Residents Contend Bus Depot is Destroying Neighborhood
Contending a bus depot that has been operating for two years without approval has already “proven to be a bad neighbor,” residents of Verplanck urged the Cortlandt Planning Board last week not to give the applicant the green light.
Residents in the surrounding area of 301 6th Street maintained the small hamlet was not equipped to handle the daily traffic generated by the school buses and employees of Montauk Student Transport, which currently services the Putnam Valley School District.
“The noise and excessive parade of buses and employee vehicles and taxis from dawn to dusk is literally driving me out of my home,” said Rosemarie Muscolo, a 30-year resident who lives on 11th Street and Broadway.
“The scale of this project does not belong in Verplanck,” Frank Muscolo, Rosemarie’s husband, remarked. “The devil is in the details and these details all point in the same direction: This is a terrible project for us. It’s just a crime if this is allowed to continue.”
Montauk originally submitted plans to the town in March 2015, and then resubmitted plans five months later, for approval for 92 parking spaces for full and van-size buses and 95 spaces for passenger vehicles, along with use of an existing 4,200-square-foot garage facility, on almost five acres. A stop work order was issued by the town’s Code Enforcement Office in 2014 for enlarging a parking lot, but that was resolved.
A stipulation was then apparently reached with town officials allowing Montauk to operate while pursuing Planning Board approval, with one of the conditions being that property taxes were paid in full.
“Three years and counting is too much for a small community to bear,” said Bernie Vaughey, who has lived on Broadway for more than 60 years. “Verplanck is a hamlet. There are no sidewalks, barely any shoulder. Residents walk on roadways, ride bicycles, push baby strollers. They now share the roadway with buses. Why?”
“Just getting into my car every day is a challenge,” said Kim O’Brien of 6th Street. “I have to scream every day to slow down. It’s like a 12-hour shift living on a highway. This is not good for residents.”
Riverkeeper stated in an April 28 letter to the Planning Board that a full environmental review of the proposed project should be required since it “may create potentially significant environmental impacts to the Hudson when the site discharges sediment and other pollutants into the river in stormwater runoff.”
Several Planning Board members sympathized with the concerns raised by residents.
“We are very concerned about certain aspects of this application. There are problems on this site,” Chairman Loretta Taylor said. “We don’t know if we can fix all the problems. We are a long way away. Don’t be overly disturbed about this. We do hear you.”
“I think speed and safety,” Planner Bob Foley mentioned of two of the biggest concerns with the proposal. “I think we have a lot to consider.”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
