COLONIE — The Planning Board granted final approval to a five-unit subdivision off Troy Schenectady Road at the intersection of Penfield Drive.
The lots where five homes will be built on two acres of land will be smaller than what a conventional subdivision allows, but the developer, the Mary Huban Estate, received a waiver from the Zoning Board of Appeals.
A conventional subdivision requires at least an 18,000 square feet lot with 80 feet of frontage along a road. This subdivision will have a minimum lot size of 13,226 square feet and have 73 feet of frontage. The layout is similar to the neighboring existing homes and ones that are under construction in the area.
There was a public hearing prior to the approval but nobody spoke.
Mixed use
The Planning Board also granted Muhammad Tasaddq final approval to develop two acres of land at 363 Troy Schenectady Road.
The project includes three buildings: a 4,620-square-foot retail office space, 7,135 square-foot, 10-unit apartment building and a 300-square-foot garage.
Tasaddq currently lives on the site in another building.
The project has been in front of the Planning Board a number of times and has gone through a number of iterations.
Changes made include giving each apartment its own entrance, making pedestrian connections to Route 2 and adding amenities for children and tenants and landscaping throughout the site.
Planning Board member Craig Shamlian questioned the logic of building a sidewalk in front of the property along Troy Schenectady Road when it really doesn’t connect to anything on either side.
But, it was determined that it was better than nothing and it does lead to a bus stop.
Self storage
The Planning Board also advanced a plan to construct a three-story, 92,676-square-foot storage facility on nearly four acres of land along New Karner Road.
The applicant is the owner of Casale Rent-All, which is located next door, and is being presented by Luigi Palleschi of ABD Engineering.
The Planning Board did not warmly receive the project when it was introduced at sketch plan review but the applicant has made some changes including giving emergency personnel access to the rear of the building and doing away with a “flag lot” to get the required amount of greenspace.
Also, the architectural design of the building was modified to dress it up a bit and now includes cornices on each end and a brick accent in the front.
“We went back to the drawing board with architectural design and we think it will look nice with what is already along the road,” Palleschi said of the existing rental facility and the newly constructed Volvo dealership, which is located in the Village of Colonie.
it must come back before the board at least once more for final site plan approval before construction can begin.
