January 15 - 21, 2015

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Your Award-Winning News Source for the Upper Delaware River Valley Region Since 1975

Vol. 41 No. 3

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JANUARY 15-21, 2015

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www.riverreporter.com

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$1.50

No parking variance for Dollar General store By DAVID HULSE

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LDRED, NY — By a three-to-one vote, the Town of Highland’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) on January 8 denied the parking variance application of Primax Properties LLC, which has a controversial proposal to build a store to house the chain retailer Dollar General in Eldred. An audience of about 100 persons turned out for the 2.5-hour public hearing on the zoning variance. The variance is needed because Highland zoning requires one parking space for every 100 square feet of a commercial structure. The project would be built on an empty lot just off Eldred corners, adjoining the former Orchard Terrace on the west side of State Route 55, opposite the law officehome of Andrew Boyar, the supervisor of the Town of Highland. The planned structure is 9,100 square feet, which would require 91 spaces, but

Primax attorney Jeff Kaplan said 91 were far more than needed. Engineer Larry Marshall said the average parking at Dollar General stores has 25 spaces. “What we want is 33,” he said. ZBA Chairman Larry Fishman said he had the town engineer survey the property for usable parking and found the maximum spaces possible to be 70. As an alternative, Kaplan said additional spaces could be available to the developer on the adjoining property. Fishman said that for purposes of the variance, the parking spaces had to be on the same lot. Norman Sutherland, who favored the variance, said that a similar variance had been granted to the “pizza place” in Barryville. Fishman said he was not familiar with that decision. The public comment was divided almost evenly, but most of the comments, both for and against, related to the whole project, rather than the variance. Opponents were against a chain store’s impact on Peck’s Market and the jobs it

TRR photo by David Hulse

Part of the audience that filled the Highland Town Hall is pictured at the January 8 Town of Highland Zoning Board of Appeals public hearing where, in a later vote, the ZBA decided 3-1 to reject a Primax Properties LLC application for a parking variance on the Eldred property proposed for a Dollar General store.

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TRR photo by David Hulse

Four of five members of Highland’s Zoning Board of Appeals are pictured at a January 8 public hearing, after which they rejected a Primax Properties LLC application for a parking variance on the Eldred property proposed for a Dollar General store. Pictured are John Kamp, left, Ken Byrne, Chairman Larry Fishman and Christopher Dampman. The board’s fifth member, John Marciano did not attend offers, saying that Dollar General jobs are fewer and paid less, and that store profits would leave town. Many others said the box store would reduce property values and hurt Eldred’s small-town atmosphere. Many of those in favor said the store would add to the tax base, that the hamlet has no shopping alternatives and that lower-income people needed competitive prices. Fishman said the tax impact to the town would be about $5,000, and $12,000 to the school district, with the remainder going to the county. Norman Bohs had concerns about the variance and any potential effect on the hand-laid stone foundation of the adjoining 1859 Eldred United Methodist Church, where his wife Linda Bohs is pastor. He said it could shift with addition of storm-

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SPANNING 2 STATES, 4 COUNTIES, AND A RIVER THAT UNITES US

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water from a large neighboring parking lot. He wanted a “guarantee, in writing,” against that kind of disturbance. “If it gets to that point, it definitely will be considered,” Fishman said. “I want a guarantee,” Bohs repeated. The board also read some 40 letters of comment. All but three of these were opposed, and many contained identical language. After closing the hearing, the board went through the state environmental impact statement, which required their answering 11 yes-or-no questions regarding new impacts from the action. They agreed that 10 of the 11 answers indicated no impact and then agreed to approve a negative declaration for the variance. Had the questions determined significant impacts, a full environmental impact

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