One of Gardiner’s most prominent shopping plazas could soon get a little bit bigger. Last week, Planning Board members granted a conditional approval to a plan that would expand Gardiner Gables by adding a new 3.2-acre lot and another five stores. Robert Colucci, who owns Gardiner Gables, has owned the neighboring land at the intersection of Route 44/55 and Sand Hill Road for a long time, but it’s been vacant -- part manicured lawns and partially wooded.

“We’ve owned the property for over 15 years,” he explained. At first the lot had been primed for and approved for a residential use. “Well, we had approvals for this in 1995. That was residential approvals for multi-family.”

Colucci’s new plan for the lot, which is zoned hamlet mixed use, would have a building with 4,600 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and two apartments upstairs occupying 1,600 square feet of space.

“It’s currently broken up into five spaces,” he explained.

Right now, Colucci is still looking for businesses that might move into the new building, but nothing is set in stone.

“We would like to see a variety,” he said. “We’ve had from a restaurant, to retail, to professionals approach us.”

Late last year, neighbors came to a public hearing on the project and some people had questions about water use -- especially if the new building would dry up neighboring wells -- and others wanted to know about how the property would be screened from its neighbors.

According to Planning Board Chairman Mike Boylan, well tests performed in the area to test the draw on nearby wells gave the development a passing grade.

Colucci’s brother Paul is a member of the Planning Board, but he did not vote on or take part in the proceedings. Instead, the alternate board member Mark Rausher voted in his place. The board voted 6-0 to grant conditional approval to the Gardiner Gables expansion. Paul Muessig, the board’s vice chair, was absent and did not vote on the approval.

However, the story isn’t yet over for Gardiner Gables -- they still need to get approvals from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Ulster County Department of Health.