Southeast Board Mulls Zoning Change for Logistics Center
The Southeast town board could be faced with more zoning decisions as a wide scale logistics center is being proposed off Route 312 in town.
During a meeting last Thursday, representatives of Northeast Interstate Logistics came in front of the town board in hopes of getting board members to sign off on zoning changes that could usher in a 100,000 million square center.
The project, which would essentially be a distribution center located between Route 312 and Puglsey Road, needs the town board to include the use of a logistics center into the zoning code that the zoning code doesn’t currently address. There would be four buildings on the land once it’s developed with the closest warehouse 1,000 feet from Route 312.
“It’s highly coveted and highly desirable now as a result of particularly e-commerce, the demand for consumer delivery,” attorney representing the project, Dan Richmond said, noting there is a difference between a warehouse and a logistics center. “It’s very in demand in this economy.”
Currently, the parcel is zoned for more than 100 homes through 2020.
Richmond said since the group met with the town board last year, representatives for the project have met with the town planning consultant, residents and the planning board, which is the lead agency for the project’s SEQRA.
Richmond said the zoning code would need to allow logistics centers to be a permitted use particularly in the section of town where the project would be situated. Barrett Road would need to be privatized and the town would need to send a letter to the state department of transportation requesting Puglsey Road be an access highway support, Richmond said
The project would be an “economic boon” for Putnam County and town, Richmond claimed. He said there would be 800 jobs during the construction phase and 900 jobs during the operation of the facility. Once the center is in full operation, it would result in $90 million a year in economic input, Richmond said, while not resulting in any school children or major water demands. There would be about $2 million of new taxes generated over ten years if the project were to come to fruition, Richmond said, including if Northeast Interstate Logistics received tax benefits from the Industrial Development Agency.
More than 80 percent of the parcel would remain open space, Richmond said.
To accommodate site related traffic, Rich Pearson of JMC Site Development Consultants said the town could mitigate it by creating a roundabout at Route 312 and Puglsey Road. Other signal and lane use improvements at the Interstate 84 ramps, he said.
Neighbors near the project expressed several concerns, including the volume of trucks that would travel to the logistics center and how long they would remain idle with the engine on. Noise and health impacts were brought up by more than one resident during the meeting.
Richmond said those neighbors concerned about health and noise affects on the community should read the DEIS that’s been put together and there would be no adverse affects to the air.
“I think you’ll be comforted by that,” Richmond told a resident about the noise and air quality analysis in the DEIS.
“I have a hard time believing 500 diesel trucks are not going to have any impact on air quality,” resident Bernadette Brandon said later in the meeting. “The traffic itself, the impact on the roads, the impact on the watershed.”
