GUILDERLAND — Four residents raised concerns at Tuesday’s town board meeting about the Northeastern Industrial Park’s plans for future development.

Each town board member then spoke of his or her worries with the plan. The board agreed that more work needs to be done on the draft of the industrial park’s environmental impact statement before the town will approve it.

Representatives of the industrial park commented little Tuesday night, but said that the statement is just a draft and that more work will be done before a final draft is submitted.
"I’m very enthusiastic," David Buicko, chief operating officer of the industrial park, told The Enterprise Wednesday. "There were some very constructive comments. We look forward to working with the town."

The town has been waiting since 1999 for the industrial park to submit its environmental impact study. The town and zoning board decided then that the industrial park was appearing before the zoning board too frequently for new development, Supervisor Kenneth Runion said.

While adding individual warehouses to the industrial park does not create a significant impact, many businesses do, he said. The town then asked the industrial park for an environmental-impact study.

Six years after the industrial park was to submit a masterplan, the draft of an environmental study was announced, at the July 12 town board meeting.

The industrial park is located on 550 acres in Guilderland Center, along Route 146 and Depot Road. The industrial park has been in operation since 1969 and contains 2.9 million square feet of warehouse space.

Land use at the industrial park is primarily warehouses and offices to support the warehouses, the report says. Surrounding the industrial park are: the CSX railroad, along the eastern edge; residences and the Guilderland High School, to the north; residences, agricultural land, and forested land, to the west; and industrial, residential, agricultural, and forested land, to the south.

According to the environmental-impact statement, the industrial park’s yet-to-be-revealed masterplan proposes 1.6 million square feet of new industrial use; 160,000 square feet of office use; and 190,000 square feet of research and development use. Also to be built are: a truck stop with a 16-unit motel; a convenience store; a diner; a fuel station; restrooms with showers; and 30 tractor-trailer spaces with hook-ups. These are to be used by park tenants rather than the general public.

The Northeastern Industrial Park, which is on the site of a former Army depot in Guilderland Center, wants to build in two places that the Army has classified as areas of concern, or sites that were determined to be a risk to human health.

This inflames local activists, who for years have been trying to warn residents about toxic waste buried at the former Army depot. The buried materials affect almost everyone in town because tributaries to the Watervliet Reservoir, Guilderland’s main source of drinking water, run through the industrial park.

The environmental-impact statement briefly outlines development to be built on areas of concern 1 and 7.

AOC 1, the United States Army Southern Landfill, in the southern portion of the depot next to the railroad tracks and bounded by Depot Road, has a pond on the site. It is about 1,500 feet from the main channel of the Black Creek and is classified as a Class 2 site by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, meaning it is a significant threat.

AOC 7, the Triangular Disposal Area, in the southeast end, roughly between AOC 1 and 4, has buried debris such as railroad ties and glass bottles.

The report also says that construction could impact AOC 8, the Black Creek, which flows through the property and into the Watervliet Reservoir, Guilderland’s major source of drinking water.

Buicko responded Wednesday to worries about the industrial park building on the polluted areas of concern.
"Some things are common sense," he told The Enterprise. "If there’s an area of concern, we won’t build on it till it’s mitigated."

Other misconceptions, he added, will be addressed by the industrial park later.

Comments and concerns

In July, Charles Rielly told The Enterprise of his concerns with the industrial park’s latest plans, especially for building on the areas of concern. Rielly is co-chair of the Restoration Advisory Board — a group, formed by the Army Corps of Engineers, of citizens and government officials.
"To me, Guilderland is playing Russian roulette with the Watervliet Reservoir," he told The Enterprise.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Rielly expressed the same concerns. If the industrial park builds on or near the areas of concern, he said, it will seriously affect the Black Creek.

Much of the three-inch-thick environmental-impact statement is devoted to the study of traffic issues at the industrial park. In the next 10 years, the report says, new development will generate 845 new vehicle trips in the morning and 922 new vehicle trips in the evening.
"The additional trucks generated by the build-out of the masterplan would not change the overall characteristics of traffic flow on the adjacent roadway network," the statement says.

Recommendations are made, however, for: a traffic signal at Route 146 and Van Buren Boulevard and four-way stop signs at Depot and Meadowdale roads.

Rielly told the board Tuesday that he’s worried about traffic and its impact on the environment.

Rielly also said he’s concerned about the volume of wastewater going to the town’s treatment plant and about the additional amount of town water the plant will use.

At Tuesday’s meeting, residents Carol Williams and Ken Smith reiterated Rielly’s concerns.

Williams said the report fails to adequately address the impact of the industrial park on those living in Guilderland Center.
Smith said the report only gave "a cursory overview." It didn’t discuss in any detail soil and water impacts or stormwater management, he said.
"Short shrift is given to the relationship of this site to the Watervliet Reservoir," Smith said.

Carol Relyea, of Ostrander Road, told the board that she and her neighbors get their water from wells. She worried, she said, that new development at the industrial park would pollute her well.

Board reaction

Councilman Michael Ricard was the first to give his reaction to the report and he had the most favorable comments of all the board members.
"It’s an extremely comprehensive document," Ricard said. "It touches on all the issues but, by its nature, it’s fairly generic....However, it doesn’t preclude further studies and naturally that has to happen."
Of water pollution and traffic, Ricard said, "There are so many unknowns. It probably will develop as it occurs."

Councilwoman Patricia Slavick expressed concerns for those who live around the industrial park. With truck traffic, she said, many residents of Route 146 have told her they can’t keep their windows open because of the noise.
"Adding all these trucks is a big issue," she said.
"We’ll address the traffic in traffic study, but ours has been down significantly in the past few years," Buicko told The Enterprise Wednesday. Since the Save-A-Lot distribution center moved out of the industrial park a few years ago, truck traffic has decreased, he said.
Asked about more development bringing in more traffic, Buicko said, "We’ve hired a transportation company more qualified than I am to address those issues."

As a member of the town’s traffic safety committee, Slavick also said at Tuesday’s meeting that she is concerned about additional traffic at the various intersections leading in and out of the industrial park.
And, of the industrial park’s soil erosion and stormwater prevention plans, Slavick asked, "Who would prepare that" Who will monitor it""

Councilman Bruce Sherwin said the industrial park can be a positive thing for the town. But, he said, proper planning is needed because the town is changing.
"It’s an awkward site in a lot of ways," Sherwin said. The town and industrial park need to talk more about future development, he said.

Sherwin suggested that, with community members, the town and industrial park meet to discuss goals, as was done earlier this year when the town created its rural Guilderland plan.
"This may be our last chance," Sherwin said. "Once it’s approved, the town is not going to have a lot of leeway."

Councilman David Bosworth also raised concerns about stormwater management and the need for a more specific plan.
"We’re all very concerned that we get a good report, a good, quality report," he said. "...We have more work to do."

Supervisor Runion spoke last and he said he agreed with many of the board members’ concerns.

He’s worried about environmental impacts, especially with increased traffic, Runion said. Much of the report is incomplete, he said, and more specifics need to be added about the effect development will have on the town’s water system.
"I don’t see any correlation between this statement and the town’s comprehensive plan," Runion said. "...This plan should make some reference to it."

Runion then repeated Relyea’s concerns about the people on Ostrander Road and said the industrial park should address impacts to outside the property.

After the board members spoke, Buicko said that a lot of the issues discussed will be addressed later. As a taxpaying member of the community, he said, the industrial park will work with the town for a better report.

Buicko told The Enterprise Wednesday that he was pleased with the board members’ comments.
"It was a lot of work for them to understand it," he said of the report. "We value their comments because we want to make sure ourselves and the town are in sync."

Written comments on the report can be submitted to the town clerk until Sept. 16. The industrial park will use all of these comments to create a more detailed report, Buicko said.

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Set a public hearing to discuss transferring $36,000, from the town’s highway reserve machinery fund to its highway capital outlay fund, for the purchase of a used, truck-mounted, high-pressure sewer cleaner.

The public hearing will be on Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m.

After the motion, the board then bid for the purchase of the sewer cleaner. It will be used by the highway department to clean out stormwater drains;

— Released $112,000 from the Lone Pine 7 subdivision escrow account for the completion of sidewalks and a bike trail, per recommendation of Boswell Engineering, which the town designated for the project;

— Released the remaining escrow funds for the Prescott Woods subdivision, phase C, per recommendation of a town-designated engineer; and

— Appointed a committee to participate in the study of the Guilderland hamlet, as part of the town’s comprehensive planning process. The committee members are: Steve Feeney, planning board chairman; Jan Weston, town planner; Don Csaposs, the town’s development director; and David Reid, president of the Guilderland Hamlet Neighborhood Association.