New Hotel in NH Business Park

[Clipper]

'Well Joe, I would not be in favor of another interchange on 840 either if I lived there and traveled 840. Just one more interchange to maintain and one more ramp merging to cause accidents. Actually though if there were any justification for another exit, I would think the hotel would have a better chance of proving THEIR need, than the other tenants in the park.

I would think that a service road or entrance to the business park off of Middle Settlement Rd would be adequate. Who is in that big of a hurry to get to an office or a hotel room?

[WestmoGuy]

I also think extending Clinton Street is the way to go.

I just can't imagine how many drivers will cut though and get off that ramp to take a shortcut to Seneca Turnpike.

[strikeslip]

The "break in access" ramp from 840 to the NH Business Park will be considered at a public hearing tomorrow. What this comes down to is the needs of a private developer being satisfied out of the taxpayers pockets.

The hotel and private office developments being proposed will generate a demand for police and fire protection, more roads to be snowplowed, and more raw sewage being added to the sewage-stormwater mix being spilled into the Mohawk at the Sauquoit Cr pump station sewer overflow. The taxes that should be going to local government, however, will be going to finance the roads needed by the development. It's like your property taxes being used to construct your driveway and sidewalks. That means the general taxpayer in New Hartford must pick up the cost of the demand for services that the NHBP development would create.

Is it worth it?

If the NHBP was created as a site for MANUFACTURING facilities as indicated in the Town's 1999 Environmental Impact Statement, then, perhaps, the public might support paying increased taxes. Instead, the NHBP is just another office park ... one for which an EIS has never been performed. There is only so much demand for office space and hotel rooms that the area can generate. More than likely, this will just draw activity out of existing facilities into the new ones . . . in which case, what has been accomplished for the expense to the taxpayers?

If the developer wants to build this, let him put in the roads, ramps, water and sewer lines himself, and let there be no PILOT.

[Clipper]

Exactly Strike. PILOT has become a way to frequent funnel of money, used all too often with little regard for the long term benefits or liabilities. NH is a prime example. When they nixed the Industrial Park idea a few years back, they made a big mistake, but now they simply want to add to the sprawl and to take away from the rest of the area to line their own pockets and let the taxpayers of the town and county pay for their stupidity and greed. Office parks are a dime a dozen, and all they accomplish is to leave empty real estate somewhere else.

[stoney]

WestMoGuy,"Moon over my Hammies" is my favorite!!! I've ordered it many a drunken night (in the old days, of course) after going out.