Popular Searches
Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
Share
Proposed Livingston Road gravel mine pushes ahead
By Molly Salisbury
A recent Taghkanic Zoning Board of Appeals meeting was packed. It wasn’t a public hearing, just a regular ZBA meeting, but the special use permit under consideration has people very worried — especially those residents who live and own property on the 3/4 mile stretch of Livingston Road between the proposed gravel mine and state Route 82.
Berry Pond LLC, the name of the Kent, Conn., entity that is applying for the permit to operate a gravel mine, owns two contiguous lots along Livingston Road, totaling 109 acres. The excavation will occur on a 29-acre portion of this property. Berry Pond needs a special use permit because the area is zoned residential. New York state limits a town’s power to regulate — and disallow — mines. The things the town can regulate are the roads and roadways used to access the site.
And the roads present a potential problem. Livingston Road, the only road the gravel pit trucks can use to carry the loads of gravel from the mine to Route 82 and beyond, has a 5-ton weight limit. Gravel trucks filled with gravel weigh 30 to 35 tons. This is six times the stated weight limit.
Livingston Road, which becomes Church Road about a mile from state Route 82, runs northwest from Route 82 in Taghkanic to the center of Livingston, a distance of just over 3 miles. Livingston’s portion of the road has a weight limit of 5 tons as well. Berry Pond will not use Livingston’s portion of the Road, per a Department of Environmental Conservation request.
Livingston/Church Road’s weight limit was pointed out more than a year ago, in April of 2008, when a representative of Berry Pond first showed up at a ZBA meeting. The decision to analyze the road’s physical make-up was made at the last ZBA meeting, on Oct. 19, in hopes of determining the roadbed’s “actual” weight limit.
On Nov. 10, Berry Pond’s hired engineering firm, G -L Engineering P.C. out of Troy, took bore samples from four different locations on Livingston Road and took a look at what Livingston Road is actually made up of. At Monday’s meeting, the engineer, Mark Visscher, explained the samples were made up of (more or less) 2 inches of surface blacktop, 3 inches of an asphalt binder, and between 9 and 18 inches of “subbase,” or sand and gravel.
Visscher said that according to the New York state Department of Transportation’s design manual, a road like Livingston Road is capable of sustaining 200 to 300 of any type vehicle per hour.
Even if a gravel truck’s weight is factored to equal eight cars, the proposed six trucks an hour would equal 48 cars, easily sustainable by Livingston Road, according to the analysis.
The analysis had not been reviewed by the town’s engineer at the time of the ZBA meeting.
The large, undeveloped tract purchased by Berry Pond is the only large lot like it in the residential area. There are 20 some families living between the proposed mine and Route 82. The special use permit from Taghkanic is not the first step but the last step — the go-ahead — that Berry Pond needs to start digging.
Obtaining a Mined Land Reclamation permit was Berry Pond’s first step in the process, and they have effectively been cleared by the DEC. The DEC was the lead agency and has performed the environmental impact review (SEQRA) for the mine application.
Apparently, the town was notified of this back in July 2007 when Berry Pond first submitted application materials to the DEC. The town received notice and enlisted aid from Morris Associates employee Paul McCreary, also the town engineer, who sent out a comment letter Sept. 6, 2007, reviewing the application material. The contents of this letter are as of yet unknown.
Berry Pond brought a new lawyer to Monday’s ZBA meeting, Kevin Bernstein, who pushed for a public hearing date. Zoning code stipulates a public hearing must be held before issuing the special use permit.
Bernstein said of the public hearing: “All we want to do is start the process. Do you guys need to make a motion or something?”
ZBA board member Bob Rochler, who was chairing the meeting in the stead of Jim Romaine, was clear that hurrying things up was not feasible as the Planning Board gets 45 days to review and comment on the permit application materials before the public hearing.
But Rochler also made clear it wasn’t just legalities he was worried about: “This is an important thing for our town.”
A date was set for the public hearing, though not as soon as Berry Pond would have liked: Jan 18, 2009, in the firehouse.
In other ways, Berry Pond is bending over backward to be agreeable, as the ranks of Taghkanic residents attending ZBA meetings is growing. They have shortened their working hours, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, to 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
At least 40 people were in attendance on Monday night. The town’s attorney, Robert Fitzsimmons, is acutely aware of the impending maelstrom, and warns the Berry Pond crew every step of the way to be prepared for questions.
Many residents are not happy about the proposed mine. Debbie Colgrove is “upset as hell.” She echoes what many are thinking, “We bought this land for peace and quiet.” Colgrove also wondered, “What’s in this for the town?”
Thomas Mirabelli, whose property is across the street from the proposed mine, wrote a letter to the ZBA decrying Berry Pond’s mining proposal as “full of generalizations, oversights, misleading statements, vague reasoning and otherwise poor engineering.”
In his opinion, “the increase in intensity of use (of the roadway) is astronomical.”
One neighbor put up a sign “Stop the gravel mine.” She declined to give her name, but said, “I work from home. I may have to move.” The negative impact on neighboring property values is also a concern.
Berry Pond LLC, the name of the Kent, Conn., entity that is applying for the permit to operate a gravel mine, owns two contiguous lots along Livingston Road, totaling 109 acres. The excavation will occur on a 29-acre portion of this property. Berry Pond needs a special use permit because the area is zoned residential. New York state limits a town’s power to regulate — and disallow — mines. The things the town can regulate are the roads and roadways used to access the site.
And the roads present a potential problem. Livingston Road, the only road the gravel pit trucks can use to carry the loads of gravel from the mine to Route 82 and beyond, has a 5-ton weight limit. Gravel trucks filled with gravel weigh 30 to 35 tons. This is six times the stated weight limit.
Livingston Road, which becomes Church Road about a mile from state Route 82, runs northwest from Route 82 in Taghkanic to the center of Livingston, a distance of just over 3 miles. Livingston’s portion of the road has a weight limit of 5 tons as well. Berry Pond will not use Livingston’s portion of the Road, per a Department of Environmental Conservation request.
Livingston/Church Road’s weight limit was pointed out more than a year ago, in April of 2008, when a representative of Berry Pond first showed up at a ZBA meeting. The decision to analyze the road’s physical make-up was made at the last ZBA meeting, on Oct. 19, in hopes of determining the roadbed’s “actual” weight limit.
On Nov. 10, Berry Pond’s hired engineering firm, G -L Engineering P.C. out of Troy, took bore samples from four different locations on Livingston Road and took a look at what Livingston Road is actually made up of. At Monday’s meeting, the engineer, Mark Visscher, explained the samples were made up of (more or less) 2 inches of surface blacktop, 3 inches of an asphalt binder, and between 9 and 18 inches of “subbase,” or sand and gravel.
Visscher said that according to the New York state Department of Transportation’s design manual, a road like Livingston Road is capable of sustaining 200 to 300 of any type vehicle per hour.
Even if a gravel truck’s weight is factored to equal eight cars, the proposed six trucks an hour would equal 48 cars, easily sustainable by Livingston Road, according to the analysis.
The analysis had not been reviewed by the town’s engineer at the time of the ZBA meeting.
The large, undeveloped tract purchased by Berry Pond is the only large lot like it in the residential area. There are 20 some families living between the proposed mine and Route 82. The special use permit from Taghkanic is not the first step but the last step — the go-ahead — that Berry Pond needs to start digging.
Obtaining a Mined Land Reclamation permit was Berry Pond’s first step in the process, and they have effectively been cleared by the DEC. The DEC was the lead agency and has performed the environmental impact review (SEQRA) for the mine application.
Apparently, the town was notified of this back in July 2007 when Berry Pond first submitted application materials to the DEC. The town received notice and enlisted aid from Morris Associates employee Paul McCreary, also the town engineer, who sent out a comment letter Sept. 6, 2007, reviewing the application material. The contents of this letter are as of yet unknown.
Berry Pond brought a new lawyer to Monday’s ZBA meeting, Kevin Bernstein, who pushed for a public hearing date. Zoning code stipulates a public hearing must be held before issuing the special use permit.
Bernstein said of the public hearing: “All we want to do is start the process. Do you guys need to make a motion or something?”
ZBA board member Bob Rochler, who was chairing the meeting in the stead of Jim Romaine, was clear that hurrying things up was not feasible as the Planning Board gets 45 days to review and comment on the permit application materials before the public hearing.
But Rochler also made clear it wasn’t just legalities he was worried about: “This is an important thing for our town.”
A date was set for the public hearing, though not as soon as Berry Pond would have liked: Jan 18, 2009, in the firehouse.
In other ways, Berry Pond is bending over backward to be agreeable, as the ranks of Taghkanic residents attending ZBA meetings is growing. They have shortened their working hours, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, to 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
At least 40 people were in attendance on Monday night. The town’s attorney, Robert Fitzsimmons, is acutely aware of the impending maelstrom, and warns the Berry Pond crew every step of the way to be prepared for questions.
Many residents are not happy about the proposed mine. Debbie Colgrove is “upset as hell.” She echoes what many are thinking, “We bought this land for peace and quiet.” Colgrove also wondered, “What’s in this for the town?”
Thomas Mirabelli, whose property is across the street from the proposed mine, wrote a letter to the ZBA decrying Berry Pond’s mining proposal as “full of generalizations, oversights, misleading statements, vague reasoning and otherwise poor engineering.”
In his opinion, “the increase in intensity of use (of the roadway) is astronomical.”
One neighbor put up a sign “Stop the gravel mine.” She declined to give her name, but said, “I work from home. I may have to move.” The negative impact on neighboring property values is also a concern.
Share this Article
 |
 |
|
| Man charged with taking money from ‘Gentle Giants’ | PHOTO: The Clearwater's out of water |
Article Rating
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of registerstar.com.
You must register with a valid email to post comments. Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Registered users sign in here: |
Become a Registered User |
