Stewart's Shops (via Saratoga Springs Planning, 2021)
Stewart's Shops hopes to turn the lower left section of this map into medical offices, the area along Marion Avenue into a new store and carwash, and the space behind that into a small cul de sac of homes.
A plan to reinvent Marion Avenue near its intersection with Route 50, west of Loughberry Lake in Saratoga Springs, would move the Stewart’s Shop and East Side Wine and Spirits from nearby Maple Dell to Marion Avenue. The carwash and gas pumps would remain, but the popular car mechanic would go.
“The individual who has run Marion Ave. for 18 years has since retired,” Charles "Chuck" Marshall, an executive with Stewart’s Shops told the board. “Stewart’s will not seek a site plan for the service center.”
Stewart’s is proposing to change the Maple Dell building into a health care office. An undeveloped, residentially zoned area between the current car wash and Loughberry Lake, would become a seven-house cul-de-sac, with a new road stemming from Marion Avenue, just north of the current car wash.
The last wedge of land on Marion Avenue at Route 50--where the Adirondack Trust ATM kiosk stands--would not be changed. The buildings that Stewart's proposed move the development on the avenue a bit further north than it is currently.
Two neighbors given permission to speak about the project, expressed concern about the effects on the neighborhoods nearby.
All of these changes may require zoning adjustments and use permits. The current zoning in the area has a number of overlays, and the permitted use of the land is not necessarily made for the uses that Stewart’s is proposing.
Therefore, Stewart's is asking to create a Planned Unit Development for the area, which is used in zoning when there are these sorts of conflicts in one area. PUDs generally allow for uses on the property that are not permitted by current city law and zoning alone. The plan that is approved becomes the one and only plan for that space, and the city council will vote to approve it or not.
The planning board and the city's design review committee will give the board advice.
“The concept plan gets attached to that legislation, and the PUD must develop that way” or changes have to be made via another amendment through the city council, said Elizabeth, “Libby” Coreno of Coreno Law offices. She is working with Stewart’s on this project. Vincent DeLeonardis, the city's attorney, confirmed that idea.
That assuaged one fear of the board, that an approval for the residential area would allow more dense development close to the lake at some point in the future.
Usually, a space planned in a PUD has to have significant public benefit. One benefit that Stewart’s is proposing is sidewalks along Marion Avenue.
But the planning board, during a short discussion at the very end of their meeting, was having troubles seeing too much of a community benefit overall, and board members wondered why Stewart’s needed the PUD to begin with.
This is not just one large project proposed by Stewart’s, board member Sara Boivin said, but a plan that Stewart’s will undertake themselves and subcontract to complete.
She said they seemed to be saying: “We can do this here, we can do this here, and we can do this here. We just want to have a lot of permissions.”
The board expressed concern about the location of the gas pumps and wondered aloud if they might be moved. They wondered about new development so close to the lake that is Saratoga Springs' drinking water.
“I gotta tell you, too, I’m really struggling with this project,” Planning Board Chair Mark Torpey told the board, adding that he looked to the board for insight.
Stewart's intends to return to the board with changes. The board has less than two months to offer advice to the city council. The city's design review committee will offer advice as well, Torpey said.
A PUD is a Planned Unit Development. We had accidentally substituted "use." It has been corrected.