Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Go ahead.

I would like to call the September 15th meeting to order. Jeff, would you like to start us in the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Call the roll.

Here.

Tony present. Dickinson.

Jim Shufelt present. Jeff York present.

And Peter Kehoe will be here shortly. We just wanted to get started so we didn't delay too long. You want me to go with a minutes meeting? Okay. I would like to make a motion that we pass the minutes to last month's meeting of whatever the date was. August 18th. No questions? Everybody's good with the minutes of the meeting? Yes. Okay. You're second? Yes. Everybody? Aye. Nay. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion's passed. Keep going? Okay. We will start with our old business tonight and we will be doing first PLPB 20260056 100 Gillette Avenue. Is Ava here? Aye. Aye.

Hello. I have three boys. Great.

Okay. Thank you. We've already started like the first point of business. Eric, do you have one of these?

I've seen it.

You've seen it. Anybody else need it? Okay. Would you like to give us a brief description of everything that's happened or what you want to do? Just give us a little...

Recap? Sure. So my property at 100 Gillette Avenue, it's pretty extensive. So I'm subdividing about a little less than a half acre. Last meeting, it came to my attention that the survey wasn't adequate because the, excuse me, the underground utility lines weren't depicted. I contacted public works or public utilities and the surveyor, Frederick Haley, also did. So he was finally able to establish where those lines would be. Okay.

So does anybody have any questions tonight?

No.

Is there anyone here seating in the public that would like to speak about this project? Okay. Is there anybody on Zoom? Nobody on Zoom. Okay. Okay.

I'd like to make a motion to move this project forward. I see the underground utilities aren't showing where they cross into the new lot. But if we could condition this on submitting a map that does show that, it should be no problem. I'd like to move this project forward.

I don't think we need that, do we? So the existing parcel is on... it's unclear from the subdivision whether or not the new parcel has sufficient room to be on a septic system. But the concern last month was we didn't know if there was sewer in the street so they could access the sewer. That's now been confirmed. So this subdivision, this lot, would either have the ability to be a septic system if they can fit it on, which would be subject to county approval, Or they could connect to the existing line that's in the street that they now show, which would be subject to city approval. So either way, someone's going to have to approve how to determine to utilize wastewater, so it doesn't have to be a condition of the subdivision approval.

So we could go forward knowing that there is sewer available in two ways.

Correct.

Yes. Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to move this project forward. I second.

everybody favor say aye aye aye aye opposed application is complete you're set to go good luck thank you so much nice thing hey peter it's all yours next item is 2026-0064 75 water plant road

Is the applicant here?

Good evening. Rob Goldman, representing New York State Marine Highway. Last I was here, we submitted a site plan for review, and you requested a spill plan, which we submitted. Since then, we went to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a variance, which we received, and they've kicked it back to you for some additional information on the site plan.

Okay. Questions?

Yeah. Go ahead. I got to find them. You got to find them.

Okay. I know the ZBA has requested that we look at screening on your property. I think we should have that discussion about what kind of screening. I know they were particularly interested on Oil Mill Hill Road and probably you had mentioned that you might be putting a movable gate in. Are you putting a movable gate in?

We're not sure. We'd like to come back next month with a more comprehensive plan. We just got access to the building.

So we're kind of determining what our- So your closing happened the day after the ZBA made the- Yes, you got it. Okay.

So we've only been in the building a couple of times.

Okay. All right.

We know we need some security. We're not sure how to do it yet. Gotcha.

Okay.

Gotcha. Yeah.

I think we have a lot of questions, but you already intended to be coming back, right?

Correct.

Well, why don't we present as many questions as we have?

Right. Yeah. Yeah. So when you were here last month, you were saying that you're not going to use any. Excuse me. Yeah, when you were here last month before us, you weren't intending on using any outside space for storage.

No, that's not the case. We want to park cars and some trailers.

All right. So what was the final deal with the ZBA? Okay. You can store stuff outside, but it can't be any higher than eight feet.

I think it's more about the sight lines. They're worried that as you drive up and down the road, what do you see? And I wonder if you folks would visit the site and look at the sight lines. It's pretty overgrown. It's a very small area where you can actually see what we're going to do.

So if we did go there, would you intend to store equipment or trailers that would be on the yard in the parking area and on the limited to the parking area? Nothing on the on the green space. No, no, no. All right. So do you intend to put some kind of fencing around that area to hide that?

Yes, maybe arborvitaes and some fencing you can't see through. We're not really sure yet. We'll come back with something. There's something you're going to bring back next week.

Yes, correct. I think I also heard that you were going to put a garage door in. No, yes?

Potentially, yes. Now that we've been there, it's a curtain wall that's structurally able to do that.

Okay. I have seen... This picture. Yep. And that's the way you are hoping this is going to look. I know there are quite a few condensers outside of the building and there's something facing the west. It's a box, looks like a generator or something. So all that will be gone.

That box, they were collecting pull tabs for charity. We've removed all the pull tabs. We're not sure what to do with the pull tabs.

Okay. So from this picture, all the condensers will be gone. Are you?

No, they're for the air conditioning.

Right. But this picture doesn't show any.

No.

Okay. So you will be replacing or re-topping your blacktop?

don't know i don't i doubt that we don't intend to it's not really a public location right but it does look it's a lot of grass growing up through it and i did visit the site oh good i don't think you can see that from the road no you can't see it from the road but is that how you want your eventually there's only so much money in the kitty okay

So I'm assuming that if you're going to put fencing or Arborvitae up, it would be along Oil Mill Hill. And if you did a movable, because you're saying you want a secure place for parking and because the robberies you've had in your other places, would that movable gate be linked to another fence or something that's going to be on water?

No, we were not considering that.

You're not considering?

Just a simple rolling gate. Gate.

Okay.

I mean, if you thought it was less obtrusive, we could do a bollard with a chain.

Would that be okay if there was ever any fires? Yes.

A bollard and a chain, I believe you could still place a Knox box on the bollard. So as long as, and I'm not a fire department expert. Fortunately, you have fire department experts here this evening, it's my understanding. But I believe you could place a Knox box, which is the key the fire department uses, on the bollard or near the bollard, which would be acceptable.

And honestly, you could just drive around the gate or the bollards if you had to. It's a deterrent. It's not the full wedge security. Okay.

So you are telling us that the only place you will be storing or parking will be on the blacktop. Correct. In the parking area.

Correct.

I'm just concerned. I don't want anything. You have a beautiful piece of property there. I really don't want to see anything on the grass. And if you're going to be putting in, is there a certain feet away from the property line or within the property line where we have to do screening or does it matter?

No, the ZBA kind of passes it along to you to contemplate and address sufficient screening and a landscaping plan. The discussions at the ZBA, which I think made sense, was some type of fencing or screening right at the edge of the parking lot because it's a large property. And if you require the screening along the property edge, Because of the topography of the property, it wouldn't screen anything. You'd drive past it and you'd be able to look over it into the parking lot anyway. So I think it was determined that the ZBA, I think it made sense that any screening would be right at the edge of the parking lot.

On the oil mill hillside.

And I believe they were also then perpendicular to that as well. They were looking at two sides, oil mill, hill, and then as you approach. So there was some confusion about which way was north, but it was the oil mill hillside and then a perpendicular fence along the parking lot from oil mill hill road. That makes sense.

Okay. Okay.

This is quite a hill. Just bring the microphone with you if you want to use it. Okay, so a Long Oil Mill Hill and a slight return on the hillside.

That would just be on the parking area.

Correct.

Okay. Okay.

Okay.

I did notice, I think it was as you're driving into your driveway, on the left hand side in the corner, there was like cones or something there that looked like something nobody wanted to run over or

I think they used that when they had events. I don't know what the cones are for. There's an old shed there. We haven't really determined what hole that is.

Yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay, so when you come back, you'll have a better idea of What you're going to be parking up there?

I can tell you what we're going to park up there. Employee vehicles, some of our own vehicles.

How big are you talking?

Pickup trucks, like a landscape trailer, a small box trailer, things like that. We don't have that many pieces.

Okay.

We're not moving out of 391 2nd Avenue. Right. No loose material outside. Everything will go inside the building.

Everything. Okay. So we don't have to worry about any green space being used or sorry.

They turned it off.

Okay. Um, does anybody, anybody else on the city?

Um, Public utilities mentioned, sent a letter out mentioning maybe thinking about using a different entrance or creating a new entrance.

I think it's kind of dangerous trying to pull out on that hillside.

Yeah, you're right on the hill. I don't suggest that at all. I wouldn't. I'd be with you. I would just rather use the entrance that's on water. Water plant road. Water plant road. I always want to say it plank. Water plant road, yeah. I feel that that is the best. And then in some areas, it's a pretty big slope up to the side off of Arma Hill. I didn't agree with them on that.

If I could ask a question of the city attorney, can I use the building itself? In other words, can I get a building permit and remove some carpet and some junk that's in there?

You're in the middle of a change of use site plan application. I don't believe you're entitled to a building permit until such time that you receive the approval from this board.

Can I use the building at all?

I would not. Direct you to the building department.

Okay.

Because it's an initial call from them. If there's any type of temporary use they'll allow, that would be up to them.

Okay. Nothing structural. Just cleanup, like sweeping.

Again, you can.

Okay.

Yeah. I'd contact the building department.

You got it.

Any other questions? I don't think so. Okay. Thank you. We'll see if there's any member of the party who wants to speak. Is there any member of the public who would like to speak on this application? Yes, come on down, please, and identify yourself for the record.

Jared Barringer, Assistant Chief, Troy Fire. We have no concerns with this applicant. We've had discussions in pre-meetings, and whatever way they go to secure the property, we're not going to have an issue with. And we're just happy to see it no longer vacant.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Anybody else?

Okay, back to the board. Zoom? Zoom? Anybody on Zoom? No? Okay.

Okay, board discussion?

I'm looking forward to see what he brings back next month.

Do you have enough information to make a secret determination?

I believe you did last month, didn't you? It was on the list, wasn't it? No. Oh, no, you know you didn't take any action as so.

There should be more I'd like to make a motion to the termination of a secret is not listed project.

A second discussion all favor say aye aye all say no the motion carries unanimously for the motion.

To make that okay.

Will there be a spill plan necessary for the building to get a permit approved?

Yes. I mean, they've submitted a preliminary spill plan and you could condition that the, you know, the final review upon the building permit being issued. or note it or you know but we can review that at the time of the building permit but they did submit a preliminary spill plan and are you satisfied with that for purposes of site plan approval yes but I don't think it's a bad idea to condition a final review for issuance of the building permit, just as we find out more information and details of exactly what they plan to use the site for. Yeah.

Are we in a position to declare the application complete, or do we want to wait until the next, for the next?

In light of the fact that the applicant has represented that he's coming in with possibly substantial changes to the application, I think you may want to hold off on declaring it complete.

Okay. So, as far as the spill prevention plan, he said that he's not going to, the owner said he's not going to store any bulk chemicals there. So, I mean, would that make, if that changed, if that changed, now he's going to put bulk storage there, we would need, what, a lot more than just kitty litter and diaper, you know what I mean? Correct, yeah. So do we wait and see as far as a secret determination as well?

I would hold off on making a secret determination because the changes to the project may change your opinion on potential impacts. That makes sense.

Any further discussion? No. Okay, then we'll move to the next item.

Do we have to do

You can make a motion to table pending further information from the applicant.

When's the date of the next month?

October.

October 20th.

October 20th. I make a motion to table this project until next month, November 20th. October 20th. I'm getting ahead of myself. I second the motion.

Discussion on the motion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Say no. Motion carries. June Analyst. Next item is 2026-0077, 110 8th Street. Is the applicant present?

One sec to start sharing my screen here.

Can you identify yourself for the record, please?

Ryan Trunko with GPI. Excellent. Good evening, everyone. Again, Ryan Trunkow with GPI. I'm excited to share with you a new project on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI campus, for a child care center. With me today, I have Craig from GPI, Kylie and Meg from Ashley McGraw Architects, and representatives from RPI and Bright Horizons, who will be the facilities operator. The site right now is currently vacant. It's an empty grassed lot, approximately 2.2 acres. It's bounded on the north side by Detroit Drive, the East Edge Hill Terrace, Blatchford Drive on the south, and Georgian Terrace on the west. The project proposes a 15,500 square foot new childcare center with four fenced in playgrounds. This building will be one story and fully sprinkler. The facility will be providing child care from infants through preschool slash school age children. They plan to operate between 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday with approximately 24 to 30 staff members. Getting into some of the proposed site features, we're proposing two driveway entrances off Edge Hill Terrace, a one-way in on the Detroit drive side and a two-way access further south on the Blatchford drive side. Parking lot is a 39 space parking lot inclusive of two ADA compliant spaces and two EV charging spaces. In addition, we're also showing bike racks for circulation, a site lighting and a refuse collection area with privacy fencing. For site elements around the project site, we're proposing to replace all the asphalt sidewalk with concrete and update the accessible ramps as well at the corners. New utilities will be required for this facility. We're planning to connect to municipal water, gravity sewer to the system, and electrical. We're also proposing stormwater management practices to collect and treat all this runoff from the site with an overflow back to the city system. And in addition to that, we're also showing landscaping around the property to make it pretty and improving the street view by adding street parkings and kind of tying in the new facility to the surrounding community. For now, I'm going to turn it over to Ashley McGraw, who can talk to you a bit more about the specifics of the building itself.

Before you do that, can I ask you something?

Absolutely.

Did you say this is for employees' children?

It's going to be primarily for employees of the RPI campus and taking care of their children.

Well, you say primarily, so what's the other intent?

It's going to be up to operations. I think the intent is to, you know, for the staff at RPI to use this facility. And then, you know, if there's potential opening spots, opening up.

Have you heard of other proposed uses?

Uses? No.

Well, other potential participants in the property.

Like I said, it's going to be up to operations.

Who knows some other possibilities? Sorry.

Sorry.

Go ahead. Sorry. Kelly Perry, I'm a representative of RPI. So the plan is for it to be open to RPI students, staff, and faculty, and also members of the Capital Region.

You couldn't hear the last part.

Members of the Capital Region. So it'll be open to the community as well. First preference will go to RPI employees and students, but then excess space will be open to the community.

So faculty, staff, students, and then the community.

Yes, correct.

And how many staff did you say would be there?

Roughly 24 to 30.

24 to 30, and you have 40 parking spaces approximately? Sorry. Sorry. Go ahead.

I'm Kylie Besecker with Ashley McGraw Architects. So these are some renderings of what we believe the building will look like. We don't believe the finishes will differ too much from this. We are looking at hardy board siding, as well as some stone veneer at the front. And they will be mostly in like the warmer cool neutrals in color. I believe you have already seen these elevations, but this is just more descriptive of where these materials will be located. And here is our initial selection for finishes. Know where the other one went? So as you can see here in the plan, it is a single story building, but it does have multi levels within access via ramps. It is a 12 classroom building for children, infant age through school age. We have included gross motor space as well as a steam space for the older children. And here are some initial layouts of the playgrounds. So each play area is designed per age group. You have your infants in the southeast corner, toddlers in the southwest, and preschool school age in the northwest. And then we have an outdoor steam area for the older children to do planting and outdoor activities as well in the northeast. Most of the, all of these areas do include similar things. Shade, climbers, opportunities for gross motor and music. As well as a mix of surfacing, which includes poured in place rubber and turf. And here are just some examples of what the equipment could be. Not necessarily these colors, but

uh excuse me may um ask did i don't know that i recall seeing these schematics do you know were these ever sent in these are newer at their post application so just for the record um the planning department did not review any of these details

Then the building will include exterior lighting at egress points, as well as the main entry that are fully certified dark compliant light fixtures. Sorry, wrong way. I'll have the end here. And here's the current layout of the building. I'm going to hand it back over to GPI.

Thank you. So we were in receipt of the city's department comments before kind of getting into a couple of the specifics. I wanted to give an overall kind of conversation regarding the traffic circulation and fire code. As we understand, there was a little bit confusion and concerns brought up along those facts. Talking about the existing streets, Detroit Drive and Edge Hill Terrace have an approximately 30 foot width from edge of pavement to edge of pavement. Blatchford Drive is approximately also 30 feet, but it kind of varies a little bit based on the edge. However, Blatchford Drive also includes parallel parking on both sides of the roadway, which kind of limits the width of that roadway to 12 to 13 feet. Georgian Terrace is currently shown at 18 foot wide. It has a no parking strip, so the actual driveway is approximately 15 feet. The circulation proposed for this facility is to come off Detroit Drive, go in through the one-way exit near the intersection with Edge Hill Terrace, drop off children or pick up, and then go out the two-way access onto Edge Hill Terrace itself. We don't anticipate there being a significant increase in traffic to this facility, as a lot of the users will be staff who already visit the campus or students. And it's not like a typical school where there's a specific drop off time. So you see kind of kids come and go for like a two to three hour period. So there's not really an anticipated rush where you're going to see a lot of cars backed up to visit the facility. coordinating with Jared Barringer over the last few days. We worked with him extensively trying to work through some of his concerns around this site. He was able to provide us with the sizing and turning movements for their fire apparatus and we were able to prepare turning movements for this presentation. The green area that you're seeing here is showing the fire access route to the site. This would allow the fire trucks to come in through Detroit Drive, access the parking lot, stage in the yellow area, and then exit back out through Edge Hill Terrace. To accomplish this, we would have to widen the initial one-way-in driveway that we originally proposed. We understand that the city's code is 20 feet wide, which we understand is typically more for areas where the fire trucks would have to stage within the city right away. As this project is on RPI campus and the fire apparatus would have to enter the parking lot to stage, we need to widen the driveways to 24 feet wide to allow that vehicle to get there. There's also been some concerns raised that Edge Hill Terrace sees frequent people to the athletic fields parking on either side of the street. We're already showing some no parking signs on our property side of Edge Hill Terrace, but we'll need to add some more on the opposite side to ensure that there's nobody parking on those roadways. And then it can be enforced if there's any illegal parking. For access to the opposite sides of the property with Georgian Terrace and Blatchford Drive, we're proposing to make those and dedicate those as one-way streets. This kind of fits with the restricted lane use and kind of corrects any pre-existing conditions that might not be fully compliant. Blatchford Drive will need to lose up to four parking spaces to make this change happen. The movement from Georgian Terrace onto Blatchford causes the swing of the fire truck into some of the parking spaces for the parallel parking. So we're going to have to remove two of those near the intersection. And then we're going to be correcting an existing condition where they're parking currently in front of an existing hydrant on Blatchford Drive. So that'll be striped as no parking for access. In addition, I just want to kind of point out a few other fire code items. There are two existing hydrants near the site, one on Detroit Drive, one on Blatchford Drive. The building will be fully sprinklered. There is emergency access routes from all the playground areas out to the city, you know, outside the building. And we're proposing a fire department connection for the sprinklers on the Detroit side of the building as it's the closest to the existing hydrant only being about 30 feet. We're also showing here in this figure, there's a dashed blue line essentially showing the longest route that a hose would have to go to reach the rear of the building, which is approximately 260 feet and well within the 300 foot hose pull distance kind of outlined here in this blue shading. To address some of the more specific comments we received from the city, the campus parking map that was submitted was originally from 2021. We intend to update that map for this project to show the increase in parking to the campus and the modifications on Blatchford Drive. Ultimately, there'll be a net increase to the parking to make sure that this facility has enough to make it operate. In addition to that, there was some confusion about a potential loading area on this project. There's no official loading area proposed. The Complete Streets Forum asked if there was going to be trucks visiting the sites, and it's just going to be related to refuse collection and any occasional single-unit box trucks for deliveries. And then lastly, before I turn it over to Craig here, the address and tax ID number has not been finalized for this site. Right now, this is completely inside the RPI campus, but the intent is to get an individual address. So, you know, if there is ever an emergency, fire or emergency services knows exactly where to go. our understanding that this typically happens after site plan approval but if we need to start that coordination process with emergency services we can absolutely start now um so i'm going to turn it over to craig from gpi he's going to talk through a couple other comments that we received from the city just to make sure that you know we understand what you're asking and we're looking to comply with everything you're looking for

Maybe. I think this is cycling on a different set.

Maybe. Oh, there we go.

Go ahead.

Oh, there we go.

All right. So good evening. My name is Craig Tripp, landscape architect with GPI. So what I wanted to talk through tonight with you is just a few of the comments that are all centered around questions related to ADA accessibility, sidewalk connections, and crosswalks, as well as the landscaping. So One of the questions just had to do with ensuring that there is ADA-compliant, code-compliant accessibility throughout the site. So the first component to that is everything that's within our control on the site itself is fully ADA-compliant. We're obviously at the mercy of once we get out to the public sidewalks, the road grades are what they are. So we're contending with the cross slopes that are going to be connecting to that. So we are going to be fully ADA compliant on everything that we're designing and proposing. Once we get out and we connect to the sidewalks that are out at the roadways, we can't change the grades of the roads themselves, but that will be a full connection. As far as crosswalks go, there was a question slash request to ensure that all four corner intersections surrounding the property have crosswalks across both directions. We will be able to accommodate that with the exception of the two, what would be north-south connection points on Detroit going across the road. Reason being, there's nothing to connect them to. on the northeast corner there is no sidewalk across the road at that point to connect to we will provide a drop curb um for the the crosswalks that will be able to go east west at that location so that in the future if something were to be built on the opposite side of the road we could then send a crosswalk over but we can't we can't stripe a crosswalk with nowhere for the people to end up going to um similarly on the north uh west corner the can i point with this this way So the area I was just talking about is over here. And now over on this side here, there's new sidewalks in general on this side of the road, on both sides of Georgian Terrace, as well as on the, what would be the west side or the, sorry, yes, the west side of Georgian Terrace on the north end of Detroit. On this corner here, there isn't really a good condition receiving point for a crosswalk at that location. So what we would propose is to send a crosswalk across here and across here, and that will get people safely across that intersection. There's also a drainage structure right here. So even if there was a receiving point over here that was going to be compliant, it would be a safety concern to send a crosswalk across this direction because wintertime freeze-thaw cycles, you'd be just asking for issues with people slipping and falling there. So We were going to be able to provide, I think, satisfy the request and requirements with those two exceptions that those those two north south locations aren't feasible for the reasons I stated. The other question that came up in comment had to do with ensuring that there's connectivity from the main entrance of the building out to those public sidewalks. We explored a couple different options to provide that connectivity, one of them being coming off of this north projection of the sidewalk out towards Detroit. In that location, though, the grades are going to prohibit us from making that connection. The new sidewalk and the pavement elevations up here are just two significantly higher than the sidewalk along Detroit. We couldn't get there from here without a significant switchback ramp to get there. Similarly, the shortest shot would be coming out of the main entrance from the ADA striped access aisle and across to get up to Edge Hill Terrace here. But similarly, we're contending with grades in that location, and we would have to get into ramps and handrails and switchbacks. So the best location that we're going to be able to provide that, and it actually kind of accomplishes a couple different things at the same time, is going to be coming off of the south projection of the sidewalk until we get beyond the dumpster. And then we'll turn and head towards Edge Hill and make the connection to the sidewalk out there. The good thing about that, there's a couple. One is that this is all a new sidewalk out here in this particular location is one of the flatter spots on the road. So when we come in perpendicular and make our connection, we won't be contending with severe cross slopes at that connection point. The other thing that that's going to be able to provide is the bike racks on the project are located right here. So it's going to provide that pedestrian connectivity out to the main road, and it'll also provide a clean access point to get to those bike racks. So it's going to keep pedestrian and the bike flow to get to the bike racks fully independent and outside of the vehicle circulation. So we won't have any of that cross-pollination and safety concerns that come along with that. I believe that that I think the only thing left that I was going to get to is just that there was a brief comment about needing to add two more trees to satisfy the parking lot code requirements so we'll that's not a problem at all we'll get those added on to the plans before I turn it back over to Ryan or any questions on any of that.

Board any questions.

Yeah, Eric, you said that you had not seen the latest submission. Is that what we're saying? Are we seeing something that you haven't seen yet?

No, that was for the last. Oh, the the playground, the playground schematics and the rest of it. Yeah, thus far, it was just blacked me as things I had not reviewed.

One other thing that was developed for this presentation was that fire compliance figure that we put together, and the only real thing that we changed on there was showing that we needed to widen the one-way driveway in, and the rest of the pieces on there essentially haven't been changed. So I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have them.

May I ask a question, Mr. Chair? The playground details that are in the north, northeast, southeast, northwest, southwest, were they factored into the site disturbance?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes. Yeah. All the playgrounds were, were accounted for all the site disturbance pieces. Um, we had general, uh, square footage of what was going to be expected, but, uh, actually McGraw architects was still working through some of those finer details on the layout.

And can you just, uh, for the record, can you confirm the area of site disturbance? I thought I read like 1.6. Uh, do you, do you have that?

I don't have the number off hand, but that sounds accurate.

Okay.

Any other questions?

How many kids or how many infants, how many toddlers?

I don't have the exact breakdown on me, but there are 136 kids. I believe it's about... It's 116 children under the age of five, and then there's 20 spots for school-age children on closed school days, holidays, etc.,

God bless you. So do you have a kitchen staff, full-time kitchen staff, like all day, or is it?

It won't be full-time. There is a warming kitchen, but the food will be delivered from a caterer, and there's warming cabinets in the little kitchenette that we're providing with serving carts.

Back in that

Any other questions? Okay, thank you. If you have a seat, we'll see if any member of the public wants to speak on this application. Is there anyone here to speak on this application? Chief. Chief, come on down, please. Yes.

Jared Berenger, Assistant Chief Troy Fire. Like Ryan had already spoke about, we have Had constant conversations going back after our staff review. Our concerns with the one-way street and taking away some parking spots on the southern side of this building, he has addressed. And then just to put into the notes with this meeting, one thing that has come up is that the requirements for the city code or the city requirements about not going over 20 feet for a drive entrance contradicts the state code appendix D for the fire code. So that's one thing we'll have to look at going further to not require that as a move in front of the variance board. But they have addressed our concerns about entryway and exitway out of this. So we have no further concerns at this time.

Okay. Thank you, Chief. Anyone else? Okay. Thank you.

Evening, everybody. Stephen Mabel, South Troy. I couldn't quite follow the last speaker for the applicant about the pedestrian connections. So I guess I'll see what they come back in their revised proposals. But just wanted to note that those connections that are to the front of the building, being like mere feet away from the public sidewalk is... That should happen, following the desire lines, especially with the housing that is mere feet away just to the east and also to the west along Detroit Avenue. We should be doing everything we can to make sure that that is safe and easy as possible. So I'll look forward to seeing what the applicant brings for that. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay. Anybody on Zoom? Nobody on Zoom. Okay. So I assume that the next meeting that we have, the staff recommendations will be taken care of as far as the lighting, the landscaping. Chris, are you good with the SWPP?

No, I mean, I think there's, I have, yeah, I have questions on stormwater and sanitary. I didn't want to get too deep into the weeds at this meeting. That's why I haven't, but I was planning to contact their GPI after this, just, but now that's been brought up, I'll just, I guess, ask them. So have you been in contact with DPU yet? uh in regards to one sanitary loading if you are in a combined sewer district which i know that's what your urban runoff plan is you know presuming but two are you sure you're in the combined sewer district and not or and or in the ms4 have you spoken with yeah yeah we've reached out um to the cnn city engineer trying to get some initial buy-in on the utilities um

I think he was able to initially look at it, but ultimately was waiting for the full site plan application before diving into the full review. So that was kind of early on in the concept planning process. But we were able to confirm the utilities and the sizing around the site. We were able to complete hydrant flow testings after our initial submission before this planning board meeting. So using that information, we'll be preparing the water and sewer report to submit with our next application.

Okay, you're aware that that store report will have to go through DC review as part of the store extension.

Review process with the city, so I guess as if this is just a sewer. Connection or service connection, we're not really extending the sewer district.

I mean, generally speaking, a service connection is considered a sewer extension for DC, an extension of the sewer district. And if you're increasing the proposed sanitary loading to the system, then that will need to be reviewed.

Sorry, I misunderstood. Yes, loading-wise, it needs to be reviewed. I thought you were talking about the actual limits of a sewer district and actual municipal maintenance.

It's a funny terminology, but yeah, it's sewer extension essentially is a service, a new sanitary service. Yes, we understand. It's considered a sewer extension.

Chris, I have a question about... Looks like the building department has requested installation of a fire hydrant on Detroit Ave. Is that on the developer or is that on the city? I mean, who pays for that?

Say that first part again.

So the building department has requested installation of a fire hydrant on Detroit Ave for this purpose.

I mean, I would like it to be on the developer.

Yeah, wouldn't we all?

I would say my only remark to that is that there's already an existing hydrant there.

Is it on Detroit Avenue?

Yeah, directly on Detroit Drive.

Right.

I think the question was where they're placing their fire department connection and where they've placed it that's within 100 feet of that hydrant that's already in existence. So it's going to take away that requirement to put another one in.

Thanks, Chief. So you're happy about that?

Yes, absolutely.

Anything further? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Is there a secret motion to make a motion to declare this as an unlisted project under seeker?

A second discussion. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All say no. The motion carries unanimously. Are there any other motions? We don't have to table this, do we?

I mean, if you feel the application is complete, you can make a motion.

Yeah, I don't think we have enough information to work with to do a hearing for the next meeting.

So I'd like to make a motion to declare the application complete.

I second the motion.

Discussion? All in favor? Aye. All those say no. Motion carries. Further motions.

Do you want to set a date?

Secret declaration, right? We just did it. So if you want to, you can also make a determination.

You want to make that motion today or next term?

Yeah, I think we're not going to have any substantial changes between now and the next meeting or hearing. So I'd like to make a motion to declare this, give this a negative declaration or seeker.

Second. Second. Motion made. Seconded. Discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say no. The motion carries unanimously.

And schedule a hearing.

Schedule a hearing for October 20th. You ready to...

Okay.

I make a motion that we can have our public hearing on RPI on October 20th.

I'll second that.

Discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say no.

The motion carries unanimously. Mr. Chair? Yes, sir. For the purposes of the notice of the public hearing, RPI generally uses the 8th Street address, but that is the entire campus, the general address. I would suggest that the board direct the planning department when they do the notice of public hearing to reference the property as being located on the southeast corner of Detroit and Georgiana Harris. That way, there's more identification for the public on where the actual site's going to be located.

Okay, and I think the applicant indicated they're going to be working to get an actual number two for 911 purposes?

Correct, but we may not have that by the notice that we have to publish for the public hearing.

Sure.

And if you publish it as A Street, people just, it's the entire campus. I think it should be published as the southeast intersection of Detroit and Georgia Terrace.

Yeah, I agree. Do we need to do anything about that or just ask?

You need to tell Eric to do it that way.

Eric, would you do it that way?

Told.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I think that's an important point. Yeah. So if there's nothing further on that one. Next item is 2026-0078, 207 Broadway. Hi, would you give us your name, please, for the record?

Of course. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Dave Brennan with the law firm A Young Summer here in Troy, representing Selco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless.

Would you tell us about your proposal? Sure.

Good evening and thank you. So this proposed project is located at 207 Broadway in the downtown mixed-use district. Basically, it's kitty corner from the monument at the southeast corner of 2nd Street and Broadway. What we are proposing is to add wireless antennas to three corners of the building to flush mount them to the existing facade put a small equipment platform on the roof and provide improved coverage and capacity to the downtown area of the city of Troy. Presently, the area is served by two existing sites. One of it is on the top of the Kennedy Tower. There's a set of antennas up on the, I forget how many stories that is, 10 or 12. There's a set of antennas there that have been there longer than I can remember. And the remaining coverage largely originates from across the river in Waterbleet next to the McDonald's near City Hall in Waterbleet. There's another apartment building. There's a set of antennas on that apartment building. One sector points east across the river and contributes to the coverage in downtown Troy. Both of those sites over time, because of increased usage in the larger community of Verizon Wireless, are capacity limited and requiring an additional site to provide additional coverage. So this project requires a special use permit from this board. Also, your code is set up in a manner that requires a use variance from the zoning board, and we're also in the historic district, so we've made an initial application or an initial appearance before the HRC so far. So for purposes of this evening, it was really to introduce the project. We did receive comments from staff. We have some homework to do. We got those comments and we're revising some materials that need revision. One of the main comments, of course, in what I do, this isn't a traditional tower. While it is a cell phone site, there is no traditional lattice or monopole tower associated with it rather than when we're in downtown areas or suburban areas where there's a tall structure, we seek to co-locate on that structure. In this case, we're seeking to flat mount the antennas and paint them a brick color to match the building. The initial feedback from the HRC was, well, I think it was a limited quorum of one person didn't like the flat mounted and suggested putting them on the roof. We will evaluate that and continue that dialogue. My personal perspective is when you put them on the roof, they sit up above onto the skyline and they're more visible and more intrusive, not less intrusive. The office building that we're in, if you look down the street when you leave, has them on the roof, which is the only way to do it at 500 Federal. But I think they tend to stick up above. And in this case, I think it's flush mounting is the way to go. But we'll make that case in due time. We do have, because we're federally licensed, We have a separate SHPO, NEPO, which is the federal counterpart to Seeker requirement because we're federally licensed. And this has gone through the SHPO consultation process. The New York State SHPO did not object to this proposal. They let it time out. So it's deemed that they've consented to it. But notwithstanding that, that's one data point amongst many to consider. We do have to, it was pointed out to us, revise our simulations. There were different iterations of the antenna design. It's grown smaller over time, but our simulations are one iteration behind, so we're in the process of updating those. I think planning staff asked for another rendering of one of the facades of the building, which we're proposing. One of the comments dealt with lighting. There was an internal inconsistency about lighting or not. If anything, there'll be a work light on the platform in the middle of the roof. And the work light is, I would say normally would amount to in the old days, a hundred watt incandescent light. Now, whatever the LED equivalent is, it's on a spring wound timer, which some of us have in the bathrooms. And so if someone is in the unlikely event, someone's on the roof working at night, there's a workman's light on a timer. If they happen to not turn it off, it winds down after 15 minutes and shuts off, but it's not lit permanently. Sometimes we add work lights in case someone's there at night. Other than that, I think staff recommendation was to send this to the zoning board, which is the only board we haven't yet appeared in front of, which I would take as, in a sense, an appropriate prerequisite before this board can fully consider the matter as a special use.

All right, thank you.

You're welcome.

Let's see if there's anyone who wants to comment on it. Board, do you have any questions before we ask for public comment? Anybody?

Pretty good.

Well, do you have any visualization of this?

I do. I have a thumb drive, and we also did submit those. I apologize. I'm not sure which way it is best to plug in, but I do have the ability to put those up on the board.

Yeah, that was my question. You have the SIMS visuals on a PDF here. There are a few different buildings where you have red arrows pointing, I guess, at some of these antennas. Was your intent to say that the ones you're wanting to do now are going to look similar to that? I apologize. I'm not following what- I'll bring up an example.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right. Is there a way to plug in the thumb drive?

If you want to- share your screen through the Zoom entry, or I can plug it into the computer as you kind of direct me.

It's a folder that says Troy Waterfront.

Give me one minute.

Dave, while he's doing that, you're planning to increase your area. And I did see the red line that's kind of going all around. I am assuming that that will certainly, once we get moving on one monument square, where the old City Hall was that will encompass all of that area for the new building coming to us?

Absolutely. Certainly, we're all looking forward to that. So, yes, it'll provide, because of the proximity, broadband speed access through the Verizon network. So, you know, we have, well... I'm not sure, honestly, downtown if it has Verizon Fios, but certainly probably has Spectrum at least for Internet. At that proximity, this would provide an additional way you could have wireless broadband speeds in that sort of close proximity. But yeah, so that tab that you're referring to is tab six in the materials has a radio frequency feature. uh report from our rf engineer identifying the area where improved coverage is sought and when the the antennas are deployed what that improved coverage footprint looks like and so that is that is usually my starting point of what i like to uh to show is not so much what we're doing but why we're doing it and As an extension of that, over time, sometimes we see, and I joke tongue-in-cheek, that people will come up and oppose these projects as they read their notes off their smartphone. But on the desk in front of everyone or in your pocket is one of these devices at this day and age. 20 years ago when I started it, it wasn't the case. But now people have phones in their pockets. They want them to work. And increasingly, somewhere in the vicinity of – maybe have the chief give me an assist, something like 80% of 911 calls come in through wireless devices is the current metric. And somewhere around 75% of homes have cut the cord. And particularly I would imagine in downtown Troy with the student populations and apartments, people have just a cell phone. They no longer have the added luxury or expense of a wall phone. And so people rely on these as their primary means. And what has happened is that has driven our need up and our reason for deploying it. excuse me, additional sites over time. So this is, thank you, Eric. This is the first view. This is the northeast corner looking from Broadway along the alley, which I'm not sure that I would be able to name off the top of my head. This picture is gonna be updated when I walked over the other day and put the postings up. There are about four above the storefront aluminum brackets and four at about the third, one, two, fourth story windows. It has some sort of artwork that's apparently occasionally on it. So we'll get a revised view of that. But if we were to click to the next slide, it'll be, this is what the proposal look, it would be these panels, small antennas. The ones that we're putting on the front corners are The one at the bottom is about four feet tall. The other ones are largely the size of a pizza box. They would be painted brown and flush mounted against the side of the building. And if you could go another slide forward. So this is looking from across the street at the corner of Broadway and Second Street. And we're proposing to mount the antenna up at the top of This is one that's outdated. There are now two small proposed antennas. But again, that's roughly 16 inches by 10 inches, the size of that antenna. And then the last set is, interestingly enough, is in the alley. If you, I think it's the back of Lucas Confectionary, if I've got the right. Oops, if you could go one more. This antenna has been removed. So that one that's visible from the street has been removed. And then there is one more set in the back. Originally, we were going to do all four corners, and we decided to downgrade. So this is the back corner. This is sitting in the alley from roughly the key bank parking lot, where there's about six or eight spots facing the alley. Underneath that exhaust hood is the outdoor seating area. If you would go down one more, please. is these are four-foot panel antennas that would be flush-mounted, painted brown, and they're basically facing southeast, down the alley, and then down towards 3rd Street and down, I guess, maybe St. Anthony's is a block away, but in that vicinity. So it's basically what we try to do is get in the middle of the area that needs improved coverage and radiate out from three sectors in a 360 degree arc and provide coverage. And that's why. And so when we're shooting from water bleed, we're shooting one sector and that's not, you basically get three times as much coverage by being in the middle of the problem area instead of shooting from outside in with one set of antennas. So that's the overview. This one is not, again, it's not a tower. So usually my job's a little bit easy, but we've got the added complication of requiring a use variance as well as historic resource commission approval. And we intend to work through those issues and then would ask to be back in front of this board when we update our materials.

Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, thank you. We'll see if anybody wants to comment. Of course. Any member of the public want to comment on this application? Seeing none, we'll go back to the board. Any discussion forward?

No. Anybody on Zoom? No. Eric?

No. Is there a motion? Seeker? Seeker?

I make a motion that we declare this unlisted under secret.

Second. I'll second. Discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say no. The motion carries. Any other motion or referral to?

No, I believe that they need to go before CBA to get their use variance and then come back to us. I don't know if they're already on an agenda for a ZBA.

They are.

They are. So they could come back to us next month?

Yes. So we have a motion to refer it to the ZBA?

Mm-hmm.

Is that your motion, Tony?

Yes. I make a motion to refer to ZBA for the use variance.

Second? I'll second that.

Okay.

Thank you. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say no. And the motion carries unanimously.

All right. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for your time. We'll see you next month.

Thank you for your presentation. Next item is 2026-0079, 3341 6th Avenue. Did they want to do the hearing for bigger odds?

Hello, I'm Lisa Rodriguez with TAP Incorporated and Troy Architecture Practice PLLC here with Ren, the director of Sanctuary for Independent Media, and Ellie, you run the garden. I'm going to let them introduce themselves. I'm going to hand you the site plan that I expect to submit to zoning tomorrow. I think the deadline is tomorrow for the next zoning meeting, where we addressed a couple of the comments in the staff report.

Excuse me, just for a moment. For the record, the planning department staff have not reviewed these drawings.

Thank you.

So, like Lisa said, my name is Renly. I'm the executive director for Media Alliance that does business as the Sanctuary for Independent Media. We are a nonprofit located in north central Troy, and we do events and programming for the community around social environmental justice.

And I'm Ellie Irons. I am co-director of our Nature Lab Initiative, which also includes Collard City Growers Garden, where the carriage house we'll be discussing tonight is located.

Okay, so tonight we're introducing this project to you. The property is currently being used as a garden, 3341 6th Avenue, and it has a vacant two-story carriage house on it that's approximately 20 by 25 feet. They do use it for storage and drying herbs, things like that. And the project is to... renovate the carriage house so it can provide a bathroom for people that use the garden and also educational space. I'm going to let Ren and Ellie tell you what they do with the site now and what they propose to do with the carriage house. I will just make one sort of correction. We're calling a space on the first floor a teaching kitchen or a kitchen area. It's not really a kitchen. It's got a sink that you can wash vegetables in. There is no cooking equipment. There's a refrigerator, I think. But I'll let them describe how they use it and how they plan to use the Carriage House going forward.

Yeah. Hi. So Collard City Growers has been operating for about 12 years and it's primarily educational space and teaching garden. It's not a traditional community garden. We don't have individual plots, but we're regularly open once a week during the growing season, just in the afternoon for community members to come and grow and harvest and learn practices for growing. growing food in the city. And then in addition to that, once a week open hours, which runs May through October, we host between six to eight workshops that focus on the same kinds of concerns around connection to habitat, food production, and then also what else you can make from the garden. So we do a lot of art workshops, art supplies that can be made from the garden. So it's just sustainable materials is another of what we're interested in. And as Lisa mentioned, the Carriage House has been on site and has been part of the programming in the garden, just that we keep our tools there. We can shelter there if we need to out of the rain, but it's totally unimproved and it's getting more dangerous as it decays. So we're really excited to be able to fix it up and to be able to have a place where when people are working in the garden, they can safely go use the bathroom rather than having to take, sometimes we have kids that we'd have to take to another space. on our property. So that's taking them out of the garden and down the sidewalk. So being able to have an accessible bathroom is going to be huge. And then we do anticipate being able to renovate the interior to have climate control so that when we're doing workshops, we don't have to wrap up right in October. We can continue with a November, December, January, February, and keep that kind of connection to the land and that educational practice going because we'll have some heating and cooling. So it's a small space. We don't anticipate the use ballooning. We think we'll have a similar amount of people visiting, but just like a wider range of the year, which is going to be really wonderful. And then also the comfort and safety that's brought by having a safe place to wash hands and use the bathroom right there in the garden. So I think that's the main stuff I wanted to communicate. Do you have anything to add, Ren?

I think it's helpful to know that we are embedded in the community pretty well. We have several properties all sort of in a line on 6th Avenue that goes into 5th Avenue. We split 101st Street with our different properties that we do different events on. So when we are able to use this space, it won't be a major change in our programming that we already do. We're just making it safer and more comfortable for folks who want to come to our events.

Thank you. Okay, and the reason I updated the site plan was, well, I want to get us into zoning, the deadline for tomorrow. But what I did to the site plan was I added parking across the back with permeable pavers. We're pulling in the fence to make room for the parking. And also we met with Jared Barringer, assistant fire chief, earlier today and talked through his concerns about emergency personnel access. And we've agreed to make what we had as a permeable paver walkway into a concrete walkway so that emergency personnel can get to the property from Sixth Avenue, roll their gurney over there. We also talked to him about the alley and how the alley is currently used and that he would like to see it signed for no parking on both sides. It's currently signed for no parking on one side. That's a city thing. That's up to the city to decide to do that. But he feels like it will be safer for, not safer, but provide potential access for emergency vehicles to come up the alley if no parking is allowed in the alley. Okay. So we changed the sidewalk to concrete. We added parking at the back. So we realized there is no garden actually at the back strip there and that we could provide parking. So those are the two changes from the site plan that we submitted. We will be giving this to zoning so that we will be asking for a variance for less parking spaces. We understand that this is the first of at least two meetings with you people. So we will address other deficiencies in our plan at that time. You did ask about garbage and this use does not really generate very much garbage being that it's a garden and it's natural materials. They do composting. And they feel that just a garbage can would be sufficient for any garbage that's generated on the site and a recycling bin. Let's see. We do propose to put two bike racks on the site towards the back of the lot near the building. And at the next meeting, we'll tell you what the fencing is. Let's see, we'll finish the EAF form and do some corrections on there. So one of the big things that Eric brought up was that, is this a community center or is this a cultural center? And we talked about that, Ren and Ellie and I earlier, and they feel pretty strongly that it's a cultural center. sort of doesn't fit neatly into either one. They're both sort of very specific uses. The community center is a facility providing community facilities such as recreational programs and meeting rooms that are open to the public and designed to accommodate and serve significant segments of the community. That didn't feel right to us. Cultural facility, a library, museum, or similar public or quasi-public use, displaying, preserving, and exhibiting objects of community and cultural interest in one or more of the arts or sciences. So in this, I'm going to ask Wren to speak to why she believes this is a cultural facility.

Hi there. So my background's in museums and I worked really closely with several botanical gardens. And I would say this is closer, what we do at least, is much closer to a very tiny botanical garden than I would say a community center. Like we will have spaces where people can meet, but it would be very much like staff meeting. And then, you know, most of the programming that we do is very focused on the garden itself. And the things that we can grow in it, the things that we can pull from it, the things we can harvest, how to process those kinds of things and teach folks how they can do that for themselves in their own yards. And so, you know, we while a community center is it's one of those like there are pieces of each definition that could be applied, but I feel like it's. more accurate to say that we are a space where people can come to for the programs that we put on more than a space that the community can come to at any time for any reason. So that's kind of why we leaned more towards the cultural facility more than the community center. Honestly, the definitions are, you know, there's not, at least from our perspective, there doesn't seem to be a major reason to go in either direction aside from what is required by planning and zoning. So happy to answer any questions to kind of follow the logic. And we're also happy to change it if the logic leans towards one or the other.

So the question, could you clarify on the map? It says teaching kitchen. It's not a cooking kitchen.

No, I think of it more of like a place where we might have a hot plate to like warm up like plants for dyeing purposes, like, you know, for for fabric dyeing or like trying to dry ingredients for from the herbs or things that we gather from the garden. So like it won't be a a true kitchen in the sense and more of just like a here's a place to process things safely that, you know, is access to a sink.

Do you have anything further?

I don't think so.

I have a couple questions. I'm sure everybody else does too, but what exactly is, I know it's late in the growing season and all that, but what exactly is going on up front there? It doesn't look like an intentional garden. It looks a lot more like nature that is doing the gardening.

It is a biocultural diversity garden. So we feel strongly that permaculture, biological and cultural diversity garden. So we're really interested in the combination of biological diversity. So we envision the garden as supporting a wide range of non-human creatures and pollinators and birds, in addition to the really important relationship that a lot of different humans coming from a wide range of places have to plants. So we have as much biodiversity as possible in the garden. And we have a real focus on perennial growth. So when you're doing perennial, that means plants that are coming back year after year. And those have a growth form where they actually are dug into the landscape. And that's different than when we do have a few annual beds. So you'll see we've got rows of kale. We've got rows of garlic. We've got rows of... of tomatoes. So we're working in that way too. But overall, it's an ecosystem. And so it can look less tended to folks who are interested in or more accustomed to seeing the straight lines. And we also think of it very much as a, it's almost a playground for humans and and non-human life and for kids so there's a lot of paths that run through there and we have a big um kind of interest from um youth on the block and and a wider community who use it kind of more like a place to play hide and seek a place to run and pick raspberries um so very much an ecosystem approach um and some people refer to it as permaculture um you can talk about it that way

Did you say you're only open a day a week or a couple days a week? What was the open times?

So the official open hours are from 4 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays right now. But our close neighbors and community members have access any time. So it just depends on, you know, once we get into a relationship with folks who live in the neighborhood, they have access. Okay. So we have like a program for, it's not a formal program. It'll have to get more formal when we secure the back gate. Right now we let people who know and are good friends of the garden come in and harvest.

What do people do when they come there? Does anybody come there to do gardening or is that done by you folks?

People come there to garden. Yeah, definitely.

But they don't have their own plot. They just come and work.

Yeah, they come and work on whatever we're working on together, and they take a share of the harvest home, or they come to us and say, hey, I bought these peppers, but they're not doing well in my windowsill. Can I put them in the ground? And we say, sure, if you're okay with the whole neighborhood harvesting them, you certainly can.

Do you anticipate that people use this building at the back, are they basically the same people that are using the garden now, or are you going to be trying to attract

people from wider area or what so yeah we have our open hours program which very much i would say tends to bring folks from right around the area and then our workshop program is a lot more um likely to attract people from the broader capital region and like i said we do six to eight workshops a year at this point and those might be learn how to dye fabric with walnuts or learn how to weave a bookmark out of foraged materials. And those will bring, you know, eight to 12 people coming from around the capital region and who are interested in that particular topic. And I anticipate similar.

Yeah. Well, why I ask is because the parking situation doesn't seem to be very optimal there. And especially if you're attracting people into the alley, that's going to be a problem. Okay. But Is it closed after harvest season? Are things going on there in the wintertime also?

Currently they're not, but we would like to be able to do more programming in the colder months. And currently I would say we don't invite people to park in the back alley. People just use the same spaces they use when they come to any sanctuary event, which would be our lot at 101st Street or they park on 6th Avenue or on Glen.

Well, that's another issue. It seems to me there's not a lot of places for people who back up onto that alley on either side to park, and a lot of cars are using it for car repair and every other thing back there. Do you know those people that are using that alley now? And how are they going to feel about your operation if they're precluded from using their alley? That is a good question.

I mean, I think it's all of our alley is community space. So we'll have to, you know, work through that. It's news to us that we might need to change that situation as of this morning. So I think we're all strategizing about it right now and what that would look like.

All right. And do you feel you've addressed the chief's concerns about access of fire trucks? I know they can get a gurney down from the front now if you do what you're proposing, but How about the vehicle, the fire truck?

We think we addressed his concerns. I know that he will speak once we're done and he has a chance. And I'll say this is a very low intensity use building. It's 20 by 25, not even because there's an angle. So there'll be like... eight, 10, 12 people in a class or activity. It sounds like much more than it is. It's a little carriage house. And then once you carve out a giant accessible bathroom, put in a sink to wash vegetables, you've got the stair going up to the second floor, storage for tools, there's not a lot of space left for the actual people, but it is a refuge for people to come in from the garden, use a restroom, and to host some small activities.

Okay, thank you. Just one last question for me. You're going to use concrete for a sidewalk coming to back of the property. Are you still going to have the previous pavers there for parking at the back?

That's what we're proposing now. We're open to, that's what we're proposing for the new parking that was not on your original plan. We just added this.

But you are planning to have four parking spaces back there of some configuration? Yes. And is that for staff? For whoever. Okay. Well, thank you. I'm sure there's other questions here.

Anyone?

Anyone?

Is your property being kept up now? I mean, I've seen pictures of permaculture diversity gardens and they don't look anything like yours. I mean, I go by that 20 times a week and to me, it's just an absolute mess. I'm sorry that you see it that way. I do. I even walked through it yesterday. I took videos of it. I mean, your greenhouse, if that's a greenhouse.

certainly not being kept up it's just full of weeds and garbage and tables and there's no top on it to even make it a part of this plan actually we're so grateful to have the funds now um it's really exciting for us um is to be able to repair and repurpose a hoop house that was built a decade ago and lost the steward that originally built it. So we've been seeking funding to be able to stabilize the carriage house, which we're really excited that we're able to do and to take the hoop house and make it not a planting space anymore, but reduce it in size and cover it so that we're able to host outdoor activities. And I think I totally I can understand, you know, there's a lot of different ways of seeing the landscape. For those of us who use that space on the regular, it's really a haven. And I would invite you, if you're able, to come spend some time with those of us who make it an active and alive space. It really is a beautiful space. And I can see that we may have a different perspective on what a living landscape is. But, you know, we do a lot with a very small paid staff and a few volunteers. So, yeah. Brynn, would you like to step in?

Yeah.

Just to add more about it, just a little context for the organization. I started my role as the executive director last year, around this time actually, which is very exciting. But we did come from a pretty intense leadership transition from our founders. So there was, I'd say, a decline in capacity there. from staff members. We had a time whenever the board and staff were actively working to upkeep all the different things that we have going on. We have a lot of different initiatives. If you check out our website, we highly recommend it. Always willing to plug different programs and activities that we're doing. But I will say as our capacity grows, we have support from the DEC with this grant to be able to make this space a place where we can really bring in people and kind of bring it back alive. And we hope with a more comfortable place to be in to be able to work on that property, we as staff will have more time and more capacity to be able to utilize the space. And also the folks who come in will have a little bit more direction for how to manage and tend and really work with the land as it comes. So this is part of a larger capacity building project for our entire organization.

Okay, thank you. Other questions?

Yeah, I have a question about the carriage house itself. These pictures from, it looks like the rear of the house looks like, structurally, it looks like there's a lot of work that's going to need to be done. Are you concerned? I mean, I don't know what your grant looks like, but it looks like there's going to be a lot of work, money spent to get the building in better shape for you.

We already have a tentative contract with Johnny Bobo and Bobo Construction. He's poised to rebuild that corner. We've asked the building department if they'll give us a permit just for emergency stabilization so it doesn't fall down this winter. So we were well aware of the condition of that corner when we applied for the DEC grant.

Just to give more context on the DEC grant, we were awarded a $470,000 grant from the DEC for this project.

Excellent.

If somebody starts waiting.

Any other questions?

No.

Okay, thank you. We'll see if any member of the public wants to speak.

Thank you. And I don't know, Eric, when you decide about the cultural versus community center, if that's your purview or ours or if it's decided at zoning.

It was, you know, they're both permitted uses. So, I mean, if you feel like one fits the other, then, you know, it would just be corrected on an application. But I think it's generally your call.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm David Graham, and I own a rental unit 33276 Avenue, which buddies up pretty much to the sanctuary. I'm very in favor of the project. The sanctuary has been very good neighbors, and I'm a supporter. I am concerned about the alley, however. It is a dead end alley, as you may be aware. And there is a young man who runs a business, a sideline business fixing cars on the alley. I've owned my house now for seven or eight years. There's never been less than five cars. Plated, licensed evidently, sitting on the alley waiting to be fixed. There's going to be a real fistfight with this guy, probably. Currently, access to the end of the alley is pretty difficult. If you've been down that way, you've seen that. So I support this project. If the city can work out a situation where that alley is more accessible, that will be terrific. I don't really see that it's going to be easy to convince JD to remove his vehicles, frankly. I've also got a pile of tires behind my house that somebody has dumped there. I assume it's JD. He denies it. I can't get the city to pick him up because I have to blame him in order to get the tires picked up. It's confusing to me. Anyway, the alley is a bit of a mess. That's going to be a main consideration for them and for you, I think.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, I'm Harriet Warnock Graham. I am the wife of David Graham. And obviously that building is our building. I think what we need to make clear is that there's a man running a business and using the alley as his private business space. And it makes it almost impossible to get easily up and down that alley. That's the city's problem and you all need to deal with that problem. It has been a problem. I mean, we get along with him okay, but that's not the place to put a private business. It makes it difficult for everybody to get in there. I don't know what would happen if we had a fire back there with that going on. The Independent Media Center brings something special to that neighborhood that doesn't exist anyplace else in North Central. It would be a mistake. to not understand who they are and what they do bring to it, I suggest that you take a look at what they're trying to do. Because if you don't get it, you haven't listened. They have one of the best music seasons in the whole capital district. They do world music, which is missing in our community. And the garden... You know, like we disagree about the way it looks, but I understand what they're doing and would rather have them there and growing than to lose them or to have them fade out of our lives.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else? That's chief. Please.

Jared Berenger, assistant chief. I did meet on the property today. Did meet on the property today and did express some concerns and they did make some changes. One of them greatly was the access off of 6th Avenue, giving us the ability. I think we have the opportunity to clean up at the front of that property and give us access. They are going to install instead of permeable pavers, a more solid surface for us for access. But it also gives you guys the ability for fencing guidelines and the ability for what we see off of 6th Avenue. It also brought to light, and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever been down that alley and realized how narrow the neglect has become. So I'm going to be bringing that through DPW, and there should be no parking on either side just because of fire lanes. And that parking should not be occurring. So that will greatly relieve some concerns about getting access down that alley, not just for this property, but for all the neighboring properties going up into that dead end. And I'm surprised it hasn't been brought to light just because of garbage truck access or anything like that. So I think they do have a point about the access and no parking should be put on both sides of that alley.

Chief, will that give you adequate?

Yeah, I don't think that'll be a problem, especially if we're going to have that front access for not just for our stretchers going in, but that will give us access, direct line access. If we ever had a stretcher hose down to the back of that property or anything like that.

It seemed to me that that alley is so narrow that even people who are parking on their property off that alley have a hard time.

burning around yeah exactly exactly and i think they would be fine uh the parking that um they have proposed for that where it's actually pull in or or back in won't be such an issue but the way that uh the neighbor they're talking about some unique uh vehicles and trailers that are back there that are that are lining that are still sitting on the uh what would be the alleyway need to be addressed and so it's going to be brought to light with dpw um you know to go along with this project but it's just something that just hasn't been recognized i don't think by the city and it just not by any means is just not well traveled chief that's a dead end alley dead ends right on the property yeah that's why when we go through all the alleys yeah right exactly All right.

If you don't need a turning lane to get in another, you're going to back your trucks up.

Right. And truthfully, if we had an issue with the size of that building, we would probably make access off of 6th Avenue and stretch our lines. We wouldn't be stretching a ladder truck or driving a ladder truck down that alley. Or, you know, the most I would see is maybe possibly an ambulance if we had to get right down to that property. And that's not going to be a problem if we had to do that. And that gives us a little bit of time while aid is being rendered.

Yeah. Chief, the applicant submitted a site plan this evening. I don't know if you've seen it yet, but it calls out the nearest – the distance to the nearest hydrant is approximately 250 feet on 6th. Is that sufficient?

Because of where we would be parking our – Yes, that's not going to be a problem because it's going to be either on the north or south corner. I think there is one that's right in the middle of that block as well. But where we'd be parking for a fire engine that would hook up to that, it's well within our stretch for our supply lines.

Great. Thank you. Thanks, Chief. Thank you. Is there anyone else to speak? Yes.

Hi, everybody. Just wanted to contribute to the conversation. As someone who, my partner is also an urban farmer and gardener who follows a lot of the same principles as those are being followed by the sanctuary. Without knowing about the complex ecosystems that are happening in those areas, it's impossible to understand the level of intention and the level of purpose that goes into something that to the untrained eye might look messy. But I can assure you, as someone who lives with someone who does this work, this is the furthest thing from something that's slapdash. It may be perceived as messy by some, but I assure you, That reflects more on our misunderstanding of nature and how we interface with it than it does about the biological and ecological basis for that work. So I just wanted to contribute that. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else? Okay, thank you. So board discussion.

Could I, Lisa, can I? I took a walk through the property yesterday. I noticed that you can get in through the south side and come through the back. There's two gates in the front that are locked. with chains and padlocks, is anything there going to change? I mean, I can understand your permaculture diversity gardens, but I just, I mean, I had difficulty walking through the yard. I hope that it could be cleaned up more than it is, much more. You've got two great big, huge branches. And twigs, leaves on either side of your coming in from the alley. I mean, does that always stay there? Do you have a chipper where you can chip this and make... We actually have had a... Pathways through there? I mean, you're...

Yeah. The city just picked up our haul that came out of the carriage house, and we have a pending request for a yard waste pickup, which they do for us periodically, but it's been waiting a little while. So yes, you're right. That's much less accessible than it usually is. That's kind of a rare occurrence for the piles to be that significant. You saw maybe our growth that happened this season. It was a doozy of a year. And yeah, the front, we would We would love a more secure fence that looks really nice. This was built by volunteers 10 years ago with posts they harvested themselves. So budget pending, it would be wonderful to make a new gate. And I think we will because we want to put a Knox box out front. So the concrete path that's going to go straight back will have a new gate. is the plan.

Is it going to go straight back or does it twist and turn and goes along the fence line?

It goes, it will go along the fence line. Yeah. So we would be adding a new fence or probably a new gate perhaps so that there's really easy access from that spot straight back to the carriage house.

Okay. So you certainly need better security in the back because I just took the gate, lifted it up and it wasn't attached to anything.

Yeah, we took that off for our mason to inspect. But yeah, the back is not secure. That's the place where our community members who use the garden regularly can come in and harvest. But, you know, we'll have a new system when we're able to secure the property.

So how often are people in that property? I've lived, I go by that place 20 times a day. I've never seen anybody in there.

Never. Hmm.

Morning, afternoon, evening. I've never seen anybody in there. And I think that contributes to how messy it looks. Um, I'm sorry. I, I think it's messy. Uh, and I can understand what Steve said about people that use the weeds as being a part of your garden, um,

Yeah, I don't know how often people are in there. I will say that when I'm in there, I'm on my hands and knees. You probably wouldn't see me. And that is often the way a lot of folks are spending their time in the garden. So that could be part of it. But we could probably do something to address. I mean, we have been, Ren and I have been working on it very hard this summer, addressing the front bed to make it so you can see into the garden. Because when we inherited the garden, you couldn't. So we would love for there to be more of a view shed from 6th Avenue into the garden, and maybe that would allow for more of a feeling of vibrancy and aliveness.

Yeah, I would certainly appreciate on the sidewalk side of the fence that that be cleaned up a little bit better than what it is now. Just my thought.

Yeah, thank you. Okay. Thank you folks. Any other discussion by the board? Zero secret motions.

I'd like to make a motion to, uh, declare this as unlisted under seeker second motion made in seconded discussion.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Say no. And the motion carries unanimously. No other business with respect to this application tonight?

Well, do we think that we have enough information the application is complete?

Any questions for Eric?

Eric, do you have enough information on this project There was a change from what you had to the latest site plan that was handed us today, right?

Yeah, I won't touch that site plan until tomorrow, at least. I don't know if it's going to need additional variances. I mean, at a surface glance, it doesn't look like it. But my understanding is they are working on a parking plan at the moment. It would appear that this site plan is trying to compensate for that parking plan by providing four spaces under our code without any indication of what the parking circumstances are. We require a parking plan or a TDMP. This application doesn't hit the threshold for a TDMP. So we have requested some more understanding about the parking situation given that the alley is a big concern for the fire department and I think for the city at large. And it's unknown how many on-street parking spaces there are or at any given one time what the max occupancy of the property or use of that building will be. So I don't know if this is a sufficient amount of parking and whether or not that's something that you guys would want to have absolutely clarified before you issue an application completeness. I mean, in general, though, they did supply the minimum

think material that we would request for a minor project of this size thank you can i just add that we've contracted labella to do a parking plan to the tune of thirty eight hundred dollars i'm sorry could you say that again we've hired labella to do a parking plan it's costing us thirty eight hundred dollars

What's your pleasure, folks?

Well, I think we have enough information as per your testimony here. I'd like to make a motion to declare the application complete.

Second?

I second.

Discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And the motion carries unanimously. Any further seeker determination tonight? No.

Just to clarify the motion that was to declare complete and schedule public hearing for next month.

Yeah. Do we have to declare, give a declaration under seeker?

You can this evening.

Or I can do it.

You can do it next month. Since there are questions about the parking plan, we want, I think, final answers on what that's going to be before you determine if it has any potential impacts to the environment.

Okay.

I'd like to make a motion to schedule a hearing for October 20th.

Second.

Second.

Discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say no. All right. And the motion carries unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll see you next month.

Okay. Thank you. The next item is 2026-0080-571-573-1st. Hello.

Hey, should I wait for him to get back?

No, you can go ahead and give us your name for the record, please.

Yeah, no problem. My name is Dominique Albano. I'm a counsel for Fusion Recovery. I'm an associate at Bonchonik and King in Saratoga and Albany. With me here today, representatives from Fusion are Laurie Hamblin, the Managing Director of Programs for Fusion, Andrew Gauch of Development and Facility Operations, and Tyler Cragman, the Director of Revenue from Fusion. I'm just going to give you a short summary of the proposed project and provide an opportunity to not only ask me questions, but questions of the representatives of Fusion. So, our proposal tonight is for a site plan review application for property located at 571-573 First Street in Troy. This is located in the M2 district and we are pursuing a residential care facility. The residential care facility will have five units protected under the section 463 of the New York State social services law. The existing building will remain the same. There's only going to be external internal changes to the property. The square footage will remain the same at 2806 square feet. So the residential care facility will operate as a supportive substance abuse recovery residence for individuals who have successfully completed detoxification and are transitioning back into the community. The existing residential character of the site will remain the same as we provided in the architectural design. plans. There's going to be internal changes, and we're also planning on cleaning up the external part of the building to make it look nicer for the community. One thing that I had discussed with Eric was incorporating more placemaking opportunities for the residents who are going to be at this facility. We've discussed that internally, and we didn't really have a chance to decide on what those placemaking options are, and I wanted to see what the board may propose for that. As for the interior, we're proposing 20 bedrooms. There's going to be four bedrooms on the first floor and it's going to be adjacent with a medical or medicine room, offices, and a kitchen. The second floor will have two separate units, a total of seven bedrooms on that floor, four on one side, three on the other, and each will have their own kitchen and living and dining areas. The third floor is the same breakdown. There's going to be two units on the third floor with four bedrooms on one side and five on the other with their own kitchen and living and dining space.

How many people in a bedroom?

So it depends on the room. So sometimes there are two, sometimes there are three, and I think there might be one with four.

How many residents do you plan to accommodate there total?

Tyler Karkman. We currently operate a 26 bed facility in Troy. We're looking to create 40 in this location.

You currently operate a 26-bed facility, and this is a new one that's going to be a 40-bed facility.

That's correct.

Right. What do you know? It seems like a lot of people and not a lot of space. What's your observation square footage?

The state mandates that we have at least 60 square feet per resident.

How many?

60 in a room. 6-0. 6-0 per room per resident. We're exceeding that. It's also...

So one of the bedrooms is more than 240 square feet?

That's correct.

Good. All right. I'm sorry to interrupt you. Okay.

I also just wanted to, another thing that was brought up to us in the planning department staff report, I think there might have been some confusion. It says that there's 20 dwelling units when there's 20 bedrooms. And this, like Tyler was saying, it fits within the requirements permitted under social services law. But I also think that in the zoning code, It was applied to multifamily residences. Mr. Brick, I didn't know if you and Eric had a chance to discuss that part of the report.

We did. And we definitely need to clarify numbers because the plans don't match the numbers you're providing. You had just said there's four bedrooms, seven bedrooms and nine bedrooms, which I get to be 20. The plans say there's 19. The plans reference, by my count, 44 beds. 10 on the first floor, 15 on the second floor, and then 19, which is labeled second floor, but it's on A103, which is the third floor plan. So that's 44. So it's not an issue about whether or not you have the 60 square feet. Clearly, you got to demonstrate that. But if we could just get clarity on what your actual numbers are and make the application materials match.

Yeah, that's no problem. We'll communicate that with the engineer who prepared the... Yeah.

And dwelling units are really a non-issue. There's going to be five. There's six in the building. You're going to reduce it to five where it's been reduced.

Yeah. I think just on the report, it said 20 dwelling units. And then it said that we needed a variance for the dwelling.

Yeah. The discrepancies I'm finding, though, are in terms of number of beds, number of bedrooms.

If you guys... Yeah, the architectural plans.

But what we're describing them is what we're describing is correct.

So make everything match what you're saying.

Could you tell us a little bit about the operation? How does this operate?

So Lori Hamblin, Managing Director of Programs for Fusion Recovery. So we have a program director, we have a house manager, we have something called the behavioral health tech, and we have substance abuse counselors that are in the house at all times. So those- How many counselors? Substance abuse counselors. So it's going to be one counselor, one program director. The program director is not there around the clock. They're usually there 8 to 4.30, a house manager, and then a behavioral health technician was kind of keeping eyes on everything.

Is there a house manager there around the clock?

There is a house manager there during daytime hours. There's going to be a BHT, a behavioral health tech, around the clock. There will always be staff around the clock.

One person, though, after hours, basically? Correct. Okay. And your experience with the 26-unit operation, is there also one there around the clock, basically?

Yeah, it's usually one to two, one to two staff.

And that's sufficient for 26 residents?

Yes.

So one would be sufficient for 40 residents in your estimation?

When we get up to 40, we're looking probably at two.

And can you tell us a little bit about the residents?

Sure. So reintegration is a step down. So it's kind of like the final step in their treatment and in their sobriety. This is the time where the guys are going out. They're looking for employment. They might be going to school. They're in outpatient treatment services. And they're looking to reunite now with the community. So for many of them, this is their community. This is Troy. So we want to reintegrate them appropriately and have them a productive member of society.

Are these... Is this alcohol treatment or substance abuse?

So that's the same thing. So it's alcohol and drugs.

Right. Both. Okay. And are they allowed to use alcohol on the premises? Absolutely not. Can they use alcohol off the premises and remain in the program?

No. So one of the criteria is to remain in the residence, they have to be tested at least once a week. Now, if there's suspicion, we test more often. We can test daily. We can test hourly if we really needed to.

This is drug for testing for drugs? Drugs and alcohol.

So we do urine drug screens that they're instant drug screens. We do rapid drug screens and then we send them out also to LabCorp for verification. So with these guys, they have to maintain sobriety at all times. If they do not, according to the state of New York, they do not meet criteria to be in that residence any longer. And I'm not going to say that we haven't had it happen. We have. And the person is then sent to the appropriate level of care quickly, usually within a few hours.

So this is all voluntary, right? Or are they court committed? All voluntary. Thank you. I'm sorry, other questions?

No, I was going to ask the same question.

Is there a curfew?

There is. So at our current site, we have a curfew at 11 o'clock. I'm looking at the same timeframe unless...

Right. Where somebody's monitoring them, they can't go out.

Right. Right. So the organization's regulated by the laws of the state?

Yes. Through OASIS, the Justice Center, JCO. So we're highly regulated.

Are these people sometimes recommended through drug court? Is that an association? Or is it we're already past that?

Usually they're past that point. They've completed that with what we call is residential treatment, which is a longer term treatment program. And it's more intensive treatment. treatment programs this is the step down this is i'm getting ready to go get my own apartment similar yes and what do you call this step down reintegration reintegration so do you excuse me do you have a large turnover i mean what

you're stepped down approximately how long does it take? Is it up to the individual or is there a timeframe for where they have to leave?

There's no set time that they have to leave. Generally, I've never had one there over a year. So it's usually about six months before they're gainfully employed. Some of them go into college programs in the area and certificate programs. So they might be there a little longer than six months, but six to nine months is the maximum generally.

Quick questions.

Are they all on a set schedule? Are they allowed to have vehicles or do they only use public transportation?

Public transportation in our van driven by our behavioral health tech or our house manager only. We do not allow vehicles on the premises. They cannot come to us with a vehicle.

Are they free to leave during the day and do whatever they want to?

During the day, they're pretty productive. Either they're going to work, they're going to outpatient treatment, which we do have an outpatient treatment program in Manant, or they're going to school. So generally besides that, and maybe in and out into the community, some will go to like the local food pantry, the store, you know, to go grocery shopping, but their time is very limited in and out of the house. They don't frequent, let's put it that way.

They take care of their own meals.

They do.

So there's kitchens in each one of these units also. Hmm. And in the evening, then they're free to do what they want or is there programming?

We have programming. So according to, again, OASIS, our regulatory body, they have to do so much programming per day in order to maintain the fact that they're in the appropriate level of care. So they have to do five hours of programming per week just at that residence, in addition to whatever they're doing at the outpatients.

I'm just trying to get a sense of how much free time they have because there's not much on the property for them to do that we could see. And I know you've already mentioned that you're going to be looking at some amenities in the backyard or whatever. But has that been an issue in your other properties?

No, no. So the guys that are newer to the house usually come to intensive outpatient services or day rehabilitation services at 444 Broadway in Menands. That takes up, intensive outpatient is about three hours a day, three days a week during the day. And then day rehab is Monday through Friday and it runs nine to two. So they are very busy, especially when they first get there for at least six to eight weeks.

Is this co-ed facility?

No, it's all men. All men. Where do your residents come from?

The residents usually come from another place called Hospitality House, where they've been in their program for six to nine months at a more intensive level, where they've been heavily monitored for that period of time, and they've earned their step downs and then graduation from their program.

Were they tri-residents originally? Most. Most are tri-residents? Yes.

Any other questions? Okay, well, thanks for your excellent presentation. We'll see if anybody else wants to speak here. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Magalyn Torres and I resigned at 573 First Street. I've been there for three years. There are five apartments in that building. Each apartment has three bedrooms. There's no extra dining room. It's a kitchen, a bathroom, and your living room. For every apartment is three people the most that lives there. Upstairs, so actually it goes one, two, and three S, or one, two, and three N, which is the north side and the south side. On the third floor, we have three residents, so two parents and a child living, and two children living in the top. I live in the second floor with my two children and myself. Upstairs in the third floor on the north side is a mom with four children. Three of them are artistic and herself. On the second floor from me is a family with one child. And downstairs from me lives a mother with two children. So... It's 16 people living in the building. There's a storefront in the first floor, which is a mom and a child. There's only a one bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen. My concern with the whole situation as far as the building, I don't know when do we have to leave. I heard, I'm hearing three... 30 to 60 days, 90 days top. There's residents in this building that I've been a nurse for 27 years. I'm retired and actually on disability right now. I have nowhere to go. The lady in the third floor has three autistic children that also cries at night and tells me she also doesn't have anywhere to go. I believe, right, if they want us to leave, because I've been looking, but it's very hard with the skyline buildings and the beautiful things that are doing in Troy right now. Us people, poor people, we can't afford it. Right now I'm paying $1,500 in this apartment and I feel like I have to leave. Like, right? I'm looking somewhere to go. I'm finding apartments for $1,800, which are... No good, right? There's no really good apartments out here. I feel like we're going to be rushed to get out of there and have nowhere to go. So my question to you guys is, are you guys going to be responsible financially to help us to get out of this building and help us seek a new building or a new place to live in? Because right now we're like choking. I don't know where I'm going. My daughter's a senior in Troy High. My son is a 10th grader. He plays football. I have athletic kids. I'm always present in like what's going on with them. And I don't know what to do. Like I am. What's going to happen with us, the people who are living there? Yeah, these people, of course, want to make something beautiful for other people. But ideally, there's no 40 people living in a first floor like that is not going to exist. These apartments are not big. My apartment is very small. My son has a twin size bed, a dresser and a table in one room. And he's he doesn't fit there. So I don't understand how 40 people right now there's 16 residents living in this building. Sixteen. I don't know where the numbers are coming from. Again, I am very scared. I don't know what's going to happen to me and my children. Like, we're literally getting kicked out of a building because they want to fund it for other things. But what's going to happen with us? What's going to happen with my neighbor that has autistic kids that cries every night and says, I don't have nowhere to go? What's going to happen with the lady in the first floor? I'm here for myself along for the people who live in my building. I've been there for three and a half years and now I got to go. So I want to ask you guys, are you guys going to help fund moving us? Are you guys going to help us find a place? Because if you guys can help me find a place, I will leave. I'm looking and I've been looking for four months. If we have to leave in three months, where does that leave me and my family? I don't think that this is a great project, especially for the people in the community. My building and along with all my neighbors, we're all tight. We're all, you know, look out for each other. And there's no parking. I have a 17-year-old daughter that has to park a block and a half down and Walk to my building because there's no parking as far as the backyard. Only three cars can fit in the backyard. We have two big dumpsters. Our dumpsters is three, three garbage for recycling and the right side. And then the left side, we have a huge dump dumpster that we throw our garbage in. Um, Out of the six families that live in the building, only three people could park in the backyard. There's no space for four cars. There's no space for a trailer. There's no space for nothing that's not small cars. So I'm a little concerned. I'm very concerned.

That's understandable. We don't have any thing to do with with that. But I'm going to ask the applicants what if they're dealing with that issue at all, maybe they can give you some information. I'm sympathetic to your situation, but it's really beyond beyond our authority here to do anything about that. But let's see what they have to say about it. Can you have you can take a seat? Do you have other questions or anything? Okay. Do you want to come in on that? Do you have any transition plans for the people in the building or

Yeah, so we wouldn't be starting construction for at least six months. I mean, we have other approvals we have to get from the state. Separately, we can't break tenant leases without compensation being offered and accepted. So we would also be willing to assist with that transition and including financial support if that helps.

Have you made contact with the existing tenants at this point?

We have not. Again, we were waiting to see the outcome of this.

Do you own the building now?

No, we don't.

Have an option on it?

That's correct, in the contract.

So will you be owning the building or will you just be leasing the building? Or is it lease to buy or how is this working?

Sure, we're in contract. Our intention is to purchase it and then we would put substantial hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment, primarily on the inside, but we would also fix up and beautify the outside.

Okay. All right. Thank you. So did you hear that? Six months at least, and they may be able to help you with your moving in for that stuff.

Correct. Thank you. Are they also going to help with like the extra rent? So let's say I'm paying $1,500 when I'm currently, they say they helping with financially to get us out of there. So what if the rent is $1,800, but we're paying 13, would they also help with the three extra hundred for the rent going on?

Yeah, I think it's probably unlikely. I think you're going to have to find another place for 15, but I don't know. I'm not sure about all that. Yes.

You can try sending at a 5.73. And first I want to commend job. Well, if it's coming from the heart, I commend job for that. But the location for for selection. I say that to say this. I'm from New York. I'm a New York resident, right? I go everywhere. I pay attention to everything. So when I hear the proposal and I hear the intention, I hear the intent, but the location, it will not work. I know for a fact it will not work. If any of you guys know and travel along the streets of Troy, you can see the demographic. You can tell the kind of people that's around. That type of thing needs to be placed somewhere next where it's a wider variety of a crowd, not secluded off somewhere. They need to see people and be active. They need to see people living life. They don't need to see people struggling and down on their luck on drugs. Because if they walk out that building and go a couple blocks away, they're going to reminisce. They're going to have a memory trip. They're going to see somebody that they was just six to nine months ago. You understand? So good idea, wrong location. I respect it, though. And that's all I got to say.

All right. Thank you.

I would like to add that we have two districts, two schools, school 12 and the CAP program there. And in that corner, which is called the Blue Store, there are a lot of drug addicts there. There are people on the floor sleeping. There are people copying. You see them from six in the morning to three in the afternoon. These kids are coming out of school and they are literally sleeping. looking at the nastiness that's there. And he's right. If you were rehabilitating and you come out to the world and you're trying to do good, but you walk 20 feet to the corner store, you're going to bump into these people that it might just put you back where you at, you know, put you back to, oh my God, that's my homeboy. Hey, how you doing? I got some crack. You want to smoke? And guess what? These people are going to go right back to the same place because the block is not the best block. You know, they are drug addicts in every corner, but in this corner on the blue store, That's all you're going to see every morning. There's cops sitting there all the time. And guess what? They got to leave. They eventually leave. And my kids can't even go to the corner store. I don't I don't allow it. I go to the to price shop or I do the groceries. But like to walk to the stores is very dangerous. It's very dangerous. There's always drugs in that corner, whether it's weed, whether it's crack. They have three buildings filled of marijuana there, which they just raided right not too long ago. Well, they still there and they still working on the same block. They still working in the same home. So that's that's considering to to just think about we're putting rehabilitating people to a place where just down the block, they're going to find the drugs as well. And then they might just not be rehabilitated anymore.

Thank you. That's more a concern of the applicants than something we can deal with. Did you want to comment on that? We'll wait until they...

If you want to answer any of that stuff.

I would assume that would be a concern of your program. I think that what they're saying is accurate from my knowledge of the area. 100%.

And again, my name is Andrew Gauch. I work here at Fusion. I've been here since the beginning. And these are definite concerns.

With everybody in that building, we are here to help.

The last thing we want to do is not help. I got into this industry to help. But the reality is, and I'm going to be a bit open here, is that 18 years ago, I wasn't wearing a suit. I came from these programs. I came from sober living. And these structures were down in South Florida and they were not set up to the way we have set up here at Fusion. Temptation is everywhere. You're never going to avoid it in life. Even in my hardest moments, I had to walk through that. But I didn't want to live the life that I was living anymore. I was exhausted of it. And with the camaraderie of people in the house that also had the same shared goal, It's what got me to be speaking in front of you and the members of this board today. So this is why we make sure to structure a strong program because yes, these things are going to be in every community. It's unavoidable, right? And that's why we make sure that we have a strong supportive staff and we're trying to make sure we're grabbing people and getting people through a strong assessment to make sure that they're in the right frame of mind to deal with some of these temptations because it's not a facility for everybody. That's all I have to say in regards to that. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Yes, come on down.

My name is Tristan Hernandez, my wife and I Monique Hernandez live right next door 575 First Street. We want to mention, of course, that we do appreciate the nature and the goal of fusion drug rehabilitation facilities, especially to rehabilitate those in need of help. That's a very noble goal. We're concerned about the location, whether or not it's ideal for the facility. Our concerns were mentioned in two separate emails that I think you guys have received once, one from my wife, Monique Hernandez, who I think Mr. Morea, had responded to and also from Florence Ryan, who is on Zoom, and she's actually the owner of the building. So we rent from her and we run our small family-owned business next door. So we just want to summarize a couple of our concerns. Let me just adjust this a little bit. There we go. So part of it, if you don't mind, I'll summarize unless you wanted to reference the email directly. What would you prefer?

Whatever you please.

Okay. So we're concerned about the displacement of current residences as they spoke about. That's a concern too. It's good to help one cause, but it, be troubling to create another problem at the same time. There's little to no room for parking for new residences, staff, visitors, pre-existing residences. In the rear of the building, as she mentioned, there's only room for three. So we're concerned about that. The parking already is a problem. To add 40 residences along with whoever the visitors are and the staffing might be a concern. The two schools were mentioned as well. We're concerned about increased traffic, although that may be a minor concern, but a bigger concern would be the foot traffic, including loitering and activity, noise, smoking directly below our windows or created by the Fusion Recovery Center residents. We don't know how, in addition of 40 people to the neighborhood, how that will affect that. We'd be concerned about our friends, our family members walking down the street if there's large groups of people right out front. If there's 40 people there, we don't know how many of them will be outside at the same time, but that's a concern. We're wondering and want to understand what measures, if any, are in place to address security and the increased activity associated with the facility. As for the condition of the building, the site plan mentioned specifically that there would be no changes or modifications to the exterior. Of course, that was changed a little bit and maybe that's the case, but when they mentioned that, we were a little surprised by that. The reason why we mentioned that is because of the condition of the building itself. There's pictures in the email that you guys may be able to reference if you'd like to from the email that was sent. Significant work is needed. The pictures depict severe damage to the brick siding, little to no mortar left, falling and missing bricks. You'll see in the pictures there, which is also creating damage. leaks for the, for some of the residents there. And the reason I know that is because I do a little bit of maintenance for them. Um, and at times I've, I've been in the units to do some repairs. I'm a contractor. And so, um, that that's been an issue is the leaking, uh, which we believe is actually coming from the missing bricks on, on the, that would be the North side of the building. Um, Let's see. We're wondering if this site complies with all applicable zoning, building, fire, accessibility, life safety requirements for the proposed use. 40 people is a lot of people to be in one building. We're not sure what the code states, especially changing the nature of the building from a residential building to a rehabilitation center. We're curious about the security measures. What is the operational or management plan explaining how the facility will function on a day-to-day basis? What... measures will be put in place to prevent unreasonable impacts on our immediately adjoining residential properties, which is literally less than less than a foot between the two buildings. We're also respectfully requesting that the planning board not approve the application unless and until the applicants have provided sufficient information to demonstrate compliance with all the applicable requirements and allow the board to fully evaluate the effects of the proposed use on the surrounding neighborhood. And if significant information concerning occupancy, staffing, parking, operations, safety, or site management has not yet been provided, we would ask that the board table the application rather than approve it before those issues have been fully addressed. The last thing we'll mention is we're concerned about garbage. There's already an issue with spilling over garbage from the 16 residences that are there, which is not... from the tenants, but we do think that hopefully that will be addressed to double or triple the amount of people there would just increase the issues with rodents, with pests, with garbage, and hopefully that can be addressed as well.

As my husband explained, I'm Monique Hernandez. Another concern that we have, as mentioned, is that we do have a family business operating in the well, not operating in the back, but we store all of our equipment there. And we also have a lot of packages that come. So we're also concerned about the security of our business equipment and packages. Along with that, as was mentioned, we're very close to the building as is. And so I know for myself, I can look out the window and I can see my neighbors if need be. So if my blinds are open, their blinds are open, we can see each other. I can already hear them as is. So that already makes me a bit uncomfortable. Like I have my neighbors, but just to have 40 people coming in and out, that's a lot of change. Another, yes, and turnover. Another thing that we were able to find is, I looked it up online here. It says in New York, a prospective provider of substance use disorder services is required to receive the prior approval of the commissioner of OASAS and go through the necessary channels of certification before establishing, incorporating and or constructing a facility or offering a service. So when we look this up, we can see that for the 26-bed River Street program, that's at, I believe it was 820, the OASAS letter expressly stated that a standard operating certificate may be issued once, oh wait, sorry, there it is. Okay, it says OASAS conducted a recertification review of Fusion's 820 River Street residential program from September 9th to the 24th of 2025. The compliance summary shows the residential facility had a case records quality score of 1.9 and an overall score of 2.06. Under OASAS's own rating table, a score between 1.76 and 2.5 is classified as minimal compliance and results in a one-year certificate. And then it explains that the service management score was much stronger at four and the facility component was 3.72. But it also explains that there are deficiencies that need resolving. It says the conditional certificate became effective in October 1st, 2025, with an anticipated recertification review of September 30th of this year. So these are just things that concern us. It seems that, like I said, we really do, as everyone mentioned, we really do appreciate the work that they do. I know I've had family members who have had issues with drugs, so I would definitely want something for them. The challenge that we are having is just the location of the building. So and we feel that and maybe in a more commercial. or downtown area of Troy where there are buildings that are underutilized and where they would have more parking. We feel that that would be more suitable as opposed to just a regular residential street. So those are my personal concerns, our personal concerns, and we hope for some responses. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you both.

So... I appreciate opening the floor to residents of Troy and being able to discuss their concerns for the project and their questions moving forward. I think the best thing that we can do is provide a response letter to address all their concerns so that the board and the record and the community has access to that information. I just want to highlight that this is a permitted use in this zoning district. I'm sorry. I just want to highlight that this is a permitted use in this zoning district. And we want everyone in the area to be as secure and safe as the residents surrounding them. So one thing I will highlight is that there is going to be security cameras as well in the front and the rear. And also, as Lori had discussed, that there's going to be staff on site at all times or a staff member on site at all times. We intend to beautify the front and the back of the building, although the site plans don't say that we're going to be doing these updates to the building in the sense that there's no construction that's going to be done to the exterior of the building. But we would like it to look nice and residential for the residents and the surrounding community. I also received today, and I will circulate to Eric, an updated parking plan. We know parking is a concern for the residents as well as the city, and that plan describes how we're only using the parking for not the residents, but the staff members that are going to be at the site. another, oh yes, the garbage. So we are going to be providing as required by the zoning code, but also to improve the quality of the site and enclosure for the dumpsters and clean up the rear of the property.

I want to... Definitely, especially with

packaging, things like that, we're going to make sure that the risk monitor, we do.

Sorry about that. We're going to make sure that we do have monitoring going on with packaging. We have actually not had any issues at our current location since we've been open of anybody missing packages or any of that nature whatsoever. We will also, if we get to that point, be providing you with our information. So if you see anything, hear anything right away, you can reach out to us. It's always appreciated. We're going to make sure also the outside structural, going through that, making sure that any masonry, Any upkeep is done. And then any additionals needed for staffing or anything else for safety concerns, the neighborhood or anything else is going to be completely done as well.

Any other questions?

so i'm sick of talking about this but uh the city of troy increasing the sanitary loading on a system is an important aspect uh with that increase of beds there certainly will be an increase and you're likely going to need to consult with a civil engineer and provide a sewer report to troy dpu showing pre-development conditions you know existing conditions versus proposed and um yeah i'm not i'm honestly the way this goes can really depend on the location in the city and it's it's hard to predict but essentially uh the county and dpu will need to you know verify that they can handle the additional sanitary loading And yeah, Eric, I would probably just put him in touch with Andrew or Christine or Chris directly. Got it.

That's fine. Eric, you could email me that.

No problem.

Can I ask, how did you choose this property? I mean, there was nothing else that was... a better space between buildings, a better space in the back where they could have, I don't know, go out back and smoke. Sure.

So I just want to reiterate, this is a reintegration facility. So we could technically find a commercial property away from stores, away from delis, but that defeats the purpose because once they're discharged, they're not going to be living a similar life. It's a larger facility. We currently maintain over a 20-person waiting list. So we were looking for additional beds, something larger. This is larger than our existing facility. And it just seemed like a great opportunity to expand, to treat more people of Troy. And the location is relatively close to our outpatient clinic as well.

I would just like to speak a little bit about the smoking. So again, we're under Oasis regulations. We would have to apply for a waiver in order for the patients to smoke, and we do not do this at either one of our other facilities.

So they can't smoke outside? They cannot smoke, no.

Chair, may I ask a question?

Sure.

Well, the residents, you said they won't have access to vehicles. They're part of the contract. What about bicycles?

We haven't had it happen.

It's proposed in the new traffic plan to add either an enclosed bike rack or internally a bike rack.

Okay.

How do residents have the ability to apply for a job, get to a location?

So we have counseling staff at both locations and we work with them vocationally. So we do send them out to vocational specialists as well. So they are connected with, we have job sites built into the residence where they can actually search We have job readiness skills that we teach with them. And we talk to them and coach them on interview skills. So there's all kinds of things that we do with them. When it comes to employment, we have guest speakers come in from different locations that specialize in different areas that might benefit them.

I guess the crux of my comment or question is really, do they have adequate needs of transportation if they're not able to have a bicycle or a vehicle?

Yes. So we offer them bus passes. We connect them with bus passes. It's a monthly pass, but we also transport them back and forth when needed through our van system, which would not be on the property.

And would... Fusion Recovery, I saw that you have a one-year bus pass promotional. What was it? Yeah, the CDTA program for one year. Are you able to extend that? Absolutely.