Two hotels and a restaurant building got the green light at Griffiss. Indus Hospitality Group, a family-owned company out of Rochester that runs about 70 hotels and restaurants, is buying 5.9 acres on the west side of the traffic circle where Hill, Geiger, and Ellsworth roads meet. They are splitting it into three lots: one for a 91-room Home2 Suites by Hilton, one for a 100-room WoodSpring Suites (both four stories), and one for a roughly 9,900-square-foot commercial building with space suggested for a restaurant. The board did three things in sequence. It issued a "negative declaration," meaning the state-required environmental review found no significant impact. It approved the three-lot subdivision outright. And finally, it gave the site plan conditional approval. The company's engineer, BME Associates, presented, with Indus's CEO on hand to answer questions. The project is expected to take three to five years, with the first hotel breaking ground around the end of 2026 or early 2027.

The hotel approval comes with strings attached. Because the two hotels would be four stories, Indus still has to win a height variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the company hoped to be on the ZBA's June 3 agenda. The planning board's conditions also require Indus to make any road changes the state DOT needs for its permits, as well as add landscape buffering. This will happen along the property line it shares with a neighboring dental office to discourage people from cutting across, preserve mature trees where possible during clearing, and give nearby property owners a construction contact since utility lines cross the site. On the practical questions, the engineer said the code would require 215 spaces, but a "shared parking" credit (hotels fill up overnight, the commercial space during the day) lowers that to 195. The plan provides 196. They also said all lighting will be downward-facing, dark-sky-compliant LEDs that won't spill onto neighbors.

A Floyd Avenue property owner can split his lot in two. The board approved a two-lot minor subdivision at 1309 Floyd Avenue. Both building on the parcel have the same owner who wants to keep one and eventually sell the other. The only wrinkle was that the rear setback on one of the new lots falls a few feet short of the 20-foot minimum for the area. But the property sits in the Woodhaven Revitalization District, where the code lets the planning board grant some leniency on dimensions as long as a project fits the district's overall intent. Therefore, the board approved it as submitted, with the environmental review again coming back as a negative declaration.

The owner of the Snubbing Post is separating her restaurant from her home. The owner won conditional approval for a two-lot minor subdivision at 8221 Rome-Westernville Road, home of the long-running Snubbing Post bar and restaurant. She wants to put the restaurant on its own parcel, separate from the house, citing liability and an eventual plan to retire. Because the land sits in the Airport Approach District, and the parcel is already under five acres, the split needs an area variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals. The board approved the subdivision on the condition that the ZBA grants that variance, and noted it would be surprised if the ZBA objected, since the property is already developed.

A reminder about scam emails. The chair used the meeting to warn that several people who've had business before the board were contacted by a scam email demanding fees and invoices. Official communications from the city only come from addresses ending in @romeny.gov, and anyone unsure about an email can contact the Department of Community and Economic Development to confirm whether it's real.