TOWN OF WALLKILL PLANNING BOARD

MEETING

APRIL 2, 2003

MEMBERS PRESENT: G. Lake, A. Dulgarian, T. Hamilton, G. Luenzmann, G. Monaco, P. Owen

MEMBERS ABSENT: R. Carr

OTHERS PRESENT: G. Barone

1. PUBLIC HEARING 7:30 P.M. - ORANGE PLAZA REDEVELOPMENT - SITE PLAN/SPECIAL USE PERMIT - Route 211 East (50-2-62, 63, 54.55) #003-003

G. Lake: Public Hearing started at 7:37 P.M. C. Kelly read the Public Hearing notice.

C. Kelly: NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a PUBLIC HEARING of the Planning Board of the Town of Wallkill, Orange County, New York, will be held at the Town Hall at 600 Route 211 East, in said Town, on the 2nd day of April, 2003 at 7:30 P.M. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be heard that day on the application of Middletown 1 Resources, L.P., 3 Manhattanville Road, Purchase, New York 10577, for the approval of revisions to the Site Development Plan and Special Use Permit for the Orange Plaza Mall located at Route 211 East and Dunning Road, under Section 249-38 and 249-40 of the Zoning Law of the Town of Wallkill. All parties of interest will be heard at said time and place. S/Gary Lake, Chairman

C. Bazydlo: I’m outside counsel for Middletown 1 Resources. We also have Gerald Fitamant who is the Design Engineer for the project.

G. Lake: Give us a brief description of what you’ve done.

C. Bazydlo: The project involves the re-demising of the K- Mart space into, I believe, four retail stores.

G. Fitamant: A total of six.

C. Bazydlo: A total of six retailers in the existing K-Mart space. The project also includes the construction of three pad site restaurants in the back of the K-Mart space.

G. Lake: I know the last time you were here we did have some discussion on the three pads.
I think there was some discussion about moving them around a little bit.

G. Fitamant: Yes sir.

G. Lake: Can you bring the Board up to speed on what that change was?

G. Fitamant: Yes I can. The restaurant “C” was located close to the road and close to this intersection and there was a comment from the Board that you would like to see that moved. We have since moved that out to here. There was an issue with the roofing of restaurants being too close and the requirements is a five hundred foot spacing between groups of three. We have a group of two here and we have a group of three restaurants. Although this restaurant doesn’t serve liquor we have this grouping five hundred feet away from this store.

C. Bazydlo: If I can point out for the Board for the record on the Public Hearing that the area in the back here with the three restaurants are, if the Board recalls, the original Site Plan approval had a large retail space back in there. I think it was called Retail “H” at the time. That’s not longer being proposed and that space has now been divided up amongst the pad restaurants. It is less overall space that what Retail “H” was.

G. Lake: So, we shouldn’t have a problem with parking then?

G. Fitamant: We distributed the three restaurants into this parking area. We made the adjustments with the restaurant that was too close to the road and we have moved it over a bit.

G. Lake: Let me go through the Board.

A. Dulgarian: After the public.

P. Owen: After the public.

G. Luenzmann: I will wait.

G. Monaco: I will wait.

T. Hamilton: The six that are being split up into K-Mart, are they all retail, what types of retail are you talking about?

G. Fitamant: As far as I’m aware, they’re just retail.

T. Hamilton: The auto is still staying?

G. Fitamant: The auto is still staying, yes.

T. Hamilton: You mentioned one restaurant and no alcohol, what type of restaurant is that?

G. Fitamant: It will be a donut shop.

T. Hamilton: Okay. Anything on the other two, or you can reveal at this time?

G. Fitamant: Actually we don’t know. It is a generic footprint at this point.

T. Hamilton: We usually like some kind of architectural rendering of what it’s going to look like.

G. Fitamant: Yes.

C. Bazydlo: Because we don’t have firm tenants on them, the idea is being that they would have to come back to the Board to get the detailed approvals on the architecture, probably on landscaping also as it may apply to that particular restaurant.

T. Hamilton: That’s all I have right now.

G. Lake: I will go to the public at this time.

J. McClintock: I represent Mechanicstown Fire District. I was hoping Bill Cummings was going to be here from Silver Lake. It is kind of a unique project. Part of K-Mart is in our district and most of it is Silver Lake District. It borders both districts. I don’t have any comments on the actual retail area. I do have some comments on the restaurants. We were going to send a combined letter in and he must not have been able to make it. I sent him my comments. He was going to add his comments to it and put it all on one letter. We thought it would be easier to do that. The biggest thing is access to the restaurants. Bill and I had talked about here, coming through this parking lot it’s kind of hard to get around with a forty eight foot truck. This will all be in writing.

G. Fitamant: The concern was with truck access.

J. McClintock: Yes.

G. Fitamant: Emergency vehicle access.

G. Lake: Just make your comments and then the Planning Board will take it from there. We will tell you at the next work session.

J. McClintock: The layout I have shows the restaurant over here.

G. Lake: All the Public Hearing is for is comments.

J. McClintock: I don’t know if they changed it but there was one where the dumpster was right up next to the building. I would like to see a ten or fifteen foot separation if possible from the building. They may have changed it because I haven’t seen this plan.

G. Lake: Anything else?

J. McClintock: That’s all I have right now.

G. Lake: Jay, get those in so we can consider them. Anybody else from the public?

MOTION to close this PUBLIC HEARING at 7:47 P.M. made by P. Owen and seconded by G. Luenzmann.

A. Dulgarian: Aye

P. Owen: Aye

T. Hamilton: Aye

G. Monaco: Aye

G. Luenzmann: Aye

G. Lake: Aye

MOTION CARRIED. 6 AYES

G. Lake: Dick’s comments. They are pretty lengthy. Did you from the last work session work on these?

G. Fitamant: We have worked on them.

G. Lake: Or are you waiting to get through the Public Hearing and then go back to another work session?

G. Fitamant: We’ve addressed the majority of them and I have a response letter. I would like to go over the major items.

G. Lake: Fine.

G. Fitamant: I hope I have enough for everyone.

G. Lake: The only problem we’re going to have tonight is that some of that is for our Engineer, and he isn’t here due a death in the family.

G. Fitamant: In direct response to the Fire Department’s comments, this is a truck turning, this is a truck circulation plan. There is direct access to all the restaurants.

A. Dulgarian: Why don’t you use the entrance off of. . .

G. Lake: Is that a straight job?

G. Fitamant: That’s a straight.

G. Lake: Okay.

G. Fitamant: That’s more than what a fire truck would be.

G. Lake: Between now and later let’s make sure we can get in according to the fire code with a straight job. How long?

J. McClintock: Forty eight feet.

G. Fitamant: This is much larger than that.

G. Lake: Double check for us. I believe you have it already.

G. Fitamant: The first comment from Dick’s letter is referring to the existing stop signs. A stop sign shall be added to the Applebee’s access drive. We’ve shown that. We’ve taken care of that. The second comment, the Site Plan does not show the necessity for major filling. What ever excess fill we had on the Site Plan during the construction of the initial mall in the demolition we disposed of the fill for the construction of retail “H”. What ever fill we might need we’ll take that back out to construct the restaurants. We will be using that fill in that area. I think when Dick wrote this letter he may have driven out there and noticed that the snow was piled up by retail “H”. It was dirty and probably looked like fill. It fact I thought the same thing, that is was fill. It was actually snow piled up. That has since melted. There were discussions at the work shop session regarding item #3 about future. The way we were going to present this would be a phased approach. We will either get approval for restaurant “A” and restaurant “B” and then we would come back for restaurant “C” for administrative approval. We set the plans up so that it’s screened. That’s the second phase of the project. The applicant should explain the use of the area that is painted. That is a truck loading for deliveries for restaurant “A”. At the work session we requested that the Site Plan for the future, that further Planning Board review and approval will be required for restaurant “C” and “B”. This has not been provided. We actually put a note on the Site Plan that states final Site Plan subject to administrative approval. We have clarified that by saying Planning Board approval. Transformer pads have been shown. They should be landscaped. Actually we have transformer pads shown on the utility plan. They do not appear on the landscape plan.

A. Dulgarian: Where is the landscape plan?

G. Fitamant: I have the revised landscape plan.

A. Dulgarian: Do we have a copy of it?

G. Fitamant: No, you don’t have a copy yet. We’re talking about landscaping around the transformer pads which we will certainly show some additional screening around those subject to the utility company approval. The utility company doesn’t like a lot of bushes around. They like a clear access. We will try and satisfy every party involved.

T. Hamilton: Normally when we have a Public Hearing we have all this information for review before we get to the meeting. Most of this stuff we should have had ahead of time.

C. Bazydlo: The information that Mr. Fitamant is talking about is in response to Dick’s comment letter that we just received a few days ago. Granted all this needs to be reviewed by the Planning Board’s consultant.

G. Lake: I don’t know if you need to go through all his comments at this point.

C. Bazydlo: If the Board wants to we can submit it to Dick’s office. We realize he’s not available now. We can try and get with him and review it over the next couple of weeks.

G. Lake: In all fairness, I wouldn’t advise the Board to take action.

C. Bazydlo: I would not ask the Board to take action tonight either.

G. Lake: We still have a couple comments from the Fire Department that will be coming in and then the Board has to review those.

C. Bazydlo: What I would ask the Board is it possible to be put on the agenda for April 16th?

G. Lake: I don’t think you will make April 16th. I can tell you that. You can make May 7th because you won’t need a Public Hearing. Call the office on Monday and set up a work session.

C. Bazydlo: I agree to talk with Dick.

G. Lake: Let me go back to the Board.

A. Dulgarian: The compactor behind retail “A” that’s currently the garden center. Are you going to move it to the back of the building?

G. Fitamant: This had been approved.

A. Dulgarian: So, that is existing?

G. Fitamant: It was approved but never constructed.

A. Dulgarian: Is this one still inside the fenced area?

G. Fitamant: That was the intent.

A. Dulgarian: Are you going to move that outside?

G. Fitamant: That would be one for part of the retail and this would be shared.

A. Dulgarian: I have concerns about the snow removal vehicles. I see this little pad back here. That’s not going to do it. We saw above average snow fall this year. Your mall wasn’t too bad because you had all this room where these three restaurants are going to go to dump the snow. The Galleria was atrocious. You’re talking about vehicles that are going to be left on site, snow removal vehicles, plus a place to put all the snow. That, I don’t know how big that is, perhaps 200 x 200, that’s not going to hold all the snow for this mall.

G. Fitamant: This also goes around and this is sloped down where all the snow would just be pushed down on the bank. It’s not just for the parking end of it.

G. Lake: You know how many trucks. You get the stuff together for a work session. That would be one of the things I would want Dick to look at.

A. Dulgarian: Okay. The other thing, if they require a certain amount of parking and they lose three hundred spots because of snow.

G. Lake: I agree.

A. Dulgarian: What I’m saying is I know we need to have Dick look at it also but I think it needs to be marked better on this map. We need to know how many square footage you’re talking about. Right now, you’re just showing this little parking area but how big is it?

G. Lake: I have already asked him to do that.

A. Dulgarian: I don’t think this is exactly what we need.

G. Lake: Right.

A. Dulgarian: I think you did a good job moving the restaurant. It is kind of what we were looking for. I do have some concerns about the flow of traffic coming off of Dunning Farms Road there. When you come in to restaurant “A” which obviously is going to be the donut shop, you have three different curb cuts. What I would like to avoid and I’m going to rely on my Board members here to tell me how to do it is people cutting in the first one and then cutting across all the parking spaces. What I think we need to do is to have a definitive flow going into that drive thru and either that has got to be done by signage or what ever.

G. Lake: I think what they have to do, not us, I think they have to go back and work this out.

A. Dulgarian: I understand but what we have right here is not an option.

G. Lake: They should come back with an option for us to look at.

G. Fitamant: We do have signage and you’re exactly right. In fact if you look at our signage plan we’ve identified the signage that shows at the donut shop.

A. Dulgarian: We’re talking human nature of driving through the first entrance here and then running across all the parking spots. That’s totally poor planning.

G. Fitamant: We recognize that and we also provided this.

A. Dulgarian: My other question is the required parking for the three restaurants. Is that stand alone or will that make it with just these two lots?

G. Fitamant: Yes.

G. Lake: You have extra parking there?

G. Fitamant: Yes.

P. Owen: The sixty four that’s been reserved for future parking. Is that for another expansion or is it. . .

G. Fitamant: No. In the event that the parking here once this restaurant is done, if you want that additional parking we will provide that.

P. Owen: The sixty four though along with restaurant “C”, it still meets the code?

G. Fitamant: Yes, the shopping center overall.

A. Dulgarian: Not overall. These three will stand along on one hundred ninety and one hundred thirty seven.

G. Fitamant: Yes.

G. Lake: I think the Board has made a good point. They want to make sure those three restaurants can live within that immediate space and not end up down where Chucky Cheese
is.

P. Owen: The other thing I wanted to echo the remarks about the snow and having a set plan with square footage and what you are going to do with it and what will fit there. If it is being pushed down the hill what’s going to happen with the snow because it will run down the roadway and could cause problems.

G. Fitamant: That’s a big swale there so we certainly wouldn’t do anything that would harm the public safety and put them at risk. There again, there’s always the opportunity to remove the snow off site if need be.

A. Dulgarian: It is a big concern because all that snow in the front you were dumping in the back.

G. Fitamant: That may be deceiving that it appears to be a small area. It’s a fairly large area. We will run some calculations on it.

G. Luenzmann: The one concern that I have is Orange Plaza Lane. I think that these are stop signs or are they just striped to stop.

G. Fitamant: They are striped as well as stop signs.

G. Luenzmann: Okay because this is a very fast moving traffic area. I have a lot of concern about this whole flow of traffic right in here. It may not be enough. The other thing is, right here, is there going to be another possible pad there.

G. Fitamant: We have no provisions at this time to do that.

C. Bazydlo: There’s a slope there and I don’t think anything could go there.

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