COLONIE — Despite a number of changes made since it was first denied concept acceptance, the Planning Board did not advance a proposed self-storage project on New Karner Road.
The main remaining issue is the size of the three-story, 91,200-square-foot building and how it would fit in with its immediate surroundings.
“In the overall area, we have some elevations that are higher but in the immediate area we don’t have elevations quite as high. If you take a ride down that stretch I don’t think the three feet will make a difference to the overall scale,” said town Director of Planning and Economic Development Department Sean Maguire, who is not a voting member of the Planning Board. “If I am driving towards central avenue and the building is oriented to the left side I will see the entire building. It is not going to be hidden by the three-foot depression. If the mass remains a concern [to the board] we have not resolved it. We got headed in the right direction but it is a question of overall space. If you need the square footage to make it work, it is a question of height or overall area.”
He also questioned whether a schematic that shows how the building will fit in with the other buildings accurately represents what it will look like in real life.
The developer, Tony Casale, who owns Casale Rent-All on an adjacent parcel, proposed lowering the overall finish floor grade to some three feet below that of the tool rental business in an effort to lower the overall height of the building. It would still stand 35 feet, 8 inches high, far higher than the surrounding buildings including the newly constructed Volvo dealership located on the other side of the proposed storage facility.
“The finish floor of the new facility will be lower than the road so it will appear to be sunk in,” said Luigi Palleschi, of ABD Engineering who presented the plan on behalf of Casale. “We reduced the height from our last proposal.”
He said the trees would remain to help cut up the façade and make the building not appear as high as it is, which is eight inches taller than the new storage facility being built in the Village of Colonie on Central Avenue at the former location of the Colonie Community Center.
He also pointed to the fact the land is zoned industrial which could open it up to projects with more intensive use, and more traffic, than a self-storage facility.
“We need a three-story facility to make it feasible,” he said.
There is not enough room on the site to make the footprint bigger and add square footage horizontally.
In September, 2020, the board did not allow the project to move forward because, in part, of a “flag” portion of the lot which was included to meet greenspace requirements. That was resolved by shifting the building and making it 1,000-square-foot smaller.
The plan is to subdivide the nearly four-acre lot with just less than half for the tool rental business and a little more than half for the storage facility. To meet the greenspace requirement for lot 2 a strip of land in lot 1 was incorporated into lot 2 creating the appearance of a flag.
The board, after a convincing argument by member Paul Rosano, seemed to accept an additional curb cut onto New Karner in order to allow for the safe maneuvering of tractor trailers. The design of the building was also changed to not feature garage doors facing New Karner Road and there is new landscaping to dress up the building.
But, the size of the building was still an issue.
Joe Grasso, the Town Designated Engineer from CHA, said the EFIS, Exterior Insulation and Finish System, does not age well and the proposed color scheme does not work to blend the building into the environment. If the board accepts the three-story design, he said, there are ways to mitigate it by grading, architectural aesthetic design and landscaping.
In the end, with three members absent, the board opted to not vote on granting concept acceptance and tabled the proposal.
“I think Paul has convinced me about the cub cuts, but I don’t think I will vote in favor of a three-story building,” said board Chairman Peter Stuto. “I think the mass is too much.”
When, or if, the project gets concept acceptance, it will have to come back before the board at least once more for final site plan approval before construction can begin.
