Sean Farrell, Senior Project Manager with LaBella, out of Latham, NY, goes over the plans for the Dairyman project at the M&T Bank Building location during Tuesday’s council meeting.

By Dave Warner

The regularly scheduled Common Council meeting was held last Tuesday night, with ten resolutions on the agenda. After approving the February minutes, bills, and monthly reports, the council moved to the list of resolutions.

Resolution # 15 stated that the Common Council consented to the appointment of David Beers to the Zoning Board of Appeals with a term that would expire 03/2026.

The Resolution passed unanimously.

Resolution #16 stated that the Babinec Family Trust owns 691 E. Main Street, Little Falls, New York, and there is a need for more parking near City Hall and the Rock City Centre building. The Babinec Family Trust has offered to transfer the title of the lot to the City as well as pay for the demolition and clean-up of the lot in preparation for converting it to a public parking lot.

The Memorandum of Understanding stated that “The City will grant to Rock City Centre LLC, its successors and assigns, the permanent use in common with the City of the existing City parking lot at 677-689 E. Main St, Little Falls.”

Dave Malone spoke on behalf of the Babinec Family Trust and stated, “I think it’s a win-win.  The City gets more parking, the building gets demolished at no cost to the City and I think it’s a good idea all-around.”

The Resolution passed unanimously.

Resolution #17 and Resolution # 18 (linked PDFs) were related to the proposed Dairyman project on Main Street. After a motion, and a second, a lengthy discussion surrounded both of the resolutions.

Alderman Justin Welyczko stated, “What’s happened in the last few days is that we have new plans, and we went through this review line by line in that particular document, and there have been some significant changes, so I’d like a little bit of information regarding the changes.”

Sean Farrell, Senior Project Manager for LaBella and the Dairyman project, put up plans on an easel for the project. He said, “We’re here for 501 Main St, the former M&T Bank building, and the redevelopment of that into 77 units with 2 commercial parcels. We went in front of the zoning board, and we were requesting a variance for parking, building height, and use variance.”

He said that the zoning board had concerns with the parking and the reduction they were asking for (33 spots). They looked at the area and tried to improve upon that, adding diagonal parking along 2nd St. In addition, they took an area in the main parking lot near the EV charging stations and went from 9 feet wide to 8, which allowed them to add one more spot.

Farrell stated that they were now asking for a 15-space variance. “That is the only change since the last plan. Our vision was with this angled parking that we were following suit with the DRI proposal where they had diagonal parking proposed for the front of the building.”

He said that 2nd Street was fairly wide at 38 feet and that they would maintain the standard two-way traffic there but that it would be 24 feet wide once the diagonal spaces were added. The four entrances and exits to the parking lot would be reduced to two.

A concern was also brought up about Cemetery Creek, which runs east of the parking lot, under the sidewalk and 2nd St. City Engineer Chet Szymanski asked, “I assume you’re going to need pilings (for the extension of the building), and will that affect the creek?”

Farrell stated, “Based on what we found, there is an easement associated with this 2nd St property line, and that’s where there’s this culvert or creek that lives. We’re proposing to be out of it at this point, not over it.”

Alderman Carpineti pointed out where the fire hydrant and manholes were and brought up that water service was also running through the area.

There was confusion about whether the building footprint had changed, with Farrell stating that it had not. Szymanski said, “There was the height variance. Is that just for this new building? So this new building will be higher than the existing building?”

Farrell replied, “The existing building will just add two stories, and then the extension or addition will be five stories.”

Additional discussion continued for several minutes until Alderman Tim Lyon made a motion to table Resolutions # 17 and # 18 to give more time for the council to review the new site lines and additional information, as well as the impact on traffic and deliveries to Price Chopper on 2nd St.

Alderman Justin Welyczko asked how this would affect the timeline for the project, and Farrell stated, “We have an end-of-March deadline.”

Alderman Carpinineti expressed his concern about the impact of construction on the underground structure that handled Cemetery Creek. “What happens after construction? If we were to lose that creek a year later, is the City responsible for that? These are questions I’d rather discuss now.”

Farrell stated that he didn’t think it would be a problem based on the drawings that he had.

City Attorney Jennifer Chrisman said, “My concern is that when they did their Part II analysis, they might have had a blind spot and didn’t realize that was coming down 2nd Street. My suggestion is that we redo or take another look at that section.”

“I don’t know that they did the analysis aware of that since there are five aldermen here who all seem unaware,” she stated.

The motion was made again and seconded to table Resolution #17 with a roll call vote. A motion was then made on Resolution #18 to table with an all ‘I’ vote.

The council moved on to Resolution #19, which would schedule a public hearing on April 4, 2023, to hear all interested parties to amend Local Law No. 1 of 1998 to raise the qualifying income level for senior citizens for tax exemption in the City of Little Falls.

The Resolution passed unanimously.

They then moved on to Resolution #20, which was the City of Little Falls contract with the City of Little Falls Clerical Group from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2025, which had been negotiated between the Finance Committee, Mayor and the City of Little Fall Clerical Group.

The Resolution passed unanimously.

Resolution #21 stated that the City of Little Falls Police Chief and the City of Little Falls had reached an agreement with regard to the terms and extension of the contract from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2024.

The Resolution passed unanimously.

Resolution #22 stated that the City of Little Falls Codes Enforcement Officer and the City of Little Falls had reached an agreement with regard to the terms and extension of the contract from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2026.

The Resolution passed unanimously.

Resolution #23 said that the City of Little Falls Fire Chief and the City of Little Falls had reached an agreement with regard to the terms and extension of the contract from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2025.

The Resolution passed unanimously.

Resolution #24 stated that the Little Falls Department of Public Works CSEA Local 1000, ASFSCME, AFL-CIO and the City of Little Falls had reached a tentative agreement with regard to the terms of extension of their contract and that the Mayor is authorized to execute that contract.

The Resolution passed unanimously.

After Alderman Welyczko asked if there was any new or old business and getting only one comment from the floor from Mike Bulger about the project, Chet Szymanski again addressed the plans regarding the portion of the Dairyman structure on 2nd St.

Chrisman stated that because of the impact on traffic flow on 2nd St, the Traffic Committee would also be involved in the variance process with a meeting on March 21, 2023.

A special meeting was discussed and planned for March 21, 2023, at 7 pm.

Alderman Lyon then motioned to table Resolutions #’s 17 and 18 until the 21st, which was seconded.