Residents press town to classify proposed Route 9W concrete plant as heavy industry; applicant says it will fund reviews

Residents at a Town of Lloyd board meeting urged officials to adopt a "heavy industry" zoning definition to limit or more strictly regulate a proposed ready-mix concrete batch plant at 3260 Route 9W, citing traffic safety, groundwater and wastewater concerns. Applicant representatives told the board they will pay for technical reviews and town experts to evaluate environmental and infrastructure impacts.

At public comment, Johanna Sieverding, who said she reviewed the Creighton Manning traffic report, warned that truck turning and acceleration at the proposed site would create hazards on the four-lane section of Route 9W. She said the study showed the 85th-percentile travel speed at 65 mph and cited a daily vehicle count figure, and asked how a fully loaded ready-mix truck could safely enter and exit the site. "A fully loaded cement truck at 70,000 pounds...takes more about a minute to get to highway speed," she said, adding that the short turning and acceleration distances on 9W posed risks.

Several nearby residents, including Mike and Amy Matz of Cross Creek Run, asked the town to treat the plant as heavy industry rather than light industry. They highlighted concerns about water use and aquifer impacts; Amy Matz said a plant could need "between 10 to 15,000 gallons of water per day," not counting cleaning, and asked whether the site's existing well had been recently tested for capacity.

Luke Clemente, representing the applicant, said the company bought the property more than a year ago, has conducted due diligence and is still completing its formal application. Clemente told the board the company has engineers and experts and said it "will pay 100% of the cost for putting that waterline in, so there's no taxpayer burden." He also described the plant as a modern ready-mix operation with a closed-loop wastewater system and dust containment, and said the project would not, in his view, require state air or water discharge permits. "We are going to pay for the town's experts," Clemente said, "so again, no taxpayer burden for reviewing this project."

Town officials and planning board representatives told the audience the planning board is still reviewing the application. The planning board asked the applicant for additional information on traffic, water demand, potential groundwater and aquifer impacts, noise, air emissions, visual buffering and site design. The board also discussed whether to finalize a revised definition distinguishing light and heavy industry in the town zoning code; that language has been tabled and the supervisor said the board would rework the definitions and aim to present revised language at a future workshop meeting.

The next procedural steps are continued review by the planning board (with pre-meeting and formal sessions scheduled) and a revised town-board zoning proposal that the supervisor said he hopes to circulate before the next workshop. The applicant said it will appear before the planning board and has offered to meet with residents and engineering consultants to address specific technical questions.

Claims and counterclaims in the meeting remained contested and procedural: residents called for impartial expert reviews of groundwater and traffic impacts; the applicant said it would fund town reviews and maintain wastewater on-site; and board members emphasized that planning and SEQRA (the state environmental quality review process) and the planning board's permitting process will guide technical determinations.

The planning board review and any zoning change will determine the project's next steps; the town board has not adopted a final definition or taken a formal vote to bar the project.