Planning board approves Unitarian Universalist Church site plan with conditions

The Saratoga Springs Planning Board voted to approve the site plan for the Unitarian Universalist Church at 400 Loudoun Road following a presentation by the applicant’s landscape and engineering team.

Jeff Anthony of Studio A told the board the applicant had produced three design alternatives and revised the plan to reduce paving, lower parking to about 40 spaces and save mature trees. “We came and developed 3 options and alternatives … to reduce some paving, basically reconfigured the site plan so that we could save more mature trees,” he said.

Board members asked technical questions about the sidewalk alignment, how off‑site events would be handled and whether the project had the required sewer connection. The chair said the planning department had previously issued a special‑use permit and a negative declaration for environmental review in 2023, and then made the motion to approve the site plan subject to two conditions: the applicant must supply a Saratoga County Sewer District will‑serve letter for the proposed connection and stripe the parking bay closest to the church as a no‑parking area to allow vehicle turnaround.

The motion was seconded and the board voted in favor. The applicant and the chair discussed that any subsequent applications (for example a future site plan tied to a proposed building) would trigger their own separate environmental determinations.

Why it matters: the approval authorizes the church’s engineered site work as configured in the submitted plan while leaving future building‑level approvals and any event‑management conditions to later proceedings.