GHENT PLANNERS LOOK AT PRICE CHOPPER PROPOSAL

Mike McCagg ccSCOOP News 12-18-09 - 5:45 p.m. - “Increase traffic on Route 66 as little as possible.” That's the message delivered by the Ghent Planning Board to the developers of the proposed new Price Chopper store on Route 66, just south of the Village of Chatham, during a meeting last week. The Planning Board told officials from developer Schuyler Companies that they want as little an increase in traffic on Route 66 as possible and would like to see access to the new store be through the existing plaza. Schuyler Companies is overseeing the project for Price Chopper owner, Golub Corporation.

"We want to keep traffic off of Route 66, which would involve, for one thing, a connection between the old plaza and this new development, so that people could go from the new Price Chopper over to the liquor store without having to go out onto Route 66 and then back into the old plaza," said Planning Board Chairman Jonathan Walters.

Walters and the Planning Board asked attorney Bill Better, who represents the owners of the current Price Chopper plaza, to determine if those owners would be amicable to granting a thoroughfare between the plaza and the proposed new Price Chopper. "I would hope they would come to the conclusion of the connector benefiting them since I can't see how it wouldn't increase traffic to the plaza, especially if they fill the old Price Chopper," said Walters.

Schuyler Companies had proposed to planners two entrances from Route 66—one about 100 feet of Payne Avenue and another on the southern end of the proposed site.

The board also had extensive discussion about lighting and landscaping, expressing the desire that the lights from the store and its parking lot not flood the sky. "What we want to avoid is the Wal-Mart Greenport effect," said Walters.

Walters said he has assured representatives of Schuyler Companies that they will receive clear direction from the Planning Board during its January 13 about what the company must accomplish during the Planning Board review process.

“We will give them a fairly specific vision for what the Planning Board wants them to accomplish,” he said.

Walters said the Planning Board has contracted with Nan Stolzenburg of the consulting firm Community Planning & Environmental Associates, and she will be reviewing the proposal and advising members the Ghent Planningplanners prior to the January meeting.

Walters said several projects are planned for the immediate area of the supermarket development, and the town has identified the Route 66 corridor, along with the Route 9H corridor, as “areas of importance” in the comprehensive planning process. Among the other possible projects for area immediately around the proposed Price Chopper is a proposed Camp Hill Village development and a second proposed Highe Point at Chatham Senior apartment complex.