A proposal to add a fire escape to the Clinton Plaza building on Main Street, which would be installed on the parking lot side of the building next to the B Side Ballroom, drew scrutiny from the city of Oneonta Planning Commission.
The commission tabled the building owner’s application at its meeting Wednesday, Dec. 17.
The application for site plan review stated that the applicant, Richard Brown, was seeking to build the fire escape on the back of the building, near the Army recruiting office. Brown is a managing agent at Levites Realty Company LLC. LFT Amsterdam LLC, the entity that owns the Clinton Plaza, is associated with Levites Realty.
Brown began working on the project without obtaining the necessary permits, a Dec. 1 memo from the city Code Enforcement Office stated, warranting further review. The plans do not include information like overall width, cladding/siding, handrail and construction materials, according to the memo.
State fire code does not mandate that there be a fire escape at the location in question, the memo stated, and the addition is not required to exit the building.
Tom Swatling, a representative for Levites Realty, said the Army office requested a second egress. He said the design shows a single egress that would go up the back of the building, up the left corner of the building and enter into a hallway into the Army recruitment office.
He said there would be two lifts, the first of which would be 15 steps and would have a small plateau to go up another 11steps to a 5-foot landing, 42 inches wide, with a roof that slopes toward the left of the building. It would not have sides. Swatling said the only work that has been done so far was to install footers.
Planning Commission Chairperson Marcela Micucci asked him to elaborate on the need for the fire escape. Swatling said the Army has requested it, but said he did not have further information regarding why the structure is needed.
“For whatever reason, their safety stipulates that they need an egress access,” Swatling said. “That’s all I can tell you.”
Micucci asked if the fire escape would block any signage for the B Side ballroom or impact parking spaces. There would be no loss of parking, Swatling said. Vice Chairperson David Rissberger said John Hester, deputy code enforcement officer, told him at least one parking spot would need to be lost.
In regards to impact on signage, Swatling said individuals can look right through the structure, and the roof likely should not hinder the view.
After the meeting, Micucci said the drawing submitted, stamped by McManus Engineering, does not show the fire escape against the building, making it difficult for the commission to understand where on the building it would be. She added that the drawing came with code compliant requirements from McManus, which the drawing does not meet.
An additional drawing that was submitted, she said, was not scaled to the building in the background. The drawings, as submitted, do not allow for a good understanding of where parking could be impacted, Micucci said.
She added during the meeting that until the commission has accurate drawings, it is hard to make a decision.
“In other words, I would consider the site plan to be incomplete at this time,” she said.
The commission would need a scaled site plan, she said, showing elements like the property boundaries, adjoining streets, the sidewalk, building footprint, exterior stair footprint and the location of the parking spaces, garbage and Main Street access stairs.
“While it’s helpful to have a drawing of the imprint of what the proposed fire escape is going to look like, it’s not backed up against anything,” Micucci said. “It’s not a scaled drawing to see what it will actually look like on the building and how it will impact the space, not only for parking spaces. but also for the signage for the businesses down below.”
These items could help determine potential environmental impact of the fire escape on the businesses below it and the building itself, Micucci said.
She suggested that the building owner attend the next meeting. If the owner can submit additional drawings, and the commission sees that the application is complete, Micucci said it should be able to make an official decision on the project.
She added that if this is not required under the state fire code and there has not been a building permit submitted for any interior work that would change the fire code, the commission does not have a reason to accept the application. If it could hinder signage for a local business that brings in revenue to the city, people could be deterred from visiting local businesses in the plaza.
The only interior work would be the addition of a door, Swatling said, to access the fire escape.
“As important as the Army recruitment office is, it is not generating income in the city of Oneonta,” Micucci said. “The business below it does.”