At its March meeting, by a vote of 6-1-1, the Town of Rochester Planning Board approved the application by Twin Track Promotions to add 12 non-racing commercial events to the schedule at Accord Speedway this season. In response to substantial opposition expressed by neighbors during the public comment period, which largely focused on noise impacts, Speedway owner Gary Palmer removed amplified concerts from the list of planned events.
According to Palmer’s daughter Melissa, events to be held at the site at 299 Whitfield Road could fall into four categories. Staged events, which might include dramatic theater, comedy or magic acts, would require a stage, sound and lighting equipment and grandstand seating to be set up. Vendor events such as flea markets and automobile rallies would all take place in the open field, without additional construction. Outdoor movies would involve setting up a screen, but audiences would sit in their parked cars, as at a drive-in theater. On-track events such as footraces, cycling competitions or rodeos would utilize infrastructure already in place for automobile races.
Palmer offered to cap the numbers of cars to be accommodated in the site’s parking lots during events at 499, in order to avoid triggering the most rigorous level of environmental impact review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. After closing the public hearing, the Planning Board agreed to consider the proposal as an Unlisted Action, reviewed the applicant’s SEQR Part 2 Environmental Impact Statement and issued a negative declaration (no significant environmental impacts).
Zorian Pinsky, who described the updated site plans supplied by Palmer as “sketchy” and has repeatedly asked for more studies on sound impacts, was the sole dissenter on the site plan approval vote and abstained on the neg dec vote. Peter Nelson, a recent appointee to the planning board, abstained from all votes.
In contrast to earlier sessions of the public hearing on the Accord Speedway proposal, in which public sentiment was fairly evenly divided, everyone who turned up to speak on March 11 either expressed outright opposition to the plans for additional events or asked that the public comment period be extended to give residents more time to review the updated site plans. Several speakers criticized the Town of Rochester for lack of transparency in the review process, with documents related to the application being only available by making a formal Freedom of Information Law request, instead of having links posted on the town website. Upper Whitfield Road resident Christie DeBoer, executive director of the Wallkill Valley Land Trust, said, “I’ve never had such challenges as with our town with obtaining information.”
Rebecca Horner of Cooper Street passed out photographs to planning board members of conditions on her road near the Speedway, characterizing it as narrow and winding, with no shoulders and crumbling edges flanked by deep ditches. “Nor is it built to handle large, heavy vehicles,” she said. “We do not want more traffic, which is what would happen if there were more events. It’s not good for us and it’s not good for the roads.” Citing Section 140.46 of the Town of Rochester’s zoning code, Horner also questioned the completeness of the environmental impact statements submitted by Palmer and the planning board’s right to waive some requirements, such as a stormwater pollution prevention plan.
“I live next door to the Accord Speedway, which generates sound so loud it can be heard all the way to Kerhonkson. In a town where a positive declaration is almost never issued, and when enforcement is well-known to be profoundly lacking, residents are abandoned to the whims of the business owner, whose interests may be antithetical to theirs,” said another Cooper Street resident, T. D. David. She called out chair Marc Grasso over statements he had made at previous meetings admitting to “the town’s lack of enforcement capability,” and the planning board as a whole for “approving site plans and amendments, knowing the conditions for these approved site plans will go unenforced and unregulated,” contrary to the explicit advice of town attorney David Gordon.
With regard to noise pollution issues, David said, “The Town of Rochester also allows the Accord Speedway to provide sound measurements using their own sound guy. To knowingly allow the fox to guard the henhouse is to collude with the fox. But there is a clear alternative: Do not allow businesses to supply their own data on noise; instead, require them to pay a fee for the town to take the measurements.”
By contrast, after viewing projections of the updated site plans, with brief descriptions by Melissa Palmer, town board members, with the exception of Pinsky, proclaimed their satisfaction with the changes the applicant had made. “Of any of the event projects that are in the area — we won’t name the other ones — this is probably the best-managed of any of them,” said Rick Jones. “One of the noisiest uses of this site, being a concert, is being eliminated.”
Several members argued that a streamlined environmental review process was justified by the fact that the application was for “an accessory use to an existing site plan,” referring to the original approval of the Speedway for automobile racing in 1992.
To view a recording of the full meeting, visit www.youtube.com/@townofrochester4383/streams.
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