“I am disappointed that the town board was not able to update our zoning codes quickly enough to reflect that this piece of property should no longer be industrial,” said Montgomery town resident Sylvie Rainaldi.

Rainaldi spoke during the town’s planning board meeting last week, adding that she was also disappointed that RDM—a project calling for two warehouses at Neelytown Road and Beaver Dam Road—had not changed their site plans after all of the recent public comments.

Instead, the project moved forward and the planning board voted to accept the scope, subject to revisions by their consultant.

The planning board had already conducted a scoping session with many public comments and letters submitted to the board. At the meeting last week, the board’s consultant Bonnie Franson noted that not all of the public comments had been included in the draft scope and outlined various comments she believed they needed to consider.

Additions made at the meeting ranged from specifying what may occur at the property to blasting and impacts on wells and water supply and a more detailed traffic analysis. Many of the items specified in a letter from town resident Karina Tipton were referenced and added to the draft scope.

At the same meeting, the planning board held a continuation of the public hearing regarding UNFI, also located on Neelytown Road.

“The applicant is putting together a plan so that they can park the trucks onsite and not along the road,” said Planning Board Chairman Fred Reichle, “We’ve asked them over the last few months on a couple different occasions to provide us with what nights the trucks are parking in the road and how many so that we know that what they’re going to design is going to work and we’re not going to see trucks running around the neighborhood and parked on the highway. But we don’t have that plan yet, or the counts, they’re working on that for us.”

The applicant’s proposed changes include converting a portion of the employee parking lot—which they will use for truck stacking purposes.
“We are right now counting the amount of trucks that are stacking along Neelytown Road,” said Dominic Cordisco, on behalf of the applicant. “We’re doing it on a nightly basis and we’re going to do it for at least the next week to possibly two weeks to give you good numbers as to what is occurring out there and how that will relate to the conversion of the parking area for truck stacking internally.”

He said they feel it is a good time to be doing it, as this is a “very busy time of year for UNFI for deliveries because they’re taking in resources for the holiday season” so they are studying it in what they consider the “worst case scenario.”

Cordisco also tried to make the distinction that the trucks currently parking along the road and creating the issues are “not UNFI trucks” but vendor or third-party trucks arriving early and parking along Neelytown Road.

A neighboring resident noted that they still hear noise over the outside loudspeakers, vehicles blowing horns when they round the building, and have other issues with the facility.

The public hearing will be reconvened on Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m. In the meantime, the applicant is to make a submission to the planning board to include the times and counts of trucks parking along the highway, as well as other information requested.

Meanwhile, what initially appeared to be a simple subdivision—returning a repair garage to its own separate lot—became more complicated as the board discussed some of the upcoming zoning changes.

Franson noted that the property on Beamer Road is expected to be shifted into the industrial zone.

Ross Winglovitz, engineer for the applicant Marianne Reichle Trust, explained that the garage used to be on a separate lot about 20 years ago and the applicants want to divide it off their residential property and sell it. If the parcel is rezoned, the applicants may need to apply for at least one variance.

While the applicants wait to see how the anticipated new zoning laws will affect the property, they will ask the DEC to delineate the wetlands on the property.

Resident Sylvie Rainaldi asked the board to hold the other projects on the evening’s agenda to the anticipated new zoning laws, but the board’s attorney said they couldn’t hold any of the projects to the new zoning laws and the board’s consultant was only giving the new project a head’s up about upcoming zoning changes likely to occur before it could progress.

“Until it’s adopted law, it’s not the zoning law of the town,” explained attorney Hoyt.

In other business, the 9-lot residential subdivision known as Chandler Heights was granted final approval. The applicant had decided to move forward on the project after putting it on hold for a number of years. The board also granted a waiver for tree clearing.