Hurley Planning Board Meeting on Dunkin' Plan Punted to Next Week - byMaya Schubert/Kingston Wire

The Hurley planning board meeting that could have determined the fate of a proposed Dunkin’ drive-thru at the intersection of Routes 28 and 375 was postponed due to the lack of a quorum, officials said Wednesday. The planning board will now discuss and possibly vote on the project proposed by Southern Realty and Development at a meeting set for Wednesday, Aug. 30, at 10:30 a.m. The meeting will be held at Hurley Town Hall, 10 Wamsley Place.

At its July 28 meeting, the board gave Southern Realty a small to-do list to meet remaining requirements and set a special meeting for Aug. 24 to review the amended site plan. But not enough planning board members showed up for a quorum, so the meeting was rescheduled. 

Having applied to the planning board three years ago, one more week has little significance for the Dunkin’ project. When first proposed in August 2020, the project met opposition from locals who said a drive-thru would aggravate traffic problems at that tricky intersection. 

The planning board’s site plan denial in January 2022, however, which cited the traffic concerns, was thrown out by two courts. In the latest ruling on July 6, a state appellate court concluded that Southern Realty’s site plan met state requirements and the traffic concerns voiced by the board were either accommodated in the plan or insubstantial.

The ruling put the proposal back in front of the board, which is now made up of different members than the board that rejected the plan. In accordance with the ruling, the board discussed only non-traffic related issues with the project’s developers at last month’s meeting and gave them relatively small site plan details to iron out on signage, easements and employee parking.

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