Andy Johnson, a civil engineer working on Northwest Bank’s building in Brooklyn Square, points out the location of trees on the site during a city Planning Commission on Tuesday. The site plan for the building was approved by commission members.

A new Northwest Bank branch in Brooklyn Square is moving forward.

A site plan for the project was approved unanimously earlier this week by the city Planning Commission. The site plan approval was tabled during the commission’s March meeting after questions arose for the site of the former Oriental Star restaurant about potential state DEC approvals that may be necessary given the site’s status as a former brownfield cleanup site and its proximity to the Chadakoin River.

Those concerns have largely been addressed in the past month. Environmental assessments have been completed, said Andy Johnson, a civil engineer working on the bank’s behalf on the project,, including a Phase 2 environmental study that includes the environmental study done for previous developments in the area. Northwest is working with an environmental engineer to come up with a disposal plan and how to deal with any soil issues that may happen during development.

“They’re looking to deal with a lot of the issues pre-development and then they’ll be looking to deal with those issues during development should they arise. So all of that disposal plan will be put together and presented to the city or whoever needs to see it prior to construction starting,” Johnson said.

Johnson said concerns over how the bank would look from the Chadakoin Riverwalk are also being addressed as slight changes are made to the back of the building. The bank is adding screens to hide its dumpsters and Johnson said he has added several pieces of landscaping – including juniper trees, rhododendrons and hydrangeas between the bank and the riverwalk that will help block the view of cars in the parking lot from the riverwalk.

“You can still see them from the sides but I think it will kind of ease the tension between the bypass lane or the exit lane and the park walkway,” Johnson said.

Other questions raised during Tuesday’s meeting by Jeff Nelson, a longtime Planning Commission member, focused on the new bank location’s proximity to the Chadakoin River and the recently completed South Main Street bridge. Johnson said development is required to be no closer than 35 feet to the river, and the way the new building is being designed it will be further away from the river than the former Oriental Star restaurant building currently sits. The new location will end up in a different look for those driving down North Main Street.

“Visually as you’re coming down South Main Street, just by the nature of this property location, it does sit in front of everything else, but not any further than it does right now,” Johnson said. “But it’s also behind a monument sign, so there’s a whole pile of things going on as you’re coming down the street.”

Northwest Bank officials want to close the retail operation of its location at Third and Main streets, though offices would remain at the downtown site. The retail bank would then move to Brooklyn Square in a more modern building with a drive-through.

“I think we’re all excited about it, enthused about it,” said Planning Commission member Greg Lindquist. “It’s going to be a vast improvement over what is currently there and in kind of in advance I wanted to state that as you get to know me, I ask a lot of questions. It’s not out of trying to tie anyone in knots or gotcha questions, it’s so I can understand what the project is and what you’re doing.”