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Politics & Government

Costco Relocates Proposed Fueling Area in Site Plan

Yorktown Planning Board to review revised environmental impact statement before declaring it complete.

A relocated fueling area is featured in the newest version of the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed Costco in Yorktown.

The revised DEIS was discussed Tuesday night by the town Planning Board. While the developer urged the board to declare the statement complete, board members cited a need for themselves and an absent colleague to examine the voluminous document before voting. Such a declaration could come as early as the board’s Sept. 10 meeting.

Costco Wholesale Club seeks to build a 151,092-square-foot retail store and a filling station available to club members at 3200 Crompond Road (U.S. Route 202, north side), just west of the Taconic State Parkway.

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The DEIS, revised in response to earlier concerns, was delivered Aug. 3 to the town Planning Department, which passed it along to the Planning Board a week later.

The fueling area has been relocated to the southeast corner of the site, separate from the main parking area and farther from a residential area to the west. The relocation will improve traffic flow and make room for an expanded buffer area along the western side of the site, explained Nick Panayotou, principal of land development for TRC Engineers Inc. The green strip along Route 202 is also wider.

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Regarding water management, Costco has already designed the site to reduce peak storm water runoff but is interested in working with New York State to use state-owned land to the north to reduce runoff even more, Panayotou said. The site is near the top of a hill, the headwater site for the immediate area, and “We would like to do what we can to reduce the downstream effect,” he said.

Al Capellini, counsel for the developer, urged prompt approval of the revised DEIS, which has been in the works for 18 months.

“This is a complete document and we think all substantial concerns have been addressed,” Capellini said. “We think we did what you wanted. Please declare it complete.”

“Without reading it?” replied John Flynn, acting board chairman in the absence of Richard Fon.

Capellini encouraged Flynn and his colleagues to rely on the experts in the Planning Department but Flynn cited a responsibility for all board members to have a chance to review the latest paperwork.

“There are a lot of moving pieces to this,” Flynn said, “and I, for one, do not want to take shortcuts on this.”

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