To the Editor:
I watched the June 27 Industrial Development Agency meeting, and the comments from the Costco applicants telling us that Costco is a tourist destination made no sense, in my opinion. Who is a tourist to a warehouse where people get their shirts, pants, socks and underwear in the same place they get their food and car tires?  If I were on the ribbon-cutting committee, I would give Jeff Foxworthy the scissor.

I thought Costco was coming on or about 2018-2019 at a zoning board of appeals hearing. Applicant Crossgates requested a special-use permit (which was approved) for a larger Regal Cinema sign. Someone asked about being able to see a sign from the street.

I was at the ZBA Hearing seated beside a Pyramid representative, thinking: Wouldn’t Crossgates Mall want the larger sign for its banner? I thought, in my opinion, this might be a fishing expedition for a precedent-setting large-sign decision.

I told the man beside me that I “wondered about the sign request.” I stated to him, “You may not know this, but I am a former Rockland County resident and you once hired me to stand outside a New City grocery store to get signatures to build the Pyramid mall in West Nyack.” I asked, “Was that allowed — to pay me through a temp agency to get the signatures? What’s up here with this request; something doesn't feel right.”

But I digress. They held meetings instead of a voter referendum on street-taking and appropriation of tax dollars. The IDA  meeting of June 27 started with a lawyer explaining the conflicts of interest of members of the IDA [“No decisions on Pyramid’s tax breaks,” The Altamont Enterprise, June 28, 2023].

I heard a question, asking how someone taking a bus to work would walk to a job at Costco? I did not hear anything about the noise pollution and impact on children attending Guilderland Elementary. What’s in the plan to protect the children of our town from a warehouse placed within a residential area, near an elementary school and day care.

Christine Duffy

Guilderland

Editor’s note: Guilderland Elementary School is about three miles from the proposed Costco site; Westmere Elementary School is about a half-mile from the site.

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