Planning Board Meeting Happening Tomorrow

The hottest issue before the Planning Board--the Colarusso haul road--is not on the agenda for tomorrow night's meeting because the Greenport Planning Board has yet to deem the application for the project complete, but there are three public hearings and three new applications on the agenda.

The first of the public hearings concerns 886 Columbia Street, the early 20th-century house, once known as the Dinehart mansion, that is to be converted into six medical office suites, with an elevator added at the back of the building. The plan also involves expanding the parking lot.

The second public hearing is about the proposal to build a block of four town houses on Hudson Avenue. Site plan approval from the Planning Board is the final hurdle for this project, which began its regulatory journey a year ago and required an amendment to the zoning code to get to this point.

The third public hearing involves the plan to convert the former Allen Street School into a private gallery, studio spaces, and one short-term residential unit for an artist-in-residence program.

Of the new proposals expected to be presented to the Planning Board tomorrow night, the first is to convert "a manufacturing warehouse into a manufacturing site of sauerkraut and other lacto-fermented vegetables." The address of the project is 124 North Second Street, now the location of of COARC Manufacturing. 

It appears that this may be the Hawthorne Valley Association project that won a $600,000 grant from the Regional Economic Development Council in December. When it was designated as a Priority Project in November, the project was described in this way:

Phase 1 of the HV Farm Enterprise Expansion includes the acquisition, renovation and equipment outfitting of a 10,000-square-foot facility for sauerkraut production in Hudson's Ward 2; it will include a sauerkraut filler, label applicator, capper, heat tunnel for shrink seals, case sealer, conveyor, and cabbage shredder and juicer. It will also include the opening of a small retail storefront and the creation of culinary and food production job training programs.

If this is the same project, it appears that the plan for a "small retail storefront" has been postponed or abandoned, because there is no mention of it in the application to the Planning Board.

The second new project is the proposal to convert the former church building at 426 State Street, now a single family residence, into a mixed-use space "for private events, video/photo shoots, and non-profit seminars."

The third new application is for an amendment to the site plan for 78-80 Green Street. The site plan for this property has been amended a couple of times already: first when it was discovered that a new building on the site was constructed in the wrong place; and again to allow a permitted wholesale bakery to begin selling its wares retail. The amendment sought now would allow a reduction in the number of parking spaces at the site from 31 to 25 and the addition of an eight-foot-high fence.
COPYRIGHT 2017 CAROLE OSTERINK