Steve Thurston (2020)
The Glens Falls Planning Board tabled the application of 333 Glen St. Associates, LLC, last night, but not after first explaining that the application before the board was not an application to build a building, or to develop the property near city park at all, in any way. Full stop.
It was, in the words of Planning Board Chair Daniel Bruno, simply an application to subdivide land, and if the land is to be used for an apartment building or kept as greenspace itself or developed into something else entirely, it first must be subdivided.
“The only application that’s been in front of the board is a two lot subdivision at 333 Glen Street,” Bruno said, adding later, “There’s been lots of hearsay, there’s been lots of stuff.”
The “stuff” he referred to was one or more stories in the news about a potential 64-unit apartment complex that was brought to the Glens Falls Common Council in August. Bruno and others admitted that the board had probably added fuel to that discussion during their Oct. 6 meeting.
The lot currently is the home to the Monument Square tower, which houses the Travelers Insurance company, as well as a parking garage. The property wraps around the Episcopal Church of the Messiah at 296 Glen Street.
If subdivided, one parcel, about 179,000 square feet, would house the tower and the parking garage, and the other, about 24,000 square feet, would occupy the space near the church, at the corner of Bay and Glen streets. That space is currently a lawn.
If the smaller lot is to be developed commercially, it would need to go through a zoning change, board members said. Its current zoning requires parking for commercial locations, and there is not much room for that and a building.
Even though board members spoke to that issue briefly, and talked about how a development might be able to tie into the surface parking lot on the larger parcel, and how a curb-cut on Bay Street might be used, Bruno quickly swung back to the topic of the night: a simple subdivision.
“I understand the opposition. I get that, but almost all of them [emails and letters to the city] were opposed to a five-story building, 15 feet from a church,” he said, adding again that the subdivision was key to the night’s work.
The meeting was shown on the city's YouTube channel, and chatter on the chat seemed to indicate that once divided, people fear the property will quickly be sold and developed.
333 Glen Street Associates LLC bought the property from the Firemans Insurance company in 2006, according to city documents.
An earlier draft of this story listed the "planning commission" and "commissioners." It's a board, and they are board members.