Planning Board

PLANNING BOARD MINUTES DRAFT THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2024 6:00 P.M. CITY COUNCIL ROOM CALL TO ORDER: Charles (Chuck) Marshall, Chair called the meeting to order at 6:05 P.M. PRESENT: Chuck Marshall, Chair, M. Pingel, Vice-Chair, Bill McTygue, Anthony (Tony) Stellato, Mike King & Patty Morrison. ABSENT: Kerry Mayo STAFF: Susan Barden, Principal Planner A. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES: A motion was made by Patty Morrison and seconded by Bill McTygue to approve the meeting minutes from May 9 & 23, June 27 and July 18, 2024 (Mike King and Chuck Marshall recused themselves from the vote for July 18th). All in favor, motion carried. B. POSSIBLE CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS: Note: The intent of a consent agenda is to identify any applications that appear to be ‘approvable’ without need for further evaluation or discussion. If anyone wishes to further discuss any proposed consent agenda item, then that item would be pulled from the ‘consent agenda’ and dealt with individually. C. PLANNING BOARD APPLICATIONS UNDER CONSIDERATION: NOTE: Agenda item discussion will not begin past 10:00 p.m. 1. #20240535 59 Myrtle Saratoga Hospital Zoning Amendment. Consideration of zoning text amendment to transfer a portion of the remaining development area in Zone A to Zone B to provide for a new 60,000 sq. ft. medical office building in the Saratoga Hospital PUD. Present to represent the application: Matt Jones, Attorney & Mike Ingersoll, LA Group, Hospital staff – Frank Marshall & Jeffrey Casale. Matt said they presented to the DRB the previous night and asked that the planning board, like the DRB, not take any action until they get the formal referral from the City Council to the Planning Board and Design Review Board later this month. Matt showed photos of the hospital from the 1950’s and said the hospital has been at that location since 1915 after being moved from the south side of Church St., where it was in 1911. Matt said they’re before the board for a PUD amendment for a proposed “Center for Successful Aging” their answer to “the unique needs of an aging population who experience multiple medical conditions, geriatric syndromes, and social needs that are associated with aging, and enable seniors to receive comprehensive, coordinated care of chronic and complex conditions, all in one convenient location”. The Medical Office building of up to 60,000 square feet with a maximum building height of 50 feet to include medical practices and providers such as:  Primary Care Physicians  Specialists  Care Coordinators  Social Workers  Pharmacists  Dieticians Matt showed an aerial view of the hospital PUD which borders Church St. and Myrtle St. past Woodland Ct. to Morgan St. They are proposing to build their new building opposite Woodland Court where there is an existing structure that formerly housed Pulmonology and OB/GYN practices that have relocated to the mall. Matt said the structure they are removing is 10,000 sq. ft. and they are proposing to replace it with a 60,000 sq. ft. building. He said they are looking for a zoning amendment in the PUD to accommodate the 60,000 sq. ft. building. He showed a sketch plan of the current PUD dating back to 2013. Matt said Saratoga Hospital established their own separate zones outside of the UDO:  Zone A – Main Hospital Facility  Zone B – where the current vacant medical office exists and where they propose to build new.  Zone C  Zone E (center area) includes zones E 1,2,3,4 & 5. E1– large parking area. Parameters of the construction:  Permitted in Zone B-1 – Project B-1 Building 10,200 Sq. Ft. (existing building)  Permitted in Zone B-2 – Project B-2 Building 21,000 Sq. Ft. (never built) Total capacity for Zone B - 31,200 sq. ft. The PUD Amendment proposes Zone B – 60,000 Sq. Ft. building. Matt said they will have to borrow development capacity from Zone A, where they have roughly 130,000 sq. ft. remaining, and transfer about 29,000 sq. ft. over to Zone B to make up for what is needed for a 60,000 sq. ft. medical office building. This is so they don’t exceed the full limits of the PUD, they’ll shift it from one side of Myrtle St. to the other side. Matt said there is a second building permitted in Zone B – called B-2 (currently a parking lot) that was never built and allows for 21,000 sq. ft. Matt said the original PUD is from 1987 and has been amended six times as a need was identified, such as the Radiation Oncology Center, Emergency Department and Medical/surgical Suites. Proposal to the City Council:  Remove building in Zone B which will become a parking lot.  Build a 60,000 sq. ft. building, 44ft. high, 3 stories, 20,000 sq. ft. each floor (like One West Medical Building). City of Saratoga Springs – Planning Board Minutes – August 8, 2024 - Page 2 of 5   Approximately 200 parking spaces needed. 150 in the area to the north and the remaining 50 throughout the campus. Will seek approval for structure parking in Zone E-2, 3 or 6. There was some discussion about the extra parking. Chuck reminded the board that the original PDD was subject to SEQRA in 1987, and the subsequent amendment would also be subject to SEQRA. He said when the board considers the parking and traffic, the net buildout was already contemplated. He said the planning board is an “involved agency” and can make comments and recommendations to the City Council regarding changes that are within the realm of SEQRA, but they are not the lead agency. Tony asked for clarification of the zones for structured parking. Mike I. said E-2, 3 & 6. He said there’s a helipad flight zone in part of E-5. Bill McTygue said it’s vital that people going to the Emergency Room have a place to park. Bill said he would like to understand the numbers with the new project relative to what’s going on currently at the hospital site. He said it’s very busy now and the parking lots are usually full. Frank Marshall addressed Bill’s concern saying that their public safety team identified three times a day for a month how many vacant parking spots were available. He said it averaged out at about 200 parking spots. Patty pointed out that once the new building is built there will be much more traffic on Morgan St. that will need to be addressed. Matt said he expects that the City Council will take Lead Agency and SEQRA responsibility. Matt talked about other changes in the PDD Amendment:  E-1 parking structure of 150,000 sq. ft. with three levels above ground level.  CSA building and parking structures subject to site plan review by Planning board.  Add child daycare as an accessory use for staff.  Add technical amendments (incorporate UDO replacing 2012 Zoning Code, for example) Mark P. asked Susan if the site plan is still subject to the UDO for parking once the PUD is approved. Susan responded that the PUD legislation is used unless otherwise stated. Mike I. said the parking is still the same ratio that’s in the UDO, but the UDO doesn’t recognize what the hospital once was with the number of beds. There’s no description of how much room/sq. footage a bed takes. Chuck Marshall, Chair asked if there were comments from the audience. Alice Smith, Woodland Ct. said she’s not opposed to the hospital building on their own PUD if there’s no big zoning change on the Morgan St. area. She said their proposal is bad City planning. The new building will be quite a bit larger than the one they’re replacing. Alice said they compared their new building to One West Ave., which has 45 medical offices, 292 plus parking spaces and is always pretty full. She said 200 parking spaces for the new building does not seem like enough. She feels at least 300 parking spaces should be required. Alice said they want to get doctor’s offices in there because it allows them to get higher Medicare rates. Alice said the main access street to the new building will be Church St. which is a two- lane street and very difficult to turn on green. She said she’s asking that the city consider their future plans also, look at the whole picture, to avoid segmentation. Jennifer Leidig, Seward St. said that the hospital often forgets about her street. She said you can’t talk about Myrtle St. without including Seward St. She said Seward St. is a City of Saratoga Springs – Planning Board Minutes – August 8, 2024 - Page 3 of 5 dangerous street. She said it’s impossible to take a left from Seward St. onto Church St. Jennifer said even though there are only two neighbors at the meeting, they represent many others from their very close-knit neighborhood. She said Seward St. has not been treated very well by the hospital in the past 10 years, but the new CEO of the hospital and Vice President of facilities seem to be good, upfront people who want to move forward in a positive way. Jennifer, speaking on behalf of the neighbors, said they’re concerned with traffic and parking. She said it’s her understanding that the CEO of Saratoga Hospital does not want to build structured parking because of the expense. She said they’ve spent thousands of dollars to fight to keep Morgan St. a residential zone and are fearful that once the new structure is built, they will need to put a several level parking garage on Morgan St. on the property owned by the hospital. Jennifer said as an aside, that property is Gideon Putnam’s original homestead, a vital historic property to the City. Mark P. asked Matt to clarify the structured parking since the CEO is against it today. Matt said the city will be the lead agency in the SEQRA review process, but the planning board can also review and make recommendations about the parking, traffic, etc. Chuck said a SEQRA finding would be binding on the site plan. The planning board would not have the ability during site plan to offer a contradicting SEQRA determination. Mike K. asked if the applicant is considering severing Myrtle St. north of the hospital. Mike I. said that could happen, “it’s one of the tools in the bag”. They would also be looking at multi- modal transportation. Mike K. said he’s happy to hear that they’re considering multi-modal transportation because multi-level parking structures are expensive and other means should be exhausted first. Tony S. said it seems that as the PUD sits right now it doesn’t accommodate all the parking demand that the square footage allowed will support. Chuck said there’s a parking deficient in the language, not in the construction. Tony asked if there would be a parking problem if they were to build out to full capacity. Mike said not necessarily with the proposed building, but with full buildout. Tony said it seems like it’s a necessity to build that into the text amendment. Mark P. said he sees two pieces to the recommendation to the City Council; 1. The PUD ask – vertical parking, trading square footage, etc., all will take place on the hospital property. 2. SEQRA Review – Mark will advocate for the long form item that addresses parking, traffic, etc. Mark said he does not think the planning board should issue a negative declaration and that there needs to be an EIS study. Chuck said the PB can’t recommend an EIS study of parking and traffic when a negative declaration has already been issued for the PUD on that amount of square footage. Susan B. said that the planning board can ask the city to look at and to ask for certain things in the SEQRA review and make suggestions. She said the square footage hasn’t changed but the position of what it was to what is being proposed has. There was a discussion about where parking structures would be located. Matt said they are proposing that they be allowed in any of the E – zones except 4. Patty asked why they wanted to remove the expiration date of site plan from the PUD. Matt said the PUD has a sentence in it that says as of January 1, 2024, if the hospital has not completed site plan before the planning board, then the application expires. He said it doesn’t make sense. There’s a provision in the UDO which tells an applicant at certain intervals when their successful application will expire, which is a much better way to do it. They would like to line the PUD up with the UDO. Bill M. said he was on the planning board several years ago (25) when they dealt with the emergency wing expansion on the Myrtle St. side of the complex and there was a similar debate and challenge for the neighborhood and the needs of the hospital. He said a compromise was made, the wing was built, but they recognized it was necessary for the hospital to come up with a master plan that accommodated where they were headed in the future. Bill said he City of Saratoga Springs – Planning Board Minutes – August 8, 2024 - Page 4 of 5 feels that they are struggling with the same issues now. Bill said as the community and demands on health care grow, expansion of the hospital itself – operating facilities, etc. will be necessary. Bill said there’s a real likelihood that a hospital parking structure will be necessary to meet the demands of what’s coming, and it should be discussed how that can be done within the available footprint of the hospital and using the current space available. Tony added that he believes the planners at the time that Bill is talking about decided to add the sunset language so that any projects beyond January 1, 2024, would have to be included in a master plan moving forward that would look at the issues such as traffic and parking. Bill added that the parking study that was recently done for available spaces isn’t realistic. He said you can’t count vacant parking spots in the front of the building along Church St. to be used by people using the facility in the back or side of the building on Myrtle St., it’s too far. Chuck noted that the amendment to the PUD that they’re proposing indicates that 75% of the Zone B parking will be achieved within Zone B. Patty said her concern is the other 25% and where they will park. Mike K. asked for clarification of what the planning board is tasked with tonight. Chuck said they are flushing out what the issues are and then make a recommendation to the City Council on the A. PUD language – positive, positive with modification or negative. The recommendation is not being decided tonight because the recommendation is not back from the County Planning Board and the City Council has not made their formal recommendation and SEQRA Lead Agency request. Patty asked if the planning board could ask to be lead agency. Chuck said that it is historically the City Council because they’re the first agency to act and it would put the planning board in a situation where they would be opposed to the City Council in which case the commissioner of DEC would make the determination as to who would be the lead agency. The action is the adoption of legislation which is in the City Council’s purview. MOTION TO ADJOURN: Mike King made a motion to adjourn the meeting at approximately 7:41 p.m. The motion was seconded by Chuck Marshall. All in favor, motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Donna Gizzi, Recording Secretary City of Saratoga Springs – Planning Board Minutes – August 8, 2024 - Page 5 of 5