Courtesy, Saratoga Hospital via Saratoga Springs Planning Board (2021)
This view from the north, or from the Birch Run neighborhood, shows the height of the proposed 75,000 square foot office building. The dotted line shows the height allowed in an earlier plan.
The lawyer representing a group of residents near the Saratoga Hospital asked that the Saratoga Springs Planning Board offer a “positive” SEQR declaration regarding the office building the hospital is planning to construct.
The new office building is proposed for Morgan Street, near the intersection with Myrtle Street in Saratoga Springs. The property, gifted to the hospital in 2014, is mostly open space now.
"This proposed office complex is quite a change, especially if you think it was supposed to be residential,” the lawyer, Claudia Braymer, said. She spoke to board via Zoom Thursday evening Feb. 25.
Although the city changed the zoning on the property to allow for medical offices, the development of a 75,000 square foot office building with 390 parking spaces and the potential for another three, smaller buildings changes the neighbors' expectations enough to require the “positive” declaration, she said.
A positive declaration for a full SEQR would mean that the entire plan would go under more intense scrutiny regarding traffic, noise, solid waste management, stormwater management and other environmental factors. SEQR is the legal process followed under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.
The presentation by hospital representatives was considered a “sketch” not a full proposal, and therefore the board listened and asked questions only. No votes were taken of any kind, and the only person given a chance to speak from the public was Braymer.
The board suggested that the applicant come back with another sketch--they are allowed to do this twice, officials said--since that tends to help smooth the process and helps to create a “softer discussion,” the Planning Board Chair Mark Torpey said.
The first phase of the plan calls for a 75,000 square foot, three storey office building on Morgan Street near the intersection with Myrtle Street in Saratoga Springs. It also calls to repurpose a historic home on the property--referred to in documents as the DiCresce residence, but as the Markey residence during the meeting. The DiCresce family donated the property to the hospital in 2014, and the Markey family, full of artists and actors, had bought it in the 1960s, a story in the Saratogian says. It was built in 1915.
Some key highlights of the discussion asked the hospital to consider:
- Plans to underground some of the parking.
- Using shuttles to get people around the campus to lessen the need for driving (“Doctors don’t like shuttles,” one representative quipped.)
- Looking at methos to collect and hold stormwater that do not require surface ponds.
- Razing the Markey house and replacing it with a new building, which could move some of the planned construction further from residences.
- Move the main building closer to the center of the space, away from the street and houses in the neighborhood.
A lawsuit the neighbors brought against the city government regarding the change in zoning is on appeal with the New York State Court of Appeals.