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FIND OUT: STL Status Report, July 2010

Proposed environmental study for Williams Lake project deemed inadequate

The Daily Freeman - Saturday, April 24, 2010
By WILLIAM J. KEMBLE
Correspondent

ROSENDALE - Developers of a proposed luxury resort on the former Williams Lake Hotel property have been told their proposed environmental study is inadequate.

State environmental officials said the proposed study is insufficient for underground water flow and wildlife use of the Binnewater lakes.

The draft environmental impact statement was submitted earlier this month by Hudson River Valley Resorts.

"The Department (of Environmental Conservation) has determined that the draft (environmental impact statement) is inadequate for the purpose of commencing a public review," wrote Rebecca Crist, a state environmental analyst.

Hudson River Valley Resorts wants to build a 94-room hotel, 22 lakefront suites, 14 cabins, 101 attached single-family residential units and 59 detached single-family residential units on part of the 779-acre property off Binnewater Road.

Under the plan, a conservation easement would remain on about 400 acres, and about 52 acres would be affected by development along Binnewater and Hickory Bush roads.

State officials wrote that major deficiencies in the environmental impact statement included the absence of approved wildlife survey protocols to accurately assess the impact of the project.

They also said the developers have not followed previous recommendations that water levels in the Binnewater lakes get close attention.

"The department has determined that the karst nature of the region requires retention of a specialist in the field of karst study," Crist wrote. "Once retained, this individual will review the protocols used by Hudson River Valley Resorts in their hydrogeological investigations to determine whether the work already performed is sufficient...."

Hudson River Valley Resorts project manager Tim Allred was not immediately available for comment.

The developers said previously that information was available to identify water flow on the lake adjacent to the project, but state officials said they could not determine whether the information was accurate.
DEC TIMELINE UPDATE
April 2010: DEC rejects HRVR's first submitted DEIS as insufficient and incomplete, and admonishes HRVR for not copying the Town of Rosendale with the submission.
(Document obtained through FOIL request).

May 2010: HRVR submits a legal appeal to the DEC that contests the DEC's position, and urges that the environmental review process be expedited. (Document obtained through FOIL request).

June 2010: DEC rejects this appeal. (Document obtained through FOIL request).

As of July 2010, HRVR has not resubmitted their DEIS.

WILLIAMS LAKE DEVELOPER SEEKS, AND GETS, 2009 TAX BREAK

When Hudson River Valley Resorts came to town, they represented themselves as an economic boon to the community. Two years after the existing Williams Lake resort was closed down taking 80 jobs with it, HRVR has obtained a 30% reduction from the initial 2009 tax assessment on their properties. Is that a boon or a boondoggle?

 A recent examination of public assessment records in the town of Rosendale by Save the Lakes indicates that Hudson River Valley Resorts (HRVR) has obtained more than a 30% assessment reduction in 2009 for the four properties they challenged.

In representing themselves as an economic boon to the community, HRVR has often stated that their project will increase the tax base and improve the town economy - but they then proceeded to hire a private company to lobby for a lowered tax assessment. At a meeting before the Rosendale Assessment Review Board in early 2009, a compromise was achieved that reduced the initial assessed value on four HRVR properties by $2,161,300, and produced a final assessment on all eight HRVR properties of $5,493,600, an increase of only 4% over the 2008 full-value assessment.

This 4% value compares to the much higher assessment increases of 25% to 50% levied on most other Rosendale property owners for 2009. Unless the HRVR property assessment changes upward in 2010, HRVR's savings, and the consequent increase in tax rates for others throughout the town, county, and school districts, will continue into future years.


Read the Daily Freeman's article of March 22, 2010: Assessment hike limit defended for Williams Lake site.

Learn more on our research pages.

Are you concerned about escalating property and school taxes, overdevelopment, rapid environmental degradation, increasing traffic congestion and loss of community character?

 We at Save the Lakes are convinced that Hudson River Valley Resort's plan to build a gated resort community on Rosendale's beautiful Williams Lake property would bring about all these impacts.

Development is a good and necessary thing, when it is appropriate development. HRVR's plans are wholly inappropriate to the needs and values of the community, the sustainability of our recreational open space, and the continued good health of our water and wildlife.

Please spend the time to familiarize yourself with the information provided here, and join with us in charting a prosperous future for our region - a future that finds no use for overdevelopment and security gates, and preserves our outdoor treasures as community assets.
SAVE THE LAKES MISSION STATEMENT
To protect the natural resources of all the land included in the Williams Lake property and preserve it in perpetuity for the region. We work to insure that the future of Rosendale is planned in concert with community needs and values. We research information and provide data to the public and to area decision-makers.
STL's well-reseached concerns about the proposed project are many, and include:
  • Ominous tax implications for town residents due to added pressure on assessed property values, on the local public schools, on use of local infrastructure, as well as the political power of a private community within the town with wealth that dwarfs that of other residents.


  • The community character of Rosendale and the surrounding towns is threatened by the introduction of a gated, wealthy, self-governing development to the region.


  • A projected 600-933% increase in water consumption and treated effluent, potentially released into a state-protected wetland. This project threatens the aquifer and can negatively affect the ecosystems, water levels and water quality of the lakes as well as the watershed feeding the Rondout.


  • Heavy construction and blasting pose serious threats to the survival of the endangered Indiana Bat - already suffering alarming declines due the the "white-nose" fungus disease. The local bat population is critical to controlling mosquitoes and other troublesome insects.


  • Loss of biodiversity and habitat for other rare and endangered species in an area so biologically and geographically significant it has been cited for preservation in the both the New York State Open Space Plan and the Open Space Plan of Ulster County, as well as the Rosendale Comprehensive Plan of 2007. Allowing this property to be developed along the proposed lines runs contrary to the intent of these documents.


  • Loss of public access to Williams Lake, which for generations has been open for community events and the paying public. Security gates would effectively put an end to its role in the community, and "preserve" it as a private enclave.

The Williams Lake property is Rosendale's greatest natural asset. With its glacially sculpted landscape, verdant wetlands and freshwater lakes, challenging hiking, biking and cross-country trails, enormous caves and exposed 400 million-year-old rock strata, it could become an extraordinary destination for regional eco-tourism. It is perfectly situated midpoint on a hoped-for rail trail recreational corridor that would link New Paltz through Rosendale to Kingston.

Save the Lakes believes there to be alternatives to the current plan that would re-establish public access, assure tax revenues to the town, add no additional infrastructure burden due to overdevelopment, preserve community character and values, and protect the environment while creating a lasting community asset.
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Thank you for your interest in this issue.

ABOUT THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT   |    THE ISSUES AND IMPACTS    |    SOLUTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES
DOCUMENT DOWNLOADS   |    WHAT YOU CAN DO    |   CONTACT US
Save the Lakes is a member of the Shawangunk Ridge Coalition.