City Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

and welcome to this meeting of the Syracuse Planning Commission. We'll begin our public hearings in just a moment after we dispose of the minutes from our previous meeting. minutes uh from the April 27th meeting have been distributed to the commission members in advance of this meeting and I will ask now if there's a motion for action on those minutes. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as presented. Thank you. Second.

Thank you. Discussion on the motion for the minutes? If not, all in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? Minutes of the April 27th meeting are approved as distributed. As we move into the public hearing schedule, just a word to those who might be unfamiliar with our process. As each application is announced by a member of the staff, we ask that the rep the applicant or their representative come to the podium in the front of the room, provide your name, an address for the record, and then a brief summary of the application involved. Following any questions from the commission members, we will invite members of the public who wish to speak in favor of the application to do that. Again, coming to the podium, providing their name, address, and comments. And likewise, we will offer the public an opportunity to speak in opposition to the application. Uh where comments are offered in opposition, the applicant will be encouraged to return to address the comments made in opposition, to address the comments to the commission, not to the general audience. And we ask that all speakers other than the applicant keep their remarks to three minutes so that everyone has an opportunity to speak uh and share their views. So with that as a starting point, um Jake, are we ready with our first and no changes to the agenda? Correct. No changes. Uh one old business item to start. Uh it's with the major site plan review uh MASPR-2026-13 uh for the new grocery store at 4141 South Salina Street uh in the CM zone district. They are here to present a change in proposed times. or hours of operations. Somebody here for that.

Hi, I'm uh Jack Dana. I work I live at 3187 Belleview A and uh I'm here to speak on behalf of 2468 Group. Might be able to lift that up so you don't have to bend over. Okay. Um, so we just want to uh we're looking to change the operating hours of the grocery store. Um, from originally it was going to be 9:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. Um, and after some comm community feedback, uh, we'd like to change it from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. um, 7 days a week. And there was general consensus on that time frame. Yeah. Y

I know we had discussed it last time the prospect of possibly changing them as a community outreach went forward and you found out that they were as desiraability for different hours. Uh and it certainly makes sense to have the earlier hours so that people could go before work. I'm just wondering in terms of how the community outreach is going and what might be a bigger concern if they wanted to extend them later in the evening because of the parking lot issue. So just wondering how the conversation is going. Uh, so that that was my home office is doing the reaching out to the the community and I believe the ger as well. Um, I'm just a representative um that's based out of Syracuse. I see. So, okay. Yeah. Other questions for the applicant? No questions.

Thank you. I do know uh Rhonda for with uh Fawn um she's spearheading a lot of this for our company with the community down there. So, yeah, I just want to add that. Okay, we're all set. Thank you. Okay, thank you. So, we know we don't have this often. Um, but so we already did seeker. We already decided on the project overall. This is just this governing body recognizing the ask for hours of operation adjustment. Somebody can make a motion to adopt those as presented and you can vote if that's how you choose. Great. Good. Is there such a motion?

In consideration of the application and staff analysis and the discussion during this hearing, I make a motion to approve application MESRP 2026-13s as presented with the change of hours. uh and uh there are six conditions uh attached to the approval and those six conditions are the same conditions that existed last time. One is the applicant shall comply with the general conditions for approval for all site plan applications. Two, the parking lot and lighting systems shall be fixed and maintained including parking lot striping before the grocery store uh commences operation. Three, snow storage shall be maintained on site in a designated area and shall not approach into the public right away or adjacent properties. Four, all on-site tobacco uh alcohol, tobacco, and lottery services shall be properly licensed prior to being sold. Five, the proposed business shall strictly follow the operation hours which has been deemed appropriate by the uh planning commission and those are the the new hours from 7:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Sunday. and uh six, all loading or unloading activities shall take place between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 1000 p.m.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Discussion on the motion before us. Okay. If not, then all second. You need a second. I did. Oh, you got a second. Sorry. Uh a simple update as it was. Uh all those in favor of the motion please indicate by saying I. I. I. Those opposed please say nay. Any abstensions? Major site plan review for MASPR 202613 is approved. That takes care of our old business. Onward to the new business.

Yes. First up is a reubdivision R-20226-34 at 500-02 Tolman Street owned by the Greater Syracuse Property Development Corporation in the R5 zone district.

Thank you very much. I'm Caitlyn Wright representing the Greater Syracuse Property Development Corporation. We're located at 1941 South Salena Street. As you can see from the diagram here, this existing parcel is kind of unusual. It's L-shaped. And what we're proposing to do is to separate it out into two pieces. One facing Tolman at the corner, 500 Tolman, will be 110 ft deep and 52 ft wide. And the other immediately north facing Midland will be 132 ft deep and 50 ft wide. And our plan is to put a single family house on each of those parcels. With those dimensions, we'll be able to put the house, a driveway, and a detached onecar garage and won't require any area variances. Um, these will all be sold to owner occupants between 60 and um, 120% of area median income.

Thank you. Questions for the applicant? Yeah, I just have one question. The map that's up there, uh, just out of curiosity, I'm not sure I understand what the exception means for that dotted block right in the middle. Do do you have any idea? It's not part of our parcel and it's accepted out of the legal description. It seems like multiple parcels were merged many, many years ago and then separated again. It belongs to the person immediately west of us. Okay, great. I'm not sure why they're showing it on there. Okay, thank you. I do also have um renderings and floor plans of the homes that are going to be built there if you're curious. Oh, great. We're we're curious. Thank you very much. Thank you. I

should note that the land bank also owns two more parcels immediately north of this. So, we will be building a total of four at this corner. Thank you. Hey. Yeah. Thank you. Are there individuals who would like to speak in favor of this application? If so, please come forward. Provide your name, address, and comments.

Hi. Walt Dixie, Jubilee Homes of Syracuse. Give me my address, too. Did you have my address? Oh, 119 South A Syracuse, New York. So, Jubilee Homes and Land Bank have a long history tradition of working together, collaborative. As you know, this is an area that we've been building homes, not particularly in that block, Aggie Lane's block we call it, but it's it'll be a positive addition as we're working with the land bank to build 40 additional homes on top of the 50 she's building. So, I'm sure the city likes that tax increase and we're going to help get the tax increase increased in the city of Syracuse. Thank you for all the support you give her what she's doing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Other individuals who wish to speak, excuse me, who wish to speak in favor of this application, please come forward. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the application, please come forward. Provide your name, address, and comments. We appear to have no additional speakers, so we'll close public comment on this and turn our attention to our seeker review. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part one prepared by the applicant and contained in your packet? Yes. Yes. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part two prepared by staff and contained in your packet? Yes. Yes.

Does anyone believe that the proposed action will have a moderate large impact under SECRA? No. No. Having determined that the proposed action will not have a moderate large impact, I recommend that the commission make a negative declaration and prepared the EAF part three accordingly. Thank you. Is there a motion to that effect? Make a motion to issue a negative seeker declaration. Thank you both. Discussion on this motion. If there is no discussion, all in favor of the secret motion, please indicate by saying I.

I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? Secret motion carries. And we turn our attention now to the resubdivision itself for R 202634. Is there a motion for action on this item? In due consideration of the application, staff analysis, and a discussion during this hearing, I make a motion to approve application R-2026-34 as presented with one condition. That condition being that the applicant must file uh the map in the Anodaga County Clerk's office within 62 days of the reubdition approval. Thank you. Is there a second? Second.

Thank you. Discussion on this motion for the reubdivision. If there is no discussion, all those in favor of this motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? The resubdivision for R 2022634 is approved. Our next resubdivision, please. Next up, very similar R-2026-35 at 225 and 229 Cwley Street. Also, the land bank R, this is in the R1 zone district.

Thank you. Um, again, Caitlyn Wright representing the Greater Syracuse Property Development Corporation. what we're proposing to do here. It's actually already two parcels and we're just moving the lot line 8 ft to the south. Um can't tell from this map, but the southern end of um the parcel is really steeply sloped. So, this will leave us with two approximately equal size 72 foot sections that are level and then the southern one has a slope in addition. And these will be two again two single family homes, the same model that's before you. Thank you. Questions for the applicant? Yeah. So, just to be clear, the dotted line is the old property line or the current property line and the solid line will be the resubline. Correct.

Thank you. Further questions? Thank you. Thank you. Are there individuals who would like to speak in favor of this application? If so, please come forward, provide your name, address, and comments. Well, Dixie, uh, Jubilee Homes director 119 South AB. Again, I'll do shorter. We we stand behind Caitlyn and hope you support this project. Thank you. Other individuals wishing to speak in favor of this application, please come forward.

Is there anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the application? We apparently have no further speakers, so we'll close public comment. Turn our attention to our secret review for this application. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part one prepared by the applicant and contained in your packet? Yes. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part two prepared by staff and contained in your packet? Yes. Yes. Does anyone believe that the proposed action will have a moderate large impact under SRA? No. No.

Having determined that the proposed action will not have a moderate to large impact, I recommend that the commission make a negative declaration and prepare the EAF part three accordingly. Thank you. Is there a motion to that effect? Make a motion to issue a negative declaration. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Discussion on the seeker motion. Seeing no discussion, all those in favor of this motion, please indicate by saying I. I.

Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? The seeker motion carries. And we turn our attention to the resubdivision itself, R 2026 35. Is there a motion for action here? In consideration of the application, staff analysis and discussion during this meeting, I make a motion to approve application R-2026-35 as presented with one condition. That condition being that the applicant shall successfully file the reubdivision map with the county clerk's office within 62 days of approval of the reubdivision. Thank you. Is there a second? Second.

Thank you. Discussion on this motion for the reubdivision? If not, all in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying I. I.

Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions, R 202635 is approved. We move to our next application. Uh, next is a reubdivision with a proposed uh zoning map amendment to avoid a split lot uh split zone parcel. So R-2026-38 is the resubdivision with companion zoning map amendment Z-2921 at 205-07 Hudson and 209-15 Hudson. Uh one property the Hudson 205 is owned by the Lamb Bank and the R5 and John Rodriguez owner applicant of 29 209-15. Um the first parcel is in R5. Uh the second one is R2 currently. to R2 R2.

Thank you. Um the Caitlyn Wright, Greater Syracuse Property Development Corporation. Uh the property we're selling at 205 Hudson Street is only 33 ft by 90 ft. So it's rather small and it is also located in the 100redyear flood plane. And so for that reason, we don't believe it's likely that it will ever be built on. In those cases, we offer the property to both neighbors typically. Um, in this case, the other neighboring property to the north is a boarded up vacant abandoned house. Um, the neighbor to the south who's buying the lot from us, um, is an owner occupant. He lives at, um, 209-15 Hudson and really already kind of treats this like it's part of his yard. So, I don't think the neighbors will notice any visible difference. Thank you. Questions for the applicant?

Thank you. Thank you. Are there individuals who would like to speak in favor of this application? This is

well Dixie Dub Syracuse 119 South A uh in the across street on the 700 block of South A there's a we're building a 9% tax credit project just you guys been supportive of this. You know last year this summer we was unfortunately did not receive it. We came in fourth the top three got it but they felt very strong for first applicant. We did well. So any so we're going to reapply this summer but anything being behind this building is a positive particular that block needs a lot of work. So I commend Mr. Rodriguez want to he's preserving the land anyway. So it's a good that he's taking the ownership to want to not own the land. So we we're fully supporting that. Thank you. Thank you.

Other individuals who wish to speak in favor of this application please come forward. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the application, please come forward. Provide your name, address, and comments. I see no one rising to speak on this, so we'll close public comment. Um, turn our attention to the seeker review and, uh, those well, we'll do that first. The seeker review. Yeah, we'll we'll do seeker for both. And then each item individually, just a reminder, the zoning map amendment is under the council.

Yep. And then uh just special attention to the proposed recommended conditions of approval upon adoption by the council is the um start date or the trigger date for that. Uh has everyone had an opportunity to review the EIF part one prepared by the applicant and contained in your packet? Yes. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part two prepared by staff and contained in your packet? Yes. Does anyone believe that the proposed action will have a moderate large impact under SECRA? No. No. Having determined that the proposed action will not have a moderate large impact, I recommend that the commission make a negative declaration and prepare the EAF part three accordingly.

Thank you. Is there a motion to that effect? Make a motion to issue a negative seeker declaration. Second. Thank you both. Discussion on this motion. If not, all in favor of the seeker motion, please indicate by saying I. I.

Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions. The seeker motion carries. And we now turn our attention to the resubdivision that we can act upon. And then the zone dis the map change will take the form of a recommendation going to the common council for final disposition. Is there a motion for u the resubdition

in consideration of application staff analysis and a decision during a discussion during this hearing? I make a motion to approve application R-2026-38 as presented with two conditions. One, applicant shall successfully file maps at the Andra County Clerk's Office of the Companion Resubdition Application R-2026-38 within 62 days of approval of the com of the common council approval of the companion application Z-2921, which we are going to consider next. And two, the applicant shall apply for a fence permit before installing a new fence. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second. Thank you. Discussion on this motion for the resubdivision. If not, all in favor of this motion, please indicate by saying I. I. I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions. The resubdivision R 202638 is approved. And we now turn our attention to the zoning map amendment. Is there a motion for action on this?

In consideration of the application of staff analysis and discussion during this this hearing, I make a motion to approve application Z-2921 as presented with a recommendation to the common council for affirmative action and one condition. And that condition being that the applicant shall successfully file the map uh the zoning map Z-2921 and the accompanying RE subdivision R-2026-38 at the UN county clerk's office within 62 days of approval of the Z-2921 zoning map amendment. Thank you. Is there a second? Second.

Thank you both. Second, seconds two seconds. Uh discussion on this motion now before us. This is for the zoning map amendment. If there is no discussion, then all in favor of this motion, please indicate by saying I. I. I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? So this action we just took will now be transmitted to the council for a fin as a in the form of a recommendation for final disposition by the council. Our next application, please.

All right. Next up is a large project with three companion pieces. It's uh we're calling it the housing visions headquarters project. Uh I'll tee it up, but the applicant will present three companion applications. Uh two major site plan reviews and a reubdivision. Um at this meeting, the planning commission will only review the major uh site plan reviews and resubdivision applications and deliberate uh on the declaration for seeker review. Um then following BZA will hold a public hearing uh to decide on companion area variance application as the applicant seeks to obtain uh the variance uh for the site plan review and resub. Um so we're only going to do seeker. Um and then we'll go through um we'll have them present the three. So there there's a major site plan review for the office building, a major site plan review for uh mixed use building and a reubdivision. Um so this is at 1201 East Fat Street in Walnut and 210 Pine Street in East Fat Street in the MX4 zone district. It's MASPR2026-14 2026-16 and R-2026-27. Easy for easy for you to say.

Yes. The applicant here. Yep.

Good evening. Hi. Good evening. Um I'm My name is Ann Akumos Gamber representing East Side Business Center at 121 East Fat Street, Syracuse, New York.

I'm Tim Guyire with Passro Associates, an architect, architecturing engineering firm representing the owner. So, we're here in front of you guys um as we are planning to redevelop our parcel of land that we own on the east side of town. We've been over there for many years now. So, we it's time we believe it's time for redevelopment. Our building has deteriorated over time. We need new HVAC system um in that um in the complex itself and without doing all the capital improvements, we decided this would probably a better course of action for the site itself. So we're looking to demo the current building that we have on site and build two new buildings on two separate partials which we just subdivided. One of it will be our office headquarters for housing visions will house all our corporate offices in there and the other part building will be a new 144 unit uh complex with one and two-bedroom units. All will be uh afford workforce housing. So we are in the beginning stages of all our financing for this. This will go in front of New York State Homes and Community Renewal for an allocation of 4% tax credits along with taxes at bonds.

And I I mean I can go more into details of the project. I'm not sure how ones, twos, and so on and so forth. That that's good so far. Do you want to add something uh as well? Um uh the residential building is actually a mixeduse mixeduse building. It has commercial space in there as well. So the commercial space will actually house us um our connect arm of our um operations but will provide services to the community. Okay. And the project entails the entire block vet and so Washington. Correct. Correct. Okay. All right. Let's see if we have some questions. I saw some movement on both sides here.

Yeah. I'm I'm just I mean this is obviously a very complicated project. I'm just wondering the timing of uh the various components of this. How do you see that playing out? I mean, assuming if you're going to go to the BCA at the next meeting and then you come back to us three weeks from tonight, that's that's good if that all works. Moving forward from there, what's what's the timing look like for the

So from there, once we get approvals from you from the boards, we will start with our uh schematic designs of the complex. So the way the process works with on this side of the house with HCR on the 4%, you have to have all your approvals on hand before you submit to them an application. So you submit preliminary um project information with preliminary plans and then they'll if they like the project they'll continue working with you as we finish developing it uh into the point of we get to 50% construction drawings and that's when you submit the full bone application. We work with assessment um on the uh taxes and the shelter rent agreement for the property as well. So in reality we're probably not looking to break ground on this until like 2028 once we get through all the process and approvals and and the state's process as well.

Yeah. Unfortunately, that's what I was expecting. Okay. I mean, we're if we could do it faster, we will because I mean, we have some individuals in the office who, you know, want AC and heat. Well, I have AC and heat. Others don't, but you know. Further questions for the applicants. So, on the 4%, are you planning a December application? What round are you thinking about? So, the 4%'s run a little bit differently. So, they're not like the 9%. The 9% have their targeted which was probably the fall again this year around September. This is kind of like on a rolling deadline. Okay. So if we submit Yeah. So we probably submit an application next year sometimes in 20 and probably first quarter of 27.

Okay. To the agency. And your total um mixed use space in that building will be occupied by an affiliation of yours. Correct. Yes. And we also will have property management offices in the building for the tenants with community space as well. Yeah. And we're also planning right now the way you look if you look at the site plans, we are planning a playground in there, but we are talking with the city because I know we have the park. So, we just have to align the two projects together because the state does require us to have a playground for the kids. So, if we can't get the other if the other projects will move forward the same timeline as our project, we would have to we would have to add in the playground more.

And you're going to the BCA because you're you're proposing only two floors rather than three and you couldn't get you couldn't get anyone interested in a third floor office. It could be a really big office. It is a pretty big office the way it's actually kind of laid out right now. We just felt the twotory given all our other properties across the street. We we are aware that we can go up three stories but looking at construction costs on the three-story building and other um factors we are looking to do geothermal on the site as well. So be we would have geothermal. So we're trying to be very energy efficient and costconcious when we're building this. And we all know the state only has so many resources available as well. So we're just trying to balance all aspects of the projects together.

I was half joking. But good for you for being prudent with your resources. Third floor. My department will be on the third floor. We'll have a gray balcony up there. But I be geothermal for both buildings. Yes. Yeah. And you've got to do the the full job. Yeah. Thank you.

Are there individuals who would like to speak in favor of this application? If so, please come forward or three applications, I should say, and provide your name, address, and comments. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the application, please come forward. I don't see anyone rising to speak. We will pause but not close our public comments here because we will return to these items later, but we will consider our um environmental review.

All right. So, I'm going to try to walk you through this as efficiently as possible. So, um included in the packet is the full environmental assessment form part one, part two, and um form part three. And uh we've gone through the 18 impacts indicated in the part two 17 uh staff is suggesting that the board um recommend that you check no. So, I'm going to go through those 17 first and then ask you um if you uh agree with that uh determination and then we'll go through the one recommendation that's yes uh at the end and then a conclusion uh after that. So, if there if you're really uh want to say yes instead of no to any of the 17, stop me. But I'm not going to ask you each time if you agree 17 times. I'm going to wait till the end. Um, okay. And there's also um a summary of proposed actions or reasons supporting the determinations of uh significance um for the 18 questions. All right. So, the full environmental assessment form part two has been pre-filled with suggestions from staff. I'm, as I said, I'm going to walk you through uh and see if you agree with those suggestions. Um, among the 18 impacts indicated in part two, staff recommend that you check uh under A, no to impact on geological features as there are no unique geological features and no designated national natural landmarks on the project site. B, that you check no to impact on surface water as there is no wetlands or other surface water bodies that exist on or adjacent to the property. Storm water management systems and areas will be designated on the project site to prevent storm water generated by the action flowing into nearby properties. Per the SWIP, the

on-site storm water runoffs will be significantly decreased. The action will be served by existing water infrastructure instead of withdrawing water from surface water. On to C that you check no to impact on groundwater as the action will not result in any new or additional use of groundwater. to D that you select no to impact on flooding as the action will not result in development on land subject to flooding. E that you select no to impact on air as the action will not include a state regulated air emission source and will not require federal or state air emission permits. F that you check no to impacts on plants and animals. the site does not contain any threatened or endangered species or I identify any habitat and there is no national natural landmark on this site. G that you check no to impact on agricultural resources as there are no agricultural resources on the project site. H that you select no to impact on aesthetic resources as the action is not located near any scenic or aesthetic resources. I that you select no to impact on historic and archaeological resources. The action will not be substantially contiguous to the NR eligible property nor designated as sensitive for archaeological sites or any features. J no to impact on open space and recreation as no designated open spaces or recreational resources will be displaced by the action. K that you select no to impact on critical environmental areas as the project site does not contain a critical environmental area. L that you select no to impact on transportation per the traffic impact assessment or TIA. The fully built project is is expected to generate 43 additional AM peak hour trips and 46 uh PM peak hour trips. Parking lot access from East Washington Street will

minimize impacts on the nearby East Fat Street and Pine Street intersection. The project will not significantly affect transit, pedestrian or bicycle access nor create new traffic patterns based on the projected traffic volumes. It is not meeting the threshold of requirement of a full traffic impact study or TIS. Therefore, the action is highly unlikely to have any potential significant adverse impact on transportation. on to M that you select no to impact on energy as the action will not require a new or an update to an existing substation and the action will not uh uh place in an already urbanized area with existing electricity infrastructure to N that you select no to impact on noise odor and light as the action will comply with the city of Syracuse noise ordinance to mitigate noise impact will add new outdoor lighting but will comply with the Syracuse zoning ordinance which prohibits light shining onto adjoining uh or adjacent properties and will not result in having lighting creating sky globe brighter than existing area conditions. The action will not result in generating odors or fumes during operations. On to O that you select no to impact on human health as no blasting is proposed. The project site does not have a history of contamination or spills and solid waste generated will be managed by following all state, federal and local laws and regulations. P that you select no to consistency with community plans as the action is consistent with most development standards of MX of the MX4 zone district. The proposed structure is in violation of zoning requirements for the minimum building story for the office building. The applicant has submitted a variance application to the office of zoning administration to seek relief from this zoning requirement. If the variance application is denied, the proposed structure will be required to fully comply with the zoning ordinance. surrounding properties are occupied by medium to highdensity residential

housing, commercial buildings, health institutions, and municipal parks. The proposed land use is not in sharp contrast to surrounding land use patterns. And for the 17th one, Q that you select no to consistency with community character as the action will not replace or eliminate existing facilities, structures, or areas of historic importance to the community. and will not create a demand for additional community services. Will not interfere with the use or enjoyment of official public resources is designed to be consistent with the predominant architectural scale and character of the surrounding properties. And the action will reuse the lands to create massive affordable housing. So therefore, staff has determined that the action is highly unlikely to have a significant adverse impact on the above 17 aspects I just mentioned. Does the board agree?

Yes. All right. One more to go. Uh where the staff does recommend that you check yes is on impact on land. The action does involve construction and physical alteration of land. Therefore, we re we recommend the board answer this question. Yes. Uh, does the board agree? Yes.

Yes. The sub questions A through G are asking about the depth to water table, slope of the site, exposed bedrock, uh excavation and removal of natural materials, potential erosions, duration of the construction, and if the action is in a coastal erosion hazard area. Based on the information provided in the part one FEAF and the response letter and the supplement supplementary materials, the action will not involve construction on land with shallow water table, steep slopes, shallow bedrocks or within a coastal erosion hazard area. Also, no excavation, mining or dredging is proposed in this action and a storm water management system has been designed and will be installed. Therefore, I recommend you check no or small impact to sub questions A, B, C, D, F, and G. Does the board agree?

Yes. And lastly, for subsection E, it indicates that the project is anticipated to be completed within 24 months. The long-term construction triggers concerns on noise impact on nearby properties. Per the response, the action will comply with the city of Syracuse noise ordinance to mitigate noise impact during construction. Therefore, I recommend you check no or small impact for the sub questions C and E. Does the board agree? Yes.

In conclusion, the commission as lead agency in this coordinated review under the state environmental quality review act has thoroughly reviewed all relevant materials, has taken a hard look and analyzed all aspects of the action. For all the reasons set forth above, the commission determines that the action will not have any significant adverse impacts on the environment and therefore an environmental impact statement need not be prepared. Accordingly, the commission is issues a negative declaration to be filed and notice of this negative declaration will be provided pursuant to all applicable laws and regulations. And we're done.

Thank you. Okay, since we went through that item by item, it does not require a uh motion. I believe by questions kind of walked you through it and you all agreed so

for clarification. So that's the uh secret review for these three items. the substantive parts will come back to this body u following action by the board of zoning appeals on the uh varants and just so that everyone knows when those come back whether it's our next meeting or some subsequent meeting there'll be public notification again correct on those items yeah we'll we'll notice it again

okay just for the uh folks in the audience next BCA meeting if you're interested interested is should be June the 4th and the next CPC meeting should be June 8th if it proceeds on that schedule. Great. Well, thank you very much for that. Our next application, please. Next up is a special use permit SP 2026-9 at 307 Regal Street. Owner 307 Regal Street LLC. Applicant Rob Bidwell. This is in the MX2 zone district. Hello, my name is Ron Bidwell. I live at 404 Darrow A and I'm the applicant for the special purpose.

You want to walk us through just what it is? Sure. Yeah. So, we bought the building a year and a half ago. We currently use part of the building as our um landing space for our sauce. Sales Birdland has been around for 51 years. Uh we're bringing it back into Syracuse with its standalone store and we're going to take half of that building and make it a takeout delivery unit restaurant. Thank you. Questions for the applicant. So I assume Birdland is a reference to chickens and not the jazz club in New York City. Say that again. I assume Birdland is a reference to the chickens that you serve and not the jazz club in New York City.

Correct. Uh, I have a question about the 206 Greenway Avenue uh, extension property that's going to be used for for parking. Do you own that property or So, is that the east of the building or west of the building? It's west. West. So, I Yes. Yes. Yes. There's three lots actually. Uhhuh. when we bought. So, we own 40 uh feet of the grass area going east and then we own the whole parking lot going to the corner to the west.

Okay, good. So, you uh there is a recommendation or condition that you at some point you need to do a reubdivision for the parking area on Greenway so that all the parking will be on the same parcel that the business is on. Uh were you aware does that does that matter when you own uh yes it still matters. Why does that matter? Uh because the uh properties are a different designation. No, they're not. So um typically we require that they be resubdivided be so you can't split off and lose any required parking. Um okay. So

that makes sense. Like I said, it just didn't make any sense. So all you would have to do is just agree that you would get a a surveyor to file a new map and then go through the process to resubdivide into one property. You could also choose to split it up differently, I suppose, because of the 206 greenways. That's totally up to you, but that's the reason why. Yeah, I would love it if we used all that parking, but I I don't see that happening. It's mostly there's no sit down, so it's really pick up, take out to go in and out and and move along. But when you do the re subdivision that allows up the free land on the other part of that for whatever purpose you might want to do in in the future. So I was just a little bit curious. I mean I I guess in terms of your business plan, you don't really anticipate any walk-in business because that that road is kind of a

Yeah, it's an unusual location. No, when when I bought the property, I had this great vision that it would be a billboard, you know, for for the for the business. But since the 81, now they're putting noise barriers up. Uhhuh. So, I'm a little So, you won't even miss that from 69. Yeah. So, my my signage might have to go up higher.

Further questions? I just have one quick question. There's some indication in the application for seating outside. I assumed in reading that that's not served meals. That's waiting for my pickup. Is am I correct? We're going to put a So, we put our um grease trap in the ground outside. Okay. So, we can't park a car on there. That's why we didn't use the two parkings up front. So, we have to put rock around it. And to me, I was like, I'll put a couple picnic tables for people to wait, you know, for their order if it's not prepared. Okay. Thank you.

Other questions? Thank you. Okay, thank you. Are there individuals who would like to speak in favor of this application? If so, please come forward. Provide your name, address, and comments. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the application, please come forward. I don't see any additional speakers, so we'll close public comment on this. Turn our attention to the secret review. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part one prepared by the applicant and contained in your packet? Yes.

Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part two prepared by staff and contained in your packet? Yes. Does anyone believe that the proposed action will have a moderate large impact under SECRA? No. No. Having determined that the proposed action will not have a moderate to large impact, I recommend that the commission make a negative declaration and prepare the EAF part three accordingly. Thank you. Is there a motion to that effect? Make a motion to issue a negative seeker declaration. You is there a second?

Discussion on the seeker motion? If not, all in favor of this motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? Seeker motion carries. We turn our attention now to the special use permit SP 20269. And as with all special use permits, our action on this item becomes a recommendation to the common council for a final determination. So, is there a motion for action on this special use permit application?

In consideration of the application, staff analysis, and the discussion during this hearing, I make a motion finding the application SP-2026 in compliance with the special use permit criteria in section 5-.4-B7 A through H and recommend approval by the common council with the following eight conditions. One, the applicant shall comply with the general conditions for approval of all special use uh permit applications. Two, the applicant shall always possess a valid certificate of use issued by the city of Syracuse. Three, the business owner shall abide by the hours of operation that the planning commission planning commission decides upon. That is right now Monday through Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. Uh four, no neon signage or decorative lighting shall be permitted on the windows or building facade. Five, all outside storage, junk, bottles, cartons, boxes, debris, and the like shall be restricted to uh appro appropriately screened enclosures not visible to the general public. Six, the proposed outside seating shall be only situated within a property boundary without encroaching on the city's right away. Seven, curbs shall be provided along the edge of all access of all areas accessible to vehicles to prevent the encroachment of vehicles on any portion thereof upon adjacent property or the street writer way. And eight, the applicant shall obtain approval for a reubdivision to combine 206 Greenway Avenue and 307 Rio Street into a single parcel to ensure that all proposed accessory parking spaces are located on the same parcel.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Discussion on the motion now before us. If there's no discussion, all in favor of this motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? So this recommendation for SP 20269 will move on to the common council for a final determination. We have another special use permit application.

Yes. Next up is uh SP2026-18 special use permit at 623-25 Wolf Street owned by East Coast Housing LLC in the MX2 uh zone district. I do just want to briefly make some comments before I turn it over to Greg. Um, this was before this board uh before for a restaurant special use permit. Um, the business model is is changing. So, the owner is back before uh this governing body to change it to a commercial prep uh commercial food preparation establishment or commissary kitchen. Um, I'll let him explain more, but if this should get adopted by council, uh, by the common council and by this board, he is agreeing to relinquishing the restaurant special use permit and have this kind of subsume or replace, uh, it. So, if there's any questions on that, um, let me know. If not, I'll turn it over to Greg to walk through, uh, this plan.

Hello. How's everyone doing today? Good evening. How are you? My name is uh Greg Nice with East Coast Housing. Um 104 George Street, North Syracuse, New York. Um here to talk about 623 625 Wolf Street, changing the special use permit over to a commissary kitchen. Um I have a business plan. I got three copies of it. If anyone's interested, I could share. Yeah, we can share. Thank you. That's the same thing that's in here. I think it's

Yeah, it's in here. It's the same. Um, so anyways, I want to change it over to more of a commissary kitchen. Um, allowing multiple users to use the kitchen versus just one. Um, so far I did make a mistake and I started a little too early. Um, which I own. Um, we've already had some users using it to high success. And, uh, these are people that are using the kitchen that are not wanted to own a whole restaurant but need days or maybe a day once a week or maybe even once a month. Um, and so far it's off to a good start. Everything's been on pause, obviously upon your guys approval that we can continue once successful. So, one thing I want to note that I I actually wasn't aware of, um, our licensing coordinator for the city of Syracuse and the permit office, uh, works closely with a lot of different types of business licensing, but um, you know, a lot of these these vendors, they need an actual home base or kitchen uh, to get health uh, department approval. So, um it makes sense that this is being established and you know these types of businesses they they need this uh sort of um kitchen or home base um to to provide their you know whatever it is they're making and selling at you know a different space whether they're selling to stores or at events or whatever it may be. So I just wanted to explain that. Um and it's usually small local business owners too.

Thank you. So questions for the applicant. So what happened with the Tommy diner um proposal? It was um would do good. There was staffing issues trying to keep the cook one day the cook would call and psych or then a waitress call and sick and he was having a difficult time maintaining a a solid base. Um he didn't really spend a lot of advertising on it. surges open the doors and tried to get it going and um he just didn't have a a good solid base to it as far as um employees and it was a difficult thing to overcome to be established and um I came up with the idea because there were so many kitchen hours and I said I want to see this place be of use

and uh the commissery you know now is allowing multiple people give them a chance to actually start their business and maybe move on to their own restaurant or move on to whatever they do. Um so as Jake was saying um each entity real entity that's um a real entity LLC or DBA um need what's called the commissary kitchen to run a legal business. So we've already worked with Anadoga County Health Department, New York State Health Department and um we've passed them. I just sort of made a mistake and Jake corrected me on that. So I'm here to finalize it and get some people back to you. every time.

Greg, can you also, just for the record, I think it'd be helpful for you to explain how Tom how Tommy's Diner is going to fit into this use and the contract that they have. So, yes. So, what's what's going to happen is um I I represent East Coast Housing. Um the name of the commissary kitchen is going to be, which is a DBA on the last page there, um it's going to call East Coast Commissary Kitchen. That's going to be the head health permit. from that they read the branch off of the other people using their permit including Tommy's. Tommy's doing some catering work. So, he's not out of business. He just wasn't using enough kitchen hours to make enough money to pay the rent, right,

logistically. So, um and I came up with the concept. I said, "Well, you know, there's a lot of kitchen hours that are just wide open here. Um don't give up. We just got to shift gears." And he's um doing some catering. It's just not catering is not always all the time. We got a gig with um the military actually. We're doing um some catering. It's an early thing. It's um from like 8 in the morning to 10, deliveries by like 10, 10:30, and it's Monday through Friday. So, it's been solid for him. But once again, there's so many kitchen hours open. It just doesn't make sense to not use that kitchen. Right. Right. Right. So, you found a new niche.

Found a new niche. And um there was the Salt City uh commissary kitchen, right? Um I believe I know why they went under because they weren't managing their kitchen right. So each and I've already worked with the health department with some of the stuff. Um Amy Darcy um what was going on is like people would sign up for the service to get their license and then go ghost. So they have their license and there was no counter action. The way I'm going to do it is there will be like a small monthly fee and when someone stops paying I will contact someone like Amy Darcy to say, "Hey, this person's not here no more. Update your records or contact them and there'll be more of a checks and balance to the system versus going rogue and there's a thousand food trucks out there that probably aren't zoned proper at real commissary kitchen."

Intent additional questions. Yeah. So, two two questions. The uh the house that's on the west, is there a common wall? Is there communication between those two? How? So, you talk about um uh 6 it's 623 625 W Street. It's it's the building's actually attached. It is attached. Okay. Because that wasn't clear. It's going to get sided because it's going to get sided probably very soon. So, it looks like all one building, but as um separate uh residents there. Right. Right. So, there's no communication between the two buildings. It's just an attached wall. It's like it's attached. Okay. I don't know about communication. I'm not sure. There's like separate power, separate water bills on that things. You know,

the other question I'm just wondering, and I can't recall because it's been two years since we last visited this, but there's no sidewalks on the property. There's no sidewalks and you know, I know that the plans have demarcation between the parking and the right of way so that there's should be no opportunity to back out. But I I was just curious and maybe this is much a question for uh zoning administrator just with respect to sidewalks in this particular property because we often when we do review a new application if there's no sidewalks we try to see if we can do something about sidewalks. Um is that a question for me? Yeah. Well, I guess it's a question. I'm just wondering about Jake. I I think there

there's been any discussion about the sidewalks for that property. If I could add a little something to it. Um Yeah. Not the image with 202 is is the image. Yeah. Thanks. If you look from the street, um there's actually was a sidewalk. I think it just over the years of layers of turvy and new street got buried sort of. Um so I think that sort of answers that that there used to be a sidewalk. I believe it's like rolled low now versus I think just new tarby over the course of the years that just you know on the street side that is that be an appropriate condition or

we don't have anything like that from public works. Uh what I can say is uh Greg has complied with the sept um portion of it where he's got the Ballard's um limiting the access the ingress and egress to the I guess that would be the furthest west kind of pulling um left on your screen is where where it would kind of be right where the officers in and out down there. Um, but we do not have anything recommending that from public works. So, it's 203 has the picture of the ballers that are that are there. So, I guess I just wanted to check if that's adequate from the zoning perspective.

Yeah. And that again that was from a Syracuse police crime prevention through environmental design comment not uh from public works transportation but yes it's compliant with that portion of it. Thanks.

I just want to confirm that you're very confident that you have a program established if there are abusers. You're on going to be on top of that.

Absolutely. I'm a I'm a spreadsheet guy. I don't I don't miss a beat. So, um, yes, I I have a system that's already set in place actually that, um, the way the, um, business is going to run as far as, um, billing and all that stuff goes. Um, and, um, when I've already talked like Amy Darcy, so we're already in conjunction if you know, someone sort of just disappears, my job is going to be to tell her, hey, just so you know, I'm not there to say cancel their permit, but they're just not at my location anymore. And that's up to her to do. It's not my job to do that, you know. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or Yeah. How many cooks do you think you would anticipate and will it fluctuate over time or do you expect it to be sort of constant?

I think it's going to be a fluctuation because you know there's going to be some business that try to get a business going potentially and um their success is up to them. I'm just offering the space to use it. Um so that's sort of to be determined. So there might be some coming, there might be some going, there might be a steady influx. But um the people that are using it today, not currently, but were um some of them were just once a month, some of them were once every two weeks. Um some of the food truck guys were in and out a little bit more, but they were like in and out, you know, they were doing what they got to do. They're cooking on their truck, but they got to fill their water up. There's like certain rules that Andadaw County um requires um for them to do. And um I think I found a nice niche for the building and it's making a lot of people that are using it very happy. I was supposed to have a couple people come today, but uh um some of them weren't able to show up.

Oh yeah, there she is. So um I would like to introduce if one when she's ready. Um Tropical Palm. Um they're one of my favorites over here. So uh they have come to me and they're maybe like once every two weeks, once every so often and um they use the kitchen for their operation. So it has the potential for a lot of variability over the months and maybe even seasonal changes as well. Sure. And um you know and so far our users that have used the kitchen are you know really liking it and I'm keeping their cost down versus and say they decide to start getting busier. Maybe they'll fly off on their own and get their own restaurant if it you know makes sense for them. But the food truck people they need us for licensing. We we can hope.

I was going to make a comment about too many cooks in the kitchen but I'll refrain. So, so far you know with everything you were going to Well, I'm going to call for those who want to speak in favor of the application to come forward and do that and that might be the category in which I'll let her take over. Thank you. Thank Thank you guys. Just give us your name and address and your comments.

Hi. Hello everyone. My name is Gerald de Borg Joseph. I go by G. Um I'm one of the corners of Tropical Farm. We are HaitianAmerican catering service established here since 2021. Um, we've taken a pause because of the issues of finding a reliable and upto-date and clean commissary kitchen to use on a regular basis. And this year when we relaunch our business, we found Greg online as all of us are trying to do research and establish. And since day one, um the process has been seamless because we've been established and gone through the process with the health department for different jobs before. Um I have to say since I started working with different curricuses and outside of Syracuse, it's one of the one seamless system that I've seen established. It's very straightforward because we're already established. So we know what the paperwork looks like. we know we have to walk in and do a walk through and he's there in person. Um, and the team is there to it's not just words going around and throwing a ton of list at me. So, he helps us establishing with the place. We've used that um for since we are mobile so we take different type of jobs. We have used it to prepare food and do deliveries and also to do our popups to promote the business. And that's where my push for the full established community kitchen comes into play cuz having not having a place of our own and being mobile, it's so difficult to do those popups so that we can launch in the community. And as a small business, we need that home base. Um, we are not able to do it every week.

And having somewhere where we can have it schedule and our followers know where we at. Twice a month from 2 to 8. This is where Tropical Palm is, it has been very helpful. We test drive it three times. It was very successful. Um, and we are hoping to continue to do so. The local is um, amazing. we've done downtown. As much as we love downtown and we love the crowd downtown, majority of our followers on a busy Saturday night, we are not getting the majority crowd for ethnic food

because of parking situation. And where Greg is located is perfect. The parking, street parking is just convenient. um and the few other colleagues that I've worked with. Um one of the benefits I want to throw out there is the fact that although it is a commissary kitchen, when we schedule to use it, we get to use it and we alone and we feel safe in there and we do like that. There's that that quality control aspect of it that we thrive to keep within our business that the place favors that as well. and we appreciate that. Thank you. Thanks.

Are there other individuals who would like to speak in favor of this application? If so, come forward. Please provide your name, address, and comments. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the application, please come forward. Provide your name, address, and comments. Good evening.

My name is Katherine Cullivan. I'm here on behalf of the Washington Square Neighborhood Association. I have a statement I'd like to read. We oppose this proposal. It's an unsafe, unmanageable, uninforcable, incompatible with the neighborhood and historically problematic property. What's being presented here is not a restaurant. It's a rotating commercial food hub and shared commissary kitchen in the middle of a residential neighborhood at a property with long documented history of violations, criminal activity, and failed oversight. This site was Tommy's Bar and Grill, shut down after years of drug activity, violence, noise, and police calls. The city knew all of this. Then it became Tommy's Diner and even with a second chance, the property still violated violated its permit. In 2026, it was cited for operating outside his special use permit. That is in your own records. Now, the city's approval narrative is trying to frame this as a low impact continuation of a restaurant. It's not. This is a multi-tenant commercial kitchen operating from 5:00 a.m. to midnight. That's what's in the application. Seven days a week with multiple food businesses rotating through the site. This is a major intensification of its use. If the city decides to approve this anyway, residents need real enforcement, real oversight, and a single accountable point person because for years, residents have been the ones documenting violations while the city's complaintdriven system has failed to protect the neighborhood. Before you expand commercial activity here again, we need answers to ba basic land use safety and enforcement questions. Who is

legally responsible when multiple owners use the same kitchen? Who is accountable for health code violations, fire hazards, sanitation failures, or safety issues? Why is the city recommending approval before the parking issue is even legal? What is code enforcement's plan? What is the fire department's plan? What is the health department's plan? Who shuts down equipment at night? Where do the trucks go? Who handles waste, grease, rodents, and trash? Why should homeowners absorb the risk again? And the core question, why is the city expanding commercial activity at a property with documented history of violations and criminal incidents? and what guarantees will ensure enforcement is real, proactive, and tied to a single independent named point person so residents are not forced to police this property themselves. I have um that statement in a letter. May I approach it,

please? And we'll add it to the record. I will also get that to you by tomorrow morning.

Thank you. Thank you. Are there other individuals who would like to speak in opposition to the application? If so, please come forward. Thank you. My name is Bridget Moore. Um, I live next door. There's one house between us and this property. Um, and thank you, Katherine, for that. I really appreciate. You said it a lot more nicely than I would. it. I can't even begin to tell you how many nights that in front of our property there would be people that would well there were some people that would come over and pee in our yard like we have a a view camera that and they'd go up the driveway. Um beyond that they'd park. It wouldn't matter. It's odd even, but all down the street and then the party would continue outside of their car. So, in just regards to to like 5 in the morning till midnight, okay, that's one hour past noise ordinance, two hours before noise ordinance. And just a little ticky little thing, there's a car that belongs to Tommy's Bar and Grill and those um disabled ramps that they use. That's great. It provides them a pad that they can drive up on the sidewalk and park like feet from the door. Another thing I have to ask, I'm not really real clear on what a ballard is. What is a ballard? Can you can anybody tell me?

It's a vertical piece of cement, steel, or whatever that prevents uh cars from encroaching onto sidewalks and so forth. So, it's buried in the ground. No, no, it sticks up above the ground. It's anchored in the ground, but it sticks up above Oh, it is anchored in the ground. Yeah. Well, those ballards are in buckets. Yeah, they're in buckets. 208 is the picture. Why would you have them in a bucket if you weren't going to move? Yeah. I I just don't think that they're people of their word. That's it. Thank you so much. You're on Second North.

Yes, ma'am. 7-Eleven Second North. Thank you. Are there other individuals who would like to speak in opposition to the application? Please come forward, provide your name, your address, and then your comments.

Hi, I'm April Moore. I live at 7-Eleven Second North. And our street is a very quiet, tranquil street. I've lived there at that house since 1982. I've lived in the neighborhood since 1953. I've been around. I know the neighborhood and that corner lot which is now Tommy's very disappointed and and having no respect for the neighborhood. They the patrons where he had business before at 10:00 you think it was the end of the world. The patrons would be walking up the street and the music, whatever music would be so loud it would shake the house. I'm not saying it's going to be like that now, but it's the activity and whatever patrons show up. I'm really disheartened by this whole idea. 5:00 a.m. to midnight. Why? Why? No respect. I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. I get no respect. Thank you. Other individuals who wish to speak in opposition.

He ley 1607 Spring Street. I'd like to ditto what Katherine had read earlier. I'd also like to mention under his own admission, he has a special use permit and he's already started this commissary kitchen. It only came to an end when we brought it to our councilman Marty Nyl and he put a stop to it. Otherwise, it would still be operating even though he doesn't have the special use permit already. There's trailers there nightly. There's already under the Tommy's bar grill that went beyond his scope of operating hours. It was supposed to be breakfast and lunch. There would be activity there evenings 8 9:00 at night. So, he already goes beyond his use permit. What's going to make him follow this use permit? So, I'm against it 100%.

Thank you. Thank you. Are there other individuals who wish to speak in opposition to the application? Please come forward. I see no additional speakers on this. So, as I indicated at the outset, uh when comments are offered in opposition, the applicant has an opportunity to address the comments made in opposition. you have the opportunity to do that now if you'd like.

Um to answer some of the questions directly, um I'm going to be in charge of it. I was not in charge of Tommy's Diner or Tommy's um all that stuff happened about two and a half years ago. Um I came before you guys and the place has been very quiet for two years. There's been no problems, no cop calling, no nothing. There's been no loud music. The parking lot's been free. Um, there was a mistake I made two and a half years ago and it was about two and a half years ago and it's been very quiet, very respectful. I get along good with all the neighbors now. I feel bad that these guys went through that back then. Um, that's why I'm as building owner stepping into the business to run it, making sure that none of that type stuff happens. I have a lot at risk to let anything foolish happen at that building because it's you know, it's an investment to me. So, to allow anything foolish to happen, it's not going to happen. Um, everyone that is going to be using the kitchen is a legal entity. They have to run their business and it's all on food. There's no alcohol, not asking for a bar. Um, when all that stuff happened, uh, if you guys recall, that um, alcohol permit got turned in. We complied with everything going forward. Um, so I mean there's going to be, you know, there's security cameras. I increased the lighting. Um, I did the parking bullets. Um, so on so forth. Um, I have too much at risk to let anything foolish happen on that property going forward. Things did happen a couple years ago. Um, but every sign, check the police records, there's been nothing. It's been very quiet. Um, and I just feel that this is beyond just um a bar. I'm not trying to open a bar. I'm opening a commissary kitchen to allow people with legal entities to pursue their dreams

basically. Um you've uh guys just heard from G. Um you know she loves the place. She I went in there one of her you know little gatherings she had and uh it was great and um that's the users we have. We have a couple people that are cooking cupcakes. They're not having no one come in even. They serve their at weddings and so on so forth and they're using as their commissary kitchen. they come in by themselves, not their customers even, and um you know, they're using it for permanent uh usage. So, I mean, everyone that is using the kitchen has a reason to be there. Um they're trying to start a business. So, they're not there to I'm not allowing any foul play. Uh the stuff that happened a couple years ago, guys, you know, I'm here to say sorry he is, okay? Because the stuff did happen. But um I'm going to be the point person, not Tommy's Diner, not you know, nothing of that sort. I'm Bill the owner. I'm not going to allow any foul play. And if I can go back in time, that would have ended a lot sooner. But it happened. And you know, it's two and a half years ago. And you know, it's time for it to move on and um make it a successful place. That's pretty much all I got to say.

Thank you. Any questions? Just for clarification, it may be helpful for the folks who have made comments about the problems that existed before. The interior seating area exists only for purposes of uh the partners in the commissary. There's no public access to the seating area. No public traffic into the seating area. So, it shouldn't have the kind of traffic problems you had in the past.

Once again, guys, there's no bar, there's no DJs coming in, none of that kind of stuff is happening. So, um, my Haitian friend over here, she, you know, she, um, does weddings and she does she's a caterer. So, she might have people coming in for a tastings to try their food and stuff, but, you know, these are people that are all good people that are coming in and, you know, this isn't, you know, I'm not asking to open a wild bar and stuff like that. That's not what this is about. Thank you. You're welcome. Can you tell us why you need to have such long hours? Why 5 a.m. to midnight?

Okay. Um, good question. Um, well, a lot of these, um, food trucks, you know, they're they need to get on the road and get to where they got to go. Um, some of the caterers are they're starting at 5 in the morning to, you know, prep their food. And, you know, these guys get segments of time. I'm giving them six hour 6 hour windows. Um, and as far as like as far as food trucks go, um, some of these events don't end. Taste of Syracuse probably ends at around I don't know 10, 11 at night, maybe give and take. I don't know exact time, but by time they pack up and go, they got to go empty their water and stuff and they're in and out. Um, it's just the recommended time that I think would work best for the users. You know, these guys are cooking. They're prepping. Mhm.

You know, it's they don't need it for an hour. They might need it for five, six hours at a time to, you know, cook their food, prep their food, and package up and do what they got to do with it. Yeah. Yeah, I guess I understand that for the 5:00 a.m. But what about the 12 a.m.? Up to 12. Okay, let's take uh Taste of Syracuse. Um, does anyone know what time that roughly ends at night? By the time they get out though, they move their trucks, you know, 10 o'clock, but by the time they move their trucks and all that, they got to empty their water and so on so forth and get rid of their grease or whatever. So, they have to come back after the event. Yeah, that's why you need to 12.

Yes, of course. Yes. And that's mainly for them. Mainly for them guys. And you know, once again, that's not all the time either. Um, it's not all the time, but some of these guys work different hours. You know, they have their food trucks to x amount of time and it's just they must store their food or so on so forth. That's just I thought personally the hours that would work the best. So, um I think so I'm hearing that we're going to do you're going to try to do two things here. The food truck catering piece of business, which is what I would describe more as like a solo operation. I'm going to go there and prepare my food that I'm taking to Steve's party.

Sure. And it's me and a couple of other people. And then there's G's operation which is she runs a popup where she goes and prepares the food but I go there to eat it. Is that right? Um somewhat yeah somewhat yes. Um yeah but no one yes. Okay so and you know I think we have to look at the records but um clearly we all are well aware of the difficulty that the neighborhood endured and your property endured while it was Tommy's Bar and Grill.

Agreed. Um, and by your admission tonight, Tommy's Diner didn't have the capacity, for lack of a better word, to run the business effectively. I mean, it's bottom line, you know. Yeah. But I also hear the neighbors speaking to as people are leaving the building for whatever reason they are in there for legally, hopefully. Um there are there are issues that are occurring with parking with noise on the street two and a half years ago ma'am it but that's my question is it two and a half years ago that all of that occurred so

PTSD two and a half years ago and I agree I I get the same feeling because that's never going to happen occurred recently Nope.

Yeah I can I can weigh in on that. So after um Tommy's Diner opened up until pretty recently, like we get regular police checks on it and I get updates from the area captain on their patrols. Um what Greg has stated um we've I've had zero reports from SPD since Tommy's bar shut down. Um and that was some time ago now. And it's a result I'm, you know, building owner. I'm not just leases. I'm in the I'm in there now and I'm it's not going to take the chance of craziness happening on the property. It's an investment for me. So I took a special interest. I want to see success out of it. But I want to see I want to see the place used by good people and that's what I'm developing.

And I think that's one piece of it, Greg. The second piece of it is I hear the neighborhood saying, "Please be a good neighbor to us as well." I agree. I want to be. So we need to have a communication system, a response system. Sure. That immediately hears and answers. Sure. The challenges that occur. That would be me. Okay.

That's me. Um, you know, I will I am the point person though. Um, the uh proposal is going to be East Coast East Coast Commissary Kitchen. East Coast Housing is a property owner myself. East Coast Connissery Kitchen is just a sub DBA of the overall um LLC. Um I'm in there now. You know, I just want to see success and I don't want problems with any neighbors and my apologies to anyone that that stuff happened to, but that was a little bit out of my control. Um, it's under my control now and it's been very quiet for two and a half years and you know it's If we were to not act on this tonight, would you be willing to meet with a group of the neighbors who feel differently?

Sure. You have concerns going forward with how the operation Sure. will present to the neighborhood. Sure. So that they at least have an opportunity to tell you what they've experienced. We could even do it there if you want. You guys are more than welcome to, you know, more than welcome, you know. Could even do it there if they want. Come on up.

Sure. I if I could answer that. Um the food trucks aren't going there to run their operation. Those generators turn on when they get on site.

They're not running. They're filling up some water here, dumping some water. They're not there setting up the food truck and letting it run all day. That's not what's going to happen. Not even close, just for the record. So, I I don't know how the rest of the commission feels. I mean, I'd be willing to suggest that we hold action on this tonight. And I heard you say you're willing to attend the neighborhood, the Washington Square neighborhood meeting Thursday. Sure. Um, and then I think that would give me an opportunity, again, I don't want to speak for the rest of the commission to double check some of the concerns that the neighborhoods brought to us.

Sounds like the neighborhood like the point of contact chance to express their concern to someone who is in authority over the building. That's me. Yeah. And you know, we have had uh from time to time cases like this where there's concern with the neighbors about the operation and we have held it and had meetings between the applicant and the neighbors that were able to resolve the concern. So if that works well in this situation, that would be a good path forward. Sure. I mean, you know, because when you have a long history that's not your fault, but it's a long history that needs to be addressed, you need to build up the confidence and the and I was I was hoping agreed. I understand. I was hoping over the course of two and a half years, which is a pretty darn long time, to have zero issues.

You know, there's zero issues there. There's no police records. There's no problems. I think because I worked with you guys on this and Jake and I worked with you guys directly on this. I turned the place around very much so. And you know, there should be a little credit for two and a half years of no problems too when there was. And I be the first one to say that there was issues. um those were corrected and you know and satisfied and fixed.

So I think what I'm hearing is consensus. We hold this item this evening. Um you and neighbors will have some conversation at the meeting scheduled for Thursday and uh exchange issues, concerns, um suggestions perhaps. Um, and this will be on our agenda for our next meeting. Uh, that'll be in June. And we would hope to hear back in advance of that meeting um, some report on what happened in the course of the conversations. Okay. Okay. Thanks to everyone who spoke on this. You have to come up.

Please come to the microphone. Who is going to be the person to follow up with you about our meeting on Thursday? Who's going to follow up with us? Yeah. After the meeting, right? About the discussion answers to our questions which you have in there. Yeah. Who's going to shall I follow up with you?

I think if someone could convey some kind of summary of that conversation or that meeting to the zoning office. I always write minutes to our meeting. They're very comprehensive. If you ever watched if you've ever seen any of my meeting minutes, they're very comprehensive. I'd be glad to get a copy to you. That would be great. And and if it can be done in advance of our next meeting, then gives us time to read them and digest them. Send it to you. And if you do a really good job at that, we've got um minutes here that uh from time to time need need a little help. Just kidding. I'm really good at it. In between now and the next meeting, communication would be with the staff. Right. Okay.

So, thank you for the follow date of your next meeting. June 8th, I believe. Okay. Thank you. Sounds right. Yeah. No, later than that. Later than that. Okay. Wait, they're correcting me. I have to go look. That's not enough time, I don't think. No, thank you. Um, they're correcting me. So, let me check. It's June 8th. It is. Oh, my my mistake. June 8th.

So, we should have a few weeks. Before we move to our next two items, I'm going to call upon our very able vice chair uh to preside over the next two items on our agenda. Uh I will not be I will not be uh voting on those items nor will I be participating in any discussion because of my affiliation with the applicant. So I give you our esteemed vice chair. It's always nice to be one seat over. All right. When uh we'll let Jake te this off and we'll go from there. Thank you for the introduction.

All right. Next up we have two major site plan reviews. We'll start with MASPR 2026-8 at 1474 Salt Springs Road owned by Finn's Management uh in the R1 zone district. So, just to kind of cue this up a little bit, um this is a uh applicant is seeking to establish additional bedrooms in an existing uh single unit uh dwelling unit. So, it's not um it's not an addition. It's within the same footprint of the existing structure. And um as of our last uh zoning code amendment, this now triggers uh site plan review to ensure that we're um evaluating the density and intensity of use in a residential zone district um rather than dealing with uh the old definition of family that we used to have in the old zoning code, right?

Um and so on. So that's what will be presented. uh this evening at two properties, but we'll start with Salt Springs Road and I'll turn it over to a representative from Finn's management.

Good evening. Good evening. Gary Peyton with Le Moine facilities.

Jack Brower with Le Moine College. I'm the manager for community engagement and properties. So, we just wanted to start by giving you a little context of our efforts with these properties. Um you may or may not know some of this. uh in 2022 the owner there was an individual landlord that owned 20 properties in and around the college. He approached the college and wanted to sell the 20 properties all or nothing. So we could buy one but or he couldn't buy one. We had to buy everything or nothing. Um he was also entertaining offers from other landlords which we knew were absentee landlords and the college administration did not want to see those homes and uh go into the his hands and what that effect would be on the community. So um with that um we did decide to move forward uh leadership really wanted to improve the integrity and to support the integrity of the community. Uh the college did not has not added any bed capacity to any of these houses since we purchased them. Um at the time of the sale from the individual we bought it from there were 94 bedrooms in the 20 homes. Um upon the con the college taking them over, we immediately eliminated many bedrooms, 14 in total because of either egress issues or the quality of space. Um, we also immediately started to install egress windows in any unit that had a a sleeping unit that was below grade where we could do it. Some places it just wasn't feasible or would it was very, you know, cost prohibitive. So, we eliminated the bedroom. Um, so with that, um, we then also had a lease that was under his ownership. So our students had no that lease had no tie to our students or to the college, right? So their behavior uh if somebody was behaving bad, it was very hard for us to enforce that. We had

to live with that for that first year. Once we got through that first year, um we decided to hire a property manager. That's when Jack Brower came on and we really worked out a solid lease uh that holds the students academically uh uh you know, accountable for their behavior in these houses. and I'll let Jack speak a little bit about his efforts.

Yeah. So, thanks for having us tonight. Um, as Gary said, I'm the manager for community engagement and properties, which is definitely an unusual job title a little bit. People don't usually think of community engagement and property managers in the same section. But as we gather tonight to kind of consider these applications and their impact on quality of life, I do feel like community engagement and housing kind of live at that intersection of quality of life, especially in a a residential one neighborhood. Um, so I do want to harp back to what Gary said about we're not adding bedrooms per se here. We've actually reduced the number of bedrooms in this portfolio of 20 properties. Um, and I oversee all those properties for the college. Um, and in in purchasing these, Le Moine's been able to open some new avenues for communication with the neighborhood. So now, if we do get to a point where there's unwanted behavior at one of these homes, security, campus safety is on call 247, 365 days a year, and can respond to those properties because they're college property. Um, we've also been able to create an application process for students that are interested in living in the neighborhood. So, we can kind of take a pool of applicants and say, let's think about who might be ready to live next door to neighbors in Salt Springs and kind of blend well with residential life. Um, I think my job brings me a lot of joy. It's fun to try to bridge connections between the college campus and the Salt Springs neighborhood. And I've been able to meet some really incredible neighbors, some of which are here tonight. They've been here for 10, 20, 30, even 40, sometimes even 50 years in this neighborhood. And I'm sure they'll have a lot of thoughts to add to this this conversation.

And al also I'll mention that since we've taken over the properties now Le Moine security does patrol those uh areas not you know so much for law enforcement but there's a presence right and we the college has purposely gone out and put a lot of commitment into landscaping uh improving security around the houses improving lighting around the houses which all helps the neighborhood right uh so it's a really strong commitment by the college to the neighborhood um and it's a nice connection. Uh we meet a lot a lot of nice people. Um and I think since Jack has come on board, the behavior of the students has really uh really changed 100%. Um and

sorry, I lost it. It's all right. Well, we'll we'll start. U that sounds like something you should package itself. Changing the behavior of students. I mean, seriously, take it on the road, Jack. I haven't heard anybody else say anything remotely like that. I like living on the the east side. the uh in in the cases in front of us tonight. So, you did keep the added bedrooms, then you also increased the common space. Correct. Um in some cases, we didn't have to because the larger the common space was larger, but through this process, we will need to increase some of the common space uh as we go through the process. Yes, sure. And and as you said, you added egress windows where possible.

Correct. And if we couldn't add it, then we eliminated the bedroom. Do you have any sense of how many properties might be coming forward before us for approval? I think in total there's eight, aren't there? Eight. Yeah, I believe uh we thought there were 11, but it turns out there's going to be eight. So, this is two out of eight tonight. Okay. And I would say our opening statement, what we said will be the same for both properties this evening. So, I just want to confirm. So we you will match the common space requirement. Yes. As you solidify the floor plan for the additional sleeping

and you're doing the same with additional parking spots offsite where need necessary for the additional sleeping. That is our that is our proposal. Right. Right.

Just want to be sure I read everything right. Um, a question about the uh the this first property. The driveway right now has been illegally extended beyond the original approval. And so the recommendation or the condition is that that the existing driveway area shall be returned to its original condition prior to the illegal expansion cited in 2018. But I don't see anything. I can't really tell what that is. Is there is that when it I don't think the curb is there. I think it's pretty much straight out from the house. Yeah.

See how the one before with the plan? Yeah. It had a curve to it. This one I think at some point somebody again we didn't add any of this paving. It was here before before you acquired property but the the condition is there. Right. Uh so I just wasn't quite sure what so I think it's see where the cursor is. I think that was it was curved in the past, but I think the one of the owners straightened it out, which now goes right out to the road. Actually, you kind of kind I think you can kind of see it there. Right. So, which portion needs to be restored? That's what I can't

I would think we'd have to take out that portion that's curved, wouldn't we, Jake? Um, if you go there's kind of a It's like the cover page. It's got two little pictures from them. Don't go down. Maybe uh it shows like old parking from prior to your ownership, I believe. 226. Yeah.

So, I believe it's expanded too far to the left of the garage, but also too far right of the garage. Right. So we So when this got reviewed by engineering at DPW, it was one of their comments. Um actually they put in a denial, but um we're suggesting a just commit to getting correcting it and getting a a permit for what is allowed, right? They'll be able to obtain parking not far away.

Yeah. So, it's it's basically it's uh asking that they tear up portions of it to comply with So, some of the comments were about water sheeting off, you know, right? So, but it's not just the left side, it's also the right side which extends out too far. Right. Okay. So, it's narrowing the entrance the the entire length of the drive. Yeah. bringing it back to that, right? Yeah, that because that's what you have on file, I believe. That right. No, right. Okay, great. Thanks. Thank you. We'll see you. Thank you. How many of those neighbors showed up? Right.

And may we ask who would like to speak in favor of the proposal? I'm John Ny 1234 Salt Springs Road and uh we just uh are generally in favor of it. Le Moines's since Le Moine has taken over management things are greatly improved with the with the rental properties. Um we're we're happy with our management. Thank you.

Anyone else like to speak in favor? Uh Jeffrey Chen, 1440 Salt Springs Road. I've been there 25 years. Um I've been in Syracuse for 42 years. During that time, I was a faculty member at Le Moine College. Um I'm in support of I'm actually agnostic about the proposal. It's fine. Seems fine to me. This house that we're talking about is actually three or four uh doors down from my house, but what they're proposing sounds fine. I I just want to make a comment first of all thanking you for the opportunity to come and speak with you and for the work that you do to make this process possible. Um the work that the college has initiated by hiring Jack and putting him in this position of helping to improve town gown relationships has been wonderful. There still are pieces that are falling between the cracks. You may recall that I was here a couple years ago when Le Moine wanted to a variance to put in a parking lot um across the street from my house. Um and uh appreciate the opportunity to be able to come in here and voice our concerns. Um I was also happy that the outcome came in our favor. So that line of communication I think could be better. Um Jack of course manages the student housing and the way that the students behave in the neighborhood and that's as I said been a major improvement. Um I still think that when it comes to capital changes in the campus and the landscape of the way the campus is laid out um that there could be things could be done a little bit better and it really what we're looking for is just better communication. So we're taking a step forward and we'd like to continue to see those steps continue. Thanks.

Does anyone else would like to speak in favor? Anyone like to speak in opposition? All right, we're not seeing anyone who wants to speak in opposition. I'll turn to Jake and ask if you give us lead us in secret. Thank you. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part one prepared by the applicant and contained in your packet? Yes. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part two prepared by staff and containing your packet? Yes. Yes. Does anyone believe that the proposed action will have a moderate large impact under SECRA?

Having determined that the proposed action will not have a moderate large impact, I recommend that the commission make a negative declaration and prepare the EF part 3 accordingly. Thank you. Have a motion. Make a motion to issue a negative speaker declaration. Second. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor? I I. And now we'll turn to the u actual motion for the major site plan.

Oh. So, in consideration of the application staff analysis and discussion during this this hearing, I make a motion to approve application MEPR- 20268 as presented with seven conditions. Those conditions are as follows. The applicant shall comply with the general conditions for approval on the site plan application. Two, all-ite parking. All on-site parking must be contained with the attent within the attached garage. Additional parking is not permitting on a driveway between the front setback and the city right ofway. Three, all proposed work shall apply for and obtain permits uh from the central permit office to prior to the commencing of any work. Four, any unpermitted work will require retroactive permits to be obtained from the central permit office. Five, the property owner shall ensure that the designated three parking spaces remain continuously available for residents of the property. Uh and six, uh the applicant shall comply with the I'm sorry, six is uh unnecessary. Uh there are only uh six uh conditions. Uh so after five number six should be the existing driveway area shall be returned to its original condition prior to the illegal expansion in 2018. That's six conditions not seven. And is there a second?

Second. Any discussion? All right. We will then call the question. All those in favor please say I. Any opposed? Is there an abstension? Noting one abstension. All right, thank you very much. Can we move on to the next application? Next up, uh, very similar, another major site plan review, uh, at 109 Phillips Road. Same ownership in R1 zone district. All right, the applicants please come up. You look familiar.

Jack Brower, Le Moine College. Gary Peyton, Le Mo College. give us a little background in this application. Um, I think we would give the same background we gave for the previous one. Um, I don't know, Jack, do you want anything specific for this house? No, it's it's it's fairly similar. This one has a larger driveway, so we're not proposing off-site parking. So, that's the main difference. And again, this is the house that you purchased. The condition was already there, and so you made the modification so you can bring it up to the current code. Exactly. Yes. question.

Yeah. So, I have a a question about the the parking in a driveway situation. Page 259. Yeah. Okay. That shows it both of those. Um I guess this is really just a question for the administrators, only administrator. It's kind of an unusual arrangement. Is this acceptable? It comes down to it because we had situations like this before. Uh in some cases, it's okay. In some cases, it's not. So,

yeah, it's okay. all the parking uh shown is beyond the front setback. Um this happens uh with families that have older teens in the house that have um cars, you know, whether you call it roulette or you know, whatever. Um the changing of cars to get other cars out, but yeah, as long as they're not driving on grass or cutting across to get um if they're stacking like this, it's Yeah. I agree. It's unusual. Jack will have his work cut out for him. That's right. Yes. This will be a question about making the students behave properly. Yeah.

Well, we we don't like it. We don't appreciate it when they drive across the lawn. It creates a lot of work for us, right? So, we try to enforce that pretty strictly. I mean, maybe one thing the board can bring up is um is there, you know, appetite to possibly grant some parking? Um this probably isn't as close as that other one to that lot. Is that right? That's lot. There is a large dormatory parking lot right down the street at the uh intersection of Albert Village, St. Mary's and Harrison Halls. Yes. That always has parking Yeah.

spaces available. I only mentioned it to the board because I was in college at one time and I can tell you we did not follow rules like that and there were vehicles cutting across grass and parking on grass maybe. Um, so just I don't know just something to consider that you know I hearing from neighbors like the kind of the behavior has been better but knowing what college students will do could be a challenge. But yeah, I guess the important thing is make sure they understand that that they have to be behind the front setbacked. Any other questions? Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Anyone like to speak in favor of this application?

I just say ditto. Did we still need your name and address? John Neimi 1234 Salt Springs Road. I'm in favor. And then the minutes can say ditto. Pardon me. Then the minutes can reflect. You've said ditto. Yeah. Thank you. Sir, would you like to approach? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Anyone want to speak in opposition to the application? All right. Seeing no one rising, we'll come back to Jake for secret. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part one prepared by the applicant and contained in your packet? Yes.

Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part two prepared by staff and contained in your packet? Yes. Does anyone believe that the proposed action will have a moderate to large impact under SECRA? No. Having determined that the proposed action will not have a moderate to large impact, I recommend that the commission make a negative declaration and prepare the EF part three accordingly. Thank you. Is there such a motion? Make a motion to approve a negative secret declaration. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I as for the application. Is there a motion?

In consideration application, staff analysis and discussion during this hearing, uh, I make a motion to approve application MESRP-2026-8 as presented with five conditions. Those five conditions are as follows. One, the applicant shall comply with the general conditions for approval of site plan application. Two, uh, all on-site parking must be kept behind the front facade of the structure. Additional parking is not permitted on the driveway. Uh, between the first facade and the city right of way. Three, uh, all proposed work shall apply any proposed work shall apply for and obtain permits from the central perittent office prior to commencing any work. And four, any unpermitted work will require retroactive permits to be divided from the central permit office. Uh, and actually there's only four conditions for this application.

Is there a second to the motion? Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? We'll note the abstension for the record. Thank you. And with uh those two applications being completed, I now gratefully hand back the column to our chair. Oh, I don't know. I think you did quite well and you might just want to keep on going. Have another day. Thank you. U, but we're nearing the end. So, we have a few more applications. Our next one is a major site plan review.

Yes, this is MASPR-2026-17 at 333 East Anadaga Street in the MX5 zone district. turn it over to Joe to walk through this. Good evening.

Hi, my name is Joe Pino. I'm a principal in architects at 239 Eastwater Street and um the this this is at 333 East on Street is the Monroe building. Um it was built in the mid 20th century commercial office building that was constructed in 1968. designed by local architect Gordon Schoffer for the Monroe Abstract and Title Corporation. Um the project that we're proposing is to change the use of the building from an office building to apartments. Um we have planned 46 unit uh 46 units uh 12 one-bedroom and 34 studios. Uh we plan to keep the front two bays of on the first floor commercial. Um but in behind that we do want to have residential units. We did get a use variance from the ZBA last month so that we can do that. Uh the basement will be amenity spaces, laundry room, storage room, fitness center, existing mechanical room. Uh the building's six stories. We have a green roof on the it has a green roof, existing green roof, but it's going to be unoccupied. Um our client is High Tide Capital. uh which is a mainbased historic development company specializing in revitalizing underutilized buildings into modern sustainable mixeduse spaces. They are currently finishing up a project at 250 Harrison Street and are doing a great job turning that old office building into apartments. Our contractor is VIP Structures who is the also the contractor for 250 Harrison. We have Christine Stevens um from VIP. She's here uh hoping that we get this approved. Um so the the building is uh if you maybe you can go to the pictures

there. Um yeah, the exterior pictures. Uh the front and east elevation facing east Anadaga Street and the south elevation which faces the old Carnegie Library has the same vocabulary. Um regular space projecting brick peers and these deeply recessed single pane pivoting windows. They're really cool. They're huge windows and we're keeping those. We met with the Landmark Preservation Board have already got their approval. Um, so those are all original to remain. The south elevation is that saw to shape and that's kind of the calling card for this building is you see those saw sawtooth shaped building and all those are angled to look right out at the courthouse. So this was all most of the offices here were for lawyers and they were all you know focused on the courthouse. Uh the north elevation is uh all CMU painted. Uh that is recently painted with the basketball mural. So you've all seen that. Um that used to uh that parking lot. Um it used to be the old YMCA building. That's why there's no windows on there or anything. That's why we had that blank wall. Um and then the back of the building uh faces Montgomery Street. There's a parking lot that goes through there and that again is painted CMU with some windows. Uh we're planning to add nine windows uh four to the first floor and one to each floor in the CMU wall in the rear of the building. We also plan on changing the existing 333 um Monroe building sign. Those are the only things that we're changing on the exterior. So this building is really staying as is. Um and we're obviously changing the use. Uh there are only a few changes that we're making and um but I have Nathan Laierre from Kepler Freeman who wants to discuss discuss the site scope.

Everyone Nathan Laapierre, associate principal, Keplinger Freeman Associates. Uh we put together the site drawings. Um so you know Joe was talking about the building very minimal exterior work. Um the site is very similar. There's not much going on. Um, currently the building does not have a gas service. So, that's part of this project. Um, we're running a gas service to the building and that will include some concrete pavement removal out front. Uh, while we have that concrete pavement ripped up, we coordinated with the city and we're putting in a tree pit as well. Um, we're also installing a couple bike racks. There's no uh parking on site for this building. Um, but on that sawtooth side, there is an alleyway, I guess, for lack of a better term, just to access the waste enclosures. So, that's the only thing that will be occurring there vehicular-wise. Um, we're installing a ornamental picket fence around the entire perimeter. So, that's all gated. Um, and it, you know, safe for the tenants. Uh, one of the things that came up at the ZBA meeting was the guard rail in the back of the building that borders the county property. Um, we coordinated with Archie Wixen from facilities directly. Um, we're removing that guard rail and installing it just inside the county property line and he cons. Um, and the reason we have to do that is so we can have the proper distance from our building um to the fence for egress. And Joe, what was that dimension? Do you remember?

44 inches. Yeah. And that guardrail is unfortunately just too close. So, Yeah. And that's that's really all of the the the site work. Um I can answer any questions you may have on some of those details. Questions for the applicant.

So, one of the issues is that with uh the conversion from office land use to dwelling multi-unit land use with 46 uh apartment units in it. That means this property is subject to the affordability requirement of 10% uh affordable units. I just want to make sure because it that for some reason that wasn't in the packet. So I want to make sure that you're aware of that that those discussions had taken place. Great. Thanks.

My turn. Yes. So the driveway, it's not even really a driveway, is it? Whatever that road is, that looks like a road is only for the dumpster. Yes. Did I understand that right? So, that's correct. In trash, out trash. That's it. That's it. Yep. Okay. And the two commercial spaces on Anandaga, I'm assuming there.

Okay. Okay. Had to put a new RPC.

Okay. And there's no plan tenant yet for the commercial spacer, is there? Okay. You had your conversation with codes and city fire about the access fire trucks being able to get in and out of the parking lot um in the event of emergency. They're going to have to do exterior.

I I know that changed. I'm just saying we we had a very narrow up the university for a thing called the Marshall. And and I remember a space this big for the fire truck. Yeah. But that'll be a discussion.

The alleyway across the alleyway. Jeff.

No. Yes. No, that's Okay.

How they're going to get through there, right? But we could we could have that accessible. Right. Right. And I know Dash is not here, but is the contemplation market rate rent um other than with the affordability provision. Affordability. Correct. Certainly general good for the city to replace vacant office space with housing. Yeah. Yes. There's there's a a great need for housing and not so much for the office. Maybe that'll change right now. Housing first office later. Yeah, that's right. Rentals.

Yeah, there was some discussion of condo. I had heard previous. Yeah, this this building is all condo. Every floor is a different, right? Right. Right. Yeah, I know. We discussed that before. It'll be a one It'll be one ownership and his and all and theirs. Okay. And the green roof you said, Joan, you're not going to have public access to that. You're never contemplating that probably. Well, um it's it's because it's so high and um Oh, there's no protection.

So, one stair. So, it it right now there's only one stair that goes up. Okay. The these stairs, they're not scissor stairs. They're two separate stairs uh separate twohour enclosures, but they kind of look like a scissor stair. Only one of them goes to the roof. According to uh codes, we need another stair. So, we could bring that other flight up um which wouldn't be a really difficult thing to do, but we could one day get that um so that we could use the uh the roof. Something that we've talked about, but right now that's not not in the not in the plan. Got it.

Thank you. Could you summarize again, please? Um the exterior changes. I know they were minimal and I know the preservation board has signed off, which by definition almost means they're minimal, but there were some windows in the back and then the signage.

We do have a sign drawing. in the back. This is windows on the first floor. a little higher.

Thank you. Any further questions? All set. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there individuals who would like to speak in favor of this application? If so, please come forward. Provide your name, address, and comments. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the application, please come forward. We have no speakers on this one. We will close public comment, turn our attention to the seeker review.

Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF Part One prepared by the applicant and contained in your packet? Yes. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EF part two prepared by staff and contained in your packet? Yes. Does anyone believe that the proposed action will have a moderate large impact under SRA? No. Having determined that the proposed action will not have a moderate large impact, I recommend that the commission make a negative declaration and prepare the EAF part three accordingly. Thank you. Is there a motion to that effect? Motion to issue a negative secret declaration. Thank you. Is there a second? Second.

Thank you. Discussion on the seeker motion. If there's no discussion, all in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I.

I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? Secret motion carries. We turn our attention to the major site plan review itself, MASPR 202617. Is there a motion for action on this? In consideration of the application staff analysis and the discussion during this hearing, I make a motion to approve application MESPR-2026-17 as presented with seven conditions. Uh, one, the applicant shall comply with the general conditions for approval of the site plan application. Two, curbing and landscaping within the front setback shall be maintained to prevent vehicles from uh entering or parking within the public sidewalk area. Three, the applicant shall coordinate with the Anodog County Department of Water Environmental Protection Flow Control Division for any infrastructure related uh to the disturbance of land within the county easement and include county-owned infrastructure must be on the related plans. Four, any commercial uses proposed in the front commercial space will require site plan review prior to occupancy. And the final three conditions are all related to the affordability criteria. Five, affordable dwelling units must comply with the city income and rent restriction regardless of a change in building property or ownership. Six, all affordable dwelling units must be certified by the city department of neighborhood and business devel. And seven, the affordability requirement shall be effective for 30 years from the date of certification of a cauc is issued.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Discussion on the motion before us for the major site plan review. If there's no discussion, then all in favor of this motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions. The major site plan review for MASPR 202617 is approved. Our next application, please. Thank you.

Next up is an off- premise sign permit application at 2810 Berna A rear. Uh this is in the light industrial zone district from Lamar Advertising at 5947 East Malloy Road. Regarding an existing onremise sign, um we are just looking to upgrade. Well, it's not. It's We're looking to replace the digital face that is at the existing location. The sign face is just at its end of life. It's been there since 2011, late 2011. And they generally only last about 10 years. I mean, we think televisions nowadays, they just don't last the way they used to. Um, and it is not particularly efficient anymore either. So, we're looking to replace that signing. also renew the continuation of use permit.

So the only change is to the digital face. Yes. There's no no structural change, no height, nothing else. It's literally just replacing the old face with a new face of ex same size.

What do you think is the life expectancy of the new equipment that you'll put in? Is that also 10 years or who knows? They Well, they actually say that the face that's on it right now, they said that it would last seven years. So, we've gotten 13 out of it. Um, our technicians are pretty good. I mean, they'll replace as much. They'll get as long as they possibly can. I mean, Lamar don't want to pay. Look, they don't want to pay what they if they can get away with fixing it, they're going to get away with fixing it as long as they can. Um, the MRI boards that we have now have been lasting much longer. They are, we'll call them virtually indestructible. They, when I had a demonstration of them, they did actually set one on fire. We have, unfortunately, nobody's here. We have had them struck with bullets in the city of Syracuse and they have continued to work. Um we have had various damages and melting and they have continued to work. Um they are getting virtually indestructible. They're also becoming more and more energy efficient and I was explaining to the gents earlier they're angling they've learned now that they can angle the LED lights down so that it's create creating less sky glow. So it's affecting migration of birds less. Um so they I mean they're doing more and more work in them. The technology I've been working at Lamar for 10 years this year. The technology on these digital signs has changed so drastically in the time that I've worked there. So I mean Lamar are not going to as well. They don't want to throw their money. These screens are not cheap, you know. They're they're not throwing good money.

as long as humanly possible. We can do whatever we do to make it work. Thank you. Hopefully we'll get another 13 if not longer. Additional questions for the applicant.

Thank you. Are there individuals who would like to speak in favor of this application? If so, please come forward, provide your name, address, comments. Is there anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the application? Please come to the podium. Provide your name, address, and comments. I don't see anyone rising to speak on either side. So, we'll close the public comment. Turn our attention to the seeker review. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part one prepared by the applicant and contained in your packet? Yes. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the EAF part two prepared by staff and contained in your packet?

Yes. Does anyone believe that the proposed action will have a moderate to large impact under SECRA? No. No. Having determined that the proposed action will not have a moderate to large impact, I recommend that the commission make a negative declaration and prepare the EAF part three accordingly. Thank you. Is there a motion to that effect? Make a motion to issue a negative seeker declaration. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Discussion on the seeker motion. If there's no discussion, all in favor of this motion, please indicate by saying I.

I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? Uh, secret motion carries. And we now turn to the off premise sign permit application itself, which is AS20262. Is there a motion for action on this?

In consideration of the application staff analysis and the discussion during this hearing, I make a motion to approve application AS-2026 as presented with three conditions. Those three conditions are the applicant shall comply with the general conditions for approval of the off premise sign application. Two, the applicant shall obtain approval appropriate approvals and permits from the New York State Department of Transportation for the proposed signage when necessary. And three, this off- premise sign approval shall have a limitation of 10 years after which renewal is required. Thank you. Is there a second to that motion? Second.

Thank you. And discussion. There's no discussion. All in favor of this motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? Uh the signed permit application for AS20262 is approved. Thank you. And um we move to our other business items.

Last item, it's a threemile limit review uh 3S-2026-6 at 4680 Tucker Road. Uh we have the city engineers approval on this. Great. Thank you. Uh, with that approval, its Oh. Oh, sorry you had to wait so long. Okay, you're hired. Come back anytime.

Well, we're going on a break now. So, uh, uh, anyways, with the engineers um approval in hand, is there a motion for action on the three-mile limit case in the town of Anodara? I make a motion to to approve 3S-2026-6 as presented. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. And discussion on this motion on this one or is that pretty much okay. Yeah, you can. Not unless you want to prolong the evening for yourself. Good night. Um, so if there's no discussion from the commission members, all in favor of this motion, please indicate by saying I.

I. I. Those opposed, please say nay. Any abstensions? The three mile limit in the town of Anadaga is approved. Thank you. Thank you for your patience. And we have one more item, I think, for this evening, and that's the annual uh election of officers for the commission. Um I don't know how we handle this. Just take You want me to make it? Sure. Oh, okay. I'd like to make a motion to nominate uh Steve Kulich as the chair of the commission and Walter Baller as the vice chair of the commission. Second the motion. Oh, thanks Barry.

Quickly before it changes. You have nothing to say I presume. All in favor? I opposed. Extension. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you uh to our colleagues. Thank you very much. And with that, if there's no other business to come before the commission, we'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second discussion. All in favor, please say I. I. Those opposed say nay. Any abstensions? We're adjourned until June 8th. I get it right this time. Yes. Okay, that'll be great. Jake, we this new thing