HomeMy WebLinkAbout20210755 269 Broadway Site Plan Public Comment (7) Zimbra amber.upton@saratoga-springs.org
269 Broadway coments for PB meeting 11-18-2021
From : Kathy S <kathleen.sonnabend@gmail.com> Thu, Nov 18, 2021 12:08 PM
Subject : 269 Broadway coments for PB meeting 11-18-2021
To : amber upton <amber.upton@saratoga-springs.org>
Cc : susan barden <susan.barden@saratoga-springs.org>
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Amber,
Please post this email for Planning Board members for their meeting tonight and for the archives.
Despite our best efforts, it has been hard to keep up with the 269 Broadway project on a timely
basis. We received the email alert of the agenda change for tonight's Planning Board meeting
late yesterday and with that, discovered that many of the relevant documents we have been
seeking have been posted in the last few days. There has not been sufficient time to review them
all before the deadline for comments and I hope that there will be time for public comment
before any vote is taken on SEQR.
Design changes since 800 people signed our petition last Fall (over just ten days) have not been
significant enough to alleviate public concerns. The overwhelming reaction of the public is
negative:
1. The design is not attractive or appropriate in this historic district.
2. The massive size, amount of glass and lack of setback are incompatible with the
neighborhood.
3. Parking and traffic along Broadway, the major entry to the city from the south, are
already discouraging people from visiting downtown. It will get much worse with this project
and two additional Broadway projects just south of Circular. Where will the school buses wait
for SPA Catholic students when Hamilton Street is no longer available for them? About ten
school buses currently park at pick up time on the east side of Hamilton from just north of
Circular Street all the way south to the Health Center.
4. Along with two trees on Hamilton, a very large city owned tree on the public strip on
Broadway will be removed for this zero-lot-line project. The tree is five stories tall, not 30
feet, and will be greatly missed.
5. Do any of the city managers or hired consultants recognize that neither this property
nor its nearby neighbors on the west side of Broadway have ever excavated basements
below the ground level of 269 Broadway? The historic Clarendon Hotel sat just north of St.
Peter's Church and to the north of that (about 269 Broadway) was The Washington Spring,
which was capped long ago. Even if no blasting is required for the proposed two levels of
underground parking, it is likely that it will cause trouble for the underground parking levels
for Park Place at 268 Broadway. Frequently with major construction (the railroad depot and
especially Skidmore College), neighboring buildings have borne the brunt of expensive
repairs to flooded basements. Most recently, the science building construction at Skidmore
caused flooding of at least one historic home on north Broadway, requiring expensive major
renovation including French drains to resolve the problem. Existing property owners should
not bear these costs and inconveniences in favor of developers wanting to maximize their
profit. No one has answered my question about how you build two underground levels when
the water table is just 12 feet below ground level.
6. SHPO never consulted the Saratoga Preservation Foundation before it wrote its May 25,
2021 letter. If they had, they would have known that the Foundation does not find this
project meets city guidelines for a historic district and Broadway address as indicated in their
own letter of June 19, 2020 in which they stated their own concerns about height, scale and
mass.
The only solution to these significant problems is to scale back the project size and create a more
compatible design.
Kathleen Sonnabend
268 Broadway
Saratoga springs