Zoning Board Agendas and Minutes

MINUTES OF THE COHOES ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS HELD IN THE COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF COHOES CITY HALL ON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2024 AT 6:30 PM MEMBERS PRESENT: Mr. Greg Mollnow, Chairperson Mr. Anthony Kusaywa, Vice Chair Mr. Mark Cotch Ms. Carolyn Dion Ms. Jacqueline DeChiaro MEMBERS ABSENT: None ALSO PRESENT: Sharon Butler Assistant to Planning & Engineering Chairperson Mollnow called the meeting to order at 6:30PM. Roll Call taken; no members were absent CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES FROM THE OCTOBER 25, 2023 MEETING Chairperson Mollnow; next order of business is the review of the October 2023 meeting minutes. Member Cotch made a motion to approve the minutes 2nd by Member Dion All in favor, motion carried unanimously YES NO ABSTAIN Greg Mollnow X Mark Cotch X Anthony Kusaywa X Carolyn Dion X Jacqueline DeChiaro ABSTAIN DISCUSSION REGARDING A POTENTIAL SUBDIVISION AND PROJECT AT 107 HEARTT AVENUE Chairperson Mollnow; next on the agenda is the applicant/presenter for 107 Heartt Avenue. The applicant is seeking to introduce their project to subdivide their property at 107 Heartt Avenue to 4 lots and construct 4 single family homes on said lots and the proposal would require several area variances. Mr. Fred Metzger approached the board on behalf of his client Anthony LaPage regarding the project at 107 Heartt Avenue. Mr. LaPage purchased the lot a few years ago, it is just under 17,000 square foot lot located in an R-2 residential district. There is existing water, sewer, and gas in that particular area but the rear portion is on the Mohawk River so it has been cut out kind of irregularly the left end of it is about 60 feet deep but the right end is 150 feet deep. What Mr. LaPage looking to do is subdivide it into 4 lots, here again this is just a preliminary basis to feel out the board and show you what he’d like to move forward with, obviously if we get somewhat of a thumbs up with it then we will move forward. We just want to have you folks look at it and get a feel of if its something you’d be interested in and if the board is absolutely not, it’s not what we’re interested in then we can look for another avenue to proceed. So again in doing so to cut up the parcels it would require that some of them need variances more so with the lot sizes and some of them with lot depth, but again more so controlled by the way it was cut up with the river over there. As you can see with the survey I provided the homes would be 22 x 28 in size, single family, they would be serviced with sewer and water and 2 proposed parking spaces for each home. (he then gave a sketch of what the homes would look like to the board). We call it a tiny home subdivision, for the fact that they would be smaller than your typical setup and you can see in the project location map that I printed out, in the upper right hand corner, with the roof tops everything over there is kind of congested tight and on top of one another and then I overlayed this project to the left of that to show the retrospect to what is around there. We would be, the lots would be undersized similar to what is in the rest of the neighborhood, but we would be putting homes on them, that are substantially smaller than the rest of the neighborhood so they wouldn’t look overcrowded, again single family back yard, off street parking and 2 story. Again we would need a few variances, nothing to major most of them are pretty small in what would be needed, first couple of them on the right hand side, are the east the lots would need it but then towards the left the lots get small and the depth isn’t made with the way the river has cut things out over in that area. More so preliminary if the board is open to something of this nature going in that area we would proceed in putting the actual paperwork together with the variances that would be needed. I don’t know if you have any other questions. Chairperson Mollnow; members of the board any questions for Mr. Metzger on the preliminary review? Member DeChiaro; I have one, I think I know the answer to it but I’m going to ask anyway. You have this one plot of land lot 1 and lot 2 are smaller than lot 3 & 4. There would be pretty big variances, you would be looking for over 4,000 sq. ft. of relief is there thoughts to combining lot 1 and 2 and do a 3 lot subdivision. You would still need variances but they wouldn’t be as substantial. Mr. Metzger; yes that is true but it is more about the money between the purchase and the build- up of everything that needs to go into these. It makes it very difficult to get your turnaround back in 20 years, but we’ll push it to probably 30 to 40 and when you lose money. The original started at 5 and I tapered it down to 4 in hopes that again trying to achieve this we are undersized as far as square footage but I believe, not saying because the rest of the neighborhood is like that but a lot of the lots in that particular area are of that size or less, most of them are 30 x 75, we figured, again we aren’t losing the depth because we are choosing to with the river there, but at least having the 50 foot of frontage and the room on both sides, off street parking some of the backyard and we would be able to still achieve this. Chairperson Mollnow; have there been any studies to kind of map that back side to see if were losing land over time. Mr. Metzger; I did the original work back in July 2023 and that was my first time out there, so again the water is flowing north in that particular area so I don’t think, wrapping around the corner if it was coming this way I could see more so it would slowly erode away but there is a substantial drop there too. Chairperson Mollnow; my only concern is like Jackie’s driven past it, that with 4 lots it seems very tight especially the 2 on the end. Mr. Metzger; looking at it aerial wise and looking at it driving by, they’re all 50 foot wide and they all have 20 feet on each side of them before the next house, but it would still look like it there’s plenty of room. Obviously you’d be looking at it from the top you can see where the property ends behind it, you would get a better view as to it being shorter and not as much land but from the road I think they are all about the same width so they’ll look the same as far as having the same width the houses where they are and the parking and everything else. Again other than looking from the top you don’t really notice that the other backyard doesn’t go back as far. Chairperson Mollnow; just to be open those are my concerns; those 2 end lots and then making sure it’s not eroding over time. Mr. Metzger; I could mark something down and then in another 50 years check it again. I’m sure there is some going on, but probably not that substantial. Chairperson Mollnow; there’s not thought of building any kind of retaining wall to kind of hold it. Mr. Metzger; no basically where that retaining wall is, there is an existing retaining wall it is kind of a shear drop probably about 15 feet, so to do something within that area, it’s his intention to leave that there and then use that for the support and then again I think it’s shale there’s not a whole lot of dirt over there. Member DeChiaro; the parking areas proposed how many cars will they hold? Mr. Metzger; 2 – 2 off street parking per unit. And again setting them off to the side that way it will help with snow, they can just push the snow straight back without having to drive. Again trying to keep it simple, 2 bedroom 2bath so for retirees, and new families I believe the intention is to have a basement with them so you get a little storage, but again just a small little area, and it’s next to the park as well. Member DeChiaro; I have seen the work that Anthony’s done in the past, I think he does fabulous work and I think it would be an improvement, again I think the project is nice looking my only thing is that Lot 1 and Lot 2. Member Dion; can a different style house be built there, with the lots combined so you….. Mr. Metzger; you mean something a little bigger? Member Dion; yes Mr. Metzger; I can talk to him about that the tough part is the area when you get into a 3 or 4 hundred thousand dollar house it’s kind of hard to sell that, with this area and the size of the homes it keeps you in a more affordable area. With the interest rates where they are makes I hard for people too. In the beginning with he say things are now he might rent them to start, again until the rates come down and people can afford money again or if someone was hungry to purchase one of them that he would go that route as well. Chairperson Mollnow; members of the board any other questions? Being none it was opened to public comments. Please come up state your name and address then your comment. Ms. Jennifer Turcott 86 Heartt Avenue; my concern is parking Chairperson Mollnow; he is proposing 2 off street parking areas Ms. Turcott; how high are these houses going to be? Chairperson Mollnow; 2 stories. If you want you can take a look at what he gave us. Ms. Turcott are we going to have anything else besides tonight are we going to be able to vote on this or do we not have any say on this? Chairperson Mollnow; this right now he is wanted to bring this up to show the board to see what he would need to get this approved, what the temperature of the room is, this is not a vote at this point so he would have to come and present again a full plan which then would be open to public comment again and it’s not a public vote the board would vote on the plans on whether it’s approved or not. Ms. Turcott again I’ve seen what he has done and I’ve seen the lot I have grown up there, and there’s no way 4 houses are going to fit there. I’m concerned about the traffic and I heard him say that he’s going to be renting. I have serious concerns, and then the view, we live across the street, they will block the view which we now enjoy will be blocked with these 2 family houses. Chairperson Mollnow; single family 2 bedroom right? Mr. Metzger yes single family homes. Chairperson Mollnow; if there are any other public comments feel free to come up Mr. John Wojcik; he asked if the owner was aware that the property used to be an old machine shop and any contamination that could be there. Did he check that. Chairperson Mollnow; I’m guessing they would have to do a full environmental report in order to do the project there. Mr. Wojcik; is he also going to do any work along the riverbank any stabilization Chairperson Mollnow; they are in the preplanning phase where they don’t know if anything is needed, but according to Mr. Metzger they don’t anticipate doing anything to stabilize the river side of the hill they believe it is in shape where it won’t deteriorate from weather but obviously they would have to go through the whole planning process. Mr. Wojcik; thank you Chairperson Mollnow; any other public comments? Sharon were any other public comments sent in. Sharon; no Chairperson Mollnow; ok then we will close the floor to public comments and bring it back to the board. Members of the board again this is not open for vote for approval so if there are any other comments based on the public comments feel free to voice your opinions now. Member Cotch; do this go through the planning process? Sharon yes it will Chairperson Mollnow; and it’s a subdivision. Any other public comments? Being none he addressed Mr. Metzger I hope that was enough comments to bring back to your client at this time we will close this and we look forward to you presenting again. Like I said to the public, this is not for approval right now they have to go through a whole process of finishing this, get public comment and understand what the concerns are from the public before they move forward. Ms. Turcott; we will get letters on other meetings? Chairperson Mollnow; yes any meeting pertaining to planning and/or zoning letters will go out with the meeting date and time. . DISCUSSION OF A POTENTIAL PROJECT AT 50 DELAWARE AVENUE Chairperson Mollnow; So with that we will move on to the next agenda item which is applicant for 50 Delaware Ave. again this is applicant is just seeking to introduce their project and review a preliminary request for any area variance to construct 100 residential units and commercial space at 50 Delaware Ave. this would require area variances but again this not open floor vote tonight as this is just to introduce the preliminary stages of the project and get comments from the board and public to see what they need to address. So with that next is 50 Delaware Ave, if you could just introduce yourself and give us some details about the proposal Caryn Mlodzianowski with Bohler Engineering (she had a board with the proposed project on it to show the board members) She stated that she was there for a proposed project located at 50 Delaware Avenue. The project is outlined as you can see here (board) a little over 3 acres in size, and in Waterfront Mixed-Use zoning district. We are proposing a mixed-use project to be along with the mixed-use already along Delaware Avenue. The proposed footprint of the plan is about 32,800 +/- square feet and would be 4 stories. It would contain commercial and we are proposing 100 apartment units in the building. It is similar in size to the adjacent 70 Delaware Avenue, around the same square footage and unit count. As you can see here this would be one essentially U shaped with the center for amenities and will have parking on either side and around the back 121 parking spaces which we feel meets code for the project. We are also proposing a pedestrian path along the river side of the property that will be the entire length of the property. We are seeking a bit of interpretation on a couple of things, one would be front setback, within the code it states 0-20 feet which we are within that but it also does state the waterfront side of the property shall be considered the front. We are also looking for clarification of the unit count itself, not knowing the full specifics of the project next to us, as I mentioned the unit count appears to be similar based on their resolution and it does seem that they got a variance for that, but not knowing the specifics of that project. We do feel that this is a mixed use and the codes doesn’t have any type of density requirements that goes along with it. So generally at this point we looking for direction on and introducing this project, to gather your thoughts before we move forward. Chairperson Mollnow; members of the board do you have any questions or concerns on the presentation. Member DeChiaro; my first question is in your proposal is first floor will contain commercial space what kind of commercial space is that going to be? Ms. Mlodzianowski; it is going to be a mix of offices, a gym. Member DeChiaro; commercial to who? Ms. Mlodzianowski; it is a gym and office. Member DeChiaro; is the gym for the residents? Ms. Mlodzianowski; just for the tenants Chairperson Mollnow; and the office space they have no idea who their planning for … Ms. Mlodzianowski; not at this time Anthony Cassella (?) stated that the gym would have personal trainers that people from the public could work with. Chairperson Mollnow; I will say on the setback I appreciate what you did on the setback from the water, I think that is the correct interpretation. I don’t think putting this 20 feet from the river is the right thing to do. And having the added walkable space behind that connects the island, I think that is kind of what the island wants to have there. Ms. Mlodzianowski; that’s right and in the code it does speak about having that 50 foot area a walkable area so I don’t know how you could do both, so I don’t know if that is formal variance though or interpretation is that we are considering the front yard on Delaware Avenue. Chairperson Mollnow; I’d have to look into that a little further. Members of the board any other comments? Member Dion; what is going to be the proposed rents for the apartments? Ms. Mlodzianowski; I don’t know Mr. Cassella; $1,800 -- $2,400 Chairperson Mollnow; so market rate? Ms. Cassella; yes it’s going to be a 70/30 geared towards professionals and older people, I don’t want to get into families. Member DeChiaro; inaudible the 2 properties on the side 70 and 90 are 4 floors I think that was a mistake as far as for the future for Cohoes, ultimately the people I have spoken to the view from their home is blocked and now were looking at another 4 story development on the island. I know were going to go back to the same thing, financials, but why 4 stories. Ms. Mlodzianowski; so the unit count itself has to make the project feasible and 4 stories would make that happen. And they’re providing the amounted space between us and the river. Member DeChiaro; stated that only the people in that building would be getting access to the river. Chairperson Mollnow; adding to that would there be any walking paths from Delaware Ave to the walking path on the river? Ms. Mlodzianowski; we can look at that, we are just in the beginning stages. Chairperson Mollnow; I think that would be a huge improvement if you can show people that there is access through the property. Members of the board any other questions. Member DeChiaro asked if there is going to be a traffic study, we have 200 apartments right next door and down the road there is an additional 400 that they either have to go up the road towards the school or to the light Chairperson Mollnow; yes they would and it would have to be provided for planning as well Jackie any other questions? Member DeChiaro; not at this point Chairperson Mollnow; members any other questions or comments at this time? Ms. Mlodzianowski asked if they would have an opportunity to come back up at the end of the public comments Chairperson Mollnow; no Mr. Cassella stated that he would like for the commercial space to have a salon there and a sandwich shop, perhaps some smaller shops. Ms. Mlodzianowski; for next steps this was just an introduction we have to make our formal application do we need a formal application for the setback from the river side or do we need further clarification on that? I just want to know what we are applying for. Chairperson Mollnow; I would say you would have to apply for that and the unit count would be the other one. Sharon make sure the 120 parking spaces is what is required. Ms. Mlodzianowski; we did try to leave green space in the middle of that. Chairperson Mollnow; we are now going to open it up to public comment so if you could state your name, address, and address the board—we ask that you address the board and not the applicant. Ms. Claudia Callander Admirals Walk; my question is the apartment buildings that are already there they have vacancies and now were going to have 2 more apartment complexes, how is this going to be successful? All this competition between these apartments because I see vacancy signs all the time Captains Lookout and River Walk and it would be a shame to cut off the view that people have to the river. I wish we could make it into a park, I just want to know to go through all of this how do we know that this is going to be successful? Chairperson Mollnow; I can’t speak for the applicant but I’m assuming that they did studies to be feasible for them, they aren’t’ going to build something that they can’t make a return on. There’s nothing we can do to force them to supply us with information saying we are going to market it this way and that is how we are going to get the apartments filled. Obviously again that would just be all studies provided and there is no real accuracy to that until the building is built and filled. Ms. Callander; ok so there is not going to be a study saying there is going to be this percentage of people that are interested in living there? I’m not against progress Chairperson Mollnow; part of the application for zoning variances is they have to prove they aren’t going to make substantial gains project wise so if they were to present this and we question that they would have to provide something on that. Again we wouldn’t, they would probably do something internally to assume the success of the building but there is nothing we do to make them provide anything stating that the building is going 80% full 100% of the time. Ms. Callander; between the building and the parking lot that is a lot of space that we, I’m just concerned about the drainage issue that there might be. Chairperson Mollnow; that would all go through the planning board, the process of the approval they’d understand the concepts of water retention and SWPPP and all of that and how it is going to effect the environment and what they need to do to retain water how they’re going to shed water and how they’re going to turn it into the city system and not just dump it into the river. Ms. Callander; ok thank you. Ms. Suzanne Muir Admirals Walk; I think my question is, not question but concern is infrastructure, I don’t want Cohoes to have to spend more money to expand our wires, the utilities going there down Delaware, I would hate for Cohoes, something is going to have to be done with 100 one and two bedroom apartments that’s a lot of toilet flushes, I’m just not sure Cohoes has the infrastructure to handle that. My other concern is tax base, I would love to see more single family houses that generally are taxable properties. Chairperson Mollnow; one thing I will say is that will come up with the planning board review typically unless some deal is made the applicant building this would have to do the upgrades to the infrastructure. So it wouldn’t be a city thing to fix unless there was a deal made which I don’t ever happened in the past right Sharon? Sharon not to my knowledge. Ms. Ann Johnson Admirals Walk; my concern is the number of parking spaces, I know that I live on a property that is 1 ½ parking spaces per unit and it’s not enough. And were proposing 100 with 121 spaces so where are they going to park during snow emergencies because it’s not available. They won’t be able to service the building they have the commercial part won’t have parking places to park in and so I, personally I think the scale is to large. I find where I live 1 ½ is not enough someone has a gathering people are parking down at the other end of the property because they can’t get to where they have to go. If I had to do our property over again I’d demand 2 parking spaces. That’s my concern thank you, Chairperson Mollnow; thank you for your comment. Ms. Jennifer Turcotte; my concerns are all the same as theirs. What about the schools? My kids went to VanSchiak elementary it’s a small school, with these apartments I know he just wants single people in there but that may not happen. Who’s paying to upgrade the school, who’s paying the taxes for that school to accommodate the people coming in here –the taxpayers and I have an issue with that. I’m concerned about the view, I’m concerned about the traffic. If you can’t get single working class people then Catholic Charities is going to take over and then we have another apartment complex like is across from Cumberland. I’m scared to go to Cumberland Farms, I won’t go in the evening and I won’t go in the morning. You can’t get a lot of the apartments rented as it is and then it’s going to be Catholic Charities jumping in and taking over. We’ve had things stolen from us, catalytic converters taken from our cars, and I’m just worried this is going to happen a couple of years from now if they can’t rent to they want. Mr. John Wojcik 1 2nd Street; I have 2 questions; he mentions 70/30 what does that mean; is that going to have Section 8 housing ? Chairperson Mollnow; so right now his proposal is for market rate so that would not be low income Section 8. Mr. Wojcik; he mentioned 70/30 what is that? Chairperson Mollnow; 70% one bedroom 30% two bedroom We can’t discriminate against income housing so it wouldn’t be up to the board what type of rentals go in there. Mr. Wojcik; I can understand that. I also need to know, I’m disappointed in the City of Cohoes we have miles and miles of shoreline that we have no access, none. Here is a great opportunity to buy that piece of land or whatever they need to do and we can have a park, kayak access like they do in Waterford, which is quite successful, I hope Cohoes can get on the ball. And I was looking at that map, that concrete structure was Shanihan place that fell down, (something about land locked) There was a conversation between Mr. Wojcik and Mr. Cassella regarding the property. Mr. Wojcik; I’m concerned about the sewer system, I don’t know how it’s designed maybe they designed for the future, but is there going to be an overflow where we’re going to need bigger pipes to pump the sewage down the alley, it goes down my alley on 2nd between the alley behind my house down to the river where it gets pumped to the interceptor. That is an issue, I don’t see why as residents we have to pay if it has to be increased. Chairperson Mollnow; as I said to the previous comment about that, utility use would all be a requirement of the applicant to make work for their building as well as upsizing and increasing to make their project work, it wouldn’t be a taxpayer expense. It wouldn’t be a taxpayer expense or be funding by taxpayers to increase those utilities. Mr. Wojcik; now is the developer getting payment in lieu of taxes or any breaks or what’s the … Chairperson Mollnow; we haven’t been presented with that Sharon; this board doesn’t have anything to do with that. Mr. Wojcik; are they acceptable to that? Chairperson Mollnow; they can apply but whether they get approved or not is not up to this board. Mr. Wojcik; here we go, giving away our money. We have to watch when we say commercial development, the one by 112th Bridge supposed to be that building there with something that didn’t happen, there’s nothing there. So now he’s saying he doesn’t want to put something that fries food because it does smell up the building eventually. Chairperson Mollnow; thank you for your comments. Any other public comments? Ms. Claudia Callander; I agree with that gentleman, I’ve been thinking so much about quality of life in Cohoes, this is something we’ve talked about we don’t have any water access, it would be wonderful if people could have their kayak down there and there is a pavilion there could be music, something special. And with these 2 apartment complexes coming in where else could there be a park? There are no public amenities. Chairperson Mollnow; any other public comments? Ms. Jennifer Turcotte; even more importantly than that is the woods, there is no place for wild life anymore, we are destroying that for apartments. Chairperson Mollnow; any further comments at this time? Being none, he then asked if any comments were sent in. Sharon; no Chairperson Mollnow; we will now close the public comment period I will open it up to the board for open discussion. I just think providing public access to that pedestrian pathway would be a huge benefit to the project and should be discussed more moving forward. Like I said Sharon if you could check the parking space requirements for a project this size based on the code. Member DeChiaro; again traffic concerns on Delaware Avenue, between the elementary school and there is a pond,... I forgot about the 120 additional units coming in so we have 120 there and another 100 I don’t understand how Delaware Avenue is going to be able to handle that much traffic every day and then there’s going to be (inaudible) towards the elementary school. I think it is a huge concern, there is the little league field there. We are changing the character of the neighborhood, I think we need to step up and state what do we want for the future of the City. I think we need to do our due diligence of a community and decide what we want for our community. Chairperson Mollnow; at this time we will close the comment period please feel free to submit to Sharon. At this time I will call the meeting to adjourn 2nd by Vice Chair Kusaywa meeting adjourned at 7:15PM YES NO ABSTAIN Chairperson Mollnow Mark Cotch Vice Chair Kusaywa Carolyn Dion Jacqueline DeChiaro YES NO ABSTAIN Chairperson Mollnow X Mark Cotch X Vice Chair Kusaywa X Carolyn Dion X Jacqueline DeChiaro ABSENT With no other business to discuss Chairperson Mollnow adjourned the meeting 2nd by Vice Chair Kusaywa. Meeting adjourned at 7:15PM Respectfully, Sharon Butler Secretary