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Project Pending Since 2022 Needs Village SEQRA Declaration Before DEC Can Address Remediation Needs
Developers of a proposed 454,000 square-foot warehouse on Grassy Point Road and East Railroad Avenue in the Village of West Haverstraw have asked the Village land use boards to move their application forward, and have requested a SEQRA determination, positive or negative, so the DEC can weigh in on how to manage the environmental remediation and mitigation at this former construction and demolition debris landfill.
Terresa Bakner, a partner with Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP told land-use board members last month the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is “just waiting for the Village to make a decision on the applications.” She added that, “a number of Environmental Studies have been performed, as well as a Traffic Impact Study, Lighting Study, Wetland Study, and Stormwater Impact Study.”
Village of Haverstaw Attorney John Edwards agreed it was time to move forward with the application, but said that “there are still items that the Boards have requested that have not been received.”
Despite the lack of a SEQRA declaration, the application appears to be gaining momentum while the developer endeavors to iron out the environmental hurdles with the NYS DEC over how to cap the construction landfill. For the project to proceed, the agency must be satisfied the landfill can be safely capped and that controls are in place to monitor the site going forward.
The warehouse project, borders a residential neighborhood to the west, Minisceongo Creek to the east, and Rockland Green’s planned conversion of an empty warehouse into a new animal shelter to the north. The 454,000 square foot project, with 76 truck bays will operate 24/7 though no tenant has yet been secured, according to the developer. One of the two driveways into the project is directly across the narrow Ecology Lane from the planned animal shelter. The other will be on Grassy Point Road.
In a joint meeting last month before the West Haverstraw zoning and planning boards, Joe Pomante from Boswell Engineering presented a video that showed a computer generated aerial view of the proposed building, site and different surrounding views, including the views from the adjacent residential neighborhoods.
The project sits in the Village’s PLI (Planned Light Industrial) zone which allows for warehouse uses as-of-right, but the developer is requesting two variances. The first is a request for a height variance from 35 to 43 feet. The second is for parking from 908 spaces required under the Village code to 369 spaces. Bakner said that the “Village’s parking regulations are outdated,” and that a warehouse does not need that much asphalt. She also said that all of the warehouses that she has worked on have been the same height – 43 feet, an industry standard.
The developers’ plans to mitigate the impact on neighbors include larger than required setbacks, buffers and walls. The plans call for setback three to five times as large as required under the Village zoning code. The video also shows the visual impacts on the neighbors from each of the nearby residential streets.
Despite these efforts, the project still raises several concerns including noise, truck traffic on narrow flood-prone roads, the proximity to the train crossing on Route 9W, and the fact that the applicant says it does not have a specific tenant.
One Board member asked if trucks will be idling outside of the warehouse, and was told no. New York State law limits the amount of time that trucks can idle and imposes heavy fines for violations.
Another member expressed concern about traffic on Railroad Avenue, which he says was already a “big issue now with all of the trucks, school buses, and cars.” Concerns were also raised about impact of added traffic on freight train crossings and on EMS (fire trucks and ambulance) service.
The developers had already conducted a traffic study and agreed to hire and pay for a traffic engineer to assist with traffic management and mitigation.
When Rockland County’s Department of Planning did a GML review of the project in May of 2022, it noted the traffic study relied on a less intense warehouse use (ITE-150 – General warehousing) and did not consider the possible impacts of more intensive warehouse uses such as package hubs or fulfillment centers, which generate greater truck traffic.
The project has been pending before the Village’s Planning and Zoning Boards since 2022 without receiving a SEQRA declaration, positive or negative. The declaration would enable the application to advance so that the environmental impacts can be further studied, alternatives proposed, and mitigation of impacts addressed. Without a SEQRA declaration, the project cannot advance.
What looms large for now are the environmental challenges of cleaning up and capping the landfill, which is filled with construction and demolition debris and off-gassing methane – just like the Haverstraw Town-owned landfill just on the other side of Ecology Lane. The proposed animal shelter sits between two landfills that, according to the developer’s expert at Boswell Engineering of Hackensack, New Jersey, leach heavy metals in the water table beneath the proposed animal shelter.
Rockland Green acquired the site for the animal shelter on Ecology Lane well after the plans for the 24/7 warehouse were announced.
The site, once owned by North Rockland Associates since 1969, was an active construction and demolition debris landfill through the mid-1990s. Before that the site was a clay pit quarry used when Haverstraw was a brick-making center. When the clay pit was exhausted, it became a dumping ground for construction material. In 2019, the North Rockland Associates site was transferred to a new entity, Grassy Point Bend LLC, owned by Bergstol.
The North Rockland Associates site, as it was known, is listed on the NYSDEC’s Solid Waste Site Mitigation and Remediation Priority List.
It is unknown why the DEC never took steps to ensure that the landfill was properly closed, or why the former owner abandoned its obligations to close and maintain the site in accordance with New York State law.
The DEC noted in a letter dated May 30, 2024 that the former Construction and Demolition Debris landfill was never properly “closed” after it ceased accepting debris in the 1993, and that re-use of the property required proper closure as part of the developer’s application.
