The first Town of Colonie Planning Board meeting of 2014 went off without a hitch on Thursday, Jan. 7, as all the resolutions before the board passed.
The first item on the agenda was an application for a final approval of a 91-room, four-story Hilton Homes 2 Suites proposed at 10 Metro Park Road. In order to receive its final approval, Creighton Manning Engineering had to satisfy a previous request of the board to address emergency access. Town designated engineer Joe Grasso said the width and material of the proposed emergency access would be sufficient to meet the standards.
The project will require land use waivers for parking spaces in the front of the building that are under review. The application was approved with the stipulation that the engineers make sure the signage makes it clear that the emergency access is not a public access driveway.
The brightness of a sign and lighting at Car Parts at 2 Cole Ave. has been an issue for some of the neighbors, as the town has received complaints about it. The town has ordinance in place to ensure that signs cannot be excessively bright, but does not specify what excessively bright is.
Bill Kiernan, who lives behind Car Parts, said the lights of the business are constantly on and light up his bedroom while he’s trying to sleep. The large sign in the front of the building can also be distracting while Kiernan and his wife are trying to sleep.
Store owner Oleg Levchenko said the blue lights on the building were approved by the signing board as well as his sign, and that both are supposed to be on a timer so they shut off or dim at a certain time. Kiernan said the timers do not work, and the lights are on constantly. According to the town code, businesses aren’t allowed to have lighting directed into residential areas or stay on at night.
Levchenko agreed to remove the lighting from the back of his business and have the timer on his lights fixed. He also agreed to adjust the brightness so of the sign so as not to disturb his neighbors. The town decided that it should research what excessive lighting is in the future so that they can more accurately regulate it.
Metro Movers & Self Storage applied for a special use permit to build a storage facility at 889 Troy Schenectady Road. Tom Andress from ABD Engineers & Surveyors presented the 5.7-acre site, which is near a residential zone. The resolution was passed.
The final resolution that was passed granted Rosewood Homebuilders to add another model of a single-family home to the neighborhood at North Ridge Hollow Cluster Subdivision on Swatling and Haswell Roads. The developers also asked that it be permitted to build the rest of the homes closer to the road, increasing the space of the backyard.