The Town of Colonie is on track to get a chain restaurant that serves drive-through Chinese food, a first of its kind in the area.
The Colonie Planning Board on Tuesday, June 17, granted a trio of waivers that paves the way for Panda Express to move in at 454 Troy Schenectady Road, where a Legacy Bank was formerly located.
Since Panda Express is considered a redevelopment of the site, and the site is less than an acre, it doesn’t have to go through the same process as a new development. In 2011, the town changed regulations to streamline the redevelopment path for anything under an acre.
“We noticed that there were several vacant abandoned buildings throughout the town, and we had people coming to us that wanted to redevelop but couldn’t due to regulations,” said Director of Planning and Economic Development Joe LaCivita.
Panda Express was granted the three waivers they requested for parking for the front of the building, the amount of green space and the setback of the building from the road.
LaCivita said he expects the project to move forward quickly once the issues the board has are taken care of. There was some concern about the flow of traffic into and out of the parking lot. There is a bank across the street, where people also exit onto Sunset Drive. The developer promised to look into other options.
Colonie Center wants to add parking
Also on Tuesday, the board began discussions with Advanced Engineering to explore options to create more parking spaces at Colonie Center.
A sketch plan was reviewed that would reduce many of the parking spaces at Colonie Center from 9 feet wide to 8.5 feet wide in order to add an additional 242 spaces.
A study was done by Pacific Retail Capital Management that found that, for the amount of space in the mall, there weren’t enough parking spots. Retailers have also felt there aren’t enough spaces for all the potential customers. Most of the year, about 25 percent of the spaces are used, but during the holidays, most are full.
Town-designated engineer Joe Grasso suggested that compact spaces be located on the perimeter of the parking lot or in areas that are not frequented as often. The town has promised to continue to look into the matter to find the best option possible.
“Well, I would say this is one of the few major retail spaces in the Town of Colonie, and I think we have to make sure it stays viable. I think we have to take a close look at this, and I would be inclined to really study and try to accommodate this the best we can,” said Peter Stuto, planning board chairman.
The board did not vote on the plan at Tuesday’s meeting.