A new office building was approved on the site of Griffiss's old parachute shop. The board gave the green light to a 102,000-square-foot, three-story office building at 212 Hangar Road, just off the Hill Road roundabout on the Griffiss Business and Technology Park. The developer is Bonacio Construction. The engineer, Matthew Brobston of The LA Group, presented the L-shaped design, which includes 407 parking spaces. They estimated around 400 people would work or train at the site. City Planner Garret Wyckoff said a tenant is already lined up but hasn't been publicly announced. The building will rise where the base's old parachute shop once stood, which is a brick building and metal tower where technicians packed and repaired parachutes from 1958 until the base closed. It was later torn down over asbestos concerns. The board issued a "negative declaration" (the finding of no significant environmental impact) and approved the site plan, adding a note that the developer should keep coordinating with the state DOT on a traffic study and road permits. None of that affects the building's entrances, which is standard for a project this size near a state road.

A Black River Boulevard subdivision was held over. The board took up a request to split a single property at 1814 Black River Boulevard into three lots, one for each of the businesses already operating there. The surveyor explained that the owner is doing estate planning and wants to turn the existing leases into separate deeded parcels so each can eventually be sold or transferred. There was some back-and-forth about the shared driveway off Black River Boulevard and the easements that guarantee each business access to it. But because the property sits within 500 feet of a state or county road, the request had to go to Oneida County for review.

Two tornado-damaged properties in the historic district got a green light to move forward. Because Rome recently established a historic district, certain changes to properties within it now come to the planning board for an opinion before the city acts. The board reviewed two, both tied to tornado damage. At 210 West Liberty Street, the owner plans to remove a small, deteriorated second-floor porch on the back of a former rectory and restore the brick behind it. At 215 North George Street, a storm-damaged structure will be taken down and rebuilt. The board recommended the city approve both.