Courtesdy Stewart's Shops (2021)
The Saratoga Springs Planning Board will send an unfavorable advisory opinion to the Saratoga Springs City Council regarding the redevelopment of the Stewart’s Shop and the Marion Avenue Mobil Station near the intersection of Marion Avenue and Maple Dell.
The decision came last week at the planning board’s regular meeting.
The decision is not binding because Planned Unit Developments, such as the plan put forward by Stewart’s Shops, must be approved by the city council, not by the planning board. The city’s Design Review Committee will also weigh in. The city council would have the final say.
[Read our earlier coverage here.]
The board had an unfavorable opinion despite changes that Stewart’s made to an earlier plan and despite the handful of changes that they liked.
The original plan called for Stewart’s to remove the Marion Avenue Mobil car repair shop and replace it with a Stewart’s Shop convenience store and carwash while keeping the gas islands. They originally planned for a small residential development between Marion Avenue and Loughberry Lake, just outside the buffer of trees that protects the lake. Loughberry Lake is Saratoga Springs’ drinking water. Finally, the northwest corner of Marion Avenue and Maple Dell, currently an undeveloped field, would become an intense commercial space, which allows uses such as day care facilities or even a small hotel, if the lot is large enough.
Stewart’s made changes outlined at the meeting last week that removed the residential portion of the project and changed the open lot to Professional-Medical-Institutional use, a designation that would permit less intense activities such as doctor’s office.
Charles “Chuck” Marshall, an executive with Stewart’s Shops, said the change in the new plan moved all of the most intense commercial uses to the east side of Marion Avenue, out of the Maple Dell neighborhood.
Stewart’s was hoping to create a PUD, a Planned Unit Development, that would have the Stewart's Shop, the East Side Wines and Spirits, and the carwash on the east side of Marion Avenue. They were hoping the PUD would cover the mixture of development and uses in a section of the city that has nonconforming uses already in the area and overlays in the zoning that creates a bit of a mess for developers.
Although the planning board last week was generally happy with the removal of the residences and the move of all intense commercial uses to the east side of Marion Avenue, they could not get around the various uses of the property. They believed that the current plan did not comport with the city’s 2015 comprehensive plan, a requirement of a PUD.
The secretary to the city council, Lisa Ribis, has not yet received a copy of the planning board's letter, she said today. Numerous emails and phone calls over the past two days to the city's Planning Department, asking for the letter, went unanswered. City Planner Susan Barden said in a phone call Tuesday that the letter would be ready on Tuesday.
A PUD is a Planned Unit Development. We had accidentally substituted "use." It has been corrected.