NEW SCOTLAND — Experienced restaurateurs want to add onto and renovate the empty Pixie’s restaurant and tavern on Route 32, surveyor Cynthia Elliott told the town’s planning board on Tuesday. The board set a public hearing on the project for Nov. 10 at 7 p.m.

Dan Bailey and Paul Salvino are major shareholders in Hudson Valley Italian Restaurant, Inc., a family firm that owns Pomodoro’s Italian Eatery in Catskill and Paul’s Pizza and Pasta in West Coxsackie, both in Greene County, and previously owned Joey’s Pizza in Catskill and Ravena.

Elliott described the former Pixie’s restaurant and tavern, currently owned by Thomas Junco, as a long rectangle on a long, rectangular lot.

The building is adjacent to Stewart’s Shop next to Railroad Avenue in a commercial hamlet district. The proposed eatery is three doors down from another pizza restaurant, Mauro’s Menu, that is currently operating.

Bailey and Salvino want to add an additional 500 square feet to the building during the renovation, Elliott told the planning board.

Elliott said that, because the adjoining property has no dwelling, the parking design calls for vehicles to face the Stewart’s or the post office on the other side of Railroad Avenue.

“We don’t need a buffer, per se,” she said.

The parking lot would remain blacktop in front and have crusher-run gravel in the lot behind the addition, Elliott said.

The site currently has large planters for greenery. Elliott said that the applicants plan to use window boxes as landscaping.

“This works well in your site in Coxsackie,” she said, looking at her clients. “You get to change your plants seasonally and have some color.”

She told the board, “They want to do some herbs, and tomatoes…with annuals.”

Her design includes roping off, with planters and rope lights, entry from Route 32; keeping the highway access would allow large equipment use during the renovation, she said.

The applicants may add outdoor seating, if business goes well, she said. The parking design will change with the roped off section, she said.

“Now, people sort of pull in and land. It’s sort of haphazard,” Elliott said.

Planning board member Thomas Hart suggested that the restaurant may need grease traps to be installed upstream. Elliott said that the applicants would wait to see what is needed from the Albany County Department of Health based on restaurant occupancy.

The side has problematic septic issues; the applicants reduced their landscaping plan because of the amount to be spent on the septic, Elliott said.

Bailey said that the plans call for the elimination of the basement, where an older water and septic system is installed.

Stantec engineer R. Mark Dempf, serving as a town-designated engineer, said that an artesian system similar to that at Pixie’s will freeze in winter.

“We’ll actually get rid of the basement?” Dempf asked Bailey, who assented. “Cool. The slab is going to float if you don’t.”

“You don’t want to look down there,” Bailey said. “Our plan is to eliminate anything under the building.”

When asked by board member Robert Stapf if the applicants hit ground water during a test, Bailey said that they did not.

“It was typical New Scotland, but a little bit better,” Elliott said.

“You had perc there?” Stapf asked.

“Yes, it perc’ed,” Bailey said.