Rockland Bakery Expansion: Talks on Parking, Grease Trap

At wednesday night’s Clarkstown Planning Board meeting, board members discussed the Rockland Bakery expansion with the representatives of the business:

• Joe Battaglia, Rockland Bakery Owner
• Justin Lim, Professional Engineer overseeing the project
• Gerard Amalfitano, Attorney

Rockland Bakery submitted an application for an additional facility to bake cakes for wholesale distribution.  The application requests approval for a 31,620-square-foot facility on 3.2 acres along West Nyack Road in Nanuet.

The proposed location is on the south side of West Nyack Road, approximately 400 feet west of Demarest Mill Road. The property, which is located between Toys R Us and County Gas Service, is currently used for parking the bakery’s trucks and tractor-trailers. The project is for minor manufacturing, including the baking of 80 percent of the cakes prepared for wholesale distribution. It would feature a two-story building with a mezzanine, warehouse and storage space. The retail operation would remain at 94 Demarest Mill Road, the present location. 

Read more about the expansion in this Patch post and the first Patch post covering this meeting can be found here.

After the discussions with the planning board, Rockland Bakery representatives have some loose ends that need to be looked into, so the planning board will have the bakery's expansion on their future agenda, possibly February.

Parking

Principal Town Planner Joe Simoes brought up a question that was made at a previous planning board meeting: “Can more parking be made at Rockland Bakery?”

“At the last meeting there were not that many details, but there was some discussions that this would allow additional parking at the Rockland Bakery site,” he said.

“I believe that just by virtue that there is a second site, the pressure from the main site would be taken away because there will be less trucks and less employee parking,” said Amalfitano.

Planning Board Chairperson Shirley Thormann said that although she appreciated that there was an effort on the business’ behalf to have extra security directing traffic during the holiday congestion, “it’s like running the gauntlet when you go there. If I didn’t love the bakery … I wouldn’t go there because (of parking issues). If you can get some more space at the main site, it would be great.”

Thormann asked if the small building behind the bakery could be converted to extra parking.

“That little building, that would be taken into consideration if that time comes,” said Battaglia. “That (building) was checked … many years ago and … that would provide only about six parking spaces.”

“In the interest and safety of your patrons, it would be great if it was a little less tight at the main site,” added Thormann.

“No one would like that more than me,” responded Battaglia. “The idea is to get things going and do things one at a time. “

Grease Trap

A letter from Joan Roth of the Rockland County Sewer District brought up the question of why the new site would need to install a 1,500-gallon grease trap.

“From experience we have at the current Rockland Bakery site and the sewer district, over the course of time, (we’ve had to) put in grease traps according to what they requested and then we come back and redo the work two or three times,” said Battaglia. “In this case we can use a smaller grease trap, but for a minor cost … we can increase the size so that we don’t have to come back a few years down the road and then redo the work.”

Daniel Kraushaar, Deputy Town Attorney, added that the letter mentions that the grease trap also doesn’t meet the sewer district requirements.

Amalfitano said he was going to respond to the sewer district letter and resolve the issue.

Other Patch Posts:

• Planning Board Discusses Rockland Bakery Expansion
• Rockland Bakery Proposes Expansion
• Rockland Bakery's Expansion Plans Falls Through