0 PLANNING BOARD TOWN OF COLONIE COUNTY OF ALBANY *************************************************** KJ ELECTRIC RAILROAD AVENUCE SEQRA DETERMINATION AND APPLICATION FOR FINAL SITE PLAN APPROVAL *************************************************** THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES of the above entitled proceeding BY NANCY STRANG-VANDEBOGART, a Shorthand Reporter, commencing on September, 0 at : p.m. at the Public Operations Center Old Niskayuna Road, Latham, New York 0 BOARD MEMBERS: PETER STUTO, CHAIRMAN KATHY DALTON LOU MION TIMOTHY LANE KAREN GOMEZ ELENA VAIDA, ESQ., Counsel to the Planning Board Also present: Joe LaCivita, Director, Planning and Economic Development Joe Bianchine, ABD Engineers Suzanne Perry 0 Ph -- Fax --0
0 CHAIRMAN STUTO: We ll call up the next project. Thank you for your indulgence. Next on the agenda is KJ Electric, Railroad Avenue, SEQRA determination and application for final site plan approval. This is a,00 square foot warehouse/office presented by ABD. Joe, do you have an introduction on this one? MR. LACIVITA: Yes. KJ Electric was before the Planning Department in October, 0 for the DCC. It s been up for TDE review by Barton and Loguidice. Concept was granted on April th and preliminary SEQRA 0 classification is unlisted. Again, concept was granted April th with that March rd SEQRA. There has been a slight change since the beginning. The original DCC and concept was granted on the square footage of,. There was a slight change to the footprint. We bumped it out about or feet. That s why we re here tonight for final approval on the square footage of,00. It s the same content and the same use; warehouse and office. Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 CHAIRMAN STUTO: Okay, we ll hear from the applicant on this? MR. BIANCHINE: I m Joe Bianchine with ABD Engineers and Surveyors. I m representing KJ Electric. KJ Electric is headquartered in Syracuse New York, but they have an office here in Colonie at Arrowhead. They would like to move their office from Arrowhead to the site here on Railroad Avenue. KJ Electric does servicing, repairs and sales of electrical equipment, motors and heavy electrical equipment. The site is on Railroad Avenue, as you can see. It s the only vacant parcel on Railroad Avenue. It s a two-acre site. It s next to Dance Dimensions and Lowe s is in the back, New York Legal Publications everything is developed. This is the only parcel. It s got a little gravel area in the front that is used by the people on Railroad Avenue. They park there from time to time or whatever, but close to the back portion of the site is wooded. The Town/Village line runs right through here (Indicating). About one-third of it the back portion is in the Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 Village and two-thirds is in the Town of Colonie. We have been before the Village and we have received their approval for the project. The Town is actually the lead agency on it. CHAIRMAN STUTO: What is the nature of the approval in the Village? I m just curious because it doesn t come up that often. Is that a final site plan approval? MR. BIANCHINE: Yes, it was their final site plan approval. CHAIRMAN STUTO: On the exact application? MR. BIANCHINE: Yes, the exact same thing. CHAIRMAN STUTO: And the exact square footage and so forth? MR. BIANCHINE: Yes. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Since we re on the top, I see a letter here about preserving the vegetation. MR. BIANCHINE: That s right. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Can you point out the back of your building and Lowe s? MR. BIANCHINE: This is dark green back Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 through here (Indicating). CHAIRMAN STUTO: How was that addressed? MR. BIANCHINE: The comment came up because way back, the Pine Bush asked that we identify any non-native and invasive species on the site. So, we had biologists go out there and take a look at it and they did identify several different varieties of non-native and invasive species. We ll be clearing those out of this area. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Those are not good, right? MR. BIANCHINE: They re not good. It s something that we want to get rid of. There are a lot of big old oak trees and pine trees in the back. We ll be preserving those and that satisfies their comment. The square footage of the building changed to a little less than,000 to just slightly over,000 because they did a little bump out on the back. That was the only real change. It s just that little bump out in the back that changed. Again, this is an Industrial F Zone. It s an allowed use in an Industrial F Zone. It Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 will be a one-story masonry building. It will have parking in the front. There will be two access points to Railroad Avenue. We have to cross Railroad Avenue in this area (Indicating). Railroad Avenue is a divided roadway. Actually, that little area there is owned by CSX. We submitted all of our paperwork to CSX and we re waiting for their approval so that we can cross-access. It s not totally a Town road here. There is water and sewer at the site, so we ll be connecting to the Town water and the Town sewer. We ve been through the departments and they re okay with everything. The site is all sand. We ve done several test pits out there percolation tests and so forth. So, we re using infiltration in these areas here and down through here will be grass (Indicating). This very gently sloping will be a depression which will handle our stormwater from the site. It will be probably two to three feet deep at most. It s spread over long areas of sand. There is very little traffic. As I mentioned, they have eight employees and Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 they re looking to increase their staff as the economy improves to about employees. That s about it. It s in an industrial site and it s an industrial use. CHAIRMAN STUTO: We d like to hear from our Town Designated Engineer. Again, for the record, it s Chuck Voss from Barton and Loguidice. MR. VOSS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, we ve conducted a preliminary final review on this application. We ve been working with the applicant over the last several weeks to iron out some comments that have come in from the Town departments and some comments from us. As Mr. Bianchine mentioned, they ve been able to do that fairly satisfactorily. If you like, I can run through those comments. They re relatively technical in nature, but let s just cover them quickly. Town Department comments this was from our letter dated August rd and all of these comments. We ll go through them one at a time, but they were addressed by the applicant. The Department of Public Works had asked that a highway work permit, architectural Ph -- Fax --0
0 floor and plumbing plans and verification of contractors insurance are required for the project and that the public sewer extension was not required. The applicants were fine with that and they agreed to comply with that. They ve met with Latham Water and reviewed the plans and essentially outside of some minor technical details, have signed-off on those and they are comfortable. The Bureau of Engineering they did the same. Their typical highway work requirement, copy of the CSX Railroad review and confirmation. The Village of Colonie s Planning Board comments from June th were addressed by the 0 applicant. We went through those one at a time and made sure that their comments were addressed accordingly. They re there. We talked about the Village of Colonie preferring that the Town of Colonie be the responsible entity for the site. That s due to the size of the site that s within the Town of Colonie s jurisdiction and we agreed with that and think that s certainly adequate. I think that the applicant has agreed. Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 Again, we talked about the CSX median curb cut access. I think that it was as of July rd, we hadn t heard anything from them. MR. BIANCHINE: We e-mailed them again and we re waiting for their title department to determine that they actually own that piece of land. MR. VOSS: So, as soon as that confirmation comes in, we would obviously have that part of the record. But that can be made a condition of approval by the Board. They have discussed with Pure Waters the sewer laterals. Joe, I don t know if you wanted to touch on that. There was a prior approval given for those laterals from the sewer department. After working with the applicant and Latham Water, we have come to terms that they are adequate. I don t know if you wanted to elaborate on that. The SWPPP certainly now complies. We talked about some additional details that the applicant would need to provide and they have certainly agreed to do that on site. So much of this is really technical in nature. Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 0 Dumpster location was one of those comments, but certainly I think that the applicants have shown that their preferred location certainly is adequate. I don t think that s going to cause any additional concerns for us with the stormwater management area. Initially, we were a little concerned that it was relatively close to that. We re now fine with that. Other than that, I don t think that we have anything else. The rest of it was like the catch basin locations and things like that. Based on our review, the applicants have complied with everything that the Town departments have required and what we have asked for. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Is there anyone from the public that would like to be heard on this application? MS. PERRY: I have a question. What exactly does CSX own? MR. BIANCHINE: They own the section in the middle (Indicating). They re apparently still loading things on Railroad Avenue because there are still tracks. But, there are Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 no tracks here (Indicating). CHAIRMAN STUTO: Would you mind saying your name for the record? MS. PERRY: My name is Suzanne Perry. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Thank you. Anybody else from the public like to speak? (There was no response.) CHAIRMAN STUTO: Karen, do you have any comments or questions? MS. GOMEZ: No, I don t. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Tim? MR. LANE: Nothing. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Lou? MR. MION: No. MS. DALTON: No. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Nor do I. Do we want to talk about the environmental review? MR. LANE: The one question that I did have - and it s basically been answered - was in regard to the evasive species and the responses to the Pine Bush. CHAIRMAN STUTO: We have an environmental assessment in front of us. I think that we all Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 have it in our packet. I assume that everyone has read it. There is a proposed negative declaration. Chuck, do you want to run thoroughly that? Elena, if you have anything to add, please do. MR. VOSS: You have a SEQRA recommendation from the Town Attorney s office prepared by Rebekah Kennedy. Essentially, the cover page is the recommendation and I ll read through it quickly. Project name: KJ Electric; address of property: Railroad Avenue. It is recommended that the Planning Board make the following determination regarding the above referenced application. The requested approval is an unlisted SEQRA action. We recommend, based on the attached EAF that the Board determine that the action will not have a significant effect on the environment. That was dated today. Mr. Chairman, if you like, I can run through Part III of the EAF where the justifications for the neg dec is listed. Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 CHAIRMAN STUTO: You mean Part II. MR. VOSS: The back end of Part II. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Yes, I think that will be a good idea. MR. VOSS: To all interested agencies, groups and persons: In accordance with Article CHAIRMAN STUTO: Let me just ask you a question. Part II talks about all the impacts under C. That s the second page. Is that covered in the neg dec that you re about to read? MR. VOSS: Yes, it is. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Okay; let s do it that way, then. That s the most efficient. MR. VOSS: Essentially the expanded Part III is answering those questions. To all interested agencies, groups and persons: In accordance with Article of the state Environmental Quality Review, and the environmental conservation law, the statewide regulations under Act NCRR part, the lead agency, being the Planning Board of the Town of Colonie has received an environmental assessment form in connection with the Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 proposed action described below. The action and the lead agency have determined that said proposed action will result in no major impacts and therefore will not have a significant effect on the environment and that an environmental impact statement is not required to be prepared with respect to said action. This notice is a negative declaration for the purposes of the act. The lead agency again, is the Town of Colonie Planning Board. The person to contact for further information is Rebekah Nellis Kennedy at the Town Attorney s office. The project is identified as KJ Electric at Railroad Avenue. The distribution is construction of a,0 square foot sales, service and repairs building and associated parking utilities and landscaping. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Can we correct the square footage on that? MR. LACIVITA: Yes. MR. VOSS: Joe, what do we have on that? MR. BIANCHINE: That s,00. MR. LACIVITA: You may want to reflect that also on the Part II, under C. Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 MR. VOSS: I ll read that again. Based on the above, it appears that the project will not have a significant impact on the environment related to water resources. Impact on transportation: The proposed project will generate only a modest number of vehicle trips. Because of the low intensity of use and direct access onto a local road, no significant impact to transportation systems is expected. Based on the above, it appears that the project will not have a significant impact on the environment related to transportation. Impact on noise and Odor: There will be minimal noise and/or odor impact to adjacent properties in this Industrial Zoning District. Based on the above, it appears that the project will not have a significant impact on the environment related to noise and odor. Impact on Growth, Character. and Health of Community or Neighborhood: The project will cause a change in the density of the land use. Because of the low intensity of use, no significant impact is expected. The project will create a demand for emergency services. Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 There will be no impact to the school system. Property taxes are expected to offset any additional increase in costs associated with community services. The project is expected to create four new permanent jobs, as well as construction-related jobs, which can be considered a positive impact. Conclusion: The Town of Colonie Planning Board has completed a careful review of the reasonably anticipated areas of environmental concern raised by the Project. Based upon that review, the criteria for determining significance contained in the SEQRA regulations, and the rule of reasonableness, the Planning Board issues this negative declaration, concluding that the facts and circumstances of this Project will not result in a significant adverse environmental impact. An environmental impact statement therefore will not be required. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Are there any comments or questions from the Board Members on this? (There was no response.) CHAIRMAN STUTO: Anybody else? (There was no response.) Ph -- Fax --0
0 0 CHAIRMAN STUTO: I think that was a good explanation. I think that I agree with everything that was said. I think that the write up supports the conclusions that are in there. Do we have a motion on notice of determination of no significant effect on the environment and negative declaration? MR. MION: I ll make a motion. CHAIRMAN STUTO: Do we have a second? MR. LANE: Second. CHAIRMAN STUTO: All those in favor? (Ayes were recited.) CHAIRMAN STUTO: All those opposed? (There were none opposed.) CHAIRMAN STUTO: The ayes have it. On the final site plan approval, contingent upon complying with all the conditions of the Town departments and the Town Designated Engineers. Do we have any comments or questions on that? (There was no response.) CHAIRMAN STUTO: do we have a motion? MR. MION: I ll make a motion. Ph -- Fax --0
CHAIRMAN STUTO: Second? MS. DALTON: Seconded. CHAIRMAN STUTO: All those in favor? (Ayes were recited.) CHAIRMAN STUTO: All those opposed? (There were none opposed.) CHAIRMAN STUTO: The ayes have it. 0 (Whereas the proceeding concerning the above entitled matter was concluded at :0 p.m.) 0 Ph -- Fax --0
CERTIFICATION 0 I, NANCY STRANG-VANDEBOGART, Shorthand Reporter, and Notary Public in and for the State of New York, hereby CERTIFY that the record taken by me at the time and place noted in the heading hereof is a true and accurate transcript of same, to the best of my ability and belief. --------------------------------------- NANCY STRANG-VANDEBOGART Dated September, 0 0 Ph -- Fax --0