TOWN OF WALLKILL – The head of Community and Project Relations for
Legoland addressed traffic concerns for the proposed Legoland theme park
in the Town of Goshen in 2019 at Thursday’s Orange County Chamber
of Commerce breakfast.
Over 200 people attended.
Phil Royle acknowledged there would be an influx in traffic and that they
are making mitigation of traffic a priority.
“There’s going to be traffic with everything,” said
Royle. “We have a very dedicated team for investigating all the
opportunities for us. What I can say, is that we’re going to have,
up to 1,500 employees. Those employees need to get to and from work. If
they’re stuck in traffic they’re not going to be happy; I’m
not going to be happy. If I can’t get to work, I’m not going
to be happy. And also, we’re going to have up to 10,000, to 20,000,
guests driving in to our theme park per day. If they can’t get in,
and they’re stuck in traffic, then that’s my issue. So, absolutely,
traffic mitigation and improving the traffic, and the logistics of this
community, is our number one goal right now,” he said.
The area that seems to have most people concerned is the need for a new
Harriman interchange for the traffic influx because any Legoland traffic
would be added onto casino traffic.
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said the county is growing, regardless
of whether Legoland comes to Goshen and that the Route 17 improvements
are an obligation of the state that should be done anyway.
“The county is growing and there’s two ways that the state
can go,” said Neuhaus. “It can either lose people, like it
has been for decades; it’s the biggest state with the largest outward
migration in the United States, and we need to reverse that trend. If
people want to stay here, we need to provide jobs. If you’re providing
jobs, you need to accommodate traffic, and I believe that it’s the
state’s obligation. I want to see construction happening at the
Harriman tolls and that’s regardless of Legoland, regardless of
the casino. That traffic needs to be mitigated today,” he said.
For the chamber’s members, at least, support is overwhelming. Chamber
President Lynn Cione said there will be, and are, concerns, but the benefits
far outweigh them.
“What I’m seeing from the business community is full support,”
she said. “There are questions; we all have questions about traffic
and some of the infrastructure, but again, this is a world-class business.
They have done this so many times. They want people to get into their
park. They’re not just going to say, ‘Oh, traffic? Sit on
the highway’; they want to be able to have a situation where people
can get in easily.”
Although Legoland coming to the Town of Goshen has not yet secured local
approvals, Cione recommends that those who are opposed learn more about
the project and keep an open mind.
