Greetings~

In this email we are offering suggestions and links to articles & Town meetings. Many people we've spoken with want to continue to help and we applaud you for your care about the community!

Our best course of action is continued political pressure on our officials. 

As many of you already know, the warehouse in Valley Cottage was given preliminary approval. Link to the article about the June 22nd meeting: Planning Board Commends Applicant For Its Flexibility; Gives Lincoln Equities Preliminary Site Plan Approval

I attended the recent Planning Board meeting on 7/13 and Mr. Heim, Chairman, mentioned that there will be an announcement on 7/27 regarding the warehouse. As of now, there is nothing on the Clarkstown website about this meeting and there are no minutes posted for 7/13, but if anything becomes available, this is the link for the meetings: Clarkstown Citizens Calendar

Next Town Board meeting: July 19, at 7pm (see Clarkstown Citizens Calendar above).

Public comments (up to 3 minutes) can be made at the Town Board meetings, on any topic, in person. I would urge you to continue to attend the Town Board meetings, in addition to writing letters to George Hoehmann, Town Supervisor, and Michael Graziano, Ward 2 representative.  

Below is a list of concerns that people still have, but please don't copy & paste. Any letters or public comments should be in your own words. These are suggestions and you may have other concerns not listed here: 

• Lincoln Equities is seeking a lump sum payment in lieu of taxes for the school districts. We would suggest writing your School Board to reject this notion. Lincoln Equities cannot build without a tax waiver from the school districts.
• There is a great concern about the type of warehouses Clarkstown allows in the Town Code. This will become increasingly important as other industries will seek to build here. Please see this link for a more detailed perspective on the types of warehouses and the traffic/pollution they generate & consider bringing this to our local politician's attention: Local Codes Need To Become More Specific To Address A Variety Of Warehouse Uses
• Residents are still concerned about traffic, noise, and increased pollution. Residents are concerned about property values decreasing because of the congestion and the noise of the 24/7 operation. What about the light pollution from the business? What will the Town do to mitigate our concerns?
• Some people say it will improve our "rateables" or the taxes from the businesses, but there isn't much for the residents of Clarkstown. The property owners will get a $2.5 million tax break plus a lot more tax breaks from Clarkstown, but we will still have to pay for the road repairs, police, fire department, trash, and other services, which will be funded by taxpayer dollars. 
• Notifications: They only notified a few residents within 500 feet from the main road. Normal notification is 300 feet, but notifications should be increased to perhaps 1,500 feet or more, in all directions from the property line for future large scale industries. The Town Code needs to be modified to reflect this change. There were several complaints at the meeting that people were not notified, so this needs to be addressed with the Town Board. 
• Ask the Town Board to consider that the charm and character of Clarkstown will be altered forever. Langan Engineering, Environmental Survey Group, was able to define what charm and character of our community is (they were hired to conduct the survey for this property), and they said the warehouse doesn't change anything about our community, which doesn't seem fair because common sense & our lived experiences say otherwise. Shouldn't the residents have a greater voice in matters that concern them?
• Additionally, what should the Town residents expect from this kind of industry? For example, will we get a reduction in property taxes, will our roads be repaired, what about medical expenses from increased asthma and other illnesses generated by industrial pollution?
• Will the Town monitor pollution levels in the center of Clarkstown -not on a farm as they done in the past? How will we know our air is safe to breathe?
• What about the noise pollution from the 24/7 operation, how will the Town mitigate that? The buffer zone, as it is on the site plan, will not block the sound from trucking industry. The backup alarms are incredibly loud. Trees won't help this noise, as they have suggested. The Town Code needs to be updated to reflect reality with the buffer zones, with what they can & can't do.
• Is the Town Board concerned that the buffer zone of trees is too sparse for a building that size? The property has about 100,000-110,000 trees on it (about 5,500 trees per acre x 20 acres), but because of our Town Code, they only need to keep around 340 trees on the property (17 trees per acre). We need to ask for our Town Code to be updated to reflect a more sustainable level of growth and include replanting trees in our community. Town Code: https://ecode360.com/6709210
• There were 50 of us who came to the June 22nd Planning Board meeting and spoke up, however Mr. Heim, Chairman, told us that our comments do not carry the same weight as the experts and promptly closed the public comments. This is unfair because the residents have legal standing, and our comments should be given greater weight when considering a project of this magnitude. They shouldn't be allowed to disregard our comments and only pick and choose to read a few letters. 
• The only traffic mitigation is the new smart light at the five corners (at the top of the hill). The smart traffic signal will only help the trucks at the top of the hill, not all the traffic backing up onto Route 303, from what I understand about the discussion on Route 303.
• The project was given the green light to disturb 15 acres of land, even though the Town Code only allows up to 5 acres of land disturbance at a time. 
• The land-banked green space which they can use as future parking spaces when they need them. 

We should have answers to these and many other concerns! Our elected officials work for us.

Our best course of action is continued political pressure on our officials. 

George Hoehman: https://www.clarkstown.gov/supervisor g.hoehmann@clarkstown.org (845)639-2050

Michael Graziano, Councilman | Ward 2
m.graziano@clarkstown.org (845)639-2056

Thank you for your continued concern and care for our beautiful Clarkstown!

~Barbara