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(Credit: Studio A architecture via Queensbury Planning, 2023)
An example of the proposed housing at the former Mead Nursery site.
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(Credit: Studio A architecture via Queensbury planning, 2023)
The housing placement of the Mead Nursery site. Quaker Road runs along the top of the image. Ridge Road is at right.
19 Multi-Family Dwellings proposed for Mead’s Nursery
A proposed development of the former Mead’s Nursery, a 10-acre site in Queensbury near the corner of Quaker and Ridge roads, will include roughly 77 dwellings in 19 buildings, a community center building and a recreation area, according to documents on file with the town. Representatives for the applicants, Foothills Builders, presented the latest plans to the Queensbury Planning Board Tuesday Jan. 17.
Mead’s Nursery closed its doors in 2019 after 70 years in the tree and shrubbery business. According to the project proposal, Mead’s Nursery buildings will be demolished. The property is bordered west and east by Meadowbrook Road and Ridge Road respectively. The property sits behind a row of commercial buildings on Quaker Road.
Planning Board members worried that the project would alter the neighborhood’s identity from commercial to residential, a town concern since residential areas usually aren't so close to Quaker Road. The town board asked the planning board for recommendations on the project’s lot size and density.
The majority of the planning board explained how the development’s population density could negatively impact the sewer systems and septic load.
“The sewer runs through the town, but it’s the City of Glens Falls that takes care of the sewer,” said board member Bradley McGowan. “That’s the concern I have. The capacity that’s going over there.”
According to the builders’ attorney Jeffrey Meyer, the town’s wastewater supervisor Chris Harrington was consulted and he didn’t see an issue.
“There is actually an abundance of wastewater capacity,” said Matthew Huntington of Studio A, the landscaping and engineering firm for the project. Huntington said he’s been involved with 3 or 4 projects over the last couple of years and that the Glens Falls system is adequate.
There is a large demand for residential housing in the town, said Meyer, who sees the multi-family development as a throwback to some of the neighborhoods built earlier in the 2000’s. He likened this project to the Turnberry Condos near the corner of Bay and Quaker roads in Queensbury.
Stephen Traver and other planning board members were aligned with the motion to recommend that the units per acre be reduced from the original starting point of eight.
This could mean as few as 6 units per acre. The 77 units currently planned puts the average over six.
Foothills Builders stand by their original estimate that 10 acres is more than enough space for 8 units an acre.
Decisions will be made official once the site plan review is completed.
Solar at Finch Landfill wins Planning Board approval
A five megawatt solar farm will be installed at the Finch Paper Landfill off State Route 149.
The solar project, developed by Amp Energy, will satisfy Queensbury’s Clean Energy Community Solar Campaign to provide clean, renewable energy at cheap cost.
The panels will be installed on 38.5 acres of land on the landfill cap using a ballast racking system, a minimal labor installation system.
The project will work on a 25-year lease with Finch Paper and will cost $15 million, said Amp Energy Director of Development Terence Rasmussen.
According to Rasmussen, the Finch Paper Landfill operated for 20 years between 1977 and 1997, before it was capped and decommissioned. The landfill was used for de-watered paper mill sludge.
The landfill was sited as a potential inactive hazardous waste site, and was investigated in 2021 for having potentially harmful impacts on the ground and well water in the area, according to the DEC.
The planning board gave a positive recommendation for the project to the Zoning Board of Appeals, saying there would be no adverse environmental impacts.
[Read more about siting and building solar farms here.]