Valley train comes to town 32 times every day from 5:00 AM to 1:00 AM and stops an average of three to four minutes, so almost two hours a day that intersection is shut down,” Mayor Ghassali explains. “All the traffic going to the east side of town takes forever and I get complaints if not daily, maybe every other day about the traffic.” The 31-mile rail line that connects Spring Valley, New York to Hoboken Terminal is both a major asset for commuters and a daily source of congestion. More critically, the town’s 55 to 60-year-old sewer system faces capacity concerns that directly impact development decisions. “We don’t know how much more pressure we can put on that system until all the housing, until maybe a year or two from now where everyone is in and we’re using the system,” Mayor Ghassali acknowledges. These infrastructure limitations have prompted municipal leaders to avoid actively encouraging residential development despite strong market demand. 114 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 10
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