In HV1’s coverage of elections to municipal office in recent years, campaign promises to enhance “transparency” have been a striking recurrent theme. It’s an issue that plays well on both sides of the party aisle, and the mood of the electorate seems to be trending toward strong dislike for unpleasant surprises. So, officials in the Town of Plattekill find themselves juggling a political hot potato right now: All over southern Ulster County, a large number of residents are up in arms over the proposal to build what is being called a “mega-warehouse” on Route 44/55 in the hamlet of Modena, between Routes 208 and 32, near the border of the Town of Gardiner.
This proposal by an applicant identifying itself as Modena Developers, LLC, bears all the hallmarks of the sort of large industrial development guaranteed to bring environmentalists out in droves, along with neighboring residents concerned about traffic congestion and noise impacts. But what is particularlysparking local ire in this case is the low profile that the project has enjoyed up until about a month ago, when a few alert individuals raised the alarm.
Photographs of pages of the application and supplemental materials quickly began to circulate on social media in Plattekill and surrounding towns, and a dedicated Facebook group called STOP THE MEGA WAREHOUSE (www.facebook.com/groups/688521173268760/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=689940866460124) was created to share information. The images disclosed that the site plan and special use permit application were filed with the Town in March of 2023. The traffic study was done in November 2022. Why, local residents are asking, are we only finding out about this now, when the public comment period is already in progress?
Obtaining copies of the pertinent documents is not being made easy: Unlike other municipalities in this digital age, the Town of Plattekill website does not provide links to electronic versions, so that residents could acquaint themselves with the particulars before participating in public hearings. Inquiries to Planning Board clerk Janice Stryker reveal that residents are invited to visit Town Hall to peruse the documents in person, photograph them or pay for copies, or to submit a FOIL requestand wait five or more business days to obtain them. (It seems safe to say that most average citizens don’t even know where to begin to FOIL a document.)
Nor does the Town offer a means to attend Town Board and Planning Board meetings remotely via Zoom, or to watch them after the fact on a YouTube channel. Attempts by this reporter to determine when exactly the warehouse proposal was discussed, and what was said about it, by reading the minutes of past meetings on the Town website (https://town.plattekill.ny.us/government/planning-board) led to the documents being instantly quarantined by antivirus software in every case. Thus, it’s unclear even when the public hearing on this proposal commenced. No wonder many who are commenting on social media are drawing the conclusion that Town officials are trying to sweep this controversial proposal under the rug.
The particulars of the proposal, based on photographicimages or transcriptions from copies of the application documents, make it clear that this project has potential high impact on this rural area of southern Ulster. The site’s nearest neighbors are apple orchards. The proposed warehouse clocks in at 451,050 square feet: nearly ten acres covered by a single structure, with 75 tractor/trailer loading docks. The applicant estimates that 32 acres of the 50-acre site at 2021 Route 44 – currently consisting of forest, meadow and federal– and state-designated wetlands – will be developed, including 116 parking spaces, adding up to 15 acres of impervious surface. An existing pond is slated to be filled in. The facility is projected to utilize three million kilowatt hours of electricity annually and 1,725 gallons of water per day. Runoff impacts and wastewater treatment are hot-button issues being raised by local environmentalists.
But of all the potential problems that this project puts on neighbors’ radar, the one that seems alarming to most is road congestion. The traffic impact study issued in January 2023 by Chittenango-based GTS Consulting categorizes the proposed shipping hub as a “minor overall traffic generator with approximately 50 vehicles entering/18 vehicles exiting during the morning peak hour and 23 vehicles entering/58 vehicles exiting during the evening peak hour.” Many locals aren’t buying that impact as “minor.” Town of Gardiner Environmental Conservation Commission member Roberta Clements observes, “By their own calculations there will be an additional 224 cars per day based on an eight-hour day. The applicant is assuming a 12–hour day with 270 trucks per day/11 trucks per hour – which is surely an underestimation, but at best is still unsustainable for the road and the community. This may be ‘minor’ traffic for the Cross Bronx Expressway, but is an exponential and unsustainable increase in these communities.”
The commercial entrance/exit to the facility, some note, is on a hilly stretch of 44/55 with limited sight distances. Others have posted diagrams showing how the turning radius of asemitrailer will inevitably force these trucks into oncoming traffic lanes when they turn onto Routes 32 North, 208 or 9W, which they will need to do to reach major commercial arteries such as the New York State Thruway, Route 84 or the Mid-Hudson or Newburgh/Beacon Bridge. Clements writes, “This project needs to be scaled down to an appropriate size for the area or not occur at all. This is a project that is more suitably placed near the I-87 Thruway or I-84 corridor. Gardiner and Plattekill are residential communities with a few farms left spotting the area, but truly we are bedroom communities now,and this project is not appropriate.”
There are, of course, some commenters on these social media sites who see any commercial development as positive, generating local jobs and bolstering the Town of Plattekill tax base. But the cries of alarm so far predominate, and anti-warehouse lawn signs are starting to pop up all over southern Ulster. A petition to stop the “Amazon-sized warehouse” project has been started on Change.org (www.change.org/p/halt-the-construction-of-a-massive-warehouse-in-modena?recruiter=13374006&fbclid=IwAR0zwc7eqIEnvJ_hvoTlPGfPyEzAbLQdVbiPODtleF4KqVM70BEpGHxgUVI), citing noise pollution, traffic congestion, safety and environmental concerns.
Meanwhile, just over the borderline, the Gardiner Town Board is girding itself for a broader battle against this perceived threat. At its meeting on January 9, the board made plans to retain attorney David N. Yaffe of Hamburger, Maxson & Yaffe, LLP, to represent Gardiner in any litigation involving neighboring townships over the warehouse and its potential regional impacts. It also voted to have Gardiner’s environmental engineering consultants, Sterling Environmental Services, review the plans for the warehouse, and to engage hydrogeologist Paul Rubin to study potential impacts on an important aquifer recharge area.
The public comment period for the warehouse application, originally scheduled for January 11, has been extended, and the public hearing will continue at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, January 23 at Plattekill Town Hall, located at 1915 Route 44/55 in Modena. Comments can be submitted via e-mail to plattekillplan@yahoo.com.
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