Planning board gives green light to OWD Development apartment complex

The rendering by Architect Tim Geier shows the OWD Development LLC's new landscaping plan beyond the town's community garden behind the town hall parking lot. The garden is shown as a gray area. The trees that will be planted won't grow as tall as ones in an earlier plan would have.

by Dan McClelland

At a special meeting Monday the Tupper Lake joint village and town planning board unanimously approved a permit for the OWD Development LLC's major apartment and commercial complex project on The Boulevard. The permit did not include a condition for one year of continued oversight of landscaping, lighting and parking by the planners, as had been proposed at the January meeting.

Joining Developers Joe Gehm and Mike Dunyk on Zoom that evening were a number of the consultants and state officials assisting on the ambitious project including Tyler Beerse, permit specialist Zina Lagonegro of Passero Associates, Tim Geier, David Cox, Kyle Malder and Diane Jakinoski.

At the January meeting both sides presented a set of proposed permit conditions in three subject areas- lighting, landscaping and parking. The two sets of conditions were similar, except that the planning board sought to have one year of continued oversight in those areas.

Developer Joe Gehm said the year of oversight was unacceptable to his state and private financial backers and Diane Jakimoski of the state Division of Housing confirmed that.

Since the January meeting the developers and their team and the local planning board members reached agreement over lighting, parking and landscaping.

Monday's conversation was led by Ms. Lagonegro of Passero Associates, a firm that specializes in municipal permitting and by Mr. Gehm.

Ms. Lagonegro said that since the January meeting they have trimmed the number of apartment units from about 90 to 80. “We've also changed the mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, so there are now more one-bedroom apartments.”

She said the aim was to reduce the pressure on the indoor parking garage in what was most recently the Tupper Lake Veneer Corp. portion of the building and in the outdoor parking area adjacent to it.

In earlier discussions, the planning board members questioned whether or not the 135 parking spaces planned were enough to accommodate the residents of the 90 apartments- some of whom may own two cars- as well as their guests.

Joe Gehm reviewed what he called “the handful of changes” they made since the January presentation.

He said “one reason for the change” in the number of apartments was a recently updated market study they did in preparation for a submission to the state housing agency. “We went a little heavier on the one-bedroom side. We wanted to help the parking ratio, that we had discussions with you guys on.”

Another reason for the change in types of apartments and the reduction of ten apartments was “budgetary.”

“We wanted to tighten up our budget a little so the removal of those ten has helped on all three fronts.”

He explained that “to fill the space” left by the ten less apartments they have proposed an area of self-storage for tenants in building No. 2. There are eight different buildings in the proposed complex.

Mr. Gehm said that to answer some of the concerns by the planners of too much lighting, his consultants had answered some of the board's questions in the time since the January meeting.

He also said their landscaping plan was “updated” to address some of the board's concerns.

Architect Tim Geier had also produced some high resolution renderings from the westerly direction that the planning board had requested, Mr. Gehm said.

He said they also completed a maintenance plan since January to address some of the board's landscaping and lighting concerns.

Looking at Mr. Geier's rendering Chairman Shawn Stuart thought the 24-foot high light poles looked a little tall.

Planning Board Member Jan Yaworksi asked about curbs around the outdoor parking area and it was confirmed there would be curbs in areas.

Board Member Andrew Chary asked the consultants to detail the changes made since last time in the rendering of the western side of the project.

Tim Geier said he added more of the features detailed in the redrafted landscaping plan, including taller trees on one side with shorter ones on the other closer to the building and lower shrubbery throughout.

Chairman Shawn Stuart said that since the last meeting the members of his board had reviewed the maintenance plan prepared by the developers and were agreeable with it. The planners also reviewed the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) assessment, he noted.

Before voting on the permit, however, that evening the planners, at Ms. Lagonegro's request, went line by line through the state-required document, affirming there were no negative environmental impacts associated with the elements of the new development.