GUILDERLAND — Like the planning board before it, Guilderland’s zoning board is unhappy with the flat roof and blocky plain appearance of a self-storage facility proposed for Route 20.

“It looks industrial, like a warehouse,” said zoning board member Kevin McDonald at the board’s Dec. 4 meeting. The zoning board is the lead agency for the project.

John Hitchcock of ABD Engineers, speaking for the applicant, said it was his understanding that the planning board had accepted the revised plan.

“I know you revised it but they said it looks like you put a little strip of blue and a strip of gray and, you know, we’re good,” said the zoning board’s chairwoman, Elizabeth Lott.

“It’s not enough …,” she said. “Nevertheless, they kicked it over to us anyway.”

“I’ll relay that to our architect and the client and we’ll see what he can put on there,” said Hitchcock.

A-Metro Movers is seeking permission to demolish the M&M Motel at 2360 Western Ave., which of late has come to house several men listed on the state’s sex-offender registry.

The motel was one of a series along Route 20 in Guilderland that used to house tourists and travelers in an earlier era; all of them have since been torn down or repurposed to other uses.

 The property also has a house that had been converted to rental units. Last January, the house was set on fire and one of the tenants was charged with arson.

The applicant, Rick Ramsey of A-Metro, wants to build a two-story, 10,000-square-foot climate-controlled building and three smaller cold-storage structures varying in size between 5,100 and 6,800 square feet on the property — for a total of 27,000 square feet of self-storage.

“The climate-control building is a two-story building,” Hitchcock told the board on Dec. 4. “So you’re going to drive up a hill on the side to have access to the second level … That’s how we’ll help make the hill work with us a little bit … That also eliminates the need for an elevator inside.”

Renters will have access to the site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One employee may be on-site from 8 a.m to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, or as needed to handle rentals, says the project narrative filed with the town.

The site is surrounded by commercial properties and the town’s golf course; there are no adjacent residential neighborhoods.

The site is just shy of 3 acres, two-and-a-half of which are to be “physically disturbed,” according to a short environmental assessment form filed with the town.

Stormwater

The motel on the site did not have any stormwater plan, said Lott.

“It just runoff to Route 20,”said Hitchcock.

The town’s engineer, Jesse Fraine, said he was still in the midst of reviewing the proposal but told the board, “From what I’ve seen, everything is meeting or at least reasonably meeting" requirements from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

“There was a bunch of impervious area there,” he said of the motel’s parking lot, so that stormwater now “just runs off and goes down towards Route 20.”

The proposal, Fraine said, includes an infiltration basin to control stormwater. More soil testing needs to be done, he said, to make sure that “the infiltration rates are good.”

Fraine went on, “This area does have some sand. There are some wetlands in the area but most of that’s across the street and downgrade from this area.”

The back of the site would be cut five to seven feet, said Fraine, calling it a “fairly significant amount of grading.”

Fraine said he wants to make sure the back slope doesn’t get overly steep.

Lott noted that a road to the town’s golf course is adjacent to the property and asked, “Is there a buffer between?”

“There is a green buffer of grass, cut grass,” said Hitchcock.

Lott asked if the runoff from the A-Metro proposal would become the town’s problem as water would run to town property.

“The runoff actually comes to us,” said Hitchcock. “Nothing’s coming to you.”

Frain said of the planned infiltration basin, “The modeling that was done is showing it’s big enough.” However, he reiterated that he’d like to verify that with infiltration rates.

Other concerns

On traffic, the project narrative says, “Self-storage facilities typically generate very low vehicle trip generation during AM and PM peak hours  …. Therefore, the redevelopment of this site from a motel to self-storage would significantly reduce vehicular traffic on Western Ave., creating a positive impact on the area.”

Hitchcock said the sidewalk along Route 20 ends just west of the property where the storage facility is to be built and it will be extended across the front of the property as the planning board requested.

He also said he had met with the fire department and its chief and, as the chief had requested, extra pavement is being added in the back of the property “to make that a bigger swing” to accommodate fire trucks having to turn.

“He signed off on it and just asked for a couple of signs,” Hitchcock said to prevent parking in those areas.

Hitchcock also said that a bathroom will be needed for the sole employee on site, and existing water and sewer will be used.

A water main “runs along the front,” he said, adding, “We have to create a new tap for fire flow.”

Lott asked about landscaping to which Hitchcock replied trees were requested by the planning board and they will be planted “along the back of the sidewalk, up the back part almost right off the edge of our driveway.”

The planning board had wanted trees closer to the road but a sewer line prevents that, Hitchcock said.

The trees in front will be maples, he said.

Although no one from the public spoke at the Dec. 4 meeting, Lott said the public comment period will remain open. 

“We’re just trying to, you know, see what we’ve got to do to move this along,” said Hitchcock. “The owners are anxious to tear down that motel.”

“I can’t believe it’s still up,” said Lott.

Lott concluded by reiterating the sections of town code she had cited earlier in the meeting “telling you not to use a flat roof and definitely add some architectural features that are similar to everybody else in the neighborhood.”

She went on, “You’ll see everybody has a peak on their roof … so I think that’s going to be very important to everybody here,” she said of the zoning board members.

Hitchcock again said that would be “relayed to the architect.”