Students at SUNY New Paltz and Crunchwrap Supreme aficionados may soon be rejoicing as the Town of New Paltz Planning Board recently declared itself lead agency for a proposed Taco Bell on Main Street.
The Taco Bell, should it come to pass, would include a single story 2,192-square-foot building with 32 indoor seats, ten outdoor seats and a drive-thru. If the 238 Main Street location sounds fast food familiar, the Taco Bell would occupy the south end of a property that is already home to a Burger King. Nearby, across Main Street, is a McDonald’s.
Attorney Matthew Ingber from the Melville-based law firm of Brown, Altman and DiLeo, represented developer Haza Bell NE, LLC during a meeting of the planning board held on Thursday, May 30. The project has previously come before the municipal board twice before, the first in October 2023, and most recently on Monday, March 11 of this year. As occurs with most proposals, commercial, residential, or otherwise, there have been a wide range of questions that need answers and changes of varying degrees of difficulty. In the case of the latter, the degrees of change have been fairly minimal: A slight elevation variation relating to landscaping on the south side of the building and along the drive-thru; paint on an exterior wall has been changed to appear less monolithic; transoms have been added to windows on all but the south side.
“The elevations have been revised to have a softer look as the former black brick that was presented at the last meeting has been replaced with lighter colors, really consisting of shades of gray, of a pewter and a copper stone,” Ingber said. “Other than that revision, the site plan is substantially the same as the plan that was previously presented to this board back on March 11.”
“I think it looks very clean,” said board member Jane Schanberg. “The gray is really helpful. It’s much cleaner looking.”
Ingber added that the New York State Department of Transportation had approved full movement access along Main Street, and a study prepared by Stonefield, a Rutherford, New Jersey-based civil engineering firm, which found that the project would not create an impact on the traffic operations at the adjacent traffic signal. Ingber said the correspondence with the DOT was provided to the town on Wednesday, May 8.
Nick Tortorella, a traffic and transportation engineer with Stonefield, said there were still minor comments from the DOT being addressed, including replacing the sidewalk in front of the planned Taco Bell with one that meets with current municipal standards.
“We have submitted the Stage 2 of the highway work permit application,” Tortorella said. “We are in the process of responding to those comments and will update the board once DOT signs off on the highway work permit application itself.”
Planning board attorney Ashley Torre said there was a provision in the approval for the Burger King dating back to 1987, which required that no further development on the site would be permitted unless traffic flow patterns were modified to utilize the adjoining plaza and pass-through for a signalized intersection. There is a belief among the applicant based upon feedback from the DOT that such a modification might not be necessary, and the town’s traffic consultant, Carlito Holt, is reviewing as well.
In addition to assuming lead agency status, the town planning board approved referring the proposal to the Ulster County Planning Board. The Taco Bell project is likely to have its first public hearing on Monday, June 24.
Haza Bell is a division of the Haza Group, a Sugarland, Texas-based company with a focus on quick service restaurants. To date, Haza Bell is the franchise holder for 144 Taco Bell locations across the United States.
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