Royce Road ruminations

Residents scrutinize three-phase development in Bethel

By FRITZ MAYER

WHITE LAKE, NY — Royce Road is a bucolic country road with widely spaced houses on properties ranging from 10 to 40 acres. One resident, Ted Jessup, said he sometimes counts as few as eight cars a day passing in front of his century-old farmhouse. But if a planned shopping mall and hotel complex comes to fruition, the road would be expanded to three lanes and traffic could spike significantly. The proposed three-phase project is before the Bethel Planning Board.

Phase one of the project includes five buildings, totaling some 60,000 square feet, with parking for more than 160 cars. Phase two includes an 85-room hotel. Phase three features 18 luxury town houses.

Jessup and about 50 other members of the community have formed the Royce Road Alliance for Responsible Development (RRARD) to monitor the development, which would sit beside the Citgo gas station and convenience store on Route 17B across from Pine Grove Road.

One question the group has is why the mall entrance would be situated on Royce Road, rather than the more commercially suited Route 17B. The engineer working for the developer, Paul Zaccari, did not return a call seeking an answer to that question.

At a meeting on Royce Road on Thursday, August 7, three RRARD members outlined other concerns. Cindy McCauley, a member of RRARD, wondered what kind of businesses will occupy the five buildings planned for phase one. Businesses that have been proposed include a grocery store, drug store, bank, pizza restaurant and carwash, although those are just suggestions.

In the minutes of the July 8 Bethel Planning Board meeting, Zaccari underscored that idea that businesses have not yet been identified. In submitting the above suggestions to the board, he said, “We don’t know what the future is. We just kind of guess what we would like to see on the property and give the town some idea where we are going with the property.”

There’s also the question of whether all three phases of the project will actually be developed. Zaccari has indicated that the hotel and town houses will probably not be built. But Regina Murdock, a RRARD member, said, “The private sewage packaging plant and the Department of Transportation traffic impact statement provide for those uses.” So it’s possible that they will appear in the future.

There’s also the concern that the effluent from the sewer packaging plant will be released into White Lake Brook, which flows through Smallwood and ultimately the water ends up in the Delaware River. While the effluent is supposed to be very clean, the group wonders who would monitor this should the development project go bankrupt.

In the same vein, the question arises of whether the local population can support such a project. If not, it would not be the first time a developer underestimated the market. For instance, the developer of the Bella Lago condominium community, just a couple of miles down Route 17B, has not sold a condo thus far, although they’ve been on the market for two years. What happens if the Zaccari project doesn’t work as planned; would abandoned buildings and parking lots blight the area?

Then, there’s the matter of whether the project fits with the community.

Jessup said, “Everybody wants to increase the tax base. I understand that, but we feel the reason a lot of people are here is because it’s beautiful and there’s a certain quality of life that has to do with rural esthetics and spacing. We wonder if a project of this scale is in keeping with that.”

On the matter of the environment, RRARD would like to see the developer prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the project. A spokesman for the Bethel building department said that, with a project this size, there was a “fair chance” an EIS would be required.

Members of RRARD will continue to ask questions as the development moves through the planning process. At the July 8 planning board meeting, the board decided it needed additional information before scheduling a public hearing, which may be held in September or later.