Hospital revises assessment for health-care zone

POTSDAM — Canton-Potsdam Hospital has addressed issues raised by trustees recently by revising the full environmental assessment form for the proposed health-care zone.

The village board is set to complete the state environmental quality review for the zoning change and vote on the law at a special meeting Tuesday. There will be a public hearing to take comments on the SEQR process for the zone at 7 p.m. before the meeting in the civic center board room.

Trustees said two weeks ago that they would be willing to declare the rezoning not environmentally significant, a "negative declaration" that means the effort can go ahead, if the hospital made a few changes to the form.

Those alterations included the addition of a passage designed to protect two houses that village officials consider historically significant.

"The village has identified two homes located within the proposed zones, which are characteristic of the Victorian era," the form says. "To mitigate potential impacts, the hospital will, prior to the alteration and/or demolition of these structures, document the existing building characteristics."

Canton-Potsdam Hospital would have to photograph the exterior and interior of the buildings and prepare sketches of their layouts to give to village Historian Mimi Van Deusen before it renovated or demolished the two buildings at 12 and 19 Cottage St.

The hospital also added a statement supporting the elimination of some parking on some — if not all — streets near its campus once it has added the parking proposed in its master plan. Canton-Potsdam hopes to increase its number of off-street parking spaces to 492 from 350 if the zone change is approved.

"The hospital is supportive of the village establishing limitations on parking along Leroy Street once the hospital has completed its parking facilities as anticipated in the conceptual master plan," the form says. "The potential for the elimination of long-term on-street parking on Leroy, Cottage, Waverly and Grove streets exists and may ensure a better margin of safety for automobile drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians."

Canton-Potsdam also followed trustee recommendations to indicate small to moderate impacts that cannot be mitigated in two areas: a change in the density of land use and the creation or elimination of employment. In addition, the form now acknowledges there is, or could be, public controversy related to the project's environmental impacts.