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20210471 Unified Development Ordinance Public Comment (4) Zimbra amber.upton©saratoga-springs.org Online Form Submittal: Land Use Board Agenda Public Comment From : noreply@civicplus.com Thu, Jul 08, 2021 01:10 PM Subject : Online Form Submittal: Land Use Board Agenda Public Comment To :susan barden <susan.barden@saratoga-springs.org>, lisa shields <lisa.shields@saratoga-springs.org>, amber upton <amber.upton@saratoga- springs.org> CAUTION: This email originated outside of the City network. Please contact IT Support if you need assistance determining if it's a threat before opening attachments or clicking any links. Land Use Board Agenda Public Comment SUBMIT COMMENTS REGARDING CITY PROJECTS Thank you for submitting your comments. Your feedback will be forwarded to the City's Planning Department and Land Use Board members. NOTE: Comments submitted later than 12:00 noon on the day before the Land Use Board meeting may not be reviewed prior to their meeting. All comments will be added to the project file in the Planning Department. Land Use Board Planning Board Name John D Kaufmann Email Address kaufmann @ nycap.rr.com Business Name Field not completed. Address 44 White Street City Saratoga Springs State NY Zip Code 12866 Phone Number 5185847395 Project Name UDO Project Number Field not completed. Project Address 44 White Street Comments This is a follow-up to my earlier comment re Saratoga National Golf Course and the need to remove "country club" as a use for the conservation district. This is a link to a story I wrote regarding the inability of the city to impose any limit on the "special events" at SNGC as re- quired by the site plan adopted by the planning board at the time. https://saratogaspringspolitics.com/2015/10/13/mayor-re- sponds-to-whether-saratoga-national-complies-with-the-spe- cial-permit-requirements/ The site plan for SNGC contained the following language: "The facility may have up to three special events/tournaments per year where the visitor's demand exceeds available desig- nated parking. Each permitted event shall not exceed 3,000 persons." An innocent would read this and assume that SNGC was only allowed to exceed its approved parking three times a year. Ac- cording to the city, they would be wrong. The argument goes that any individual event would be limited to the parking but if the SNGC was having multiple events, each one would be al- lowed up to the parking limit and there would be no way to know which cars were related to which event. (Even this was untrue as there were a variety of ways to monitor the parking to adhere to the site plan) This should be a cautionary story as to how developers can cir- cumvent the limits imposed on them by the planning board. This is especially true because the attorney for the city who presumably participated in writing the legal opinion that freed SNGC from any limit on their events was Vince DeLeonardis, an outstanding lawyer and someone I admire. I think context is important. Given the history of SNGC, it re- mains to be seen how any site plan established by the planning board can be relied upon to be administered properly. I know this is the case with any site plan but the approval of "country clubs" for the conservation district seems particularly fraught with the danger of abuse. Attach Photo (optional) Field not completed. Email not displaying correctly?View it in your browser.