Return to Mill Street

On Tuesday, Mill Street Lofts was the main item on the Planning Board's agenda. Sean Kearney, the architect, and Andrew Learn, the engineer, were present to respond to concerns raised by the public at the last Planning Board meeting: a pedestrian connection to Third Street and flooding. 

Regarding a connection to Third Street, Learn reported that constructing a trail was not feasible. The grade is very steep, exceeding 40 percent at some points, and would need to involve 12 feet of stairs. Learn predicted it would be hard to maintain and would probably be a liability. He indicated that they were in discussion with the Columbia Land Conservancy (CLC), which recently acquired a large parcel of land in the vicinity, none of which is actually adjacent to the building site, and plans to build trails to connect Charles Williams Park (across Mill Street from the site) to the Greenport Conservation Area and its network of trails. 

Learn told the Planning Board the CLC is "in talks with the City to build a trail on an adjoining parcel that the City owns," and Kearney would to willing to assist in building that trail "to make that connection." Exactly where that trail would be is not known.

The discussion of flooding yielded some interesting information. Planning Board member Randall Martin asked Learn if he had received the pictures of flooding he had provided. A few of those pictures are reproduced below. The rest are available here.

One wonders where these pictures were when the Planning Board made a negative declaration in the SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) process. 

Referencing the photographs, Learn told Martin, "Our obligation is to control the flow on the site so it remains as it is now--no worse." He went on to say, "Nothing we can do will change the flooding on the street." Martin responded, "We don't want seventy units of people trapped because the street is flooded." 

Theresa Joyner, who chairs the Planning Board, said the board was going to recommend that the City change the intersection at Mill Street and Second Street to eliminate flooding. How exactly she thought that could be achieved was not explained.

Responding to the notion that people would be trapped by flood waters, Learn said, "They can go the other way." The "other way" is the trail up to Harry Howard Avenue, which is not accessible to vehicles, so presumably he was suggesting that people could pull on their hip boots and slog up the trail on foot to exit the site. Joyner concluded that flooding would make things "inconvenient" but people would not be trapped. 

The most interesting part of the discussion came when Chris Bertram, the consulting engineer from Barton & Loguidice, told Learn, "The pictures I have show that field [the site of the proposed development] completely flooded, and you're now going to be building a parking lot and displacing that amount of water during a hundred years storm. You need to prove to us and prove to me that that amount of water is not going to negatively impact the downstream neighbors on Mill Street." Bertram said he didn't know how they were going to do it but said emphatically, "You need to control the runoff at the property line."

During the public comments, Councilmember Jennifer Belton (Fourth Ward) reiterated her opposition to the project and spoke of how in significant rain events water flows onto the site from three different directions. Joyner replied, "That's been a problem for a long time," and suggested that the City needed to correct the situation. Belton asked rhetorically, "Why would you put a building in a place where there is a flooding issue?" Learn reiterated that the proposed project "will not make the situation any worse."

Jack Hornickel, who lives on Mill Street, said the flooding issue is multifaceted. He said that the City and the school district, which owns the land behind the former John L. Edwards school which is adjacent to the site, are a "necessary aspect of the plan." He also suggested that the plans for Charles Williams Park also need to be considered.    

Joyner proposed it was time to close the public hearing, an action that would mean the Planning Board had 60 days to make a decision. Hornickel asked that the public hearing be kept open to allow his neighbors on Mill Street a second chance to voice their opposition and concerns. Councilmember Margaret Morris (First Ward) pointed out that the Planning Board's consulting engineer had concerns and there was a "large open question that has not been resolved."

Joyner moved to close the public hearing and start the clock, but no one seconded the motion. The public hearing will continue at the Planning Board's next meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 13.

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