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A meeting of the Johnstown Planning Board was held on February 5, 2008 at 4:00p.m., in the Council Chambers, City Hall.
PRESENT: Also present were Mayor Sarah Slingerland and Liaison Kay Cole, Peter Sciocchetti and Will Miles. ABSENT: Susan Palmer Johnson, City Attorney Chairman Smith called the meeting to order. Mrs. White made a motion to approve the call of the meeting and Mrs. Grant seconded the motion. Motion carried. APPROVE MINUTES – Correction to the minutes of the January 8, 2008 meeting were noted with an addition of two handicap spaces to the approval of the Partner’s Pub pavilion project. Mrs. White made a motion to approve the minutes as corrected. Seconded by Mrs. Easterly. Motion carried. LETTER OF RESIGNATION – Chairman Smith noted his receipt of a letter of resignation from Mrs. Grant. Her term was to expire on March 31, 2008 but she will be in Florida during the month and wishes to resign as this time. Chairman Smith expressed his sincere appreciation of Mrs. Grant’s fourteen years of service to the Johnstown Planning Board. CROSSROADS INCUBATOR CORP. – Peter Sciocchetti, Executive Vice President of Crossroads Incubator Corp., explained Phase I of their plan to develop 30 condo units on property they own on Genesee St. Will Miles from Steven Smith’s office was also present. CIC bought this property seven years ago and ETA Transportation was built on a portion of the property. They would like to build condos and single-family homes on the remaining property. Phase I is the condo project and Phase II is the single-family homes project. They have been looking for a developer that is experienced in the construction of condos. The condos will be sold to individuals and their name will be on the deed. There will be a condo association that would maintain the property and is governed by the State Attorney General’s Office. Phase II would be 19 single-family lots. They plan for the housing to be affordable in the $300,000 range. The condos would be between $100,000 and $200,000. Crossroads will not be building this project. They want a private developer to come in to work with them on the condominiums and houses. They are talking to someone now that is experienced in building condos. Phase I – Condos - will come off of Genesee St. with a private drive that will service six individual buildings with five units in each building. Each building will have four, one bedroom and one, one bedroom condo. Each unit will have a garage. Phase II – will come off of Chestnut St. with nineteen single-family homes. There will be no access to Union Ave. Mr. Sciocchetti said they are not looking for approval today but want to introduce the project. They would come back before the Board in March to look for conceptual approval on Phase I. One of the reasons they are doing this in two phases is because there are wetlands running through the middle of the two projects and they will need to be re-flagged in the spring. They plan to start with the condominiums and work their way into the housing phase. Chairman Smith asked Chief Heberer if there is a minimum lot size required in the City Code. Chief Heberer said there wasn’t, but just a minimum percentage that can be taken up by the building. Most of the lots in this plan are a little under an acre. The Zoning Committee, who are working on updating the City’s zoning laws, are considering low and medium density zones to determine the size of lots for new construction. The Phase II area is currently zoned light industrial and does allow for single-family homes. The only issue would be the area for the condominiums; it is currently zoned B residential. A Special Use Permit would be required or by doing a sub-division, the zoning can be adjusted by having a public hearing. CIC would like to sell the property to a developer all at once, but it could go in phases. Chairman Smith asked if they would be creating a street, Hudson St., noted on the plans. Mr. Sciocchetti said that street is there now. It is a paper street and it will be developed as a private drive, maintained by the condo association. The developer would run all utilities and maintain them. Mrs. White asked if the utilities, phone, cable, etc., would all be underground. Mr. Sciocchetti said he would like to have them underground but National Grid might have other ideas. Mr. Kortz added that it would be more costly to run underground. Mr. Kortz told Mr. Sciocchetti it would be better to separate the two phases for conceptual approval because of the SEQR. The wetlands might hold up the process if they want to get started by April 1st on Phase I. The wetlands have to be re-identified because it has been so long since they were last flagged. It mainly impacts the access road. Mr. Kortz said the SEQR could be started today. Mr. Kortz made a motion to propose the Johnstown Planning Board be named lead agency in the SEQR process. Mrs. White seconded the motion. Motion carried. Chairman Smith asked if it would be necessary to refer to the County Planning. Phase I will not need to be referred but Phase II will have to be referred when that part of the project comes before the Board. Mr. Kortz said we would wait until the next meeting, giving him more time to fine tune the SEQR before referring to the County. Phase I of the project will be put on the agenda for March. This will still give enough time for final approval in April. Mr. Sciocchetti hopes to come to the next meeting with the builder. Mr. Kortz asked Chief Heberer what the notification period is for holding a public hearing on the zoning. Chief Heberer said it is thirty days. The public hearing could be held in April. If there is nothing significant it could be approved at that meeting. Chief Heberer added that amending the zoning would be the better way to go. Mayor Slingerland expressed her thanks to Mrs. Grant for her years of service to the Planning Board and wished her the best. A motion to adjourn was made by Mrs. White and seconded by Mrs. Easterly. Respectfully submitted,
Cathy A. VanAlstyne
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