Ed note: the following contains farce and humor about well known public personalities. I call Paul Camarda a bunch of funny names, and his engineers, too as I'm sure he/they does me. It's all in good fun. If I've made any mistakes of fact, they are not intentional and I'm always happy and willing to withdraw such statements if there is overwhelming proof of fallibility on my part. JmG

Folks,

Here are two documents which I am sure you will find of interest.

Thanks to Charlie Sisto who FOI'd the information from the Patterson Planning Board, and to Paul Spiegel for scanning them into PDF files today.

Kudos, by the way, to Rich Williams and the Patterson Planning Board for their attentiveness and attention to detail.

If you intend to download the full preliminary reviews, you can stop reading here and visit PlanPutnam.org. If you'd care to see what's included in them, continue reading: it's a long read, but damn, I'm funny and I'll keep you entertained....

Let's go!

All in all, Paul Camarda's DEIS was woefully incomplete which only goes to underscore my long-held belief that he has no real interest in Patterson Crossing as proposed but was 'casting the net' to see what projects he could catch and which he could not.

It's too bad he's played the Patterson Chamber of Commerce as unwitting chumps in this game and it's also too bad we never found out when that Chamber voted to support this mess and who it was on that board that voted in favor. I suppose hiding under rocks is still in vogue for those unwilling to take responsibility for saddling a neighboring community with this crap.

I am sure they are rightly ashamed. Though, fess up and all is forgiven.

I'm still betting that if Patterson Crossing gets built at all it will not be the 439,000 sq ft monster currently proposed and that the Putnam Smart Growth Alliance has rightly panned, but if anything at all, a scaled down version of the project.

I was wrong *once* before so stay alert just in case!

But Paul, I am sooooo disappointed in you for coming in so badly prepared for what you and your buds call 'essential' to our community.

The first of the two documents is the DEIS Review by Rich Williams who is Patterson's Town Planner. Some tidbits from that:

1) One of the buildings fails the setback test.

2) A new "tire center" (surprise!) for the unnamed wholesale warehouse store which would require a Special Use permit under Patterson's codes.

3) Rich recommends a well monitoring plan during blasting to see if Lake
Carmel's wells are being effected. He also recommends a foundation survey as well.

4) Paul forgot to note if the Saturday peak hour travel time was AM or PM (how silly, Paul. I can't wait to find out which engineering firm you used!

5) Paul needs a variance from Patterson for the Patterson Crossing sign but forgot to include any details.

6) Paul's lighting plan assessment is bogus at the scale he's used.

7) Here's a gem:

Page 4.4-6 Section 4.4.4 indicates that a recharge analysis was completed for the project which demonstrated that more water is recharged to the aquifer on the subject property, than is proposed to be used. The recharge analysis should be included in the DEIS

8) Paul seems to have forgotten there are several streams on the property as delineated by the DEP... he's left at least one out of the DEIS.

9) Paul assures us - without adequate documentation - that there will be no negative impact on water quality from his treatment plant.

10) Paul doesn't even know where the garbage from the proposed mall will be brought.

11) Paul is proposing 1884 parking spaces but Patterson's code would require 2030.

There's more - a lot more.

The other document comes from Patterson's Engineer, Ronald Gainer. In it, he finds much the same as has Rich Williams. However, a few tidbits from this:

1) Paul will need a SPDES permit from DEC for his sewage plant (a possible *zinger* for those fighting this thing)

2) Paul has a sucky landscape plan (and yes, I can use the word 'sucky' if I want to)

A note to those fighting PC: you should make sure *all* of what's planted here is native to the region, unlike the Town of Carmel which planted invasives all over the Hamlet. And then, just to be honest, take a look at your own homes and do the same.

3) Paul says he'll let neighbors know when he's blasting but he doesn't say how or when. Maybe by a mailing, maybe phone calls. Maybe smoke signals?

BOOOOM! Good Morning Lake Carmel!

4) A clearer hint of what's coming:

Building 1:

Wholesale Warehouse 145,000 sq ft

Building 2:
Home Improvement Center 135,000 sq ft
Garden Center 28,000 sq ft

Building 3:
Electronic Store 30,000 sq ft
Clothing Store 20,000 sq ft
Sporting Goods Store 22,200 sq ft

Building 4:
Home Goods Store 24,800 sq ft
Retail Store 13,700 sq ft
Retail Store 10,200 sq ft
Coffee Shop 4,750 sq ft

What's this all about? Well, according to the engineer reviewing the DEIS the anticipated daily usage of water from these types of stores at their size should be around 15,675 gpd of water (not all that much by the way, about what 150 people would use at home on average) but Paul, you see, claims 10,740 gpd without explanation.

5) The engineer is suggesting that Paul put in place a long-term mediation plan in case neighboring wells are affected by the development once it is built out and operational.

6) Paul is trying to skip out on a comprehensive stormwater management plan. Well, don't take that at face value, but he's left some important stuff out that if included, might require additional mediation.

7) In Paul's traffic study he used weekly averages for trip generation (and some wacko numbers, to boot!) but the engineer is suggesting he include peak holiday shopping times as well.

8) To those of you I've been communicating on demographics and traffic, catch this bit:

"It is not clear how the attached market analysis corresponds to the route assignment calculations associated with trip distributions. This should be clarified in the Report."

Okay, how many times have I said to y'all, go do a demographic survey and then visit the census bureau website and use the TIGER mapping service to document where those people will be coming from? Huh? How many times? A bazillion! And I'm not even an engineer! (I'll attach a bill at the bottom of this note)

9) Paul is suggesting that to help him alleviate his traffic problems that Longfellow drive be converted to a one-way road. It's not mentioned if he's spoken to the Town of Kent about this... Well? Town board members? Has he? Have you agreed? Paul also shows the intersection of 311 and 164 as a "T". Apparently his engineers never learned the characters we use to describe our alphabet. They've got "T" confused with "ONE HELL OF A DANGEROUS Y"

The traffic study he's done is shit. Can I say shit? Too late! It is.

10) Paul tries to call Patterson Materials a store "... oriented to contractors and home improvement..." yeah, whenever I need 400 tons of blacktop for my driveway. Paul also includes references to businesses that no longer exist in the village of Patterson under his economic impact statement. I'm wondering if they were members of the Chamber of Commerce? He also confuses the Putnam County National Bank with the Putnam County Savings Bank in the "Lake Carmel Hamlet". (I'll forgive him the last)

11) "Under section 4.12.1, Existing Community Retail Centers - Southeast, in the first paragraph, the document makes the statement that, "...there will be no overlap in retailers..." referring to The Highlands (Southeast) and Patterson Crossing (Patterson/Kent). Then, in the second paragraph, the statement is made that "The only Highlands Shopping Center retailer that would directly compete with proposed retailers at Patterson Crossing Retail Center is the Home Depot." What's with that, Paul? He's also forgotten all the other malls within similar driving distance of the targeted demographic such as Jeff Valley, and others.

Apparently there's something in the water in Ridgefield, CT or, he needs to find a new engineer.

The list goes on.. it's endless... the mistakes he's made and the things he's forgotten... it's silly, stupid, and downright careless.

What the DEIS shows, at least from these two reviews, is that Paul either thinks he has the political clout to walk in and set up shop or that he has no regard whatsoever for the people who live here, our intelligence or our quality of life.

Go Home Paul, and take your sloppy engineers with you.

Jeff