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G’town Planning Board faces packed year-end agenda

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GERMANTOWN–The town Planning Board has adjusted its schedule to allow for the year-end holidays. The board will not meet on November 24 or December 29.

Instead, the board will hold one meeting Thursday, December 1 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall. That meeting’s agenda is a full one. The board will review a site plan for a retail establishment on Main Street east of Central House Hotel, and a site plan to add an apartment to the former Germantown Variety store.

Currently that building has two second-floor apartments; the change would add a first-floor apartment and reduce the retail space. The building has not yet sold, Stephen Reynolds, planning board chairman, said Tuesday.

Regarding the Primax Properties application for a Dollar General retail store on Route 9G just north of the Main Street intersection, Mr. Reynolds said that Primax is now preparing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), based on the board’s final scoping document.

“The timeline is theirs,” he said. “There is no deadline. I think it’s unlikely they’ll have the DEIS for the December 1 meeting. The earliest would be our meeting on January 26.”

Then the Planning Board will review the DEIS to “see if it adequately answers the concerns of our final scoping document. If not, we’ll ask for changes and additions. Usually these things go back and forth; sometimes an applicant gets it perfect the first time, but not usually.”

Mr. Reynolds said he was pleased about the new businesses on Main Street. “Central House, Otto’s Market and Gaskins restaurant have created a momentum,” he said. Luddite, an antique store with a focus on vintage lighting, added to the mix last spring, he said, and now another antique store will open across from the former variety store.

“It’s partly because Hudson has so few empty storefronts, and the rents there are high,” said Mr. Reynolds. “But Germantown has limited room for development on Main Street, and it’s filling up.”

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