Potential Taco Bell Rediscussed at New Paltz Planning Board Meeting

Back in early June, we shared that fast-food giant Taco Bell has its eyes on a location for a new restaurant in the New Paltz area.

Plans for the restaurant were discussed at a Town Planning Board meeting back on May 30th. During the meeting concerns over increased and complicated traffic, signage, and the building's exterior were raised by town members.

The proposed location for this latest fast food installation would be 238 Main Street in New Paltz, right across the street from the McDonalds, and adjacent to the Walgreens shopping plaza.

Matthew Ingber, a representative on behalf of Taco Bell applicants Brown, Altman, and DiLeo law firm, addressed these concerns. The applicant cited approval from the New York DOT and cited a study done by Stonefield Engineering, which found that the new Taco Bell, "would not create an impact on traffic operations."

Latest Developments on Proposed New Paltz Taco Bell

The Town of New Paltz Town Planning Board met on June 24th to discuss developments in the proposed Taco Bell project.

The proposed Taco Bell restaurant would have an indoor dining section with 32 seats as well as an outdoor section with 10 seats. In terms of parking, the restaurant would create 44 parking stalls including 2 ADA-compliant accessible parking stalls, 2 stalls for mobile order pickups, and 3 electric vehicle charging stations.

One concern raised in this latest meeting regarded the small easement that adjoins the Walgreens parking lot to the current Burger King parking lot. While board members acknowledged that there is in fact a way to get from one parking lot to the other, the legitimacy of the easement was put into question, and concerns were raised over the poor condition of the easement.

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Ultimately, it was concluded that any edits to the existing easement would require a conversation between the landlord of the potential Taco Bell and Walgreens.

More concerns were raised over some of the cosmetic features of the potential Taco Bell. Issues including the height and size of Taco Bell signage as well as the color of the building were resurfaced at this latest meeting.

The current proposed colors include Midnight Black and Pewter.

Members of the board raised concerns over the area looking too commercialized if signage is too large or in the wrong spots.

Is Taco Bell Definitely Coming to New Paltz?

The project still awaits approval from the Ulster County Planning Board, and it will need to be brought back up for a public hearing. Taco Bell will also need to get their signage and the location of that signage approved by the zoning board.

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On top of that, while the DOT signed off on the design concepts, the project still awaits an actual permit from the DOT.