After having tabled a June 24 review of a revised site plan submitted by Liverpool Properties LLC, the village planning board examined the updated drawings at a special meeting on July 10 at the Village Hall. The plan calls for renovations on the property leased by Limp Lizard Barbecue at 201 First St.,
Liverpool Properties, owned by prominent local businessman Val Lamont, plans to construct a deck and a 49-space parking lot behind the Limp Lizard’s existing structure. The parking lot would be shared by the White Water Pub which also leases property from Lamont on the south side of the block at 110 S. Willow St.
At the July 10 meeting, the planning board took a close look at the revisions including designs for paving, landscaping, fencing and lighting. Questions remain, said planning board Chairman Joe Ostuni Jr., regarding drainage and the capacity of on-site catch basins.
Liverpool Properties representative Tom Juliano and architect Peter Chrissey assured Ostuni they would begin engineering studies as soon as possible.
In turn, the planning board – John Eallonardo, Jim Taft and Peter Osborne (Tom Tartaglia was absent) – voted unanimously to forward the Liverpool Properties’ application to the newly consolidated Syracuse-Onondaga County Planning Agency. The July 10 meeting had been scheduled so that the board could meet agency’s July 12 deadline.
“The applicant did a good job of getting the revisions to the village in a timely fashion,” Ostuni said, “so the planning board wanted to do what it could to move the project along. If we had missed the city-county’s July 12 deadline, it would’ve been delayed by another 45 days.”
As is, Ostuni expects to hear back from city-county planners by late July or early-August.
Meanwhile, Village Attorney John Langey will research existing easements and right-of-ways on the block bounded by First Street, South Willow Street and Lake Drive. Several residences remain on the block, the site of an old canal basin, but it is zoned for both commercial and residential use, Ostuni said.
Village Engineer Gregory Sgromo of Dunn & Sgromo Engineers of East Syracuse reiterated concerns about drainage, but said the revised plan answered several questions he had posed to the applicant on June 3.
Liverpool businessman John Gormel questioned how vehicles would access and exit the planned parking lot. The updated plan calls for traffic to enter the lot in-only on driveways from First Street and Lake Drive, and to exit out-only via a village-owned driveway further south on Lake Drive.
Gormel owns The Retreat at Vine and First streets, The Cobblestone at First and Tulip and soon plans to open the Barking Gull at 116 S. Willow St.
