The Carvel/Durst Development
Durst is planning 951 homes on 2,200 acres in the northwest corner of Pine Plains with a part of the property also in Milan.
Updated: June 16, 2008
The public comment period on the Carvel DEIS ended May 5, 2008 after 5 public hearing sessions that included testimony from many experts from PPU, Scenic Hudson, the Dutchess Land Conservancy and even the state Department of Environmental Conservation; as well as many individual citizens of the area. The testimony was overwhelmingly negative about the original proposal with repeated requests for the Dursts to return to the drawing table to work on a more clustered plan with a reduction in numbers of units and an increase in genuine open space to protect habitats and rural character. The Planning Board is currently evaluating the comments made at the hearings as well as the 169 letters from individuals and in depth written comments received from experts to develop the next step in the process. It is not clear at this time whether that will be to require a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement based on a revised plan or the Final Environmental Impact Statement which must include all the substantive comments and the response to them by the developer.
In the third Planning Board Workshop meeting (held June 4, 2008) to review the public comments on the DEIS the Durst team informed the board that in response to the public comments they have started to work on a major revision of the proposal. This work is being led by Alexander (Alex) Felson, an expert ecological planner, of the multinational planning firm, EDAW. Alex Felson presented his work to date on this revision, beginning with the important habitats and views to be preserved on the property. He recommends widening the buffer zones around important wetlands and vernal pools and to cluster the development much more around the golf course; away from both the Ham Brook and the Route 199 viewshed. The numbers of units, layout of the roads and the golf course are to be determined later in this process.
While this process of redesign and updating the Planning Board on it continues; the Planning Board must still continue to work on their review of the comments about the original DEIS and reach decisions about what must be done to address them as noted in the first paragraph above. While the redesign may be part of that process; additional studies may be required as needed, for example, in reviewing the fiscal impacts, school impacts or other community impacts.
The original proposal was for 951 new units (some houses are already on the property) on 2,200 acres (1,772 acres in Pine Plains and 428 acres in Milan). There is also a previously approved 99 unit subdivision on ½ acre lots located within the total acreage, to the west of the small “Carvel Lake,” that isn’t part of the current project. There are 8 houses on those lots (9 have recently been demolished). So the potential existed for an additional 91 houses (99 minus 8) to be built there. The property is on both sides of 199 beginning just west of the hamlet area of town (including the first farm before you come to the wetlands) and it includes sections on Hicks Hill Rd., Stissing Mountain Rd. and Sherwood Rd. and one small section even crosses the Taconic. It includes all of the Carvel Golf Club, which they proposed to upgrade and expand by an additional 9 holes. The proposal included 563 houses and 388 attached units: 526 detached houses on 988 acres in Pine Plains and 37 houses on 142 acres in Milan; and 4 clusters of 358 attached units on 75 acres in Pine Plains and 30 units on 8 acres in Milan. The overall density of the project in Pine Plains was 2 acres per unit and 2.3 for the whole property. The developers plan to market this development as a recreational, second home community that they said will not add substantially to the school population and would have a net positive impact on taxes. The Planning Board required them to do in-depth analyses of it as a full time residential community, in addition to their second home scenario.
In addition, the Durst Organization recently purchased a contiguous 98 acre farm on Mt. Ross Road, which brings the total acreage they own to nearly 2,300 acres. This recent purchase is not included in the proposal currently before the Pine Plains Planning Board.
