Goshen planning board presses RDM on warehouse height, buffers, water and truck traffic

GOSHEN, N.Y. — Town planning-board members and nearby residents challenged RDM—s revised warehouse proposals during a public meeting, saying the projects as drawn could undermine neighborhood buffers, increase heavy-vehicle traffic on Route 17M and require technical information the applicant has not yet provided.

The board focused earliest on site "2659," which the applicant reworked into a single-story building with a larger footprint. Speaker 4, an environmental-review-board participant, said the applicant—s filings showed a smaller interior square footage but a bigger footprint and that the submission lacked the comparative numbers and elevation drawings the planning board requested. "The applicant is asking for a variance that essentially makes that entire parcel highway commercial," Speaker 4 said, arguing the combined square-footage and height requests would change how the land functions next to residential lots.

Why it matters: the applications seek area variances for size and height that opponents say create an incompatible edge between commercial/mixed-use zoning and adjacent RU (rural/residential) parcels. Multiple members emphasized that meeting the letter of the code—s 100-foot setback requirement is not the same as satisfying the code—s purpose when the site sits far below nearby backyards. "The 100 foot buffer...gives you a visual buffer. It gives you a noise barrier," Speaker 4 said;…