The Town of Montgomery’s March 31 planning board meeting featured a familiar face after months of absence: the QuickChek gas station and convenience store, a project proposed for Scott’s Corners that has been years in the making. The project’s developers, after tinkering with their plans over the last several months, appeared before the planning board once more with new submissions and ample updates.

Kelly Libolt, founder and president of KARC Planning Consultants, represented the applicant and provided several updates to the planning board during the meeting. She first summarized the project’s timeline over the past year: On January 29, 2024, the planning board approved QuickChek’s SEQR negative declaration. Following this, the developers reached out to the town’s ZBA and requested approval for several area variances, or proposed waivers to the town’s zoning requirements, including a variance for one of the project’s entrance driveways. The ZBA requires project entrances to be at least 300 feet away from any traffic control devices, and QuickChek’s plans included an entrance 263 feet away from the traffic light at the Route 17K-208 intersection.

“After that SEQR negative declaration was issued, we went back to the zoning board of appeals to seek the area variances that we needed for the project,” Libolt said. “There were several area variances, one of which had to do with the setback of a driveway from a signalized intersection. Your code requires that any main ingress and egress has to be at least 300 feet from the center line of the intersection; that would be 17K and 208 in this case. Our driveway was only 263 feet away from that intersection.”

The ZBA, during its July 15 meeting, denied most of the project’s area variances, including the variances for driveways too close to the 17K-208 intersection. Since that meeting, the developers worked out an agreement with a landowner neighboring the project site, allowing the applicant to purchase a small portion of the landowner’s property. The developers shifted the entrance driveway onto this newly-bought land in the project plans, moving it far enough from the intersection to comply with the town’s zoning requirements.

“Since the ZBA denied that area variance, we went back and tried to figure out how we might be able to shift that driveway entrance so that it would comply,” Libolt said. “Given the fact that the driveway entrance was on the property line, we were able to work with the adjoining landowner and entered into a contract report to purchase a portion of their land. We’re going to shift a portion of the adjoining parcel onto our parcel so that we can shift that entrance driveway over.”

Libolt noted that this change would reposition the entrance driveway onto a New York State DEC wetland buffer; hence, the developers reached out to Mike Fraatz, a DEC biologist, for his opinion on the matter. Fraatz and the DEC were not opposed to the driveway shift, but they requested that the developers take a few actions to ensure the nearby wetland’s preservation, including additional signage and plantings.

“We did receive email confirmation back from them that they were willing to entertain it. There were a couple of conditions: they wanted to make sure that we were keeping it to a minimum to the maximum extent practical,” Libolt said. “That there was minimal, additional impervious into the wetland buffer, and that we would install signage indicating the wetland buffer. They also want the maroon landscaped with a berm and some wetland plantings there, which we will do when we submit to the DEC.”

Libolt stated that developers, before March 31, submitted the updated plans to the town planning board, the DEC, and the NYS DOT. She also listed a few other changes to the plans, most of which involved the project’s size. These included the following:

a. The project’s convenience store was reduced from 6,730 square feet to 6,400 square feet. The convenience store was a particular talking point during previous meetings, as residents felt the building was too big for the 17K-208 intersection.

b. The project’s fueling stations were reduced from 16 to 12.

c. The project’s parking spaces were reduced from 67 to 51. Additionally, any parking spaces that were located in the project’s front yard setback were completely removed.

Jay Beaumont, the town’s planning board chairman, told Libolt that his board and the town’s consultants would review the updated plans. He added that the board would reach out to developers if the project appears on the town’s April 28 planning board agenda.