May 29, 2018 Town Board AGENDA MEETING Partial Transcripts and Notes

Town Board AGENDA MTG 5/29/18
(6:30pm – 9:00pm)

Note: Blanks occur where voice was inaudible.

1. Supervisor removed resolution 18-109 from the agenda because the legal requirements needed for this have not been met (this was to consider approving partial road closures of Sycamore St. and Forestbrook Dr. for a benefit run on June 6th). He received a lot of calls from concerned residents.

2. Resolution 18-107: Mary Joan Egan (librarian and administrator at Stevens Elementary for 46 years of service) is being recognized in this proclamation honoring Ms. Egan. Stevens school will have a service this Friday where the school district will be naming a media center in her honor. Unanimously passed by town board.

3. Councilman Curtis was late arriving, he arrived during Saratoga Plan’s presentation, when the first slide was being shown.

4. Approved monthly bills. Passed unanimously by town board.

5. Saratoga Plan Presentation given by Michael Horn, Conservation Director…and Allison Hargrave.
- There are public benefits to conserving farmland, many examples given.
-We are losing one farm every 3 days.
-Gave examples of why farmland owners are interested in participating in a
conservation plan.
-Explained a conservation easement: legal tool between landowner and
government. Easement is attached to the land forever, comes with restrictions
which were explained. Easement travels if land is subdivided.
-Landowners manage their land as they see fit, remains in private ownership, structures are allowed on the land, public access is decided by landowner.
-Often includes a partial donation by the landowner. Funding is provided by the state and/or the county and/or the town.
-Discussion of 233 Hop City Road, just over 127 acres: Brookdale Farm owned by Joan and Carlton Pott. Funding is being considered for this farm. Discussion of why this property is desirable to conserve.
-Tim (Supervisor) said he met with Mike and Allison two weeks ago discussing Brookdale Farm. Tim said he will sign a letter of intent saying the town will support the funding of Brookdale Farm for conservation. Tim said he will try to increase the funding available since more is needed, because Tim thinks this is an excellent program.
- Saratoga Plan asked the town for (1) a resolution from town stating support (2) be the lead applicant, and (3) provide local funding for project, amount to be determined.
- Tim asked what has been done to streamline the process. Allison explained they aim for 18 months and that that happens as long as there are not major snags along the way.
-Councilman Goslin said “this is the way to preserve property and the town should play a role in this and it would be nice to get the county to spend some of that $100,000 in the town and to get the property owners to donate as well”.

6. Ballston Sewer Use Law Update by Kim Kotkowski:
-The public hearing comment period: received 28 individual comments. 8 were in the BL district. 5 categories of comments: 1- mandatory connection comments. 2- exemption from connection comments, including whether or not we call them exemptions
3- comments addressing specific inspector criteria
4- penalties, too steep
5- other: confusion as to the project or the process, specific but comments were not about the law

Kim talked about how initially the plan was to approve the sewer law at the June board meeting but now she questions if that is too soon.

Tim (Supervisor) recommended to slow this down, take another good close look and look at those areas Kim identified from the residents concerns, listening to the voice of the people is important so that’s what he is doing. He said that if this takes awhile to get thru it then so be it.

Councilman Goslin- “this is the first step, we can work thru each issue within the category and come up the the proper resolution”

Councilman Kelly Stewert- “lets not say we’ll do it eventually, lets set when we are going to sit and have that conversation”

Tim- “lets comment on that the next meeting? June is too soon”

Kim- the new law is required end of 2019 when the sewer is active. We can talk at the committee next meeting and present to the board next month? Tim said sure.

7. Phones.
Councilman Goslin said he “got a little bit more of a discount so we’re in good shape”.

8. Natural Gas Extention
Wes Holmsdale Chr. Of board of fire district said the construction is ahead of schedule, trying to get natural gas up Goode St. to Charlton Rd. National Grid gave $88,000 estimate. Two components, town hall and highway dept will get it as well. Cheaper than propane. Occupancy date is mid-December. Timing with national grid is of the essence, they are slow to work with. Looking for support from town to share fees to hook up to the gas. Doesn’t know the cost savings but thinks its considerable. Tim asked what does board think? Mr. Goslin said “look at energy costs, look forward, quantify savings so we know payback on our investiment. It’s a significant cost to fire company so he’d like to help them with their cost as well. “
Its 2200-2600 feet to run the line and that includes hookups to the two town buildings. Tim said “ we will get back with you. “ Mr. Goslin said “ whats your date?” Mr. Holmes said 6-8 weeks. Mr. Goslin said “ get it on agenda, get it passed, get someone to pull those records.” Tim- agrees with the recommendation from Mr. Goslin, asked to add it on for the next board meeting. Joe (hwy superintendent) said he agrees with Mr. Goslin to pull the last 3 years of bills on propane cost and compare with what natural gas will cost.

Tim announced that the final closing on Firemans Grove will be 6/12/18 at 3pm at town hall.

18-108 Resolution: Passed unanimously. Approved not more than $500 to library director.

Resolution 18-109: acquision of Firemans Grove. unanimoulyu passed

Resolution 18-110: Consider approval of town support for Saratoga Plan application for funding towards conservation of Brookdale Farm. Passed unanimously.

Resolution 18-111: Consider approval of town support for the application to NYS grant program by Saratoga Plan for conservation of Brookdale Farm. Passed unanimously

Resolution 18-112: buy light rack for #3298…passed unanimously

Mr. Goslin: “highway crew does great job but we ask them to work around the clock in hazardous conditions, we as a town have to provide anything we can to make their jobs easier and safer. I have other suggestions for Joe. I think you’ll see a little bit more of this. It’s the right thing to do. We need to strike while we have a little bit of extra fund balance”.

18-113: buy flatbed $2033.50—passed unanim

Executive Session break. X 19 minutes

Zoning Overview presented by Sophia Marruso:
1-TDR
Sophia: “Last month we talked about TDR, zoning district boundaries, buffers, green buffers and some basic definitions. I think the biggest piece that is kind of left for further discussion is our thinking of possibly putting__________and what I understood with that was that there is considerable concern about allowing seniors in the south area where they might not pass the sewers. And there was a little bit of a I thought kind of a reflective meditation about TDR as a function. So with that Iwas given to speak about this with Nan particularly to take on a little bit more of a direction on how a committee could be formed and the two_________alteration, .So Nan and I spoke and we talked a little bit about what we could have gotten from the board with the direction of TDR and something that both she and I Both see in a similar fashion is that TDR could be kept as a voluntary program with___in___the __zoning code____renewal_ but it would have to be revisited to see what kind of density could be exercised or pursued, the other piece we obviously have to update as a result of that is where those receiving parcels or the parcels that could accept that extra density would be located on the map. So we kind of have to reframe the way we look at it, the mechanism, but there is some real value in keeping it there, in terms of how trying to approach what counsel and the community is concerned about separation ………. , and how having that as one of several potential tools could be enacted. We also talked about some other tools that are being employed in other communities, there’s a lot of different things, one of the things that I had discussed with her was other communities spend the money to create_______of tax statement, which is usually through _______with the comprehensive plan_______And what is often borne out of that, a set of fees, that are charged to development________which can include things like an offset______________.theres even a GI exappropriation fee for_______.so thee are some ways that a municipality can ____________.”

Sophia said “there is a TDR committee, a TDR bank”.

2- BUFFERS- Sophia provided board members with a new schedule for designing buffers.

Sophia: “If you have an opportunity to preserve something instead of having to construct a new buffer the code needs to recognize that.” Much discussion on this.

3. PUD’s : Very lengthy discussion. Here are some excerpts:

Sophia: “I don’t think its unreasonable to suggest that that potentially public utilities, potentially water/sewer…could serve as a possible public benefit, provided that it is able to _________ to complete the project. And I think it depends on the amount in the future _______to it, and I don’t know what that exact threshold is and Im sure that those kinds of questions this board has already had about that, but I think that that shouldn’t be ruled out, it could constitute a public benefit, depending on the specific consideration, the thing with the PUD is the town always has control over that, for rezoning mechanisms, so I think the town board has the ability to decide what is a public benefit or what solely servicing that one project, and I think that’s a balancing act that has to happen.

Sophia: “ I was wondering why 67 east wasn’t contemplated as being worthy of being a PUDD area , and I know there was probably considerable amount of conversation that happened before I showed up, and I’m happy to hear whatever ___, and right now we’re only thinking of Rt. 50 being an area that can take on a PUD and this brings back the back and forth question of why the restrictive use of the _______area.”

Mr. Goslin responded: “I can help with some of that. PUDD is the focus of the zoning was to eliminate PUDD in developing areas of the town except for Rt. 50 so that significant reduction in the ability to build in planning and development in the rest of town, that’s how we got to Rt. 50. I would say that including Rt. 67 and Rt. 50 is a good suggestion and I think we should adopt that as a board with the understanding that PUDDs in general would be our next zoning focus so that we can really come up with the proper zoning for Rt 50 and now 67 without having to rely on the PUDD. But that’s a exercise that’s going to take a considerable amount of time so that’s kind of where we drew the line for zoning so I’m in favor of including Rt 67 and agreeing as a board to work on Rt. 50 PUDDs immediately following the passage of this zoning.”

-There was discussion of possibly allowing the Zoning Board to deal with zoning issues and not using the PUDD.

Mr. Goslin to Sophia: “I think you agree with eliminating the PUD in all areas except Route 50 and 67, right?”

Sophia’s response to Mr. Goslin’s question: “Yes.”

Mr. Goslin:”So I would like to, on this one, just see if we can’t come to an understanding of the board that says there’s more work to do here and I think work to do is in how you change the TUD to work within the existing zoning code and try to allow the PUD to perform the function that it was supposed to as part of the Comprehensive Plan within the normal zoning because right now it trumps all zoning and we know that’s been abused in town so we need to make sure…and I think that’s a conversation that when we drafted the proposed zoning changes we need to move to a future date.

Mr. Antoski: “Why wouldn’t we just eliminate the PUD altogether?”

Mr. Goslin: “Because existing code doesn’t allow you to do things on Rt. 50 that you might want to do.”

Mr. Antoski: “But wouldn’t there be a way that you just eliminate it completely and then as you mentioned go to variance and if there isn’t any then maybe there’s a fall back in circumstance that you could then move to….to have it there is just to open it up to abuse.” “I was on the zoning board and I know what they do, its just the idea of that______they are looking to change that aspect of zoning , and if we have a solid zoning in place then that’s what you rely on to take care of it. The idea of lets get rid of PUDD except in these two areas, why are we getting rid of them? We should just get rid of them completely.” AUDIENCE BREAKS OUT IN APPLAUSE.

4. LIGHTING CODE- new.

5. Design Standards. 6-7 pages written and submitted to the board. New.

Sophia: “ Some of the suggestions were put together based on the nature of the applications that have come in in the past year, and what you see applicants continue to struggle with not because theres a problem with the applicants but because the standard just doesn’t fit the ___________that ___________________ so one of the things we were struggling with was what is required with our design standards and what discretion the planning board has in exercising ________________.” There was much more discussion on this.

Mr. Goslin: “I think we have an issue with the square footage. Here’s a perfect example John, where you’re going to say you have 20,000 sq. ft. for a maximum building someones going to come to you with a sports dome and you’re going to say it doesn’t fit, what do they do, well, you’re not going to have a sports dome… and you’re ok with that? “ Mr. Antoski replied that he is okay with that.

Mr. Goslin: “The change from 90,000 to 20,000 is a radical change, and I’m talking about the north section. I did sit down with Mr. Rossi and he said …Ya know if you want to set that to 20,000 I’ll build apartments on my property all day long because I wont be able to build any commercial buildings or any retail buildings or anything else, and that really struck home with me that we need to understand that there has to be a place in town where we build businesses and going from 90,000 to 20,000 is extremely restrictive and your enforcement of PUD’s and if some people had there way we just wouldn’t build anything bigger than that, so I guess the question the board has to decide is whether you’re going to allow anymore commercial building in town or not because these restrictions here will pretty much shut it down and that’s kind of where you are , and if you want apartments… set your building at 20,000 and you’ll have apartments all up and down rt. 50 and 67 like they’re building right now, so this is a pivotal issue and the board is going to need to understand, you have to make a decision.”

Tim (Supervisor): “What I can see here with this overview, we appreiciate all of your efforts. We’re trying to capture the public comments we need, and with our consultant who is guiding us through this, we get all the right folks involved with us here. Here’s what I see , there’s like three major areas that we as the board need to make a decision on… we talked about them this evening…. PUDD’s, TDR’s and Design Standards. What I would recommend for each board member is read everything here in detail and we have to provide feedback as we move forward.”

Sophia said there is one more session left with her, she thinks it is about signs.

Tim: “Nan has been contacted and is fully involved with the process from home.”

Privilege of the floor:

Speaker #1: Joan Pott: thanked the board for their support tonite to conserve her farm. Gave a review of the 1985 Comprehensive Plan survey creation, there was an 85% response rate. In 2005 the town hired another group to do another survey and there was another 85% response rate with the exact same results. We spent $100,000 in 2006 to do the Comp Plan. Our comp plan lays out very clearly what Rt. 50 is supposed to look like. It’s there for a reason. Wonders why Nan is not here tonite, and instead Sophia is here presenting planning and zoning changes. The Spinney group lied to the owners of the land where Spinney wants to put senior housing. They did not tell her about 250 apartments. They never would have sold to a senior housing community. This is why you don’t do PUDD. And the Spinney group put into the Saratogian info about cottages and townhouses and clubhouses on that property. It is not what the previous owners of that land wanted. Joan said she knows the town wants to re-do the comp plan so you can zone anything you want, but we don’t have a population growth to support re-doing the Comp Plan. If we get 15,000 people that would support one, but not 2000 people. It doesn’t matter how many years have gone by since that last comp plan, years don’t change residents minds, new residents change residents minds. So right now we have this jewel, we lost Malta, we lost Clifton Park. Milton and Charlton will be the next to fall, and then we wont have farms left. People moving here move here to farm, to enjoy the open space. The school hasn’t dropped its attendance nor increased its attendance by more than 10% since 1976, the schools haven’t changed. PUDs, 100 foot buffer. I thought we had agreed to that. I’m sorry, sumac is not a buffer, go to Skaarland Drive, do you know why they pulled those trees? Because half of them died because the water in that swamp has risen because of public water , and half of them are being cut down because in order to spray them…everybody complains about spray. This is why you need a buffer between residents and farms. No one wants to put up with the sound of a windmill, the smell of spreading manure, the noise of a tractor.

Speaker #2 Mr. Rossi: Is hoping to reveal a grocery store soon by using the Rossi PUDD. Most grocery stores are 36000- 47000 sq ft for most grocery stores, and that’s over 20,000. The ZBA couldn’t have the ability do much about that since its so far over the 20000 number and it wouldn’t go so what do we do, we’re handcuffed at that point, for something we all believe this town needs and wants. There is no such thing as one size fits all, we need to leave options open so when things come to this board or the planning board or whoever, they can act accordingly.

Speaker #3 Polly Windels : She would like the town to consider one of the solar companies to present options to the town. The town would save money and that would benefit all of the residents. Bringing a gas line in, yes its cheaper than propane, but why should she think of it as a community benefit when only a few benefit from it? Objects to so many apartments being built, that space will leave vacant retail space. There is a lot of vacant retail space in towns around us. Retail is going down. If you want cute stores to come in, stop bringing in Dollar Stores. Every time you allow more retail space you are allowing permanent vacant space and that’s not a good decision, its not serving the people of this town. She like the idea of a co-op.