Planning Board - Regular Meeting

on the property and I can't remember the the address off the top of my head. 647

633 647. It is the property next to the playhouse in Bedford Village. Um we're here to continue the public hearing on the property and to begin to talk about Seeker in the process. Um I think I mentioned this before that we uh are essentially in the part of seeker where we're if if this were an EIS we'd be doing a scoping session i.e. we'd be deciding what needs to be covered and what things um we need more information and and that's really what we're doing uh as part of the part two of the EAF. Uh rather than go through it bit by bit, what we've decided to do is take the the major issues. there are certain issues that we know are going to have to go into a part three uh for the EIS and it's there's no debate over whether traffic is going to be um a part three issue for example. Uh so I think we're we're going to do a couple of those certainly traffic and probably um the general uh site plan issu issues and the appearance issues we'll start to talk about today design issues um and we'll see where it goes from there. What I'd like the way I'd like to do things for the public hearing part therefore is to talk about those things in uh in chunks. So I will ask the applicant to do their presentation. Then I will on on traffic for example I will ask the public to please talk about

traffic issues and then the board will talk about traffic issues and then we'll go on to the next topic. So I'll ask the members of the public to um when we're talking about traffic talk about traffic don't talk about design because we'll get to design. If we don't get to it tonight we'll get to it next time. Okay. So if that's understood, I will turn this over to the uh applicants representatives to find out where they feel we stand at the moment.

Thank you, madam chairperson, members of the board. My name is Pete Daniel Hollis. I'm a partner in the law firm Gettinger Waldinger Montgomeue and Hollis, 118 North Bedford Road, Kisco, New York. Something going on here. I must have hit something. Um and we represent the applicant LHP Oldpost Road LLC which owns the 3.14 acre parcel um uh in Bedford Village uh at 633 647. Our associate attorney Sarah O'Shea's uh virtually attending tonight. The architects Binfield architects are here seal and Pather and Max Hodley. Uh Kurt Curtly Cameron, our architectural design consultant, could not be here tonight. And uh I have something for of hers to read into the record a bit a little bit later. Um Ya Hannison from KSJC Consulting is here in person. Dave Sessions from the same organization is here virtually. Uh we have Rich Dandria and Lee Zimmer from Kier's Engineering, our traffic consultant sitting right next to me here. Um, and I don't know if Bill Brightite is on virtually or not, but I submitted in my letter of March 12th to the board, uh, a one-page memorandum from Mr. Brite with regard to the wastewater treatment facility. And two members of the LLC that own the property, Mr. Tom Kennedy and and Clint Olsen are here, both in the first row and the third row. Uh, and I thought if you think it's a good idea for the public's purposes that I just go through exactly what we're here for.

I think so.

So, we were here on January 12th and went through this a little bit and I'll do it again. We're here because of a bit of confusion on the town's zoning map. In 1994, the zoning map did not include the entirety of this property in the NB district. it was partially NB and partially 2acre zoning. In 2009, that map was changed and amended to reflect the entirety of the property being in the NB zoning district. And in 2023, the same thing happened again. So, our clients and and any any client that had any degree of sophistication and intelligence would make want to make sure what the zoning is for a property before they went down the path of proposing a development based upon zoning which was up in the air. So, on August 20th, 2025, I submitted a petition on our behalf to the town board to bring clarity and finality to the tax map uh zoning map rather uh designations. and we appeared before that board on September 4th and as required by the town code the petition that we submitted to the town board was referred to your board for uh secret lead agency status and also for a report and recommendation on the petition should a resoning be required to go forward with the application if a negative declaration under secret is granted by this board and and eventually the time period that your notice of intent to be lead agency was properly circulated and you were uh you assumed the role of lead agency. We appeared here on January 12th and began the process under SRA. Some of our same consultants were there that night. Certainly there I think there were 16 or 17 members of the public who spoke and and had their chance to speak a little bit of and tonight is the second in what would be a series of meetings to discuss

the secret hard look that you're required to take on all the issues two of which you've already mentioned. So, at the conclusion of that secret analysis, uh if we're fortunate in our pursuit, um we will uh receive a negative declaration from your board that will be reported back to the town board along with a hoped for resolution recommending that the resoning be adopted by the town board. Then we would go back to the town board for public hearings on that zoning amendment. And if that zoning amendment, if required, passes, we would come back to this board with regard to the concept plan that we have now having evolved into a site plan and then there would be further public hearings at that time. So secret uh public hearings, town board public hearing back here for hearings on the site plan when as and if we get the necessary approvals. The concept itself and seal and pather we'll talk about this a little bit is for uh 27 residential units 80 20 split 80% of those units would be two-bedroom and and 20% onebedroom. My submission to the board uh on March 12th included a waterc coloring rendering by the architects and the architects have a more wholesome uh expansion of that rendering here tonight and they'll be up in a minute. Uh also there was a KSCJ memorandum with regard to the treatment of storm water management and Jan will speak about that and Dave Sessions will chime in uh as needed from uh his location. Also the Delaware uh engineering memorandum uh with regard to the proposed upgrades to the wastewater treatment facility uh was in that submission as well as well. And finally, a will serve letter from the town of Bedford water department indicating that there is sufficient water and pressure uh for the water district to be able to

serve this property if we're successful in getting an approval. So that that's what we are going to have our consultants. We're ready to talk about any or all of those things. You've already mentioned the um the uh traffic issue and Calin will speak to you about the characteristics of the rendering and the proposed building as being in harmony and I've used this before uh with the not only the recently adopted be Bedford Together comprehensive plan but also the enabling legislation for the Bedford Village Historic District Review Commission section 71-3B 1 and two of the town code as to the compatibility with and the maintaining the existing character of Bedford buil village. I mentioned a few minutes ago that uh Kurtley couldn't be here but she um sent an email that she asked that I could read and I'll take a moment to do that now if that's Curtly writes in an email to the group on March 12th. We've had an opportunity to work with Sealin and his team over the past six weeks. I have been impressed with how thoroughly they have immersed themselves in the current and historic character of the village and it has been a pleasure to watch their design process evolve with increasing sensitivity to Bedford and its surrounding areas. I have seen multiple proposals for this site over the past 15 years and this team design and otherwise is approaching it with a much stronger understanding of and commitment to Bedford and Bedford Village than any of the others. I believe the project including housing, mixeduse program and uh infrastructure and utilities, walkability, safety and other amenities are all in keeping with the goals and strategies that the town adopted in its most recent strategic plan. While this

design is still conceptual and is a work in progress, I am hopeful that it will be received as a strong start and that feedback from community members and future feedback from the Bedford Village Historic District Review Commission will only make it better. Currently, as this board knows, but for the public that may not know her, she's lived in Bedford Village for 23 years. Her residential architecture office in in Bedford Village itself. She's past president of the and member of the board of directors of the Bedford Historical Society, a past member of the Bedford Village Historic District Review Commission and the pardon me and the chair of the Bedford Village subcommittee for the town uh Bedford Together comprehensive plan. So she's not certainly uh uh anything other than highly competent. So in my March uh letter, March 12th letter, I talked about the what we submitted and the uh KSCG deals with storm water management and Dave and Dave and Jan will talk about that today. The um rendering as as Calin will speak about in just a minute. Um Bill Brightite put in a a memo, a one-page memo with regard to the upgrade to the wastewater uh treatment facility. And finally, I mentioned the uh will serve letter for um the water district. And before I turn it over to uh Cal and Dave, Yan and Phil, Bill and uh Lee and and Rich, uh I just wanted to speak briefly about that comprehensive plan and how I feel that this project as I did in January uh complies with the the goals and aims of that uh plan with regard to how the three hamlet should be treated. I quote from it, "Existing properties allow for appropriately scaled mixeduse development within the

Hamlet Center and the town should analyze vacant and underutilized properties in the Hamlet centers and consider alternative zoning approaches that could facilitate development of an appropriate scale. The plan, if approved, will approve housing stock, empty nesters, and others, and it'll contain the required number of affordable units. As Bill Brightite uh will discuss eventually with regard to the wastewater treatment plant uh on site, the treatment plan has the capacity to handle not only this project but the uh theater building, the banks building and potentially if an agreement would be reached with the Bedford Central School District, the elementary school uh uh system which is we all know has certain significant problems. And perhaps most importantly, we feel that the the rendering will show that this plan is faithful and consistent with the character of Bedford Village. And with that said, I'd like to turn the floor over to Calin for Paylor to walk you through the rendering.

I wonder if if this means that we should do the rendering part before we do the traffic. I'm the one thing I'm a little bit concerned about is doing all of your presentation work ahead of time and then people losing track of it as we go back. I I think if we might just take a minute to because we talked about the last time we didn't have a rendering, right? I think it would be important. We'll just do the architectural rendering part and then go to the traffic. Does that work? You want to have public comment design? Well, I think we're going to want public comment on the design, but maybe just a two second overview of the rendering and and then we'll go back to and and then back to whatever you want. So, straight to the rendering.

Just just stick to the rendering with the understanding that after we do traffic, you're going to come back and I agree. Just like here it is. This is what we're wide shot.

Good evening everyone. My name is Cen P. I'm a principal at Bfield Architecture. It's nice to be with you again. So, I'll go straight to come back to it. Um, we last time we were here in front of you. We presented our design process, the history of the village, what we were looking at. I had all spiel about how I got here, but I'll just cut to it. This is it. Um, the building, the three buildings on your left are what we feel will be a valuable addition to the end of that street. And the building on the right is of course the playhouse. Um, zoom in here. How do I switch? Oh, that button. Sorry. So, very quickly, I'll keep it quick. I've got some notes here, but I'll come back to it. Um, we what was really important to us is that we kept the scale of the street going from the playhouse. That was our clue. You can see the top of the playhouse carries through. Then, we thought about massing and how this building breaks down its scale. Uh we what you see here is one version of many versions that we looked at when we showed you those images of historic the historic village. We looked at gamrell roofs, pitch roofs, um flat roofs and brick and uh cladding. And this is what we came up very quickly. The building on the right is inspired by the Katona firehouse that you you probably know. Obviously, the building in the middle is inspired by the playhouse next to it. And then the building at the head is a white clap building with a with forms that you see that permeate throughout your village. But the reason we use that was to break down the scale and drop the height as it moves towards the residential neighborhood. And these three buildings are separated by recesses that make them feel individual. What is really important to us was vernacular of vernacular of your village but also placemaking. And just very quickly in

the between the white building and the playhouse there's an open public space and we thought there was an opportunity we create a space maybe have a restaurant adjacent to it and have a cover covered porch people gather there but more importantly that serves as a link to what to the parking behind the significant parking behind. Right now it's an unceremonious walk from that parking up to the street. We're trying to formalize that and make that pleasant. So between these buildings, it's an opportunity for placemaking. And even with the pop down to the um to the parking, it's another opportunity. And I'll try and do this myself. So, quickly on the on the plan, uh the pinkish colors are retail and between and the lower light yellow color is the playhouse and between that is a curated walkway just a series of steps and planted areas to make the experience from arriving from that parking to to the street a pleasant one, a formal one, and something that we think think enhances the neighborhood. I'll finish on this. It was important for us to get the scale right uh and the language right. And I'm hoping the picture speaks for itself, but I think we're getting pretty close.

Okay. I think I want to do traffic now. I I think it's best to to move to traffic. Is Is the public comfortable with with that? Yes. I have I have that submitted for tonight and I had comments overall. So specific to one area wondering if I could be allotted to be um

doesn't necessarily fall under traffic. you you're gonna need a microphone, but I'm I'm wondering if if we should I'm I don't want to divide this up too much. How about if we let you do your thing after we do the traffic that Okay, the we've got so many important people which is everybody who's here is an important person and their opinion matters and we want to hear it all but in a coherent fashion. Um so

good evening. Uh my name is Rich Dandrea Collier's Engineering and Design. Uh I'm a licensed professional engineer in the state of New York. The traffic consultant for the project. Um we prepared a traffic impact study for this project. Uh it was initially prepared in 2025 but revised in uh on January 9th of this year. Um and that included uh analysis of the intersections along Route 22 in the area of the project from the intersection at 121 tri that kind of triangle intersection there working south to Guardill Road then Court Road and then the intersections around the triangle at the Village Green. Um initially our parking our traffic data collection was done in June of last year, early June of last year when schools were still in session. Um, and then based on comments from your traffic consultant, we did some additional recent uh, traffic counts, which I don't think have been submitted to your board yet, but we will be submitting as part of the response to those comments um, with a revised traffic study. We did those recent counts in February of this year. Um, the the counts really indicate that the the traffic through this area is significantly pass through traffic. um not necessarily stopping in in this village area, but passing through to get to 684, 35 to the north. Um maybe the the schools to the north. Um so that that's what we see with the with the traffic through that area. Um in general, the project is going to generate somewhere between uh 45 and 75 trips depending on the peak hours in in a in one hour period depending on the peak hours that we're looking at. Um, so in the morning peak hour, it's probably lower, closer to the 45 number. Uh, on in the afternoon peak hour, and on a Saturday, closer to the 75 number. Um, we analyzed all the all the intersections that that I previously

mentioned. Um, and and generally we came up with with some recommendations. We're still working on those with your traffic consultant and and the New York State Department of Transportation. Um but initially uh we're really kind of looking at ways to improve pedestrian safety through the area. Um a sidewalk along the frontage is a given um to to extend the sidewalk through the village there and in front of our the proposed building. Um there's some other recommendations that we had looked at potential of a signal at the 12122 intersection to improve uh left turn lane uh left turn movements, but that has some complications. So we're working on that. Um and uh looking at some other signage improvements uh or modifications to existing signage that's there to improve the pedestrian safety. Um the other thing that we're we're really taking a hard look at now based on comments from your traffic consultant also is uh the crash analysis, the accident analysis for this area. Um so we had provided an initial response to your traffic consultant's comments in our March 12th letter. Um however, the crash analysis wasn't completed yet. So once that's completed, we'll we do plan to provide to you a a revised full traffic study that will have the analysis of all the intersections that I mentioned. uh the additional crash analysis and then the recommendations that may come out of that. Um as far as the the actual site itself um it was mentioned previously that you the we're providing the connection between the existing parking behind the playhouse to the parking that's behind the proposed building. Um that connection will provide some new continuity uh between for traffic flow in the area. Um which I think is an improvement over some of the conditions that you have today. Um the access to the site, there's a driveway there

today. It's a narrow driveway. Uh that will be upgraded to accommodate two-way traffic. Uh there will be sight distance improvements at that driveway as well to clear some of the vegetation to be able to make sure that that driveway can operate safely. Um and I think that's the at the at this point that's the general overview on the traffic. Happy to get into any questions that anybody has. Um the only thing other thing I would note that we have like I said we have been working with DOT. Uh they did provide their uh their lead agency reply back in December. Um and and we're continuing to work with them as well as well your traffic consultant.

Okay. Thank you. Um I'd like to ask Mr. Canning, do you have anything you want to add now? Mr. Canning is the town's traffic engineer or Madam Chair. Um, can you hear me? Yes, we can.

Okay. I I'd just like to say that I've been reviewing the materials provided by Kers uh and making sure that in my opinion it's comprehensive so that it addresses all of the potential issues within the uh Bedford Village District. It's looking at intersections all the way from I think it's uh Old Post Road and Cemetery Hill Road or Cemetery Road through the village down to uh the intersection of 22 with 172. Um we're looking at pedestrians, we're looking at traffic safety, we're looking at the crash history, we're looking at the um traffic volumes that this project will generate. And ultimately I expect that when uh Mr. Deandrea and Collers are finished preparing the traffic study, you will have a a comprehensive study that you can review and determine for yourself uh what the potential impacts of this project may have and we'll work through um how we will address any issues that may arise as part of that.

Okay. Thank you. Um, at this point I think I'd like to ask if there are questions from members of the public. Yes. If you would come up to the microphone and also identify yourself. Yes. Hi. Um, I'm Veronica.

Sir Natus Laur um and I spoke at the last meeting on January 12th. Thank you very much for the additional information and for providing the studies ahead of time. Um, this is particularly about traffic. I have a couple of other questions for other sections. Um, so first the traffic study itself acknowledges that the intersection of Old Post Road as well as Guard Hill Road and Cantto Road already is operating at a level F service. So for those who don't know, that means like it's it's quite bad. Um, with cues blocking the intersection and a crash rate more than twice the statewide average for similar um, unsignalized intersections. In other words, the study confirms that this part of the network is already under significant and operational safety um stress. Um and at the same time, the modeling appears to assume that no additional vehicles turning north onto Guard Hill Road during the weekday or morning peak and only three additional vehicles exiting via Court Road during the same peak hour. Given the existing conditions described in the study, those assumptions warrant careful scrutiny. Um, you know, this might sound anecdotal, but as someone who lives really near there, the overflow does go on to Court Road and onto Guard Hill Road, which are unpaved roads at the moment. I think that's something worth bearing. Um, and I appreciate that the consultant has looked at safety as I've been almost hit twice um, crossing the street at the time. The traffic has significantly increased since we got oho and masked, which, you know, we love, but just FYI. So, just for the record, things about traffic. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any other members with of the public who have questions or or comments on this part of the proposal? Is there anyone on the Zoom who would like to comment about traffic specifically or ask questions? If if you are on the Zoom, you can just either I guess either raise your hand. I guess you can't shout out because we don't you're muted. I think Peter is handling letting people through. I'm not sure what that was.

Okay. Okay. Are there any questions that members of the board have and things that need to be looked at? Just a clarifying question. So, we talked about 40 or 60 peak trips. You made it seem like that was per hour, but that's per window, right? Not per hour. That's that's during the peak hour. So, like our peak hour in the morning would be 8 to 9 in the morning, right? Um and that's your the peak hour on the road not based on our and our traffic is going to generally be at the same time uh in the morning. The so that peak during that 1 hour period from 8 to 9 the project's going to generate approximately 45 trips.

So if we speak in actual right so you're you're talking about there's going to be the residences leaving in the morning returning at home and you're expecting that the retail or restaurants are going to generate more traffic during the you know in the afternoon or Saturday peak hour. Yes. Yeah. And the Saturday peak hour is going to be middle of the day, which I'm sure you if you've been in that area, you can see it's that's typically what happens, right? And the full access of the parking lot is only going to be off of the one-way court, right? That's the in-n-out into the parking lot there, meaning that the separate side access road is not going to be used as part of the parking. Egorus is that or it is going to be used the one the side axis being the one to the north. Correct.

That that will be used. that that would be a two-way access to the site. Got it. Okay. Was there any discussion about the restricting the left turn exit out of that? I'm not sure that we've looked at that yet, but something I guess we could take a look at because it Yeah, I mean it it's no secret that that main the way that you have the three or four state roads converging there creates a traffic um cluster. You're talking about at the that that access on the north side of the project. I'm just saying the way that you have 22, 121, and 17. Yeah. Okay.

I know. I know that looking at the peak hour is is the the standard and the most important figure for determining impacts, but the other thing that sometimes is an issue is how long that peak hour. The peak hour obviously is just an hour, but there are some places where the let's call it rush hour for want of a better term is three hours long and other places where it's only the peak hour. Have you gotten any sense of what that's what that situation is like in Bedford Village? So I what I can tell you is that when we do our traffic data collection, we're not just looking at when we do our existing counts or data collection, we're not looking at just the one hour period in that in that sense. No,

we are looking at a wider range of hours. So I I don't know I don't have the numbers in front of me exactly, but I I would say in the morning we probably looked at 7 to 9 in the morning and probably 3 to 6 in the afternoon present for instance. So we are looking at a wider range of period. When we do our analysis, however, we're pulling out the peak to determine when our when our we're going to have potentially the greatest impact on the traffic conditions. Yeah. So, yeah, I I understand that and I

I do think the peak in terms of any if you're talking about stoplights or that sort of thing, the peak is is the number. But if you're talking just in terms of impact on pedestrians who are are walking there and that the life of the town in general if if conditions are subpar for 4 hours a day. We should know that. Okay. We can add that. So if you've got the data that would let us we can add that to to this to the

Okay. Yeah. I'd also like to tack on to that because I unfortunately have driven that every day probably or close to it for the past six five six years. I think the window is bigger. I think there's also a misnome or a seasonal difference that I'm not sure the traffic study is actually captured. Yeah, I think it was done in because there are times that I know when to avoid because I forget the name of the school that replaced St. Patrick's, but as soon as that goes into

as soon as that goes into session, I avoid that place like the plague. I'm also guilty of doing what someone said earlier about going down Court Street. I actually go around and go all the way around the Bedford Green and pull out there. I'm probably your worst driver in that circumstance. Never had an accident. Uh but I think it's not reflective of the season will change particularly with the beginning of June. I believe RIP is out was out of session at that point in time. I also believe that in the beginning of the year that's weather, right? Snow is going out. Right.

Right. Um June is not really the time to take take the numbers. I think you really got to see the numbers somewhere in the neighborhood of like October. Yeah. I probably would like to see it around Christmas and I'd probably like to see it somewhere in the neighborhood of April. As soon as things get warm, a little bit warmer because coming home at between 5:30 and 8:30 at night, it's a backup at the Village Green going in front of Oho and Mast and whatever. Yeah, I I I can tell you from personal experience. I've drive through that. I'm not seeing that in the report. And that's those are windows that you know our chairman is saying we need to investigate.

I understand what you're saying. We're not when you're doing a traffic analysis, you're not designing for the peak peak condition necessarily all the time. Well, maybe we have to in this Well, I I understand, but the reality is what we typically say we design for is like the 85th percentile condition. No, I know. So you can't there's not in certain instances there's some there's things that you can't necessarily control. There could be other events or something that's going on that

would cause traffic to change. I I just want to finish my point. The the the I understand exactly what you're what you're saying. There's certainly definitely different times of the year where traffic will fluctuate. Um and we that's one of actually one of the comments from your traffic consultant I believe is talking about seasonally adjusting the traffic volumes and that's something that we're going to look at. Okay. Um but there are you know it's difficult to capture certain instances in time you know without doing I'm not super specific. So we we need to have some sort of commentary on that seasonal adjustment. Yeah. I didn't realize I apologize I didn't get completely through Mr. Canning's response. So, I didn't know he had raised that question.

So, that will that will be something that we're looking at as part of the revised thing. And then the other one that really popped out to me is that you project in the 2030 uh sort of upgrade and that the actual new drive will degrade to a level D. What's going to happen in 20 in 35? I mean, are are we putting something in place that's not the best measure as as of now because we already are inating that it's going to fail?

So, it's going to be pushed to an F at some point in time. I mean, that's assuming, you know, the significant traffic growth, I would say. I mean, if you look at traffic in that area, and I'm sure you may not you may not agree with me, but there are there is data that we have that shows that traffic is basically flat for the last 10 years in that area. It hasn't really changed. There's been a big event in the middle of that which kind of affects the bell curve. Say that again. There's been a big event in the middle of that 10 years that affects the bell curve. Good point.

No, I we take take CO out of it. I understand what you're saying, but you can go back to like 2015 to today and the the volumes are basically unchanged. So, the reality is I don't know how much the traffic's really going to change through here. It may increase a little bit, but I don't think the driveway analysis is going to change that significantly. Something we can look at, but we're saying it's degrading. Well, no, we're saying it's level of service D, which is an acceptable level of service. And it doesn't and what that means is somebody's going to wait coming out of the driveway. It doesn't mean we're affecting the traffic on the main line with that level of service.

But the level service D is for the people coming out of the driveway not going into but the reason for for the concern about the level of service isn't just people's convenience. It's that if I understand it rightly, if study studies show that if somebody's waiting past a certain amount of time, the chances of they're doing something stupid, frankly, increase and that that's the the real danger of of levels of service D. And yeah, I mean, I we we would at level service a level of service D, you wouldn't expect that. Um, but we do have apparently twice the accident. I mean, I was really thrown by that.

Well, the the again the accidents we're going to take we're taking a closer look at, right? So, that's something we'll get further into. Um, but from the level of service standpoint, you know, level of service D is considered to be acceptable. It does. It wouldn't it wouldn't raise to the volume the level of potential accident condition or somebody trying to stretch to get out of there in a quicker time. Um, however, you you're one of I think it was you you made the comment about considering restricting left turns. That's something that we would could consider which would change the condition at that driveway.

Well, because I mean here's the important thing, right? You know, you have in a quarter mile, you have six substantial intersections and turns. And none of these are standard except for one intersection, right? They're all around the curve

with multiple, you know, major state routes merging. So, you know, with all due respect, if your reports are already saying that you're at a D, we have to make sure that we are looking at sort of the worst case when it comes to the traffic time and things like that because there's not a lot of margin of error, right? um in order to be able to absorb more of the traffic, which is why we're putting this much scrutiny. If we just had a straight road that was getting a lot of thoroughfare, right, it would be a different story. But this is one of the most complex interchanges of of a series of roads that, you know, I can think of, you know, in in Westchester right here. I we've talked about this board that a lot of the traffic is not necessarily the people that are living here going to shop there, but it's the amount of thoroughare that is being done. So something to consider a look at is is there anything else that can be done on the borders of town that don't degrade our residents quality of use of the roads that does you know alter the way that ways or Google maps or you pick the GPS system will try to restructure the traffic. We might have to in order to solve this look at broadening out the scope outside of just the village to see if there's other uh avenues that can limit the amount of thoroughfare traffic that can affect or you know improve the the local traffic going past the site.

You know I know just going to say Mr. Canning has a question. Mr. Canning would you

Yes, madam chair. First of all, um I want you to know that I'm taking copious notes of all of the comments, both public and from the board, and intend to share them with your planning director as well as Mr. Deandrea, specifically to um address the board members comment about the level of service D, which is quite a good comment, but it's important to note that the reason that the driveway is going to level of service D is because there's nobody on it now. And so with the project, it will be activated and it goes to level of service D. Um, it's a good question. How much traffic would need to increase on 22 in front of the driveway for it to go to another level of service? And Rich and I will do a uh sensitivity analysis, I think, to see what would happen. Uh, the board did bring up a good point about potentially a uh left turn prohibition. Uh it might also just be one of those uh things that tends to be self-regulating. Somebody might decide, you know what, I'm going to go out Court Street. I'm going to go down to Cemetery Hill Road. I'm going to make a right turn and come back on 172. So I I think the the bottom line is these are all good comments. That's what the process is for. I'm uh jotting them down. I'll be sharing them with your planning director and you should see answers to these questions in the traffic study. So keep asking the questions, but I just wanted to, you know, chime in on that.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, me. Um, you have to come to the microphone because otherwise you're not heard on the on the tape and the rest. And if you could identify yourself, please.

Yeah. Hi. Uh, I'm Chris Null and uh I live at 667 Old Post Road. Um so uh just a just kind of a a brief comment which I hadn't uh for an effect I hadn't seen considered and that is if you open up effectively the avenue um so that you could say come in court street go out onto 22 or come in 22 go out on court street right possibility doesn't exist now um that in and of itself of course is going to have some kind of multiplier effect in terms of people taking advantage of of of banking circuits. So, uh that like you know I I believe that needs to be accounted for in some way because um you can multiply traffic and or you can multiply uh the the uh the maneuvers that that people make right in in ways that might not be considered under the current study.

Okay. Thank you.

Any other Yes. Yes, please. Um, hi Nicholas Stevenson from Oho. Um, I just wanted to add a comment that as a um significant contributor to the traffic, I do think um which I am I'm sorry for. Um I do think it is um a lighting situation, a traffic flow situation, a larger problem that we need to solve for right now. Um and I think working together is really important to try and do that. I would hate to see a really exciting project like this fall over because we can't get to that. And one comment I just like to say because we live it every day um up at that part of town is there's a lot of hesitation because people can't find anywhere to park so they're trying to get into the hairdressers or they're trying to get to river or they're trying to get to 234 the cinema and I do think with a elegant much more parking in the village which we are foxed and can't supply could provide a little bit of alleviation. So, I really appreciate everyone's concerns, but I just wanted to say we're here to support all parties in any way and sorry for our ongoing contribution to the horrible traffic.

Thank you. Yes. You're you're on record. I wonder what it is.

So, one of the issues with Bedford Village is that it's becoming so much more vibrant with Oho, with Mass, with all these stores, and that's really wonderful, but I think what holds it back is the walkability. It's just treacherous. You can't let a 12-year-old go out with a friend and we'll meet you in three hours. And you should be able to. And you can do that in Katona. And I think when we're looking at all this, we have to be thinking about that because that would really improve the town. The other thing that I think got addressed really briefly but needs to be given a lot of scrutiny is as you go towards Fox Lane there there's a corner there with turns where you can go straight towards 684 to exit 3 or you can turn to go to Fox Lane and ex you know exit 4 and those I mean there are times in the morning where going from the farms to Fox Lane can take 25 minutes. So that's part of it too. You have to look at all of the runoff onto that as well as

Sorry, I'm actually I'm I'm really split now because this is exciting. I love what Nicola just said. Um but quickly one thing to consider when we were looking at traffic with the bell curve being COVID is that a lot of us who had very generous hybrid situations are now having to go back four to five days a week and we park just over there and we we can't not go through the town without you know totally ruining our tires by going around all the backwoods roads. Um, I'm also in the farms. So, I think if as you're getting closer to a sort of traffic um study and and and a sort of bigger look at this, that's something to consider is that more people will be called back into the office. There is fewer remote and the hybrid times are getting shorter and shorter. So, just something to consider. Yes,

I am at the time. So, I'm wondering if I could be an appropriate time. It does. It does it at least in part deal with traffic. It does in part. I have some as I've been add. Okay. How long is your statement? Uh, it is one page. Okay. Double talk fast. Thank you. Did we tell you about the hook we have for the No, I I printed it out, so we're all good. Um,

yes, double spaced. Um, let me introduce myself. My name My name is Sinclair Kennedy Null. I am a civil engineer with specialties in structural and geotechnical engineering. I'm affiliated with Muser Rutled Consulting Engineers in Manhattan. an in gap capacity. I have had a chance to briefly review the documents or the proposal on which I now like to comment and I'd like to before I forget because it's not embedded in my statement about the traffic looking four years ahead to 2030 is a bit laughable as an engineer of a of a service life. I didn't catch are you a resident of Bedford?

I I live at 667 Old Post Road. So I live right around that corner and I have every day heard sirens. I have heard screeches of tires. I'm sure we're all aware of that. Um I also so four years. Yeah, that's we I would typically look at the very least 2035 2050, right? Those are the kind of projections I'm looking at. I think season seasonal variability is a really good thing to bring up as well. But let me read my statement. So first I was pleased pleased to see that a few items standard to good engineering practice were included. most notably the traffic impact analysis conducted by a reputable third-party company, a few visual graphics of the proposed site, and the required seeker paperwork. Unfortunately, the the report left me guessing on many design and practical issues as data key to building development were omitted. As a civil engineer, I find this lack of transparency disturbing. While the architectural drawings presented display a pleasing storefront, as we can see, the site development plan on page eight of the proposal lacks simple structure dimensions. Indeed, the layout of the massive parking lot is welldetailed, but the only dimensions given are of typical parking space size and topographical contours which aren't noted as the existing or the proposed grade. How big is a typical residential unit? How deep does the into the property does the building extend? What is the size of the interior courtyard? These are the kinds of questions I am left asking. There are additional highlighted features that lack callouts and that contrasts between the architectural and engineering drawings. These reveal significant inconsistencies. Though I do not have the time to go into each one of these issues, I will address the most glaring. One, the location of the sewage treatment plant appears to be quite different on the drawings provided by Benfield Architecture and those provided by KSCJ. Benfield notes the located the the sewer sewage plant located at to the center of the site's

parking lot as I assume from that large gray rectangle as shown on page 8. While the engineering firm depicts its location at the site's northern center corner. Again, no dimensions of the building are shown on plan. They are only detailed 300 pages later in the secret report. Additionally, no call outs or drawn locations of the sludge tanks described to hold the entirety of the building's demand are noted on site. Second, there are no elevation drawings provided at the site. Once again, this simple standard of civil engineering drawings highlights the project's scope as it relates to grading all vertical heights and the drainage systems. Such quantity should be a priority for any new development. How much soil must be excavated in typical borrow fill analysis to level and raise the existing grade? I noted in the SECA report that it was somewhere around 134 truckloads, but it wasn't specific as to what that was for. I thought that was for the sewage treatment plant exclusively. What are the soil properties of the existing lomy soil types? USDA notes the current site Sandelom as one with high runoff capacity. In addition to the proposed development, historical documents of the site and its neighboring properties should be presented. New development must consider the site holistically, demonstrating the locations of all existing infrastructure that may be disturbed. This may include buried tanks, storm water, sewage pipes, and soil conditions. With these considerations, I strongly recommend further soil testing and site analysis be conducted. Next, noting that the seeker or the environmental impact assessment had been completed as required, more information is vitally needed as the site is located adjacent to a crucial wetland. A more comprehensive study of the project's environmental impacts is in order, especially as nearly an acre of pvious meadow is to be asphalted over. The study should capture actual runoff quantities and their directionality from storm events. Describe the impact

associated with potentially zero wet wetland setback and outline proper rainwater capture systems. It is one thing to vaguely describe the infiltration as outlined in the proposal in one paragraph with no numbers and in another entirely to detail the expected grading, quantify porous pavement infiltration rates and develop a model which accurately emphasizes that and I quote there will not be an increase in the rate of storm water leaving the site as compared to the existing conditions. That essentially is saying net zero and that is difficult to believe. I have little faith that this runoff wouldn't extend much further past the property towards lower elevation areas such as BVES or northward towards the houses along Old Post Road. In my experience, encroaching upon wetland with greater imperous material doubly impacts that body's ability to absorb the storm water as the direct demand increases and the available storage areas are reduced. This directly results in greater chances of ponding and localized flooding for nearby residents. Wetland buffers are not just a helpful mitigation tool. They are critical to sustainable infrastructure development. My next issue points to the flow of the proposal itself as over 70% of the 304 page report concentrates on this traffic study. And while the study proves highly useful for understanding ways to mitigate crash incidents, the information is practically pasted into the proposal with page after page of data tables. This presents a broader issue within the engineering construction world, specifically that of proper analysis and its presentation to the public. A simple a simple few pages of the report's summary would more than serve the interests of our everyday citizens. And in but indeed being an engineer myself, I found that collers themselves found a spot very nearby with crash rates not two times more but 10 times higher than the New York State average. and the factor was 0.15 to a

1.52 for your specifics. This should cause us all to pause, not only for ourselves as individuals, pause development and inspire further research and improve transportation engineering solutions among our city planners. Greater parking lots, adding a second lane does not fix the problem. and barging residents and city planners with hundreds of pages of data makes the report appear more comprehensive. Yet, I find it simply misleading. Now, here I have raised my insignificant points pertaining to this proposal. Now, I could go on, but I recognize that my time is limited. In my estimation, the report is deeply flawed and grossly inappropriate to the space and existing environment that we have. We are historic and as was pointed out earlier, we must work with the opportunities we are given. These are more than minor corrections and this project I believe needs to be reinvisioned. It is a green space. Why not keep it that way? Thank you for your time and listening.

Thank you. Thank you. And that your report will become part of the the record that they will be asked to respond to. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Um, so we we are going to go back to storm water and that, but later because I'd like to finish up traffic. And I understand I understand. Yes. I just the the note about only looking to 2030 and uh the correction is not two times, but it's 10 times higher. I thought it was quite significant.

Okay. Are there any other comments from members of the public about the traffic issues? I think we've given you some things to to look into. Uh the the one thing that's come up with a brief mention that that I'd like to emphasize is in connection with the tra the accident survey and pedestrian safety. Uh Mr. Cany's report did talk about looking into potential solutions even if there were solutions for down the road or solutions beyond the capacity of the applicant but still solutions that might help the area. I hope you'll take that very seriously because it is an ongoing problem in Bedford Village and one we can't make worse.

Understood. And and yeah, absolutely. when we're looking at traffic, we're not obviously we have to mitigate what we can from our project, but we understand there's a bigger global situation that needs to be looked at and we we will certainly if we see things that we think we can recommend for future, we will include that in our analysis. Thank you. Okay. So, I think is there anything that the applicant would like to add about the traffic issues or any questions that you have for us in terms of what your next steps are to to answer our questions.

From from my perspective, I think we know I we've heard your comments tonight. We've taken notes on those. I know we're coordinating with uh John Canning's office um on his comments and we will like I said we're going to revise our traffic study, provide you with a complete traffic study addressing both John's comments and and uh everything we've heard tonight. Okay. And we have a hand up on the I can't tell if it's that's me, Madam Chair. I just uh if if you're done with traffic, in the interests of um my time and the applicants money, um I'll sign off if that's okay with you. Yes, I think that's that's fine. Thank you very much. Good to see everybody. Be well.

Take care, John. Byebye. Okay. So, I think we are finished with traffic for the for the moment because we've go back to Mr.

Design. Yes. Okay. Okay, thanks. So again, for the record, Cather, principal of Binefield Architecture. I'm a little out of sequence here, so forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but again, I'll go quickly. Um, so this is site been discussing it for the last 45 minutes. So the last time we were here, we wanted to explain our process that we were studying village architecture. We're learning about the history of the place and trying to figure out the right architectural solution uh for the new building. I would like to add that Curtly Cameron and her team have been an invaluable part of this process. They understand the place. They understand what we're trying to create and have been guiding us. Um, so this image shows a streetcape from historic hall to the business block in the middle uh to the playhouse and our sites in the bottom left. So, I won't go through all the images again, but I left this one in because it's an iconic building one, and two, it has a gamble roof and forms that are similar to the forms that you see both in the residential architecture, the village architecture, and now our architecture. These are images we took a few months ago. Um, I made the point previously and this slide was to show that point was that I'm showing we're showing you one image now. That wasn't where we started. We had about three or four iterations of this trying to figure out what the building should be. Um, we had a a gable end building that was center mass and then we had a gamble building that was center mass and we landed in what we

have now. The images these all images you've seen before again of your town. Uh the upper images there are the playhouse and our our site is top left and what we see here is a kind of procession the way we thought about anywhere in terms of design. It's a procession of architecture that comes down the street and it's an empty spot missing tooth as it were that links to a parking field behind that serves the commercial district and we're filling it. That was our scope. Um so we showed you this. So go past that. Now just very quickly I think that said I just want to go through some architectural detail if you will. Right. So again the white brick building um similar to the was inspired by the Katona firehouse. Curtly showed us that. We thought that that makes sense that could anchor that corner. It's very important that the placemaking part of it comes through that that lower level spills out onto uh a space created between the playhouse and our building and again formalizes that processional uh route to the parking garage and makes that um a pleasant experience getting down there. So we see this as as the life being on this corner. We intentionally kept what we thought was a appropriate amount of space for a tenant like a restaurant on this corner where it belongs close to the playhouse and two smaller retail spaces as you go down hopefully quieter and and sort of meanders off the path as you come off the the the busier space. The important thing about this and and sorry I should say that yes we were we weren't coordinated on the civil drawings. Absolutely. Uh we will focus on the design. Uh we've been late on the design. Todd and Clint Tom and Clint have let us do that because we've been spend so much time on it. Next round we will absolutely coordinate it. Um but

yes, we we have the the s treat treatment plot in a different place. But the thing I want to say about the architecture is that the success of this type of architecture depends on your commitment to the details. You don't see it here. The next time you see it at a forward zoning application, you will have those details. Divided light windows, the proportion proportion of the windows, the sill treatments, the header treatments, the trim above it, the brick uh the brick detailing and the cobbling uh rakes, eaves, dormers, that sort of detailing on this architecture is what makes it successful. So, I think we're on the right path. Hopefully, you agree. Um, and uh I think that there's this this image shows that it could be a special place if we get it right.

Okay. Are there any should I say you have questions? Um, let's see. Are there questions, comments from members of the audience? Yes. Thank you for these colorful renderings. Um, I have a an MA in art history. I'm Veronica Cernatus. Thank you.

Laurier, everyone's favorite commenter. No, just kidding. Um, but anyway, um, so yes, background in art history with a specialy in architecture and so I salute what you do. Um, my question to you is what sort of materials will you be using to build this? Um, in some of the conservation work I've done, I will note that if the materials are not as close to or identical to materials that have been used before, it can sometimes, as you know, fall flat. So, would be interested to hear your perspective. And also, one more thing, given the winter that we just had, I noticed this large space, and I know this isn't exactly a scale. Um, how do you envision this looking when the leaves have fallen and it's icy? How do I share again? It's not show it's not showing. Oh, it is showing. Sorry. Um, so to answer the first question, uh, simply right now the majority of the building is brick, but fair point on the on the materials is really important. So, we're now talking to Kurtley and her team and trying to figure out what the cloud siding is. We want to use something that looks like real wood. issue with commercial buildings and real wood is the maintenance and it falls apart. Uh but that's I think the only thing that's up for debate right now. We committed for this to be a high-end uh development. So as you can see most of that will be real brick um for those forward buildings. And it's a fair question like what does it look like when um when you have uh the same space when there's when it's winter? I can answer this because we've done it before on on two projects where we have grand stairs going through our uh through our spaces and you have to be careful to curate the space so that they look engaging in both seasons. And what that means specifically for maybe for this project is that that patio or the sorry that courtyard has a a trellis

that is lit and is engaging in the winter and the trees have lit lights in them and are maintained. So when you walk down it, hopefully it looks like a winter wonderland as opposed to a dead uh connection between the two spaces. One more question. Thank you very much, Veronica Cernatus Lauri. Um that's me. Anyway, what I was going to ask is so who would over be responsible for the landscaping and making sure that in that event it was beautiful and aesthetic um you know in the winter with lighting and maintaining the trees etc. And also what sort of trees do you propose to plant?

So the trees are going to be a step too far for me. So we'll have a landscape guy talk about it the next time we we're here. Uh but Tom, I defer to you guys about maintenance, but I think that's all on our property. Mo, most of that stays in our property. So, we'll shovel snow and maintain it. And I think a lot of people know the Bedford Village Business Association has a very diverse group of people. And I think anybody who's been to our village at the Christmas time and in the winter would agree that it's lit up beautifully. And um there's a lot of care taken. There's thankfully a lot of people who really do care about our village, including me and my partner Clint. And it will look beautiful all the time. Whatever needs to be done to make it look beautiful all the time.

Lori say be safe.

Okay. Any other comments from members of the audience, questions from members of the board? Have you I mean this is sort of a big question, but have you thought at all? I think the streetscape is so important to this and this is, you know, a huge contribution to Bedford Village that can be like a real plus. Um, and when you look at the village, one of the tipping points has been Ohho, which just invites people in. And part of it is the wonderful store, but part of it is also the beautiful space in the front and the way they've made that so welcoming and and inviting. And have you thought about putting sort of reversing the building so that the green space is in the the courtyard is in the front facing the street so that people will walk through and gather and talk and be more of a community there.

So we didn't think about putting the courtyard at the front, but I'll address the question anyway. The courtyard is specifically a a space that's meant to provide like sort of a urban oasis. Well, it's not a village oasis if you will if you will for the residents. No, I know that. But I I'm just saying here I think you're weighing two different things that for the residents and for the entire community. But we did think about your premise which is trying to make that streetscape as special as it could be. And one important note,

you know, I'll interject. We did have a conversation about it. Generally speaking, those inner courtyards in front have the opposite effect on people gathering. Yeah. So I want to make that point. Yeah. So sorry I will if I don't if I don't make the point properly Clint please please jump in.

But urban planning 101 is to keep the street wall going. That's the way that you you create an engaging street and that um in terms of safety is you have a a sheet metal between you and and cars pedestrians and cars. So if we could get this right, if you see if it's a street parallel spaces, then your tree grades, beautifying that street, street lamps, and then specifically a much larger sidewalk that hopefully uh the spaces that uh the retail spaces spill out onto. So, if you look that if you've been there, if you go there today, um the covered walkway where the street uh where the shop fronts are in the playhouse is what we lined our building up with, not the front of the playhouse. The the the underneath the shop fronts below the covered walkway. So, it gets a you get a lot much larger sidewalk is my point. So, if we can create an engaging sidewalk, potted plants and and uh uh and awnings, and those spaces spill out into it, I think you'll get the desired effect, an engaging, vibrant sidewalk.

Can I'm going to be honest here. I don't see the design fitting in the village. Um I respect you trying to pull in stuff from Kona, but quite frankly, I don't know that Katona belongs in Bedford Village. Um, objectively I would see this as a nice building. Um, and I can definitely see from seeing your slideshow the other pres uh the other meeting how you've taken similar approaches to what you've put in other of your market. So objectively I like it. I don't think I like it cited here knowing what the rest of the village looks like. um notably the uh portion of the building that is closest to the existing playhouse in that again I think you're borrowing from the wrong hamlet here and the part that to me strikes me as the Jacob Burns building uh in Pleasantville where you have that transition into the brick side um that part of it to me just seems a bit jarring um I don't have an issue with the other twothirds of the building but to me I just I'm not envisioning it flowing nicely in this location.

I'll tell you why because I've been through so many of these. But then you you know that's absolutely point taken. I'll tell you why we did that. Um because we at first we thought there's a lot of clab siding went down the street and there the scale of some of the buildings is as big. But when we put that clabet siding next to the playhouse, it just didn't feel right. felt that we were trying to make a big house next to the playhouse whereas the playhouse is a very strong architecture itself and we putting a clever building next to it seemed nonsecator so that's why we did it that's the reason it's not saying that you your comment is not the right comment but that's the reason

I I have to admit that I had something of the same reaction uh I like I I really like the way it looks But I I grew up in Flatbush and it looks like some of the nicer parts of of Flatbush where I grew up. I love it.

But it uh it's and I live in Katona now and I'm very familiar with the Kona Firehouse. And you're right, it it it does go well with the Playhouse. it its own history is 1920s, 1930s, and that's what it looks like. So, it's actually historically out of step with too a a little bit, but um I'm wondering if it is in time at at this point to to actually bring the Bedford Village Historic District Commission in on the discussion. U because they really are experts on Bedford. Um and I I think I'd like I think we it it may be time for them to take a look.

We want to be partners in this design process. So absolutely. So that would be my my suggestion for going going forward because it it's lovely but now there's two of us that are unsure about whether it's the right lovely. Thank you. I'll approach it I'll approach it from another end. The opposite end. I don't care about the playhouse. I want to know the other homes that are on the end.

Yeah. There's three small little houses and I don't get any type of relationship of scale and you know we don't want to overpower those houses. I mean, I'm not telling you to how to do your job, but it I the backdrop is going to be too much, I think, in my estimation. As you round that corner and see press the hill and right about where the uh speed speed sign measures everybody's speed, you're going to see a big block and these little three little things and then a big block. So, I think

I appreciate what you've done. I think it has really great aesthetics like everybody has said. I'm on the fence. I don't know if it's the right thing to do. I've seen your other projects down in Norwalk and South Norwalk and Derianne and stuff. And I'm I think Jared and Deerra's comments are right. I think the flatness of the front of the building even though it does have some relief, it's not doesn't have the relief that's on the playhouse itself now, right? because you have an arcade in front of it, you know, to have that depth and paracity. Maybe it does need to be pushed back in the middle and we have some sort of undulation in the facade. So, it actually reads I know what you mean about urban planning in the street face, but that's not what Bedford Village is, right? Look at down where the green is, where oho is, there's setback. Like Diane said, there's frontage. There's presence in the front, but it's not a building in the front.

Just All right. No, just please say what you will. Just in the process. We're designing still. And I think I want a place to be in Bedford Center and in the green. I I mean, that's one of the great things about Ohho. You can go there with kids and sit there in the summer with sand in your toes and have pizza, but you see and hear everything in Bedford Village while you're there. It's

just as a technical thing for uh site plans going forward. I didn't realize till I till I was looking at this that on your site plans, you don't show those three little houses because they're not on your property. or but I think in this case because of the the importance of the context if you could at least show the end of that property in the first house uh so we can picture that that interconnection. Yes. Yes. You may make a comment. Hello, I am Sharon Kennedy Null and I live at 667 Old Post Road and I think your points I would agree with your points particularly for a broader context here because I walk past those three little houses on my approach and it is disjunctive and I wonder to me rather than Flatbush or Pleasantville this invokes buildup of Armon and one question I actually do have for you is this argument that this breezeway type of space between the buildings will be inviting conversation and outdoor gathering situated sideways I'm question um I shop in Arong too and I find those those spaces to be really underutilized now I can't I haven't done systematic sampling of what's there but when I've gone through I find them they're just kind of vacant uh cement alleyways um for people on their way to Chico and so forth. So I question some of the assumptions behind this design. However lovely the watercolor is

I'm sorry understood. I'm not sure was a question. I I don't think that I don't think you were making you were making a statement on it. The agenda question would be have you looked at is there any data that could speak to the performance of that space for example how well it's utilized by visitors town with specific regards to the the walkway that I mentioned. Yeah. some of those. So, so I'm not sure about our mark, but honestly,

where we we we looked at that was an opportunity as an opportunity as opposed to uh a tool, if you will, to to link the two. It's an opportunity to create space. There's a link between the two right now, and it's a uh opportunity that we have to improve that. That's what we're doing. And there's a walk down there right now. Did I see another hand in the back? Yes.

Nicholas Stevenson from Oho. Um not really a question but just to say there are two fantastic garden clubs in um Bedford that are really great worth approaching and we work very closely with them. Um I also not sure um but it was really interesting to hear your presentation earlier about the wetlands and I'd love personally and I'm sure this is not the moment but to hear about the water plan from Bill um because the town is under enormous pressure at the moment and we're living in a very real um very damaging to the environment situation with the wetlands and I think this building however it ends up looking which I'm quite sure the town will find a way to make it look amazing. Um, that's a very real environmental issue and I think this could be an fantastically elegant situation to help him with that. Um, but I would really encourage you to work with Clayton and he's got an amazing team and without them we would not have ended up with our location. So, that was just a couple of things, not really a question, but my question is I'd love to hear a little bit about um the water issue because I think you're solving a big town issue there with this project.

Can I add to that before you answer? It's just will there be any opportunity when the advanced water treatment um for this building and possibly the school are made for other buildings in downtown Bedford Village to tie in? That's a good question, but we we're we're not I I'm not saying that we haven't answered that. I just it might really again help with the vitalization. Yeah, of the I think I think that's another topic that should be discussed pro possibly next. Yeah. No, no, I'm just throwing it up. Yeah,

I have a question first with regard to a referral to the Bedford Village Historic District Commission. How do we want to handle something like that? Um, I I believe I there's no one from the commission here tonight. Ah, what it seems to me that that what we've done in the past is ask you to take a look at it informally, not not giving an application yet, but asking for an informal discussion. Is that

typically we haven't done that? My understanding is there's no need to do that. And so I think that um rather than having just an application project

and that's what this we can't reach a decision point anyway because we haven't completed secrets, right? conceptual discussion would be perfect. Yeah. No, I think that that's and is there a timet in front of you or it's just available? Okay. Is there a good Okay. Thank you. And we've done this that the Kona Historic District Commission has done this. Just let me know available dates and I'll work it out with my Well, I think I'm not going to know the available dates.

No, the chair will probably notify planning department or something. We'll figure it out. Um, Jessica, do you have something to add? I just see Jessica's hand go up. Sure. I would just like to offer the board that I would be happy to put together correspondence that formally addresses the request that your board just made, Madam Chair, um, and circulate that to the Bedford Village Historic District Review Commission as well as sharing that with the applicants so that we can find an available date. But again, my office is happy to take care of that. I think that would be great and I think this is a a paper trail. Thank you. Okay. And um would you like to hear from Are

we done with talking about the design for the time being? Does anybody else have anything else to add? Yes. I actually a request um with the next time that uh could you the microphone? I know it sounds silly but when but a lot of people do watch these.

Absolutely. I'm Sinclair Kennedy Null U resident. Again, I have a request for the next time that um it was brought up that this drawing should be expanded. It is a beautiful drawing and it is from perspective. I would like something um closer to a a storefront elevation so we could see not so we're not looking all the way down at the angle to see those houses, but something we could see face on to understand how the size of these proposed buildings as well as out of the playhouse and their relative proximity. I think it's about 5 ft from the border of the adjacent property. I think that would be something that could help us all envision what this would look like more realistically.

I think for I think those are good suggestions. I think for the time being we'll leave it to the historic district commission for to come up with what they think needs to be done as the next step. But something like that makes a lot of sense. We have Mr. Johannes from KC CJ here to talk about storm water if you'd like to hear about that. I think storm water might be a Madam Chair if I may interrupt for just a moment. You you do have one comment that came in the question and answer section of uh tonight's meeting.

I don't know if we could have that share on the screen so you could see it, but otherwise I could have it read out loud. Um but I did just want to acknowledge for the record that there was a comment made. Okay. Could would you the rendering makes it look like the building closest to the playhouse will be less than two parking spaces wide. That doesn't seem at all right was the comment. Thank you.

But uh as was covered in the presentation, clearly these are segments of a single building that have been designed in a way that they look distinct. So I I think the comment is really about that first brick, the white brick portion of the building. Perhaps the commenter wasn't aware. Good evening uh board Yan Johannes uh KSCJ Consulting the civil uh engineers and planners on the project. Um we provided a uh a brief description um of what you can expect uh the storm water design and as you know uh we're really just at the conceptual phases here.

We're scoping out a part three EF. The plans that we have are somewhat conceptual in nature. We're obviously going to expand uh as the project uh continues and the design um unfolds. So I think that the the level of detail that you you have before you is kind of appropriate for where we are in the process knowing that that process is going to continue and the the drawings will become um more detailed in the future. Um just to note the uh the drawing uh in front of you now on the screen is the most up to date. Uh it does show the proposed location of the uh wastewater treatment plant in the northern corner. Uh that was uh modified. Uh it had been approximately here. We thought that that was too prominent a location. So we tucked it uh into the corner of the parking. It's going to be a barn like structure. Um, so that that was an inconsistency between our drawing and the architect's drawing, but this is the most up-to-date and was uh kind of a cognizant uh decision to try to get that building out of the way. From a stormwater perspective, you're aware that we're going to trigger um preparation of a storm water pollution prevention plan as we're over 5,000 square ft of land disturbance. We're just under two acres of land disturbance. So, our storm water pollution prevention plan's going to be um prepared to mitigate up to the 100red-year storm event. Um we have done some preliminary soil testing on the property for um determination of adequate soils for uh storm water mitigation and uh we've identified preliminarily locations underneath the parking lot for um storm water infiltration and storm water detention. Um, we are also looking into the

possibility of uh pvious pavement as an option. Um, but that will all unfold during the uh the preparation of the SWIP and uh the preparation of our our grading and engineering plans. But uh we'll have to comply with the New York State DEC storm water regulations, the town of Befford storm water regulations. We're going to be held to a strict standard here. Um, so we fully expect that the SWIP will be a requirement in the part three. Um, and we'll be prepared to include that and work with your town engineer uh to ensure that our design is meeting the standard of both the town and the state.

Okay. Thank you. Any questions on the storm water or I

are there are there any questions from members of the audience on storm water issues? Yes. So I am curious. So that these blue rectangles here are outlined not in the legend um but they're outlined with a call out that says um storm water infiltration area. I'm curious if I know we're just in the beginning planning of the S SW triple P, but if we could if you know um we could talk a bit more about what these systems would look like and kind of in I in a conceptual understanding of the grading and how the water would be trans transported to these systems. Um I know there was talk about per uh porous pavement but I don't see it noted here. um how it would be directed to these capture systems and not directly to the neighboring property which we can see is is right up abuing that roadway that's proposed um or towards the wetland behind it.

We're aware of all these constraints. This is conceptual plan. We're going to be prep preparing a full grading plan and storm water pollution prevention plan as part of the part three EF. Uh those details are not available uh tonight um because they haven't been designed. Sure. Um but we're fully aware of the requirements of the state and the town and uh we'll we'll comply. Thank you. My my question if I is is more so like I I understand we're still at a very conceptual part of the process but it seems like we are continuing to move forward and forward and forward

and but this is a crucial part of the system as a whole. How do we manage runoff with increasingly we're talking about a 100redyear storm, but if we were to uh design for a 10-year storm that has actually a higher peak flow rate um based off of the duration of the storm. So, I'm just asking if if from the engineers's perspective if this could be elaborated upon. I don't think this is asking too much to be discussed for at this time. I I I think what what he's saying is is he can't elaborate on it at this moment in time, but certainly can later as as the design develops.

Excuse. Yeah. The whole purpose of tonight, if I can, is to identify what is to be studied in part three. It's we're we're developing a table of contents for what we're to evaluate. So those evaluations have not taken place yet. So your comment is noted. We're gonna have to do everything that you just said and it's and if the answer isn't there when they've done the studies then we'll insist that it is

because it hasn't been designed. You can understand I think I just I I I push on this point because um I I work in Manhattan so attending these meetings is difficult for me particularly at 7:00. Um so I I would just like a bit of personal um clarification on this. Uh I understand that we're still you know in the baby steps of the process and the design but this again I would emphasize is is critical to the design itself

and I think because it's as critical as it is and and around here storm water management is actually one of the most critical issues that we do deal with um I'm hesitant to push any of the engineers to to the point of saying come up with it off the top of your head. Well, I I I as an engineer myself, I don't think it would be. I mean, I I could off the top of my head propose, well, you start to slope the grades for I'm not comfortable asking someone to do that, which is why I was asking it.

We're still multiple steps away from any sort of approval. So, again, this is for us to be able to source the comments. Your comments are well heard. The team is going to, you know, take it back. So the purpose is to really understand where there are concerns, what work needs to get done, what we need to modify or change or how we can get it to be approved. Um we are nowhere near the place to put a vote on the project. All right, I understand. Thank you. Yeah. Yes.

Uh Veronica Cernados, resident of the farms. Um, so just to that point because I think this brings up a broader issue about our 2030 commitments and looking at the environment and you know when you know his generation starts to reby houses here and have kids and then their kids start to have kids, we want to make sure we've been good stewards of the land and that we haven't put industry ahead of the planet. So to that end, I'm just wondering what your sort of environmental and climate strategy is in your building proposal and how you're looking at this. Okay, that's that's a a good comment to to save for again we're trying to to um keep this to to specific topics. What I'll do at the end of what we're going to accomplish this I'm sorry. Go ahead. What I'll do at the end of the the larger topics that we think we can cover tonight is ask if there if people want to give us topics that we should be covering the next time round.

I was just going to take that. Yeah. Thank you. Otherwise, we're going to lose track of the points that we're we're trying to make and cover and make sure that we do cover what are some of the most important issues that we have to talk about. Just to Veronica's point, um the the new uh stormwater pollution prevention plan requirements and state uh DEC regulations now require all SWIPS um to address climate change and climate resiliency. So those that item will is required um now to to be addressed and we'll do that as part of this. I think if I understood what you were asking, you were actually going beyond that to other parts of the project as well, which I think is a perfectly legitimate question. But

just to reiterate a point you made at the top of the meeting, Madam Chairperson, what we're doing is establishing a table of contents of what's to be studied with more detail. So, you know, there's no this is not the the last word on any of these topics. It's outlining what we need to study more based upon your direction and input from the public. Precisely. Thank you. Can I ask one question? It's really more about plans. On your plan, you're showing the entrance to the underside of the building parking wise. Yeah. I presume that there's parking still underneath this building. There is. Yes. There seems to be a discrepancy between architectural and your plan.

Yeah. The the plans were a bit in flux. What what is before you on the screen is the most up-to-date plan with the side. There is parking underneath that building with the uh the entrance along the side of the building as opposed to the back. So, there's only one entrance and exit, correct? It's two-way. Still loading. Is there is there drop off loading? What's happening operationally with like the restaurant? Where are they going to receive? You're going to have to comment. We can provide a ground floor garage parking plan for you. But the current um thought is that that would be a side load side entry into the uh the garage. Okay.

Okay. I'm trying to do just a Go ahead. Um, have you thought about any sort of either solar or green roof, especially like on the flat roof parts like the white building? We're trying to stay on comments. Oh, I thought I'm sorry. I thought we were talking about design. That's Well, I I'm happy to not. It's fine. Let's just just hold on to You got it. If you wait till another time. I wasn't thinking of solar power as design. So I I was just thinking of it as design when you're designing the roofs and you're designing the strength of the side. Oh, okay. And so

I'm trying to keep this for an answer either. I'm just throwing it out there. Let's hold on to it for just a minute. In terms of larger topics, um would we want to move on to to the water issues and the discussion of wastewater? Wastewater. Well, we don't have Mr. Bride available tonight. Okay. We can have him here for the next meeting. Okay. You have his one-page memorandum. Yeah. And we'll he'll be available at the next meeting to expand upon that further.

Okay. because I think that's that's one of the things we really need to balance out ourselves. You know, usually we we will look at a septic in a a wetlands buffer and say, "Oh my god, what's but this is a different case and I think it needs to be talked about very carefully." Well, it's going to be designed to handle all that I said it will be able to handle at my earlier comments about this building, the Playhouse building, the banks building, potentially the elementary school. Well, and and I I just want to make sure everybody realizes that there is a that there is a system in the in the buffer already.

And that's part of why it does make it it can potentially make make sense. and and one reason why we have to look at it very carefully because it's an unusual situation for us. We'll have Mr. Bright to be able to discuss that. I I dare not go into that area myself. So, is there another large topic that you're prepared to discuss or should I take this on to talking about listing the the smaller topics that we will be doing next time? That's that would be fine.

Okay. Um there has um I've just had a message from my director of planning that someone has put in the in the chat which I don't have access to um is has questions about lighting on the plan. Um lighting plan.

I I wouldn't think you I wouldn't expect that that you would but So, I'm talking about questions to be prepared to answer and discuss lighting. What What kind of lights will they be on 24 hours? For sure. Uh will will we be dealing with um something that violates the town's uh lighting lighting code or

Yeah, the the dark skies issue. Uh that's becoming a harder and harder one to keep track of. Um, the the number of times I I sometimes think that large spotlights are like rabbits multiplying. Every time you turn around, somebody's stuck another one somewhere. Um any other comments that uh members of the audience feel we need to to cover even if we don't have the experts here to cover tonight to make sure we have the people on hand to talk about them the next time we get together for this. anything in addition that that anyone on the Zoom thinks that we should cover. So it seems to me like possibly Okay, then then before we go further, you Diane, you wanted to bring up the the issue of solar panels. Now you can do it.

Okay. No, it's just to think about either solar panels or a green roof on the flat areas of the roof. Um, and I know that features into a design plan. So, I'm not going into the energy plan at the moment, but just to sort of think about that with the design.

Um, I had a thought and Mr. Kennedy had had a thought at the same time perhaps. um as we have done with the Bedford Village Historic Review Commission, historic district review commission to the same sort of um referral for concept discussion only happened with the WCC. That that I think might be a very good idea uh to to find out if they they would be prepared to have a a conference with wetlands. Perhaps we could Miss Young Bloodood could facilitate that as Miss Young Bloodood, do do you think? Yes, I will. No problem. Thank you kindly.

Didn't mean to volunteer you. Yes, no problem. Absolutely. It's my job. I think that um I think we may have done everything that we can accomplish for tonight. Then may may I put one small? Okay. Yes, you may.

To Mr. Chen first. I'm just wondering if we would want to study open space and recreational impacts. I I'm on the fence about it myself. Uh but one one could argue that the open space is used recreationally and for wildlife habitat to some extent currently. So I'm just I'm wondering if the other members of the board feel like that's something we should study. If not, that's fine just for discussion. I think it might be it's it it might be worth at least finding out what the what the situation is, whether it is used that way because I have to confess I don't know. Mhm. Yeah. Okay.

It's Yes.

Oh, that was a very welltimed comment. Uh, I would just like to echo on that a little bit. Um, and we're talking about, as I understand the phrase, a table of contents, and we get very quickly into detail about facades. Uh, so it's a little confusing to me. It's my first time at this meeting, these meetings that are on this topic. Uh, so I'm afraid the forest, so to speak, is lost for the trees. And I just like to say at this time, I'd like to quote Jacqueline Kennedy who said that in times of crisis, and I'm not implying Bedford is in a crisis, but to preserve is to create. And I would just like to see that assumption built more into these conversations. Whether it takes the form of considering alternatives for this space, perhaps it takes the form of a smaller scale for this project. This thing is built to the hilt, to the edge. And I question that and I wonder how much discussion has really been added to that and I'd like to see a return to that conversation. If it hasn't been returned, I'd like it addressed. I think that is a comment worth it worth addressing. So

uh Mr. Sessions, did you have a comment?

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, just I I heard you mention before that there might not be anything else that your board can do tonight. We were we were hoping that we could uh possibly start to touch on the the part two of the EAF so that we could have a formal or at least start a formal table of contents as it was referred to this evening so that um we can we can start to pull together some reports and know exactly what we need to study for the next time so that we're kind of not wasting you know wasting the next several weeks. Um, I'm a little bit puzzled because I thought that was what we were doing.

Um, oh, I'm sorry. It's it sounded like I thought you had said that there's nothing more that we can do. Well, we we were just getting a list of thing other comments for things to study and uh Okay. Okay. decided to uh put a call out to the wetlands control commission to get study of lights. Uh we've just had a question about um recreational uses, whether there are recreational uses, uh which is another part two question. Um N also mentioned habitat. Yeah, I mean that's that's that's the open space and recreation consideration.

So I think that's what we're doing. We just we're not doing it by taking the part two and reading each individual question on the part two. Uh partly because there are a number of questions on the part two that aren't relevant. We're trying to figure out the ones that are. Is there something in particular that you have a question about? No, no, no. I I I assume that we would we would take the part two tonight and literally do a checklist as to what we were addressing in the part three and what we weren't addressing in the part three uh specifically within the part two. That's that's that was my impression, but I

Okay. No, we're we're still collecting information on what people think is important. Okay. Okay. Any other comments? Can I add one? Yes, you may. Emergency services, now that the internal site movements have changed, will need to be updated. That's right. They've taken one look at it, but not only fire, not not only fire, but also ambulance.

Yeah. And uh somebody has their hand up. Is this a Jesse Juringa? Is that There's somebody with a raised hand. Uh if you'd like to speak I can't I don't have access to the Jesse, you can come off mute. Hi. Can you hear me? Okay. No, we can hear. Yes, we can hear you now.

Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Trying to get the Zoom working. I live right across the street at 6 uh 622 Old Post. So, um and I'm new to town, so very interesting. And I love all the comments. My questions were about sidewalks, lighting, um there were trees in the drawing, but there are power lines there as well. So, I wonder how that will work. And um the distance of the building from the road uh as compared to the playhouse, is that the same distance to the road as the playhouse is? Um so those are questions for later probably. But um

the distance to the road is an interesting one. Is is that one settled? Is the building lining up with the playhouse? So the trees we'll take a look at in the relationship to the power lines. But um yeah because there are power lines over that whole area. So trees would be great. So uh we're not sharing anymore but if you remember I was saying that we aligned our building new building with the back face of the playhouse meaning the face underneath the covered walk. So if you were at a retail storefront under the playhouse that's the line of our Okay.

Mhm. And then I think this has been covered in other meetings, but just pedestrian access. Um I think there I counted on the map there's uh about 45 houses within a uh half mile that are walking distance just like um more foot traffic, less cars. So So your suggestion is is thinking about sidewalks. I presume you mean the the town considering I think the town has plans for sidewalks under the Bedford uh 2030 comprehensive plan and there have been discussions with the Bedford Village Business Association and sidewalks and

and they've come up it comes up in the comprehensive plan as well as in Bedford 2030. So you know as as we get further along I'm sure there'll be interaction on the sidewalk point as to beginning and end points or continuation and end points. Okay. I think that's going to be part of the larger uh site plan issues. Yeah, there's already a sidewalk in the budget.

Yeah, there's a in the 2026 budget for the town. They've actually already hired um a consultant. They've been thinking about and to put a sidewalk to Guardill and actually this project would work really well. with the design of of something that already has been shown to continue the sidewalk that you have in front of the playhouse directly in front of this building. As it's been said by Calin, it's a wider sidewalk because it goes it's set back from the front of the the playhouse's current building. And then you would only have to go a little bit further. And they show because it's a 500 ft um DOT rule between crosswalks that then you could cross over to the other side of 22 and that's where the sidewalk could pick up to go all the way to Guard Hill because if everybody knows the area, it'd be very difficult and very dangerous and to try to put the sidewalk right now that comes from the old Joseph Aboud and go right across that front um cross of the arcade parking lot. then in front of that brick wall in front of the arcade building. Then in front of the other entry from the arcade building, then in front of Tarlton uh and the thing. So, and then that big ditch that's here that So, um this actually there's already a design out there that there was a um a letter from the Bedford Business um Bedford Village Business Association, co-signed by the Bedford Historical Society, which went to your planning board. This is about a year and a half ago. went to your planning board, went to the town board, went to our DPW head, went to our planning director and and uh supervisor

um with this thought in mind. So, this actually works really well with what they were thinking already and in narrowing the streets coming in to slow down the traffic to talk about what Jared was talking about earlier to try to send the other traffic the GPS's and the ways that use those algorithms to figure out where to go if you can slow the traffic coming through. So, the town's looking at a lot of these things right now anyway, and this works really well in conjunction with what the town's already doing with walkability and and sidewalks. Yeah. Thank you.

Okay. Any other comments, questions, requests? Could I have a motion to adjourn the public hearing uh potentially until our April meeting? So, moved. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All in favor of adjourning the public hearing until our next meeting. I. All opposed. And I don't believe there's anything else for us to do tonight. So, could I have a motion to close this meeting? Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I.

All opposed. The meeting is regularly scheduled.