Environmental issues will be on the agenda tomorrow when developers of a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter meet with advisers to the town’s Planning Board.
The advisers are expected to review revisions the developer made to a draft environmental impact statement and “determine whether it could be considered complete by the Planning Board,” First Deputy Town Attorney Alan Berman said yesterday.
If at a subsequent meeting the Planning Board is satisfied with the completeness of the draft, a public hearing would be scheduled to solicit comments from residents.
The issues to be discussed at tomorrow’s session, which will begin at 11:40 a.m. in Town Hall, are likely to include some on the minds of residents in the area.
Drainage, sewer capacities, traffic and the visual impact of a nearly quarter-million-square-foot building are among the issues surrounding the development, which would be on the site of a long-closed drive-in theater east of the Route 59-Route 306 intersection.
Developers envisioned traffic relief in 200- and 300-foot turn lanes, traffic signal coordination and the relocation of a park-and-ride lot now off Route 59 to a new location off Saddle River Road (Route 306 south of Route 59).
Those opinions were part of a report submitted to the town in February by planners for the builder, National Realty and Development Corp. of Purchase.
In the report, the developer responded to concerns of the Planning Board advisory committee, a group including Berman, Town Engineer Paul Gdanski, Receiver of Taxes Nat Oberman and John Lang, Ramapo’s planning consultant.
Both right- and left-turn lanes would “be able to accommodate the expected queues” of cars entering the shopping center, and it was anticipated that “gridlock conditions will not occur with the inclusion of site-generated traffic.”
As many as 10,500 cars could travel to the proposed Wal-Mart on Sundays and 8,000 on other days, Brian Ketcham, a traffic engineer representing the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, told an audience packed into Spring Valley’s Village Hall in October.
There were about 200 people at the meeting, at which residents and officials spoke of the potential for Wal-Mart to adversely impact local businesses. The specter of the development rises just as Spring Valley begins a $200 million downtown revitalization.
The developer’s planners foresaw no impact on side roads by shoppers avoiding Route 59. That was a concern of Planning Board’s advisory group, the Community Design and Review Committee.
“Any inclination of drivers to use side roads to avoid perceived congestion on Route 59 will be no greater” than it is now, the developer’s representatives wrote in the February report.
Traffic on Old Nyack Turnpike, long used to bypass Route 59, is also not predicted to increase, according to the developer’s projections.
(Source: LoHud)
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10 Responses
lets hope this place opens….. we will all save lots of $$$… as far as people worried about local businesses losing out – not true – in lakewood they opened a walmart and it effected nobody……. since then there have been several appliance stores open (walmart doesnt sell the appliances we use) photo stores, clothing, children furniture stores etc
I don’t think you live in monsey because if you did then you would know that 90% of monsey doesn’t even want it 1-because of the traffic increase as it is main street takes over 15 minutes to get down and it used to take 4. 2-there is a wal-mart and we don’t need another one even though its a supercenter. 3-There is a path-mark right there to get stuff that the jewish groceries don’t have. 4-There are tons of jewish groceries in the area. 5-A jewish grocery just reopened in a mall know 4 times its size it will take away there buisness & finally 6-it will take away parking for all the people who use monsey trails in the morning to get to manhatten, brooklyn williamsburg know do you still think we should have one???
Also it will effect other buisnesses because in lakewood they have a regular wal-mart in monsey they have a regular one and they want to open this one and a supercenter has everything.
1) if the super walmart opens, I think the plan is to close the tallman walmart – I do not like the tallman store and avoid it much as possible – I find that the workers there are extremely unfriendly.
2) non-grocery stores and traffic is the biggest issue – a) I do not think that it will take away from the jewish grocery stores, b) it could seriously hurt the toy stores and the houseware stores more than the tallman store has done, but then again Parnossoh is in the hand of HaShem (with that said, I do not want to come off sounding like a Tzaddik on the behalf of other people (the store owners) c) traffic – no comments needed
sidenote: re taking away business from the large jewish supermarket in the mall: they (the large grocery store) takes away business from the houseware stores by selling pots. pans, toasters, water urns etc.)
3) re:commuter parking, if it opens they can rent out the entire parking lot that was part of the former pathmark shopping center (yes, my prediction is that pathmark will close).
with all this being said, I am firmly on the fence!
Debates have been going on for several months over this Walmart proposal and everybody complains about the extra traffic it will cause and how it may affect the local small businesses etc. etc. but nobody, and I mean NOBODY seems concerned about the true problem that this superstore will bring. And that is the pritzus and filth that will be planted right in the center of town. A place where yeshiva bochorim and bais yaakov girls will go and see things that otherwise they might not see. Monsey, until now has been pretty well insulated against these things.
in monsey there has been a horrible rise in pedestrian accidents rltz. add another 3,000,000 cars ( each direction) and i really shuder. lets organize a mother and baby protest with strollers. it will work. if this goes through there will be a major push to get rid of st. lawrence.
I do agree that the wal-mart in tallman is very bad.
“Traditionally, small groceries especially are terribly overpriced; people may patronize them because they’re frum or convenient, but what mitzvah is there for the owner to charge exorbitant prices for items that can be gotten cheaper elsewhere?”
Flatbusher, keep in mind that smaller places cannot get the same prices from their wholesalers as the huge buyers. I wonder if the profit margin of these smaller enterprises is not that different from the larger operatives. I myself prefer, if possible, to shop by Jews and help them make a Parnasah. I don’t think small grocery stores are raking it in.
Since when are we against providing shopping alternatives to lower the expenses of our hard pressed large families? Let the people who are against Wal Mart campaign against the crowding of Monsey with large multi-family dwellings on small suburban streets. We came here because we want a country life, not the conjestion of the city.
Stop shedding crocidile tears and get real.
does anyone know the results of this meeting?