The Blooming Gardens project, set for Spring Street in the city, has officially received approval for the State Environmental Quality Review, site plan and drainage plan from the city Planning Commission.

The Blooming Gardens project is being done in a collaboration between CODE Inc. and Southern Tier Environments for Living. The project comes as an addition to a previous project that was denied state funding in a recent round from New York State Homes and Community Renewal for a project that involved the rehabilitation of 34 units owned by CODE and the construction of four new units to be owned by STEL. The new plan involves taking the original 38 units and adding to them a new construction of seven different multi-unit houses on Spring Street, on the west side just south of Crossman Street. The parcels, which are currently vacant lots, would have two units each of one-bedroom housing and be managed by STEL for their clients, which were noted to be mainly those with mental health issues.

Architect Matt Long presented the project to the commission again at the most recent Planning Commission meeting. Following the previous time they came before the commission in May, Long said there were a few things that were changed in the project after the commission’s feedback. Previous comments included looking at aspects such as setback variances, having a garbage area, some changes to driveways and some other aspects of the landscaping plan which Long discussed with the commission, including the locations of some maple and ash trees and the grating plan.

The planning commission expressed a concern with the site’s drainage plan, which is something that has also changed to drain everything towards the back of the property. There was a question of if the back may become a swampy area, which Long said he did not think it would.

“I don’t think so because if you look at the existing condition now … from our knowledge from the surveyor, and the surveyor went out there is no storm drain on the street, it’s just a sanitary sewer,” Long said. “So we can’t connect anything in the front, that was one of the comments that was brought up as well, that we would connect the storm liters there.”

As far as the drop in the landscape behind the property goes, Long said the existing will not change much, rather just have it so there is a better way to take care of it. He added that he did not think it would be an issue.

“My understanding, the way for single and two-family houses is to take care of the storm water as best you can and not make it … in worse condition than it was prior,” Long said.

Roof drains were then discussed for the project, and Mark Roetzer, Director of Public Works, recommended that the project’s roof drains be aimed out towards Spring Street. The locations of storm sewers on Spring Street around the project also came up, along with the project’s overall landscaping plan.

Long said the goal is for everyone to have a long-term sustainable and nice project. He also addressed trash bin storage and placement, and a few other aspects previously discussed with the commission. He said he felt that it was a nice site for infill housing — building new residential or commercial structures on vacant land — as well, which the city has had a focus on recently.

The commission noted that there is no problem with the project’s SEQR application, with no expected negative environmental impact from the project. The SEQR application, site plan, and drainage plan were all approved by the planning commission, with the next steps being the project going before the County Planning Board.