Planning Board - Regular Meeting

All right, welcome everyone to the Town of Rensselaer Planning Board meeting for August 6th, 2026. I'd like to kick off the meeting by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. So we've got a few agenda items tonight. Approval of the July 16th events. Virginia Carter Minor Subdivision and the Weaver-McArthur Historical Review. We're going to change those two up because there's nobody here for the other one. There's no point making it later than we discussed it. I appreciate that. All right. Has everyone had a chance to review? I'LL ACCEPT THE MOTION TO I'LL ACCEPT THE MOTION TO APPROVE THE MEETING MINUTES APPROVE THE MEETING MINUTES APPROVE THE MEETING MINUTES FROM JULY 16, 2026. FROM JULY 16, 2026. FROM JULY 16, 2026. MOTION BY COUNCIL. MOTION BY COUNCIL. MOTION BY COUNCIL.

SECOND BY TOWN.

SECOND BY TOWN. SECOND BY TOWN.

ALL IN. ALL IN. ALL IN.

ALL IN. ALL IN. ALL IN. ALL IN. ALL IN. ALL IN. ALL IN. ALL IN. Okay, so now we will jump to the Weaver MacArthur historical review. So if you want to give us a rundown of what you're doing.

Oh, well, she had a bunch of stonework done on the house and now she needs handrails put up. So I proposed to her to do a two by two steel post with a two by three top rail. And then she wanted to use cable as the railing or the dividers, four inches apart. It's all in black. It's on the side of the house. Yeah, other than that, I'm not sure what, I mean, I did a kind of a drawing of what it looked like. Okay.

So she has, there's a set of stairs going up to a platform.

It's next to the house, between two houses.

So it'd be two van rails going up and then an outlined van rail

YOU KNOW, FOR SAFETY PURPOSES.

OKAY. SO IF YOU LOOKED AT THE PICTURES, I WASN'T HERE AT THE MEETING LAST NIGHT.

I HAD JUST CONCERNS ABOUT THE HISTORICAL ACCURACY. IT LOOKS NICE. LIKE, I HAVE NO QUOMS ABOUT THE APPEARANCE. IT'S JUST WE'RE TRYING TO FIT IT INTO HISTORICAL APPROPRIATENESS OF THE HAMLET. And my concern is that I feel that that's a wire or like seal in between doesn't fit the historical character of the surrounding homes or neighbors.

Yeah, I'm kind of curious about that because I do see a lot of that around town. There's a lot of cable type rails around. So I'm just not sure. I thought it was like the facade of the front was the issue. and not like next to the you know in between houses or if i do see a lot of things going on in town i wonder how historical they are maybe i don't know if it doesn't make it to us is the difference right we don't know about it so the the reason we decided to do this was the black uh it's a two by three top handrail and a two-by-two post, which would be kind of something you would see historically, not wrought iron, obviously, steel. And then just the cable, which is every four inches. So it's kind of like a, you don't really see it. You can almost, you look through it. But I don't know what else we could do to, Sure, maybe I'm just gonna read the appropriateness.

Just to center everyone's thinking about why we're even here. So in determining the historical appropriateness, planning board's determination shall be based upon following principles, properties that continue to the character of the historic district contribute to the character of the historic district shall be retained and preserved and historic features altered as little as possible Alterations shall be compatible with the property's historic characters, as well as the surrounding district. New construction shall be compatible with the district in which it is located. New construction shall not have a negative impact on the physical condition of the existing historic structure. And the planning board is supposed to consider the following. General design character and appropriateness to the property the proposed alteration construction or materials the scale of the alteration or construction in relation to the property itself surrounding properties in the neighborhood the texture materials and their relation to features of other properties in the neighborhood and the visual harmony with surrounding properties including proportion of the facade proportion and arrangement of windows and other openings within the facade and the importance of historic architectural or other features of significance. So you are doing a bit of a scale analysis. How much does this proposed alteration relate to the property as a whole? How much of an impact does that have as compared to the windows, something like that? It's not cut and dry, it's more of a balancing test here for the board. And this is a subjective

It's not going to be something that you would walk by and be like, oh my God, look at this thing.

It's pretty... kind of almost hidden. I mean, you're not going to see, it's going to be black, satin black, and it's going to kind of look like something you would see that could have been original, other than the cable part.

And just to clarify, I think that last meeting, I'm trying to think how long it was. Tim, I think, mentioned that there was windows.

All right, so yes, I want to bring that up. So there are three, I guess it used to be some kind of a storefront, this house. And there's three windows, like I call them eyebrow windows. They just want me to take them out. They're going to have them repaired and put them back in. So they're not being, right, just repaired because they need to be repaired. So, yeah, they're going to be the same exact window, just repaired, put back in. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, as far as the front facade, there's no changes. It was just this is on the side of the house where they had a lot of stonework done, and now they need handrails, something that would kind of go with.

So when we were looking at the photographs last week, there was kind of two versions, one with the cable like you described, and there was another grid looking. It looked like wrought iron.

That was something she had thought about using like a 4x4. Squares.

She decided not to do that.

I can show you. This is kind of what we're, she's looking at. This is her friend. She sent me this picture. But it's, so it's going to be something like, you know, there's two by twos, two by three and a half, and then almost see through. That's one picture. You see, she has some problems.

So this is out, this solution.

So sort of right here, this is actually her patio. I'll show everybody. She did this on.

That's the grids.

But the posts aren't quite that big. Yes, and that's the grid, but that's kind of the way out. This is with the grid, but she didn't sign up. So that's actually her patio, but this is with the grid and she decided to use cable. And then because the angles are all screwed up, you can't let go by that off the line. So it's going to be fabricated on site, welded in. Yeah.

Is there anything about... I looked through our book.

I didn't see anything. Nothing about design elements.

Yeah, just code as far as height. And you would have to still move all of those. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

So what are the board's thoughts after asking questions? I'm not sure the law is tight enough to prevent the cables.

I feel similar to what Anna described, that the cables are modern-looking in appearance. We've had concerns in the past because the description non-historical property is vague, but I think I know at least my initial response was this is not a fair enough spot.

So what would you?

Well, I didn't realize that when Tim was here last week, you know, obviously wood iron or, you know, the simple round, you know, up and across railings are the common for historical properties, but Tim indicated it needs to meet that four inch. Right, four inch. Yeah, that's the code.

We have to have no more than four inch, a four inch sphere. sphere cannot fit through.

So that's difficult. The only, the only thing I've seen that, you know, conceivably felt historic would be a wrought iron solution of some sort, maybe, you know, vertical.

I also, I took this picture out. Those aren't actually on my house. They're metal spindles.

Well, again, you can,

Well, the issue with like buying a prefab.

It's not square and level.

Yeah. Our corners aren't 45s, which in a perfect world, you know, you could do that. These would have to be modified. It's real difficult.

But these are just spindles. Like I wasn't thinking like a prefab.

Well, I mean, to do it fabricated on site, we'd have to weld in, you know, every four inches have to weld in some type of a divider.

That would look ridiculous.

What's that?

That would look ridiculous.

Well, this is kind of, it's kind of like a see-through thing almost. You probably won't even really notice that it's there other than the handrail and the spindles. Every six feet, I think, there are the two-by-two upgrades. And they would be mounted on a plate that you screw into the stonework that's there. I think... Visually, I think it's very kind of unnoticeable, really, but other than the two-by-threes and the two-by-twos. And it's on, like I said, it's on the side of the house, unless you're the neighbor.

And it's definitely not the grid, just so we can report that.

No, it's not the grid. No, it's the cable. Yeah, it's the cables. Yes. It's black.

NO. I THINK MAYBE TO COMPLETE THE FILE, DEPENDING ON WHERE WE GO WITH THIS, WE WANT AN ACCURATE IMAGE OF WHAT'S ACTUALLY GOING TO HAPPEN SO WE CAN PUT THAT IN THE FILE.

How difficult would that be for you to get something like that? As far as what? The cabling, like a more realistic of what the cabling is going to look like. Is there something the vendor has or something that you could get?

Yeah, I could get some more pictures. I mean, like I said, it's going to be fabricated on site.

Yeah, it just means like the file that we'd have wouldn't be accurate.

Yeah, that was like previous. She kind of sent that up here before I got involved.

But like when we were reviewing,

Yeah, and mine was just, I just drew a picture. Yeah, I think we have those. Yeah, that's just mine. Well, kind of like the picture, I didn't show everybody. And I could send it if. That's your drawing? So this is kind of where I got what you wanted. That sort of thing. But so it would be something like this. You could even do black.

It's something kind of creepy. No, that's what it would be.

I mean, it's... You can always condition it on...

And you're submitting these pictures for the file. Okay. So then we can complete it that way.

Okay. If you really want it historically correct, it doesn't have to be that high. Because historically, rails work as high as that.

Historically, there were no codes as far as, I mean, it probably wouldn't have any cable, just the rails. Yeah, we can't go backwards. No, well, no, right, no, of course, but. To be truly historically accurate.

So we're not really making it historically accurate, we're making it reasonably historically accurate. That goes, yeah, that kind of goes with the.

And I guess if we consider the color, it's black. Satin black, that's what. Yeah.

I MEAN, CONSIDER THE FACT THAT YOU WON'T SEE IT.

YOU KNOW, SHE HAD BEAUTIFUL STORM WORK THERE, TOO, THAT GOES WITH THE TOWN. I MEAN, IT'S BEAUTIFUL. I DON'T THINK THIS WILL TAKE AWAY FROM ANY OF THAT, BUT...

SO BEFORE WE DO ANYTHING ELSE, I THINK JUST DO A MOTION TO CLASSIFY IT AS TYPE TWO EXEMPT FROM REVIEW. OKAY.

IT'S UP TO MOTION TO CLASSIFY THIS EXEMPT AS TYPE TWO.

motion by air second by carol all in favor opposed none motion carried so how do we read it approved with the conditional so i think it would just be a motion to issue the certificate of historic appropriateness subject to the condition that the applicant supply an updated photograph of the materials to be installed okay

I'll now accept a motion for the reason stated in the historical appropriate town law that we approve conditionally on the view giving us information back, final mapping for the install fabricated handrail system, repair the windows, reinstall as original located at 5046 County Route 353, Nashville, New York 12147. All in favor say aye. I'll make a motion. Motion by Adam. Second by Dominic. All in favor? Aye. Opposed, none.

Motion carried. So I just have to supply a similar, because I am fabricating it, just a similar picture of what?

The most accurate thing you can get. So when you put it in the file.

When it's completed, you can see a picture of that too. Yeah. Just so it's accurate. I could do it and send you a picture of it. OH, YEAH, I'LL FIND SOMETHING, YEAH. SO DO I HAVE TO COME BACK AGAIN? NO, YOU CAN JUST LEAVE IT ALONG. OKAY, THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT, WE'RE GOOD. ALL RIGHT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANK YOU. APPRECIATE IT.

GOOD NIGHT, EVERYBODY. GOOD NIGHT. ALL RIGHT, SO THE NEXT AGENDA ITEM IS THE FRED AND CARTER MINOR SUBDIVISION. So we don't have anybody here tonight. We have the sketch plan and the map. The applicant would like us to schedule a public hearing. I'm missing the application and the fee. So I'm not sure how the board feels about even, I'm not, wouldn't be comfortable scheduling it for the next meeting because to me it would look poor to do all that and then the next breath say, okay, now we're here for public hearing, even if that can be accomplished. Is anyone opposed to scheduling it in the first meeting of September, still where we are right now, we don't have to finish it. We'll just discuss it. I just want to schedule it, no.

Yeah, I know. Setting a precedent.

I don't want to come through with that as well. Yeah, no. We need a complete application.

I don't know what we would send to Albany County Planning Board tomorrow if we don't have a complete application.

I don't believe it is on a county road.

IT'S NOT. HE SPECIFICALLY REFERRED IT GOING TO THE COUNTY. SO SOMEBODY'S CONFUSED. IT'S ON BRYAN ROAD, I SEE THAT.

BRYAN ROAD AND THE BUTTERS, WHICH I PUT TOGETHER THIS AFTERNOON, IS BRYAN. YES.

SO THAT PRESERVE, I THINK, WOULD TRIGGER THE COUNTY REFERRAL.

WHAT IS IT NEXT TO?

HIGH PRESERVE. YEAH. SO THAT WOULD REQUIRE REFERRAL TO THE COUNTY.

And we don't have an application.

We don't have a subdivision application yet.

Is there a reason why?

I spoke to Jody. THIS AFTERNOON, AND HE SAID HE WAS WAITING ON A FEW POINTS BEFORE HE FINALIZED THAT, BUT HE WOULD HAVE THE SUBDIVISION APPLICATION COMPLETE NEXT WEEK.

SO IT MIGHT CHANGE FROM THIS? I GUESS WE CAN'T ASK THAT.

i would just have to come to the next meeting you know another thing is trying to schedule the public hearing you've got your when you send out the mailers trying to respond and even to come up with an opinion on what's happening versus just slam them so apparently all the adjoining landowners When you send a letter, you can have a point. Okay, so we want to just take a normal review of the map, just so we can give it, if something's missing, we can give it to Joey and give him a heads up. so i can read off you know just the criteria that everyone is looking at the name of all owners of the adjoining properties disclosed by the most recent municipal tax records the tax map sheet block a lot of numbers scale north arrow and total acreage involved the location and boundaries of the proposed subdivision in relation to municipal boundaries and heading within 500 feet of the property Contour lines with intervals of no more than 20 feet. The proposed layout, including the appropriate dimensions and area blocks in the proposed layouts of streets. Location and identification of streets and significant natural features, for example, water bodies, steep slopes, wetlands, 15% prime farmland soils, soils of statewide importance, Significant single tree or significant stand of trees or wooded areas, as well as any historical resources for designated historical structures, sites, or districts. Existing permanent structures and utilities, if any. All existing restrictions on use of the lands in question, including easements, covenants, and current zoning classifications. The description of the proposed street layout, recreational areas, and system of drainage, sewage, and water supply within the subdivided area. The description of building types and approximate location within a building envelope. Locations and designations of zoning districts of any overlay districts that pertain to any parcel. Such features as the applicant making pertinent. We don't know what the plan is because we can't answer in terms of where if we're putting something on the property which there isn't anything now. I went back and in previous times we said that we needed it but they weren't bound by it.

Which one was this?

So when they subdivide this out Oh, you know, in fact, there's some previous meetings, and even though the applicant wasn't sure where it was going, we wanted them to say, okay, if you were doing it now, what would you do? And then when it wasn't banned, it could be changed. You just need to show it, put it on there to show it's possible. So that's not, and then I think that was your point then was, yes, it's possible to put it on there.

You approve all your setbacks and so on and so forth. You're not bound to that exact. location, but you're showing it's at least a billable plot.

So we need to communicate that to Jody so that they can talk to the landowner so they can get that on the map for the next meeting. Does anyone else see anything that's missing?

Well, confirmation that there's no existing structures on it too.

Okay.

Because if there are, they're missing from

BETWEEN WHICH I'M SURE THERE'S NOT THERE'S NOT THERE'S NOT THAT PIECE BECAUSE THE ROAD FRONTS ARE COUNTING BOTH PIECES HERE CAN SOMEBODY ASK THE QUESTION WHAT WAS THE COUNTY INVOLVEMENT THANK YOU BECAUSE IT'S NEXT TO THE HIGH PRESERVE OKAY THAT'S PRIVATE WELL IT'S A PRESERVED LAND WHICH REQUIRES IT TO GET REFERRED TO THE COUNTY BECAUSE IT'S A Because it doesn't go near any county roads. The road front, they're adding up both pieces. Is there enough there between the two? I would assume that you have a little bit in the top left corner and then you've got the bottom right corner. So between the two of them, is there enough road product?

That's a question for Tim, obviously, but that was a discussion between him and the applicant, whether there was enough road funds at first. afghan was told they needed a variance for that reason then the requirements of it didn't be one because it did there's no requirement that the road front be contiguous like that i don't know what it adds up to okay i mean if it's on there that might be a good point for us to confirm i have to it might be on here somewhere the minimum

Looks like the top is 133 and the bottom one is 175 feet.

I don't know because there's a bunch of different measurements on the bottom. 133, 55. 162.

So I don't know what the... Which line is...

IT PROBABLY IS BECAUSE THE SCALE IS ONE INCH IS 200 FEET, BUT UP HERE THEY WOULD HAVE ENOUGH THEN BASED OFF THE SCALE. WHAT'S THE RECORD? I BELIEVE IT'S 250. DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU ARE.

Should be in front somewhere actually. We've got over 250 on the one lot, so that's a lot and I don't know.

What's it zone?

It is zoned RC1.

RC1, private town road, single-family dwelling. It's 300 feet. How much? 300. 300 feet? You're right. 300 foot. But that's 15 acres, too, in RC1. What page are you on?

30 feet.

Over half that property is fields, and the back half is wooded. But one lot would be primarily fields. I think there's enough there where you could do something. Was it 75 acres total or something? The total acreage, I think it is 75. 75. 75 and 75.46. You can see what it looks like from an aerial. And that's it right now.

Yeah, that little piece of this one right here.

The little pieces are you?

Yeah, I mean that was the discussion with him and then we're getting into so I. He told me that it was said that they met the requirement because at first he referred them to the zone board. or this, and then said, no, you need to go in front of them. So we can confirm it, but I know that was the substance of their discussion.

So the next meeting, I mean, that's . For sure. Okay. So anything else that comes out that we can communicate with?

any confirmation that there is no existence while it was there, but it sounds like it's not.

Just a typo note on Tim's letter, it had the wrong lot number. It says 13818 instead of 136. But it's not all in that community. Okay. All right, this is our agenda item, so I will now accept the motion to

TO ADJOURN OR BE AYE?

I MAKE A MOTION.

YOU MAKE A MOTION RIGHT NOW?

SURE.

ALL IN FAVOR? ALL IN FAVOR? AYE.

ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR?

AYE.

ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR?

AYE.

ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR?

AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR?

AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ALL IN FAVOR? A Yeah.