I attended the Town Planning Board meeting last night. On the docket was a presentation by BME Associates (the engineering firm for the Gullace project).
I was a bit surprised when I arrived at 7:00 PM to find the meeting already in progress. Start time was set for 7:05 so I didn’t think I was late.
It appears that they had just started.
Present were the members of the Town and Village of Victor Planning Boards.
A bit of business was cleared up and the previous meeting minutes were approved by the board.
The next meeting of the Planning Board was set for June 10th.
Mr. Robert (Bob) Cantwell was introduced as the presenter for the Applicant.
Applicant: Lynaugh Road Associates LLC
Property owner: Chris Gullace
Engineering Firm: BME Associates
Maps were displayed showing part of the proposed project which included a 15 unit single family home development directly opposite the end of Hillcrest Drive and a 100 unit Apartment complex in the Northeast section of the project area. Missing from the maps were the 7 unit single family homes located to the North of the current Hillcrest development and to the West side of Church Street. When questioned on this omission, Mr. Cantwell indicated that since a rezoning was necessary to develop this property (from multi-dwelling to single family homes) he had not included this section in this presentation. They did however want to develop this as well. He called this the future reservation parcel.
The Planning board Requested to send out notifications to be the lead agency on this project.
Overview
The overview of the project was presented.
- 22 Acres
- consists of 15 single family homes in Victor Village on 5.9 acres. This complies with zoning assuming 2 acres is annexed to the Village of Victor from the Town.
- Town portion of 17 acres of which 12 acres is on the East side of Church Street. 100 Apartments (rental) consisting of 10 buildings of 10 units each with a clubhouse and outdoor pool. Complies with Rezoning of 10 units/acre.
- Town portion of 4 acres West of church street will need rezoning for single family use (Currently Zoned M-D)
- Roads
- The 15 Unit portion inside the Village(assuming annexation) of Victor would have a Village dedicated road
- The 100 unit Apartment complex would have a private road connecting to both Church Street and Lynaugh Road.
- Sewer
- The Village portion, as it is below the current connection on Church Street, would need to be extended to the pumping station in Harlan Fisher Park.
- The Town portion can directly connect tot the existing sewer connection as the elevation would allow for gravity feed.
- Water
- Can connect to existing mains on Lynaugh Road and Church Street.
Mr. Cantwell then delved into a comparison of similar properties stating that this project was consistent or below similar properties in density. He referred to the zoning being Multiple Dwelling (M-D) since 1985 which was actually rezoned for another proposal. ( See Previous post)
I was a bit confused when he mentioned strategies 33, 34 and 35 of chapter 4 in reference to justification for this project. I have since done a bit of research and found that he was referring to the Draft of the Victor Comprehensive Plan Document. He misspoke as the strategies that he is referring to are actually in Chapter 5. The comprehensive Plan can be found here: 2012 Comprehensive Plan and the chapter in question is found here: Chapter 5: Housing & Development
I have included the significant text of the Comprehensive plan here.
Finally, Mr. Cantwell indicated that the demographic being targeted was not young people but seniors downsizing from owner occupied housing.
Traffic Issues
When Mr. Cantwell was finished a consultant was asked to speak on Traffic issues regarding this development.
The current 3 intersections that would be impacted by this development are the Lynaugh Road junction with County Road 9, Church Street at East Main Street and Lynaugh Road at East Main Street.
The two intersections with East Main Street have already exceeded the safe capacity for the current traffic flow so these intersections have failed the study, the Lynaugh Road and Co. Rd. 9 intersection approaches failure.
These intersections cannot support additional traffic flow.
DOT has indicated that turn lanes will not be sufficient to mitigate the problem and signals will not be installed. Signals might help the issue but will complicate the traffic flow on Main Street so will not be implemented.
Copies of this report were requested by Meg Chaides (Victor Village Planning Board) and it was indicated that Kim Kinsella can provide copies.
Ontario county indicated that the speed zones would be problematic as well as there is insufficient distance to reach the required speed limit of 50 MPH.
Questions
Wes from Labella Associates
With regard to the Neighborhood Development.
- Concerned with sidewalks in Non-rural areas
- Need to confirm that they are on the same page with sewer redistribution
- outside current sanitary sewer district
- Need to include sewer plan in SEQR
Resolution:
Resolve to make the Planning Board the lead agency on this project.
Question from Joe Logan
- Why wouldn’t you zone back to single family dwellings?
Question from Heather Zollo
- Are there any variances required for this project? Answer: None identified or planned.
Question from Al Gallina
- In reference to the 1980’s zoning.
- Traffic signals are not mitigated
- Single family homes work better for traffic
- Rental units were not addressed in the original rezoning request
- There are a number of concerns with rental housing
- Have these been addressed in the SEQR
Question from Joe Logan
- Is the price point affordable? Houses should be affordable in Village.
Statement from Meg Chaides
- Price point should be 150 to 220k to meet the affordable standard.
Resolution:
Date for public hearing set for Tuesday June 24th.
Village meeting set for Wednesday June 25th.
Meeting adjourned to Executive session.
Regardless of the final form of the residences in this proposal, it is an underlying fact that this reclassifies the entire length of Lynaugh Road as a “Residential Neighborhood Street.” As such, the town should take whatever action is required to reduce the speed limit on the town portion so it is consistent with the 30 mile limit of the village portion. Speeding has been an ongoing problem for decades on Lynaugh Road, exacerbated by the presence of the 50 mile limit on the town portion. A uniform 30 mile limit for all of Lynaugh Road could help address this problem and contribute to the safety of our proposed new neighbors.
The speed limits are set in the ecode360: Article 1. Should you wish to have the limits formally changed there is a procedure for this.
My first question would be is there a need for more housing, single or rental, in the Victor area? My answer would be no. This town is growing but without a comprehensive plan. There are already traffic issues on Main St and growing problems on County road 9.
Are the houses going to be affordable? It seems we are trying to build large expensive houses in every new development, why?
What is Victor’s vision? What do we want to be in 10 years, 20 years? The way things are headed now it seems we will be Henrietta and I don’t think that is what anyone wants that….
The town Comprehensive plan can be found at this link. Victor NY Comprehensive Plan
The traffic issues are being addressed and a presentation was made. This may be sufficient to stop the current proposal, I guess we will need to wait and see the results.
The traffic is backed-up enough.
I agree, the traffic back-up at these intersections is difficult at best and dangerous at worst.
As a resident of the Camden Hills community I have serious concerns about the negative effects the Gullace Development might have on traffic. The intersection of Lynaugh and East Main St. is extremely dangerous and the wait at the intersection is already unacceptable. Further traffic studies need to be done before additional housing creates increased traffic through the intersection.
The traffic studies have been done and that particular intersection has failed. This means that NYSDOT has it on its radar for mitigation.
I don’t have the specifics but it has been indicated that a light at this intersection will not be approved.
If I get additional information on how this might be remediated I will pass it along.
The issue of turning the intersection of Hillcrest Dr and Church St/County rd 9 into a four way intersection was not addressed in this. This seems to me to be a fairly major issue as well. The traffic coming into the Village from County Rd 9 comes up the hill at a high rate of speed, as well as the traffic leaving the Village. I use this intersection multiple times per day. Adding more traffic from a different direction could create more problems.
I’m trying to get the full traffic study to share with everyone. I agree that a 4 way at Hillcrest would be a disaster.