Boisterous Crowd Clashes with Kent Board over Truck Stop

A riled-up crowd expressed their ire about a proposed truck stop last Thursday at a Town of Kent Planning Board meeting.
The controversial truck stop is part of the proposed new development project, Kent Country Square, to be located on a hill on Route 52, just 1,500 feet away from Kent Elementary School and Kent Primary School. The project includes a truck stop, truck wash and truck repair along with two hotels, an indoor waterpark, a restaurant and a convention center. If the plan is approved, it would mean blasting 54 acres of rock to mine down 180 feet. The planning board is the lead agency for the project and would need to approve a final site plan.
More than 85 people filled the Kent town courtroom â placed at the front was a sign saying, âStop the Kent Truck Stop.â People scurried to find seats when the building inspector announced that the room was filled to capacity and if people didnât have seats they would have to leave. The controversial truck stop issue was ninth on the agenda as part of the projectâs SEQRA review (State Environmental Quality Review Act ), but after hearing three other proposals as a restless crowd waited, Planning board Chairman Phil Tolmach skipped ahead to the Route 52 Development project. Residents quickly formed a line on the side of the room for their turn to speak.
âNobody in their right mind would put a truck stop on top of a mountain,â said Kent resident and Carmel-Kent Chamber of Commerce president Henry Boyd.
Boyd explained that he was a licensed truck driver. âThe last thing I want to do is to drive a truck up a hill to get a tank of gas. We donât need 200 to 300 trucks a day going up and down Route 311 and we donât want the trucks passing the kidsâ schools.â
Tolmach explained that there is a traffic study and once the results were in, the study would be discussed. When asked how trucks would be stopped coming onto 311, Tolmach said signs would be put up causing audience laughter and jeers. âI donât believe that the developer wants to put a truck stop in. I believe they are after the rock,â said Boyd, eliciting an exuberant round of applause.
âDo you have any proof of that?â asked Tolmach. âWhy are you repeating all of this for the 10th time?â
Someone shouted back, âBecause we care!â Planning board member Stephen Wilhelm said, âThis is not a public hearing!â A resident stood up and yelled, âThis is town hall and the town is right here!â
Residents voiced their annoyance with the town for not being informed of the project until it was well underway. An apparent deep-seeded distrust stems from a 2018 town approved commercial development project to build a school bus garage on route 52. Then developer, Kent Materials, obtained a mining permit to clear cut and level the site before building the garage. Forty feet of rock was mined, the company took the rock and bailed out of the project, leaving a barren hilltop. Ultimately the bus garage was built at taxpayer expense.
âPeople here are desperately afraid of this project,â said Eileen Civitello, who has organized residents to sign a petition opposing zoning variances for the project. âWe are all terrified that this [project] will happen in the dead of night. This project got so far along, and we didnât know about it.â
Tolmach told Civitello, âIâm glad we woke them [the town] up. Maybe theyâll pay more attention in the future.â
Kent resident Patrick Murphy was particularly concerned with the proposed project. âThis plan is ridiculous. What are you planning?â Planning board member Stephen Wilhelm told Murphy, âWeâre not planning it. They [the developers] are proposing it. We donât go out there and solicit projects. This was presented to the town board first and they [the developer] have to go through a review process like any other proposal. They pay the fees, they pay for engineering studies. The town isnât paying anything for this.â
Because the proposed truck stop would be within close proximity of the two schools, Murphy culled a list of childhood health risks from trucks releasing airborne particulate matter. âThe small, particulate matter can penetrate into small lungs and is a significant health risk to children,â he said, holding up charts reflecting data to the board.
âTrucks travel past our houses every single day,â explained Wilhelm. âAnd youâre not allowed to idle at a truck stop in New York State.â Murphy shot back, âThat means our police have to make sure the trucks arenât idling, which also means more of our resources we have to spend our money on.â
Throughout the meeting, clear and precise explanations came from Liz Axelson, planning consultant for the town. Axelson offered a brief project history starting with the first review, studies needed for scoping and what steps had to be taken before a public hearing was scheduled. Tolmach added that certain items had been considered by the planning board for the scoping outline.
âAll of us thought about what would concern the town, like pollution, noise,â and then Tolmach sarcastically added, âor killing children in the streets.â The clamorous response had people yelling, âHow can you say that?â Tolmach immediately apologized and someone yelled, âYou need to go!â
Holding up the 2008 Kent Master Plan, former town board member Penny Ann Osborn Tarbox asked the planning board if they ever read it. âIâm not happy with this plan. Itâs way too big, it doesnât fit our town, or our infrastructure. We donât need two hotels,â she said. âWeâve had blasting year after year on Route 52. Youâre going to start it all over again.â
The board often seemed defensive, reminding the audience that they were volunteers and the work they were doing was in the townâs best interest. Wilhelm referred to the scoping report and how it reflects the planning boardâs concerns. âThose are our concerns, we put them in there. We are residents and weâre the ones fighting for you. Youâre not listening to what we have done.â
Local real estate agent Brittany Alvarez, who grew up in Carmel, said she currently wasnât representing buyers in the area. âPeople are saying they donât want to live here because of this project and the truck stop issue.â

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