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General News: Town Delays Action of Building Permit Waiver

Architect Vince Pietrzak shows a close-up of the plan for the warehouse expansion.
Architect Vince Pietrzak shows a close-up of the plan for the warehouse expansion.
May 10, 2011

The Cornwall town board on Monday delayed a decision on whether to grant a waiver to the owner of the former Star warehouse in Mountainville that would allow him to apply for a building permit. Owner Zigmond Brach had appealed for the waiver, citing extraordinary hardship created by a lack of warehouse space for his business that operates in California and New York. Last September the town adopted a moratorium on new building permits pending the outcome of a review of its comprehensive plan.

Town board members decided to table a decision on the waiver after hearing from three residents who live near the Industry Drive facility. Joe DiSalvo urged the board to consider whether the proposed 50,000 square foot addition could have a detrimental impact on the environment. He said that he has seen chemical drums, industrial waste and garbage at the site and thought the town should look into that before making a decision on the exemption. Another resident, Michael Mattuausch, wrote a letter expressing his concerns about the environmental status of the property and about the whether the proposed addition would affect his private water supply.

Town board members decided to further investigate the conditions at the property before granting a waiver that would allow the owner to apply for a building permit. The moratorium on new permits is set to expire in September.



Comments:

This is disapointing. The proposer is going to provide construction jobs to build the fecility and perhaps with the added sq footage hire a few more people. So we put up a roadblock on alleged environmental concerns?


posted by j h on 05/10/11 at 8:17 PM

The "proposer" may provide construction jobs. Construction jobs however are temporary in nature with no guarantee that the construction workers will be from the Cornwall community. The additional warehouse space can only increase the heavy truck traffic that already plagues the surrounding neighborhood, day and night as a continual flow of tractor-trailers bring their heavy cargos to abrupt stops and starts on Route 32 at the facility entrance. Anyone who lives within earshot of the facility knows this perpetual racket all too well and is forced to live with it. Local government support of expansion in this facility could only serve to increase the volume of noise, truck traffic and chaos for local residents surrounding the facility, negatively effecting their quality of life and reducing their real property value. At what point do the interests of private property owners become subordinate to the interests of a warehouse business?


posted by Joseph DiSalvo on 05/11/11 at 8:18 AM

Th think the location serves well. Right behind the facility is the largest highway in the State of New York and Route 32 is no stranger to trucks traveling through the area. With that said John you do have several good points about Northern 9W. I guess There needs to be a balance with Industrual, commercial and residential in Cornwall, something to help offset taxes, create jobs etc.


posted by j h on 05/12/11 at 3:02 PM

The noise created by the constant coming and going of commercial freight, from the existing warehouse facility is no reason to make a bad situation worse by a huge expansion of the facility, so an industrial developer can increase profits, especially if you are one of the private property owners that must put up with the noise and potential devaluation of your own property. It?s easy to suggest that there needs to be a balance between industrial, commercial and residential development in Cornwall. Especially if your property is ensconced in a quiet area. But for people living in areas bordering commercial/industrial property its not that simple. Industrial/commercial developers have well established track records of bringing large projects to local communities for profit, only to leave residents with unfinished projects or improvements to the local infrastructure that must be paid for by taxpayers in order to remedy the very problems created by the projects. Balance is an easy concept, especially if you're not the pivot point.


posted by Joseph DiSalvo on 05/13/11 at 6:41 AM

Joe,
I do understand the concerns of neighboring residences. It is conjecture that this development will leave behind a legacy of problems such as those in other areas of other projects. with that said, if it were my house, next to this site, I would be angry also. There should be a study conducted to fully evaluate your concerns and transparency on the part of the business to justify the expansion.


posted by j h on 05/16/11 at 1:53 PM

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