40°
After contaminants were found at the proposed site at 109 Marbledale Road, slowing construction progress on a proposed Marriott complex, state and local officials announced they will be accepting written comments and concerns regarding the plan from the Brownfield Cleanup Program, which will be outlined in detail at a public meeting on Thursday, April 14.
Following multiple inspections, the NYSDEC determined that the site “poses a significant threat due to elevated concentrations of Freon in soil vapor at the site border.”
As a result, contractors were forced to come up with a course of action that calls for a complete cleanup of the entire location, the development of a “site management plan” to preserve its future, and a massive excavation of the contaminated soil.
At the time the pollutants were found in the soil, Tuckahoe Mayor Steve Ecklond noted that “the site looks much better than anyone anticipated, and the developer is right on track. He’s going to hopefully be in the ground later this year, or worst case, early next spring,” a timeline that has been furthered delayed.
In the past, the site at 109 Marbledale Road - which is zoned for commercial used and surrounded by mixed-residential areas - has been used for commercial and industrial operations, including a quarry, landfill, parking and auto repair.
Despite the contamination, the site can still be a viable location for the Marriott. If it is eventually completed, the hotel would feature more than 150 rooms, 200 on-site parking spaces and a restaurant. It will create upwards of 100 permanent jobs in the village, and hundreds of temporary construction jobs.
Outside of the jobs that the project creates, the village also stands to gain financially by levying a 3 percent hotel occupancy tax that would be charged to those staying at the location.
“That 3 percent (tax) is going toward police enforcement, to benefit sanitation workers and the community. When you have a business in your community with 100 or so rooms that will be constantly turned over, you’re going to have issues to deal with and that’s going to fall on our police and DPW,” Ecklond noted. “I feel strongly that that cost should be a burden for the people that are staying at the hotel, not the people who live in the community.”
The NYSDEC will accept written comment about the proposed cleanup plan through Sunday, April 24. There will be a public meeting on the cleanup at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 14 at Tuckahoe Village Hall.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Eastchester and receive free news updates.
