PLAINFIELD — The town has gone to court to enforce a “cease-and-desist” order sent in July to the owner of a Route 12A warehouse where the tenant, a trucking operation, has regularly violated conditions set forth in approvals by the town zoning and planning boards.
The town is asking the court to order warehouse owner Bart Industries, of Bellows Falls, Vt., to cease operations of Frito-Lay North America until the delivery operation is in compliance with all land use approvals by the town’s boards.
The cease-and-desist order signed by Town Administrator Steve Halleran on July 9 states that immediate corrective action includes no truck deliveries outside the hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the installation of all required landscaping by July 20.
Since that order, there have been continued violations of the approved hours and no landscaping, the town stated in its filing with Sullivan County Superior Court in August. A hearing on the petition is scheduled for Sept. 16.
“Notwithstanding the cease-and-desist order, Bart continues to operate the property in violation of the land use approvals of the town,” wrote attorney Barry Schuster, who is representing the town in the matter, in the Aug. 12 filing, which also states the town is entitled to fines and penalties against Bart.
Bart, whose tenant is Frito-Lay, applied to have the hours of operations changed earlier this year but the Zoning Board of Adjustment denied that request 4-0, based mostly on complaints from abutters about loud noises from the delivery trucks at all hours of the night.
Halleran said Friday it was his understanding Bart was in the process of filing an amendment to the ZBA’s original approval in 2017.
“There has been no agreement so we are going ahead with the cease and desist,” Halleran said.
The ZBA approved the “business project” in September 2017 with the condition that there would be one tractor-trailer sized delivery each day and 10 smaller retail delivery trucks loaded each morning and returning at night.
“The retail delivery truck process is then repeated six days per week generally between the hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Schuster’s filing states.
Also in September 2017, the Planning Board approved a site plan that included required landscaping and “dark sky compliant fixtures.”
Schuster wrote that a representative of Bart told the Planning Board in 2017 that around “mid day” a tractor trailer brings bulk food to the warehouse and the six delivery trucks leave around 6:30 a.m. and return late in the afternoon and are then parked for the night.
When the ZBA denied an amendment to the hours of operation in March, abutters complained about the tractor trailer arriving sometimes in the middle of the night. Schuster’s filing backs up those complaints and lists 14 incidents between November and June when the tractor trailer arrived outside the approved hours, including 12:40 a.m., 3 a.m., 4:30 a.m. and 10:50 p.m.
Bart Industries attorney Brad Atwood told the ZBA in March that the arrival of the tractor trailer each day is under the control of the Frito Lay distribution center in Connecticut, not Bart Industries, and therefore his client could not assure the board when those trucks would arrive. Though most did come during the day, he could not guarantee against late-night deliveries. Ultimately, the board concluded Bart was seeking approval for a 24-hour operation in a rural residential area and therefore denied the request.
Abutters had told the board the loud beeping when trucks backed up and the slamming of the truck doors is what wakes them during overnight deliveries, as often as twice a week.
Attempts to reach Bart Industries on Friday were unsuccessful.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
