Planning Board Agendas and Minutes

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COHOES PLANNING BOARD HELD VIRTUALLY ON JUNE 14, 2021 at 6:30PM MEMBERS PRESENT: Mr. Mark DeFruscio, Chairperson Mr. Jack Carroll, Vice Chairperson Mr. Joseph Nadeau Ms. Stephanie Couture Mr. Bob Bucher ABSENT: None ALSO PRESENT: Joseph Seman-Graves, City Planner Sharon Butler, Administrative Assistant Chairperson DeFruscio called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. Roll Call; there were no members absent CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES FROM THE MAY 10, 2021 MEETING Chairperson DeFruscio; the first item on the agenda is the consideration of the May 10, 2021 meeting minutes. Are there any comments, questions, revisions from any of the members that reviewed the minutes? If not, I’d be looking for a motion to accept the minutes as submitted. I see Mr. Carroll has joined us too Sharon. Joe Seman Graves; Mark, can you hold on a minute Bob is in the room too. Kizzy given that there’s the 5 members here, I’m going to ask that you not take an official vote if that’s ok. Alternate Member Williams; no problem Chairperson DeFruscio; so Sharon we have Mr. Bucher is now in attendance and Mr. Carroll is now in attendance. Sharon; ok, thank you Chairperson DeFruscio; so, we were discussing the meeting minutes from May 10th to see if any of the members had any additions, revisions, changes or otherwise. If not I’d ask for a motion to accept the minutes Member Nadeau; I make a motion we accept the minutes Member Couture; I’ll 2nd Motion carried unanimously YES NO Bob Bucher ABSTAIN Joseph Nadeau X Mark DeFruscio X Jack Carroll ABSTAIN Stephanie Couture X Kizzy Williams Non-Voting CONSIDERATION OF A CHANGE OF USE/NEW TENANT APPLICATION FOR A PROPOSED BUSINESS AT 109 REMSEN STREET Chairperson DeFruscio; alright, the next item on the agenda is consideration of a Change of Use/ New Tenant application for 109 Remsen Street. It’s The Planter, LLC. They are proposing to open a new business where they plan to have a walk in plant workshop which sells plants and other retail items with the intention of making planting fun for all ages. Is the applicant with us? Yamaris Cancel; yes I’m here Chairperson DeFruscio; ok, do you want to offer more of an explanation, you want to explain what you’re looking to do? Ms. Cancel; yes absolutely. With the, what we do is our focus is mainly on the workshops. So having workshops people can come in, they can build their own terrariums with succulents or air plants and then on top of that we can offer certain events and other regular house plants that are typically low maintenance and smaller retail times as well including bases, planters and other small deco items. Chairperson DeFruscio; I saw a reference to it being similar to like a Sip and Paint kind of environment? Ms. Cancel; yes, that’s correct Chairperson DeFruscio; are you looking to serve any kind of beverages or is it a bring your own? Ms. Cancel; so it would be, we would have non-alcoholic beverages and then people can bring their own. I’m going to look further into possibly a permit for certain events, but for now it’s going to be non-alcoholic that we would serve. Chairperson DeFruscio; hours of operation? Ms. Cancel; so for the hours of operation, Monday and Tuesday we’ll be closed, Sunday 10-5, Wednesday & Thursday 11-8, Friday 11-9 and Saturday 11-9. Chairperson DeFruscio; I’m sorry Joe go ahead Member Nadeau; and you stated all your retail items would be strictly related to the planting process? Ms. Cancel; right, so it would be like planting tools, bases, possibly some house décor items but it would be things that would have something in reference to planting. Chairperson DeFruscio; I see in the floor plan the major focus is on the workshop, the area for doing that. Ms. Cancel; yes, so I would have set up mainly on the walls would be like the bases and plants for the workshops, then on each table would have the specific supplies for the workshops as well. So I’m trying to keep everything in the same location and then towards the front windows I’ll have more of like my plants and bases for sale and things like that. Joe Seman-Graves; I want to apologize, I think the board has the information in front of them and can you pronounce your last name please? Ms. Cancel; yes it’s Cancel Joe Seman-Graves; so the board can see what Ms. Cancel has submitted, I just did not reflect them in the power point, but the board is seeing what you have provided. Member Couture; do you have any plans for the front windows as far as marketing and displays and things like that? Ms. Cancel; yes, so I do want to put my logo on the front window, but inside the windows themselves I do want to pretty much fill them with plants. I want a few plants hanging down and then I’ll have hopefully some crates or certain things that I can put other plants on. But I want to make it so the windows are pretty much full, so you can see what we offer from the windows on top of regular house plants as well and bases. Member Couture; ok thank you Chairperson DeFruscio; Joe the store is within 500’ of some municipal parking at this point in time? Joe Seman-Graves; yes, actually right across the street Chairperson DeFruscio; other questions or comments? Alright, at this point in time I’d like to open it up for comments from the public. Does anybody from the public have any comments or questions? Joe Seman-Graves; nothing in the chat Chairperson DeFruscio; we’ll give it a brief moment here to see if anybody comes up with any questions. I guess at this point in time I’d like to close the public comment period. Moving onto, I’m looking for a recommendation to either approve or deny the Change of Use application for a proposed business at 109 Remsen Street. Vice Chair Carroll; I make a motion that we approve for 109 Remsen Street. Member Bucher; I’ll 2nd Motion carried unanimously YES NO Bob Bucher X Joseph Nadeau X Mark DeFruscio X Jack Carroll X Stephanie Couture X Kizzy Williams Non-Voting Chairperson DeFruscio; ok we wish you luck and you can check with Joe to see what the next steps are and we hope that you prosper. Ms. Cancel; thank you so much I appreciate it. CONSIDERATION OF A CHANGE OF USE/NEW TENANT APPLICATION FOR A NEW BUSINESS AT 127 CANVASS STREET Chairperson DeFruscio; ok next item on the agenda is consideration of a Change of Use/New Tenant Application at 127 Canvass Street, which is the old OTB facility. They are looking to turn it into a pediatrician’s office and upgrade with some exam rooms, reception waiting area and offices for the doctor and staff. Is there someone on board, on the meeting who wishes to expand on that, explain further? Hi I’m Paul Fallati and we have Dr. Ditursi also on the phone if you have any questions for her. But we are looking at taking the existing building, it’s been on the market for some time and mainly it’s going to be interior renovations and the floor plan that we presented is a flavor of what she is looking for. It has, I use the word the ingredients, she needs about 5 exam rooms, but I want to make sure that if it gets approved, it gets approved subject to minor changes inside subject to getting a building permit. But basically it’s going to be a pediatricians hours with the hours that are on the schedule and outside renovations, they’re going to be fixing up the building so that it keeps the character of the existing building. There will be no major changes, we do understand it’s in a historic, it’s on the historic registry, I believe. We need to do a sign review with the historical board which we will do and if there’s any color changes those would also be presented to the board. But no major changes to the outside of the building except for cleaning it up, pointing it up, there’s some work to be done on the bricks etc. but that’s about it. Dr. Ditursi; I should make a note about the hours. I think most of you guys, half of you look familiar I’m sure I’ve met at least some of you, but I am the pediatrician in Cohoes right now, I’m over at 55 Mohawk Building, been there since 2013 I took over Dr. Gratins patients. In the past, we have done evening hours and in the past we’ve done Saturday hours, so I can’t rule any of those out, but the hours that Paul listed are current hours. Are there any other questions in particular about Harmony Mills or the office that I can answer: Chairperson DeFruscio; right now Joe we’re not doing a site plan approval, we’re just doing the Special Use Permit and the new business application. Joe Seman-Graves; yes Chairperson DeFruscio; so they’re going to come back to use with a final floor plan? Joe Seman-Graves; no not necessarily if they meet every… So they’re going to build it to code obviously and I think what they’re getting at now, so ok, let’s say they shrink this down to 4 exam rooms and increase the waiting room, you know that’s the kind of flexibility I think they’re looking for from this approval. If it turns out to be something completely different on the inside then they would be coming back and unless they do any exterior renovations or landscaping past the point of your basic mulch and gardening, then they wouldn’t be coming back to the board for any site plan work. Member Nadeau; would you be doing this as the owner of the building or a tenant? Dr. Ditursi; owner, I’m a tenant right now and my business has gotten to the point where it needs to own its own building. The business will spin off an LLC, my husband and I will own the building and then the PC, that’s the practice will rent from the LLC. Member Nadeau; thank you Member Bucher; Paul how many, there are 2 existing lavatories in that building or… Mr. Fallati; correct, to the right hand side, so it’s an open landscape plan Bob. They just have one solid wall, if you were to look at the regular drawing there, that bold line to the left, that’s a solid thick wall, other than that it’s wide open, 2 existing bathrooms, we plan to put the bathrooms at that end to use the existing plumbing. Member Bucher; right, and obviously you’re going to be ADA compliant, the whole space will be accessible and all the stuff required for the building permit. Mr. Fallati; everything will be subject to architectural review and then present to the, present for a building permit, yes Member Bucher; ok. Is there going to be, there’s no I’m assuming no X-ray or any equipment like that? I don’t see an imaging room, is there an imaging room there? Dr. Ditursi; we don’t have any, we don’t do any imaging on site. The most advanced thing we would do is a COVID test, so this is pretty reflective of what we got right now, it’s just a better lay out for us and a better location Member Bucher; ok, thank you Chairperson DeFruscio; on the drawing I only see one public toilet, I don’t see a staff restroom Dr. Ditursi; there’s 2 you must have just gone over it. There’s a small non-ADA public one there and then the accessible lav is the other lavatory location and then there’s the staff bathroom in the back near the kitchen. But again as Paul said that the location of some of these may move, but 5 exam rooms, 3 offices, a lab, reception, storage, waiting and a break room, those are the pieces and there all going to be there and 3 bathrooms. Member Bucher; right and does the building have current, Paul ADA accessibility? It didn’t as OTB, I don’t think. Mr. Fallati; it, Bob to the front it does with the double swinging doors and then it’s a wide open concept. The door to the rear on the drawing that doesn’t show the floor plan, that is a 36” opening and there’s also another 36” door over towards the very left front of the building that goes into the building, that’s also 36”. Dr. Ditursi; there’s no way that the 2 bathrooms that are there now are ADA compliant. Mr. Fallati; oh nothing is right now. The bathrooms are not ADA compliant. Member Bucher; right and again all predicated on securing a building permit review Mr. Fallati; right, we’ve taken the concept, it has multiple forms of egress and they’re actually in good spots, front, rear and they’re far enough away from each other, so we don’t have to break through walls and do brick work and lintels and all of that. So now we need to go to architectural review, but we’re doing our due diligence. We are under contract, we have not closed on the building so we want to make sure that this concept will work for a pediatrician’s office and then we’ll go to the building department with architectural drawings and review. Member Bucher; ok, sure Chairperson DeFruscio; any board members have any questions, comments, things of that nature? I’d like to open it up to the public for public comments at this point in time. Anybody from the public have any questions, comments regarding this consideration, change of use application for a new business and a special use permit? Nobody’s raising their hand Joe? Joe Seman-Graves; no Chairperson DeFruscio; ok given…. Member Nadeau; Mark I just have 1 more question. Lighting in the parking lot, will there be any changes or anything that will affect the neighborhood? Mr. Fallati; currently no. We’re looking to just go, there’s currently lighting on the outside of the building, but if we needed we would….. Dr. Ditursi; I’ve, I haven’t been there in the dark yet. I’m pretty strict about my staff being able to walk well-lit to their cars. There are parts of the parking lot at the current building that I do not allow my staff or my students to park in because of that. But I’m not planning on shining any big lights on people’s back windows that would not make for good neighbors. Member Nadeau; ok great, thank you Chairperson DeFruscio; I guess I’m looking for comments from other board members. Right now, I have no problems with the use application or the special use permit, but I’m having difficulty with the flexibility that is wanted here and in the plans we’re not seeing. I would like to be involved in the final approval of the plans and have these questions answered by a final plan as to where lightings is, where the trash is going to be, snow storage, you know all of those normal things that we do. Dr. Ditursi; something that may clarify, is it is part of the contract that one of the, one of the escape clauses in the contract is if Cohoes isn’t going to allow me to put a doctor office there, so I’m not going to buy the building if this board is going to turn around and say no we object to a pediatricians office being at 127 Canvass Street. But if you need to see the building permit, if you need to see more detailed plans for the building permit, I don’t object, but I do want to make sure that, I’m not about to buy a $200,000 building that I can’t use. Chairperson DeFruscio; and I can understand that. I guess I’m looking for other board members opinions on whether it’s just me because we’ve had some issues in the past where we’ve tried to give people flexibility and they’ve taken advantage of that fact. So I’m trying to feel where the rest of the board members, if they’re comfortable without any final plan, final site plan approval or because we could do this one of two ways. We could approve the change of use applications and the special use permit with a caveat that they come back to the planning board with a final site plan for approval or we don’t include that. I guess I’m looking for a discussion on that. Vice Chair Carroll; I feel that it’s an effective use of the property to be honest. I know there’s no details on the layout, but I’m comfortable with it. Kizzy Williams; and I truly think that Cohoes needs this pediatric office. I know her personally, she’s my son’s doctor. Member Nadeau; it doesn’t sound like anybody’s disagreeing with the use Kizzy Williams; this is what I’ll say, I’ve been to her office where she’s located right now and being at her office where she is located at I know for a fact that it is awful where she is located right now, so I would say it’s good that she would be able to move, not just for herself but for the children, and not just for the children but also for the community. Chairperson DeFruscio; Kizzy I’m in agreement with that, I’m in favor of approving this as a doctor’s office and the special use permit. My concern is that the final, and I can understand why the final site plan isn’t available as of yet because they don’t want to purchase the building move anything further until they get the special use permit. I’m ok with all of that, what I’m concerned with is that I don’t mind giving them a little flexibility but giving them carte blanch is not something I’m comfortable with. Mr. Fallati; can I ask a question? I understand where you’re coming from, I think maybe we’ve got 2 concepts that we’re talking about. The fact of the changing of the ingredients on the interior is what I’m looking for and just the flexibility that I think would be approved by the building permit and we’re not having an impact on the adjacent neighbors. And I understand now let’s go to site plan so I can see you saying ok if the building department approves the layout of the inside and it meets all the codes then that would be ok. If we did something where you ever do an approval where I can come back and I can meet with Joe tomorrow or the next day whenever he’s available? What are we down to on site plan? I understand you want to see where the trash is going to be, what would be the other things on the outside that you would be concerned with? I guess we could live with the concept that said if you’re going to install lighting it’s going to have to be a downward type lighting versus a lighting that would cast any glare onto adjacent neighbors. I guess we could come up with a location for the dumpster so it’s not located next to the houses where they can hear it getting dumped, what else would you be looking for on the site plan review? Chairperson DeFruscio; parking plan, trash removal, Member Bucher; Paul, you’re absolutely right, there’s 2 issues here; the interior layout, which I try to personally stay away from because I have to rely, we have to rely on our building department to make sure that the layout is done correctly, everything is code compliant on the interior, so I totally agree with that. That’s why I don’t really get into that even though it’s habit. But to Mark’s point the, any proposed exterior lighting, parking layout, dumpster enclosure, you know a professional site plan of some kind that will I think will have everybody comfortable. The building is at grade I think you mentioned, but if there’s any ADA access that has to be constructed again, I think it’s at grade but I think that where plants, you know some sort of a planting layout, I think that’s not speaking for Mark or anyone else but I know I’d be comfortable with something like that. Joe Seman-Graves; also, just my recommendation if you, and this is more of a question to Ms. Ditursi, if the special use permit is granted, that’s signification that the City will allow this use to be in that location. I don’t know what your time frame is to move in, but you could always have the follow up site plan done for the July meeting for the board review which wouldn’t impact the ability of you to use the building for this use. Ms. Ditursi; we’ve got a lot of time to play with. The current OTB has a lease going through October which we will honor and we’re looking at starting construction in early 2022, my current lease goes until September of 2022, so it’s not actually a last minute project. Joe Seman-Graves; perfect so a special use permit will give you that assurance that you can use the space for that, it’s just follow-up details that you might not need in the interim that could be a little bit more refined and brought back to the board in July. Chairperson DeFruscio; or whenever you get them done. Mr. Fallati; well, wait what do you mean when we get them done? If we get them done sooner is there a special meeting or anything? Chairperson DeFruscio; not before July, no Mr. Fallati; alright, I just need to make sure they’ll extend the contract because there were other interested parties and I pushed it out on the contingencies to get on this date. So its subject, I don’t think it’s a problem but I’m not the seller so I need to go back to them and say…. Chairperson DeFruscio; what we’re saying Paul is that we would approve the special use permit and change of use application and just require that when you get farther along in the development of the project we need you to come back with just an external site plan for our review and consideration. Mr. Fallati; ok Chairperson DeFruscio; and what we do in that site plan review is we work with whoever, with the owner of the building and whoever is doing the design for them, just to come to some agreement as to what the lighting plan is going to be and make sure the parking is sufficient and laid out and meets, has setup handicap spaces, that the garbage is placed not to disturb other neighbors and things of that nature. Nothing that’s out of the ordinary Mr. Fallati; ok Member Couture; we usually look for snow storage too. Chairperson DeFruscio; yes So that’s something that can be done farther down in your planning process after you develop the inside of the building and what you’re going to need outside in order for it to work. Mr. Fallati; ok Joe Seman-Graves; would those approvals be sufficient Paul for the contract to move forward? Mr. Fallati; my gears are spinning on what could be the downside for the doctor so and quickly thinking if there’s something….it’s a huge parking lot so stripe plan is nothing, parking is nothing, lighting plan is nothing, I can’t think of anything that’s going to knock us out as long as doc has a comfort level saying it’s ok and we clearly understand you want to see the exterior site plan I can’t see a down side to it, unless anybody else has an eyebrow up and says don’t forget about this. Member Bucher; again to Mark’s point, Paul I think everybody is in favor absolutely of this applicant and granting that change of use, I know I am without any question, and I think Mark summed it up Mr. Fallati; ok, I feel comfortable with that, I don’t want to speak for doc, I’ll let her comment after that and then the interior plan is subject to building department review. Again we’re not making any significant changes, she bought the building made sure she had the square footage to fit what we need in there and we’ll get it to the building permit to meet all the codes on the inside. You ok with that doc? Dr. Ditursi; I’m ok with that, I’m hearing that we’re getting an approval new for the special use for the building and that’s going to allow me to move forward and close on schedule and then after that probably after bit, I would consider a site plan to be really optimistic for July or August because the next step after I close the next step is architects. How can I be sure of what my exterior site plan is until I know what my final interior layout is? But as long as the board…. Mr. Fallati; that’s fairly easy to do. We’ll get a Hershberg and Hershberg or someone Dr. Ditursi; I think it sounds to me like we’re getting everything we need for closing today and I guess the only other thing that makes me a little nervous but I’m willing to move forward with my general relationship with the city of Cohoes, is that nobody has a secret agenda regarding that particular location and a ton of exterior changes that are going to blow apart my proposed budget, that they’re waiting to say but as long as nobody’s got some secret desire to have me completely bull doze and reconstruct the entire outside I think we’re ok. Chairperson DeFruscio; I don’t think any of us are there. Member Bucher; I like the idea of turning it back into a train station Dr. Ditursi; I would really like to reflect, I don’t know if I’ll be able to but I’m an architects daughter and I love old buildings and I would love it if you knew you were in a train station at least in the waiting room. But that’s probably the first thing that’s going to get scrapped when….. Member Couture; even if you can get a nice mural painted or something to reflect that. Dr. Ditursi; yea, I loved the building from the minute I saw it and I’m excited. Mr. Fallati; we have the ingredients, the parking lot is more than she needs for her load, I mean for snow stacking. I’ve done projects that want to fit 10lbs. in a 5lb set, that’s not the case here, so I agree we can get there subject to everything we talked about. Member Bucher; sounds good Chairperson DeFruscio; yeah, it sounds good. So now I’m looking for a motion to approve the change of use application and issue a special use permit for the proposed business at 127 Canvass Street. Member Couture; I’ll make that motion Vice Chair Carroll; I’ll 2nd it motion carried unanimously YES NO Bob Bucher X Joseph Nadeau X Mark DeFruscio X Jack Carroll X Stephanie Couture X Kizzy Williams Non-Voting Chairperson DeFruscio; we do just want to add the little caveat that we get a final site plan to review so we can see what changes are going to be made on the outside; lighting, planting, parking. Mr. Fallati; you got it. Thank you very much for your consideration. CONSIDERATION OF A CHANGE OF USE/NEW TENANT APPLICATON FOR A NEW BUSINESS AT 301 ONTARIO STREET Chairperson DeFruscio; ok next item on the agenda is consideration of a change of use new tenant application for a new business at 301 Ontario Street. This is to open a new business called Little Linda’s Apothecary. They plan to sell a narrow yet extensive selection of herbs and teas. All legal I hope. Vice Chair Carroll; isn’t it legal now? Chairperson DeFruscio; not yet. Is the applicant with use? Can she explain to us her plan please? Carlela Little; yea, I’m not going to have any of that kind of tea or herbs. I’m just selling, I deal with Short and Stout in Latham, or Guilderland, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of them. They make all my teas. I would also be selling things like candles, books crystals and things like that. Chairperson DeFruscio; ok, nothing that requires any prescriptions Ms. Little; no, no prescriptions. Nothing technically considered medicinal no prescriptions. Chairperson DeFruscio; so herbal teas of different makes and things like that, ok. So the interior of the building is changing how? Ms. Little; we’re not changing the interior, the only thing we’re doing is painting and adding some retail shelves and a counter. Member Nadeau; Joe, I have a question for clarity. It’s Fritz’s store front depicted on this view? Joe Seman-Graves; he moved Ms. Little; Fritz is now next door. Member Nadeau; I understand, but there’s no numbers on any of that part of the building. I just want to be sure (Joe pointed it out on the screen where the business would be located) Ok thank you. Chairperson DeFruscio; where the taxi stand used to be right? Member Nadeau; right ACME taxi was there. Do we have hours of operation? Ms. Little; right now the hours of operation are going to be evening 4PM to 8PM Wednesday through Friday and then on weekends it would be 10AM to 8PM Chairperson DeFruscio; that’s not what’s on our papers Ms. Little; my original said by appointment Chairperson DeFruscio; well ours says there will be one employee and you’ll be open on weekends from 10 to 6. Ms. Little; well I’m the only employee, so it’s not an actual employee, that would be me Vice Chair Carroll; chief cook and bottle washer huh? Ms. Little; I’m sorry? Vice Chair Carroll; you’ll be chief cook and bottle washer, it used to be an old saying you know somebody that does everything Ms. Little; oh ok Chairperson DeFruscio; I was going to say she looks too young to understand that. Vice Chair Carroll; I realized that after I explained it. Chairperson DeFruscio; so can you run through those hours again for me? Ms. Little; ok, the hours, I don’t plan on opening until fall, mid-September. So the hours were going to be evening, kind of when I got out of work and my schedule changes once the world opens back up. Right now my set hours… Chairperson DeFruscio; Tuesday through Friday did you say? Ms. Little; Wednesday through Friday, Monday and Tuesday we would be closed Chairperson DeFruscio; ok and the weekends 10 to 8 Ms. Little; yes 10 to 8 Chairperson DeFruscio; ok I just want to make sure we have those in the record Sharon Sharon; yes I got them. Ms. Little; I believe originally it was 10 to 6 Chairperson DeFruscio; yes, what we had in the paperwork was just weekends 10 to 6, there wasn’t any hours during the week. Ms. Little; I won’t necessarily be open to the public but, the store will be open for me to do inventory and office work. I didn’t know if you wanted open hours as in someone could be in there. I didn’t want you seeing someone in there at 8:00 one night and wonder why someone was in there when their closed. But it won’t necessarily be open to the public those hours. Those are hours I would be working in there. Chairperson DeFruscio; ok so at this point in time I’d like to open up for public comment. Is there anybody out there in the public that wants to ask any questions, make any comments any observations? Joe Seman-Graves; no one in the chat Chairperson DeFruscio; I’m going to take that as a no and close the public comment period at this point in time. So at this point in time I’m looking for a motion to approve or deny the change of use new tenant application for a new business at 301 Ontario Street. Member Nadeau; I’ll make a motion that we approve this request Vice Chair Carroll; I’ll 2nd motion carried unanimously YES NO Bob Bucher X Joseph Nadeau X Mark DeFruscio X Jack Carroll X Stephanie Couture X Kizzy Williams Non-Voting Chairperson DeFruscio; ok you’ve got your approval for your change of use to open the business there and we wish you luck and hope everything goes well and look forward to seeing your business open in the fall. Ms. Little; thank you so much Joe Seman-Graves; I’ll follow-up with an email tomorrow. CONSIDERATION OF A RESIDENTIAL 2-LOT SUBDIVISION AT 8 FOURTH STREET Chairperson DeFruscio; next item on the agenda is consideration of a 2 lot subdivision at 8 Fourth Street. The applicant proposes to take an existing lot that is about 1 ¾ acres and break it into 2 parcels so that one of the parcels can be sold as approximately .63 acres, for a single family home. I can see we have Fred Metzger here with us now, do you want to give us an overview please? Fred Metzger; sure, good evening Fred Metzger Land Surveyor here this evening for Mrs. Borden and David LePage for their parents who were Allison and Armand LePage, who used to live there. Armand has already passed but Allison is no longer living there, she is in a home. So everything went to the kids and the kids were looking to sell the place. But then they saw that they had the additional acreage alongside and figured that maybe between selling the existing improvement with just over an acre of land I believe, yea just over an acre of land, and then the 63/100 or 27,000 sq. ft. lot as a building lot, that they would be able to do better and again create a little more income from the sale of all those to pay for the home that Alice is in currently. So, again basically like you mentioned, just a 1.77 acre parcel located at 8 Fourth Street existing zoning is R-1 residential, the existing lot is serviced by public sewer and water as well as the proposed lot would be. The 2 lots meet all the requirement for that particular Zoning area and the new lot generated on Fourth Street would also be tied into the existing utilities as well. Vice Chair Carroll; where would the access for Lot 2 come from? It looks land locked. Mr. Metzger; no, Lot 2 goes up to the road. It’s with the existing improvements, it just gets that big chunk of land behind it. Vice Chair Carroll; ok, so Lot 2 is going to be the existing house on the existing land for them. Lot 1 is going to be the one you’re selling for the development Mr. Metzger; yes Sir. Member Nadeau; what’s the actual frontage of Lot 1 Mr. Metzger; 74 feet Member Nadeau; Joe is there any minimum requirements? Joe Seman-Graves; yes there are. So for the width it’s 70 feet (zoning requirements on screen for all lot sizes and setbacks) Member Nadeau; thanks Vice Chair Carroll; do we have any real issues here? Joe Seman-Graves; there were no comments from the City Engineer, they meet all the Zoning requirements and they have direct access to Fourth Street, so no issues about access. No comments that I have or received. Chairperson DeFruscio; alright, so any comments or questions from board members? Ok I’d like to open it up to public comment at this point in time. Is there anybody out there that wants to make any comments or has any questions about this minor subdivision? Joe Seman-Graves; not that I’m seeing Mark Chairperson DeFruscio; ok, so based on that I’m going close the public comment period. So now I’m looking for a motion to either approve or deny the minor subdivision at Fourth Street into 2 lots as defined in the blue print provided to us by Mr. Metzger. Member Bucher; I’ll make a motion to approve Vice Chair Carroll; 2nd motion carried unanimously YES NO Bob Bucher X Joseph Nadeau X Mark DeFruscio X Jack Carroll X Stephanie Couture X Kizzy Williams Non-Voting Chairperson DeFruscio; ok, we’ve approved the minor subdivision, you can get back with Joe, Fred and finalize everything else. Mr. Metzger; I appreciate it, thank you guys. CONSIDERATION OF THE CLOSING OF A PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD PERTAINING TO SEQR FOR 178-182 ONTARIO STREET Chairperson DeFruscio; alright, next item on the agenda is consideration of closing the 60 day public comment period regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for 178-182 Ontario Street. At this point in time I’d like to turn this over to Joe so he can give us a summary of what’s taken place, what we received and where we’re going from here. This is a Governmental process and we’re just following that process and he’s going to explain the guideline and the limits that we have and where we are. Joe Seman-Graves; sure, so 2 months ago, or actually 63 days ago the board accepted the Draft Environmental Impact Statement which is Step 7 pictured here (graph on the screen) or sorry Step 8. Now Step 8 was the document being created based on all the past comments received by the board, so this addressed those comments, we went over that at the 2 prior meetings as well, the contents of that and then the development and issuance of it. Since that point it’s been posted online, it’s been recorded in the newspaper Troy Record, it’s, we’ve had 3 Facebook posts, one email blast, and it’s on the City website, and on the front door at City Hall as well. So the 60, the whole point of the 60 day public comment period is to give members of the community a chance to read the concerns that were addressed in this document and provide written comments so that we can do the next step which will follow after we close the public comment period. That next step will be direct responses from the planning board to anyone who has sent in a letter and those letters will also be incorporated into the final document which will most likely be presented at the July meeting with the anticipation of a final vote being taken at the August meeting. So right now I have 9 comments that were submitted, I can either if the board requests or not, I can read them out loud in their entirety or forward them to you as some of them came in a little bit late and you don’t have them in your packets, so that’s a choice you can make. But other than that we’ll close the public comment period. And the importance of having these written which we stressed, was the way the boards work we would be taking comments in tonight, we would then be recording those in minutes and then not being able to approve those minutes until the next meeting. So why it’s important that they were submitted in writing prior to this meeting is that by state law we only have 30 days to respond which is part of the process that the applicant is taking. So the applicant has been given 30 days to take these comments incorporate them and then give us the final Environmental Impact Statement to review. So that’s why it was important and I’m glad that we did have people call in and people actually send in comments in writing, we have 9 of those and I can once again if the board feels necessary to read them out loud now or they can be incorporated throughout the next month and responded to. I’ll leave that up to the board to decide, but that’s pretty much what’s happening today, we’re just closing the comment period. Chairperson DeFruscio; the only thing that I might suggest that we do Joe, is just, should we read to the public who, a list of the people who submitted comments that we have so that they understand who submitted comments? Because we know, I believe there are people who believe they submitted comments but didn’t do it during the period where they had to do it in the manner that was necessary. Joe Seman-Graves; yea, I can read the names of the people. So pretty much if you have sent something to me in writing whether it be an email, postage or postal mail, if you’ve given me a comment following this document being posted 60 days ago, I have it right now and that’s incorporated and I can read those names. If you put something on Facebook or if you had sent a comment in prior to the last meeting those will not be incorporated. If you sent something in prior to last meeting it will be in the minutes from the last meeting, but it won’t be incorporated in this, because the whole point of this action right now is for the public to address specific concerns in the documents that was posted. So if you sent them in prior to that document being posted it’s not about this document. If you put it on Facebook that is not an appropriate form for us to pull comments from. So I can read the names of people who submitted and I apologize if I get any of them wrong. We have Frank Gebosky, Jessica Paul, Ronald Hagadon, Emily Williams, I have one in script I’m going to give a stab at, Sayqueon Shields, Jacqueline Esealera, Jose’ Lind, Yvette Austin and Christopher Burke. Those are the submitted comments and I apologize on the pronunciation of a couple of those names, but I can certainly forward those to everyone, and they will be public comments as well. Chairperson DeFruscio; ok so at this point in time I’m, do any of the board members have questions, comments or anything at this point in time? Member Bucher; I don’t Vice Chair Carroll; no Chairperson DeFruscio; ok, so before we make any motions, is there anyone in the public that has any questions or comments? Mr. DeFruscio, Justin Alesio 105 Washington Avenue. I had a quick question going through the document and the traffic study. Is it true that this traffic study information is based on 2014? Chairperson DeFruscio; I believe that to be true Mr. Alesio; I… Chairperson DeFruscio; I think that was the most recent one that was available. We had this discussion at a previous meeting, they work with the studies that are available with DOT and those were the most recent ones they had. Mr. Alesio; alright, I just feel that statistically most traffic studies they say aren’t good after 5 years. And I just feel like the development we’ve had down here on the island there’s a lot of development that’s taken place since that traffic study has happened, so to base a lot of this information on that kind of traffic study, it doesn’t seem that it’s as accurate as it should be. I think, I mean I would like to suggest to have the developer do a current traffic study and I would be very surprised if those numbers were the same from 2014 traffic study. Chairperson DeFruscio; I don’t know where we have the ability to do that at this point in time. We’ll take that under consideration and discuss our options. We appreciate you’re input. Mr. Alesio; thank you and one more thing. I feel like the mixed use corridor, that a, it’s pretty prime spot we have here in Cohoes, not just on the island and I just think for them to just turn around and put their offices there and they say well we fit the criteria, it’s now technically commercial, I feel like, it just doesn’t sit right with me. I just feel that we as a City can do better with that lot. And there’s one this this study does not bring up and that’s the impact on our schools now. Again it’s been discussed at these meetings a bunch of times and it’s a pretty tapped system and we still have all those other units going in on Delaware Avenue that we have no idea on how it’s even going to affect it and then with these and now we’re talking over 100 units. We all know that Captains Lookout is looking for additional stuff, so as far as again, I just, as a City I think we can do better. Thanks guys I appreciate it. Chairperson DeFruscio; thank you. Any other questions or comments? I don’t see any at this point in time, so I’m going to close the public comment period and we’re looking for a motion to close the 60 day public comment period pertaining to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for 178-182 Ontario Street. Vice Chair Carroll; so moved Member Nadeau; I 2nd motion carried unanimously YES NO Bob Bucher X Joseph Nadeau X Mark DeFruscio X Jack Carroll X Stephanie Couture X Kizzy Williams Non-Voting Chairperson DeFruscio; ok so we’ve officially closed the public comment period we’ll be, I’d like to ask Joe to send out in one way shape or form the rest of those input to board members and then we’ll see that they are provided, the submitter as well and proceed with this procedure. Joe Seman-Graves; we’ll issue responses to any subsequent questions based on the document over the next 30 days and then the applicant will incorporate those into the final Environmental Impact Statement Chairperson DeFruscio; ok, so unless anybody’s got any new business to submit at this time, it is 7:32 I would like a motion to close the meeting at this point in time Member Couture; I’ll make that motion Member Bucher; 2nd meeting adjourned at 7:32PM.