Village Trustees Plan Public Hearing

On Hotel In Downtown Cooperstown

By JIM KEVLIN • allotsego.com

COOPERSTOWN – Every other likely board and agency stepped back, so the Village Board this afternoon agreed to be the lead agency under SEQRA on the 22-unit, four-story hotel proposed for the former TJ’s Restaurant, 124 Main St.

Given the more narrow focus of the Planning Board, H-PARB or ZBA, Mayor Jeff Katz observed at a special 5 p.m. meeting, “There’s no choice; but it’s a good no choice.”

SEQRA is the state Environmental Quality Review Act, which “requires all state and local government agencies to consider environmental impacts equally with social and economic factors during discretionary decision-making” on virtually every project.

Environmental impacts could be aesthetics, but they could also include noise, said Trustee Cindy Falk.

A public hearing would not be required before the Village Board concludes if the hotel would constitute an “adverse impact” or not, but there was a consensus that a hearing would be a good idea because of the amount of feedback trustees have received.

However, both the Planning Board and ZBA have questions they want answered, and the trustees said they should be largely answered before a public hearing happens. If that happens before the Village Board’s monthly meeting on Sept. 29 and the trustees are satisfied with the answers, a public hearing might be set at that time.

Interviewed after the meeting, Katz said most of the questions raised are about parking. The hotel’s developers, Perry V. Ferrara and Tom Langan, are proposing a valet parking system where the cars would be fit in behind the building.

The usual guideline is one parking space per unit. But this proposal has two bedrooms per unit, so that might be an issue as well.

Another possible point of contention is the proposed height — 46 feet, 4 feet taller than zoning guidelines. And another worry is the swimming pool planning on the roof; Katz said people have raised concerns things could be thrown off the roof onto passersby below.

The developers had said they hope to begin construction this year, which may be optimistic. The Cooperstown Brewery, under an expedited scheduled, didn’t get permits in place for three months. It took 18 months for the Lake Front Hotel renovations to win approval.