Rotterdam Planning Commission signs off on zoning change needed for warehouse proposal

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ROTTERDAM — Plans to construct a series of warehouses along Mariaville Road remain on track after the town’s Planning Commission on Tuesday issued a favorable recommendation for a requested zoning change needed to advance the project.

Commission members voted 4-2 to issue the favorable recommendation on a request by The BDC Group of Latham to rezone just over 15 acres of a 65-acre parcel located at 676 Mariaville Road from multi-family residential to light industrial. The company is hoping to construct six 12,000-square-foot and four 6,000-square-foot warehouses at the location.

The recommendation is nonbinding. The Town Board will make a final determination on whether to rezone the parcel following a public hearing that is expected to take place in the coming weeks.

“The only ones who can change the zoning in Rotterdam is the Town Board,” said Planning Commission Chairman Thomas Yullie. “We don’t have the authority.”

Commission members Joseph Signore and Joseph Miglucci voted against the recommendation, citing concerns about the warehouse’s proximity to neighboring residential properties. The warehouses would sit approximately 150 feet from a pair of single-family homes along Mariaville Road and an apartment development along Cimino Lane just to the east.

Nicholas Costa, an engineer with Advanced Engineering & Surveying, the company hired by The BDC Group to oversee the rezoning request, said the Latham developer is seeking to construct a series of flex-use buildings but doesn’t have any tenants lined up at this time.

The BDC Group owns the property and an adjacent parcel at 690 Mariaville Road, where the company is currently developing a multi-story climate-control storage center.

“The rest of the parcel will in the future be developed per the zoning,” Costa said.

The property sits just west of the Five Corners intersection and is located in proximity to several commercial and industrial businesses, including a saw dust processing plant and an industrial fiber manufacturer facility.

An apartment complex was previously approved for the site, but those plans changed due to a lack of sewer in the area.

If the zoning change is approved, the developers would still be required to obtain site plan approval to construct the warehouses before construction can begin.

The BDC Group is not the only company seeking to develop warehouse space along Mariaville Road.

On Wednesday, Planning Commission members also reviewed a preliminary proposal to construct a 120,000-square-foot warehouse directly across the street at 381 Mariaville Road. The property is currently zoned for industrial use and was slated to be the home of a 21,000-square-foot forklift sales and service center before the company decided to relocate its operations to Schenectady.

DAIM Logistics, a Fultonville-based warehousing and distribution company with locations in Fulton and Montgomery counties, is behind the project, which would be divided into three 40,000-square-foot warehouse spaces that would be leased out to still-to-be-determined companies.

Planning Commission members voted to allow the company to begin the environmental review process and are expected to review the site plans once they are finalized in the coming weeks.

Contact reporter Chad Arnold at: [email protected] or by calling 518-395-3120.