Stewart's Shops Elsewhere, Part 3

In the past, Gossips has featured the experiences of two other municipalities with Stewart's Shops: Altamont and Voorheesville. While the Common Council here in Hudson is still considering the request from Stewart's to amend the city's zoning code to accommodate the company's desire to expand its gas station and convenience store at the corner of Green Street and Fairview Avenue, here's another story of Stewart's in another community in the region: Colonie.

There currently is a Stewart's in Colonie, on Fuller Road, but it's just a convenience store. There are no gas pumps. Stewart's wants to build a new facility, with gas pumps, at the different location on Fuller Road. The progress of that effort is reported today in the Times Union: "Planning board OKs Stewart's Fuller Road store move."  

Although the project has received "concept approval" from the Colonie Planning Board, the neighbors are concerned about the "hazardous health risks from living close to a gas station." They want Stewart's to do an environmental impact study, but the attorney for Stewart's argues that it is not legally necessary "because the proposed site's 3,726 square footage is less than the 4,000 square feet the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations deems necessary for a SEQRA." That hardly seems a good enough reason not to do an environmental impact study, particularly since the project involves introducing a toxic substance into an area where it was not previously present.
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