Those were the words of one of the dozen or so community residents who attended a Town of Highlands Planning Board public hearing on the proposed mixed-use building to be located at 447,451,457 Main St. in Highland Falls.

They came from Fort Montgomery’s Warren Wicks, who built the Winhaven Park development in Highland Falls several decades ago. With that experience behind him, looking at the plans for this new building, he added: “It’s done well, and I think it’s about time. Let them start working tomorrow.”

Others in the audience spoke in favor of the project. Some had questions and concerns.

The project is for a four-story building in the location that the former long-time IGA, Park Restaurant and Schade’s Restaurant sat. It will feature five commercial spaces on the first floor facing Main St., three residential units on the first floor in the back of the building, and apartments above. There will be 36 apartments total – 27 one bedroom and nine two-bedroom. There will be no roof-top amenities, as earlier discussed, and all residential parking will be behind the building.

The large number of one-bedroom apartments drew several comments, with Wicks simply asking why that higher number. Later, Highland Falls’ Dan Olivia said the development would “do an injustice to the village” with small apartments, instead of larger units where families could live. “We need families,” he said.

That was disputed by Fort Montgomery’s Annie Scott, who said that smaller apartments don’t attract families that would affect the school district. As well, Highland Falls Ed Rose noted that single residents – namely those working at West Point – might be more likely to spend money at neighboring businesses, like restaurants.

From the Planning Board, Jim Titolo said he did not understand the concerns about one-bedroom apartments, saying that the developer “has done their research” and the board is not in a position to dictate what number of bedrooms go in a building.

Other concerns were from residents who will be directly impacted by the building. They had questions about one-way Drew Ave. being the only access for the parking lot of the building, as well as the number of parking spots; the impact a four-story building would have on the amount of sun the homes behind it will get; and, in a matter already decided by the Village Board, allowing residential units on the first floor of the building.

Planning Board Chairman Erik Smith allowed some ‘answers’ to those concerns from the project managers on hand – engineer Jay Samuelson from Engineering & Surveying Properties, PC and architect Jason Anderson from ADG Architects.

They explained that the parking spots exceed the required number by two, and there will be some areas (including those two additional parking spaces) for shoveled/plowed snow, when necessary. They also said a traffic survey had been done for the project, which showed no significant increase on either Drew Ave., Church St. or Parry Ave. (one car every four minutes, with the new building in place). They also said they have been in touch, as required, with local emergency services including the Highland Falls Fire Department.

There were several comments of appreciation for the developers in taking on this project, including from Village Trustee Jim Ramus.

After the public hearing was closed, the board worked though some engineering notes with Anderson and Samuelson, including brief discussion on the building’s electric service, the possibility of adding an EV charging port in the parking lot, a loading zone, and streams that run under the property. The next steps include the preparation of state SEQRA (environmental) documents for the project.