Wednesday, September 22, 2010

NH Business Park - What Is the Public Price?

The New Hartford Business Park is back in the news. This time it's about a proposed ramp on and off Route 840 that will be the subject of a public hearing Sept. 27 6PM at Butler Hall.
Previous estimates have put the project – which includes extending Clinton Street into the business park and building a Woods Highway extension to Route 840 – at roughly $800,000.
That would be partly funded by a payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement with the hotel and could also be supplemented by existing fees-in-lieu of mitigation funds held by the town, according to the study.

The Environmental Assessment is on the Town Website as is a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).

The Assessment indicates that the project will generate Sewage that will be discharged into the Mohawk River, that 40,000 gallons of water will be used per day, that traffic will be generated that is significantly above present levels, and that a demand for community provided services such as police and fire protection will be created.  The assessment claims that the impact of effluent being transported to inadequate facilities and a requirement for new or expansion of existing waste treatment/storage facilities can be adequately mitigated by a project change.  It claims that the use of water can be adequately mitigated.  It claims that project incompatibility with existing drainage patterns can be adequately mitigated.

Curiously, the assessment claims that NO local state or federal funding will be involved.

Although it is sort of a shell game, the Taxpayers ARE paying for this. 

Payments In Lieu of Taxes that go to pay for a road that is ONLY needed by the Business Park are payments that are NOT available to pay for the demand on police and fire protection that the project will generate.  Guess who picks up the police and fire tab? The SEIS does not disclose this.

Fees in Lieu of Mitigation collected from developers of other projects are Town funds intended to be used to mitigate the impacts of those other projects.  Guess who winds up either paying to mitigate the impacts of the other projects or tolerating the environmental degradation of the other projects? The SEIS does not disclose this.


Guess Who will be paying to upgrade the sewage system to mitigate the additional sewage load? The SEIS does not disclose this.

Although the project claims that it will create 2,000 jobs, where will the jobs come from?  More than likely, local jobs will merely move from one place in the region to another. . . . That is nothing more than sprawl.  The SEIS does not disclose this . . .

Guess Who pays for more sprawl? 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You mention the cost of fire protection but I thought the fire departments are volunteer out there

Strikeslip said...

Volunteer or not there are costs associated with it. NH pays NYM to provide fire coverage for the Commercial Drive area. For NHBP coverage might have to be arranged with Clark Mills.

clipper said...

At any rate, no matter who provides the protection, fire protection comes at a cost. Equipment and supplies cost money, and the costs even if the coverage comes directly from NH Volunteer FD will exist. How high the cost remains to be seen. There will be additional medical calls to the hotel, and certainly additional accidents if there is another interchange added to 840.

There is no way to disguise the fact that every toilet or sink added to the sewer system adds more volume to the overstressed system. NH continues to sprawl and build and develop, and when all is said and done, EVERYONE IN ONEIDA COUNTY will pay for their foolishness when the sewer problems are finally addressed and repairs or infrastructure improvements are finally implemented.

Anonymous said...

The Hartford insurance bldg based on property lines is covered by NYM FD. NYM drives through NHFD area to get to it. Very strange setup indeed. But any further development will be NHFD. Clark Mills is a fine organization but its not there area nor are they equipped for such an endeavor.