PB Minutes 6-12-07

Minutes

Meeting of the Planning Board

Village/Town of Mount Kisco

Tuesday June 12, 2007

Meeting called to order at 7:50 pm, Tuesday June 12, 2007 at the Municipal Building Mount Kisco, New York.

Members Present: Chairman Joseph Cosentino

Vice Chairman Anthony Sturniolo

Stanley Bernstein

Sol Gibbons

Doug Hertz

Joseph Morreale

Ralph Vigliotti

Staff Present: Nanette Bourne

Anthony Oliveri

Whitney Singleton

Minutes, March 13, 2007 Motion: Stanley Bernstein

Second: Doug Hertz

Abstain: Vice Chairman Sturniolo

Aye: Stanley Bernstein

Aye: Doug Hertz

Aye: Sol Gibbons

Aye: Joseph Morreale

Aye: Ralph Vigliotti

Aye: Chairman Cosentino

Minutes March 27, 2007 Motion: Stanley Bernstein

Second: Ralph Vigliotti

Abstain: Vice Chairman Sturniolo

Aye: Doug Hertz

Aye: Sol Gibbons

Aye: Joseph Morreale

Aye: Stanley Bernstein

Aye: Ralph Vigliotti

Aye: Chairman Cosentino

Conceptual Application

134 Main Street

Application No: PB2007-06

Members Present: Isidoro Albanese

Clifford Munz, Architect, Munz Associates

Chairman Cosentino: First thing on our agenda is a Conceptual Application for 134 Main Street, Isidoro Albanese. Understand this is conceptual; you are going to tell us what you want to do so we'll let you have the floor right now.

Clifford Munz: Presently on the property at 134 East Main Street is a former repair garage up there. They are building it there now for about 1500 square feet…

Chairman Cosentino: Excuse me, one thing. On your application, before I forget so I can enter it into the minutes. You have a current land use as a gas station. That's incorrect. The former use was a gas station; so let the minutes reflect that.

Clifford Munz: Presently the building that is still there was a gas station and what we're proposing is to put in a retail building of 3,800 square feet, and to demolish the gas station itself, have the building up on East Main Street. It will handle anywhere between one and three retail spaces. We have a conceptual view of the front which will show that there are three separate storefronts, if you will, that could either work separately or combined. For 3800 square feet we need the 19 spaces. We do get 19 parking spaces; we get one loading bay we're looking for. We're also proposing to take the property… to take the building itself …this is Piero's, I believe, the restaurant that is here. We're going to butt next to the restaurant, but we're going to hold back since the side yard is either 6 feet or nothing, we going to hold back 8 feet plus another 8 feet and create a little open spot in here, which will give us the ability, although it's not seating or anything… and that's deliberate… for people to meander from the movie theatre to widen up this avenue; this little avenue going on down this way, and to give the ability to actually, while people are waiting for movies…to be able to look into the display windows here and here as well as display windows in here. There are actually two entrances to it: the main entrance in the front and a secondary entrance from the rear. There is no traffic by getting into the access to the lot from the front any longer; it's all off the Blackeby lot. Not only that, we have one existing parking space, this one, and we're offering to close up the curb cuts and then offering to give back one, two, three, potentially four spaces there. In the back portion here, in order to get in and out; there is an existing in and out area right now. In order to make a nice sweep over here, what I'm asking is that I would take one… there are four spots here, I would take one away so that I would have three here and I could make a turn. We also have covered most of the questions that had come up we were addressing. We were talking about the parking. We were also talking about we have a place for snow removal, snow storage, if that were to happen. If there's a fence… there's an opaque fence coming down here, and the fence is going to be gone. So again, there is another illusion of a little bit of wideness going on. Not to mention the fact that there are… we have the trees and existing lampposts in through here, which is nice, because the ambient light is going to help bring up the foot candles that we need for the parking lot, so that our parking will not need as much light as perhaps something that was totally isolated. So the idea is to be compatible with the rest of the area. The lights would match the Blackeby lights to begin with. We had a meeting with the DEP; we've spoken to them already. In this case here, just simple drainage, nothing more than a catch basin. Blackeby. Nothing more than a catch basin with an oil-water separator, and our connection would be to the Blackeby system.

Chairman Cosentino: Also an improvement, what you're bringing in, I've got to say that.

Clifford Munz: That is it in the nutshell.

Chairman Cosentino: Does anyone here want to add, delete?

Vice Chairman Sturniolo: I have a question. You mentioned the gasoline tanks have been removed.

Clifford Munz: Yes, they're gone.

Vice Chairman Sturniolo: Could you show us some documentation?

Clifford Munz: The documentation Mr. Albanese will have upon his closing, and which we have to present to DEP anyway, is the compliance saying the property is clean, the property has been tested, and the fact that he has five test wells on the property presently that are tested, I think, monthly, and are proven to be 75% less since the first time they have been tested. There has been no contamination.

Isidoro Albanese: Actually it's more now. Most of the wells are clean except for one that is at a certain level, which is at a level where they can close the site now, so we're waiting to close it.

Chairman Cosentino: But you have documentation to that effect?

Isidoro Albanese: Yes, I can give you the page one, the page two, etc.

Clifford Munz: Additionally, let me explain also… back in through here, being that there is no fence any longer, what we have is simple guard rail going here to prevent any cars from bumping through, but not to have any visual obstruction. A little more planting going on, and we have also taken into effect coming down from here to here is a great little avenue, a very small slope. It's a great avenue for skateboards. So what we have is either a set of statue pedestals or something of that nature, to sort of break it up and make it tougher for skateboards to head up and down on. We really thought about it, and we've got the building lining up in here. We've got about ten feet of sidewalk here now, which is fine, and as a matter of fact, we walked around the Village of Mount Kisco, and there are… if you go around where the Bank of New York is there is the Main Street over there, there is a nail shop and a few others that have been set back from the face. And you will notice that those are empty stores. So as looking at it back and forth, the positioning of the building, we think, is the best position right now.

Isidoro Albanese: Plus we've added the trees in the front where you have no trees now.

Clifford Munz: There is a photograph that might help you. There is an aerial of the existing. East Main Street - the existing gas station. This is pre-purchase or pre-taking out of the tanks. There used to be parking back here and what not. So, there is no change to what physically is on the site. But the place has always been…

Chairman Cosentino: You said something about trees in the front, right?

Isidoro Albanese: One the sidewalk.

Clifford Munz: We will plant them.

Isidoro Albanese: These trees, right here.

Chairman Cosentino: It doesn't show it here.

Clifford Munz: It will show it here, though. So the view that you're looking at…this particular view is if I were to be looking at a store front this way.

Chairman Cosentino: On the sidewalk, which there are no trees there now?

Clifford Munz: None now.

Isidoro Albanese: You have them in front of Borders, in front of the furniture store, but there is none in front of that site.

Clifford Munz: So that would be trees or something…we generally like to do something tight. You don't want it spread out? There are some trees on Main Street anyway, you can see them getting a little over… getting large.

Chairman Cosentino: Where is the heating, air conditioning; where is that going?

Clifford Munz: On the roof, towards the back half.

Chairman Cosentino: You don't show it here.

Clifford Munz: No. There will be parapets. And being that we are conceptual, we do understand where they are going to go. There are three separate air handlers.

Chairman Cosentino: You're going to have parapets up there?

Clifford Munz: Yes. Absolutely, I think the parapets will be about 26 inches or so, but I can hide them, they'll be back and little bit. And if I need to they will be screened around.

Chairman Cosentino: Anybody else?

Sol Gibbons: You're going to abut this building right next to the restaurant?

Clifford Munz: Right next to it but as close as I can get to have a firewall, and if I have to then I'll just close up… there will be no alley way in essence.

Sol Gibbons: How do you propose to overcome the air conditioner and the windows that are facing out?

Clifford Munz: We'll be losing them because those are lot line windows and we can go up as high and they are going to lose two or three windows on that side.

Sol Gibbons: Do they know that?

Clifford Munz: They do know it.

Sol Gibbons: Okay.

Isidoro Albanese: By putting the building against the other building, it gets rid of that alleyway which is going to be good for when the teenagers go through even if we fence it in, they are still going to climb over and hang out in there, and so under the advice we figured for the board… I don't know if you like it this way better.

Chairman Cosentino: I'd rather have it close to the restaurant.

Clifford Munz: We took advantage of this little niche in here, so you're going to have some meters and maybe some trash. Guy goes straight in, the dumpster pulls right in. It's not even a dumpster; we're not required for a dumpster.

Chairman Cosentino: Well, it's definitely an improvement for the area.

Clifford Munz: Yes. Thank you.

Joseph Morreale: Mr. Chairman, I have a few things. What are the sizes of the parking spaces eleven to nineteen?

Clifford Munz: Those are per code. 9½ x 18.

Joseph Morreale: I'm talking about these.

Clifford Munz: Same size.

Joseph Morreale: Does the stanchion you're putting in the ground make any difference with the code?

Clifford Munz: There's no extension, that's a wheel block.

Joseph Morreale: Okay, that's what I'm talking about.

Chairman Cosentino: We don't use wheel blocks.

Clifford Munz: If I want to keep the nose from getting onto the sidewalk, I'd have to build it.

Chairman Cosentino: You have to use concrete curbing.

Clifford Munz: Okay. Then still, we have concrete curbing.

Chairman Cosentino: It's our code. You have to use concrete curbing.

Clifford Munz: I have actually both. So we can't use it as all.

Chairman Cosentino: Can't use the blocks.

Clifford Munz: That's alright, and then I don't need to.

Joseph Morreale: That would have made the cars stick out further. That's what I was concerned about.

Clifford Munz: They're sized to fit so that the front wheels, if they were to hit the block, my nose of the car wouldn't go too far into the sidewalk into that little walking area.

Chairman Cosentino: Yes, but it's not to code. You need concrete curbing whatever you do there.

Clifford Munz: Okay.

Joseph Morreale: The width of the entrance since its two ways; is 18 feet sufficient? Whitney, is 18 feet wide sufficient for an entry exit?

Whitney Singleton: It depends on the number of parking spaces. And I believe fewer fences, in this case… (Fire alarm going off.)

Joseph Morreale: It looks pretty tight, that's why I'm asking. The other thing I was curious about, do you know what kind of businesses are coming in?

Clifford Munz: It is going to be a low impact business. It can be anything from let's say a retail store for vitamins, it can be anything from there to…

Chairman Cosentino: Another pizza shop.

Clifford Munz: No; regular retail.

Stanley Bernstein: Nail salon.

Clifford Munz: No.

Stanley Bernstein: Bank.

Clifford Munz: No. If it were a bank I'd have a different story for a bank.

Stanley Bernstein: Thank you.

Clifford Munz: He hasn't got that… no.

Isidoro Albanese: Once we get approval, then we can sign the lease.

Joseph Morreale: The reason I'm asking that is that you do have the required spaces, but if these turn out to be businesses that have people parking there for three and four hours, there is going to be an overflow.

Isidoro Albanese: You mean like a restaurant?

Joseph Morreale: Or whatever.

Isidoro Albanese: It's going to be retail. Retail is the 1 for 150, that's what we're going to rent it to. We want to rent it to a restaurant that has a different parking ratio.

Chairman Cosentino: You have 24 foot.

Joseph Morreale: Did you know the width on the entrance?

Chairman Cosentino: He has 24 feet.

Whitney Singleton: Austin did a review. I would imagine he covered that.

Joseph Morreale: I'm looking at 18.

Isidoro Albanese: Two nine foot lengths came to 18.

Joseph Morreale: Okay.

Chairman Cosentino: You've got 24. It's laid out nicely.

Joseph Morreale: It is a big improvement.

Chairman Cosentino: I think it will look nice, but does anyone else have anything else they want to say?

Vice Chairman Sturniolo: The question came about blocking the windows in the air conditioning units. You referred to the adjacent property owner and you said they know about it. Who is “the they” and who communicated?

Clifford Munz: “The they” is the owner and our owner of our property.

Isidoro Albanese: I talked to Joe, and I told him I'm not sure which way it's going to go. It might go right against it, where they might have to do the air conditionings on the roof.

Chairman Cosentino: Whatever they have to do they have to do.

Whitney Singleton: They have office space up there now, and as of right they're locked windows.

Isidoro Albanese: It's only going to do the first three windows.

Chairman Cosentino: But that's an improvement to get it closer to that building, because the alleyway could be dangerous.

Vice Chairman Sturniolo: To eliminate the alleyway.

Chairman Cosentino: To eliminate that alleyway, this is an improvement. I like it. Start your application.

Clifford Munz: Is there a likelihood, and I might ask this because we're at a conceptual; is it likely that I could get on the next calendar for the one coming up, if I have all my material for your next meeting?

Isidoro Albanese: On the 26^th here?

Clifford Munz: Yes, your next meeting.

Chairman Cosentino: Does he have to have the days?

Whitney Singleton: That's a work session.

Clifford Munz: I'd like to help accelerate if I could.

Chairman Cosentino: Absolutely, we'd want you to.

Vice Chairman Sturniolo: The cut-off for that work session would be June 12.

Isidoro Albanese: That's today. That's why I'm asking the question. I don't have all the data.

Chairman Cosentino: No. If you don't meet the cut off I can't. If I do it for you I have to do it for everybody that comes before me; and I'd like to do it for him. I know him; he's a good guy. But I can't.

Isidoro Albanese: The only thing is we missed the last one.

Chairman Cosentino: We were here; you weren't.

Isidoro Albanese: Yes, I know. I was going to forget about…

Chairman Cosentino: Congratulations, by the way.

Isidoro Albanese: Thank you.

Clifford Munz: Well, I definitely respect your position.

Chairman Cosentino: We had coffee and cake waiting for us. Mr. Vigliotti has a question.

Ralph Vigliotti: I know it's conceptual… explain to me what the façade is going to look like. I see a lot of glass. I know it's a conceptual rendering.

Clifford Munz: Exactly what we're going to have; three bays, three bays will then be glazed with a butt to butt frameless glass. That's the idea. The entrance is going to be either; it's going to be a cascade that appears to be made of limestone or cast concrete. What will happen then is in there will be the doors, or not. And then the bands that are here, this little face could be muntz metal, muntz metal is brake metal. And then the arch that's through here; the arch is higher than the ceiling requires but that's alright, we are returning a planter behind it. So I can have the arch higher. And then thirdly the awnings in here; the idea was to take just another approach to the awnings… have staggered awnings, so not only we have sort of respect in the arch over here, but its something you don't see everyday, I'll give you that.

Chairman Cosentino: Well, that's going to go before the ARB anyway.

Clifford Munz: That's true. And then the idea is that those awnings can be just fitted out with where these ovals are…the name of the company, the name of the store, and the signage would be up in the freeze.

Ralph Vigliotti: Is that brick that we see above the archway?

Clifford Munz: Yes.

Ralph Vigliotti: Brick that will match the brick that we see downtown; what are we looking at?

Clifford Munz: Yes. Not unlike The Elephant's Trunk for example.

Chairman Cosentino: They are going to put brick so we can paint it like La China.

Clifford Munz: Don't be painting my brick.

Stanley Bernstein: Is that a double leaf entrance door?

Clifford Munz: Yes it is. It will be set back 18 inches.

Stanley Bernstein: It swings out, no doubt.

Clifford Munz: Right. 18 inch encroachment; that's it.

Stanley Bernstein: Wow. You have a narrow sidewalk. That should be inset. The inset… the width of the leaf.

Clifford Munz: So you inset it the full 30 inches for the door, in essence? We can do that. It becomes a breezeway.

Stanley Bernstein: Yes. You say it's a wide sidewalk; it's really not.

Clifford Munz: No, now it's between 9.8 and 10 feet, but you'd still have a band of brick as you're saying.

Stanley Bernstein: And you have the brick on the meter side.

Clifford Munz: Certainly.

Stanley Bernstein: So I think it would be best to recess.

Clifford Munz: I think it's a better alternative than trying to push the building back.

Nanette Bourne: Mr. Chairman, I have a question. I can't see the elevations. Are you proposing double fronts?

Clifford Munz: Triple. There is a possibility of three stores. Is that what you mean?

Nanette Bourne: No. A front on Main Street and a front on the…

Clifford Munz: Yes, a primary and a secondary. The secondary in the back would be very much played down, so it would be more of just let's say awnings and doors if you will.

Nanette Bourne: It won't look like the back of the building?

Clifford Munz: No. It won't look like the back of the building, but it won't be as pronounced as the front.

Chairman Cosentino: Something like Shopper's Park.

Clifford Munz: Victoria's Secret. Do you see how they work that so that there is a display in the back, but the display is not through. So in order to get some display, yet there will be a door so you can maintain some security. It's up to them to maintain their security, but the fact is you get there and you can see what's going on. It would be the same displays down the side. I wouldn't want a through display anyway for people to meander up and down.

Ralph Vigliotti: Will the back of the building be a facsimile as far as the styling as the front, with brick?

Clifford Munz: It will be… now, I don't know how our pricing goes, I would use if not all some brick. The idea is to start to blend the two but play it down.

Chairman Cosentino: Then again it's got to go before the ARB.

Ralph Vigliotti: Well, this is conceptual.

Chairman Cosentino: What I'm saying they might not even want the brick.

Ralph Vigliotti: With all due respect to the ARB, I'd like to get a sense of what it's going to look like from the back. As far as Shoppers Park goes, the backs are fronts to Shoppers Park, and I want to make sure that it's not a stepchild to the front.

Clifford Munz: I wouldn't spend the money on the glass, for example on the back. I might do normal storefront. So I wouldn't put the extra effort as I did on the front.

Chairman Cosentino: The back has to look nice because it's like a main entrance because all those other buildings in the back are dressed up. I don't want it to look like the back of a garage, and I'm sure he doesn't either.

Isidoro Albanese: It will be the best looking building.

Clifford Munz: Borders handled it the same way. Their back is not as bricked up as the front. There is much more limestone back there.

Chairman Cosentino: We'll look at it.

Joseph Morreale: How will you stop people from parking in the parking lot and going to the theatre? What are you thinking about doing about that?

Clifford Munz: Well there is always the famous sign, this parking lot is for the patrons only, and otherwise they will be towed at their own expense. You can just do that.

Chairman Cosentino: You're not going to police it.

Clifford Munz: You can't.

Chairman Cosentino: What's stopping the people from parking there and going across the street to his restaurant?

Clifford Munz: The only difference is people parking at a meter rather than putting money in. You've got all metered parking at Blackeby; there are no meters here and that's only because we're required.

Isidoro Albanese: You're just taking a chance.

Chairman Cosentino: Taking a chance like any other place.

Clifford Munz: But the beauty is that you do…if we get four spots in the front, that's four metered spots in addition to the one that's there. I think a spot is worth a good $25,000 apiece.

Ralph Vigliotti: We discussed this at the last meeting and I'd like to discuss it again. I'm trying to get an opinion from the members of the board with regard to a setback of the building from the sidewalk. With cars parking now in front of that building, I don't think ten feet is a very large sidewalk when you have double strollers. The approach that we've taken with a lot of the new buildings that are going on Main Street and on the secondary streets is to try to get them to be set back a little bit to give it a different look. Not to give it a kind of a strip mall look that you might see down county. I just kind of throw that out. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, fine.

Chairman Cosentino: I think he is setting it back more, but it's not going to be the building itself, it's going to be inset.

Clifford Munz: The windows are more or less on the property line, and then when you enter in we have to set the doors in as you're saying, so that your swing won't be on the property; it won't be on the sidewalk. But it took a good hard look at both ways. Also, we need to get a number of square feet that we're trying to get deliberately, as a business decision. But the moment you start moving that building backwards, we start encroaching on, which is a minimum of five feet here, which I need for handicapped people.

Ralph Vigliotti: It's making the building smaller.

Clifford Munz: Totally makes the building smaller.

Ralph Vigliotti: Set back two feet, I don't know the length of the building, whether it's 80 or 90 feet, you're losing 180 feet. But two feet can have a very different look with a little bit of landscaping, and give it a very sophisticated look on Main Street. I'm only one member of the board, but this is the opportunity to say something.

Clifford Munz: I do respect your position. Again, I took a good close look at the other end of Main Street, and there, as I was saying there is a Nail Salon and a few others. Those are a little older buildings, but they have been deliberately set back. There is a lot wider of a sidewalk. But those, if you look at them, they are not a very nice place …presently… not a nice place to be. It's not that comfortable. As a matter of fact, they're empty. They are the only stores that are empty on that street.

Ralph Vigliotti: They've had an ongoing problem with vacancies for the last 20-30 years. It's the Main Street, but it's not the most popular shopping destination for that particular area.

Isidoro Albanese: One of my things… if you did landscaping in the front of it, and you're looking a two feet of landscaping, is the maintenance of it, the snow in the wintertime; everything would die, first of all, then that wind that blows across Main Street that we see on our side, everything gets caught inside these plantings, if you're doing something in there. If you do flowerpots, in the winter time they would be just dirt. And also, by putting the building back it's not lined up with the other building, and in my opinion. I've talked to a few people just to get their opinions on that.

Clifford Munz: But we did respect and I know your position and that is exactly why we opened this up. I didn't have to give any side yard, but I opened this up to more… this is 8 feet to begin with, not 6, plus another 8 feet, plus a little bit of planting in here, just to open that up, and that's the right place because if you look along here, walk along here, the fact that this building is taller, this building is a little shorter, there is just a natural draw right there because there is a pinching going on between the two buildings. That's the sense of entry. And it made sense this time.

Chairman Cosentino: The only thing that Austin says here… did you get a copy of this report?

Clifford Munz: No sir, except for the very first one.

Chairman Cosentino: I'll give you this one. He says to look into the snow area.

Clifford Munz: Yes, sir, we did that.

Chairman Cosentino: Well, he did too. Look at that and you might want to work it out with him.

Clifford Munz: This is the first one, yes. And, as a matter of fact, my response was point by point by point.