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ROTTERDAM
Golub plan means moving road
Project is part of expansion
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Town planners will get their fi rst glimpse tonight of a large-scale expansion project planned by the Golub Corp., parent of the Price Chopper supermarket chain.
    Part of the project proposes to move a small stretch of Dunnsville Road about a quarter-mile west of its intersection with Duanesburg Road (Route 7). Moving the county thoroughfare would be a precursor to a 360,000-square-foot Price Chopper warehouse that would one day be built on vacant land the company owns abutting National Grid’s power transmission lines.
    The proposed relocation project would also widen a section of the heavily traveled Duanesburg Road and move Golub’s truck entrance to an area off the new Dunnsville Road. A traffic signal near the Cumberland Farms store would also be moved to Dunnsville Road’s new entrance, according to schematics on file with Rotterdam’s Planning Department.
    Golub representatives expected to pitch the relocation plan during the Planning Commission’s meeting at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall. Planning Commission Chairman Lawrence DiLallo said the company’s long-term plans associated with the project are ambitious and will help build Rotterdam’s tax base.
    “It’s a good project for the town,” he said Monday.
    Plans for the project come as Golub continues work on a $22 million six-story office building in Schenectady, which will house the company’s headquarters when it is completed later this year. Price Chopper spokeswoman Mona Golub said the road relocation is part of a phased project that will address the company’s needs for the next 10 to 15 years.
    “It’s reflective of our health and growth as a company and our longrange plans,” she said Monday.
    Price Chopper’s most aggressive expansion in the past decade occurred about seven years ago, when Golub Corp. broke ground on a 195,000-square-foot addition —125,000 square feet of dry goods storage and another 70,000 for fresh foods — to its main distribution center. The construction was part of an $18 million project, which at the time represented the largest expansion in the chain’s history.
    In 2005, the company completed a $16 million, 160,000-square-foot frozen food distribution center at the adjacent Rotterdam Industrial Park in 2005. The new center allowed Price Chopper to centralize its operations in Rotterdam in anticipation of future growth.
    Then last year, the company advanced a project to build an 89,000- square-foot warehouse for perishables off its main complex and an expanded recycling operation. The new buildings are among roughly 524,000 square feet of new warehouse space Golub has planned for Rotterdam once it relocates its headquarters.
    The road relocation project won’t be without its impacts, DiLallo said. The company is rumored to be purchasing some of the affected homes so that Duanesburg Road can be widened.
    “There will be issues that have to be mitigated with the surrounding residents,” he said.
    William Schmidt didn’t seem adverse to the project, even though it will bring Dunnsville Road to the edge of his property off Duanesburg Road. He said Golub tried to buy the house where he and his wife Rosemary have lived for more than five decades, but they refused to sell.
    “We’re not about to sell out at our age,” he said. “But they’re not bothering me with what they’re doing anyway.”
    Despite an abundance of vacant land abutting the Golub complex, the company is basically landlocked in terms of future expansion. About 64 acres of its property was deedrestricted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineers after Golub’s last major expansion in 2001.
    In addition, the company will need to seek rezoning of some of the land. Rotterdam Planner Peter Comenzo said some of the property is still zoned for agriculture and business, meaning the project will also need to go before the Town Board for review.
    Schenectady County Public Works Director Joe Ryan said the county Legislature will also need to approve the road relocation. He said county officials would await Rotterdam’s findings before weighing in on the project.
    In general, Ryan said...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00901

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Golub growth plan angers neighbors
Huge warehouse would encroach on 30 residences.
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Scott Olendorf says he’s used to seeing wild turkey and deer in the backyard of his home off Dolan Drive.
    But he and about a dozen residents of the neighborhood fear this could soon change if a 900-foot stretch of nearby Dunnsville Road is relocated. The Golub Corp. is proposing to move the road and the truck entrance to its plant off Duanesburg Road so it can one day build a 360,000-square-foot warehouse on land about 172 feet away from the edge of the development.
    “After this goes in, all you’re going to see is a warehouse and an endless line of tractor-trailer trucks,” he said during the Rotterdam Planning Commission’s meeting Tuesday.
    Representatives from Golub, the parent company of the Price Chopper supermarket chain, presented concept plans for relocating the stretch of county road and widening a segment of the state-owned Duanesburg Road. The project would unite two Golub properties now split by Dunnsville Road and offer the company space to expand.
    The traffic signal at the Duanesburg Road intersection would also be moved with the relocated road. Provided the plans are approved, Golub anticipates breaking ground on the relocation sometime during the spring.
    Project manager Don Rhodes said Golub may move its warehouse space from Voorheesville to Rotterdam. Eventually the company plans to add about 400,000 square feet, depending on need.
    “It all starts with the relocation of this roadway,” he told members of the commission.
    The project was heavily criticized by residents of Dolan Drive, a triangular development with about 30 homes. Some expressed concern the noise and truck traffic from the gigantic warehouse will one day destroy their quality of life.
    “This plan will have a devastating effect on the properties along Dolan Drive,” said development resident Tom Yuille in a written statement.
    Like Yuille, John McAuliffe worried how his home would be affected. He said the destruction of the tree line would leave no buffer between the neighborhood and Golub’s industrial complex.
    “We’re looking at the Superdome of warehouses,” he said.
    Jean Armstrong questioned the impact of truck traffic along Duanesburg Road, which serves as the only entrance to Dolan Drive. She said...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01101

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Jean Armstrong questioned the impact of truck traffic along Duanesburg Road, which serves as the only entrance to Dolan Drive.

That road can only get busier.....I88/thruway are right there......

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Golub growth plan angers neighbors

I'm sure Golub's/town saw this coming. And Senders is correct....Once they REALLY start to develop from I88 to Dunnsville Road, it will only get busier. At least the residence will get a traffic light for easy access to and from their little development.

As far as the tree line being gone between the homes and the warehouses, isn't there something in our OLD comp plan that requires some buffer or greenery between residential and commercial property? I hope so!!

If this plan goes through, Golub should be required to build a large buffer between itself and the existing
residential development.  I don't know, maybe build a large wall of dirt and plant a bunch of mature tree's on it. Our town needs the property tax revenue for sure but it needs to be done in a way that can be
reasonably exceptable for the existing residents so that their quality of life and property values are not
crushed.  

I agree pg13.....they can make it look nice,,,,very nice.....they have been in this town long enough and I'm sure know all the local yokel landscapers....