Durst Submits Revision on Golf Development
August 2, 2009
Carvel (Durst)/Landmark: After the overwhelmingly negative reaction from the public and many experts representing PPU, Scenic Hudson, the Dutchess Land Conservancy, the county planning office and even the State Department of Environmental Conservation in the series of public hearings held in the spring of 2008; the Carvel/Durst team submitted a major revision of their large golf development proposal to the Planning Board.
Work on this new “preferred” alternative plan initially was led by Alexander (Alex) Felson, an expert ecological planner now on the faculty at Yale, and the multinational planning firm EDAW. This plan has widened buffer zones around important wetlands and vernal pools and has much more dedicated connected open space. It clusters most of the development around the golf course, away from both the Ham Brook and the Route 199 view shed. The number of housing units is reduced to 648 (576 in Pine Plains, 61 in Milan and 11 on lots that are partly in both towns). The 18 hole golf course is redesigned with the second nine extending towards 199 on the west side of the property. There will no longer be an additional 9 hole academy course. While this process of redesign and updating the Planning Board on it continues; the Planning Board must also continue to work on their review of the comments about the original DEIS and reach decisions about what must be done to address them. 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 environmental impacts. It is not clear at this time whether the board will require a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement based on the revised plan and/or detailed corrections required to address deficiencies in the data in the original DEIS. Alternatively the board could proceed directly to a Final Environmental Impact Statement which must include all the substantive comments and the responses to them by the developer that also might include the new plan as a part of the response. Regardless of which of these choices the Planning Board makes there are a number of new and revised environmental studies that will need to be completed to address the criticism of the project expressed in the 2008 hearings and to examine the impacts of the revised layout. The experts for Durst and the town have recently met to discuss what additional studies can be initiated now. If/when the new zoning law is enacted by the Town Board, the Durst Organization is expected to apply for a New Neighborhood District zoning change. Doing so might entail some additional revisions to the new plan, although a review of the NND criteria has led us to conclude that the new plan already meets many of the criteria. We estimate that the maximum number of units allowed on the whole property (including affordable units and the units in Milan) would be approximately 661. 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). PPU recently learned the Dursts had also planned 71 additional units on the “previously approved” 99 half acre lot subdivision west of Carvel Lake which was carved out of the original plan, making the actual total 1022 new units. 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 small sections even cross the Taconic Parkway. It includes all of the original Carvel Golf Club. This first 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. In addition, the Durst Organization recently purchased a contiguous 98 acre farm on Mt. Ross Road. This purchase 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.
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