Wanting another side to be heard on a development proposal that will be publicly aired this month, Yorktown businessman Richard Leahy recently joined other business owners and residents to form “Citizens for a Progressive Yorktown.” They support a proposed Costco Wholesale Club that a Long Island developer wants to build near the intersection of Route 202/35, or Crompond Road, and the Taconic State Parkway.
Their group, backed by the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce, was formed to counter the claims of an active Costco opposition movement, Concerned Citizens of Yorktown, whose membership includes the groups Yorktown Smart Growth and Green Yorktown. The opponents since last winter have rallied residents to their cause online at nocostco.com.
Both supporters and opponents of the project will be heard at an Oct. 15 public hearing on the final environmental impact report and site plans submitted by the developer, Retail Store Construction Co., an affiliate of Breslin Realty Development Corp. in Garden City. To accommodate the expected turnout of residents, the town board will hold the hearing in the Yorktown Community and Cultural Center at 1974 Commerce St.
Leahy, owner of The Atlantic Appliance Co. in Yorktown for 35 years, stands to profit from the sale of a nursery property he co-owns on the proposed site of the 159,000-square-foot Costco development. But he said he would support the project even if he did not have a purchase agreement with developer Wilbur Breslin. The sale will close only if the Costco project is approved by town officials.
Leahy said Breslin”™s was not the first purchase offer he has had for Zeno”™s Nursery, one of four parcels that would be acquired for the approximately 17-acre Costco development. “We”™ve had a variety of different offers, at the same price” as Breslin”™s, he said, while declining to disclose the pending purchase price. “I didn”™t feel that they were really suitable.”
Leahy said he visited five Costco locations, including two with gas pumps for wholesale club members. The Yorktown location would include a 12-pump filling station.
Near those Costco sites, “There were plenty of gas stations that were thriving all the way around,” said Leahy. Opponents of the project claim that gas stations and other small businesses in the area will lose customers to the big-box store.
“It wasn”™t a barren wasteland of gas stations in the area. There were small businesses thriving in the area,” Leahy said.
As a longtime Yorktown resident, Leahy said he will have to live with the consequences and the critics of development on the property he sells. He carefully chose Breslin”™s offer and plans for a Costco store. “I don”™t have to sell it,” he said. “I wanted something that would have a lasting impact for Yorktown and a favorable use.”
Project opponents, though, on their website call the Costco proposal “an environmental disaster waiting to happen,” with toxic runoff from newly blacktopped parking lots that will hold 610 vehicles. The big-box retailer will also prove disastrous to local owners forced out of business by Costco”™s discounted prices, they said.
Opponents also argue that the project does not fit within the town”™s two-year-old comprehensive master plan for development. Yorktown Smart Growth members in their report, “The True Costs of Costco,” note that the plan calls for the development of “five pedestrian-friendly urban business hamlets that mix business, retail and residential uses.” One of the hamlets, Crompond, is the proposed site of Costco.
“Unlike the other four hamlets, Crompond is essentially undeveloped, meaning that it has the greatest potential for creating something new and different,” Costco opponents wrote. “Building Costco would eliminate forever the opportunity to establish the Crompond business hamlet.”
Traffic congestion has been a major concern of Costco opponents. The developer estimated the store will generate an additional 758 vehicle visits per hour, and opponents claimed that estimate is likely understated. The retailer could bring in more than 1,000 additional cars an hour, or more than 10,000 vehicles daily, they said.
The retail destination would increase traffic jams on two-lane Route 202/35 from Katonah to Peekskill and on Bear Mountain Parkway, opponents claim. Adding lanes on Route 202 between the Costco entrance and Taconic State Parkway ramps will not prevent backed-up traffic on the rest of the two-lane highway, they said.
“I think the biggest objection would be traffic,” said Leahy. “And I think it will be the biggest benefit,” with the addition of lanes between Costco and the Taconic, he said. “It”™s going to change the traffic there and it really needs to happen.”
Leahy said the pro-Costco group was formed to counter the message residents have been hearing from project opponents. “I think it”™s a very vocal opposition and not very large,” he said.
“Everybody that I”™ve spoken to says, bring Costco. I don”™t think business owners are afraid that Costco is going to put them out of business.”
“It needs to happen. There”™s nothing wrong with competition. I have plenty of it.”
“I think it”™s going to help my business,” Leahy said of the Costco project. “I think you”™ll get people coming into town.”
