Saratoga Springs Politics

For Release: Immediate Date: March 16, 2020

PRESS RELEASE

Saratoga Springs Update on New York State-Wide Restrictions

Saratoga Springs, N.Y. – Saratoga Springs Mayor Meg Kelly provides an update on new statewide restrictions announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo:

In conjunction with New Jersey Governor Ned Lamont and Connecticut Governor Phil Murphy, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a series of state-wide restrictions in a press conference that will go into effect at 8 PM on Monday, March 16, 2020.

These restrictions will apply to all Saratoga Springs businesses until further notice. They include:

 A limit on crowd capacity for recreational and social gatherings to 50 people. o This follows updated guidance that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued yesterday recommending the cancellation or postponement of in-person events consisting of 50 people or more.  Restaurants and bars will close on-premise services and move to take-out and delivery only. o These establishments will be provided a waiver for carry-out alcohol.  Movie theaters, gyms and, casinos will temporarily close.

These new restrictions have been deemed necessary by Governor Cuomo amid a lack of national uniform standards. He said, “New York is partnering with our neighboring states to implement a uniform standard that not only keeps our people safe but also prevents ‘state shopping’ where residents of one state travel to another and vice versa. I have called on the federal government to implement nationwide protocols but in their absence we are taking this on ourselves.”

Saratoga Springs Mayor Meg Kelly and Commissioner of Public Safety Robin Dalton agree with the Governor, adding “Saratoga Springs is known for being a destination city, including our renowned restaurants and tourist attractions, but nothing is more important than the health and safety of our City’s most cherished resources: its residents and workers. Only by working with the state and federal governments can we ensure that we will remain a safe, healthy, and vibrant city.”

Hospitals, grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and other essential businesses will remain open until changed by a further order.

[JK: I received this press release today (Sunday March 15, 2020)]

CITY HALL 474 Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 Telephone 518-587-3550

Meg Kelly Mayor

Robin Dalton Commissioner of Public Safety

For Release: Immediate Date: March 15, 2020

PRESS RELEASE

Saratoga Springs Officials Release Update on City Operations All essential services will continue including Fire, Police, and outside DPW operations.

Saratoga Springs, N.Y. – Mayor Meg Kelly and Public Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton provide an update to City services, as well as the community resources available for the public:

The City Council announced on Friday, March 13 that the City of Saratoga Springs has declared a State of Emergency. City Hall offices will be closed to the public beginning Monday, March 16 until rescinded by a further order.

The City Police Department, Fire/EMS Department, and vital Public Works staff will continue to operate as normal. If you have a lifethreatening emergency, please call 911. Call your health care provider FIRST if you have any concerns over your health and possible exposure to COVID-19.

The City Council will hold its regularly scheduled meeting on March 17, but the public will not be allowed to attend in person. The public is encouraged to email Mayor Kelly’s office at Meg.Kelly@Saratoga-Springs.org with any questions or comments they would like to have entered into the record. City Council meetings will be live streamed through our website and our Facebook page.

The City Land Use Boards are cancelled for at least the next two weeks, including the March 27 meeting.

City Department Contacts:

 Accounts Department: o 518-210-3243 (Marilyn Rivers, Director of Risk and Safety)  Mayor’s Department: o 518-414-2118 (Lisa Shields, Deputy Mayor)  Public Safety Department: o 911 (Emergency) o 518-584-1800 (Police Department Non-Emergency) o 518-587-3599 (Fire Department Non-Emergency) o 518-265-6485 (Eileen Finneran, Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety)  Public Works Department: o 518-584-3356 (Department Dispatch)  Finance Department: o Finance will be communicating regarding City payments (taxes, utility bills, etc.). Please check the City website for updates

Residents are encouraged to visit the City’s website at http://www.Saratoga-Springs.org to receive updates on City operations. Parking tickets, utilities and taxes are payable online via the “Make a Payment” link on the City Website’s homepage.
Information Links:

Health Care — https://www.saratogacountyny.gov/departments/publichealth/

Courts — http://www.nycourts.gov

Schools — http://www.SaratogaSchools.org The Saratoga Springs School District is closed effective immediately through Sunday April 19.

Please visit the City’s website at http://www.Saratoga-Springs.org to receive updates on City operations.

Mayor Meg Kelly and Public Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton have announced that as of 5:30 tonight (March 13) the city is in a state of emergency due to the threat of COVID-19.

City Offices will be closed to the public until at least March 20.

City Council meetings will continue and be live streamed but will be closed to the public.

All land-use board meetings are canceled for the next two weeks.

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FOR RELEASE: Immediately

FROM THE OFFICE OF MAYOR MEG KELLY

Contact:

Meg Kelly, Mayor 518.226.9250 (cell) meg.kelly@saratoga-springs.org

Robin Dalton, Commissioner of Public Safety 518.290.1333 (cell) robin.dalton@saratoga-springs.org

Mayor Meg Kelly, City of Saratoga Springs, announces that the City of Saratoga Springs has declared a State of Emergency effective 5:30 PM on March 13, 2020 and will remain in effect until rescinded by a subsequent order.

The State of Emergency has been declared due to the threat that COVID-19 poses to the health and welfare of the City of Saratoga Springs residents, visitors, and employees.

The City is operating in accordance with its City Emergency Management Plan, created in collaboration with the Risk and Safety Department, Police and Fire Departments, all other City departments, insurance and other experts in the field, and voted on by City Council. At this time, the Mayor and the Commissioner of Public Safety are the Points of Information to the public.

This declaration means that City Hall offices will be closed to the general public for at least the next five business days, Monday, March 16, 2020 through Friday, March 20, 2020.

City Council Meetings will be held as usual; they will be live streamed and taped, but are closed to the public. The public is free to submit comments by email relative to any agenda item. All Land Use Board meetings and workshops are canceled for the two weeks, including March 16, 2020 through March 27, 2020.

The Public Works, Police and Fire Departments will continue operating, uninterrupted.

For more information and continued updates, please check the City website at http://www.saratoga-springs.org, as well as City social media

For Immediate Release
Contact: Commissioner of Public Safety, Robin Dalton Telephone: 518-587-3550, ext. 2627; (518) 290-1333 Email: Robin.Dalton@Saratoga-Springs.org
SARATOGA SPRINGS CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE

The City of Saratoga Springs is closely monitoring the spread of coronavirus and today has confirmed two cases of COVID-19 in Saratoga County. The infected individuals are selfquarantined and are receiving support as needed from the city and county.

We encourage all residents to be diligent about staying home if you are not feeling well or are experiencing flu-like symptoms. Continue to take simple actions to help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, including:

 Avoiding close contact with people who are sick.  Washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer (with at least 60% alcohol) if soap and water are not available.  Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue and then throw the tissue in the trash.  Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.

The city has been extensively preparing for potentially infected individuals, including identification, methods of quarantine and methods of monitoring patients. Our first responders in the Saratoga Springs Fire and Police Departments have been educated on the proper approach to manage a suspected case that best protects the staff and patient.

For more information on the virus, symptoms and preventing the spread of germs, please refer to Saratoga County Public Health and the CDC recommendations.

Sustainable Saratoga has a variety of concerns as to how the UDO addresses issues in the greenbelt including the document’s odd proposal to grant density bonuses to developers for taking actions that they are already required to take. It is hard to understand how this found its way into the UDO.

The 2015 Comprehensive Plan referred to what most of us consider to be the greenbelt as the “Country Overlay Area.” As the UDO is supposed to be consistent with the Comp Plan, Sustainable reminds the public of the commitment written into the Comp Plan to protect what is left of the greenbelt.

Sustainable offers the following:

It [The Comprehensive Plan] directs the city to “maintain the greenbelt by restricting incompatible uses and the intensity of development” (CP 3.4-2). Its Vision Statement does not envision commercial uses. Among the recommended actions in the Comprehensive Plan are to maintain and promote “an outlying area of rural character, comprised of agriculture, open lands, natural and diverse environmental resources, and low-density residential development.”

Sustainable identifies troubling new “uses” the UDO is listing for the greenbelt. Twenty-five new uses are being proposed. They write:

“The greenbelt should not contain large institutional or recreational uses, social service establishments, tourist accommodations, retail commercial establishments and multifamily dwellings.”

“In addition, the definitions of these uses are too broad and expansive. Specifically, we believe that the following uses are not compatible with the vision for the greenbelt, and strongly recommend that they be reconsidered:”

They recommend that the following uses proposed in the UDO be removed:

Animal Care Facility – Small Animal with No Outdoor Area
• Animal Grooming Establishment
• Campground
• Children’s Home
• Community Center
• County Club
• Day Care: Social Adult Care
• Dwelling – Historic Carriage Houses
• Educational Facility – Primary or Secondary
• Family-Type Home for Adults
• Greenhouse/Nursery – Retail (current definition would allow a Home Depot store)
• Inn
• Lodging House
• Marina
• Micro-Production of Alcohol (current definition has retail store and tasting room)
• Parks and playgrounds (current definition includes large indoor gyms)
• Private/Social Clubs
• Recreational Vehicle (RV) Park
• Rooming Houses (all six types)
• Shelter, Domestic Violence

The UDO draft would expand the authority of the city’s Planning Board by allowing them to issue Special Use Permits for these uses. Sustainable argues this would give “excessive discretionary power” to the Planning Board to allow uses in the greenbelt that appear inconsistent with the rural character of the greenbelt as envisioned in the city’s Comprehensive Plan.

The UDO draft includes support for Tier 3 solar systems (solar farms) and wind farms with the issuance of “Special Use Permits” by the Planning Board. The problem is that the UDO draft does not include rigorous site location and development standards. This invites abuse. There is the real threat that large scale installations of solar fields and wind power could have a variety of negative impacts on the RR (greenbelt) district.

Sustainable supports solar farms and wind farms in the greenbelt but calls for detailed design standards and regulations that ensure that these projects “will not have significant negative impacts on important environmental resources…”

Sustainable advocates that rural design standards developed to protect the rural character of the greenbelt should be extended to all development in the greenbelt.

• The “rural character” design standards that have been developed and made mandatory for conservation subdivisions should be extended and made mandatory for all projects in the greenbelt, not just those involving subdivisions. They should be made mandatory for all projects
requiring approval of the Planning Board, the Design Review Board, and those requiring permits

In addition Sustainable points out that the UDO is offering density bonuses to developers who agree to protect important environmental resources. Developers are already required to do this, however. Sustainable argues density bonuses should not be offered for environmental protections that are already required in the district.

Sustainable Saratoga praised a number of provisions contained in the UDO. Here are some they listed:

1. Downtown Building Height and Design Guidelines. [JK: One of the potential threats to positive downtown development is creating the “cavern” effect. This is where large buildings on both sides of a street cut off light and create an unsettling, tunnel environment. There are actually formulas for avoiding this. There is a ratio of building heights relative to the width of the street and sidewalk that separates them. This is the difference between the lovely atmosphere on Broadway as compared to the oppressive canyon that is Railroad Place. Sustainable feels the UDO guidelines will make use of these formlas.]

2. Some improvements in outdoor lighting standards

3. Some stronger protections for wetland buffers

4. New requirements for vehicle electric re-charging stations

5. New requirements for bicycle parking

6. Continued prohibition of Planned Unit Developments (PUDs) in the RR district (Greenbelt)

7. Sign posting requirements for project applicants. [JK: The UDO would require (with some caveats) that prominent signs be posted on sites where project applications are pending before the Planning Board, Design Review, or Zoning Board of Appeals. So if one of your neighbors, for instance, were applying to expand a porch beyond the required setback or erecting another structure on their property that required a variance, they would need to put a sign up on their property alerting the neighbors to their application.]

8. Good progress toward stronger, more consistent guidelines for tree preservation, planting, maintenance, and protection

In a restrained, thorough, and thoughtful paper, Sustainable Saratoga analyzes the current draft UDO. Their paper raises troubling issues about threats to the greenbelt, expanded discretionary powers to the city’s land use boards, design of the city’s gateways, better buffering for the city’s waterways, and the need to strengthen the city’s urban forest program.

Most helpful is that in addition to raising these concerns, their paper offers language that would address these issues.

My reading of their work is that it offers the city a path to take a flawed document and turn it into a tool that could be of enormous benefit to those who love our city.

While I urge the readers of this blog to take the time to read the Sustainable paper, many may find its text challenging. In order to assist the readers of this blog, I am going to post a series of short blog posts meant to highlight and explain a number of key changes being recommended by Sustainable.

In the meantime, below is the cover letter to their white paper along with a link to the document on their website.

Mayor Meg Kelly
Commissioner of Finance, Michele Madigan
Commissioner of Accounts, John Franck
Commissioner of Public Safety, Robin Dalton
Commissioner of Public Works, Skip Scirocco

RE: COMMENTS ON DRAFT UDO

Dear Mayor and Commissioners,

Sustainable Saratoga is a not-for-profit organization that promotes sustainable practices and the protection of natural resources, through education, advocacy and action, for the benefit of current and
future generations in the Saratoga Springs area. We appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), a document of great importance to the community.

Sustainable Saratoga has reviewed the draft UDO and, while it contains some good sustainability features, we have some significant concerns regarding provisions relating to the city’s greenbelt, environmental protections, and housing affordability.

Require more rural standards and less intense uses in the greenbelt and gateways:

In light of the Comprehensive Plan’s guidance “that greenbelt uses should be proposed more thoughtfully and sparingly,” Sustainable Saratoga is extremely concerned that the addition of dozens of new uses in the RR zone contradicts both the spirit and letter of the Comp Plan.

A significant number of commercial and institutional uses, such as RV Parks, should be eliminated from the RR district and in the Gateway districts (all of which are located in the “Country Overlay Area” – or the city’s greenbelt).

The UDO also fails to provide any meaningful design standards for structures and site changes that will preserve the required rural character of the greenbelt.

The voluntary design standards for the Gateway Design District #1 in the current zoning ordinance and the voluntary rural design standards in the
current conservation subdivision ordinance should be reinstated and made mandatory.

Also, rural design standards for the conservation subdivisions should be expanded and made mandatory for all projects within the greenbelt, not just for projects covered in conservation subdivisions.

Require stronger environmental protections, especially for waterbodies:

Mounting evidence, worldwide and local, has established that the status quo has not protected us against climate change, species collapse, loss of habitat, and other environmental threats.

As such, Sustainable Saratoga recommends that the city adopt standards that will increase protections for our valuable water resources and minimize fragmentation of open space.

Sustainable Saratoga emphatically recommends stronger protections for all classes of wetlands, streams, and floodplains, by increasing buffers and
reducing fragmentation, be added to the UDO.

Include more opportunities for diverse and affordable housing: The provision of housing affordable to a community’s workforce is an important sustainability tenet.

Sustainable Saratoga recommends adding affordability features and strategies to the city’s toolbox of options, including adding new residences by permitting the conversion of carriage houses and accessory structures as long as they are
affordable to the city’s workforce. In addition, the UDO should allow innovative housing opportunities such as cohousing, cooperative housing, tiny houses, microunits, and senior-oriented rooming houses and concierge housing.

And, while we advocate for a density bonus in every zone in the city for
affordable housing, the city should not rely on incentive programs to result in new affordable units, because this has not happened in the past.

Instead, the city should exercise its legislative authority to enact meaningful affordability expansion provisions, such as inclusionary zoning, so that more
integrated affordable units will be built.

Attached is a list of Sustainable Saratoga’s more detailed comments.

These comments provide more relevant detail to the categories of comments described above, and also offer recommendations in the areas of energy, urban forestry, downtown and neighborhood development, and outdoor lighting
standards.

Sustainable Saratoga urges the city to revise the UDO to more accurately and meaningfully implement the key policies of the 2015 Comprehensive Plan. We appreciate that the city is providing a second draft UDO, including maps, before the final draft is issued.

We ask that the second red-lined draft also include explanations of the proposed changes, so the public can be more aware of the basis of the UDO
provisions as they are modified.

Of course, we are always available to discuss these recommendations with you and would be happy to do so.

Sincerely,
Art Holmberg, Chair

Wendy Mahaney, Executive Director

Cc: Deputy Commissioners Finneran, Ladd, Masterson, & O’Neill

Comedian James Adomian is a very funny comedian and a great mimic. He has a fun podcast called Under The Culture.

Here he turns his razor wit on Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg

The city has offered more arguments in defense of the Camiros consulting firm’s UDO draft, specifically in reference to reducing the lot sizes in the UR3 zone.

Unfortunately part of the problem is that Camiros never formally addressed why they were recommending the most obviously controversial changes to the city’s zoning ordinances. No formal documents explaining why the changes were necessary were provided to our community.

Basically Camiros delivered the first draft of the UDO to the city and produced a slide presentation for the Council and three workshops. What little we know about the reasons for their changes were elicited at one of their presentations during the question and answer period (truncated as it was by the lack of time Camiros allocated).

It is sadly apparent that Camiros ignored the nature of what a public document should be. As the UDO will have a major impact on the city’s neighborhoods and greenbelt and how our land use boards operate among other things, it should be a document that is developed with significant citizen input. It is not unreasonable to assume that the crafting of a UDO would include developing a plan as to how the community will be educated regarding its content and what vehicles will be created for the citizens to communicate to the city government any changes that they view as necessary. The need to design this process was apparently ignored by Camiros.

Instead, Camiros and the city’s Planning Department crafted a 288 page UDO draft entirely out of the public view. They delivered the draft to the Council and in a process that was more symbolic than substantive delivered three brief “workshops” meant to inform the public. The workshops were a poor attempt at creating the appearance of educating the public.

In response to public demand for more and clearer information about what was in the UDO, the city began to schedule additional public meetings and develop more user friendly materials that Camiros had failed to provide. The city, however, found itself in a bind. It was being asked to explain the purpose of these changes while also being asked to solicit public input for changing the document. The result was that the city at times appeared to be advocating for the UDO proposals while trying to present itself as a neutral body willing to entertain any and all proposed changes to the draft. It is small wonder that an honest effort by the city to address people’s criticisms has tended to create more suspicion rather than alleviate people’s fears.

With that in mind, here are the latest arguments put forward to justify reducing lot sizes in UR3. It should be noted that similar proposals to reduce lot sizes and change setbacks, etc. are being proposed for most of the other areas of the city. Residents of the UR3 district have so far been the most vocal in opposing these changes and these rationales have been put forward in response to their persistent questions as to why these changes were being proposed. It is not clear whether these arguments would also be put forward as justifications for the other changes throughout the city.

The increase in density for UR3 is consistent with carrying out the city’s Comprehensive Plan.

This argument asserts that the Comprehensive Plan intends for the city to become increasingly dense as one progresses from the outer greenbelt to the city core. The city argues that making UR3 even denser by diminishing lot sizes would implement this approach.

This is an interesting argument in that it appears to contradict Camiros’ public comments which sharply minimized the potential impact that reducing lots sizes would have on increasing density. This argument is addressed in an earlier blog post but briefly, Camiros selectively focused on the few remaining parcels of land large enough to allow for subdivisions. Comparing the number of lots these could produce using the current required 6,600 square feet with the proposed reduced size of 5,000 they came up with a number for new lots that they characterized as insignificant.

Now the public is being told that reducing lot sizes is a virtue that should be maximized in order to implement the Comprehensive Plan’s goal of directing increased density in the area closest to downtown.

Reducing The Minimum Lot Size For Two Family Homes Will Implement the Comprehensive Plan’s Goal Of More Affordable Housing

While the construction of more two family homes may produce less expensive housing per square foot, it remains to be seen what the impact of this change would have materially on “affordable” housing. This kind of promised effect needs some kind of analysis in terms of both what “affordability” means and what kind of scale can reasonably be expected in terms of future housing. In other words, there needs to be some sort of analysis done to document how much reducing lot sizes for two family houses would actually address the need for affordable housing. So far this has not been produced.

In response to the public’s request for information to help better understand the myriad of proposals in the UDO, Deputy Mayor Lisa Shields has put together some very helpful charts comparing proposed changes in the various zones with current regulations.

Although the focus of many comments at various meetings has often been on changes proposed for the UR3 zone, it is important to understand that lot size reductions, setbacks, uses and other changes in building requirements are being proposed in almost all areas of the city.

Go to the zoning map on the city website to identify the area where you live, then go to the charts now available on the UDO page of the city website to see the changes proposed for your neighborhood. Thanks again to Deputy Mayor Shields for making this information more accessible and easier to understand.

Comments submitted about the UDO have now also been posted so it is possible to see the issues others in the community are focusing on. The comment period has been extended until February 21 on this first draft and comments may also be submitted on this UDO part of the city website.

The final public forum for this phase of review of the UDO will be held on Tuesday, February 18 at 5:30 at the city Recreation Center, 15 Vanderbilt Avenue. Remarks may also be made at the pubic comment period preceding the City Council meeting that will begin at 7PM.