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HomeMy WebLinkAbout20200574 Excelsior Park Correspondance Sustainable Saratoga Educate. PO Box 454 Sustainable Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 Advocate. info@sustainablesaratoga.org "41s U Act. www.sustainablesaratoga.org January 14, 2021 Susan Barden, Principal Planner Mark Torpey, Chair, Planning Board City of Saratoga Springs City Hall 474 Broadway Saratoga Springs, New York 12866 Dear Susan Barden and Mark Torpey, RE: Excelsior Park Project Please distribute this letter to the Planning Board. The agenda for the January 14, 2021 meeting of the Saratoga Springs Planning Board includes the review of an application for a special use permit for the Excelsior Park project. Sustainable Saratoga urges the board to ensure that the design of the project will meet the goals of the City's Comprehensive Plan and will incorporate important provisions of existing city regulations and policies. We hope that the new project will include a significant workforce housing component. The location of affordable new residential units, adjacent to the Adirondack Northway and within walking and biking distance to downtown destinations, would be ideal for those who work in the city and nearby communities. The area of Excelsior Park lies within the "Country Overlay Area."According to the Comprehensive Plan, "The Country Overlay Area depicts a desired "greenbelt"around the urban core which defines and shapes the "Country" in the "City in the Country"vision of this comprehensive plan."The intent is to "reaffirm that open space values be taken into consideration in development proposals within the Country Overlay Area or in adopting any zoning amendments for areas included in the Country Overlay Area." The project should be designed to preserve and protect the natural resources in and around its setting, especially nearby wetlands and significant trees. The Saratoga Springs Urban and Community Forest Master Plan contains numerous provisions to promote the planting and long-term survival of trees that grow large over time. Beyond their beauty and positive effect on property values, large trees serve as elements of green infrastructure, significantly reducing stormwater runoff. The Master Plan's big-tree vision can be realized in part through the strict application of the City's existing subdivision regulations. The developer should be required to identify all significant trees and abide by Appendix H, section Q.3., which provides, "The developer of any residential subdivision shall preserve and protect the existing major trees located within the required setback areas (front, side, and rear yards)." Other key provisions in Appendix H // Sustainable Saratoga I PO Box 454,Saratoga Springs,NY 12866 I www.sustainablesaratoga.org pertain to the layout of streets. Large trees require large unpaved openings to allow sufficient air and water movement, and sufficient distance between curbs and sidewalks to accommodate expanding trunks and large structural roots. Street rights-of-way should be at least as wide as prescribed in the regulations, and sidewalks should be located at right-of-way (ROW) boundaries to maximize the width of tree belts, which should be at least 6 feet wide. For example, an Urban Local Street with a ROW width of 55 feet and a pavement width of 28 feet with 5-foot sidewalks would leave tree belts 8.5 feet wide on either side. An Urban Street, with a 65-foot ROW and 4o feet of pavement with 5-foot sidewalks would leave 7.5 feet for trees. Tree belts of these widths would provide ample room for large trees to grow and thrive. The plan for street trees throughout the project should include a wide variety of large-growing species from the City's approved list. Long rows of a single species should be avoided. A goal of the Master Plan is to achieve species diversity by planting no more than io percent of one species, 20 percent of one genus, and 3o percent of one family. To give the project a character appropriate to its location within the Country Overlay Area, trees should be planted no more than 40 feet apart. The Zoo-foot minimum spacing guidelines in the current regulations would not afford sufficient canopy cover to provide the significant environmental benefits and forested character appropriate for a development in this location. The Board also should make sure that the planting plan for the project does not include any plant species whose invasiveness has been rated as Very High, High, or Moderate on the current Non-Native Plant Species Invasiveness Assessment list, available at the New York Invasive Species Information Clearinghouse (http://nyis.info/non-native-plant-assessments/). Thank you for your consideration of our concerns. We would be happy to meet with you to discuss them further. Sincerely, Wendy Mahaney, Executive Director Sustainable Saratoga Sustainable Saratoga I PO Box 454,Saratoga Springs,NY 12866 I www.sustainablesaratoga.org 2