To: Gary Dake, CEO Stewart's; Troy NY Zoning Board of Appeals; Troy NY Planning Commission
Dear Stewart's: Please Develop a "Good Neighbor" Plan for your New Store.
As a local business, Stewart's Shops has been a valuable part of Troy. We welcome Stewart’s plans for a new store at Tenth and Hoosick and encourage a plan that allows Stewart’s to expand with minimal impact on the surrounding neighborhood.
Troy's Hoosick Street Overlay law requires a new Stewart's be in accordance with rules that, according to the law, "preserve and buffer residential neighborhoods surrounding the corridor." Stewart's could achieve this mandate by excavating the sizable vacant land behind the current store and rebuilding on its current site.
But Stewart's model for new stores is to keep a current store running while building a new one. This land intensive approach means Stewart's will have an unfortunate impact on a fragile neighborhood block on Tenth St. where the company wants to demolish a house, move another house and locate their new store nearly 100 feet deeper into the neighborhood than the current store. The new store's noisy early morning loading dock would be within just a few feet of a neighbor's house and yard.
While the company's desire to maximize income during construction is understandable, the adjacent neighborhood block will unfairly bear the cost of this construction model. Further, the excavation model has been studied by Stewart's and is workable.
We respectfully ask that the Zoning Board of Appeals find Stewart's legal "hardship" to be self-imposed and that both the ZBA and Planning Commission ask Stewart's to develop a “good neighbor” plan that harnesses the empty land behind the store and creates less impact on the surrounding neighborhood.
Thank you for your time.
Troy's Hoosick Street Overlay law requires a new Stewart's be in accordance with rules that, according to the law, "preserve and buffer residential neighborhoods surrounding the corridor." Stewart's could achieve this mandate by excavating the sizable vacant land behind the current store and rebuilding on its current site.
But Stewart's model for new stores is to keep a current store running while building a new one. This land intensive approach means Stewart's will have an unfortunate impact on a fragile neighborhood block on Tenth St. where the company wants to demolish a house, move another house and locate their new store nearly 100 feet deeper into the neighborhood than the current store. The new store's noisy early morning loading dock would be within just a few feet of a neighbor's house and yard.
While the company's desire to maximize income during construction is understandable, the adjacent neighborhood block will unfairly bear the cost of this construction model. Further, the excavation model has been studied by Stewart's and is workable.
We respectfully ask that the Zoning Board of Appeals find Stewart's legal "hardship" to be self-imposed and that both the ZBA and Planning Commission ask Stewart's to develop a “good neighbor” plan that harnesses the empty land behind the store and creates less impact on the surrounding neighborhood.
Thank you for your time.
Why is this important?
There is a way Stewart's can expand and update their store without hurting the neighborhood block on Tenth St. Will you add your voice asking them to alter their current plan? Don't forget to leave comments too! Thanks.