The Canal Street battery project can move forward through review. Demeter Land Holdings, LLC filed plans in June for a roughly 5-megawatt battery energy storage system at 600 Canal Street. The Common Council approved a six-month moratorium on these systems at the end of June, then passed an outright ban in August. The project has been on the table since July. At this meeting, Esposito announced a decision and recommendation from the city's Corporation Counsel. Because the application was submitted before the moratorium took effect, the project will be allowed to move forward. Esposito stressed that this means it will go through the board's standard process and must meet all code, zoning, and planning requirements. No approvals have been given. City staff will contact the applicant, who plans to come to the November meeting with an updated package addressing the changes the board asked for earlier this year. The two battery items stayed on the table.

The city attorney explained the reasoning. Assistant Corporation Counsel James Rizzo said he had done a good amount of legal research. He said the city has dealt with similar situations before, when a moratorium took effect after an applicant was already in the process. According to Rizzo, the company submitted its application and all required materials before the moratorium took effect. It was three meetings into the board's review when the council passed the ban. Any new applicant would be subject to the ban. Rizzo said this is not a blanket approval. The project remains subject to review and the public process, and the board can attach any conditions it considers necessary.

Woodhaven Phase 2 gets another year. Bonacio Development asked for a 12-month extension of the site plan approval the board granted on November 4th, 2025, for the second phase of its Woodhaven redevelopment. Project manager Steve Licciardi, who joined by video, said Phase 2 is 84 homes in 42 duplex buildings off Park Drive. The first phase, single-family homes along Park Drive, has 11 homes built so far, with eight sold. Licciardi said that slower-than-hoped response is why the company switched Phase 2 from single-family homes to duplexes. It has not yet decided whether the duplexes will be rented or sold. He cited general inflation, rising construction costs, interest rates, and utility and energy costs, and said the company is waiting for the economics to improve. In a letter to the board, the developer said the schedule has stretched out while the owners work through financing. The Phase 2 approval depended on a use variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals that allowed multi-family housing in that part of Woodhaven. Licciardi said the city's codes office told him the variance stays valid as long as the site plan approval is active. City staff said this was the first extension request for the project and had no objection. The board approved the 12-month extension unanimously.

Woodhaven Phase 3 gets another year too. The board also extended its December 2nd, 2025 approval of Phase 3 for 12 months. This phase is 100 rental apartments in 10 two-story, garden-style buildings with attached garages. It sits on about 10 acres along the new road off Floyd Avenue, near the proposed Legacy Center. Licciardi said the company expects to build it five buildings at a time, and that the request comes from the same economic conditions. Staff again had no objection, and the vote was unanimous.

A car dealership expansion was presented and tabled. Brennan Marks of Marks Engineering presented plans for about 10,000 square feet of additions to Friendly Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Rome at 5827 Rome-Taberg Road. He described the project as a facelift to bring the building in line with the franchise's current look. The plans include a drive-through service entrance on one side, where customers would pull in to have their vehicles checked in, and a larger service area at the back. An older office building on the property would be torn down. The dealership still uses it for some offices and service work, and those uses would move into the expanded building. The parking lot would be redesigned and regraded to fix drainage problems, including water that pools behind the building. The existing stormwater area at the front stays. New LED parking lot lighting would meet dark-sky standards and be pulled back from the side property lines. City staff said state agencies, including the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Transportation, still had time left in their 30-day window to comment on the environmental review. Staff added that its review memo would raise a few minor items about landscaping and the lighting plan. The board tabled the environmental review and site plan to November. The application lists a spring 2027 groundbreaking and fall 2027 completion.

The Nascentia Neighborhood subdivision got preliminary approval. The Visiting Nurse Association of Central New York, which does business as Nascentia Health, wants to divide its Turin Road property into 84 lots for the Nascentia Neighborhood. The board held a public hearing on the request, and no one spoke. The Common Council approved a planned development district for the project earlier this year, but dividing the land into lots still needs this board's approval. Because it is a major subdivision, it happens in two steps. The preliminary plat comes first, and the final plat is expected next month. The plan has not changed: six single-family homes, 34 duplexes, and six six-unit buildings, for about 110 homes. The project's representative explained why there are fewer lots than homes. Each six-unit building sits on a single lot because they are planned as rentals, though they could be divided later if the owner decides to sell units individually. The 84 lots also include separate lots for existing buildings on the property, such as the Beeches Manor, the Inn, an office building, and the old gatehouse. One more lot will belong to a homeowners association and hold the roads, the stormwater system, and shared community areas. The only change since the district was approved is that the pickleball courts have been moved farther from nearby homes to cut down on noise. The board had suggested noise buffering around the courts in June. Staff said the environmental review was already covered by the council's finding of no significant impact for the district. Staff also said the lot sizes meet code and the layout matches what the council approved. The board approved the preliminary plat unanimously.

Twelve rental cottages at the Beeches Manor were presented and tabled. In a separate application on the same property, the Visiting Nurse Association wants to add 12 "park model" cottages near the Beeches Manor. Park models are factory-built units that arrive on site, are set on a pad, tied down, and skirted. The representative said they were designed to match the manor's stonework. They would be short-term rentals for wedding parties, business retreats, and snowmobilers, not year-round homes. City staff explained that the zoning code treats an "RV park" differently from a "campground." In an RV park, people live there as their permanent address. At a campground, stays are short, even if the site is open all year. Staff's preliminary view is that the cottages count as a campground, which is allowed in the property's institutional campus zoning. A meeting with the chief code enforcement officer was set for the next day to work out the details. The representative said the plan meets the campground rules except one. The code calls for a 50-foot setback, and the closest cottage would be about 25 feet from the property line along the new entrance road. That would require an area variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals. The cottages would be surrounded by heavy landscaping, partly because the State Historic Preservation Office wants them screened from views of the historic manor. All 12 would share a single metered water line, with individual shutoffs so units can be winterized. The cottages had been planned for this year but are now expected next year.

The cottage plan also reworks parking and the entrance. Several older office buildings near the manor have already been torn down. The existing parking lot, which the representative described as failing, would be replaced. The new layout drops the number of spaces from 238 to 199. The code requires 83, and the representative said 199 is more than enough even for large events. A new 24-foot-wide entrance on Potter Road would line up with the street across from it. The narrow historic gate entrance, about 12 feet wide, would stay in place but be gated off. New lighting would include low, lantern-style fixtures near the cottages and dark-sky-compliant lights in the parking lot. Because the 30-day state environmental comment period had not ended, the board placed the environmental review and site plan on the table. The applicant is expected back next month.

Upcoming meetings. The board's next meetings are November 3rd and December 8th. The 2027 meeting schedule will be set at the December meeting.