Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening, folks. Welcome to Townam Mount Pleasant Planet Board meeting regularly scheduled for February 5th, 2026, 7:30 p.m. First up, we have um we'll talk about the business items a little later in the meeting, but we do have number one proposed 790 Hartsk Road subdivision, one lot into two for the develop development one family dwelling that has been adjourned for tonight. So if you are here for 790 Hardscore Road, that has been adjourned. Um next up, Darius, did you

Yeah. So, um, Dary Chef, town attorney. Good evening, everyone. So, I understand there's been some comments and about the, uh, development on Sleepy Hollow Road 715. So, I'm here I understand there's some threats on both sides of the public about potential litigation. There's attorneys involved. So, I'd like to have a quick executive session with the board just to address some issues. Uh so the board is so inclined to have a motion to enter into the executive session for the potential litigation related to 7:15 CP Hollow Brook. Okay. Do we have a motion? I make that motion. Motion from John. I second it. Second from Steve. Walter.

I Jane. John. Hi. Eileen. I JD. I Steve I and I for me. Okay. So we are to move to there's could be some room we're moving to we can go into the compet searching by

the mic. I think kill

7:53 we have concluded the executive session. We'd like to entertain a motion to say we have re we've concluded that executive session. I'll make a motion that we've concluded the executive session. Motion from JD. Second. Second from Steve. Walter. I. Jane I. John. I. Eileen. I JD I Steve I

and an I for me. Okay, so we're back on a regular schedule program. First up, we have business items. Um those are items that we've reviewed in the past and they are they've had either the staff or um consultant do different things like make minutes or resolutions. So first up is minutes from the January 7th, 2026 planning board meeting. Any questions or comments on those minutes? Make a motion to approve those minutes. Motion from John. Second. Second from Jean. Walter. I. Jean. I. John. Hi. Eileen. I. JD. Hi. Steve. Hi.

And I for me. Okay. Next up is the adoption of resolution of approval for the for the legalization of of an existing accessory apartment on first floor of residence at 174 Arthur Avenue R10 zone Steve Thomas Herszburg. That's a resolution that we have reviewed that the consultant has drafted. We have reviewed and we now need to make a decision on that resolution. Uh I make a motion that we adopt that resolution. Motion from Eileen. I second it. Second from Steve. Walter. I. Jane. I. John. Hi. Eileen. I. JD. I. And Steve. I.

Okay. And finally, the last item for business items, adoption of resolution of approval for wetland application W24-04, 273 Lake View Avenue, Kentico Cemetery Habitat Restoration and the development of a recreational pathway for cemetery visitors within an approximate 5acre portion of the Kensico Cemetery parcel um R20 zone Kentico Cemetery. Okay. Any questions or comments on the Kensico Cemetery wetlands application? Make a motion to approve that resolution. Motion from JD. Second. John. Oh, John. Excuse me. I'll second the bill. John and JD. Walter. I Jane. I

John. Hi. Eileen. I JD. I Steve. I.

And I for me. Okay. Continuing application. And as a reminder, we stated at the beginning of the meeting, but we'll just state it one more time. Number one, proposed 790 Horsesco Road has been adjourned. So we'll go on to number two. Proposed Belleview Avenue lot 79, development of a single family dwelling with driveway yard areas water and sewer drainage and retaining walls improvements. Application steep slopes number SS2-14. Location vacant parcel Belleview Avenue, lot 79. Section block lot number is 106.18-3-79. Zone R10. Owner and applicant is Joseph Skias. Oh, help me with that one. Skias Skiasia. I think I did that. Okay. Um, engineer Hill Hilderbrand Engineering PLLC. Do we have someone here tonight for Belleview Avenue lot 79 the applicant?

Hi. My name is Philip. I'm the attorney for the applicant. The engineer is running late. I think he said he'd be here by 8. It's 2 minutes to 8, so I guess. Okay. So, we're going to we're going to table this issue for a moment or two. Okay. Okay. So, we will then go on to um item number three. Propose 423 and 429 Commerce Street. Demo existing building. Construct new multi. Oh, okay.

Okay. We're going to go to number three anyway. Um, so we're number three. 423 429 Commerce Street. Demo existing building. Construct new multi-use building with 12 proposed dwelling units, one office space, two commercial retail spaces, and a rear parking lot with 18 parking spots. Application site plan PSP25-9. Location 423 and 429 Commerce Street Hawthorne, New York. Section block numbers 112.5-1-27-28. Zone Thornwood Hamlet. owner of 423 Commerce Street LLC. 429 Commerce Street LLC applicant architecture is Damaski Architecture. Welcome, Mr. Damoski.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. So, at the last meeting, we uh we went over the project, gave the highlights of the project, and uh we had some comments from Pat, and we had some comments from David Smith. We've addressed all the comments that they gave us. Um, we didn't get anything any responses back yet, so they're probably still in review, but if you'd like, I just I want to just go over some of the uh highlights of their comments and how we address them all, if that's okay. Yep, please.

Okay. So the first thing the first thing that came up was um uh the uh bulk regulations the height of the building um and uh um some architectural features that we had that are um fall within the criteria of the height uh requirements. So I'll just go to the elevation So the front elevation is is right here. Um we are we are in compliance with all bulk bulk regulations including the height of the building. Where we fall short is this little piece right here is the elevator uh tower and we're 4 ft above the allowable 50 ft. We're at 54 ft. Um we are there was a small area of these peaks that are above the four uh about above the 40 ft and um they're they're considered an architectural feature. So uh the building inspector can overwrite that uh variance requirement and he did because they're not habitable spaces. They're uh they're 18 in above the requirement. So it's it is perview per the code to uh he is he's given us a letter and we've uh I think Carolyn has a letter. So um really the only the only issue that we have with the bulk regulations is the um uh the height of the elevator. So we're we're we're asking to go to zoning after this meeting if if everything else is okay with the board. Uh just again highlighting some of the the comments that we had. Uh we had we had parking in the back of the building.

We had 18 spots. Um we had to be we had to provide a landscape island. So we removed one parking spot. We got the landscape island that's addressed. It's on the site plan. It's it's um per the zoning requirement. So that's all addressed. But does that bring you to 17 spaces? Yeah. Okay. Yep. But still within the requirement of the all the parking because you're going to have some shared use. I thought that the traffic engineers letter said that it would that it required 22 parking spaces. No, not at all. Okay. We're over the requirement 17 spaces. Okay.

And when we get really when we get done with designing the building, um that was a conservative number on our part. Um, we'll probably end up with a couple more parking spots uh that are extra on top of the 17, but right now we're we're presenting 17. Okay. Okay. In that landscape island, which is right here, there's a requirement to have a shade tree. We've got the shade tree provided. Um, also another requirement that we resolved was we had imperous surface all along these parking spots. They don't want um, sorry, we had a pvious surface. They don't want pvious surface where the cars parked because they can take oil and go right through there into the soil. So, we changed that to be paved area. And this strip right over here, again, to minimize the imper um imperous area, we introduce a pvious area there. So, it's going to be a little mix and it's going to break up the the parking lot a little bit so it's not one big sea of uh asphalt. Another is another question that came up was there is there a loading dock in this building? There's no loading dock. There's not uh any required. So, we're not providing any loading dock. um site distances. Uh they just wanted to make sure when we're coming out of here, we meet all the sight distance requirements. We do. The engineer has a diagram that proves that out. And uh again, it's being uh reviewed by engineering. Um the sidewalk in front of the building, they asked if it was going to be redone at the end of the project. It's definitely going to get redone. That whole area is going to get redone. It's going to be like a war zone for a little while. um charging stations. We're not putting any charging stations for electric

vehicles. We're providing three bike spots for the requirement. We're not having any ebike charging stations. Again, not required and we're not volunteering them. Now, let me go to the back to the elevation. So in terms of the requirements of the of the code for finishes, for building heights, for glass, for transparency, we meet all the requirements. We've already done that. We already proved it out. And a question came up with the surrounding here for our um ramp, our required ADA ramp, and it seemed like there was a lot of it. The ramp actually starts right here. It goes up and it comes over. And it seemed like there was a lot. How do we deal with that? So, we kind of looked at it and we studied the elevations and went back and forth with some ideas. The first floor level that's established right now is a level that we can't bring it down. It it is where it is because of the plumbing uh sorry the sewer piping in the building and how it drains out. So the first floor elevation is set. So we by by code by building code we have to provide handicap accessibility from the front of the building to anybody walking uh to the site into the property and into the building. We have ADA compliance with parking in the back of the building. Um, but the way the code is written, it has to be if somebody was, pretend they were airlifted to the front of the building, dropped on the sidewalk, even if there's not accessibility to the building. If they

were airlifted, they have to be able to get to the building. We can't get to the building from they can't get to the building from the um the front or the back where we have the ADA compliance because this is the part of Commerce Street that really slopes down. So we have to have that accessibility from the front of the building. So we did we we provided a ramp and what we did was to try to hide that ramp and all that railings is we introduced some planters right over here here and nothing over here. So these planters kind of respond to the building this way. This one doesn't because again this is where our entrance is. So we didn't want we want to do a little different from there. So we have we brought materials from the building down to these planters. The width and size are responding to the building and it does cover up the uh railings quite a bit. Um

how does your sewer elevation in the front affect you in the back? Sorry, John. Your sewer elevation in the front, right? You're connecting in the front. No, the sewer is in the back. It is in the back. Yeah. So, everything that goes to I actually wanted the building to be 2 feet lower. We started it with the first floor level to be 2 feet lower, but we were below the sewer level at that point. I kicked and screamed. The engineers wouldn't let me have it. So, we had to settle with this. So, we're about we're about couple 3 ft above grade at this point, but that's the lowest we can bring it. Um, is there any kick? Is there any backlash from the MTA?

Nothing yet. We submit all of our drawings to MTA. Uh, sewers, uh, um, construction accessibility, the cranes, and we haven't heard anything back from them yet. Hopefully, we won't hear anything back. Um, yeah, that's that's that was it for the discussion on that ramp. I know it was brought up last time a little bit. So, I just wanted to make sure the board heard how we addressed it and what we did to address it. And and I think the resolution is probably it I think it looks pretty good. Again, the the it responds to the building. It does hide the rail the railings a little bit. It does call the entrance out where people pedestrians will walk to the ramp and to the stairs up to this plaza level. And um I think it'll be nice. We pulled the materials.

It It does look good, but what comes to mind is if that's not maintained properly, then you're going to have just dead bushes right in the front of the building. I'm banking on it to be maintained properly. I live here, too. You're banking on it? Yeah. Is this going all This is going up to the gas station all the way across? No, it doesn't reach the gas station. Gas station is staying there. Okay. Any any other questions from board members? Okay, let the record show there's no additional questions or comments. Pat, from a from a staff perspective,

so we still need um all the engineering reviews haven't been completed yet. Um I believe Steve with this submission now has addressed all those zoning compliance issues. So we now have a fully compliant plan subject to the interpretation of the building inspector for those two height issues. Well, um he did he didn't he did interpret on the uh height of the uh of the peaks and that's he considered an architectural feature but the elevator we we couldn't get around it. So I do have to go to zoning for the for the elevator. So did you talk to S about the bulkhead? Um the bulkheads are exempt in certain instances. They're exempt. They're exempt when they're 10 ft away from the property line. Okay.

We're we're we're right at the property line. It's set back from the front property line. It's about It's about 20 ft in, but it's still at the side property line. So, that would require the barriers. Yeah. Okay. I do have a question. Are you restoring the sidewalk in front of this whole? Yeah, that will be that's going to be part of the project. Yep. Okay. Okay. With that, so we would not be in a position to go to public hearing on this until we get all the engineering issues resolved. Can we send them to the zoning board then? We could and they could address the zoning issue with the zoning board

in in terms of the engineering issues just to let the board know. Our engineer is here. He's prepared to talk about it, but um he was working closely with Dave on all the items. Um I I know Dave was out on vacation so he didn't have a chance to review everything but we feel confident that all those are addressed so we can be at least go to zoning to take care of the height issue. Yeah. The height issue has no bearing the engineering issues have no bearing on the height issue. Okay. So then the question the only question we have tonight is do we want to make a motion to to refer them to the zoning board? Yes or no. All right. That's that's where we are tonight. I make that motion. So motion from John. Yeah, I second that.

Second from JD. Walter. Hi. Jean. Hi. John. Hi. Eileen. Hi. JD. Hi. And Steve. Hi. And an I for me. Okay. We are done for tonight. Great. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Grimaldi. Is your engineer here? Phil. Okay. Next.

Next up is Belleview Avenue lot 79. Development of a single family dwelling with driveway, yard area, water and sewer, drainage and retaining walls improvements. Application steep slope SS 20 SS2-14 location vacant parcel Belleview Avenue lot 79 section blockout number is 106.18-3-79 zone R10 owner applicants Joseph Skiazia. Did I say that correct? Shasha. Shasha. I was not even close but I tried. Okay. Engineer Hilterbrand engineer PLLC. Thank you.

Good evening, members of the board. Mr. Chairman, um I had spoken to Mr. Clearary today and he he indicated that um he was satisfied and the town engineer was satisfied that all the issues addressed in the October um memo were were were addressed adequately. So, I don't know if there's anything else. The issue of concern was the the proximity of the wall to the eastment. Um and that was a concern. It was determined that the wall the the condition of the soil the subsurface condition would not be affected by the wall. So it has no bearing on the easement. Dave is okay with that.

So there's really nothing else for us to do tonight other than do we want to schedule a public hearing or not? Make a motion to schedule public hearing. Okay. Motion from John. Second. Second from Eileen. Walter. Hi Jane. I John. Hi. Alen, hi. JD, hi Steve. Hi. And I for me, that was quick. Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, we're we're moving on to I'm all thrown off now. Okay. Now, we're moving Brad. Thank you very much. 376.

So, this is a brand new application. This is under new applications. 376 Brad Avenue. Removal of special use permit for gas station convenience store application site plan PSP 20 PSP 26-1 location 376 Bradis Avenue Hawthorne section block number is 112.9-1-14 zone Hawthorne Hamlet owner New Age Patrol Incorporated applicant architect applicant and attorney excuse me I just made you an architect Philip Grimmaldiqu good good evening Mr. chairman and members of the board. Uh Philip will run for the applicant. Um this is just a renewal of a special use permit that was initially uh granted in 2011. Um last for 15 years. U there's been no changes to the site plan. Um there were some items that he was selling outside. I think there's firewood and whatnot and the fire inspector wanted that removed. Uh that will be removed. So I don't know if there's any other issues. Um

yeah. And that's one of the beauties of this legislation that's in front of us because when these applications do come before us, we do clean up the site. But the question becomes how do we clean it up and make it cleaned up stay cleaned up until the next time we come up because what we want to avoid is every seven years Pat 15 15 years every 15 years we're coming across the same problem where we're having things sold that shouldn't be sold outside of the store and all that which we can talk about that at a future point. Remind you Mr. Chairman 15 years ago was the first time we did this. So we're going to have a whole spade of these coming in. Yeah.

So we did all the gas stations in town at once 15 years ago. That's when we really were able to clean things up and now it's to verify that it's been done, you know, that they've operated in accordance with those approvals. Yeah. The the only thing that's a little troublesome is we clean up the sites and then 6 months later we're back to where we were. Well, you can issue a violation. I mean, if he's violating the terms of the special use permit, then he's in violation and you could okay, you could violate him. All right.

Yeah. So, what you may want to do in this case, so um the gas pumps haven't moved, the building hasn't changed, the curb cuts are the same. So, the major things with respect to this application have not changed. The dayto-day operation of stuff on the site is not where it's supposed to be. So, they can remove that tomorrow. Your choice is do you wait for them to clean it up before you vote to do this or do you conditionally approve this subject? Okay. But that doesn't preclude us from Hold on. Don't don't don't sell past the sale. That that doesn't preclude us from scheduling a public hearing if we feel we're ready for that. Yeah. I get unless you think the firewood is egregious in one way or another. Right.

You have some leverage right now to get make sure everything is cleaned up by not scheduling public hearing until Chinese site. He's coming up next week, next Thursday. Um, so or he could even tell his employees to move it. It's not a big deal. Okay. Okay. Let me just hear from the board. Any questions or comments from board members? Yeah. Move the firewood. You're wasting time for moving. Get it out of town. You have to go down there right now. So, let's let's let's put it this way. When you when he comes back, it's going to come up. Okay. So it should be moved before. So I would suggest highly that it's everything is cleaned up and removed prior to the public hearing.

Okay, that's fine. Can we schedule it because his his um his 15 years runs in April and I don't want him to miss that. But I'll make sure that he's in compliance before then. I thought, Mr. Chairman, you could schedule it if if it's still there. You don't care. Yeah, we had we and we'll self leverage. Okay. So, what is the thought of the board on this? Okay, so we I think we should clean the wood and put them on. If it's not clean, anything will come back. Does that sound like a motion? That sounds like a motion to me. Okay, so we have a motion from John. Second. Second from Jane, Walter. Hi, Jane. I John. Eileen. I JD. I

Steve. And I for me, we'll see you when we see you.

Great. Thank you. Okay. And finally, the last one, which is a brand new application um that we have not heard before before this board is 226 228 Linda Avenue, Cedar Nullles, subdivision of a one of one 126.5 acre parcel into 91 lots, 87 single family residential lots, three conservation open space lots, and one lot to continue the school operations. Application subdivision PSD26-2 location 226-2208 Linda Avenue Hawthorne section block number is 112-10-4-26 zone R40 owner and applicant the Jewish board of family and children's services engineer architect is GMC planning engineering landscape architecture and land surveying plc attorneys David Steymits and Xarin Xarn and Stemits do we have uh representation from this I get interest.

You ready for us first, Mr. Chair? Yes. Come on up, Mr. Simons. Good to see you. Come out on a cold night. All right. Good to see all of you. David Steinmet from the law firm of Zaron Steinmet's here this evening representing uh the Jewish board of family services and the Cedar Nolles site sorry you want me to go backwards Karen

um with me this evening from Cedar Nolles Lonnie Lieberman uh Jonathan Griebo um representing Cedar Nolles and our project manager and entitlements manager from our development team uh Diego Villa Reali and James Carris from JMC Engineering and Planning. Um you'll also from time to time have one of my colleagues, Jaclyn Conn appearing in connection with this uh in connection with this application. We're very excited to be here in connection with uh kicking off on this project. It's sort of a a long awaited uh project. I think many in the town have known that uh the Cedar Nolles site uh has been substantially vacant in terms of a number of the school buildings uh that have been in operation and uh with residential schools and uh a number of different facilities and programs. But as a threshold and critical uh important issue, I want to say at the outset we are not here tonight in connection with a reasonzoning. Um there had been talk and uh people in the town and officials in the town had contacted me over uh over the years and there had been uh discussion about the possibility of this site coming in and asking for a reszoning. So the one uh thing that we can take a deep breath and and and the good news is we are here tonight in connection with a zoning compliant as of right single family residential subdivision. The site is zoned for what we are here to propose. Um and we are uh looking forward to working through the process with your board um in connection with it. Uh the site itself is in the uh town's residential R40 zoning district. It's 126 acres in total size. The development site itself is 73 acres. And the reason for that is there's currently uh there are currently two different school buildings operated by the Hawthorne Cedar Nullles uh Unionfree School District. um that school district is going to remain. There are two school

buildings that will remain and the 22 acres associated with that school parcel or with those school buildings would be carved out and we're going to get to that in a moment. Diego is going to walk you through uh the proposed subdivision plat. We are proposing a conservation subdivision or a cluster subdivision. Why? Um we are trying to achieve as much open space uh as possible on the site. Uh your code allows for this. We have met briefly with staff and uh conducted an initial discussion about this and we're going to walk you through how doing this will allow the site uh to create adequate buffers. Um a wonderful green space um in a number of different areas. Uh 30 acres of conservation um land would would be carved out. We are proposing 87 single family home sites. Um Diego will walk you through uh the proposed road network. Um the lot layout um most of the lots actually are zoning compliant in terms of size. None of them I think drop below um6 acres. Some of them are actually larger than an acre despite the fact that this is a um a cluster. We're going to do a highle discussion tonight of the roads um the uh road connections some basic utility information and we're going to share with you how we got to the 87 lot density. As I'm sure you know, under your code, in order to um come forward with a cluster or a conservation subdivision, you need to do a conventional subdivision, a standard kind of cookie cutter subdivision first. Um we did that to analyze and determine what the actual density on the site could be. Um we achieved 87 conventional lots and then we took those 87 lots um and we have clustered them. From a procedural standpoint, um I first of all I thank Mr. Clearary for um generating the memo that he did uh for your board at the outset. We had a chance to review it. It was on the portal. Um we are

hoping that your board would designate your intent to serve as lead agency under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act, SRAA. And somewhat out of the ordinary for me, um it's rare that I show up on an application, let alone an application of significance, and right out of the box say, I want to go through the full secret process. I want my client to prepare a draft environmental impact statement, a final environmental impact statement, ultimately culminating in a finding statement. Our team knows what we're doing. We know the importance of this site. We know the issues that we have to address. So, we are asking uh that you designate your intent to be lead agency. We are asking for the issuance of a positive declaration. We fully are prepared to uh generate

tea or something like that. Anybody? I didn't order any. It's a cart.

Um, we are we are asking for a positive uh deck so that we can begin the secret process. And in fact, again, somewhat out of the ordinary together with JMC, our client and our team has assembled a draft scoping outline. So we have already analyzed and or at least identified a rather extensive outline of issues that we expect to study and uh we hope to have a scoping a public scoping session at the earliest possible date. So we have a number of things we have to do together with you on this. Again, no reasonzoning as of right um and a cluster. So uh we actually think this is uh something that the town can and will be proud of and we're looking forward to presenting it. So I'm going to hand it off to Diego. Uh we're happy to answer any questions and uh and begin the process together with you. Thank you, David. Um we have just a couple of boards for you this evening. Same boards that are being presented on the screen. I just thought it'd be good to put one up here, be able to point to it and show you some of the things that we were going to speak about tonight. Um, as David had indicated, really just going to stay pretty high level with the overall concept and the subdivision plan. A number of the things that even we're going to touch on tonight will be addressed within the DEIS and the environmental studies that are going to be prepared as part of this project, but obviously we wanted to kick it off and just give you a comprehensive overview of the proposed subdivision. Starting with the existing conditions plan. This is uh we just felt would the best way to convey what's going on out there today and then also some of the surrounding uses and the properties that exist around us. The red line highlights the 126 acre property. Columbus Avenue is obviously along the top side of the

page there. Uh property runs in that north south direction. The main entrance to the existing campus is off of Linda Avenue right in this area here uh where you can see the driveway that comes in and that driveway provides access to all of the uh driveways throughout the site, the different parking areas and the uh several buildings most of which are vacant at this point obviously uh with the campus not being functional. So all of the buildings that you see on the property that are within the development area would ultimately be slated to be demolished as part of the project. Um you see obviously the surrounding land uses. You see the Summit Office Park off to the top right hand side of the southeastern portion of the site. Uh the Rolling Hills neighborhood which is about uh which is also within an R40 zoning district. So you see the 1acre subdivision uh pretty consistent with what would be proposed here off to the northeastern portion of it. And then you see the Hawthorne area, Warren Avenue, Linda, um Sherman, Manhattan, all of the uh parallel streets that run in that grid fashion in the R10, uh zoning district. So you see really a variety of different types of lots and different um residential uses that exist surrounding the property as well as the new development just to the south, which is very similar to this. I believe that was a clustered subdivision as well. pretty similar to this where they were developed as about halfacre lots in and around that um portion of the property there. Jumping right into it. Um if we can go to the next plan, this is the proposed subdivision layout. As David had indicated, uh we are proposing a clustered subdivision. So, we are taking the 87 proposed lots and clustering them into very specific portions of the site. Um, as part of this analysis, we looked at the different areas of the site. We started to identify some of the environmental

features and some of the environmental constraints that we're going to have to uh deal with and analyze during the DEIS process. There are some wetlands on the property that exist in a portion of the property here. Um, there's some open space, some wooded areas, some steeply sloped areas on the property as well. All of these things were taken into consideration when we started looking at this subdivision plan. It's not that you can't build in those areas, it's just they're good areas that we could preserve, that we could maintain as open space. So when we looked at this clustered uh subdivision plan, we really focused majority of the development in and around the summit property behind the cable parcel and then it wraps in and around where the R40 zoning district is in this area here. You see significant portions of the property that are being maintained as open space. So um again 126 acre property, but we could break it down really into three areas. Um, first the existing school parcel that is going to remain in this area here is about 22 acres in size. So that gets carved out as an individual lot and that's one of the lots that's in that area there.

Is that school area in the morning, you know, afternoon they go home? Yes, that is my understanding of it. I can Yes, it is. It's not any residential use. It is the day school portion of the property that operated there.

Okay. And that's in these two buildings. These are the newer buildings. I know I'm sure some of you have been on the property. I'm sure we'll probably get a sidewalk at some as well. You'll see these are the newer buildings that were constructed more recently. The balance of the buildings on the property are older. Um, a lot of them are in disrepair at this point. So, all of those will be slated to be demolished. But these two new buildings, I believe they're the newest buildings on the campus. Um when we get into the cluster and the balance of the property itself, the 87 single family homes would be located on about 73 of the total acres of the property. The balance of that which is about 30 acres would be preserved as open space. So where we look at those 87 lots about 30% 30 a little bit more than 30% of it could be uh preserved as open space when we apply those cluster provisions uh to the property itself. So when we cluster it, it's very similar to what you would see with a conventional layout, but we obviously are able to just squeeze down the lot areas a little bit more. David alluded to it before. None of the lots are less than about a half acre. You'll see all of them on the plan about 20,000 square ft. Most of them are more than that. Some of them exceed an acre. and you have areas with deep backyards and deep lots, those still exceed an acre, but they're probably a little bit more narrow than what would be permitted under the R40 zoning district. Again, the idea of the cluster and the intention of the cluster is to preserve as much of the land as open space and we're really able to accomplish that especially in an A area around the wetlands and then this steep sloped area and these uh uh this wooded area and this open space that exists between the two schools. there's a lot of opportunity there to maintain that as open space. Um, when we looked at the clustered subdivision 2, we really looked at the R20 zoning district for setback purposes, just to maintain consistency and continuity throughout. Everything

generally exceeds what would be required under the R20 zoning district. Again, it's just for consistency and continuity purposes. We didn't want one lot very small, one lot a little bit bigger. It's really just to maintain a good continuous continuity of the homes throughout the property itself. Access on this development plan as being proposed. The existing access off of Linda Avenue to the school would be maintained. That would serve as the existing access as it does today. And that would prim that would serve the uh existing schools that are slated to remain. for access to the subdivision itself. We're utilizing Gold Street, which has a direct connection. That driveway exists there today. Gold Street has is really a driveway that provides access. I believe it's one or two homes right in that area over there. And that access comes out to Mar Avenue and then goes out to Stevens. That's one of the most approximate. We also are proposing an interconnect to Westerly Lane South in this area here. So that area connects in and that provides connectivity and continuity from Warren Avenue to Western Lane.

Okay.

Okay. Just pausing for a second in case there were any quick questions there. One thing you will see on the plan as well, uh something that's shown in that to upper right hand corner or the southeastern portion of the site, the way the site has been designed, it could accommodate an access to Summit Lake Drive if that does uh ultimately come to fruition in the future. Um but right now it's being designed to be able to accommodate it, but it's not proposed as part of the subdivision at this moment. Um sticking with this plan just for one more second before I go to the conventional just because I thought it's important to show the comparison between the two. Um as David had indicated before uh we are coming in we provide um provided a uh draft um uh scoping document for the DEIS which is essentially the table of contents that we would utilize for all the studies that would be included in that document that we go through and that will cover a litany of things from um geotechnical work, steep slopes, earth work, cuts and fills, how the layout would work, utility connection points, where the sewer and water is going to to be connected to. So, all of those technical things, wetland delineations on the property, when we get into the springtime, we'll formalize our wetland delineations, all of which will be included in uh that DEIS document that would ultimately be submitted to this board for its review. Traffic will be part of that as well. We'll look at those individual access points and we're going to provide a detailed traffic analysis that looks at that, where those connection points are. Obviously, we know traffic will be a topic of concern and question throughout uh this process. So, we'll look at it. We have an extensive list of intersections that we would look at both in proximity to the property, but in the surrounding area just to look at the different traffic

patterns and how this development would be incorporated into the different traffic areas uh surrounding this property. Um in addition to that it would look at all of the other things municipal services including school children all of which we would know uh will be part of that analysis. So all of that will be incorporated. I don't have answers for you for every one of those topics tonight. The idea again was to really focus on the overall conceptual plan give you an idea on how it's going to get laid out and then we'll follow up with those additional studies as we go uh through this process. Um but again it was important for us to take this development plan far enough to come before this board with a plan that we were confident with. Um grading opportunities how this site gets graded out. Uh the site itself is generally a little bit of a plateau. So when you come up here it's really pretty level especially in the central portion of the property. It does have areas that slope off to the east and to the west depending on where you are on the property. And those are the areas that we really focused on for open space and preservation. So when we look at the different areas on where the property is being developed right now, it's a limited amount of earthwork. It's a limited amount of grading. The topography really is conducive to this type of layout. How the houses are laid out and where the roadway is. It's very intentional the way we're terminating in a culde-sac right in this area before the slope tries to drop off in this area here. the way it curves up intersects Westerly Lane with a topography connection. There was a braiding plan and a schematic grading plan that we also included in our preliminary submission. So, how this works, the topography, the connections and the separation distances to the adjacent properties all were considered when we looked at this layout as well. And that really transitions us to that when I move on.

Sure. Sure. Yeah. I'll come back to this. I'm going to finish with this. Where where's the construction entrance proposed? To be determined. I don't want to commit to anything at this point. Um it's really something that we're going to have to look at as part of the environmental review process. How we get uh access to and from the site. Um because obviously we all know the way a subdivision gets constructed. Roadways will get constructed, but house construction will continue. They might sell a lot. Somebody might move in. It's an active construction area. It's part of a subdivision. Uh so that is something that we would look at in the EIS. So for me to say where the exact construction entrance just a little bit premature. So it's certainly something we'll take a look at and make sure we consider.

I think where's your storm water basin on that drawing?

So it's in a couple of different areas. So um one of the things that we started looking at obviously is a comparison between existing and proposed conditions. There is a significant amount of impervious area on the property between the parking areas, the buildings, the driveways that exist out there right now. So, even with the plan as it is, with the new roadway that's going to be constructed, these homes that are being proposed, we even went as far as analyzing. Not that every house on this property will have a pool, but we wanted to look at a worst case scenario that if a homeowner wanted to put a pool on the property, they had an opportunity to do so. So, we are looking at what we feel is a fully developed house, driveway, um, pool area, things like that. and we still only have a very slight increase in imperous area on the property. Regardless, there would be a comprehensive storm water pollution prevention plan that would be included in the DEIS. We haven't designed it yet, but what we did is start to allocate areas for it to make sure that we had areas incorporated into the design. So, that southeastern corner there adjacent to Summit Lake Drive, we allocated a separate stormwater lot and it's pretty much opposite. You can see Toll Brothers when they developed this where their storm water basin was located. It's kind of in that similar area because that's the low point on the property on where it goes. There's a significant area here where the existing this wetland it's not from my recollection and my research and what we've seen it this I believe was a stormwater basin that was constructed at some point on the property that obviously over time passed.

Are we are we going to um leverage a wetland consultant? We're going to leverage multiple consultants applications. Okay. And we expect that we'll have as part of the DEIS a wetland delineation. We will have our own wetland consultant. Uh in the table of contents that was provided. You'll see there's a whole section that was dedicated to that as well. Um, so to answer your question, long- winded answer to your question, there's been multiple areas that basically have been identified on the property that we feel are suitable for stormwater purposes and we'd go through that process of testing and preparing a full storm water pollution prevention plan as part of the submission

because I did read in one of your documents that the the overflow is going to go on adjacent property.

Depends. Yeah. So, there's a couple of overflows that exist on the property. You know, just off the top of my head, there's an outfall uh into this summit undeveloped parcel here. There's existing um piping that discharges right into that direction. Uh there's another outfall in this lot here that comes through. There's a water course that goes between the two homes before it enters municipal infrastructure. All of that will be looked at as part of that analysis. Um, we have obligations under New York State DEEC's regulations as well as the town regulations. We can't increase storm water runoff from the subject property. That's threshold number one. Above and beyond that, there's water quality and water quantity standards, all of which that we have to meet. But again, threshold number one, we cannot increase what's coming off the property. Now, as part of this analysis, we'll look at those connection points and we'll identify those best locations. Obviously, we don't want to increase water going maybe under existing conditions. There's a water course that's going towards somebody's backyard right now. Obviously, that wouldn't be a suitable discharge point for us. We would want to look at all of those things as part of the process and make sure that we're connecting to municipal infrastructure as we go through this. We had an opportunity. We've met with uh uh your engineer, Mr. Smith. We've gone through a couple of these scenarios. We've already started looking at uh water and sewer capacity. All of which again will be uh compiled and summarized in the EIS.

And I'm sure you realize that that whole mountain now of Warren, Winder, Sherman all go down to Brady Avenue. Yes. And it's overwhelmed. Mhm. So yeah, that route really needs to be looked at or it could be upgraded.

Yeah, there could be an opportunity or it could be um a combination of the two. It's really ultimately at the end of the day where is it going now and what we can we do to improve some of those conditions that exist out there. So 100%. So finally this last board just spend a couple of minutes on this as well. Um understanding the subdivision process and the thresholds that we have to meet as part of this process. We didn't dive right into the conservation plan and see where everything worked. The first step from our standpoint was really coming up with the conventional subdivision plan just to identify that um dwelling count. How many homes could be constructed on this property, still respecting those different environmental constraints that we have started speaking about. What you'll see is this plan is very consistent from a roadway connection standpoint. We still connect westerly. We still connect to gold. We're not trying to move driveways around and do things differently. We still preserve the wetlands on the property, although there's not as much open space that's being preserved. The lot in between the two schools would be partially developed as part of that. And then we look at, you know, still have a storm water basin on the on the southeastern corner of the property as well. This plan again respects a lot of those environmental constraints, doesn't come down too far into this area here, but still demonstrates that under the conventional subdivision layout, you can easily, and I think even with this plan here, maybe we could add one more depending how it ends up working out, you could develop 87 conventional lots on this property. To take that one step further, we even provided the board a preliminary grading plan of this. We wanted to make sure we showed everybody how this plan works. How does it work with the existing topography on the property? We're not fighting grades in a lot of different areas. We're not increasing our

earthwork to a certain point. It really works with the same topographies, the same landscape and uh respects a lot of those same constraints that are on the property. Now the difference really is again in my opinion when you look at this as compared to this it's the preservation of the open space. This plan the if I have the numbers right it's about 100 acres on the conventional plan would be dedicated to the 87 lots as opposed to this plan 30 acres would be able to be preserved as open space. So you still end up with that same unit count in either condition. you just obviously end up with a significant amount of open space that gets preserved. Reducing impervious areas, roadways, driveways, etc. All the things that we look to do under cluster provisions. Okay. Um, quick question to my friends over here. How soon can we make some of this available online to the public?

It is already online. Okay. Okay. That's that's important because I know there's people here tonight. So, this is online, folks. if you want to take a look at it. So, so and we'll continue as we always do. Any information we provide, I know it gets posted. Um, you know, like as David had indicated, we're at the beginning of the process. We're going to go through a DEIS. There'll be a substantial environmental document that gets submitted as part of this application. All of which would be available. And I know there's going to be uh obviously some hearings first associated with the scope.

Yeah. And the the question before us tonight is not the details of the entire application. The question that we have before us tonight, just so the public understands, is does this board want to be designated as a lead agency? So what does that mean? There's a comprehensive process that the applicant would need to go through to complete an environmental impact study. Um, which would be appropriate for this board to think about doing that. Um, they have a long way to go. A lot of questions need to be addressed. I have a bunch of questions and I'm sure everybody else has some questions but I'm not going to bother asking them because I think many of them will be addressed in the EIS itself. Um so that's the question before the board.

Um any other questions come from board members? I do. Uh one is currently that property is it on a tax map that currently right now see paying taxes. What's it what's the difference? You're the rate. I mean,

so John, I think that's a terrific question. Um the um the site became a school property by an act of the state legislature back in I think 1939. Um to the best of my knowledge, it has been off your tax roles literally for the last century. Um obviously we are proposing to carve out the the school parcels that Diego and I have talked about. um those would would remain on their own lot and I presume would remain tax exempt because they're school buildings. Everything else would be restored to the tax roles. Um and we are talking about fe simple uh single family homes. So, you know, you can take a look just to our south and and what happened at the the Toll Brothers project there and and get a sense. Um I think we're looking at similarsized homes. Many of our lots are actually even larger than that. So um yes it would we will in our uh if you read our scoping outline there is a rather comprehensive section on fiscal impact both costs to the town and revenue generated from the project to offset those costs.

As as you know this town has been uh I don't know the word to use but impacted with multiple large areas of land that do not pay taxes here. Yes.

Between cemeteries and schools and all that. So, it's just a note I wanted to make on my end. The other thing is, and I I didn't want to get too much into it because I know where Jim was going with it. But one of the pressures of people, residents that's going to come up and like I said, it's not time to talk about we're here to take lead agency. And I get it, but something to think about is obviously the access to that school. If it's going to stay the same for the school, it is what it is. But the access to the development one is westerly is going to be very tough. I can tell you that now because there's one way in and one way out for that whole mountain going down. So that's a problem. And if somehow or another they can figure out to get that off Gold Street and go out through that land. Just something to think about. Not that I want to get into it right now,

but just keep it in the back. We we we hear you loud and clear. We are very well aware that access to the site uh for homeowners, for first responders, and providing better access in the town through the town critical issues, it'll all be analyzed in the traffic section. Okay. So, I I know if I could just give you an overview of process where we are. So, if you chose to designate your intent to be lead agency this evening, that means you're in charge of this year. There would be a 30-day circulation period. After that 30-day circulation period based on the applicant's commitment, you would adopt a what's called a positive declaration that requires the applicant to prepare the environmental impact statement. Yeah.

First step in that is what you've heard the applicant refer to as a scoping document. That's a public document that the folks in the room would have an opportunity to review and comment on what needs to be studied, what what shouldn't be studied, and so forth. Importantly, one of the benefits of the environmental impact statement is an analysis of alternatives. So that that section of the EIS, for example, would require them to study alternative access and so forth. So that's one of the significant benefits of the environmental effect statement aside from the in-depth analysis of the environmental issues, it's the assessment of alternatives. So that first step, which would happen 30 days plus from now is the review of the scoping document. That scoping document is online. So I encourage the folks in the room to start looking at that document and providing comment. The p we will have what's called a public scoping session which is a notice public hearing in this room where the public will have an opportunity to come to you and and tell you what they should be what you should be.

Yeah. And and I know there's members of the public here tonight that are here for this obviously because it's last application. So I'm assuming you're here for this application. So though it's not a public hearing, we do rely we do rely on the public input. Um I don't live in that part of town. I don't know everything going on over there. I live in another part of town. We have our own issues in that part of town. But that doesn't preclude you if you see substantive thought or you have sub substantive thoughts that are concrete and not rooted in emotion, more rooted in facts that you feel the board should consider, please email them to Caroline. We'll be dealing with this application for some time, but if you have thoughts today or the next coming weeks, please send those thoughts in. But, you know, simply saying you don't want it, we can't do much with it. If you see if you have something that's more concrete and substantive, that may be something we want may want to consider at the board.

Okay. And one last thing, is there going to be some type of uh study regarding the impact of the schools amount of school? We already committed to that. we would require them to do that. They've acknowledged that already. So we'll make sure but what we will the scoping documents we'll make sure the way they study those issues are done to the standards that we require and then once they submit that information we then have our own consultants reviewing that information to verify the veracity of all that information. So yes, John, absolutely. And that's one of the particles we raised with the applicants early on, which is that's a big that's a big issue.

And John, you know, because we went through it together, at least some of us, some of you were on the board during the the Baker subdivision during a comprehensive uh environmental review and a DEIS and the EI an FIS. We did a comprehensive school district analysis and that will be done here. We know that we we're prepared to do that. I I want to kind of conclude sort of the way I started, which is the good news is we're here with a a zoning compliant as of right application. Why do I say that? Um, some of you may know that I I've been involved uh representing the the property for a number of years. I was representing the applicant uh when they were just the property owner and there was a rather significant meeting here at town hall probably 8 10 years ago. uh the state then state senator Terrence Murphy attended. Shortly after that meeting, I got a call from the supervisor um telling me that it would be terrific if certain aspects of the residential school buildings could be curtailed and if certain aspects of the site could be um abandoned and ultimately redeveloped in some other fashion that would be more conducive to the community and consistent with the surrounding area. It has it has taken quite a while to get to tonight. For me, this is a significant night because I've looked at a lot of different iterations of this property being redeveloped. Many of which many um developers came along and wanted to reszone this and do something very different on this property than what we are presenting to you tonight. So to me, the good news for your board, for the community, for staff is that we have what your zoning calls for on this property. And we look forward to processing that, demonstrating that while there are issues that have to be analyzed, we believe we can mitigate those potential significant impacts and mitigate them

appropriately. That's our job. That's our challenge. That's what we will be doing together. So, we look forward to working with your board. We look forward to working with the community. Um, I know Mr. Cav's here. I know look look forward to working with Steve. Um and uh tonight's night one. We got we got a road ahead of us, but we look forward to it and we thank you for your time tonight. We would ask procedurally, Mr. Chairman, that you designate your intent to serve as lead agency so the process can formally begin.

Okay. Thank you. Um I know Mr. Steven Cab is here and I'm going to presume he hasn't had a tremendous amount of material to dig into yet, but if you address the board at this point, feel free to come up. a couple start the clock, Steve. And just just so the public and just so the public knows, you're Steven Cavy is the chairman of the CAC and there's other members of the CAC, but he represents a lot of the environmental thoughts and concerns that are addressed through the town. So, thank you for tremendous work for the town.

So, I I'll introduce myself again. Steven Cabby, conservation advisory council chair. Just a couple quick things here. One is I did see in the application in the site plan that there are some lots that appear to encroach within the 100 foot buffer. And um it's been our experience that uh even though the buffer may be designated and the homeowners may be indicate in instructed not to do anything with that area, it's I think that's probably something that needs to be looked at more closely and those lots are problematic. Uh the other thing that struck me was that uh there's this open space above the site and there's then this large expanse of homes and then there is the possibility of some conservation well let me call it green space. I wouldn't actually go so far as to call this conservation land and that's because there's no connectivity between that and the larger undeveloped parcel. So there's something about that that I think might be useful to consider how there might be able how there might be an opportunity to create some connectivity and offer habitat corridors if that's uh in the realm of how the applicant wants to proceed. Um that's for now that's really all that I really want to speak about and I'll take a look at the scoping document. There are obviously many other issues that we'll be talking about, but in so far as conservation, we'd like to see the best way in which any open space is used in a way to create habitat and connectivity with any other larger parcels or other habitat areas. Uh neighbors, I'm sure, have many other concerns. Our focus is only on the environmental impacts at this point. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. and to the community. Again, I'll just say one more time, please send your thoughts, comments, questions into town staff. We can learn from you. Um, like I said, I don't live in that part of town, but I do live in town. So, if you have salient thoughts that will help us understand the community or the area, I know one of the big conversations is water mitigation measures, which I have experienced that myself on my side of town. So, express those through writing at this point. At some point we will have a public hearing which the public can address us. Um and we'll continue to have a robust conversation in the coming months. So with that being said, the big question before us tonight, which is not a huge question, but it's a question. Do we want to designate ourselves as lead agent? And that I'm going to turn over to the board to see what their thoughts were on that. I would make a motion that we um declare our intent to serve as lead agency for the environmental review.

Motion from Eileen. Second. Second from John. Walter. I Jane. I. John. Hi. Eileen. I. JD. I. Steve. I. And I for me. Thank you very much. Stay warm. We'll see you soon. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Steve. Yeah.