Pine Plains United - Have your say in how Pine Plains grows

DLC President Letter-to-Editor - Durst is "far from green"

Printed in the Poughkeepsie Journal on October 10, 2007

Valley Views: Pine Plains plan is far from 'green' development
By Becky Thorton October 10,2006

I've been in the conservation land planning field for more than 20 years now, and I've seen all sorts of development and open space plans during that time. There seems to be a big difference between what I have been reading and hearing of the proposed Carvel development described as a compact project that preserves open space and what I see when I look at the plans made public to date.

Start by picturing the Carvel property in Pine Plains: 2,200 acres of beautiful, serene land and, with the exception of the existing golf course, a relatively undisturbed and open landscape.

Picture the quiet, pretty 35-acre lake, the 140 acres of wetlands, the 990 acres of prime and important farmland soils, the 1,200 acres of undisturbed woodland, the 260 acres with extremely steep slopes and 940 acres of just plain steep slopes, the 35,000 feet of streams that crisscross the property and the magnificent views along more than nine miles of existing roadways that front the property, which include Route 199 (the gateway to Pine Plains), Woodward Hill Road and the Taconic State Parkway.

Now picture the proposed development plan: 2,200 acres of land - 600 acres of which are already undevelopable because of wetlands, steep slopes, stream setbacks, etc. Picture 951 homes on the remaining 1,500 acres, 46 brand new roads with more than 16 miles of new pavement cutting through these previously picturesque fields and woodlands, and a 310-acre golf course manipulating the natural landscape.
Picture 365 acres of proposed open space (mostly made up of the undevelopable lands I mentioned earlier), in 28 separate pieces, some less than one acre in size, all bordered by housing, and a 35-acre lake surrounded on all sides by development and golf courses.

Not what comes to mind

I'm confused. When I picture a compact or "green" development I see large contiguous areas of open space and forest habitat, protecting scenic viewsheds (including broad landscapes), important farm soils, steep slopes and ridge lines. In a green development plan, these areas are determined first. Next, the development is designed to fit into the landscape, preserving large areas of important resources. To be environmentally sensitive, the development would be compact, occurring on 20 percent of the site, leaving 80 percent as open space, with only a few new roads.

Instead, in the proposed Carvel plan, we see housing with an average density of 1 1/2 acres per house (in a rural area typically zoned five-acre minimum), spread out pretty evenly across 1,500 acres, distributed cookie-cutter style along 25 miles of roads, 310 acres reconstructed into golf courses, and the only open space so broken up it's useless as habitat. Seventy percent of the land will be developed into homes, 14 percent into golf courses and although 25 percent of the land has severe constraints, we still only see 16 percent of it as greatly fragmented open space. With the plan as proposed, the scenic views, wildlife habitat, farmland soils, ridge lines, water and open space quality of the land will be irreparably ruined.

We're lucky this land has been left undisturbed for so long, but that doesn't mean we have to go overboard and accept an overly dense and sprawling development plan, either. There's a real opportunity here to design a true compact "green" development the residents of Pine Plains can be proud of.

Becky Thorton is president of the Dutchess Land Conservancy.