The Town of Newburgh hosted a public hearing for comments and questions on the proposed site plan, lot line change and clearing and grading permits for the Matrix I-84 Distribution Center, a 595,000 square foot distribution center located along Route 17K. No comments were received on Thursday, October 19.

The project again before board is a new warehouse site proposed along Route 17K. As a permitted use within the interchangeable business (IB) zone, the project still awaits a tenant to be determined. Previous work conducted by Matrix in the Town of Newburgh includes the recent warehouses along Route 300 that Tesla now uses.

Planning Board Engineer Patrick Hines noted in his comments that the applicant has now identified that 160,000 cubic yards of material must be removed from the site. This has resulted in 1.2 acres now being disturbed and the grading plans changing. The area disturbed would be re-vegetated as a grassed lawn.
The change in the plan with the removal of the material by the applicant led to questions of the negative declaration previously issued. A negative declaration determines that there would be no significant impact to the project as a result of the project.

The removal of the material also called into question the amount of trips generated by trucks and the impact to the regular traffic as Route 17K is already a heavily traveled road. A comment made by the town’s traffic consultant noted the possibility of installing a new temporary traffic light to help with trip generation and traffic flow. The town requested more information from the applicant on where the material would be sent after removal from the project site.

A revised Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) is also currently under review by MHE Engineering and securities and Inspection Fees will be required for stormwater management/erosion and sediment control, landscaping, and tree preservation ordinance compliance and clearing and grading.

The access easement document for emergency access should be approved by the planning board attorney, sanitary sewer pump station designs should be submitted and identify certain design details, emergency access details should be provided, Orange County Health Department approval for the water main extension is required, a Stormwater Facilities Maintenance Agreement should be filed and will need town board approval and limit of disturbances should be delineated by the applicant.

The planning board voted to hold a consultants meeting for the project on October 31 and thus would keep the public hearing open until November 16.