Metropolitan Kent — by Jim Baker

The following building programs are presently pending for our town:

HILLCREST COMMONS: This project is to be located behind Shoprite Plaza on Route 52. There will be three sections. Section one includes five buildings containing a total of 150 units of 2 bedroom senior citizen housing plus a community center building and needs 220 parking spaces. . Section two is five buildings with 60,000 square feet of office space served by over 250 parking spaces. Section three is a 10,000 square foot expansion of the present Shoprite supermarket and adds 50 more parking spaces. The sole entrance road serving these 520 parking spaces will be on Route 52, just north of the sign which indicates that you are in the Town of Kent. If you want to see what kind of blasting will be necessary to carve out this large project, drive the loop behind Shoprite Plaza. The Town of Kent can point out concerns about Traffic and about storm water run-off. The project will drain into Palmer Lake. It can express concerns about all the additional sewage that will be processed by "big stinky" the plant that already "perfumes" the air around the Putnam Plaza on Route 6. But the major part of this project is clearly in the Town of Carmel. Its future will be decided by a Planning Board whose chairman is a County employee.

PATTERSON CROSSING This is a large shopping center to be located mainly in Patterson. 32.4 acres however are in our town. The Kent acreage would include, once again, the entrance road. Plans are subject to change but Kent might also host some drainage ponds and a restaurant. In an area where everyone depends on soil water, this project will use an estimated 15,675 gallons of water per day. Also, in an area where traffic is already a problem, there will be 2,079 new parking spaces. Also, the fire department that will be on call for this "Patterson" project happens to be manned entirely by volunteers from the Town of Kent. The Kent police, paid for entirely by the citizens of Kent, will service a project that pays its town taxes to Patterson. Now it might seem reasonable to you & I that a project on town borders calls for planning between the towns as equals or perhaps regional planning on the County or State level. But reasonable is not always politically possible.

KENT MANOR This large housing project (over 300 condos) would be located on Nichols Street near Route 52. It has been tied up in litigation for many years but proposals are now being made to resolve all conflicts and begin construction! Approval means that the County would gain millions in back taxes and Kent would avoid repaying big time rec fees that it has already spent. However the big issue is the proposed sewage treatment plant. Kent Manor would discharge "treated" sewage into Michaels Brook. The brook flows to Hill & Dale's Palmer Lake and then past the "big stinky" at Putnam Plaza. It ends in NYC's Middle Branch Reservoir. The brook, we have been told by NYCDEP personnel, is totally devoid of living creatures downstream of "big stinky".

NYC has advised that it will permit only one additional surface discharge sewage treatment plant in Putnam County! However in a few months it will reconsider its offer & may withdraw it. The Town of Kent has advised NYC that it does not want a surface discharge sewage treatment plant for Kent Manor. Will Kent's current politicians remember this? Will we ever be allowed to keep development down to a level that both our streets & our soils can support???

Jim Baker


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