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EDITORIAL

A plan to develop 2,200 acres of rural land into 951 luxury homes has certainly earned the attention of the residents of Milan and Pine Plains.When 300 persons from towns totaling less than 5,000 residents attend a hearing, that’s a tip off that locals smell something that could change their communities. For perspective, a comparable turnout for a city of Kingston hearing would require 1,200 residents.The Durst Organization, better known for its work in New York City real estate, and Landmark Land Co. are shopping a plan for weekend and second homes on the former Carvel estate. It is before the Pine Plains Planning Board for environmental review.

A spokesman for the engineering firm working on the project said the Durst plan would build on the vision of former owner Tom Carvel, the ice cream magnate who died in 1990.

With apologies to the memory of Carvel and to his ice cream pal, Fudgie the Whale, that’s a dicey proposition, at best. Carvel indubitably knew a thing or two about retailing ice cream andfranchising. But he was, charitably, a bit eccentric and, to borrow a memorable line by humorist Dave Barry, we mean “a bit eccentric” in the same way that you might consider the surface of the sun “a bit warm.”

It’s entirely appropriate for residents to be concerned about a development of such substantial scale.Even if you lowball the occupancy projection to a scant two persons per house, the project would add a potential 2,000 residents, a 40 percent increase. Up it slightly to three residents per household and, suddenly, you’ve got nearly 3,000 more residents and an increase of 60 percent.

Add to that the spread of housing across rural lands and that the owners of the houses would be imports to the community with rather different backgrounds and values.Of course, there’s environmental impact and, then, there’s environmental impact. And the environmental impact that most everyone has their eye on in these matters are not the ones they end up arguing about, such as water runoff, septic disposal, erosion, traffic and the like. To some extent, all of those things can be engineered away.

What you can’t engineer away – never mind accurately project – are the socioeconomic and lifestyle impacts of spreading houses across 2,000 acres of open land and boosting a rural community’s population by 40 to 60 percent with outsiders.

That said, Pine Plains and much of the rest of the Mid-Hudson Valley are facing an inexorable march of people and money upon their little slice of heaven. With those new people can also come new prosperity and ideas.

Whether spreading 1,000 homes over 2,000 rural acres is the right way to do it is an open question and deserves full ventilation under the current environmental review.

Finally, communities have a right to guide their futures through prudent land-use plans and zoning. Pine Plains, the last community in Dutchess County without zoning, has been late to avail itself of those tools and has been taking an agonizingly long time to develop its first zoning ordinance.It’s now in the hands of the Town Board and past time to get that done.

By Shaw Israel Izikson
02/14/08

PINE PLAINS – Despite nasty weather, more than 70 residents attended Wednesday night’s public hearing on the Carvel Property Development’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) at Stissing Mountain High School.

A controversial development

Even before the meeting started, objections to the project arose. Members of the grassroots community group Pine Plains United handed out fliers stating there is “nothing green” about the development and that taxes would go up for residents.

“We’re passing this out in response to the many mailings made to residents by the Durst Corporation,” member Kathleen Augustine said. “I think some of the points [engineering firm Chazen Companies] is making are not true. I think 951-plus new homes has nothing to do with rural character.”

Laura Clark, member of community betterment group Teesink Crossroads 21, said she was disappointed with Pine Plains United.

“I am very disappointed that scare tactic-propaganda was allowed to be handed out in the doorway as you came into the meeting,” Clark said. “I think so far what I’ve seen of the project, I am semi in favor of it. I appreciate that Durst has chosen a town like Pine Plains and that we’re lucky to have them not ready to pillage and clear cut the town.”

Describing the plan

In his 90-minute presentation at the beginning of the meeting, Chazen Companies principal Daniel Stone outlined what the Durst Organization had in store for the project.

“The Durst Organization wants to create a premier golf community in an environmentally responsible fashion,” Stone said. “The hamlet of Pine Plains was an [agriculture] based community that thrived and prospered for years and years when agriculture was king. Agriculture isn’t king anymore and this project has a possibility of infusing and revitalizing the hamlet area.”

Stone said the development will be a second-home community on approximately 2,200 acres of land. He said that only 24 percent of the site will be used for development, including homes, lawns, roads and infrastructure. Meanwhile, he said 1,197 acres of the project will remain as protected open space.

Stone said that since the site is directly adjacent to the Taconic State Parkway, local traffic impact will be minimal.

“[The project] will not have any measurable impact on the roads,” Stone said. “The fiscal impact statements state that there will be $30 million in economic benefits to the hamlet area to both Milan and Pine Plains each year to support local businesses.”

When it comes to annual property taxes, Stone said Dutchess County would receive $1.9 million, the Pine Plains School district would receive $7.2 million, the town of Pine Plains would receive $2.4 million, the town of Milan would receive $100,000 and both town fire districts would collectively receive $365,000.

He said the development would primarily be marketed to residents from New York City.

Public comment

At around 9 p.m., about two hours after the public hearing began, the public finally had a chance to speak.

The first resident was Jane Waters, who criticized the DEIS for being too complicated to understand, and also criticized the financial impact statement.

“The devil is in the details,” Waters said. “They said in more than one place that they used data from 2005 as a baseline year for both expenditure analysis and revenue analysis, but when you look at what they did for both the municipal and school budget analysis, they took what is called a five-year trailing average. They say this smooths out the fluctuations and blips that occur from year to year. So in the case of the property tax per pupil analysis, they actually averaged the real property taxes from 2000-01 for the next five years, to 2004-05.”

She said that, in 2000-01, property taxes were $7,006 per pupil, but in 2004-05 it was $9,640.

“Their baseline is $1,500 less than what it should be,” Waters said. “They underestimated the school costs for not only students they will add to the school, but this applies to every child in the school population.”

Former Planning Board member Peter Caldwell said that, in Stone’s presentation, there was no mention of the proposed zoning law.

“This is a defect in their proposal because the proposed zoning law will have a major impact on the project as they project it,” Caldwell said. “The proposed law will reduce the number of their new residences by more than half. Second, there is a requirement that they must cluster more than 75 percent of their new residences.”

Caldwell said that the project included lawn areas in front of homes as part of their calculation for open space.

“This is not acceptable as a definition of open space,” Caldwell said. “The zoning law requires that 10 percent of new residences be made as moderately affordable housing. There is no mention in their proposal for doing this.”

Becky Thornton, president of the Dutchess Land Conservancy, took the developers to task over the issue of open space.

“[In the DEIS it states] the proposed action would result in approximately 1,900 acres of the project’s 2,200-acre site would remain as [open space],” Thornton said. “However, [according to the developers], everything outside of the front door, including the footprint of a building, is considered as open space.”

Real estate broker Susan Crossley said the proposed development is really suburban sprawl.

“As I read through their chapter on visual impact, I noted that along Route 199, there will be 108 new buildings visible,” Crossly said. “I want you know what every New Yorker is looking for in a second home: a charming old house quietly set at the end of a dead-end country road. One hundred and eight houses on lots on Route 199 will not sell to New York second-home buyers.”

Voice your opinion

Many residents asked for an extension for the public comment period on the DEIS.

At the end of the meeting, Planning Board Chairman Don Bartles said the board will consider extending the comment period.

The next public hearing on the DEIS is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 29, at 7 p.m. at Stissing Mountain High School. There will be additional hearings Thursday, March 6, at 5 p.m. at Milan Town Hall and Wednesday, March 12, at 7 p.m. at Stissing Mountain High School.

The DEIS is available for public viewing at Pine Plains Town Hall, Milan Town Hall, The Pine Plains Free Library and the Carvel Country Club Clubhouse. It will also be available online at carvelpropertydevelopment.com.

The lightly shaded area straddling the border of Pine Plains and Milan on this map is where the Durst Organization wants to build more than 950 homes.

PINE PLAINS – For decades, the Durst name has been synonymous with premier real estate development in New York City.

The family is responsible for developing skyscrapers around Times Square and Grand Central Terminal and has earned a reputation as a leader in “green development.”But the reputation the family enjoys in and around midtown Manhattan seems to be carrying little sway with the residents of two Northern Dutchess communities. Here, the Durst Organization has met opposition over its proposal to create a massive golf community geared toward Manhattanites looking for a retreat from the downstate metropolis.A COMMUNITY group calling itself Pine Plains United has formed in opposition to the project. And on Thursday, about 300 residents of the towns of Pine Plains and Milan turned out for the first of a series of public hearings on the project, which could result in nearly 1,000 new housing units in the two rural communities.The hearing was held by the Pine Plains Planning Board as part of its review of the project under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.THE DURST Organization has partnered with Landmark Land Co. to create a “vacation and second home community” on roughly 2,200 acres straddling the Milan-Pine Plains border. About 1,772 acres are in Pine Plains and 428 are in Milan.Dan Stone, of the Chazen Cos., an engineering firm, said the project envisioned by the Dursts builds on the vision that the property’s former owner, ice cream magnate Tom Carvel, had for the land in the 1970s when he built 17 homes and a golf course before abandoning the project.”The Dursts want to do it better … and they will be successful, just as they have been successful in their developments in Manhattan,” Stone told the crowd gathered last week in the Stissing Mountain High School auditorium.STONE SAID the Durst plan calls for the construction of 951 homes, some single-family and some attached, along with private recreational amenities, including a golf course to be designed by the award-winning Landmark Land Co.He said the Dursts are committed to protecting the environment of the region and have designed a protect that will have minimal impact on the ecology of the land and on the visual attributes of the community.”Our goal for the Carvel land is to create a second-home, premiere community that is a model of sustainable development,” Stone said.And because the project is being designed as a “master planned second-home community,” marketed primarily to metropolitan New York City residents, it will have little negative impact on the Pine Plains school district or other services, he said.”Older folks who have fledged their children and have some disposal income are the kinds of people who are buying these homes,” Stone said.BUT MANY of those attending last week’s hearing doubted the accuracy of studies used by the company to show the slight impact on services, and they challenged the company’s commitment to preserving the rural character of the land.Critics say the project, which could double the population of the community, has the potential to crush Milan and Pine Plains under the weight of thousands of new residents.”This plan doesn’t have any of the earmarks of a second-home community,” said John Ferrell, who lives on Tripp Road in Pine Plains.OTHER RESIDENTS echoed that sentiment, with several asking who would buy an upscale home in a golf community in which the golf course is closed for several months every year.Becky Thorton, president of the Dutchess Land Conservancy, criticized the company for including lawns in their calculation of open space.”Only a small portion of the community conservation area is not constrained to development already,” she said.Former Pine Plains Supervisor Scott Chase, a professional planner and executive director of the Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority, called the project an shining example of suburban sprawl. He said it’s “not a development we should want our town to be.”ALSO CONCERNED about the impact on the community was Ross Pattison of Hicks Hill Road in Pine Plains, who said the planned development would “wreck” the western half of the community.However, his wife, former Dutchess County Executive Lucille Pattison, didn’t share her husband’s fears.”I don’t think this will happen in our lifetimes,” she said.PINE PLAINS Planning Board Chairman Donald Bartles said town planners share a number of the concerns voiced by residents, including the claim that the development will be solely a second-home community.”Right now, we’re just listening,” he said.WHILE THE board is moving forward with the environmental review of the project, it cannot issue a statement of findings – a final determination on the project – until the town lifts its building moratorium. And that, Bartles said, is not likely to happen until the town adopts its first-ever zoning ordinance.Bartles said the Durst Organization has agreed to accept whatever terms for development the town establishes through its zoning ordinance for the portion of the property that lies within the town.ADDITIONAL public hearings on the Durst proposal will be held:

• Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. in Stissing Mountain High School.
• March 6 at 5 p.m. in the Milan Town Hall.
• March 12 at 7 p.m. in Stissing Mountain High School.

Written comments will be accepted by the Pine Plains Planning Board through April 2.

PINE PLAINS – Planning consultant Bonnie Franson appeared before the Town Board Jan. 31 to discuss her progress in the review of the proposed zoning law.

Franson, of Tim Miller Associates, was retained last year to work with the Town Board on that review, which she began in November. To start the process, Franson took a look at the town’s objectives, especially in ensuring they kept in line with the comprehensive plan.

The next step was to meet with Town Planner Nan Stolzenburg, which she did in December.

“We discussed the history of the comprehensive plan and the thoughts behind the zoning law, and particularly the concept of the density being proposed, Franson said.

To some extent they also talked about the changes that have occurred since the beginning of the plan’s drafting.

“Since December I’ve spent some time up here and I’ve really gotten a sense of your environment,” Franson said, adding that that includes the agricultural environment, the amount of vacant land and the development pattern in the hamlet.

She also told the board that Stolzenburg provided her with some history and insight to the Carvel Property Development. Her priority remains, however, the town’s zoning needs.

“This month my focus is on getting fully familiar with the zoning code,” Franson said.

That code is what was proposed by the now disbanded Zoning Commission, which was formed specifically to draft zoning regulations for Pine Plains, the only town in Dutchess County without any zoning laws.

Franson said she wants to learn about the procedures and the organization, as well as the substance, of the code.

“Are there definitions in place and are they consistent?” was one question she asked of the board.

To help guide the town through her queries Franson said she will produce one report on the zoning law itself and two reports to address the review of the density formula that has been proposed. She said there’s one basic question that needs an answer.

“Does the zoning as crafted achieve what the town wanted?” she asked.

The three reports will be submitted to Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky sometime this week. He will review them and if he finds them satisfactory the board will then hold its first real meeting with Franson.

“This is not a meeting,” she said last Thursday. “This is just a report.”

In January, Stolzenburg provided Franson with digital files to help her put a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) together.

“We’re moving forward and going full steam ahead as far as the process goes,” Franson said.

“There is a lot to do,” said Councilwoman Dorean Gardner.

“At some point in February we’re probably going to look at scheduling another meeting to talk about our findings and the law,” town Supervisor Gregg Pulver said, as he brought the town up to date on the projected schedule for the zoning review.