Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Another Slice of Greenburgh Going, Going Gone - Welcome to Pepe Factory and Prison - 2269 Saw Mill River Rd


Spring 2014, Pepe Auto Group bought the old Sonotone office building on Saw Mill River Road (Route 9A), near the Elmsford Little League Field.  Pepe is applying for the Greenburgh Town and Planning Boards approval to build a new vehicle preparation operation and car storage facility for their 6 auto dealerships (two Mercedes Benz, Infiniti, Porsche, Sprinter, and Cadillac). Their hours of operation at this site will be 7am to 6pm Monday through Friday with half-a day on Saturday and some Sundays! How lucky are we!!

Approximately 750 cars will be stored on the property (650 outdoor parking lots, 100 indoor in the prep building) and delivered-monthly to their dealerships. Pepe stated that 3-5 car carriers (tractor trailers) will be processed daily (Mon.-Sat.); that will be 260 tractor trailers a month using Saw Mill River Rd/9A (5 trailers x 26 days/month x 2 round-trip).  Pepe says 15 cars will leave this facility daily for customer deliveries at their dealerships either driven individually or by flat-bed trailer. But his math doesn’t compute! 15 cars per day x 26 days is only 390 cars per month, 4 tractor trailers a day times 26 days a month with each truck holding 8 vehicles is 832 vehicles per month Other times Pepe states that his entire inventory will turn once a month, that would be 750 cars.  Which calculation is accurate?  If 750 cars turnover in a month, then at least 750 cars are to be delivered to the dealerships then 750 cars need to return to the facility with the original drivers.  That will be an additional 1500 cars either using Saw Mill River Rd/9A or our local neighborhood streets (15 cars x 26 days/month x 2RT).  Pepe stated there will be approximately 30-50 employees at this site, that equates to 2600 employee trips a month not counting possible lunch trips, nor occasional Sunday openings (50 employees x 26 days x 2RT).  In Supervisor Feiner’s letter to Greenburgh residents he only compares the proposed employee trips of this facility to an office building.  He fails to multiply and include in his calculations the additional vehicles from daily deliveries to the dealerships, car deliveries via tractor trailers, box trucks for vehicle parts inventory, gasoline tanker trucks or garbage and refuse trucks.

As part of the car preparation process, each auto needs to be washed and fueled; therefore Pepe will be installing two 10,000 gallon gasoline tanks with a fueling station on this property.  At approx. 20 gallons per car x 750 cars delivered per month that’s 15,000 gallons of gasoline per month used, Therefore that would be at least 4 gasoline tanker trucks using Saw Mill River Rd monthly (regular and premium gasoline)  An average gasoline tanker truck holds 8500 gallons, 2 tankers x 2RT.

At least 40 box trucks delivering car parts a month (5 dealerships x 1 weekly x 4 x 2 RT).  This is for all non-factory installed accessories oil, coolants, etc. used as part of the new car preparatory process.  Garbage, recyclers and trash haulers – Per Pepe, a lot of cardboard and Styrofoam delivered with new cars.  Most probably twice a week garbage and recyclers, 16 ex-large trucks monthly (2 x 4 x 2RT)

Their hours of operation will be 7am to 6pm Monday through Friday with a half-day on Saturday and Pepe admits to even some Sunday openings!  This operation is not at all similar in size, building architecture, or prior business operations anywhere in Greenburgh! We all know how busy and crowded Saw Mill River Rd/9A is; Do we REALLY need this extra car and truck traffic?

This increase in allowable traffic seems to be contrary to what Paul Feiner is advocating in his 2015 Agenda Posted on Greenburgh’s website January 6, 2015 # 12 Lobby NYS for 9A bypass to reduce traffic congestion on 9A in the vicinity of 119- working with villages and business community and #13 Support commercial vehicle enforcement detail for vehicle scales to preserve town roadways.
As part of this site renovation, Pepe wants 2 separate 8 foot chain-link fences installed around the circumference of the property, spikes in the driveways and over 100 overhead 14’ LED light poles in the lot, camera and motion detectors with all flood light lights immediately activated upon an intrusion.  When asked, how will these flood lights be turned-off once activated?  Pepe had no answer.  Do the residents need to bear lit baseball stadium lights until someone comes to turn them off?  Our quality of life not to mention sleep disturbances are not considered or addressed by the Town Boards?  How safe does 8ft chain link fences make our visitors and future business investors feel?  Pepe wants to make our residential community feel like a ghetto!  He says second to parking as many cars on this property as design allows, is to have this property look like maximum security operation, and deter intruders.  The look and feel of the property’s surroundings for the local residents was not a concern of Pepe or his architects.  There are proposed subdivisions on Worthington Rd and at 1952 Saw Mill River Rd. with new homes selling in the $1.5+ million range.  Would you invest your money in a new home with this facility and operation in your neighborhood?  We have never had a prison in Greenburgh, and we don’t want one now!  Pepe won’t be looking at this eye sore of a building every day and night.  We will!  Pepe won’t be around if there is a security breach, (even it’s a deer jumping the fence) or god-forbid a gas explosion.  We will!   But wait we will have a large illuminated “Pepe” sign on the front of the building even though Pepe swears customers will not be visiting this facility.  Then why does this facility need such a prominent sign on the building?

The increase in traffic presents many hazards.  Large tractor trailers can’t turn right from Route 119 to Route 9A, but there’s no guarantee they won’t try, blocking both RT119 and 9A until all the cars on 9A clear out.  Have you ever seen this happen?  Yes.  Locals don’t try it, but Pepe’s contractors?  Pepe says they will request the tractor trailers operators to access Tarrytown Rd/RT 119 from I-287 Exit 4, or I-87 to Ardsley’s Exit then on to RT9A.  Supervisor Feiner dismisses the I-87 alternative and only states that the tractor trailers will use I-287 Exit 4 making a right turn at Staples/Tarrytown Rd through Main Street in Elmsford and making a left turn by the Elmsford Post Office.  A tractor trailer will NOT be able to turn on these roads without using both lanes in both directions leading to more congestion, gridlock, traffic tie-ups, accidents etc. 

What about pedestrians?  What about people at bus stops up and down Route 9A?  No road shoulders or bus shelters.  Bus stops are marked by bus stop poles by the white lines on road edges. What about people crossing RT9A and 119 to transfer to other bus routes?  It’s already hazardous!  Traffic lights even now don’t give pedestrians enough time to cross the street.  Adding more tractor trailers, trucks and cars turning can only cause more blockage and hazards.  Ask the bus drivers!  Car carriers versus pedestrians - guess who wins!

What about people driving their kids to and from the Ann & Andy Day Care Center on Saw Mill River Road?  What about kids running to and from the Elmsford Little League Fields?  What about children walking from the local streets to school in Elmsford, especially during the winter months when the mornings and late afternoons are dark?  Here, like Edgemont there are no sidewalks nor road shoulders.  How will our children be safe when all this extra traffic runs up and down RT9A?  Parents will then decide to drive their children and more traffic will ensue.  The memorial crosses beside Saw Mill River Road/RT9A are there for a reason.

The residents also feel there has not been a proper environmental study on this property. Since WW II, the former Sonotone Facility had their vacuum tubes, Nickel cadmium battery and battery chargers plant and research facilities at the building Pepe proposes to demolish.  We need a detailed environmental study done at this particular building as well as on other parts of the site before demolition begins.

What’s Pepe, Town Boards and Supervisor Feiner’s answer to the residents’ issues?  Silence.  And this time it isn’t golden for Greenburgh’s residents!

Guess What? On January 28, 2015, the Town Board approved under AT 1 a resolution authorizing tax certiorari settlement with petitioners Elmsford Executive Park Co/2269 SMRR LLC (name for legal purposes) for $635,036+/-.  I guess we get to pay for the property renovations too!  Not to mention, part of Pepe’s renovation of this site is to demolish a building for additional parking.  How much would this decrease the future tax revenue on this property?  No answer again…

Why are they rushing this project through?  Why aren’t they asking New York State DOT to prepare a traffic study?  Why is the Town concerned only about Pepe’s interests?  Why are the residents last on their list?  Why aren’t they asking these questions? 

PUBLIC HEARING MARCH 11 at 7:30pm GREENBURGH TOWN HALL

1 comment:

  1. Perhaps trailers make trips not fully loaded.
    Perhaps a trailer making a delivery unloads and then takes on "prepped cars" for delivery to the dealers.
    Perhaps the additional traffic is spread over the course of a day--not within, say a 15 minute window or the time frame of your choice. Wouldn't this lessen the doomsday prediction of traffic congestion? Perhaps the worse scenario is that all that lighting you fear is really to facilitate nighttime operations such as deliveries.
    The fault dear Brutus lies not with our star Supervisor but with the lack of understanding by residents of what the results of traffic studies mean to those sharing the road. Oft quoted results are in terms of vehicles per hour and higher counts sound scary. Does anyone actually behind the wheel actually know the difference between x cars per hour and y cars per hour as though that has a measurable effect on actual forward movement?
    A fence around the premises translates as ghetto? Even without quoting from Robert Frost, I wonder if you could try and think of any fences that serve good purposes and do so without referencing prisons. Perhaps your concern for children running to baseball practice would be fortified by the possibility that they would not be tempted to wander off among the 650 stored outside but constantly being shifted around to make room for new arrivals and entry to the indoor prepping chamber all the while dodging the trailers arriving en masse.
    Then too, here's another case of NIMBY fever which decides that a basically light industrial use is worse than manufacturing and the measure of this is taken by those who would be "required" to purchase $1.5 million starter homes nearby.
    Alternatively, if you could just get the public not to buy their new car from Pepe dealerships, then there would no longer be an economic reason for Pepe to pursue its goal and the"market" would prevail.
    Finally, what is a Sprinter?

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