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Residents in Nearby Neighborhoods Off Old Haverstraw Road May Be Impacted
REAL ESTATE
The developer of the Cedar Corners warehouse project in Congers returned to the Clarkstown Planning Board with two announcements: first, they’ve revised the scoping for its Draft Environmental Impact Statement to include concerns raised by the various government agencies charged with assessing the environmental impacts of the project; and, second, they have increased the size of the project from its prior submission.
These announcements were made to a largely empty room, even though nearly 600,000 square feet of proposed warehouse space will sit about 200 yards from the residential neighborhood of single-family homes off Old Haverstraw Road in Congers, lined with cul-de-sacs such as Berry Court, Alpine Court, and Glen Court.
The plan calls for the development of 41 acres comprising 16 distinct tax lots. The lots would be merged into three developable parcels, with warehouses planned for two of the three parcels. The third parcel has a conceptual plan for retail or fast-food, but no specific plans have been submitted to the town for that parcel.
Vanta Developers, a Brooklyn-based developer of industrial properties and multifamily communities in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, is the owner and developer and is working with the Town Planning Board on scoping for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Once the DEIS is complete and approved by the Planning Board in a public hearing, the environmental review will begin.
The meeting was part of a continuing process to allow residents and land use professionals to weigh in on the “scoping” of the DEIS, a process required under SEQRA, the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The DEIS addresses potential significant adverse environmental impacts that can be reasonably anticipated and/or have been identified in the scoping process.
The largest of the three lots will house 383,652 square feet of warehouse in two buildings with 71 berths and would be occupied by a single user for warehousing, not manufacturing, according to the developer. The smaller lot contains a 187,000 square foot warehouse building and would be used by up to 28 occupants, such as electricians, carpenters, and plumbers.
The site is designated by New York State as a “significant natural community,” populated with oak and tulip forests, and is part of a 175-acre contiguous habitat for wildlife, according to the developer. The DEIS will expand on the impacts the project will have on that habitat and verify the developer’s submission as to the scope and size of the natural habitat.
The site also has 5.5 acres of wetlands as well as wetlands contiguous to adjacent sites. The DEIS will also look at the likelihood of groundwater contamination at the site and preservation of the wetlands.
If approved, impervious surfaces (hard surfaces that prevent water from soaking into the ground) will cover more than 21 of the 41 acres of the project site.
Part of the revised plan now adds 299 Route 303 North, a 2.5 acre wooded site. The developer is offering to keep that parcel undeveloped as open space with a conservation easement.
The area in Congers along Route 303 is designated as a “Disadvantaged Community” under the NYS DEC guidelines, requiring a more detailed analysis of the environmental impacts to ensure that the community benefits from the state’s transition to cleaner, greener sources of energy, reduced pollution and cleaner air, making the mitigation of air quality issues from diesel sources and trucking more important.
The various parcels are zoned for Commercial Office (CO), Commercial Office Support (COS) and Local Shopping (LS), which allow commercial uses. Because of the size of the property, over 41 acres, no variances are anticipated.
The developer has declined to disclose whether it has tenants for the project or who the tenants are for the various buildings. It has indicated that the users of the larger warehouses would likely be interstate trucking companies.
This lack of information has repeatedly been an issue as Clarkstown and other Rockland municipalities continue to field ongoing warehouse applicants seeking Planning Board approval. As residents have pointed out — particularly in the case of the Lincoln Equities warehouse project, which remains empty, on Route 303 in Congers — it is impossible for the town to adequately evaluate proposals if it cannot truly gauge the use and traffic impacts of the project.
Primary access to the site will be from Route 303, a New York State road under the jurisdiction of the NYS Department of Transportation.
The proposal is broken down into three development projects, but SEQRA requires the assessment of the entire project, not just its individual parts. Segmentation, the process of breaking a larger development into smaller projects to avoid meaningful environmental review, is prohibited under SEQRA.
Proposed Lot 1 consists of two warehouse/office buildings connected by a common corridor with a total of 383,652 square feet. The maximum height of the building is 40 feet. While 402 parking spaces are required per Town code for the proposed buildings, 404 parking spaces are provided along with 71 loading berths.
The proposal for Lot 2 consists of a conceptual fast food drive-thru restaurant with a building area of approximately 1,800 square feet and 36 parking spaces. Lot 2 would front Route 303, just to the south of Congers Colonial Plaza.
The proposal for Lot 3 called for a conceptual two-story building proposed for warehouse and offices. The original plan was for a combined office/warehouse of 147,600 square feet with 209 parking spaces. The revised plan is no longer conceptual and ups the square footage to 187,200 square feet. The maximum height of the building is 35 feet. 192 parking spaces are proposed. The expected tenants are small users such as machine shops and automotive repair workers.
The Rockland County Planning Department, in its review of the proposed draft scoping document, had several issues, including the loss of the existing forest and its impact on climate, and number and type of trees that will need to be replanted. The County also recommended an analysis of energy impacts and an evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions, a study of existing wetlands and efforts to avoid potential negative impacts on those wetlands, as well as the fiscal and economic impacts of the proposed development.
The property is bordered by Route 303 to the east. Multifamily residential is located north of the site, CSX railroad tracks are west of the site, and warehouse and manufacturing uses are located south of the site. The property surrounds an existing shopping center and parking lot and existing dwellings with access off Meola Road which connects to NYS Route 303. Single-family residential homes are to the west, across the CSX railroad tracks and adjacent to town-owned land known as the “celery” or “onion” fields.
Warehouse projects on Route 303 have generally met with opposition from the New York State Department of Transportation with extensive mitigating steps required before approvals are granted. The DOT has jurisdiction over Route 303, as it is a state road.
Development along the Route 303 corridor includes projects by Intercos for additional warehouse space, and Chartwell and Aktina for expansion of their existing facilities.
