GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Planning Board recently did its part to help move forward two projects meant to aid residents at the opposite ends of life.

The board late last month determined 12 units of independent senior housing on Carman Road would not adversely impact the environment and was presented with a proposal for a 36-child daycare facility on Western Avenue. 

While the planning board is the lead agency for the proposed daycare center and has to sign off on the site plan — the applicant will have to appear before the board once more  — it is the state’s responsibility to inspect and license childcare facilities.

On March 27, Saood Rafique and his wife, Namra, who will run the facility, presented the board with their plan for Curious Minds Daycare located at 1873 Western Ave., an approximately 28,500-square-foot building consisting mostly of small medical suites. 

The Rafiques are proposing to convert about 2,700 square feet of office space into a multi-room facility with an outdoor playground for three age groups: infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

The infant room would have seven children and two teachers; there would be two toddler rooms each with nine children and two teachers, and a preschool room with 11 children and two teachers. 

The hours of operation would be from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

With the state responsible for most of the permitting process, the planning board dealt mainly with site logistics, like traffic flow for drop-off and pick-up being managed with designated parking spots and signage; the inclusion of signage and crosswalks to ensure child and pedestrian safety; and addressing a resident’s concern about neighborhood dogs still being able to access the greenspace behind 1873 Western Ave. 

Senior living

After a long discussion about on-site parking, the planning board on March 27 issued a negative State Environmental Quality Review declaration for a proposed 12-unit residential independent living facility on Carman Road. This means the facility’s environmental impact will be minimal and does not need in-depth review.

The senior housing is proposed on a one-acre site at 3407 Carman Road, right next door to the Different Blend Bakery. 

“Chairman, as you recall, last time when we were here, some questions were raised,” project developer Donald Cropsey said to board Chairman Stephen Feeney. Cropsey is the former chief building inspector and zoning administrator for Guilderland. 

“I’ll start out at Carman Road,” Cropsey said. “One was the configuration of the entrance drive.”

The entrance had an “S” configuration, Cropsey said, about which the board had concerns. “What I’ve done is I’ve changed the driveway layout to change the horizontal curve from an “S” to just a simple arc into the site.”

Cropsey said the change would allow better movement in and out of the facility.

The change in driveway configuration led to Cropsey being asked if he could eliminate two — of 21 — parking spaces at the front of the development, to which Cropsey responded he could because his initial proposal had 18 spots. 

But Cropsey also initially proposed 12 one-bedroom units, which have since become 12 two-bedroom units. 

“So, we’ve got real parking issues,” Feeney said. 

Cropsey said, “The zoning law requires,” to which Feeney cut him off and responded, “I know what the zoning law requires, I just know people have come in for additional parking.” Guilderland’s zoning code requires one-and-a-half parking spots per unit. 

“But I guess, if you have parking problems, you have parking problems,” Feeney said, suggesting the limited parking might deter people from renting. The chairman then wondered if residents would end up using the Different Blend Bakery’s parking lot. 

Stating that parking would be “very tight on this site,” and surmising “handicapped spaces [would] just be used by non-handicapped individuals,” Feeney acknowledged Cropsey’s proposal met code and put the negative SEQR resolution to a vote, which the board unanimously approved. 

Town Planner Kenneth Kovalchik told Feeney the goal was to have a public hearing on the proposal during the board’s second April meeting, currently set for the 24th, with possible site-plan approval to follow. 

Mixed-use 

After coming to the board in February with an out-of-compliance 34,000-square-foot building with commercial space and 14 apartments, Dr. Karamdeep Singh was back before the planning board on March 27 with a code-compliant proposal. 

Singh is under contract to purchase, from Michael Davidson, 97-99 Twenty West Drive, a 1.82-acre site directly across Western Turnpike from the town hall. Davidson twice before came to the town, proposing a smaller mixed-use project.  

Singh’s proposal is now for a 25,000-square-foot building.

The two-and-a-half story structure would have commercial space on the first floor, six apartments each on the second and third floors, and enough parking for 62 vehicles, 15 more than required by code. A parking variance for 67 spaces was previously approved by the zoning board, according to Kovalchik’ board memo. 

The current proposal, like its predecessor, did not have the backing of the state’s Department of Transportation for direct access to and from Western Turnpike, Kovalchik told the board at its February meeting, so “the primary ingress and egress to the site is off of 20 West Drive.”

The project’s engineer, Luigi Palleschi, told the board on March 27 that landscaping improvements had been made to the project, like the addition of conifer trees along the edge of the property to create a buffer between the proposed development and adjacent Twenty West Drive neighborhood.

Palleschi also said, “We were able to slide the parking lot further north, northeasterly, towards Western Ave., so that we could provide the 40-foot buffer from the residential neighborhood on the southwesterly side.”

He noted there had been previous discussion of a rooftop bar and restaurant, “but with this, having it mixed-use with residential only on the second and third floor will be a better use for the project.”

Following Palleschi’s brief presentation, the board then voted unanimously to approve the site plan as presented, allowing the project to move forward to the zoning board, the lead agency for the proposal.