The Schoharie County Planning Commission signed off on Dollar General’s plans in Gallupville Monday—but not before adding conditions that will mean Wright’s Planning Board will need a super-majority to do the same.
The Wright PB will hold a public hearing on the Route 443 plans Tuesday at the Town Hall at 7:30pm.
At the CPC’s November meeting, members ruled the Bohler Engineering/Primax Properties site plan submitted for review was incomplete because it didn’t adequately address setback for an on-site well.
That’s been resolved, CPC member Paul Koopman, senior sanitarian at the County Health Department, said Monday, making the motion that they approve the site plan—until neighbor Frank Weber asked to speak.
Mr. Weber ran through a list of concerns he’s shared with the Wright Planning Board over the two-plus years they’re been reviewing the proposed project.
Among them: landscaping, lighting, and traffic.
But Mr. Weber’s especially angry that the Planning Board—as well as the state—have ignored the historical significance of the nearby 1772 Becker Stone House, a landmark listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
“A Revolutionary War skirmish was fought there. Two Beckers were killed there,” Mr. Weber said. “But they’re ignoring it.”
The issue seems to be that while the home has been designated as historic, the field the DG would be built on has not.
Mr. Weber also pointed to a DG in East Berne, where he said promised landscaping has never been done.
He also sees traffic as a “big problem.”
With two blind curves on Route 443 near the site, it’s frequently the site of serious accidents, and he’s “almost been killed out there a couple of times, pulling hay wagons”.
The road is posted at 55mph, Mr. Weber said, “but people just blow by, doing 60.”
Planning Board chair Denise Lloyd of Middleburgh said speed is a legitimate concern.
Her family’s farm in behind the DG there, she said, “and people are flying by. There are numerous times when there was almost an accident.”
Ms. Lloyd said speed was brought up when that project was being considered, but DOT approved it without changes.
After hearing other concerns from Mr. Weber, including over lighting and noise, CPC members agreed to approve the site plan--but with modifications.
Because of that, the seven-member Wright Planning Board will need a super-majority of five to over-rule those modifications.
The modifications will require Bohler to include a timeline for landscaping and lighting in its plans and have both completed before the DG is issued a certificate of occupancy.
The modifications—all approved unanimously—also require DOT to consider lowering the speed limit there.
“From our end, that’s all we can do,” CPC member Ray Gillis of Esperance told Mr. Weber.
“It’s fine,” Mr. Weber said. “If someone’s making an attempt, that’s better than nothing at all.”