Dione (file):”What I’m seeing …
is full suppoprt”
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 increase in traffic and that
they are making mitigation 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 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, 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 Goshen has not yet secured local approvals, Cione recommends that those who are opposed learn more about the project and keep an open mind.
