, you're also required to send out notice to all involved agencies, and ask to be lead agent. At this point, it would be Staff's opinion that this is probably a significant enough application for proposal where we would feel it would result in, or result in a positive declaration under a Type I SEQRA review. That's down the line, for this Board to determine if it's going to be a positive or negative declaration. At this point, what we're doing tonight, and I've handed you a sample resolution that you can use for guidance or enact if you'd like. Tonight we are just seeking to have the Planning Board be considered lead agent, and instructing Community Development Staff to send out notice to all involved agencies, notifying them that the Planning Board wishes to be the lead agent. MR. PALING-Okay. Let me just add a little bit to that, if we will. If we declare ourselves or ask or request that we be lead agent, then we have to get signed off by all the other agencies around, and this would be the first stage. The second stage of this would be the environmental assessment form, where we'd go positive or negative declaration, and if positive, then we'd do a scoping session probably the same night. That all happens with a public hearing, and to do that, Planning Staff would provide us with a draft format, a schedule that we can go by. Then the next stage would be that the applicant would put together an EIS, and that also would have a public hearing, and if necessary, we can request supplemental information, or we can pass it on at that point to the last stage, which would be the approval of the Final EIS, and I think the only thing I might just comment on is scoping, whereby we determine what's really needed in the EIS, define it for the applicant, and then get rid of the stuff that we don't need. For instance, I think we're going to see traffic as a major factor, but noise is not. So you get noise, eliminate noise and concentrate on what's important. So that's the rough skeleton we'll be working by, and with that, I think we can now turn it over to the applicant to review this if you would. - 6 - ~ -- (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) JON LAPPER MR. LAPPER-For the record, I'll introduce myself as Jon Lapper, ,on behalf of the Newman Development Group of Queensbury L.L.C., whJ.ch is a (lost word) company they set up for this project. Mark Newman is with me, and I'm very proud to introduce him to you. This is a very experienced development company that has done a lot of large projects. These are two that they've done elsewhere in New York State that Mark will tell you about. Obviously, these municipalities have different green space requirements than the Town of Queensbury, because their parking lot.s don't have all the trees that we'll providing in this, and then we've got our conceptual site plan in color that we'll go through with you and explain what's what and what some of the mitigation measures that we propose already are on the plan, but just in terms of an overview, well, why don't you show them what you've got here and explain the project, and here are some brochures from the company. MARK NEWMAN MR. NEWMAN-Okay. As John mentioned; my name is Mark Newman. I, first of all, want to say, I appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight for all of you, and discuss this project. Our company is based in Vestal, New York, which is in the Binghamton, New York area, and we have been very active in the development field. We've worked on many, many developments, and have many developments in progress. We've worked on easy sites, if there is such a thing, and we've worked on extremely difficult sites. This particular site, which is a 62 acre site, at 600,000 square feet, was completed in 1992. A million tons of fill was required for this site. We filled the site 20 feet. There was l4 acres of wetlands in the middle of the site. There was 400 acres of water that went through the site from up, watersheds up on the hills. There's a tremendous amount of mountains on this side of the area. There was an asphalt plant there. There was a drive in theatre, there was many, there were l4 different properties to assembly. So it was a very, very, very complex proj ect. Additionally, we had a number of developers, other developers, that wanted to be in this market place, doing what ~ proposed, fighting us, so it was just tremendous with respect to that opposition groups. We started this actual project in 1986, and we started construction in 1991. Additionally, this entire project, not entire project, but three quarters or better, from this point to this point, is all built on pilings which are 100 feet deep, and the entire project is actually built on a bridge. There was 25 feet thick of peat moss on this particular site. So we've been through the SEQRA process. We'd like to hire the right teams. We'd like to do the right job. We take a tremendous amount of pride in our developments. We like to do a lot of up-front work. We've been working on this project now since last January, and I think we've put together a good team of people. The engineers, we've already had meetings with the Army Corps of Engineers. We've had meetings with the DEC. We've had the traffic people. We've had traffic people on board now for a few months. We've got a good feel. There's already been some preliminary communication with the County with respect to traffic, and I think there's a good plan. This is another project that we've just completed. It'll be about a 400,000 square foot shopping center, when completed. There's one more phase that doesn't show. There's a Cole's Department store which is a mid West chain that will actually be over here facing into the Center. Substantial road improvements with all of our projects that we've done. This particular project actually had a surface road that ran through here. You can see where we've cul-de-sac'd it here. It used to run through here. We've worked with the Town of Vestal. We eliminated the service road. We bought the service road from the Town for the land and we made a connection directly into the Highway with the help of the New York State Department of Transportation. These projects generate a tremendous amount of - 7 - -./ (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) income for the communities that they're in. We look at you as our partners because this is your community and we want to be good neighbors. We want to be part of the community, and we have a commitment from a tenant that's going to be here a very, very long time, and I think that the location's right. I think the community's right, and again, we're honored to be able to be here. This is the site, as you all know, and we've been working on all the pieces of the puzzle, again, with respect to traffic, with respect to Halfway Brook. There's wetlands on the site, which we will not touch. We are not going to touch them at all. There will be no impact on the wetlands. There'll be no impact, from a standpoint Qll Halfway Brook, with the drainage. We will actually be, our current plan is we will actually be draining away from the Brook. So we will not be going directly into the Brook, on both sides, and it'll tie into our detention pond. That'll all be addressed in our stormwater plan, which is better than three quarters done, and we're just putting the final touches on that now. The building itself is 114,731 square feet, with a 35,000 square foot garden center. Part of the garden center is enclosed in a greenhouse, and part of, the rest of the garden center is open. We've looked carefully at the Town requirements with respect to landscaping and some of the other, actually all the requirements, and what we've done is I believe we've probably exceeded the criteria. We've allowed for the proper landscaping in the parking fields. We've maintained green areas and landscape areas. On Bay Road, there's about 111 feet, in this particular area, and there's about 78 feet in this particular area along Bay Road. This'll act as landscape, and some detention areas. Also maintaining green space on the front of the project facing Quaker Road. The store that you're looking at is a prototype store. We also have a 10 foot high wooden fence we're showing in the back as a buffer, and we've got 73 feet in one particular area, and 50 feet in this particular area to this line. The radius' are drawn in there, tenant requirements that they use on all their sites nationally. This site has gone back and forth between, the site plan has gone back and forth between ourselves, and also the tenant, which takes a very thorough look at this as well. We're also looking at an out parcel user, which is also a national tenant. We're also looking at an out parcel user which is also a national tenant. The parking, I believe, that we're showing is 9 x 20. There's 25 foot aisles, and we're looking at this traffic light and this light. We're looking at installing a traffic light on Glenwood Avenue, which should help, from what I see, just from the several times that I've been here. There seems to be a lot of congestion. Hopefully, that'll help clean that up. It will also tie in to the front of the store. MR. LAPPER-We're going to be realigning, there's a problem when you're coming south on Bay, where one of the lanes just fades when you turn on Glenwood, and that will all get cleaned up as well with that new signalization. MR. NEWMAN-Talking about a truck entrance here with the loading docks here, and the radius', and another area of loading docks in this particular area, for the store itself, and it's our goal to start construction no later than the spring, but we'd obviously have to go through a process. We don't want to rush this through. We want to do it the riqht way. We would like to be under construction by the spring, with a turnover date next fall, taking possession some time early in September with an opening some time in October of next year. The building will be made out of masonry, and of course a greenhouse, which will be quite extensive, and it'll be a State of the Art facility. MR. LAPPER-In terms of the procedure for the review, and SEQRA, we've had a number of meetings with the Planning Staff, and then last week we met with two members of the Town Board, and the Chairman of the Planning Board, to just discuss what the procedure - 8 - '- "--- ---../ (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) would be. We're in agreement with the Planning Staff that it would be most appropriate to do this as an Environmental Impact Statement, but at the same time, as Bob Paling said, we think that the scope of that is relatively narrow because the potentially significant impacts are the effect on Halfway Brook and the wetlands, which we will prove that we will not be impacting, but that is our job to do, and the engineers have been working on that, and we have a plan already, and then the :::.raffic improvements, which Mark mentioned, cleaning up Bay Road and signalizing that. Also on Quaker Road, right now there's a very small bridge. That bridge would be relocated farther to the east on the site, so farther from the big intersection of Quaker and Bay, and that would be right turn in, right turn out, which would eliminate the need for a light there. Not that we wouldn't want to put a light there, but because we have a light at Meadowbrook and a light at Quaker and Bay, it's not likely that the County Highway Department would want to see another light there. So by making it just right turn in, right turn out, that would eliminate the need for a traffic light. That would be part of our study. So what we're hopeful is that when we get to that, and you'll send out the notices, and the Planning Board is the appropriate agency for lead agency, and we don't expect that DEC or the County Highway certainly would be interested in being lead agency. So we don't see that as any issue. We're hoping that we could have the scoping session at the earliest possible time in September, just so we know what the scope is, and then we can quickly put together the DEIS. Since we've already done the engineering and we anticipate what the scope is, we don't expect that it's going to take us very many weeks to put together the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and present it to you for your review and then to schedule a public hearing, and then to get into the issues. MR. NEWMAN-One other point that slipped my mind. With this particular site, we're also looking at glazing the site, using about 100 to 125,000 cubic yards of fill. There's some floodplain in this area, maybe it even goes further, that will tie into our whole stormwater management system and will show how it works and how it all comes together. MR. LAPPER-You'll be getting the whole project out of the floodplain by (lost word) the fill, in terms of the parking lot, and the building. MR. NEWMAN-Correct. MR. BREWER-Just a thought. Why wouldn't you, or maybe I'm crazy, but if you want to get the parking and what not out of the flood plain, why wouldn't you put the building where the parking is, and the parking over there, to eliminate any problems with the flood plain, and the, just flip it? It would give you better exposure on Quaker. MR. NEWMAN-Well, the requirement for the tenant is they need to have the parking field. The front of their store needs to be facing Quaker, and they need to have the parking field in front of their store. MR. LAPPER-Visually, we'll have, in a supplement, what's in the buffer area here, and it may wind up, after you're done with it, with more trees than what you see there, shrubs, and by putting good sized trees in the parking, you'll be looking at trees rather than looking at the site of the building, and the building, by putting it in the back corner here, that's it. That's the visual mitigation, to just get it away so that you're not looking at a new building when you drive by. The other mitigation that's worth noting, just to start with, is that the detention pond, if you look at this picture, this is something that, when you look at Quaker Village, you don't, you see the Quaker Electric Supply building, - 9 - -.../ (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) which is in the area which will be in the 75 foot or greater buffer area. So that's going to be a lot of green along Bay Road, which right now is all asphalt, and when you think of the Quaker Village site, you think of this. You don't really think of the fact that the site also encompasses the fields here. That's where the detention basin's going to go. So it's going to be behind, really hidden, because it's going to be behind the building and behind the wetland area, and by putting it there, as Mark said, we get to keep it completely out of the buffer, out of the wetland itself, and back behind the buffer area. BOB SEARS MR. SEARS-Also, Jon, that pond is really deep full of water all the time, either. It's going to be only. MR. LAPPER-It's just going to be two feet deep. MR. SEARS-Right. MR. NEWMAN-At the most. MR. SEARS-And it's going to be very shallow. MR. LAPPER-And it's going to be grassed and mowed. So after a storm, when Mark was talking about adding the fill to the site, the problem with the drainage right now, and why the site floods during a storm, is that, it's completely flat, and what the engineers have explained to us, we're using C.T. Male Engineering on this. By raising the site, we get to create positive drainage by sloping the site toward the detention pond, and by using underground pipes to catch the water and to move it. So that will direct all the water that way. Right now, everything is just rushing into Halfway Brook, and this is going to slow down the release, in the case of the storm, to have a large storage area, so that we don't impact anyone down stream, where we're aware that on Meadowbrook Road there are houses that traditionally flood when there's a storm because they're right in the flood plain, which is unfortunate, and we can't fix the fact that they're right in the flood plain, but we can make sure that we don't make the situation any worse, and that's how this is designed. MR. PALING-Questions, comments? MRS. LABOMBARD-Can I see the other picture again? MR. STARK-Are you going to have a boulevard type entrance? MR. LAPPER-I don't think that there's a. MR. STARK-There's two in, two out? MR. LAPPER-The boulevard entrance is. MR. STARK-On Bay, opposite Glenwood. MR. NEWMAN-Yes. Glenwood, the traffic light ties right into the entrance way. MR. STARK-You're going to have two lanes going in, two lanes going out, that's all. MR. PALING-Will you have an island there, on that? MR. NEWMAN-I'm not sure of the size of that yet. We'll get that question answered for you, though, from our traffic person when it comes to designing the traffic light in that area, which is presently working on. - 10 - "---',,--, '--' (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) MR. PALING-Our preference would be for an island. MR. LAPPER-Those are issues, design issues are up to you, and if you guys want an island, maybe an island. MR. NEWMAN-I think an island makes sense. factor. You have a safety MR. PALING-Could you put the other one back up. I think it would be best for my question. The Brook, stream, goes right to the parking lot, right to the corner. MR. LAPPER-That is an existing feature. MR. PALING-It looks like right on this print it's butting against. MR. LAPPER-You see, on that map there is the wetland boundary, and the flood plain boundary, and you can see that our pa~king, we're staying out of the wetland. MR. PALING-But the stream is right on the corner of the parking lot. MR. NEWMAN-I think that that'll have to be analyzed. We're now into the topo. We don't know what the top of the slope would be there. We'll get those questions answered as well. MR. BREWER-I'm sure there's a requirement as far as how far you have to be set back anyway from a brook. MR. NEWMAN-There are some requirements. We met with the DEC and the Army Corps on that, but there are some setback requirements. See, there's pavement right up in here right now. It's fairly close right now, and that's one of the points that we discussed with the Army Corps and the DEC. It makes the turn that runs right up along here, where the pavement is. MR. LAPPER-That's not to say that we couldn't make it better, but that's the existing condition. MR. BREWER-I think that's (lost word) we can try to make it better. MR. NEWMAN-Right. Exactly. MR. LAPPER-This is our concept plan, and it's subject to discussion. MR. MACEWAN-Your parking, are you just meeting the requirements, or are you well over? MR. NEWMAN-We're over the requirements. MR. LAPPER-The requirements are 645, and we're proposing 730. MR. BREWER-You could even raise that up there, Craig, and drop it down on the other side, either way. MR. MACEWAN-Yes. MR. PALING-I just have one general question, because I don't have a concept of this, but in your Environmental Assessment Form, you talked about 24 tons of stuff you've got to get rid of every month. Is that packaging? What is it that you're getting rid of? MR. NEWMAN-Yes. It's actual dumpsters. MR. PALING-And that seems like a lot of weight for cardboard boxes or frames or something. -~-----------. (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) ~ - - - --- --, - - - ~ ~ - - --- ".'1' _ , _ _ _ __ _ ___ ,_ (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) MR. NEWMAN-As I understand it, it's a dumpster a week that's picked up, a 40 yard dumpster a week. MR. PALING-That's going to be great for the trash plant. MR. BREWER-It's not really all that much. MR. PALING-Twenty-four tons is a lot in my mind, especially when it's trash. MR. LAPPER-This is a use that's not in Town, and they anticipate that it's going to do very well. It's going to be popular. So we're trying to be conservative with the estimate of trash production. MR. PALING-Okay. It'll be good trash. MR. MACEWAN-You talked about bringing in fill to raise the level of the parking area and the store area. Will you be raising the area over where your detention pond is as well, and building it from that, or is that staying, what's there now? MR. NEWMAN-I believe that will stay where it is, because of the positive drainage would be lower. We would raise the site and get the drainage flowing in that direction. MR. MACEWAN-Have you done any test pits over there for water tables and stuff? MR. NEWMAN-Yes. Actually we've done a full Geo-Technical analysis on the site. MR. MACEWAN-What is it like back there in that corner where the detention pond's going to go? MR. NEWMAN-Generally two to four feet is the water table right now. MR. MACEWAN-It's much deeper over there than it is toward the front of the complex? MR. NEWMAN-That's my understanding, correct. MR. PALING-Okay. AnYmore questions or comments from anyone? MR. SEARS-Maybe Jon or Mark could just share the economic impact it's going to have on the community. MR. LAPPER-In terms of jobs. MR. NEWMAN-Sure. We expect about 250 jobs to be generated, full time jobs, to be generated from this particular retail user. We also expect the jobs not to be minimum wage jobs. We expect them to be management jobs to be offered. We expect rates from the seven to nine, perhaps $10 per hour, depending on what the function is. The tax dollars will depend on what it's ultimately assessed at, but going by some of the other comparables in the area, this project should be somewhere similar to a dollar ten or a dollar fifteen a square foot, based on the square footage of the property, or the building. So it's a substantial amount of tax revenue that's generated. Additionally, this particular project should generate somewhere around $30 million a year in annual sales, which I think the sales tax here is seven percent. So we'd be generating substantial sales tax revenue, and then whatever the actual cut is for the Town and the County and so on, we'll get a piece of that pie as well. What is it, four percent for the County? MR. HILTON-Three percent. Four percent for the State. - 12 - -' "---- ~--..-' (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) MR. LAPPER-I want to just clarify an issue, also. We're not being evasive by not disclosing who the tenant is at this point. It's one of the companies that Mark and his company have a very long relationship with. This particular company's policy, and they're a classy company, they don't, until we've go~ten this approved, they don't want everyone to be saying, like the McDonald's project, that that was the site. So that if we run into issues that it gets pinned on them, they deal with their publicity, and we're here to get this approved and to do this right, and to prove to you that it's right, and Mark's told you that he has a commitment from the tenants. That's not something that's an issue. It's just that it's not up to us to speak for them, because they're a separate company. MR. BREWER-You mean the other building there? MR. LAPPER-No, the home improvement center. That we're just not at liberty to discuss that. MR. NEWMAN-I have to sign a confidentiality agreement with them, every time we go in to do a project. MR. BREWER-So all the Lowe's stuff is just newspaper talk, not necessarily what the client is. MR. NEWMAN-Yes. We can't divulge who it is, because of our confidentiality agreement. It could jeopardize our dealings with them, and we don't want that. We're just not allowed to say, but in time it will come out, and there will be press releases directly from the company, and I'm certain that this community will be very pleased with them. I think they'll be a good neighbor here. MR. LAPPER-But we want you to know that we do have an agreement with a tenant and this is not a speculative, when this is approved, this will be built. MR. PALING-Okay. Any other comments or questions? MR. STARK-None. MR. PALING-We're set to go. Then I think we've come to the point, we've got two things to do. One is to decide whether we want to be lead agency on this, and then that has to go through the proper procedure for us to be appointed, and then just review what the next step is. So, if there's no discussion, I guess we need a motion as to whether we should or should not be lead agent. Does somebody want to make a motion? RESOLUTION OF PLANNING BOARD TO BE DESIGNATED AS LEAD AGENCY REGARDING THE SITE PLAN REVIEW FOR NEWMAN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION Introduced by: George Stark who moved for its adoption Seconded by: Catherine LaBombard Whereas, the Planning Board of the Town of Queensbury is presently considering the site plan proposed by Newman Development for a retail development at the intersection of Bay Road and Quaker Road, and Whereas, it would appear necessary to comply with the State Environmental Quality Review Act in connection with conducting an - 13 - (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) environmental review of the proposed action, and Whereas, it would appear that the action about to be undertaken by the Planning Board of the Town of Queensbury is a Type I Action, Now, therefore, be it Resolved, that the Planning Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby indicates that it would desire to be the lead agency in connection with any reviews necessary pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act, and hereby directs the Community Development Department for the Town of Queensbury to notify all involved agencies, of this desire, and that a lead agency must be designated within 30 days and to further send a copy of Part I of the Full Environmental Assessment Form, this resolution, and the proposed site plan and notifications to these agencies. Duly adopted this 30th day of July 1997, by the following vote: AYES: Mr. MacEwan, Mr. Stark, Mr. Ringe~, Mr. Brewer, Mrs. LaBombard, Mr. Paling NOES: NONE ABSENT: Mr. Ruel_ MR. PALING-All of the other agencies involved will be advised that that is what we wish to be, and then we'll get confirmation of that later. Now, the next step in this will be the Environmental Assessment Form, in which we'll go for a positive or a negative declaration. MR. BREWER-Is the next step the site plan and all that, and then we do the SEQRA then? MR. LAPPER-No. As the lead agency, you'd have to do the SEQRA first. You'd be doing the SEQRA while you're looking at the site plan, but you have to make that SEQRA determination first. MR. PALING-Now this will be done with a format provided by the Planning Staff, and I hope that we can do the EAF and the scoping the same night. Now we're looking at this being done in August, but that's your pleasure. MR. LAPPER-That would be done the 26th? MR. PALING-We could either do the 19th or the 26th. MR. MACEWAN - I would encourage you to set up a special. MR. HILTON-We have to have time to send out the notice and get a response. MR. BREWER-We've got to wait 30 days to get a response? MR. LAPPER-Well, you don't if the other agencies, if you walk it through. MR. PALING-If you want to shoot for the 26th, okay. MR. MACEWAN-Are you planning on a regular agenda? MR. PALING-Well, lets not jump the gun. If we need a special meeting, we will have one, but if not, we will go with our regular 26th, as long it's a date. MR. LAPPER-We don't anticipate that this would take more than an - 14 - --'---' ~ (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) hour for scoping, because even though it's a decent size project, there just aren't that many issues to talk about. I mean, if the public don't come and raise issues, the other agencies most likely, their letters. MR. BREWER-I think I would feel better, too, if we had this on a separate meeting. Only because last month John said there will be two meetings, and if this is such a big project, I mean, we did it with Wal-Mart. We did it with K-Mart. MR. PALING-We won't crowd it in, and if necessary we'll quickly call a special meeting, but lets see how things come together. We won't crowd it. We'll make sure it's done right. MR. BREWER-It doesn't make any difference. here the 26th anyway. I'm not going to be MR. PALING-Okay. Does everyone understand what's coming next? And any other questions of the applicant? MR. STARK-He'll be coming in the 26th, supposedly, with the SEQRA, right? MR. PALING-No, we will be conducting the SEQRA. MR. STARK-Yes, but we'll get the SEQRA out of the way at that meeting? MR. PALING-Yes. That's what we'll be doing. MR. STARK-And then what after that? MR. PALING-After that, hopefully we'll do scoping that same night, too, so that we have given the applicant a clean definition of what we expect from them in their EIS, and they'll go away from here, we know we're going to talk about traffic. We know we're going to talk about water, in whatever form it is, but I don't think noise is a factor. I think lighting can be quickly addressed without making it a factor. There's no odor, that kind of thing. MR. BREWER-Has there been a traffic study done? MR. LAPPER-Yes. We haven't submitted that yet. We only submitted the Long Form EAF for your review, for the scoping. MR. BREWER-Have you guys gone by for the agenda for August? MR. LAPPER-We submitted the EAF which is all we have to do for scoping. You will get the traffic report as part of the DEIS. After you determine whether there's a potentially significant impact, we should talk about that in our DEIS, then we will include the traffic report in that document. MR. NEWMAN-We have a full traffic report, a full drainage report, all the correspondence that we've had with the Army Corps of Engineers, and the DEC and all issues pertaining to the drainage situation and so on. The other thing I forgot to mention, just before I forget. In addition to the way our company is structured, when it comes time to do construction, we will have our own project management on staff, but we will be looking to local contractors within this area to help us build this facility. So there'll be jobs created for local contractors, a couple of hundred jobs, and additionally there will be building materials and so on that are purchased. Not all the building materials, but most of the building materials will be purchased in this area. It makes a lot more economic sense for us to get things locally, rather than trucking them in. Certain items we will buy direct, like the HVAC units because they come from Lennox or somebody like that direct, - 15 - - (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) but for the most part, glazing companies and block companies and painting companies, you know, the site work, we've already had some meetings with one site contractor, I didn't meet with him, one of my associates, Valente perhaps? MRS. LABOMBARD-Yes, Dan. MR. NEWMAN-Father and son. MRS. LABOMBARD-Yes. MR. NEWMAN-Very nice people, very, very nice, and so that will also generate, as I said, jobs and dollars for the community. MRS. LABOMBARD-Why wouldn't you purchase some of the building materials from the company that's moving in there? MR. NEWMAN-It's a very good question, but it's just, they would rather not get involved in that type of business. MRS. LABOMBARD-No, I wasn't really prying. MR. NEWMAN-That's actually a very qood question. Sears hardware, which we have in this development, made us purchase some items from them. MRS. LABOMBARD-They did? MR. NEWMAN-Yes. They made us purchase the paint from them and some other items. I don't know exactly all the items, but there were some items. Bed, Bath and Beyond, who is not in that kind of business at all, they also made us purchase some stuff, but that's a whole other story. Actually, they use certain kind of companies, spec, you know, certain kind of floors and things, so we have to buy it through them, but I think, I just think with this particular operator, they don't want to, you know, their main goal is to expand and to open in new areas, and I think they want to stay focused on that. They're really geared toward retail. MR. STARK-George, when will Levandowski get this? MR. HILTON-We will send him the information that we have right now. We'll send him this preliminary information for review. As the other information comes in, traffic studies and any stormwater management reports, they'll go to him as soon as we get them. MR. STARK-So the 26th we'll have something back from Bill? MR. HILTON-If that's what you'd like, we can instruct him to prepare a preliminary comment letter and have it before the 26th. MR. STARK-That would be nice. MR. PALING-What is the applicant going to present to us? Lets back up to that question, and that would be part of that. MR. HILTON-I think the applicant has indicated that at this point we're going to establish lead agency, and at the next meeting, when we do the scoping, get these main issues, you know, focus on the main issues. At that point, they would provide the information. MR. PALING-Yes. That is before we run the SEQRA, we have to have a more detailed explanation. That will be the first part of the program. MR. HILTON-Right. MR. LAPPER-Well, the way it works with the Environmental Impact - 16 - ~.----.. ~" (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) Statement is that the scoping session is a very preliminary step. I mean, we would be very happy to get you anything else, now, that you want, but the way it usually works is that you look at this in kind of a macro sense, look at the Environmental Impact Statement, which we've done, I'm sorry, the Environmental Assessment Form, the Long Form, the four page form that we've submitted to you, and our preliminary site plan, concept plan that you have, and you would just sort of generally say the traffic is going to be an issue. Water is going to be an issue. If you thought that there was something like noise was going to be an issue, you'd tell us about that, too, and then you're sending us out to do our homework. So in most cases, when a developer comes in, they haven't gone and done the traffic study yet, because they want to hear if you're going to tell them you want them to go do a traffic study, but we know that. We've met with the Town many times, and we know, in dealing with the Planning Department, what the issues are, but that's not the way, if I came to you with a usual client to start this process, we wouldn't be so far into it, and you could corne back and tell us that we were wrong and that traffic's not an issue, and we didn't have to do a report, and then we would have just wasted our money. MR. PALING-Well, at what point are you going to have enough detail where we can question what curbings are made out of, the number of plantings you have, trees? MR. LAPPER-At that point, and hopefully at the 26th's meeting, I would expect, because Mark's already gotten so much work done from the engineering, that within two to three weeks, which is a very aggressi ve schedule, we could probably process that information and put it into the form of an Environmental Impact Statement. That would be the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, and submit that to you. Once we submit that to you, you'll review that for completeness for review, and you determine, not that that answers all the questions the way you want them answered, but that we have addressed the issues that you asked us to address at the scoping session, that we've addressed traffic. You're not going to be determining, that it's complete saying, okay, we agree with everything your traffic study says, although we ho~e that you do, and when you say that it's complete for review, you would then schedule the public hearing, and you would send out the notice that there's going to be a public hearing, and that we have delivered copies of this to the Town, and a copy is available in the Planning Department for review by the public before the meeting, or, you know, two weeks before the meeting, and that, we would hope that that meeting would then be in one of the October meetings. We would have the public hearing to review the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. When we submit the Draft Environmental Impact Statement to you, we will have the full site plan. So that would be also sometime in September, which would be the detailed site plan with everything, with the curb detail and all of the calipers of the trees and everything like that. So when you get into the October meeting, the public will comment and then you'll do your nuts and bolts review of the impacts, and the (lost word) in terms of what our site plan looks like. MR. PALING-Well, there's two things on that, Jon. One is that we intend to have a public hearing with scoping, and then we will have another public hearing, or the continuation of that, with the Draft EIS. MR. LAPPER-That's right. MR. PALING-The Draft EIS is what you're providing with the site plan detail, at the third meeting. MR. LAPPER-Correct. - 17 - "'- ----. .-.--" (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) MR. PALING-Okay. Then we're aboard. MR. STARK-Is that a public hearing, or public comment period? MR. PALING-Public hearing. MR. LAPPER-And there would be public comment period as well. The people could send in written, at the same time. MR. PALING-The two that I'm talking about so far, the second and third meetings, are public hearings. MR. LAPPER-Right. MR. PALING-Okay, and this is where we'll get the detailing. MR. NEWMAN-Just to elaborate a little bit on your answer and your question, what we're in the process of doing right now, it's our intent in the next four weeks, we need to turn over to our tenant, there's a process that they have separate, which is a kick off meeting, and at that kick off meeting, this is a requirement that they have with their construction department. We have to have a full set of drawings prepared, not only for the site, but also for the building. So it'll be our intent, and we will submit also the building drawings that you can review and also your department can look over, so if we do, and hopefully we do get the approvals, then we'll be ready to do with a permit, as well for that process. We'll have those really in the next four weeks. MR. PALING-If everything goes right, you'll get final approval in October for everything. MR. LAPPER-Well, no, because after October, that week we have the comments on the Draft, and then we have to go back and produce the Final, which is just, we have to respond in writing to the comments that were made by the Board and by the members of the public in writing at the meeting. So we would then give you our formal answer, and that's the Final Environmental Impact Statement, and then you would come up with a list of findings and say, you know, we think we're going to require you to put traffic lighting over there. MR. PALING-We would try and do that in October, okay. MR. LAPPER-In October you will give us a pretty clear picture, as I know you always do, about what you're going to want to see here in the final, and so that would be in our final document, the mitigation that's required. MR. PALING-In September, we have a Draft EIS by the applicant, and then, why doesn't that become the Final in October? MR. LAPPER-Because you have to schedule a public hearing. You'll get it some time in September, but that'll probably the third week in September, maybe the second week in September. MR. HILTON-There's a review period. MR. PALING-All right. That's fine. MR. NEWMAN-Also when this project is underway, I can assure this Town that we, as I said, we will have staff, our staff, on site, and any issues that pop up, because there's always issues that pop up after. We will be there on site to address 100%, and you can talk to any towns that we've done business in. The Town of Vestal, we have two million square feet of retail that we've developed, in that particular Town, and we have worked very closely with them, and anything that's popped up, we've always addressed. We don't - 18 - ',-,,,-. --J' (Queensbury Planning Board Meeting 7/30/97) turn our backs and say, hey, we got the approval. Because there's always little things that happen, and we will always be there to work with the community. MR. BREWER-You will own this, and then lease it? MR. NEWMAN-The answer is yes. We will own it, and lease it back to the tenant. MR. PALING-Okay. If there are no other comments, then we'll adjourn the meeting, and we'll look forward to be appointed lead agent, and continuing next month. MR. NEWMAN-Thank you very much. MR. PALING-Okay. Thank you. MR. STARK-George, if for some reason the 26th is really full, while we've got everybody here, when would you want that special meeting, that Thursday night the 28th? The 28th is fine with me, but what about the rest of you? Right now, do we have a lot of stuff on the 26th? MR. HILTON-Right now, we have a lot of applications in. We don't know which ones will be on the 26th. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Robert Paling, Chairman - 19 -