LA Group via Saratoga Springs Planning Board (2021)
The "pipestem" lot between Snyder Lane, at bottom, and Mitchell Street, will contain a 1,000 square foot cabana, a pool, and a walk-thru lane for members of the homeowners association.
A subdivision of what will be eight parcels in the neighborhood near the Oklahoma Track, sandwiched between the horse racing museum and King’s Tavern, won approval Thursday evening from the Saratoga Springs Planning Board. A special use permit to create a centrally located pool and cabana that will be an amenity for the to-be-created homeowners association was also approved.
Building layout, designs and other particulars of the site plan were not yet approved. Many more meetings are expected.
The subdivision as approved sits between Mitchell Street and Union Avenue and straddles Snyder Lane. East Avenue is its eastern border.
Currently seven parcels are in the area, containing a handful of single-family homes and grass lots that are used for track parking in August. Approved Thursday evening was a split of one parcel to allow for the creation of the pool and cabana site.
The purchaser of the property is Jay Hanley of Hanley Development in Nantucket, Mass. Hanley Development is listed as the developer of the property. The Sutton family under the business name Saratoga Parking Services LLC is selling the properties.
Hanley’s company is also under contract with Stewarts’ Shops to purchase the northwest corner of East Avenue and Union Street. That small corner, just 0.03 acres will be used to offer the city a public benefit in exchange for the special use that was approved.
“It’s a big hook,” that small parcel, said Michael Ingersoll with the LA Group, the architects and designers who are handling the project. They need the parcel to offer the public benefit.
“If the deal [for the corner] falls through, it nullifies—" said planning board member Todd Fabozzi.
“—everything else,” and the project falls apart, Ingersoll interrupted.
Ingersoll and attorneys with Jones Steves who also represent Hanley said they had every belief that the sale, under contract, would close soon.
Also being purchased is the land just east of the King’s Tavern, which will put a pinch on parking for the tavern, and with the grass lots being developed, parking for the track will also be constrained. Planners and the applicant's representatives said King’s Tavern has always leased, not owned, their parking spaces.
Planning board member Ruth Horton wondered what would happen with track parking.
Ingersoll was quick to say parking was a concern for the New York Racing Association.
“It’s up to them,” Ingersoll said.
A quick discussion around the room brought up the amount of parking that remains inside the fencing at the Oklahoma track and elsewhere in the neighborhood, and people wondered if it was enough.
“I understand what you’re asking, but we can’t control [NYRA],” Ingersoll said.
The project will still go through the city as site plans are approved.