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Plans For Senior Housing Development On West Clarkstown Road Advance Over Residents’ Objections
A senior housing project proposed in 2021 on the 9-acre former Camp Champion site on West Clarkstown Road in New City secured the Negative Declaration under SEQRA it needed from the Clarkstown Planning Board to advance to the Zoning Board of Appeals for minor area variances.
The major issue that stalled the approval of the 121-unit senior housing complex with 217 parking spaces on the property was safety on the heavily trafficked and winding County-owned road.
Ninety accidents over two-and-a-half years, including fatalities, forced the Planning Board with AKRF (the town’s outside traffic engineer) to more closely examine whether the safety issues on the road could be mitigated.
After multiple public meetings, and various concessions, the developer agreed to fund and implement a series of mitigation measures to improve safety on the roadway.
Those measures include intersection warning signs, signal warning signs, relocation of a stop sign, pruning and clearing growth that obstructs signage, 15 MPH speed advisory plaques, and two radar speed feedback signs. The developer is also constructing a left-turn lane into its development.
A request for the installation of rumble strips at an S-curve on the road was rejected by the County, saying the rumble strips create noise that would affect residents on the road. And Verizon wire that obstructed a traffic signal was removed by Verizon prior to the meeting.
The developer did agree to install ground reflectors on a dangerous curve, contingent on the County granting permission.
Iconic Former Sheraton Mahwah Hotel’s Demolition Slated For April
Shuttered since 2023, the former Sheraton Mahwah Hotel property is slated for demolition on April 27. The demolition by implosion is a massive coordination project involving New Jersey state agencies, local police, fire, engineers and demolition experts. Potentially dangerous materials, including asbestos have been removed from the building. Routes 287 and 17 will be closed. Dust and debris controls are planned.
Although no new site plan has been submitted, expectations are that a warehouse/distribution center will replace the hotel.
Ford Motor Company had a large assembly plant at the site until 1980. The hotel was constructed in 1986 and closed in December of 2023.
Crossroads Developers Associates owns the property and previously submitted a plan for two large warehouses totaling about 1.5 million square feet. Large warehouses dot the landscape nearby for brands including Chefman, Amazing Savings, Jaguar/Land Rover.
Just across the border in the Village of Suffern, on the sprawling former-Novartis campus, once used for manufacturing and distributing pharmaceuticals, a warehouse hub of over 1.2 million square feet is under construction.
Remediation of Paint Sludge Scheduled For Former Camp Hill Day Camp Site In Pomona
Behind the million-dollar homes on Lea Court in Pomona and at the former site of the Camp Hill Day Camp, the New York State DEC has announced an “expedited” clean-up of the third of three sites labeled the “Ramapo Paint Sludge Sites.” The waste paint sludge was dumped from Ford Motor Company’s Mahwah assembly plant prior to 1980.
The cleanup will be undertaken by the Ford Motor Company and is expected to begin in April and last about seven months.
The site is listed as a Class “2” site in the State Registry of Inactive Hazardous Waste Sites (list of State Superfund sites). A Class 2 site represents a significant threat to public health or the environment.
The cleanup plan includes excavation and off-site disposal of approximately 13,335 tons of contaminated soil, including soil impacted with visible paint sludge, to a depth of about 14 feet below ground surface and the importation of clean material backfill. Post-cleanup plans include a Health and Safety Plan, Community Air Monitoring Plan, and a Traffic Control Plan.
The site is 2.5 acres, east of 9 Lea Court in Pomona. It is undeveloped and has an earthen berm running along the eastern boundary which contains a man-made pond. The earthen berm was constructed from the illegal disposal of waste paint sludge from the Ford’s Mahwah, New Jersey assembly plant.
The primary contaminants of concern (COCs) at the site are associated with paint sludge and include:
- Volatile organic compounds (VOCs): acetone, benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylene:
- Semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs): naphthalene; and,
- Metals: barium, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, and zinc.
These COCs are present within the proposed excavation footprint down to approximately 14 feet below surface grade.
This cleanup is the third effort to remediate paint sludge dumped by Ford Motor Company. The other two sites, which have already been remediated, were at the North of Ramapo Well Field (consisting of a 40-acre area bounded on the east by the Ramapo River) and the Torne Valley Road Site (just east of the Torne Brook).
The Lea Court/Camp Hill Day Camp site encroaches on a NYS regulated wetland and is adjacent to residential development.
The DEC and the Ford Motor Company entered into a Consent Order to clean up the sites in March of 2006.
Headache For Simon Property Group With Forever 21 Bankruptcy
Simon Property Group Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust and the largest U.S. shopping mall owner, acquired a 37.5 percent stake in Forever 21, the fast-fashion clothing retailer that recently filed for bankruptcy and plans to close over 200 locations.
In 2020, Simon Property Group, along with Authentic Brands Group and Brookfield Property Partners, bought Forever 21’s assets for $81 million.
Locally, Forever 21 is closing its stores at the Palisades Center in West Nyack, the Westchester in White Plains, and Cross County Center in Yonkers. It also has an outlet store in Woodbury Commons.
Simon, through various associations, has interests in other retailers including Brooks Bros., Rue Gilt, and J.C Penney.
Complex tax rules generally prohibit REITs that own malls from also owning retail tenants though Simon had previously lobbied to relax those rules. Shares of Simon Property Group fell about 12 percent prior to Forever 21’s bankruptcy filing.
Recently, Simon Property Group sold The Shops at Nanuet, its struggling outdoor shopping plaza, to local real estate developer Gabe Alexander for $60 million. The sale fit in with Simon’s strategy to focus on revitalizing its mid-tier “B” grade malls after years of prioritizing its “A” grade malls.
Simon owns The Westchester Mall in White Plains and Woodbury Commons in Central Valley. Forever 21 has 21 locations in Simon Premium Outlet Malls. Forever 21’s trademark, intellectual property, and international locations are unaffected by the bankruptcy filing.
