Updated: September 23, 2011
You’re at the SOS: Save Our Supermarket website of the LVBA, which is the Lebanon Valley Business Association.
We heard tough news on September 13, 2011, which was that Hannaford had withdrawn their proposal to to build a supermarket in New Lebanon.
We put this website up originally in the spring when the proposed supermarket was threatened by DOT (Department of Transportation) requirements.
But that seemed to come to resolution, thanks in part to local response, and so did requirements about the septic system from the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation).
But the agreed changes with the DOT cost a lot to implement and compromised Hannaford’s site plan. And Hannaford still had the challenge of moving existing businesses on the proposed site to another part of the shopping center… that they first had to renovate.
We don’t know exactly how the combination of these issues brought Hannaford to the tipping point at which they withdrew, or whether the matter can be fixed.
But we do know that there are many people in New Lebanon and surrounding towns who were counting on the arrival of the supermarket and are devastated by the prospect of its loss.
LVBA has put together a team of local specialists in construction, real estate development and economic development to assess what happened and come up with solutions.
Here’s one thing that’s been determined– the prohibitive DOT requirements are a function of the high speed limit along route 20, which runs between 40 and 55 mph.
Cars slowing down and stopping from those speeds to turn into a supermarket need all kinds of safety adjustments to the road, and the proposed business has to fund them.
These requirements might be appropriate for a real highway, but they can be just too expensive or difficult to manage in a small town.
It means that not only was the Hannaford’s plan at the Valley Plaza site affected by too-tough DOT requirements, but any other site along the 20/22 corridor would be too.
We could address this by dropping the speed limit in town to 30 mph. That is completely in keeping with the goal within New Lebanon’s Comprehensive Plan to create a real town center.
The question is just how fast that change could be made. But it could help relieve one of the major pressures at the Valley Plaza site and help open other other sites in New Lebanon to other stores too.
We hope that Hannaford can continue to keep an open mind about ways to work with us. The operators of the Valley Plaza shopping center, the Brauser Group, comment that they are still talking to Hannaford.
But it’s clear that Hannaford did very much want to be here and tried hard to find a way to make the plan work. But they can’t fix the DOT issue alone.
That’s why we are sponsoring a new letter writing campaign. This way you can let people who can help know how important you think it is for them to get involved.
On the tab above you’ll names and addresses for elected officials and for Hannaford.
On a separate tab you’ll find a sample letter geared to an elected official, which you can also send to the Hannaford. We set it up this way so that your letters could be used both to activate the full support of our representatives and also give your opinion to the Hannaford.
Feel free to use our sample or to write your own letter. Don’t hesitate to send your letter to everyone listed.
Record the contact you’ve made on the third tab, which offers a link to a one-question survey. This will give us a running total about what has been sent out that is very helpful for elected officials to know.
Thank you so much for being part of the LVBA Save Our Supermarket campaign.
Sign up for the LVBA newsletter, Grow the Valley, to get monthly information about what’s going on in town, including developments about the supermarket.
The next newsletter update will be on October 1. One way or another, we’ll find a way out of our food desert!