Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Zander Frost & Mark Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer & Editor
Bob Mucciarone, F.W. Webb’s Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer, took a phone call from The Chronicle Monday afternoon.
He said the Massachusetts company — “the largest wholesale supplier of plumbing, heating, cooling and industrial PVF products in the Northeast” — is still intent on getting approval of a zoning change so it can build a 76,000 square foot distribution center on a 15-acre parcel on Quaker Road in Queensbury across from Garvey Volkswagen and Kia.
But he disputed the Post-Star’s characterization that he is “adamant.”
“I would categorize my feeling as — we think we present a good use for that property. So I’m gonna pursue it. I’m not adamant,” he said. “If the town says no, the town says no,” he said. “If the town listens to Glens Falls, then I lose.”
The opposition took him by surprise. Mr. Mucciarone said, “I looked at this as a project that was going to be approved until Glens Falls had a meeting” — the public hearing that Queensbury conducted on July 10. “There were no problems, until those neighbors got involved.”
Mr. Mucciarone said, “I didn’t put the property there. I didn’t clear the trees out. I didn’t zone it the way they did.”
F.W. Webb seeks a zoning change by the Town Board from Commercial Intensive to Commercial Light Industrial. There is strong opposition from Glens Falls residents who live in the adjacent Windy Hill and Windy Ridge Road neighborhoods.
Mr. Mucciarone said, “Those owners are gonna sell it to somebody. It’s not going to be a development for houses.”
Current zoning allows for a “big box” store. Mr. Mucciarone said, “In my mind, whether it’s Webb or Target or Kohl’s or Home Depot, it’s going to happen.
“I mean, that’s what this thing is zoned for. And I look at Webb as being the lesser of those big box alternatives.”
Mr. Mucciarone said, “In our limited investigation of the traffic issues that we would create, we don’t see a huge issue at all. We’re not going to create a lot of traffic. We don’t have a lot of customers. We’re not retail — except for the showroom’s got a bit of retail.”
He said, “If it’s a grocery store or department store or Home Depot, there’s going to be lots of traffic, lots of cars. We don’t present that.”
Asked if he’d seen the site, Mr. Mucciarone said he had.
Asked about its close proximity to homes in Glens Falls, he said, “We’re gonna put some shrubbery there…that will screen the building from the residence.”
Asked about the sound of trucks pulling up to the loading bays, he acknowledged, “There is going to be backup signals, they are going to hear that.”
He said he expects 10 tractor trailers a week, arriving in the morning.
The warehouse is planned to have six loading bays, expandable to nine.
Why so many? “The loading docks we have are for customers [contractors] to get their product,” he said. “And those are not tractor trailers.”
Mr. Mucciarone said F.W. Webb — which has long operated a store off the Boulevard just off Quaker Road — has looked for a site for two years.
He said they considered other Queensbury locations. He said some “present a certain amount of problems.”
Referencing a suggestion to locate in the industrial park, Mr. Mucciarone calls it “way off the beaten track, it wouldn’t make business sense for us to go there.”
He declined to say what F.W. Webb will do if the rezoning does not go through.
As to additional possible sites, he said, “I‘m sure tomorrow morning, I guess somebody could call me up and say there’s another option.”
Mr. Mucciarone said F.W. Webb has submitted a response to concerns expressed at the July 10 public hearing.
He referred The Chronicle to Town Supervisor John Strough to see it.
Mr. Strough told The Chronicle Monday, “I have not seen their responses. They did not send to my office. I believe they sent to Planning Office.”
Stuart Baker, Queensbury’s Senior Planner, told The Chronicle Tuesday, yes, they have received F.W. Webb’s response.
Mr. Baker said the Planning Office may summarize what’s in the response but does not make a recommendation to the town board as to the rezoning vote.
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