Potsdam Trustees set to vote on health care zone

POTSDAM — The village Board of Trustees is set to vote on the proposed health care zone and complete the state environmental quality review process at a special meeting July 7.

Trustees asked Canton-Potsdam Hospital to make several changes to the full environmental assessment form for the law at a work session held Friday morning.

The board wants to make recommendations to protect two historic homes in the zone and eventually eliminate parking on Leroy Street.

"You can go to the applicant and tell them what you'd like to see changed, and if they say sure, you can go ahead with the negative declaration," village Administrator Michael D. Weil told the board. "If the applicant says no, you can impose it as a conditional negative declaration or go ahead with a positive declaration."

The five trustees indicated Friday that they would be willing to declare the rezoning not environmentally significant, a "negative declaration" that means the effort can go ahead, if the hospital makes the changes to the form.

"I think you can presume the applicant's consent to the two conditions," Canton-Potsdam Hospital Chief Executive Officer David B. Acker said, adding that the changes would likely be made that day.

Village Planning and Development Director Frederick J. Hanss said his office has identified two Cottage Street houses as structures that are historically significant for their Victorian style.

"In my opinion, they would be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places," he said.

The hospital bought 12 Cottage St., which would be in the H-2 buffer zone, from Milton Langlois in December and recently renovated it. Mr. Acker has said the hospital hopes to turn that home into physician housing, with the eventual goal of converting it into a Ronald McDonald House.

Theresa Lawrence owns the house at 19 Cottage St., which would be located in the H-1 intensive development zone. If the zoning change is approved and the hospital's expansion plans come to fruition, the home would be located next to a parking lot.

The board recommended the hospital insert a sentence into the historic and archaeological resources section of the form that says if those buildings are eventually acquired and demolished, that they be documented before being torn down.

"We'd be saying, if you intend to take it down, let's at least get photographs and sketches, so we know what was there," Mr. Hanss said.

Trustees also sought to recommend that parking eventually be eliminated on Leroy Street in front of the hospital in the future. Potsdam Central School officials recently sent a letter to the village making that same request.

Mr. Acker said he would support that change "for the safety of the school."

The environmental form estimates the hospital's expansion will result in up to 16,000 more vehicle trips per year, or eight more incoming cars per hour.

The board also pushed for Canton-Potsdam to acknowledge small to moderate impacts that will not be mitigated by the project in two areas: a change in the density of land use and the creation or elimination of employment.

Trustees also pushed for the answer to the question, "Is there, or is there likely to be, public controversy related to potential adverse environmental impacts?" to be changed to yes.

"I think it's clear in the public record that there was controversy," Trustee Abigail D. Lee said.

Deputy Mayor Ruth F. Garner said she would characterize the controversy surrounding the zone as "minimal."

If those alterations are made, trustees said they are prepared to make a negative declaration of significant impacts under the SEQR process and vote on the zoning law at the special meeting.

Even though the village is not required to, it will also hold a public hearing to take comments on the SEQR process for the zone at 7 p.m. July 7 in the civic center board room.

"I think we need more public input before we take action," Mayor Reinhold J. Tischler said.