Big crowd at Queensbury hearing on rezoning land for FW Webb; key speakers in their own words

The Queensbury Town Board conducted a public hearing that lasted about 90 minutes Monday evening. Most speakers opposed the application to rezone 15 acres on Quaker Road across from Garvey Volkswagen/Kia from Commercial Industrial to Light Industrial Commercial to make way for a 96,000 square foot F.W. Webb distribution center retail store. The property is adjacent to Glens Falls’ Windy Hill/Windy Ridge neighborhood.

Bob Landry, Glens Falls Ward 2 Councilman

I represent the majority of the people here tonight from the City in their concerns regarding the proposed F.W. Webb Regional Distribution project on Quaker Road which borders the City of Glens Falls and one of the City’s premier, high paying tax areas and the requested zoning change for the parcel it is to be located on.

I have had many meetings, emails, visits and discussion with everyone involved from the present property owners, your legislative body, the bordering residential residents and management from F.W. Webb.

And the one thing that sticks in my mind is this: In a meeting with people from this board, the County Board of Supervisors, residents of Windy Hill and Windy Ridge, management from F.W. Webb and representatives from the developers A&E team I was told by Supervisor Strough, and I quote
“IT COULD BE WORSE, BOB, THEY COULD PLACE A COSTCO STORE HERE NOW AS IT’S ZONED.

Could be WORSE? So it’s a bad idea, but it could be worse.

Here is why I feel, the City feels, and definitely these neighboring residents, that it’s a BAD deal.

The impacts to the surrounding wetlands, not from water quality per se but from water level, will keep residential sub pumps running forever, flooding the backyards of some of our residents.

Remember, these are your neighbors too.

The City of Glens Falls is in the process of developing the former Glens Falls Swim and Tennis property, along with a number of adjoining properties, into what will be a regional environmental education park. We love and use your Hovey’s Pond Park and your Rush Pond Preserve, which by the way was greatly enhanced by the cooperation between the City and Town in our watershed, and we want to develop another one.

But that project could be limited if not eliminated by this project’s effects on these adjoining wetlands.

The City of Glens Falls has always had issues with their storm and sewer system in the Windy Hill and Windy Ridge neighborhoods due to the already increased level of the water table in that area, a situation that has cost our City millions of dollars.

And that will only get worse if the water level continues to rise. That’s BAD enough. We can’t afford for it to get WORSE.

Now let’s talk about traffic. The County is responsible for Quaker Road to the best of my knowledge. That road does a pretty good job with moving commuters and trucks through your town and around our City.

If you’re familiar with the area, and I am because of my 46 years living near Quaker Road, when you head east from the intersection of Quaker and Ridge Roads, the road goes from two lanes quickly to one lane because of the narrowing of the road.

My recollection on this was the road needed to be narrowed there as it travels through the Halfway Brook wetlands that were on both sides of the road.

People use that light as a beginning of a race lane to see who can be the first car to take the lead and be first to enter the narrowing of the road before the road enters a sharp blind curve. And on that blind curve, where most people are going the speed limit of 45 MPH and some higher than that, is the entrance to this project.

How are tractor trailers going to make that turn into this property within that blind curve? Better yet, how do these tractor trailers get back out on Quaker Road when they leave?

If you allow a left turn towards 1-87, where most of these tractor trailers are going to want to go, you create a strong potential for a serious car/tractor trailer accident.

So, you could say we will make them turn right. Ok, they turn right onto Quaker Road, travel 300 yards, turn right onto Sanford Street. Travel through our residential neighborhoods to Ridge Street?

And by the way, there is an elementary school in that area and no sidewalks on portions of East Sanford. Then they turn right onto Ridge Street and travel north on Ridge Street, even closer to the elementary school, before getting back onto Quaker Road and back to I-87.

Let me state that I will not allow that to happen on my watch, no matter what it takes.

That’s pretty BAD!! I can’t imagine what it would be like if it got WORSE.

Now let me talk about visual and audible concerns the residents of Windy Hill and Windy Ridge will have to live with.

You can go into homes in both Windy Ridge and Wind Hill and look out their windows and see this clear cut piece of land even right now when the trees are full of leaves. I can only imagine what it will be like once the leaves fall. I have worked on large scale housing projects and I know that it is difficult if not impossible to mitigate visual and audible effects.

And on the back of the proposed building, facing these residential properties, will be six tractor trailer loading docks. Everybody here knows what trucks or tractor trailers sound like when they back up. That constant BEEP BEEP BEEP. Who would want that as part of their peaceful home life? NO ONE!! That’s BAD to think that those residents’ right to peaceful living would go away. And it could be WORSE!!

I am a county taxpayer who approved the expenditure of County funds to the tune of millions of dollars, to develop an industrial park near the Warren County airport just for project like this.

And in my discussions with F.W. Webb local management, they told me that they actually looked at an existing building in our industrial park but it sold shortly after they looked at it. But believe me, there are many other parcels of land just sitting in that park, designed just for projects like this, that would be very suitable for this type of development with sewer, water and gas in the ground and ready to go. Did our county Economic Development efforts fail to do their job and do whatever was necessary to accommodate F.W. Webb in the park?

We desperately need tenants like F.W. Webb to utilize what we spent millions of dollars of County taxpayer dollars on. Pretty BAD that we may have dropped the ball on this economic development opportunity. We should look into that before we stumble again and things get WORSE.

I will end with this. I was a member of the Queensbury Central Fire Company for twelve years. AND I NEVER WAS A RESIDENT OF THE TOWN.

I was brought up to ignore this invisible town and City line and do what I could to help, respect and work with my neighbors. It will not be in my lifetime, but it’s coming when the Town of Queensbury and the City of Glens Falls will cooperate in many initiatives that jointly effect both communities in many positive ways. We all know that.

This project is definitely not being considered under ways that respect the residents of Windy Hill and Windy Ridge, protects against the potential devaluation of property in a City that needs every penny we collect, places City infrastructure in jeopardy, causes a traffic disaster on Quaker Road to be in the waiting and sends the cooperative efforts of your Town and our City backwards when forward movement is needed for the benefit of the residents of the Town and the City.

Let’s not let a BAD situation get WORSE. This parcel should not be rezoned. And if it is, I believe, moving forward, that this could become a very costly situation for the residents of the Town of Queensbury.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

Robert Nemer, land owner seeks rezoning

Good evening. My name is Robert Nemer, And all these folks who are here tonight to speak about a property, we have on Quaker Road. And I applaud them for their comments and their being involved.
A couple of things that I should point out, my brother and I bought this property from Margaret Crockwell, over 35, maybe 36, maybe 37 years ago, I don’t remember. And at that time, there was little or no residential housing in that area.

And we bought it for a specific reason. And that reason has changed. So we decided to hold on to the property because we thought in the future, the town was growing, the city was growing and at some point, there would be a valuable reason for somebody to develop the property.

Over the 35 years, well 30 years, we had every realtor, not every realtor, but most of the realtors in our area going down to Albany, coming up, okay, with a plan, with a client, with an idea. And some of you people that live in that area, have seen signs come up and be taken down and a new sign come up and be taken down.

And through the years, the ideas, the clients, they didn’t work for us, or they didn’t work for the client. 25 years ago, there was a client that came up from Florida. A very nice gentleman. He wanted to put a supermarket on our property. I couldn’t determine from him what it was, but I guess it was either a Shop Rite or an Aldi, okay. And we came very close to putting the contract together. But unfortunately, he had a heart attack and he passed away.

I wonder 20 to 25 years ago, how everybody would feel about a major supermarket in there. Maybe they’d be happy, maybe they wouldn’t. Anyway, let me bring you up to date.

Within the last four or five years, F.W. Webb has been looking around for a property in the area, they looked at several properties. We went back and forth up and down on our property.

I went over to where they are about a mile away from us. And I looked at their building and the way they run their business. And it was very professional. Very clean, very quiet. I thought it would be a great neighbor for the property we have on Quaker Road.

At the time, little did I know what they were going to do with it or where they were going to go with it. Nor did I have any idea that the people in the neighborhood would be very upset about it. And I’m sorry about that. I’m finding out more today than I ever did.

And I’m not here to tell you to rezone the property or not rezone the property. I am telling you that F.W. Webb would make a great neighbor. And if it’s not F.W. Webb, if it’s somebody else, who would the people behind me approve or not approve if that new person or company doesn’t want to have the property re-zoned? It’s something that everybody should think about for the future because it is one of the last pieces of commercial property on Quaker Road in that area that has little or no wetlands.

There are some issues that were brought up, and I agree with some of the issues. And I think those issues have to be brought out and addressed. But I don’t think the board is at that point yet. And I just wanted to give you my opinions and my sentiments and thank you very much for listening.

John Strough, Town Supervisor: No decision yet; hearing open

All right. Well, let me try and summarize your concerns.

You’re concerned about the potential for negative impacts on the adjacent wetland, flora and fauna ecosystems, your residential area, noise pollution on site and off site especially those with families with children, that the noise pollution will not be in character with the currently quite, quiet neighborhood and it could potentially be a disruption of their peace and tranquility that they currently enjoy.

Concerned about light pollution on site and off site. Concerned about home values. Concerned about storm water flood control, higher groundwater, basement flooding, concerned about the current privacy that they enjoy, concerned about visual impact of potential removal of trees, the current buffer would be insufficient for a use of this character. A lot of concern about Quaker Road Traffic Safety.

Outgoing traffic will have limited sight distance especially given its narrowing to two lanes and 40 mile per hour speed limits. We need more data concerning number of trucks, tractor trailers and other vehicles that will enter and exit this facility especially concerned with tractor trailers.

Also concerns that an industrial use at this location does not follow the town’s current comprehensive plan, the proposed change of zoning is not in accord with the town’s comprehensive land use plan and a deviation. Land zoned residential and the wetlands, that the proposed change in zoning could be considered to be spot zoning, that the proposed change in zoning would have an even greater negative impact than the current zoning, that the planning board only did a cursory review and not a hard look at potential impacts.

And the SEQR [State Environmental Quality] review and issuance of a negative declaration by the planning board was an error, incomplete and might be threatened with judicial review.

Might be the town board needs a supermajority to authorize a zoning change. The town needs to assess the archaeological and historical importance of this parcel.

The notification issue was brought up. Alternate sites are available and more suitable, especially industrial sites and that should be investigated.

And that this could threaten current municipal cooperation matters.

All right. That’s a lot of information to process. And I’m gonna guess the town board is gonna feel it needs more time to have staff look into this, to have town council look into this. The applicant might have responses that it figures that the Town Board should consider. Am I accurate that you would like more time to assess this information?

Okay, so I’m going to suggest and I think, from what I’m seeing with the town board, that we not act on this tonight, that we leave the public hearing open and allow, like I said, town staff, Town Council, the applicant and others, to assess your concerns. I think they’re valid concerns and I want to thank you for bringing those forward.

So now, having said that, F.W. Webb is a great company. It’s located in Queensbury, wishes to expand in Queensbury, brings good jobs. Brings tax revenue, does a lot of good things with the town. We would like them to stay in the town of Queensbury, and do what they do. And what they do they do well.

This is a parcel that is developable. It’s on a major arterial. So all of these things I think we have to look at, we have to assess. And I think we have to be fair.

So if you would give us some time to give the fairest and best decision on this matter, because it’s obviously not an easy decision to make. We appreciate that. And thank you for your patience.

So we will keep the newspapers and you informed about where we are in this process of assessing the information you gave us tonight. Now, having said that, a lot of this would be done at Site Plan review with the planning board. Our basic job was to take a look at the zoning. But I think we have to, as you pointed out, look at the holistic picture, and we’re going to do that.

So thank you for coming. Thank you for being here. Again, I’m leaving the public hearing open. And we’re gonna move on to the next agenda items.

Thank you for coming.

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