Planning Board - Regular Meeting

down the diversion plan, adhering to the 35 percent. We actually, I think, got 36 percent, most of which will be utilized as sub-base for paving. Next slide. Here are some existing elevations. Mostly, the slide to the left will be the western elevation, and then the slide to the right is the eastern elevation of the spec building. Next slide. And then this is a really poor job of me taking pictures of the stewards. But it's a, you know, one story Mansart building that was covered with concrete clapboard and a faux stone. Next slide. So this is the, you know, in the demolition proportion, in the demolition portion of the conversation, This is the proposed stewards elevation. We did leave the building heights on, which get to a max peak height of about 24 feet, 24 and a half feet. The canopy will be a white five pond that is 14 feet to the bottom. And then it's like another three and a half feet of fascia to the top. So you get a maximum height, I think of 17 and a half feet. Signage is actually reviewed via separate application, which I was unaware of. So we'll return to handle that. There are some outstanding items, which I think we'll get through when we go through the comment letter. Basically just a geotechnical report in SWPPP, which prevented some engineering level comments.

Next slide.

So this is our most recent stewards in the city of Cohoes. Again, the Fosstone building with the concrete clapboard. One of the things to note is the wrought iron fence that's shown here is not proposed for this location because it was used to, as you can see, switch back the crosswalk or the ramp. But I wanted to provide the most recent project we did locally should anyone want to go see it. This is the existing conditions. Again, to the screen right, you have the existing stewards with two gasoline filling pumps four fueling positions, then you have the spec engineering building screen left. Next slide. So what we did, because sometimes it gets confusing for people, we overlaid the proposed stewards onto the existing conditions map. We highlighted the existing conditions in red just to show you in relation to the existing site how the proposed store will layout and the gas canopy. Next slide. Just the bulk requirements. Again, the comment letter pretty much alludes to the fact that everything is mostly compliant. I think there's one waiver if we wanted to, which we could discuss for 27 versus 26 parking spots. The only deficiency that I saw in reading it is that there's a 60% transparency or glazing requirement that we don't achieve. And actually we're not even close So I think we're going to have to seek some relief. We'll have to make an improvement on our end on the building side, and then we'll probably have to seek some relief from the Zoning Board of Appeals. But we can get to that later. The one question I had about the transparency is if we did a, like a fake, like some type of shaded glass or spandrel glass, if we could make something like that work. It gets tricky with the building layout because our buildings are set up, which we'll get to when we get to the floor layout, our buildings are set up, we have a panelized cooler and freezer system, and then opposite those are the restrooms. So we lack some flexibility in what we can do. Next slide, please. This is just a landscape plan. One of the things to note is that to the west as you go up shaker there's a 27 foot elevation difference between us and the joining or neighboring property um so like in the realm of lighting which again we get to um those are 15 foot poles but they'll still be effectively you know 12 feet below to consider as you look to the adjoining residential properties. Next slide. That's that photometric plan, which again was provided. In the version that I think that was submitted to you, the back shielded fixtures weren't highlighted. The key has been readjusted, so now everything does show as it would be laid out photometrically. Next slide. This is that store layout as we discussed. So the bottom of the page would be facing northern with the right side facing the gas. From our component, it is somewhat critical to have gas be visible from the registers. But as you can see, with the cooler system to the screen left and the storage to the top of the screen, there's an inability to get much more glass because of those compartmentalized systems. Here the bathrooms are at the bottom left of the page. So again, maybe that expanded glass in that vicinity would get to achieving some of the requirements. Next slide. We did not submit yet, but have developed a grading plan. Again, one of the comments, was looking at the Northern Boulevard driveway. That driveway is at about 6 1⁄2, 6.6%. One of the questions was if you could relocate the driveway to the south, pulling it away from the intersection, which I know is ideal from a planning perspective. But in this instance, as you go across, you gain effectively three feet. So what that would do is it would take the 6 1⁄2% and make it almost 11, So we're actually proposing almost the reuse of the spec driveway and that's what is shown on that plan.

Next slide.

People always get questions or concerns about how we're gonna get the trucks, large trucks in and out. This is just a truck routing plan on the top routing Bottom right portion of the screen are where the proposed tanks are. And then this is a goods delivery. And again, just coming in, delivering on that top side of the building. I think that's the last slide.

So it looks like there's no written comments, but there is a public comment from Dr. Bob Bushnoff. Dr. Bob was us, is that you?

No, that's me.

All right, can you switch seats with this gentleman right here? And Dr. Bob, if you can please get a chair.

I can sit next to him. Sure, yeah.

That works fine too. If you could put on the record your name and address, and you have three minutes for your comment.

Sure, Dr. Bob Wishnoff, 14 Bryn Mawr Court, Albany, New York. So this is sort of the drawings. Bryn Mawr Court, I represent the Bryn Mawr Homeowners Association, there's 14 of us. So when I moved in as a new president there 15 years ago, we loved stewards, and we still do. Burned the milk club for 40 years or whatever. And the Dakes are all good friends. The concern we have is just what's happening in our neighborhood. We're gonna have, in the next few months, probably about 600, 700 new people moving into the affordable housing got through the city a year or so ago, which we were not against. We were against the size of the project. Northern Boulevard is turning into like a highway. We have three charter schools that weren't there over the years. So our concern is traffic has been intense. But our biggest concern, like I said, we enjoy Stewart's and look forward to Stewart's being there. But over the last few years, it's become kind of a problem in the neighborhood and we're concerned of what's going to happen. There are homeless people there, there are panhandlers there. The degradation of the neighborhood is what we're concerned about with 600 units of housing. Kipp High School, again, one of the issues when they were building those apartments is that that there's a vast food desert, right? So again, as a business person, I appreciate stewards wanting to do something like that, but the size of the new store and the effect it'll have, not just on Bryn Mawr, which is right behind there, but across the street, it's one of the nicest neighborhoods in the city of Oldham. It's an upscale community mixed in with, again, affordable housing, Across the street from us has been low-income housing for 50 years. They were kept up well and everything has been fine. In the last year, we've had two robberies in Bryn Mawr. Nothing like that has ever happened. In the last year or so, we've had, since the high schools opened, people coming up the hill behind the stewards and walking through the yard. We're concerned about 600 more or so people living in the neighborhood And again, Stewart's will become the place to hang out, good or bad, certainly from a business perspective, it's the only place around. The increased gas station coming in off of Holy Shaker Road is a concern. The amount of traffic on the road at this point, between four and five o'clock, possible levels to get down, Holy Shaker Road, and There's been issues with emergency vehicles in the hospital trying to get through, and this is just going to increase. To take a small neighborhood store and now turn it into a store comparable that you'd find on Central Avenue or a major roadway is something that certainly we have concerns about. The lighting, the office building that's been there for years is not a problem because it was low intensity use. There were no lighting. So even though, as I was stated that the lights will be lower, they still give off at night. So now we're faced with 185 apartments, four-story apartments that we're looking at. So the quality of life that we've enjoyed, that I moved in, I've been a resident of City of Albany for 50 years. And I moved to that neighborhood because I wanted to kind of give up my house. I'm 75 years old. I wanted a change of life. Most of the people at Bryn Mawr, again, it's low intensity. There are no kids living there. It's an adult community, mostly professionals. And that's our concern. Again, it's not against Stewart's. It's the scope of the size of the project and the change in the neighborhood. It's already been a problem for us.

That's fair. And I don't know if Stewart's has met with some of the residents there.

No, we did send the letters, which, you know, but I now have Mr. Bishnoff's, you know, card, contact. I don't have a problem kind of addressing, you know, specific concerns, and we'd be happy to sit down with them. That's why I gave my card when we came in.

Awesome, awesome. Yeah, I think you guys should definitely connect outside of here. You know, I definitely hear the neighborhood concern because, you know, Stewart's has that same concern. behind us, so like right there. And so, you know, I think having that conversation with the neighbors would definitely be a proof positive.

There's a big difference between the Stewart's on Shaker Road and Everett Road, which is a similar, I think, type building. I don't think it's as large. This is the one that's proposed.

Yeah, the Everett Road store is $39.75 and this is $4,500, What that does is it took the outside components and made them inside storage. So some of the totes and things like that that are outside the Everett Road store will now be inside on the store, provided they used to store us.

But the difference on Everett Road and Chaker Road is a commercial strip. My office is on Everett Road. But the way it is now, it's behind Stewart's. all the way back and on the other side in terms of nice residential community behind the little shopping center that's there.

Thank you, thank you so much for your comments. Thank you. So board, do you have any questions? No, I have a couple. So one of my questions is regarding the commercial building. Do you know how old that building is? What's the age of that building?

The assessment says 1984. The people we have it under contract with purchased it in 1992. So that's as far back as I felt comfortable representing the age of the building.

And my next question is regarding the tanks. So you said that the tanks are going to be at the bottom of, so it looked like that lower right hand corner of the site. Yeah, right there. Where are they now on the site? I think... Are they upper?

I think they are. Let me... So if you pull up the existing conditions, so they're... So where the, yeah, so it doesn't matter. So that'd be the first less than 50 year old to be a HIPAA person. They're right here.

Okay. And so the plan is to move that and bring them down. Will there be, will the tanks be bigger?

Yes. Okay. So we are proposing to store 27,000 gallons of petroleum product.

And how much is being stored there now?

12.5, I believe it is.

So you're doubling, sounds like you're doubling, more than doubling that amount? Yep. Okay.

We do increase the...

The number of stations, right?

The number of fueling positions, but also by increasing the capacity, you decrease the number of deliveries.

Okay.

So we're not going to... The problem with the existing store today is the two pumps at an angle off the corner. I mean, I'm still incredibly close with my predecessor. And if you look at the acreage, this store is 0.48 acres. And we won't build...

It's definitely tight.

And the way it's configured, I mean, you could conceivably get stuck on the west side of the store, particularly if they're getting fuel or goods delivery. So this is just an attempt at improving that circulation because the idea is to get more, you know, you want turnover. Our business isn't built on significant profitability per transaction, it's built on large numbers of transactions with a small amount of profit.

And what are they going to be, the operating hours? I'm familiar with the current operating hours, but what would be the operating hours?

5 to 11. 5 to 11.

And that's what it is currently?

I did not check before I came, but it should be pretty close.

Any questions?

listening to the public comments about the lighting and thinking about how much I value being able to see the stars at night. And so I'm just wondering what the options are to minimize the light pollution that will affect the nearby neighborhoods.

Yeah, so I think one of the things that we could do is we could do a color light rendering plan. The only thing is, I said before, there's a 27-foot elevation difference. So if you're standing on Bryn Mawr Court, you're 12 feet to the top of our fixtures, and our fixtures are all down lit. They're all down lit, night sky compliant. And we were discussing stewards in the Adirondacks before the meeting had started. We're in the middle of the Adirondack Park in Keene, and we have night sky compliant lighting. Now, with what night sky compliant lighting does is that this board, the smart board is a good example. If you're looking from here into the smart board, you're going to see what's on the smart board. But if you're looking down at the smart board, you're only going to see that there's light casting off the smart board. Basically, we can't make the light any dimmer looking down. And it's centralized around the fixture. So if you look at, if you zoom in on the intensity surrounding each fixture, you'll see it's really intense around the fixture, and then it dissipates very quickly. Yeah, so if you zoom in, so look at Bryn Mawr, like if you look at the lights closest to Bryn Mawr core. Yeah, so it's like, Is that 3.5 under the fixture? So under the fixture, the highest intensity is 5.8, but by the time you get to the property line, it's 0.1. So that's what the lights are supposed to do. They're supposed to be intense under the fixture, and then disappear quickly.

So it's a bigger field. In terms of, like right now, there's no lighting from the office building. And the lighting currently, which is okay, before Bryn Mawr Court, there's a house. They don't show the house kind of behind, before you get to Bryn Mawr. Where the new store's gonna be is directly behind Bryn Mawr. even though it's more elevated. And maybe some more trees can go in. Do I have to go on the Bryn Mawr side?

Wait, give me this one. Is that the house I told you about?

Got it.

But if the lighting is going to be over here, it's going to be... Can you scroll to the landscape plan? Do you have any... So yeah, that was going to be my next question about tree coverage and trees being tall enough to sort of block some of that light out as well.

It does seem like looking at the satellite images on Google Maps, it seems like there's a, it seems like there's trees between the ground.

Yeah. Like I said, people are starting to walk through behind the students.

So how are people walking through? Is there like a pathway?

No.

So they're just making their own pathway. Yeah.

I need a Sherpa. What's a Sherpa? It's like someone that guides mountain hikers. It's 27 feet, like it's a, there's a 27 foot elevation. They have to go up the hill. Yeah.

Yeah, so instead of going up the hill, they're just cutting through.

Well, we've had homeless people now living behind They go up through the woods. It's funny, the two robberies that took place, both ended up getting arrested hanging out at a stooge.

Yeah, just leave it. If you could leave that up for one second. Yeah, so.

Is there a possibility of putting fence around the property to discourage people from walking through Bryn Mawr into Stewart's?

Just realize the one 270, 250. So like even a six foot fence is still 14 feet not tall enough.

Because of the elevations.

Yeah.

That's nothing but a big hill.

Yeah. I'm not saying that, like my issue is, I'm not saying no, but it just might be better if it's on the Bryn Mawr side.

Because it's higher up.

Because now if you're standing at Bryn Mawr and looking out, you're looking into the fence. Does that make sense? Because you can't make the elevation up with the fence.

If you look behind the row of houses, okay, before, there was an office building there. And most of the time, there was nobody in that back parking.

Now- Steve, what are the proposed ? The one with the red, no, no, no, one more. So, all right, you see where this jog is here? All right, go back to the area. Contour lines. Contour lines. Note your USTO map. There they go. So the store ends right here.

And what's behind it?

It's going to all, I mean, it turns into a drive point. the amount of impervious goes from 80% to 58%. So you're picking up 22% of green space. Let me put it in the simplest terms. I think a fence on the Bryn Mawr side and some trees on the Stewart side are where we go from here. I'll meet with Bob.

Just behind the story, Where it's black, is that a mechanic? Today, yes. Yeah, right. That was the parking lot for the...

But it's going to become green space.

So he's filling in a lot of that back concrete as green space.

But the issue is... So cars won't be back there? No, there'll be cars circulating around the building. But the end of the building, you got to go to that other...

Yeah, I saw deliveries in the back.

Go to the red line drawing. There you go. So here's the edge of the, the red edge of the building. All that parking to the south becomes green space. So this is all currently paved and it becomes green. And then this row of parking closest to you becomes green. So you're talking about like 22%, but it's in the areas that most directly affect you. And what I'm saying is, on my side, I could put trees around each light fixture, but I still think the fence has to go on his side of the elevation.

Because the elevation. Yeah. Because then it goes from being like, what was it,

Because 270, 276, like so if you're, I'm six foot-ish, you know, close enough. So like think about me standing there versus if I'm 12 feet shorter.

Well, no, like you can see the numbers. 260 is where you are at the bottom. If you're putting in a six foot fence, that means going to 266 when the highest elevation is 270. You're not even making the elevation. And again, those are the current contours.

And our proposed on the west side by them, we're cutting another 15 feet, 19 feet. So it's going to be even lower. Because he's 270 at the top.

Right, and you're 260 at the bottom right now.

Right now, and we're proposed to be 241. Yeah. So you're another 19 feet.

Definitely have the conversation.

Yeah, I think.

We can't really.

Yeah, you can't negotiate between neighbors. I get it. Before, I was on a planning board for three or four years. But I think there's a compromise to be had. Okay.

You're still landscaping that home.

The concern was just the people hanging around and wandering through. It's been minimal, non-existent, but it's growing. And now with- No, I understand what you're saying. A thousand more people coming through. It becomes an attractive nuisance for people to hang out, wander through the woods.

And that's a quite, I mean, again, one of the comments in the letter, which I think gets reviewed by engineering more than the board might be, you know, I think for the code, we're supposed to run sidewalk up the entire length, which may not be welcomed.

Up the entire length of what? On the Shaker Road side.

On the Shaker Road side.

On the Shaker Road side.

Yeah, there's no sidewalk now, because it's, again, it's slower down.

I was going to say, if having the sidewalk would reduce people walking through the property, because there'd be a safe avenue, or do you think people are just lazy and taking the furthest path? I'm not walking through the woods, but sure.

I'm not going to lie, I was there, and it's amazing to me that people are doing it, because it's so steamy.

Again, I agree with you.

And I'm not saying they're not. I'm not disagreeing that they are. I'm just saying I wouldn't.

It became a nice place to hide. Like I said, again, it hasn't been a big issue, but we also haven't had 1,000 people across the street. Yeah.

And you didn't have that issue. I'm trying to think who was there first. You guys are the ones at the corner where Boulevard and Bamber and Salier is, those condos over there.

We were there first.

You were there first, okay.

And that's a whole, yeah, that's, again.

But it's still literally a block or two away, it's not far, but it's a different, it's not right across the street, I get it.

And it's not on Shaker Road and on Boulder. Yeah. It's on Northern, but it's across from the country. It's on Barron Salyer, yeah. Yeah, across from the country.

I don't know if there's any other questions from the board.

One other question, just in the, well, no.

So if there's no other questions, then I don't have my thing up here. You should have better. I'm going to give this over to our staff for them to go through their notes and their thoughts.

There's a lot. Most of it we've gone over, and like Chuck said, the geotech and the so we'll get more um just savings for the record obviously um it's properties currently we've discussed a lot of consolidation for it to be over you know one use of the compartment unless you're a major dpr of course required um it didn't meet the threshold for albany county planning boards and we won't be waiting for that back from them um for seeker we are classifying it as an unlisted action um And we've got the short-form DAF part one, so we'll be doing that part two and three for your review prior to any action. There's obviously not public funds expected, so there's no coordinated review with that. Obviously, there's the separate DC communication application for block underground storage. Yeah, it hasn't been recorded yet to the Department of Review. I think, I know you were working on it earlier this summer, so.

Yeah, so we're just two weeks ago, Tectonic did test holes, they will develop the geotechnical report, and then my office will develop the SWF.

It's a recent change, so again, just for the record, obviously been used as a vehicle fueling station. There was just a change to the USDO a little over a year ago. so that any legally established vehicle fueling station in operation as of last June can expand if it's within the MUCH, so it may be redeveloped or expanded on the existing lot or onto adjacent lots of that operation area. There are new specific standards that go with the vehicle fueling station and that kind of accessory convenience retail. I think, in the latter most of them, they are generally pretty standard, I would say,

your kind of overall practice, but just to make note of them.

As Chuck mentioned, the proposal meets the dimensional standards, which is also a requirement of the exception. And as we were just discussing, the lot coverage would be reduced significantly from the existing and is under the maximum. So the sidewalk, you know, there is sidewalk along the northern side and partially on the Shakers we were just discussing. We did have an initial conversation prior to the application submittal and traffic engineering at that time had requested some kind of a crosswalk or pedestrian striping in some way to get from the sidewalk to the store. So essentially kind of a straight through the parking lot. So we were looking for options with that. And I think, you know, if the Shaker Road, expanding the sidewalk on Shaker Road is feasible, then we would just look for that response in narrative form or in a grading plan. The amenities are, that requirement was met. There's a proposal for benches and trash receptacles next to them. And it would be reducing the existing curb cuts, so that's obviously a benefit as far as the traffic engineering is concerned. They did wonder about pushing it further along Northern Boulevard, but again, in the grading, that slope would not make it viable. The existing Shaker Access Road wouldn't have any changes, and then the Northern Boulevard would be increased slightly from the spec engineering. Is that right? Slightly lighter?

Yeah.

But given the multi-axle vehicles, I'm sure there is an exception to go over that maximum weight.

Today it's 25 and we're 30 for the spectra.

But you have the turning movement, so just include that for traffic engineers review as well. The off-street parking, you know, assuming that the entire square footage is in that reasonable area, then the maximum number of off-street parking spaces would come out to 26, ES 27, because it's very clearly, kind of perfectly around the building, which makes sense, but it is over by one. We can discuss that. Snow storage is shown. Project requires bicycle parking. I think we just put our bike rack and we're on one of the corners, or if there was one already, we could just include the detail on there. There are a number of existing street trees that will be maintained, and then any work on the right-of-way, we just need to work with our city departments, particularly if that's a big highway right-of-way along both corners. The dumpster closure is noted. We'll just need to see the details, just the standard . And as we were talking about, there is kind of that existing landscaping, green shrub buffer between Stewart's and the residential. If there are any changes, include that in the landscape plan, obviously. Mechanical equipment, just note the existing... Yeah, it's all ground melted. Yeah. is invisible from the street, we just need a little bit of screening, but if it's in the back corner, then you should be fine.

It's on the title sheet. Okay. So it's all on the west elevation.

Got it. We talked about the transparency. You can kind of workshop that. I think there's some alternatives given the floor plan.

Obviously, we're discussing both the floor metrics and the sign as well.

It is a separate sign permit just in that you'd be getting a building permit, you know, theoretically you'd be getting a building permit and a sign permit as well. Given that there's still the comments that need to be provided from our departments and just in looking through and deferring, it's kind of our first presentation, so we're going to go with DVR and the DVR. All right.

That is the recommendation. Do I get a motion to defer the developmental plan review until all the comments have been addressed?

So moved.

Seconded. All right, so moved and seconded. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right, . That's it.

All right, thanks, guys.

Thank you. And please.

Yeah, we'll get it set up there.

Thank you so much. Thank you, and I love your card. You just pulled up next to me. I was like, oh, that's cute.

You got that new electric one, too. Yes, yes. It's working out for you? Love it, love it. How about the winter? Have you been through the winter yet?

Yes, this will be like my second winter with it. It definitely loses charge a little bit of time.

I have a Mercedes electric that goes from more than half.

Yeah, my Jeep that's plugged in outside. That's right, you have a... Yeah. It's absurd. It is absurd.

It's good if you just drive around all night, plug it in every night.

Yeah, I have a charger in my house, so it's not... Same. If I didn't have a charger in my house, it would be insane.

We're getting there. Thank you.

Have a nice one. So we are adjourned. Oh, we need a motion. Oh, somebody moved to adjourn. Then we adjourn. Thank you. Seconded.

All right.