The Town of Montgomery’s March 11 planning board meeting marked the debut of a new project: a 46,550-square-foot self-storage facility proposed for Route 416, south of Neelytown Road, that was submitted by Steve Michalski.

Jim Ullrich, President of Alpine Environmental Consultants Alpine Environmental, represented the applicant and gave a presentation to the board and residents. The project’s facility would take up 6.85 acres and include a well, a septic system, and a 600-square-foot, one-person office. Ullrich and his team devised two potential plans for the project, a warehouse and storage facility, but decided to go with the latter after receiving feedback during a planning board work session.

“We advanced both projects and came to a planning board work session at which the members said they much preferred to see the self-storage over another warehouse at this location. That’s the application you see before you,” Ullrich said.

As of that meeting, the applicant and developers have filed a floodplain development plan, a historical site analysis, and a preliminary application to the New York State DOT. Currently, they are brainstorming design elements for the facility that would fit with the surrounding area’s aesthetics.

“Another comment we received from the work session was to try to not have this be your standard tin can storage unit,” Ullrich said. So Mr. Michalski is looking for some design features on the front building, cupolas, or something of that nature to make it look a little more like a farm building than a self-storage unit.”

Ullrich also noted that, while he does not expect the facility to generate tractor-trailer traffic, the applicant may provide storage for contractors.

“We also put in a preliminary app to the DOT because we’re on a state highway, so they wanted to see truck movements,” Ullrich said. “99.9% of this is going to be people’s personal vehicles and pickup trucks and so forth. Although for the back section of the larger building, Mr. Michalski is considering doing some contractor spaces.”

Members of the planning board stated that they would look over the submission and requested that the developers assemble architectural plans and speak with the Montgomery Fire Department about emergency procedures.