Monsey, NY - Large Turnout To Oppose Proposed Wal-Mart

Monsey, NY - The proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on Route 59 in Monsey would lead to as many as 3 million vehicles visiting it a year, a traffic engineer said at a meeting at the Spring Valley Village Hall.

Brian Ketcham said an average day would find 8,000 vehicles at the new Wal-Mart, with up to 10,500 at the store on Sundays.
There would be more traffic, more intensely felt on Route 59 as well as nearby local roads, over longer periods of time, he said. "The consequences are huge," said Ketcham, a Brooklyn traffic and environmental engineer who was hired by the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, which opposes the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The alliance, a Manhattan-based group that says it fights for the rights of small businesses, sponsored a public information forum at Spring Valley Village Hall, where people like Ketcham exclusively pointed out the negative effects the box store would have on traffic, public safety, air quality and the local economy. "We are not here to lay out the pros and cons, so much as the cons," alliance director Richard Lipsky told the 200 people who packed the auditorium.

The proposed 215,000-square-foot store would be built on the 22-acre site of the former Rockland Drive-In Theater in Monsey. It would have a full-service grocery, a 1,750-square-foot gas station, a tire-lubrication service area and 992 parking spots, and would add 500 jobs to the area and could revitalize a section of the Route 59 shopping district, the developer, National Realty & Development Corp. of Purchase, has said.
But Spring Valley Deputy Mayor Noramie Jasmin opposed it because they had local concerns. "It will kill our community," she said.