KENT – A developer’s plans to create a 54-acre excavated, graded area for mixed use commercial development to include two hotels, a conference center, indoor recreation facility, water park and truck rest stop with retail and restaurants, motor vehicle repair and service station geared toward trucks for fueling and tire shop along Route 52 in the vicinity of the Kent schools complex has residents of Kent up in arms.
Kent Country Square LLC, owner of the parcel known as the Route 52 Development, has requested a zoning amendment for a special permit, site plan and erosion control permit for the property located on 137 acres east of the intersection of Ludingtonville Road.
After objecting to the proposal at recent town board and planning board meetings, a group of residents have formed ‘Stop the Kent Truck Stop.’
On Saturday, 50 members of the organization rallied at the Kent Center Shopping Plaza off Route 52 across from the Kent Elementary School.
Henry Boyd, president of the Carmel-Kent Chamber of Commerce, charged a “truck stop on the top of a mountain should never happen. No truck driver wants to exit a highway, drive one mile up a hill along a narrow two lane road in order to fuel his rig and grab a bite to eat.”
Boyd predicted that should the truck stop become reality, “traffic problems along Route 52 from Exit 17 at Ludingtonville Road to Exit 18 at Route 311 will become a nightmare. Traffic is horrendous now. Imagine 300-400 trucks added to the mix. The result would be dreadful.”
Boyd also expressed concern with mining associated with the project. “The developer has proposed removing five million cubic yards of material at $20 per ton or $84 million worth of rock making itself a profit of $42 million. Once the mining is completed, what is going to prevent the developer from pulling the plug and leaving? Should the zoning change occur, the land will become more valuable making the property more precious should the entrepreneur decide to leave town.”
Boyd smiled when queried as to what the group wants form the town administration. “We are asking the ‘Town of C’aint’ to maintain that status.” He was referring to Kent’s lack of development over the years due to former administrations’ refusal to encourage development of the greater Lake Carmel area.
Eileen Civitello, one of the organizers of the ‘Stop the Kent Truck Stop,’ charged a “truck stop is not the appropriate development for our town. We don’t want our town to be subject to the mining of a 54-acre parcel down 180 feet. A truck stop off a two lane road is insane. We are not anti-trucker by any means nor or we anti-development. This is not right for our town – where it is; what it is; across the street from our Kent School. Our greatest asset is our children and for the town to allow this to happen is unconscionable. In the age of 9/11, when our heroes were promised that air quality at Ground Zero would not damage them; in an age when an arsenic mine was discovered right here in Kent – this is too much. How can a developer tell a community that it can blast 180 feet of rock over a 54 acre parcel and the dust won’t affect the children in the Kent School?”
Brittany Alvarez, a local realtor, also attended the rally. She called Kent a “tight-knit community. Many people ask me each day should the truck stop become reality will my property values be hurt? I can’t answer that but deep down inside, I doubt very much if a truck stop will benefit our local residents because people will change the way they look at Kent when it’s time to buy a home.”
Putnam Legislator Toni Addonizio who represents the greater Lake Carmel-Kent area, voiced concern regarding the environmental impact the proposed truck stop would have on her constituents. “Current road infrastructure will be unable to handle a project of this magnitude. Additionally, the mining proposal poses great concern. There are too many unanswered questions.”
Kent Supervisor Maureen Fleming reminded the residents that the Town Board is listening. “This is a tremendously long process. The scoping document itself is 37 pages of questions for the developer and concerns about the proposal ranging from air quality to light exposure to blasting, traffic and the list goes on and on. This will take a long time for those questions to be answered. The developer’s attorney was asked if plans for the proposal could be reconfigured without the truck stop. I was advised by the attorney that plans were being worked on containing different configurations. No one knows what they are but the developer will have to return to the Planning Board once they become finalized.”
Fleming reminded the public that “This is not even close to the end. Even though the application has been around for more than a year and a half before the Planning Board, we are still in the infant stages with many, many questions to be answered and if those questions are not answered satisfactorily, the project will not come to fruition.”
A public hearing regarding the issue is scheduled for Tuesday, October 22, at a meeting of the Kent Town Board.
