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"I personally want to thank the Town Board and the Planning Board for their professionalism and the Pawling community for its support during this process."
The Castagna property is located on the east side of Route 22, north of Akindale Road, and is marked by a sign in a clearing off to the side of the road. The access to the property will be from Route 22.
This site plan approval is for the first of the three segments of the development, a first phase consisting of two buildings with a total of 300,000 square feet of space, to be built in the northeast quadrant of the
property.
The northwest quadrant, a protected DEC wetland that fronts on Route 22, will be left as open space.
Castagna will provide an interpretive center and trails for educational and recreational uses, to be installed in
this first phase of the development.
The Town Board approved the development for Empire Zone status on March 9 and Gutleber has said that he believes Castagna may receive final approval from the county and state in the coming month. The town and school district have been assured that they will not lose tax money because of this, that the occupant will pay all local taxes, and will receive any tax breaks for which they qualify directly from the state.
The Town of Pawling Planning Board acted as lead agency in the SEQRA environmental review. The board found for a Positive Declaration, and oversaw the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement,
with the final adoption of environmental findings on June 15, 1998.
Regarding the environmental review for this current site plan approval, at the June 21 meeting, the Planning Board first re-affirmed the earlier SEQR finding. Then, because the current plans do not extend the area of disturbance beyond that provided for in the plans used in the environmental review, the board found for a Negative Declaration on this site plan.
The NYS Department of Transportation (DOT) may require the construction of a new traffic signal on Route 22, for safe and efficient access to the site.
Conditions of approval
This site plan approval was granted with certain conditions, as presented in the memo provided to the board by town engineers Dufresne/Henry (DH).
The applicant first brought the site plan application to the Planning Board in 1999, and their consultants have been working since then with regulatory agencies. They have been addressing major concerns, among them the stormwater management system, the water recycling system, and the sanitary sewer system.
In regard to those and other issues, the applicant must obtain approvals for this project from a variety of agencies, including, the Dutchess County Health Department, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The applicant must also obtain the Town Erosion Permit from the Town of Pawling.
Final site plans will be submitted to the board when Castagna has found tenants for the proposed buildings, and those site plans must conform to all aspects that have been approved by the board.
DH provided a list of "technical issues" which must be resolved by the applicant, and made a part of the final site plan, including matters of a possible traffic circle on Route 22, parking, loading, landscaping, lighting, and the connection to the through road to the south.
