For Immediate Release: July 20, 2006
Contact:
Keith P. McKeever | Public Relations | Adirondack Park Agency
contact@apa.ny.gov | (518) 891-4050
RAY BROOK, NY – Adirondack Park Agency issues permit to Ticonderoga Property Development, LLC for proposed Lowe’s Home Improvement Store.
Today the Adirondack Park Agency issued a permit approving construction of a new 153,000±-square foot retail commercial use building in the Town of Ticonderoga, Essex County. The approved project includes construction of a 124,051-square foot retail building and attached 28,829-square foot garden center, a paved parking lot for 441 vehicles, signage, lighting and landscaping. Municipal water supply, wastewater treatment and stormwater facilities will serve the Lowe’s Store.
Once the permit is recorded in the Essex County Clerk’s Office, the developer is free to begin construction. The Agency issued the permit because the building and site design were readily approvable and the only remaining issue is the signing, which must be dealt with through a formal variance process. The Lowe’s Home Improvement Store required an Agency permit because the building will exceed 40 feet in height and the project involves placement of fill in wetlands – standard agency jurisdictional thresholds.
The permit includes a condition that signage for the proposed store must conform to the size and height limitations required by the Agency’s “Standards for Signs Associated with Projects.” Agency regulations limit signs on jurisdictional projects to 40 square feet (15 square feet for luminous signs) and limit the total sign area of two signs on a project site to 60 square feet (9 NYCRR Appendix Q-3).
The applicant has requested variances to the sign standards pursuant to section 809 of the Adirondack Park Agency Act, which allows project sponsors to request variances. A public hearing is required before a decision on the variances can be rendered.
The public hearing on the variance request will have two separate components: an informal public comment session and a formal adjudicatory proceeding. The informal session is scheduled for 6 p.m. on July 25 at the Community Center (the “Armory”) located on 123 Champlain Street in Ticonderoga. At this session, any member of the public, including public officials, may comment on the variance request. A transcript of the comments will be made by a court reporter for the official hearing record.
At the adjudicatory proceeding, date to be determined, only persons who are “parties” are eligible to participate. However, this proceeding is open to the public to observe. The parties in this proceeding include the applicant, owners of properties within 500 feet of the project site, the Town of Ticonderoga, and certain other public officials named in the law. Agency staff members designated as the hearing staff are also entitled to participate in the hearing. Persons or entities who seek to become a party may submit a petition for intervenor status to the hearing officer, who will decide on the petition.
Presiding at the public hearing will be P. Nicholas Garlick, an administrative law judge in the Office of Hearings and Mediation Services in the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. Agency regulations require him to conduct the hearing “in a fair and impartial manner” and authorize him to make decisions relating to scheduling, testimony, exhibits, and motions. He will not make a recommendation to the Agency, nor make the final decision.
The hearing officer will set the date for the adjudicatory proceeding, after a pre-hearing conference scheduled for 1 p.m. on July 25, at the Community Building in Ticonderoga. After the close of the hearing, the full Agency Board will decide this variance request at a regular scheduled monthly agency meeting, date to be determined. The Agency Board’s decision must be based on the record of the hearing.
“It is important to understand that a public hearing is a legal requirement when a sign variance is requested,” Executive Director Richard Lefebvre said “Park Agency Commissioners will rely on the full hearing record when rendering their final decision whether to grant the variances.”
Read the permit document (pdf 1.8Mb)
Please send written comments to:
John L. Quinn Adirondack Park Agency Box 99 Ray Brook, NY 12977