Planning Board - Regular Meeting

yeah everyone like to call an order to of the um this meeting of the um planning board Village of Cold Spring um we only have uh one item on today's agenda uh but would anyone like to add or modify uh any agenda items today no not me no thank you okay cool uh all right let's move on to the main topic and maybe we can speed our way through this depending on how the conversation goes um so um all right so I shared a draft of both like something that tried to be a consolidation of of like the kind of what I thought were like the biggest shared concerns that the group had uh it was only a draft um if I miss things or uh you know that doesn't mean that I think they shouldn't be in there it's just that I had I had to make some editorial calls to for length and and um kind of coherent narrative um Jonathan gave me some feedback uh since I sent it about um I was trying to kind of I was basically trying to create some kind of argument for like us being um more deeply involved in and and in shaping uh in shaping the the structure of certain parts of the plan in ways that we are more used to where we where we have some ability to say like look we're not going to we're not going to improve this plan in with these details in place because you could do it a different way and we think that would be better for the Village um and so I think

there some of the some of the parts that are uh trying to walk in that direction are uh probably like on uh Jonathan provided edits that kind of takes takes some of them out only because our I think that like and maybe Jonathan this would be helpful for the group for you to kind of like describe in your mind kind of where the where the planning board sits right now with respect to this process and and um it sounds like it's it is we're in we're not out but we're not in and there's questions about whether or not our participation in the comment period can bring a bring light to uh concerns that the state might decide do in fact Merit our involvement so I think that like is that is that a fair summary of of of your of your kind of yeah on it yeah I think the it's kind of fair to say that at this point the planning board's role in the overall project is still unknown um the village and Andor the planning board may have some kind of role in issuing approvals in the future but we're just not sure yet obviously the planning board is not the lead Agency for purposes of secer so you don't definitely don't get as much of a say there as you normally would but whether you could be granting some kind of site plan approval in the future for improvements in the village it's possible but um it that may not come before you guys because the state has the power to uh exempt itself from things like site plan approval yeah do you feel like with just with respect to that that comment that or that that thread that's in there I mostly find pulling out the things you are just pulling out which are like the stronger assertions about

what role we are in or yeah or that we might play but I'm curious like given that it's undecided do you think it is a bad idea or inappropriate to suggest or to to say that we feel like um providing more direct oversight on these Ma on the matters that we highlight here is critical to the to the success so like it kind of pulls back it pulls back the strong the the assertions of kind of the where we sit but saying like look we think we think given all this we should actually the state should recognize this is that okay to leave in yeah yeah I think so and I think specifically if you want you could say that as a local agency the planning board is the best equipped to to make some of these decisions and guide the project uh okay in the village okay thanks um okay um all right I will does Jonathan have a or maybe you Jesse know how this plays out after March for it um I do not off the top of my head uh this is still a a draft uh dgis and um it's kind of uh rare for um me and my work to to come across these things so I would have to to check the regs and see what the the next step in the process is but um eventually it will be turned into a final environmental impact statement uh that serves as the the secret document so if the train uh if Metro

North uh want objects to their water Side Access to tracks uh being permanently uh disabled when when in the process do they make that not I think that would be somewhere further down the line um kind of like you know if you guys are have any kind of site plan review R site plan review powers that would be something further down the line for them but Metro North is either a I don't know actually if they're a state agency or if they're an agency of New York City but either way there's there will be some kind of complicated interplay there as well but that's not by March 4 that's yeah oh okay yeah really the the purpose of Seeker is to look at like the worst case scenario of impacts so this is just out there mr&r is not gonna have I mean I guess they might have a broad stroked opinion but my guess is they care a lot about the specific iics of of the overwater connector which you know as we noted there's not a lot in the plan as it stands um okay so uh I tried to include the like I said the biggest shared concerns I think the first thing I want to confirm just to like make sure we're like broadly on target with this cuz like we still have a lot of editing to do and you know want to tighten up the language and and all that other stuff but I want to I think that the best thing we can do while we're all together is is there content wise is there anything important that I missed um either either broadly or

specifically and is there anything I included that folks don't want in there so those are two questions to the to the group well I'll start with the I think that we just basically touch on one of the biggest concerns that I have and I think that it's in the purview of the planning board is that we talk about trash receptacles are going to be overflowing there's no talk of any um any funding for the village with the extensive um you know visitors that are supposedly coming through I think it is fair for us to demand that they have some sort of uh plan in place for us to be able to to to deal with these w w with the excess visitors that going up coming in not just on the trail but as we get it in our village you know because that's going to be something that's impacted so I think that you know that there has to be some sort of you know we can't make them pay for Village services but we have to make them keenly aware that our budget is not going to be able to handle the flow that they expect coming through our village based on this doc side um beginning and even their their literature says that they're going to have you know that they are not going to be responsible for anything off of the path and that's going to be our responsibility so you know as a planning board you know trash and and and things are underneath our purview I think that that's something that that we might want to address a little be a little bit more Stern about that yeah um John do you happen to know the any of the details of the current arrangement I know that the that at some point The Village agreed to manage trash for do side park uh and I wouldn't say it's been a

smashing success I mean if you ever go to the dock side on the weekends their trash is often overflowing um is that something that we could suggest need that relationship needs to be or that that that needs to be renegotiated in in the context of of this deal because of added financial and logistical pressures yeah I think so I mean fiscal impacts are definitely something that secra looks at so uh I think you could mention it uh at least in Broad strr okay thank you that's that's basically it from my my view on yes a couple of things uh one is uh thank you for doing the work put that out there um the um uh I didn't see a mention about uh a lack of information on the shuttle uh van situation um so yeah yeah that one was um I uh that one was kind I was kind of on the fence about not not that I disagree with the critique but just trying to figure out whe I wasn't sure um the general critique of that the thrust of that of that critique is that there's not enough detail there's not enough detail to to kind of reassure that it's going to have the intended impact yeah um you know whether or not there's just going to be this endless line of

buses uh going up and down the streets I forwarded I think to everybody this RFP um that was uh early sometime today yeah and um that was actually rather big um but the sort of the gist of it was the their their idea on their so the RFP is much more detailed than the uh than the environmental impact study and which basically said I think to be determined the RP talked about you know the actual type of Van uh the frequency at uh they they're thinking like a 15 passenger Sprinter van at peak hour 10 every 10 minutes kind of thing so they they have expressed in writing more detail than what's in the Eis well I'm curious um this is something that I that I I now remember why so I think with without without I was struggling to include anything involve documents that weren't the D dgis um because I felt like they might referencing them might weaken arguments about the critique of the plan because we don't know how we don't know how like exactly the context yeah I don't have a problem with that I guess my thought is is that the uh to be determined um wasn't sufficient

okay um yeah I think that is I think that can probably be maybe that can be um I'm trying to think if it if it deserves its own if its own kind of section to discuss or if it can be kind of lumped in with traffic mitigation or or I guess it's not really traffic mitigation is it it's it's like it it really only serves uh people doing people doing public transit and saving them from using what is it it it would oh it's traffic that doesn't exist now I think that's it's an additional um burden an additional set I'm just trying to just trying to think about like who the um who the buses are going to be servicing they're going to be servicing people who are arriving on train but want to kind of Leap Frog to other parts of the trail right okay um and maybe people that are in a parking lot that want to come into the village but don't want to move their car that's fair vice versa they took be at Washburn right yeah yeah and just that the E left it very nebulous and obviously they have given it more thought than nebulous all right I I'll see they don't need to be told that they that we know they've been they've given them more thought it's just yeah it's insufficient

yeah okay uh the another one for me um bottom of the third page um about the Alternatives yeah the alignment Alternatives um you know I I don't to me the Alternatives uh having been involved in the data Review Committee yeah um have always since day one have annoyed me as red herrings they never really were options um I think they I don't know why they didn't why they weren't willing to just say it's dock side or nothing but uh nothing else makes them happy I I just I know that so them yeah to them there are oh can you hear us Jesse can you hear us Jonathan can you hear us I can hear you guys I'm gonna fil my video all right Jesse can you hear us now I think it's my it's my I'm on the hotel Wi-Fi I can hear you I um everyone's video is frozen so that's that's the that's when you want VC money huh you get the hunky guy so you're G to leave us with that so you can hear us yeah okay did you miss a bunch I'm gonna try to I might I might have to reconnect um you might we we'll try this for now

um so I mean I'm instead of asking you what you heard I'll just you know the Alternatives in their world actually I'm I'm just going to I'm going to reconnect I'll be right back okay does anybody know if the village has a decible limit yeah York City is 100 I don't know what well yeah I mean I looked it up because I had a neighbor that runs like two Z flowers simultaneously oh yeah and they and they get the standing wave W thing so I looked it up it it's pretty high to me what is it oh it's no I mean it's like 90 DB or something so so this is this is what I'm thinking they said 90 DB right yeah it's not going to be 90 to be it's going to be over 100 but well there are also hours um where they can make the you got to look it up it's it's and then Lawn Equipment had was like tempted and that really but I do think it's it's it's late in the evening and through yeah you can make too much noise yeah you should get in one of the battery operator no he runs he's got his own lawn business and so yeah no sorry the Wall Street yeah yeah that's true all right you back yeah um that seems like it worked uh I switched to my

phone um sorry so we were see we were talking about um alternatives Alternatives right right right right you were saying the alternative route as not being an option in their minds from when yeah I'm I'm curious [Music] like this this again gets a little bit to like the dynamic with a reviewing body whether it's us or somebody else like they're supposed to have I think they're supposed to have alternative that's why that's why they included them uh and I think that um any reviewing body can ask them to more seriously consider one of them even even if the developer has decided in their head that there's no that they're just like not interested in doing them like at the end of the day if it's you know like imagine let's let's recast it as like uh just another planning board application that we have and there's a couple ways a developer could could move forward and they have the one that they want and we probe like oh you know have you thought about X you thought about y it's like yeah consider that you know not really that interested but we feel like it's actually a much better instantiation for the like of the project uh from the village perspective like correct me if I'm wrong Jonathan but I think that in that scenario we could say like look this is a perfectly valid alternative and you're not doing it and as a result we're denying your application uh and uh and because you can't give a you can't give a good reason other than it's not the one you wanted yeah the cursor oh sorry well so they they sort of do

have I mean like for Fair Street they go well we can't have it's not wide enough for multi-use and we we demand multi-use but 9d is too steep for ad a um and uh so it's you know it's doc side or we'll start in little Stony Point and uh so I I just I just throw it out there that I I mean I I see your point that uh part of this document is talking to others than just hhft and those people could go huh what about these other things and and I see validity in uh in having something out there for them yeah okay uh anything else that folks feel like needs to be in or out no not not really you know I mean a couple couple like comments about no not substance it's all other things 3M editor mistakes presumably uh speaking of one of the editor things just my name is the capital G I think I was looking at G how Gmail capitalized your your name yeah that's right just it's it's a small thing but that's yeah we we'll fix yeah but that's that's minor compared to everything else

and H do you have any well not really I would mention uh what is this what page is this this the third page when you mentioned the Cold Spring PD yeah I think you should specifically say it's the officer in charge not just OIC okay and above that you where it says traffic is too narrowly studied the next sentence is fair SL Main and Main moris I wonder if that should be m9d okay that's fine it's like it's like Chestnut on one side right yeah yeah yeah I always forget what's on the other side I'm just like oh I know Morris I forget the other one side has not um all right so um now Jesse we are we supposed to this is going to the first iteration aren't we submitting this to the trustees so that they are we that we're not um the same points is it is it going to be someone else taking a look at it for their edit before we send this through so the the the process I was because I sent it so late last night I didn't see any reason to send it to Ted before I talked to everyone um so I haven't sent it on to Ted probably what I'll do is I'll make some of the edits that we discussed tonight send that on to tedf just for his reference saying that it's the still draft we're not done but this is like you know 90% of what we'd like to say um and in terms of I think like that is the degree of coordin we need to do with the rest of the village Bo that's that's Ted's job is to try to provide

like The Villages RIT large response um but I do think we should feel you know we have a perspective and we can I feel like we can we can represent it specifically and without worrying about you know you know uh either disagreeing or or I we're we're intended to be an independent body and I I think it's valuable for us to to act as such here um and what I would like to do is once we get to the final version I will float to the mayor if she is interested in having us come having us come and and read the and basically read this at a at a trustee meeting just so that you know as an official kind of like the the final official document it's like you know the one that we vote on um saying like you know as a board we approve these comments with respect to the D dgis um that's the one that I would want to read um to the village board as a as kind of an official like we could just send it and Kathleen could read it or she could just you know just you know pass it around but I think there's probably some value in go going to them and in that Forum um kind of weighing in on what the planning board kind of included with no I agree with that you don't you want them to know beforehand what we're going to submit you don't necessarily want edits from them but you you know it's like a heads up this is what we're it's a heads up I think it's also an invitation that um the trustees may have questions about stuff that we wrote about you know stuff they didn't think about or stuff that they you know and that I think in the best version of the world like

everybody's got a different perspective on this thing because they they they fill a different function within the village and that um that hopefully our comments invite curiosity from folks so like oh and I didn't think about that or uh I'm thinking about that in a new way and um and or maybe they come back you know with some critique of our critique that makes us think about things in a new way way um but I think like it's okay it's okay if that happens like we should you're never gonna you're never gonna produce a perfect draft a prod a perfect document that anticipates every change a feeling you might have the best you can do is create a document that accurately reflects how you feel in that moment and with all the information that you have and I think that's what we're trying to do here and um so um so I think for me what's left in terms of getting us to that thing that we can vote on it sounds like we're we're not too far off I think I'm going to make these edits I I'll re I'll reshare uh a new draft but a thing that I could use everybody's help on is um uh fact checking me I I referenced a couple of numbers I referenced a couple of facts it would be we very bad for the board just from a credibility standpoint to say something incorrect in here so if you see something um and you and uh uh you can help run down a reference for it or um or you think you know it would be the you know including a reference would be would be helpful um uh let's go ahead and add it if you see anything that you think is incorrect or or or a little wrong um please please highlight it and let's

let's get it fixed so that we feel um that's but that's that's the probably the the thing I could use the most from from everybody's eyes is just you know edit editorial feedback of of uh on and and correctness and um the degree to which we kind of button it up on references that would also be useful um in terms of the final packet would be would be basically I'm imagining this commentary and then an appendix of all of our additional questions that we have um that uh that are um that we that we hope that uh that we'll get answers to so you want to have a additional document that states what we had all submitted should we go through that to edit that down as well or what I mean it seems I I a lot of stuff but some of yeah I'm not I'm not too too worried about I I will I will I'll composite that that's really just like kind of mindless data pushing around that's that's not nearly as hard as making this document because it was this was a synthesis task and not not just like a a copy paste and so um I will um I will get that uh ready for um sometime before when we when we have to approve I assume that for the most part everybody is fine with including whatever questions that everybody has like does anyone feel like their questions that they can imagine somebody asking that they're like don't ask that no I'm comfortable okay okay the the one um I think there is one thing we were discussing the deciel level and Henry had brought up because you you had left that sort of blank you wanted that's one of the things you need to fill in I find think yeah Henry thinks

that he saw was 90 DB but it but it's there are certain hours where it's allowed and and so I don't know if we you know they might come back and say during the construction time there is no limit to whatever it could be so it might be something that you might have to change the word what I'm saying if you're worried about the credability you might have to change the wording around a tiny bit on that okay that's fine yeah but I guess that's one of the things that we'll fact check for you and come back with it yeah that would be great sure yeah okay um I just wanted to I just want to make another if it's okay make a a comment yeah um on the very last page yeah um you say uh you WR you may feel that that's okay I might suggest that instead of okay acceptable you may think that's acceptable or it may be acceptable and your however but um I just thought okay could have been punched up a little bit okay that's all thank you um and really this is a lot of work so thank you this is very well tremendous word Smith um I still have I have a couple things I want to smooth out but I I'm I read it I read it in the light of day this morning I was like okay this is this turned out not not terrible so I uh I'm glad it it managed to survive um instead of the dark of night when you sent it yeah yeah yeah yeah um okay uh Jonathan were there any other like like bits of feedback you had besides what you the edits you made no not really I think that was uh the big thing just um making sure we're not under selling the the planning boards role okay

awesome that's all I have folks uh unless there's anything else um someone can make a motion to say send me a um a A playbook for Thursday yes I will send you a playbook for Thursday uh oh confirming uh someone we should confirm with Ben that he's available on Thursday because I think it has yeah because because I'm out and Kevin's out so I thought we had Hillary yeah just Che confirm today I'll send them an email okay all right cool and just remind me um Jesse what were we waiting on if anything from the applicant uh we asked for Clarity on the site plan in terms of use like there were like some questions about which of like uh there was like a hallway that had storage in it and a bathroom that was kind of marked as like not part of the use but it was like clearly not like you wouldn't be able to to kind of delineate the use given given where where it existed and then um what else we we were waiting for exterior lighting and trash did they show parking I know they have enough spaces but did they show it on what they they gave us I can't remember I thought we just oh we know you have plenty I think you guys did at least I did send them an email with a compilation of all the comments that you made and what you wanted to see in the future so they should have gotten that I know you asked to see um at least in the most updated version the trash

receptacles on like the survey or the site plan locations of that um the hours for the business the operation of business um but anything else they should have gotten in no right did they send did they send any updated materials believe so right yeah I don't see parking on the floor plan or the survey that they uh provided so we might still need something on that I couldn't get it on the Wi-Fi okay so I'm sorry to interrupt guys really quickly I have a survey with it says survey with lighting pen it has the existing dumpster location existing lamp post on the side entrance from North Street existing lighting fixtures and then the back lighting fixtures from Main Street um and it looks like they included the building space use map and it's like colorcoded so if you have any questions about that and then they have a letter about the business the purpose of the business and I believe it includes the days of operation as well as the hours in certain Seasons um all right it sounds like maybe we in our in our effusive Praise of their overabundance of parking space maybe we we weren't as clear about um still needing them to be explicitly list like U noted on the site plan so yeah they show the parking lot but it doesn't

have the spaces delineated so yeah they should do that but that I think if the board is ready on Thursday to approve um you could just make that a condition yeah but abig it might be worth it might be worth um reaching out and and asking them if they could um add phys add the physical spaces to the um to the um site to the uh survey I guess it's the survey it has the outside so yeah right just draw lines every nine feet or yeah I mean it doesn't take a lot yeah because they're gonna ask me how do I show them I think it's 9et is it a 9 feet I think so whatever is in the the code is what they should 9 by six or something something uh are there any other requests anything that you'd like to see no positive going once they seem very well organized yeah okay all right uh does anyone make a motion to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn the meeting I second a motion hi all right y