[0:02] To the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one

[0:08] nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all

[0:20] mention

[0:25] police department we have two patrols Police Academy starts at the end of this

[0:31] fall and there were 20 applicants that were invited to the uh welcome to the

[0:37] civil service list for the PT testing which is sit-ups, push-ups, half run. So

[0:44] of the 20 that were invited and showed up. Uh five of them passed. So in the

[0:51] past couple of weeks we've done a background check interview. We've got

[0:55] two candidates that we're planning on hiring. I'll let you know when the date

[1:00] is the actual sale, but that's going to be coming up in the next couple weeks.

[1:07] Columbia Street project work continues. Uh just update you as light will be

[1:12] staying. It's been reactivated.

[1:16] New sidewalks are being from Broadway.

[1:24] paving straight follow me all the dating that's going on this

[1:29] year. Most recently they did not and the next thing they're moving up to

[1:37] I believe

[1:41] before they head over to the oneway section of which

[1:46] James Street

[1:52] which whether it's too

[1:57] cold and all that. DPW I mentioned that uh myself, Commissioner Hennessy,

[2:05] Director of Operations Primo, met with our Green Island counterparts about

[2:09] water purchases and they recently came on 100% compos and we're looking to

[2:17] do a long-term contract to keep that going.

[2:21] We just need to finalize that island. The algae bloom has been

[2:27] treated. I believe the fountains are back on tonight.

[2:33] Intakes are getting the but

[2:42] I just want to acknowledge the past 69 years old. We're talking 15 years

[2:50] just a great student being link a related topic

[2:57] getting a qualified water filtration operator is tough thing to do right now

[3:05] we're in the same boat is truly they both have a private company one

[3:12] operator that oversees their operation so we are in the process of signing up

[3:17] to do something similar. So, whoever answers is going to be getting a look at

[3:22] the paperwork about $2,600 a month and hopefully you

[3:28] know in a year's time change the world operator filtration and he's been doing

[3:35] all the training. It's just a matter of getting time in life so to speak. You

[3:39] have to be 10 years before you get to one of the operators. I think he's

[3:43] within about a year of getting that stuff.

[3:48] There's hope on the horizon. Father Kyle Kinsky, I mentioned his

[3:55] father Kyle plans a lot of events for the city swearing different events while

[4:01] the bishop was in town last week to swear in so to speak fathersky as the

[4:11] pastor.

[4:14] So that's official. kind of fun event. Father

[4:20] Kyle talked about his not traditional

[4:25] army for I think a dozen years and he said basically you know there teach you

[4:31] to things people enforcement for a few years

[4:37] state trooper mixed martial arts

[4:44] kind of these

[4:48] I'm humble you got it. You got the glory. Congratulations again

[4:53] for you.

[4:58] Uh lastly, I just want to mention our newest shop recently open street

[5:04] cutting

[5:07] discount gas. So it's supposed to be a great corporate

[5:13] paper sponsorship.

[5:18] It's just a great and with that mention again got two

[5:24] items on the agenda for public hearing. The first is regarding local law amended

[5:32] standard meeting of the total city regarding lot area and local

[5:37] renovations. This is the reduction um

[5:42] in the R1 district from 2,000 square ft to 5,000 square ft and minimal lot with

[5:48] down to 50 ft and red 5,000 ft minimum lot size in March 2. So

[5:57] public hearing today and assuming that it's going to move forward it would pass

[6:03] it. This is something after I open the

[6:06] zoning like three members of the zoning board here just that there's not a lot

[6:12] of green space and at the moment you have to have 10,000 square ft one

[6:18] residential district to build and just seems more practical to reduce that

[6:25] 5,000 square feet so people can build because there are not too many I can't

[6:30] think of any available 10,000 square foot lots at the moment.

[6:35] for sale building

[6:41] 5,000 fine build.

[6:45] » What about you know what other cities are around?

[6:49] » They're similar. I think Troy is 6,000 acres looking at they're all around 5

[6:55] 6,000 colony the colony

[7:00] used to be everybody was on at least a half acre lot.

[7:04] ride down to any any

[7:11] » that's

[7:15] ability to do like 7500.

[7:29] I really don't know if we want to make it where houses are stacked on top of

[7:33] each other from the city or >> well just just not space to begin with

[7:40] the local building lots are few and far between

[7:44] right now 10,000 square feet is a quarter acre there are not a lot of

[7:50] quarter acre building lots compose and 5,000 square foot it depends what you

[7:55] want to build up a raised ranch or you you know a custom build only need bought

[8:01] 10,000 but if it's you have starter homes bungalows

[8:07] small ranches the 5,000 is if you look around there are many

[8:13] I would say most 500

[8:18] » so the public

[8:23] if there's any comments from the public on that topic

[8:29] That's just the R1, right? >> Yes.

[8:31] » So, I think the only R1 we have is basically up to four. I think I don't

[8:36] think there's any other R1's not on the >> fourth.

[8:41] It's R2.

[8:47] » R2 is 7500 square ft.

[8:53] » If this were >> I'm sorry. If this were to have passed,

[8:57] it would be reducing it to 5,000 square >> for R2 also.

[9:02] » Yes. >> Or Oh, what?

[9:04] » Okay. >> Anyone else?

[9:10] » I looked it up online and they say the average for this area is between 8,000

[9:17] and 10,000. So, >> what is this area?

[9:21] » Just the open area. So, I think that includes water.

[9:28] I'm not sure. They just said opening area.

[9:31] » So, I think going down from 10 to 5 is really drastic.

[9:36] And um I think what she recommended, I don't know the

[9:40] name, but recommended halfway maybe 7,500. That might be a better way to do

[9:45] it. That's just my thoughts.

[9:51] » Okay. We know we know this is public address.

[9:57] » Okay. Mark

[10:04] 38

[10:08] for the recording. >> Anyone else?

[10:12] » Hi. Hi. Jessica Duncan and I'm at 98 Ontario Street. I'm also on the zoning

[10:17] board. Um I think that if we are going to continue to look at things

[10:23] individually kind of like with Remson Street and now to this R1 R2 district. I

[10:28] think it may be advantageous to look at the city as a whole and we do zoning

[10:33] overall instead of taking these little sections in doing it that way.

[10:39] I also think that going from 10,000 down to 5,000 is a very large jump. That's

[10:46] 50%. I wouldn't disagree with a 7500 to make

[10:50] it the same as R2.

[10:57] » Yeah, don't even say about 37 Broadway. I'm also on the zoning board. I think

[11:04] 5,000 is really drastic myself. 75 would be more applicable in my mind.

[11:13] um getting small logic, putting things closer and closer. If there's a fire,

[11:19] then you're talking about burning down,

[11:25] which we've experienced many times in the city.

[11:32] Kent is a city. It's supposed to be dancing. In fairness, uh, three members

[11:36] of this spoken conversation we had

[11:42] the other board.

[11:58] Was there a specific project that inspired this or is it just

[12:06] because most

[12:12] 100

[12:32] 2,800.

[12:35] » Write this downus

[12:40] 6,000.

[12:50] So 5,000 attack. It's pretty average.

[12:59] How many how many times have people come looking

[13:04] for reduction in the lot scientist for for building biomics?

[13:10] Just once only one >> I think most people know, you know,

[13:17] 10,000 is supposed to be the limit. And

[13:21] » well is that's why we're here. That's limited. We're saying it's an unreason

[13:26] flip and say I want a 5,000 less people don't bother to come.

[13:32] » They feel like they shouldn't have to go for the zone. They shouldn't have to.

[13:35] They should just be able to, you know, if they got a, you know, a 5,000 foot

[13:40] property, they should be able to have a loan. They shouldn't have to go to the

[13:43] city. They can, you know, this is my private property. Why do I have to go to

[13:48] ask?

[13:58] » Anything else?

[14:02] » Are you guys just worried about the fires? Is that the main

[14:06] » That would be one of my concerns between that and green space kind of being taken

[14:12] up. Um I'm I've got houses right on top of me. Yeah, the house I'm not a fan of

[14:18] it. There should be similar space in between because if either house goes up,

[14:22] my house is a big one, too. And that would be one of my concerns with

[14:26] building continuously on top of each other.

[14:29] » It's just spacing in both of them. >> And if you look right now, the garbage

[14:33] can, they don't fit up between the houses. That's why they're left on the

[14:37] street. >> Yes.

[14:38] In a 5,000 square foot 50 by 100, there's plenty of

[14:44] garbage can.

[14:48] » Yeah, but it's saying 5,000 square ft wide and 200 ft deep.

[14:56] » Minimum lot. So, this proposes a minimum lot width of 50 ft in R1.

[15:02] » What about the R

[15:07] currently honestly

[15:12] » R2 currently the minimum lot width is 50.

[15:19] » Okay. With that we'll move on to item two

[15:23] which is public hearing regarding a local law amending chapter 21.5

[15:29] components regarding residential occupancy.

[15:34] And this is uh we talked about this I believe last month. This is um basically

[15:40] exempting the housing authority from the need to get from the city except that

[15:46] they will be required to provide fire inspection reports uh to the city

[15:51] reports regarding fire suppression and protected detection system copies of

[15:56] their third party. So they has to inspect these properties. So that has to

[16:00] be provided to the city each year. Um and fee is $25 for each department

[16:07] basically oneird of each department each year. So,

[16:12] long story short, no are but some of the same information would need to be

[16:17] provided to the city.

[16:31] Yes, city for sure. I'm pretty sure

[16:38] » city of Wler does too with their housing.

[16:42] » Okay, with that we roll into the workshop and open

[16:54] public hearings

[16:59] public.

[17:05] minutes late the orchard. I'd like to thank

[17:09] either the mayor I talked to councilman park about light and mass being changed

[17:15] back to a working traffic light. Um if you could change the sequence of the

[17:21] time but I'm happy that's back to the traffic

[17:25] light. So here's the first day of school and

[17:30] The project is called safe street to school. It should remain safe street to

[17:36] school. There's no crossing guard unless you go to James Street or be van. So

[17:41] there's two other traffic lights. So I mean I'm happy that was changed back. Uh

[17:46] the other thing about the firehouse on central deteriorated more and more

[17:52] this year. There's a rumor and you know how rumors are in the summer that with

[17:59] the building of the stewards on North Moff Street that this smaller one on

[18:05] lower Columbia may close. Now the people in the city it's convenient

[18:12] for them but anyone that goes out to Crescent Stewarts at the Crescent Bridge

[18:18] they wanted to expand and the town told them no. So they closed it. They said,

[18:23] "Now you got bigger money proposed within close proximity."

[18:28] If they ever close the smaller Columbia Street one,

[18:32] would that be a thought to build the firehouse there?

[18:38] There's a lot of thoughts about what we could do with the firehouse fire.

[18:44] There's three of them and they're all various states of disre.

[19:05] It would be nice if uh well there's just a lot of you do one grand central

[19:12] firehouse

[19:16] 1520 million do but knock on that is okay now you only have one firehouse

[19:26] spend 15 million on firehouse while still constantly fixing it too. So I

[19:32] mean that's one the other proposal is fixing all of them

[19:39] third proposal speak

[19:48] we'll have a public safety meeting hopefully in the short term we're going

[19:52] to announce uh be an opportunity for the ideas to be shared um knowing that we're

[19:58] not moving forward in particular one that they hope Oh, just if it's going to

[20:03] cost a large amount of money to remodel or renovate the existing one, would it

[20:09] be how much difference would it be to build a brand new one?

[20:12] » A lot. >> A lot.

[20:14] » A lot. >> Like the mayor said, you're looking at

[20:17] 15 to$20 million if you want to build five firehouse.

[20:22] » Now, with that, what's that with that? >> Well, that's a whole another that's a

[20:27] whole wall.

[20:39] At least it's a thought anyway. What if that did pose?

[20:44] Would that be a thought to move it or would you rather run it again?

[20:50] » We could add that to the mix. Just a lot of people as much as me

[20:55] deciding this is council is in on it. The fire officers had discussion with

[21:01] fire union have discussions with the fire chief discussions with the fire

[21:07] department to speak with the city. Some of them like plan A, some like plan B,

[21:13] some like city at some point

[21:21] with the recommendation, but in the meantime, we're keeping all three of

[21:24] them

[21:29] operation. >> Yeah, it's just it's costly to keep

[21:33] those three buildings up. It's not it's not a cheap thing to do. Actually,

[21:41] it's the first time in in over a decade that we've had all three stations open

[21:45] continuously. Uh, you know, every day in in prior

[21:50] years, you know, street has been, you know, street now open every day and

[21:56] central is open as well. So, everything is now open really that historically

[22:00] hasn't been. So, that's that's actually a positive thing right now. So well

[22:04] that's I mean in my situation I was glad that the main street was open but now

[22:11] that the campus at the high school has expanded and there's a lot more activity

[22:16] going on I think it's it's more beneficial to have the big street open

[22:21] because it's a quicker response to the high school because there's you know so

[22:25] many things going on and what I was told is the reason that they modified the

[22:30] field so much is now it It can be a neutral site. There are sections where

[22:35] we can host games. So there's more activity going on at the at the high

[22:40] school. So I you know having emergency response needs beneficial to the

[22:46] students, players, whoever is involved. >> Yeah. In terms of emergency medical

[22:51] services, we've got more today than years past. Got a fully staffed fire

[23:00] minimum five seven eight and then got four

[23:07] ambulance. So that's a lot of medical coverage

[23:13] which is most of the fire 80% of the I think are medical.

[23:23] Anybody else? >> Yes, Greg Mooff from the chair of the

[23:28] zoning board. I apologize I'm late. I wanted to talk about the first topic. I

[23:31] was just with the co youth football program coaching. Um the reason we

[23:34] challenged council to review that was just um it was a application that came

[23:38] across the board that we previously denied. It got reviewed by the um the

[23:42] state. We got denied again. It came back for approval a third time to us. Um we

[23:46] were challenged by the mayor as well as Steve Mer, the director of uh economic

[23:49] development saying that the 5,000 square feet is a typical lot size. So, we felt

[23:53] this we couldn't do a spot zoning exemption to allow them to have that.

[23:57] So, we want to challenge the council to see why the original um area set is

[24:02] 10,000 square feet and why 5,000 ft. If that is the standard, why was that not

[24:07] um the standard was set when the code was set. So, that's why we're

[24:10] challenging the council to do that and understand where we board because um we

[24:16] take direction. We don't take direction from the council, but we try and shape

[24:19] our views and our opinions based on the views of the council where the city

[24:22] should go. So no arguments. >> I just want to say that back on this

[24:26] council.

[24:30] Thank you. >> Do you have a reason why you're like

[24:34] guys are against it? I mean something you guys have spoke about already. I

[24:36] just didn't know if you wanted >> um my opinion it was it was a major ask.

[24:43] I think the reduction was over 50%. Which to me is substantial. It was a

[24:48] self-graded uh hardship. And those two are things that he has asked to qualify

[24:51] as to uh um explain why he should be allowed to have the variance. So without

[24:57] those, I didn't feel that it was other than he just want a lot more built on.

[25:01] So um I feel as try to stop just allowing things to be built and try and

[25:07] help shape the city based on the goal and the the vision of the city. Um and I

[25:11] think if we would allow that, it would just open the door for us to uh have

[25:14] more people come in and say, "Hey, you allowed that. I can't we have that."

[25:19] So again, if that's the way the council, whatever wants to see the city going in

[25:22] that direction, I'm not against it. But I just I don't think we could allow that

[25:25] one spot zone to happen without opening up camps.

[25:29] » I think the whole 10,000 square foot thing goes back to the time

[25:35] 40, 50 years ago. The whole hill was green.

[25:41] Insert

[25:44] went in there. Max here

[25:50] pop up at the top of you wouldn't recognize single points

[25:59] just if you live here now I mean 50 years ago

[26:03] it was very much open and col the same way

[26:09] » I just that current I think was 2017 so you're saying about 10 years old

[26:15] So we're talking about something 10 years ago.

[26:17] » Yeah.

[26:24] I think the uh I think the last time only changed in the last 15 20 years

[26:30] uh it was increased in the last 15 or 20 years at some point. I remember it going

[26:35] on. I don't remember specifics of it but before that you could almost put a house

[26:41] anywhere.

[26:47] And even those developments that I mentioned Equinox

[26:51] Meadows not 10,000 foot class might be 7500T

[26:58] plus those are some of the biggest in the city that's our suburban areas.

[27:04] So maybe 5,000 is very

[27:10] Anybody else? Yeah. Hi, I'm uh Richard Massilla, 123

[27:16] Simmons Avenue. I'm here to talk about the law ordinance. You might notice I'm

[27:20] not the same guy from 1237 Simmons Avenue that came last time. Oh, I was

[27:24] here at the city. Uh I'm not the garden guy uh who lives there. There's a lot of

[27:29] us who live there. Um but the the people my my roommates do the garden are not

[27:34] free tonight. So I'm here. Um, how many people live

[27:39] » eight weeks? >> Yeah. Yeah.

[27:45] » It's expensive mortgage.

[27:50] » Yeah. Yeah. There's like five of us who own it and then we have our, you know,

[27:54] ros. We rent out the the top floor. So, I'm one of the owners. The other two

[27:59] people spoke were also owners of the place. Um, and um

[28:05] Right. Um the arm ordinance. I was wondering what kind of amendments you've

[28:10] been considering since that. >> Yeah. So what was passed out to the

[28:14] council just about 15 minutes before the meeting was um the definition of what

[28:22] was done what would be considered a nauseous. Right? So if you look at a lot

[28:27] of they ban whatever that means. So the concern was

[28:34] um how can we enforce something where we don't really know what that is. So uh I

[28:40] found a definition of max we in the market in the state of New York. Um so

[28:45] basically it is a weed which is objectionable in agriculture crops lawns

[28:52] and gardens of the state and which can be controlled by good agricultural

[28:55] practices or the use of herbicides. So the change right now would be that ashes

[29:01] bees more than 8 in high would be prohibited.

[29:05] » Okay. Um would that exclude native pollinators? Things like um I don't know

[29:13] the plants but I think like we have milkweed and blackeyed susans and other

[29:18] things that we plant around our lawn. We have kind of like a native meadow that

[29:22] we use to encourage like various

[29:27] pollinators, you know, like bees, certain kinds of flies that are good for

[29:31] the native plants of the area. That's certainly not the intent. If you read

[29:37] the section of the market law, it's designed basically to be like if you're

[29:43] running a farm and you're trying to grow corn, the things that you would want to

[29:46] kill so that your corn grows is a stuff. I don't I can't swear to it. That's

[29:53] certainly not the intent to get rid of those sorts of things. But the whole

[29:57] native plant thing and I still looking at it your group did a very good

[30:02] presentation. Um, but there's a lot of native plants that you certainly would

[30:08] not want. So, the inclusion of native plant really wasn't making a lot of

[30:13] sense either. So, that's why I kind of went back to the not just we approach to

[30:18] things. >> Um, so that's the way it stands right

[30:21] now. It's not on the agenda for voting

[30:25] tonight if it's the judge

[30:31] of this. >> Okay. So is this like a viable topic

[30:35] discussion? >> Yeah. Yes, of course. I just want to let

[30:39] you know where it stands. >> Yeah. Well, thank you. I I think that is

[30:42] a good solution. Uh we I think more specificity was needed. That definition

[30:47] I think will will serve well. There was another part of the original ordinance

[30:52] about removing dead vegetation. Um, and one of one of the other owners of the

[30:59] property had brought up a point at the last meeting about how uh there's a lot

[31:03] of bugs like for example fire mixing around that that laying their eggs in

[31:07] the dead vegetation. Uh, and I was wondering if there that part of the

[31:13] possibly amended >> that that currently as of right now

[31:16] remains. >> So it's in the version right now that

[31:21] that dead grasses, weeds, etc. need need to be removed. I see. So I think at

[31:27] least for the maintenance of our of the metal that we have ideally we would let

[31:33] the vegetation behave naturally over the winter. It's good for the natural life

[31:40] cycle of the meadow for reasons that I don't understand. I'm not a biologist.

[31:46] » But would that exceed 8 in 8 in >> 8 in of dead vegetation? That would be

[31:52] like kind of crazy. doesn't exceed the >> Yeah, I don't think that's the point. So

[31:57] the the 8 in is >> the growing um plants or whatever

[32:03] they're called. Um and then it goes on to say that there must any accumulation

[32:08] of dead grass conscious got yada yada must be removed. Um so the question is I

[32:15] suppose what is an accumulation?

[32:20] » So >> yeah, you know what warrants the need to

[32:24] control the de education. Uh like under what circumstances would the city want

[32:29] to step in for de education is I guess my question.

[32:38] One thing I would like to add in is particular street see it and there's a

[32:47] couple of guards like similar to that one on s and one on man

[32:54] And uh I just think that as you walk in the sidewalk,

[32:59] people don't like being brushed against, you know, there's ticks and spiders and

[33:04] and everything else in there. So I would ask them to be cut back so that people

[33:09] can fluffly through without, you know, having to come in contact,

[33:16] you know, maybe a little 18 inch buffer between the sidewalk.

[33:23] Yeah, >> but just understand

[33:33] if you want to leave with the copy. >> Oh, yeah. I'd be happy

[33:38] that

[33:45] there was stopping,

[33:49] » right? So the C isue is always you want to leave it up to the code people to

[33:55] determine what they think is any accumulation or you want to define what

[33:58] it is because what you might see an accumulation might be different than

[34:03] what George thinks and that is the difficulty in finding these things and

[34:08] making them >> right who's going to have a list of what

[34:13] what is not what is >> right

[34:17] » so there's it's down defined and actually apparently the Cornell School

[34:23] of Agriculture maintains the list somewhere.

[34:26] » Okay. >> According to the statute,

[34:28] » well, I know like milkweed that it's very important for demonic

[34:33] butterflies. >> Yeah, there's a move to include milkweed

[34:36] as not as a nonoxious. Yeah, that that's a whole debate that's

[34:42] happening in various parts of the nation about

[34:48] um thank you. >> You're welcome.

[34:51] » Yeah. Thank you. Anybody else?

[34:56] » Uh thank you, Mayor. I'd like to address uh topic four uh the PD for captain's

[35:04] lookout. My understanding is back uh on the on the website. I appreciate that

[35:10] being there, but that was turned down because they didn't apply with the

[35:14] request to upgrade the sewage issue. Uh I think they have very careful that

[35:20] developer because they've had problems on one rather that developer being

[35:24] non-compliant. Uh who promised they

Common Council Workshop and Public Hearing 9.8.2026

Transcript