Convergence

By Jeff Storey
CENTRAL VALLEY — Woodbury residents often call their home town “the gateway to Orange County.”
Now an elaborate $150 million project is under way that the state vows will allow shoppers, tourists and commuters to stream through the gateway more quickly and more safely. The money they spend will spur economic development in the region, the state promises.
According to Stuart Turner, the village’s planner, the transit improvement alone probably won’t convince many more people to come and live in Woodbury. The reconfiguration of Route 17 at Route 32 (exit 131), adjacent to Woodbury Common and near the Thruway, is “really a regional improvement,” he said. It will benefit upstate attractions such as Legoland in Goshen and the new Resorts World Catskills casino in Sullivan County well as local shopping.
But a substantial population increase may be in the works from Orange County’s first “transit oriented development (TOD),” a proposal under review by the planning board for a village within a village adjacent to the Harriman commuter train station, a concept that Turner calls a “very positive thing.”
This raises the possibility that Woodbury’s growth will proceed on two tracks – commercial and residential.
The role of Woodbury CommonThe 1889-vintage community, which relied on farming and seasonal tourism before transitioning into a prosperous suburban bedroom community, became a go-to destination for shoppers from all over the world after the opening of the Woodbury Common Premium Outlet Mall in 1985 at the exit 131 hub.
The complex has been expanded several times and completed an extensive overhaul last year that includes renovated shops, a 14-restaurant food court, construction of a parking garage and internal roadway improvements. It attracts about 13 million visitors a year.
Woodbury Common may not be finished either.
David Mistretta, its general manager, pointed out in a statement that the mall has no current applications pending with the village planning board.
“We are, however, always looking to improve the shopping experience of visitors to Woodbury Common from the United States and across the world,” Mistretta added. “If and when we propose a plan of any kind, we will certainly share that information with the public.”
Hotels, lodgers, shoppersMeanwhile, Woodbury and its neighbors have attracted other retail development ranging from car dealers to two shopping centers that offer big-box stores such as Walmart, Kohl’s and Home Depot.
New Square developer Aaron Goldklang has unveiled a proposal for the “Shops at Woodbury,” a nine-acre parcel which would contain a hotel, five restaurants and three stores on a nine-acre triangle of land next to Exit 131, site of an aborted project to build a Cubela’s store, which describes itself as the “World’s Foremost Outfitter” for hunting, fishing and outdoor activities.
With Woodbury Common visitors as potential lodgers, hotels are particularly desirable to developers right now. Village Mayor Michael Queenan said that he’s seen research describing them as “gold mines.”
The village recently lost a court case to a Flushing developer to whom it had denied permission to construct a hotel on Estrada Road without zoning variances.
In May, it imposed a six-month moratorium on new hotels “to take a hard look” on where they should be permitted. Queenan said the village’s preference is to locate them on major roadways.
Exit 131Retail activity around exit 131 has generated substantial revenues for local communities. But it has spawned additional traffic, including some memorable tie-ups as motorists inched their way in and out of Woodbury Common.
The state estimates that 50,000 vehicles a day pass over Route 17 while 20,000 use Route 32. Getting from one place to another can be a “nightmare,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said.
Local officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the long-awaited transportation improvements will diminish the day-in, day-out “nightmare” for their constituents.
“You have to give it a shot,” said Woodbury Town Supervisor Frank Palermo. “It can’t be worse than what we’ve had.”
The state predicts that its plans to simplify driver navigation and to speed access to stores will reduce accidents and traffic backups by 50 percent in the area near Woodbury Common.
Cuomo has moved up completion of the work from five years to two. It is to be done in October 2019.
Woodbury shared in the rapid growth of southeastern Orange County in the 1980s and 1990s, but it has slowed recently. According to Census Bureau estimates, the village’s population was 11,075 in July 2017, an increase of 3.6 percent since the 2010 count. (The town’s population was 8,236 in 1990, shortly after the advent of Woodbury Common.)
“It’s not like we’re booming in population,” said Palermo.
Turner said that land available for development is limited in Woodbury. Almost one half of its area is taken by the Palisades Interstate Park, the West Point Military Reserve and Columbia University. Other parcels are restricted by topography and soil types.
Population density is low, 261.6 people per square mile in 2010, compared to 459.3 in the county as a whole.
Most builders are “filling in the gaps” of their projects, Turner said. For example, dwellings again are being constructed in Woodbury Junction, a development that has been stalled for several years.
The village issued 33 building permits for new one- or two-family dwellings last year, up from 21 in 2010. The Census Bureau estimated in 2016 that there were 3,713 households in the village.
The Gardens at Harriman StationThe TOD project, the Gardens at Harriman Station, would boost population. New Jersey developer Neil Gold is seeking approval to build 1,500 residential units, coupled with 380,000 square feet of retail and commercial space in self-contained neighborhoods adjacent to the Metro North train station. He has estimated that his project will take five to seven years to complete.
The development would be located about three miles south of the state’s exit 131 project, and Gold has said it he will incorporate its elements of the highway work in his own project. He has promised jitney service to Woodbury Common and other area attractions.
Gold’s consultants currently are preparing a draft environmental impact statement to spell out the impacts of the proposal. Gold declined to be interviewed, but the villages of Woodbury and Harriman already have weighed in with questions about traffic and parking, water and sewer, police and fire protection, physical appearance and other issues. Such questions are routine for this kind of review.
“We have concerns,” said Harriman Mayor Steve Welle. “It’s very ambitious and it’s hard to know what will work and what won’t.”
Queenan estimates that the transit development would increase his village’s population by 20 percent. He hopes it would encourage young people to stay in the community, which dovetails with Gold’s desire to attract millennials and empty nesters.
“I can’t see any reason,” the mayor said, “it shouldn’t go through.”