Planning Board Agendas and Minutes

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COHOES PLANNING BOARD HELD AT 97 MOHAWK STREET COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS AUGUST 14, 2023 at 6:30PM MEMBERS PRESENT: Mr. Jack Carroll, Chair Mr. Joe Moloughney, Vice Chair Mr. Joe Nadeau Mr. Joe McCormick Mr. Tony D’Angelico ABSENT: None ALSO PRESENT: Sharon Butler, Administrative Assistant Tess Drauschak, Assistant Planner Chair Carroll called the August Planning Board meeting to order at 6:25 pm as all members and applicants were present and asked for roll call. Roll Call; completed no members absent CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES FROM THE JUNE 12, 2023 MEETING Chair Carroll; first order of business is the meeting minutes from the June 12th meeting, are there any comments, edits, changes, or clarifications, do I have a motion to approve the minutes? Motion to accept the minutes was made by Member Nadeau 2nd by Vice Chair Moloughney motion carried unanimously. YES NO Chairperson Carroll ABSTAIN Vice Chair Moloughney X Member D’Angelico ABSTAIN Member Nadeau X Member McCormick X CONSIDERATION OF A CHANGE OF USE/NEW TENANT APPLICATION FOR 93 ONTARIO STREET Chair Carroll; next is SJ Pizza and Grill, come up give us your name and what you are looking to do. Scott Cramer approached the board. Mr. Cramer stated that he is looking open SJ Pizza and Grill at 93 Ontario Street. Offering burgers, tacos, quesadillas, and pizza from 11AM to 2AM we will be closed on Wednesday. Chair Carroll asked if there was anything going on at the place. Mr. Cramer stated no they are just painting doing some remodeling Chair Carroll so there is work going on, you aren’t open yet you are preparing the place Mr. Cramer; yes Chair Carroll; 2o’clock in the morning, how did you come to that time? Mr. Cramer; I have seen a demand for late night deliveries for the past year I have been delivering overnight past midnight especially to Cohoes up at Columbia Gardens. Chair Carroll; will the restaurant portion be open at that time also? You have seats inside, right? Mr. Cramer; yes Chair Carroll will you be serving customers inside or just doing delivery after…… Mr. Cramer; after a certain hour we will shut down and just do delivery, we would transition over to just delivery and pickup. Chair Carroll; ok, asked if any board members had any questions. Member Nadeau asked if he would be serving alcohol Mr. Cramer stated no Member Nadeau; in my mind when I see grill….. Mr. Cramer grill is anything that isn’t in the pizza oven is cooked on a grill; burgers, quesadillas. Member Nadeau; ok. I’m still a little concerned with the 2o’clock time. I know it’s a mixed-use area but there are a lot of, you’re in a neighborhood so I’m a little concerned with that. I don’t know if any other board members want to speak on that, but I think it’s late Vice Chair Moloughney; so related to that, one other question I have is outside dining, do you have any plans for people to be seated outside? Mr. Cramer; there are 2 tables there now with a total of 4 seats Vice Chair Moloughney and you intend to use them Mr. Cramer until the dining closes Vice Chair Moloughney; ok until the dining closes. So I think that goes with having the dining room and something, just looking around town and looking at published hours for a lot places seems like 10 is a typical time for that sort of thing, to kind of wrap up or close places. The take-out I get and perhaps delivery going later but even then I guess what is a reasonable hour if it is just simply a couple, one or two delivery drivers coming and going. I guess we can discuss what is an appropriate time. My question was outdoor dining and that would be tied to the dining room hours. Mr. Cramer; we’re not looking at drawing a crowd, we know there are other residents in the area, we aren’t looking at drawing big bar crowd, or restaurant crowd we are just looking at capitalizing on the demand late night delivery services. There is quite the demand in neighboring communities as well as the community we are in. Vice Chair Moloughney; ok Chair Carroll so it will be all delivery? After 1o’clock I can’t knock on the door and get a pizza to go? Mr. Cramer; a pickup order can come in and pick it up. Tess; can you just clarify again, from 11 to what hour you can walk in but from x hour to Mr. Cramer from 11AM until 11PM you can come in, dine in, pick up carry out and then at 11o’clock we shut down dining and it will be pickup only and carryout or delivery no dine in. We also have parking supplied and there is a parking lot across the way Member D’Angelico asked the applicant if he would be using his own delivery people or a service Mr. Cramer; I’ll use the services in the beginning for advertising and see how that works out, I’m also going to have 1 delivery person that I am going to hire. Member D’Angelico; will they be utilizing the parking lot Mr. Cramer I am going to purchase 2 15-minute parking signs for the front, but I am also going to designate parking in the 6 spots that I have I’m going to put signs there as well; Delivery Parking Spots Tess if you are going to do anything with parking signs you have to go through the traffic commission. Mr. Cramer ok we are just looking to get 15-minute parking signs. Vice Chair Moloughney ok I guess I’m back to that model, summer time it’s a pick-up ordering at midnight or 1o’clock, and you don’t control who shows up in their t-top and they have music going they run in grab their stuff, but in the mean time there’s a disruption in the neighborhood. Mr. Cramer it is the same as a CDTA bus that pulls up across the street Vice Chair Moloughney well they don’t play loud music Mr. Cramer no, there’s, I’ve been there and there’s already loud beeping, hydraulic systems quite loud. It’s very busy there, I’m there until 11 or 12 o’clock at night and there’s hundreds of cars up and down Ontario Street Chair Carroll Joe you have a question? Member McCormick; are you adding tables, how many people can eat in the restaurant? Mr. Cramer right now we have a total of 18 seats, including the 4 outside Member McCormick and are you upgrading any cooking items, the stoves? Mr. Cramer yes I am upgrading. There was a flat top grill in there, some fryers I am bringing in my own brand-new stuff. I have already been in there the past month cleaning and painting it. I did some landscaping out front. The same day I did the landscaping they removed the 15minute sign. I took all the weeds out around the pole went back out 15 minutes later and the whole pole was gone. Chair Carroll asked if there were any comments from the public being none he then asked if there were any other questions or concerns from board members Member Nadeau; I think we need to come to terms with the hours Vice Chair Moloughney I think we need to, are you amendable to some negotiated agreement here on what the dining would be, the pick-up hours, delivery etc. Mr. Cramer; the dining would be 11 to 11, and then after 11 strictly pick-up and delivery services Vice Chair Moloughney I’m closer to 10PM myself Member Nadeau I agree with that. Maybe Friday and Saturday 11 to 11 again if I was living in the neighborhood I would just like to see it minimized Mr. Cramer that was a big reason for our thing was to utilize the late-night crowd and fulfill the demand for late night services until 2AM Vice Chair Moloughney understood on that but I think it’s the dining piece, Chair Carroll inside dining until 10 instead of 11? Vice Chair Moloughney yes a crowd of people at 9-10 o’clock at night spilling out on the streets that kind of just…… Chair Carroll are we going to figure out what we are going to do what time it will be allowed to stay open until? 10 o’clock, you guys seem to be leaning toward 10 o’clock for closing the dining area, What about the 2, is that to late do you feel to be open, you want to try to starting out somewhere around, what do you think? Tess previously what we’ve done is when we had problems with the hours with and establishment is approve, go with what the applicant wants at first and then if there are a lot of complaints then they would come back to the planning board and we can discuss any changes then Chair Carroll I’m amendable to that if there is any complaints then you will be back Mr. Cramer that is extremely fair Member D’Angelico so are we going with dining 11 to 10 Chair Carroll dining 11AM to 10PM are you good with that? Then from 10 to 2 you have delivery and pick-up Mr. Cramer yes I’m good. I was just trying to be a step above the other restaurants and try to stand out from the rest with the later hours Chair Carroll well you’re going to accomplish that, just make sure it works. Do I hear a motion? Vice Chair Moloughney when you say he is going to get that are we doing 10 o’clock or 11 o'clock, what are we all agreeing on Chair Carroll; what my understanding is he’ll have indoor dining from 11AM to 10PM, from 10PM to 2AM he gets his late-night deliveries or pickups, but if there are any issues with that he will have to come back and we will discuss the issue. Vice Chair Moloughney I will make a motion to approve with those conditions Member Nadeau and also if you intend to sell alcohol in the future you will have to come back, just so you understand that. Mr. Cramer; yes. Sharon Joe Moloughney made the motion to approve with the hours stated, is there a 2nd? Member Nadeau 2nd the motion, motion carried unanimously. YES NO Chairperson Carroll X Vice Chair Moloughney X Member Nadeau X Member McCormick X Member D’Angelico X Vice Chair Moloughney asked the applicant to stay, we approved that but I think the converse applies, you can always come back at a later date and ask for later hours on dining. If you see there is a need you can come back and ask us for approval to expand dining to later. Mr. Cramer ok, thank you CONSIDERATION OF A CHANGE OF USE/NEW TENANT APPLICATION FOR 143 REMSEN STREET Chair Carroll; next is 143 Remsen Street, come up give us your name and tell us what you want to do. Mr. Cardoza approached the board we are planning on opening a grocer and butcher so it both together like a supermarket Chair Carroll so a neighborhood supermarket? Mr. Cardoza; yes. We will be a little more specific because we are tying to get specific people of course it will be open to everybody but our hope it will bring Hispanic and Brazilian people. We will have things that are more to us. Everyone is welcome especially the butcher, it will have steaks special cuts things like that and we hope everybody will love it Chair Carroll is this going to be your only place? Mr. Cardoza yes Chair Carroll I have a question on deliveries, where are your deliveries going to be? Mr. Cardoza so there is going to be, behind the building we have a parking lot we have back door access and there is also access on the side of the building so of course deliveries will be in the back and if it is needed to load the building with goods through the side door we will have to make an adjustment, because right now there is a door but no stairs so we would have to come up with something I don’t think we will because we don’t have anything real big it just cases and boxes like that that can be carried through a door I believe we will be fine and not have any problems with that. Chair Carroll ok, Member Nadeau asked if there would be any eating on the premises or anything like that Mr. Cardoza no Member Nadeau no inside dining? Mr. Cardoza no just buy and go Vice Chair Moloughney parking has been addressed you are right on Remsen Mr. Cardoza that was one thing because most people will be driving and this business isn’t something that takes a long time maybe 15 minutes Member Nadeau 8 to 8 is that 7 days a week? Mr. Cardoza yes maybe setup different shifts Chair Carroll are you going to have any takeout food prepared? Mr. Cardoza no, no deli nothing like that Chair Carroll are you going to have any gaming any lottery Mr. Cardoza no nothing like that. We are, it is something I forgot to put on my application because right now we have a business in Clifton Park that we are hoping we can move here. It is a money transfer business, so just a computer nothing else. So we are just tying to do it here, plus we might have to do whatever paperwork because we forgot to mention it on our paperwork. But no gaming, no lottery, no cigarettes nothing like that no drinking no alcohol nothing like that. Chair Carroll but a mechanism to send money home to Brazil? Mr. Cardoza yes, well anywhere they want to send it Tess can you explain for our records what that looks like Mr. Cardoza yes say you want to send money to Brazil you go there and there is a foreign exchange rate, you will see what the exchange rate is and then there is a service fee for that you pay that service fee and you send whatever amount you want and it will get there in 3, 4 days, there is an express service but there is a fee or a regular service which is cheaper. It is your choice. There will be a person there to handle it, you come in and deal with the person on how much you want to send, you pay the fees you get a receipt and the money is sent. Sharon sort of like Western Union Mr. Cardoza yes just like that Member McCormick; where do you store the money? Mr. Cardoza; so inside there is a safe and it would be brought to the bank that we use. For now we do that twice a week, if it gets more than that it would have to be daily. Member Nadeau; it says butcher what kind of product would I expect to see? Mr. Cardoza; like beef, pork, chicken things like that Member Nadeau so like any other butcher Mr. Cardoza; yes, Member Nadeau good we need a place like that Chair Carroll milk dairy products anything like that? Mr. Cardoza yes we will have freezers, coolers for things like that Chair Carroll a full-service super market that is going to focus mainly on Brazilian and Hispanic foods Mr. Cardoza yes we expect the butcher will be our main thing Chair Carroll when do you plan on opening? Mr. Cardoza right now we have a free lease we have to honor, so he doing some repairs in there and then we have to check a couple of permits and like that so we have to see how long that is going to take, if that doesn’t take that long we want to have everything ready for October 1st if it takes longer than that whatever time it takes. We already have all of our supplies, it just some work to be done inside Chair Carroll what about signage are you going to put signs out, where are you going to put them? Mr. Cardoza in the glass, its just going to be a design in the window nothing hanging out. We might have an awning, there was one there but he removed it. We are going to see how the sun and all that does we don’t want it to be hot in the building so we might add that, but I don’t think it will be a problem Chair Carroll that is not something that has to go through here tho? Tess told the applicant that if he did decide to do that to contact her because he is in the historic district so he would have to submit designs and get approval from the Historic Board Mr. Cardoza ok, anyone driving will park in front and we have the parking in the back Rush hour should be Friday and Saturday maybe Sunday. Chair Carroll ok gentlemen any further questions. Being none it was opened to public comments being no public comments Chair Carroll asked for a motion Motion to approve was made by Vice Chair Moloughney 2nd by Member D’Angelico motion carried unanimously YES NO Chairperson Carroll X Vice Chair Moloughney X Member Nadeau X Member McCormick X Member D’Angelico X Chair Carroll; do I have a motion to close the meeting? Motion was made by Member Nadeau 2nd by Member D’Angelico Meeting adjourned at 6:51PM Submitted by: Sharon Butler Secretary