Clarkstown on fast track
Every town wants to attract rateables to its community. Rockland County”™s town of Clarkstown is doing something about it: greasing the skids of the planning process via departmental networking.
Luring new business from Westchester or from New Jersey or keeping existing businesses content with their Clarkstown location is a top priority for town Supervisor Alex Gromack. He brought commercial Realtors, interested business owners and the town”™s development team together on Tuesday, March 16, to introduce them to Clarkstown”™s economic team.
Representatives from its planning department, planning board, zoning board of appeals, architecture and landscape commission, building department, assessor and town”™s attorney, along with the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) participated in the meeting with 30 commercial Realtors from the region who are marketing Clarkstown properties.
The goal of the development team, said Gromack, is to streamline the planning, zoning and approvals process for applicants, making the municipality sensitive to the “get it done yesterday” expectations and cement real estate deals that could go to another town or county or even nearby New Jersey, just beyond the Rockland border.
Gromack cited Kohl”™s Industrial Park in Congers as one of the town”™s success stories, saying it took Leonard Kohl seven months to get through the approvals process to the final permit, a record by New York State standards. “We want Realtors to know we have a team assembled to make the process flow and not get bogged down for months.”
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Gromack also stressed to Realtors that while its zoning and regulations are adhered to, the municipality is willing to work with businesses in a quandary.
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Raja Amar, owner of Portables Unlimited, was looking for new space because of parking issues at his Nanuet site. “Clarkstown stepped up to the plate to help me,” he said. “I did receive unbelievable support to make it possible to stay in the community. The town is serious about being business friendly.”
In addition to PILOT programs (payment in lieu of taxes), Gromack told Realtor Charles Frankel of Commercial Ventures in Central Valley that the town is looking at its current comprehensive plan to make green technology incentives more attractive to potential businesses, as well. Currently, the town offers incentives for those who follow Energy Star requirements. “More is needed to stay competitive,” Frankel told Gromack.
Rockland Business Association president Al Samuels told Realtors his organization is creating a portal on its website for its real estate members to list properties on the RBA website, “because we are usually the first to pop up when someone Googles Rockland. This will give our Realtors an additional opportunity to market properties.”
Paul Adler, managing director for Rand Commercial Services in New City, was pleased with Gromack”™s town business forum with regional Realtors. “Out of the 932 towns in this state, Clarkstown is the only one doing the kind of educational outreach needed to the business community,” he said. “It”™s much easier to market a piece of property to a client when they know they are not going to be put through hoops for months and will have access to a development team that won”™t put them off but respond to them and work with them quickly.”