BY ROD HANSEN

Drainage and parking relating to an expansion plan at the Allard Center YMCA sparked concern among nearby residents at a planning board hearing on Thursday, April 12.

About two dozen residents turned out for the hearing, many of them from the Medvil Cooperative. The cooperative includes Medford Farms and the Village of Glen Falls, two 55 and older communities abutting the YMCA.

Discussion concerned a proposed 4,800 square-foot addition to the building, which the YMCA purchased in 1993. The two-story expansion would add 4,000 feet to the building’s footprint, said project manager Lynn Zebrowski of Keach-Nordstrom Associates.

Residents voiced concern that the expansion would increase a problem with water runoff many said had already reached serious proportions.

“What comes from the YMCA addition is going to come straight to Medvil. Medvil already has mildew problems due to drainage that comes from the Y, and we don’t need more,” said Ron Tatu, vice president of the cooperative.

The president of the cooperative’s board of directors also cited runoff as a problem among some houses in the community.

Water from the lower of the YMCA’s parking lots has already caused erosion on an adjoining hill, and runs directly into the yards of four or five homes in the cooperative, said Medvil Cooperative President Dave Doiron.

“It’s caused a mold problem so bad I wouldn’t even venture to go under some of those homes,” said Doiron, adding that the conditions could cause potential health problems.

However, Zebrowski said the YMCA expansion plans include drainage solutions. The project would include the removal of an outdoor tennis court to offset drainage, and the site already holds a man-made wetland that serves to retain water, Zebrowski said.

Residents also questioned whether the removal of trees to make way for additional parking spaces might add to the drainage problems.

The proposed expansion would add 21 parking spaces to the current lot, increasing the number to 247, Zebrowski said.

Medford Farms resident John Burpee said he lives three houses down from where water drains into his neighborhood from the YMCA. He said he was concerned that a parking lot expansion would force the removal of more trees, and cited a 1996 letter from code enforcement officer Derek Horne stating that the proposed number of parking spaces would constitute a surplus of parking.

Burpee also said the YMCA had promised in 1996 to build a retention pond and to plant more trees and shrubs, and that neither of those actions had been taken since.

He said he hoped the Planning Board would monitor the situation closely prior to construction.

“If the proper precautions aren’t taken by the people who need to take them then we suffer, and it’s a collective suffering,” Burpee said.

Abutting resident Jean Walker also said she worried the loss of trees due to parking lot construction would worsen the drainage problem.

“We all know those trees are like giant straws sucking up the water, and if that buffer is gone we’re going to have worse water problems than we already have,” Walker said.

Not all comments went against the expanded parking lot, though.

Tricia Wynne, who drives a bus for the YMCA, said new parking would make way for handicapped members, and that the current parking situation was not adequate. Buses sometimes take up several parking spaces at once, Wynne said.

Wynne also said changes to the current driveway design would make the traffic flow more safe.
Members of the Planning Board took no action on the proposal at their April 12 meeting, and
tabled further consideration of the matter until their meeting of May 10.