PINE BUSH – It has the potential of being the largest commercial development project in the history of the Town of Crawford: 500,000 square feet of warehouse and light industry space distributed among seven or eight buildings, all constructed on a 138-acre site that was once Bob Simon's farm. Located in the southwestern corner of the township, the site on Stone Schoolhouse Road is close to Route 17, not far from Interstate Highway 84, and close to Stewart Airport.

The developers, Black Creek (Stone Schoolhouse Road, LLC), believe that this area, where Orange, Ulster, and Sullivan Counties meet, is well suited for commercial development. They are currently building their first project at the site, a 26,000 square foot warehouse with an approach road and loading dock.

On February 11, Commerce Park had its public scoping session at the Town of Crawford planning board meeting. The purpose of the session was to allow the public to ask questions about the project. Few questions were asked, however, which reflects the remoteness of the site for the project from Pine Bush.

At the scoping session, the planning board discussed its concerns, which boiled down to a handful of items. On the environmental side, the biggest issue is protecting the Shawangunk Kill, which is a trout stream, and an example of something about as precious as it gets in environmental terms. The planning board's concerns were put together in a scoping document.

Phil Jamison, Chairman of the Planning Board, said, "We don't have that many concerns, and none that are unreasonable. Now, they thought our concerns were too specific, but I think we can probably come to a conclusion at the special meeting on February 24." That meeting will be held at the Town of Crawford Government Center, at 8:30 am.

Jamison, who once worked on the Simon farm where Commerce Park will be built, noted that there were some important details that, once the developer looked at them, they would see this could be a win-win situation.

"One of the things about that property is that there are exceptionally porous soils there. There's a layer of sand, it may be 20 feet deep, it might be even more than that. Now, when you have large warehouses, twenty-, fifty-, seventy-thousand square feet buildings, there can be an awful lot of storm water run off from the roofs. Kevin Sumner, who provided us with advice in this area, pointed out that they could employ some advanced storm water infiltration techniques to put that water into the ground. Of course, they would have to treat water coming off the parking lots, but if they use this sand for storm water off the buildings they could end up saving money for everyone. So one of our concerns is that they inventory the soils on the site."

But legal counsel for Stone Schoolhouse Road LLC, Terresa M. Bakner, of Whiteman Osterman and Hanna, remarked that the 46-page document generated by the planning board before the scoping session was much too specific and too long.

Jamison thinks that she missed the point. "Once this thing is accepted we can't go back and add things to it at a later date. So at this time we have to put in anything that might be a concern. Besides, most of that document was just the necessary verbiage. We really don't have that many questions."

Written comments on the scope of this development project will be taken by the planning board until March 4. The scoping document will be accepted in final form by March 11.

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