Syracuse Planning Commission Meeting - April 27, 2026
Syracuse Planning Commission Meeting - April 27, 2026
The Syracuse Planning Commission held a regular meeting on April 27, 2026, beginning at approximately 7:55 PM. The meeting included approval of previous minutes, multiple public hearings on land use applications, and significant discussion on a proposed event center. The commission approved several resubdivisions, special use permits, and site plan reviews. All votes were unanimous unless noted.
Consent Calendar
- The commission approved the minutes from the April 6, 2026 meeting without corrections, via a unanimous voice vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Event Center (4100-06 South Salina St): Numerous speakers expressed support for applicant Shaquila Brown, praising her community involvement and plans to provide youth training and jobs. Speakers in opposition included nearby property owner Derek Dunford, Councilor Patrona Jones-Rouser, and residents Kathy Strible and Rhonda Visi, who cited concerns over insufficient parking (only 8 on-site spaces), potential noise, safety issues, and the location's history of problematic venues. Opponents argued the idea was good but the location was wrong.
- Roofing Company Office (5300-02 South Salina St): Neighbors Gail Collie and Khadija Osborne spoke in favor of the reuse but emphasized the need for proper landscaping, sidewalks, and maintaining neighborhood character. Councilor Jones-Rouser also spoke in favor, noting the owner's effort to find a compatible tenant. One resident urged support for developers willing to invest in the city.
Discussion Items
- Utility Thermal Energy Network (751 Van Rensselaer St): National Grid presented a proposal for a thermal energy hub, capturing waste heat from the county wastewater treatment plant. The project requires a special use permit and major site plan review. Commissioners clarified that the facility is not a battery storage system and involves heat exchange, not power generation. The applicant agreed to add additional screening per county planning comments. The project was awaiting Public Service Commission approval before action could be taken.
- Resubdivisions for Syracuse Land Bank: Four resubdivision applications were approved to merge lots for single-family home construction: 201-203 Apple St (Move In New York program, 50-120% AMI), 558 Valley Dr (split lot for two homes, with a 10-ft easement along Hooper Brook), 4896-4902 South Salina St (demolished non-conforming structures, lots marketed for sale), and 535-539 West Calvin St / 119 Hope Ave (zoning map amendment and resubdivision to create buildable parcels). All received negative SEQR declarations.
- Major Site Plan Review – 114 Gertrude Street: Correll Realty proposed renovating a former single-family home into a 6-bedroom rental. The commission approved with conditions to remove an illegal gravel parking area and restore it to green space within one year.
- Special Use Permit – 901-17 South Geddish St: A neighborhood market/deli (sandwiches, no alcohol or tobacco) was approved with conditions including hours 9 AM–10 PM daily, no neon signage, and a requirement to combine parking lots via resubdivision.
- Special Use Permit – 3001-23 James Street: Zimon Coffee House’s off-site training facility and batch preparation center was approved with conditions on snow storage and a required resubdivision of the rear parking lot within one year.
- Three-Mile Limit – Town of Onondaga: National Grid’s application for utility infrastructure was approved with city engineer concurrence.
- Major Site Plan Review – 4100-06 South Salina St (Event Center): Applicant Shaquila Brown proposed an event center with shuttle parking and community training programs. After extended public comment, the commission approved with 10 conditions including modified hours (Mon-Fri 6:30 PM–12 AM, Sat-Sun 4 PM–12 AM; amended to 6:30-11 PM weekdays per commissioner motion), a parking management plan, and restrictions on alcohol/tobacco (licensed vendors only). A one-year review of the parking plan was also required. The motion carried after a motion to amend hours was accepted.
- Major Site Plan Review – 5300-02 South Salina St (Roofing Company Office): Ahmad Hammad’s proposal for a roofing showroom/office was approved after reclassification to office use (permitted by right in MX-1). Conditions included sidewalk restoration, landscaping, parking lot improvements, and a lot alteration to combine adjacent parcels. The approval is tied to the specific office use; any change of tenant requires new site plan review.
Key Outcomes
- Approved minutes of April 6, 2026.
- SP-25-36 & MASPR-25-35: Special use permit and major site plan for thermal energy network approved (negative SEQR, conditions). Referred to Common Council.
- R-2026-13: Resubdivision at 201-203 Apple St approved with condition to file map within 62 days.
- R-2026-17: Resubdivision at 558 Valley Dr approved with condition for 10-ft easement along Hooper Brook.
- R-2026-32: Resubdivision at 4896-4902 South Salina St approved with condition to file map within 62 days.
- Z-2920 & R-2026-29: Zoning map amendment and resubdivision for West Calvin/Hope Ave approved; map amendment recommended to Common Council.
- MASPR-25-5: Major site plan for 114 Gertrude St approved with three conditions, including removal of illegal parking.
- SP-2026-12: Special use permit for market at 901-17 South Geddish St approved with eight conditions; recommendation to Common Council.
- SP-2026-16: Special use permit for coffee training facility at 3001-23 James St approved with four conditions; recommendation to Common Council.
- 3S-2026-3: Three-mile limit in Onondaga approved.
- MASPR-25-36: Major site plan for event center at 4100-06 South Salina St approved with 10 conditions, including modified hours and one-year review.
- MASPR-25-11: Major site plan for roofing office at 5300-02 South Salina St approved with 12 conditions, including specific office use limitation.
All decisions were unanimous unless otherwise noted.
Meeting Transcript
And welcome to this meeting of the Syracuse Planning Commission. We will begin our public hearings in just a moment. Before we do that, however, we will take care of take action on the minutes of our previous meeting. Those minutes have been distributed in advance to the commission members. And it would be appropriate at this time if there's a motion for action on those minutes for such a motion. I make a motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting with no corrections. Thank you. Discussion on the motion. If not, all in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, say nay. Any abstentions? The minutes from our April sixth meeting are approved. We will I will turn this over in just a moment, but I want to say something about our process in terms of the public hearings this evening for those who might be unfamiliar with our procedure. As each application is announced by a member of the staff, we ask that the applicant or the representative come to the podium in the center of the room, provide your name and address for the record, and then a brief summary of the application involved. Yes, there are a couple. That one is postponed until the next meeting. And also major site plan review MASPR-2026-10 at 109 Phillips Road. Same owner also through Lemoyne College is also postponed. We expect those to be on the next meeting. In addition, in line with what Commissioner Coolick mentioned, the first two projects under old business, we're we're actually going to hold those until the end of the meeting and get through the other items that we think will be a little bit quicker to get through. So bear with us. So with that, the first uh public hearing tonight under old business is the Syracuse Utility Thermal Energy Network project at 751 Van Rensselaer in North Geddish Street. Applicant is uh Niagara Mohawk Power Corp doing business as national grid, represented by Bon Shenik and King. This is in the MX4 zone district. Good evening. Um my name is Will Hackett. I'm a project manager with National Grid here in Syracuse 300 Erie Boulevard West. Um, and I'm joined by uh our consultant and uh legal representation tonight. And we're here to talk about the energy center property. This is a component of the utility thermal energy network project in Syracuse. So I know last time we went into some abbreviated background. Do you want me to just pick up where we left off or run through that quickly again? Okay. So the purpose of this property is to facilitate the operation of this thermal energy network. And this is necessitated by the utility Thermal Energy Network and Jobs Act, which was passed by New York State in 2022. And what that did is it required the seven largest utilities in the state to develop these pilot projects for thermal energy networks. And the reason behind that was in support of the state's broader climate goals and the push for electrification of buildings. And the thought was the utilities are well accustomed to operating thermal energy energy networks, or I'm sorry, energy networks, where you have multiple properties connected together, in this case by one thermal resource. So in the case of the Syracuse project specifically, what we've proposed to do with the Public Service Commission is to capture waste heat from the treated effluent at the Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Plant owned by Onadoga County on Hiawatha Boulevard. So the way that works is we build a pump station at that facility. We divert a portion of the treated effluent just before it's discharged to Onadoga Lake, and we convey that off-site a couple of blocks to this property, which is currently a vacant lot near the corner of Gettys and Van Rensselaer streets. At that location, we'd have this new construction building, which is largely a mechanical space. Um within that are heat exchangers. And the heat exchangers allow the wastewater to pass through on one side and a closed loop distribution to go on the other side. So you're not intermingling any water, you're just transferring heat across that boundary. The treated wastewater then goes back to where it came from at the treatment plant and is reintroduced to the uh outfall just a few feet further down the pipe from where it left. Meanwhile, on the other side of the heat exchanger within this facility, uh you have that closed loop system, and that involves constant circulation of water that is connected to customer buildings. And those customer buildings, much like how you connect to electric or gas, uh that supply water comes into the building and provides the thermal energy to that, and it's concentrated using a water source heat pump. So this is similar if you're familiar with geothermal heating and cooling, where residential property might have one or two wells, something of this scale would require hundreds and hundreds of wells.
openpublica.com