76 apartments OK’d on West Avenue, Federal St. hotel advances

A four-story building with 76 apartments and three commercial spaces at 17 West Avenue won unanimous approval from the Saratoga Springs Design Review Board on Wednesday, September 23. The same meeting moved a proposed 120-room hotel at 11 Federal Street into the city’s environmental review process and continued the board’s work on a 55-acre mixed-use development along Route 9 and South Broadway.

The West Avenue project is the largest residential building approved on the city’s west side this year. The site sits on the west side of Saratoga Springs, in a corridor the city has rezoned over the past decade to encourage apartments and mixed-use buildings along West Avenue. The board’s meeting video is posted on the city’s site, and this account draws on that recording and on the summary published by Saratoga Civic Pulse, a newsletter that covers city board meetings.

17 West Avenue: what was approved

The board’s review of the West Avenue building was about details rather than whether to build it. Members went through lighting, where the mechanical venting would sit on the facade and what material would be used for the balcony railings, then approved the project as presented. The key facts as approved:

• Four stories, with 76 apartments on the upper floors.
• Three commercial spaces at street level along West Avenue.
• Parking in a basement level under the building rather than in a surface lot.
• Architectural approval was unanimous, with no conditions reported beyond the details discussed at the meeting.

Design Review Board approval covers the look of the building. Site plan approval from the Planning Board covers traffic, stormwater and utilities, and the project still needs that before construction can begin. The developer has not announced a construction schedule or rents, and the project’s name and the mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units were not part of the board’s discussion.

Route 9 and South Broadway: findings first, vote later

The most involved discussion of the night went to a proposed 55-acre mixed-use development along Route 9 and South Broadway, the corridor that runs south from the state park toward the Northway. The Planning Board had asked the Design Review Board for an advisory opinion on a special use permit that would allow residential-only multifamily buildings inside the larger development. City zoning in that area generally expects ground-floor commercial space in new buildings, so the permit would let some buildings be all apartments.

Board members focused on how the project would fit a part of the city that still reads as semi-rural. The concerns raised:

• Building massing, meaning how large the buildings appear from Route 9 and from neighboring properties.
• The layout of parking lots and how much of the site they cover.
• Vegetative buffers between the new buildings and the road and the properties next door.

Rather than vote, the board directed staff to write up findings and recommendations. Those go to a workshop first, and the board is expected to vote on its advisory opinion at a later regular meeting. The advisory opinion is not an approval. The Planning Board makes the decision on the special use permit and the site plan, and it began its own look at a South Broadway sketch plan the following night.

11 Federal Street: a hotel enters environmental review

The proposal at 11 Federal Street, a short street near the Saratoga Springs City Center downtown, calls for a five-story mixed-use building with a 120-room hotel and 21 residential units. The Design Review Board did not review the building’s design on September 23. Instead, the board voted unanimously to defer lead agency status to the Planning Board under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, which puts one board in charge of the environmental review for the whole project.

A 120-room hotel would be one of the larger lodging additions downtown since the Embassy Suites by Hilton Saratoga Springs opened on Congress Street. Parking, loading and traffic on a narrow street are likely to be the questions when the Planning Board takes up the site plan. The design review, including materials and how the building meets Federal Street, comes back to the Design Review Board after the environmental review.

The rest of the agenda

Several smaller applications moved through the meeting. In order of size:

1. A new single-family house with a detached garage at 832 North Broadway was approved as submitted after historic review, which focused on exterior finishes, natural materials, setbacks and where the garage sits on the lot.
2. At 216 West Avenue, the board approved removing an enclosed porch and restoring an open front porch, but required painted natural wood clapboard to match the house and wood-wrapped porch columns with traditional base and cap trim.
3. At 58 Woodlawn Avenue, rebuilt rear egress stairs and a third-floor roof dormer were approved on the condition that the dormer window not be vinyl.
4. A proposed telecommunications facility on Brook Road, in the Industrial Light district, had its lead agency status deferred to the Planning Board with no design review yet.
5. Signs at 318 West Avenue, 588 Lake Avenue and 56 Marion Avenue were approved on the consent agenda, along with changes to wireless equipment on Henning Road.

Our read: the West Avenue approval is the story with the most immediate effect on renters, since 76 units is a meaningful addition to a tight market, but the South Broadway project is the one that could change the shape of the city’s southern entrance. Watch for the board’s written findings, which will be the first public document that spells out what the city wants changed.

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