Letters to the editor
The “highest and best use of the land:” An alternative vision for Winston Farm
Lately, I’ve been hearing that people who oppose the rezoning of Winston Farm in Saugerties are some kind of tree-hugging idealists who stubbornly refuse to consider any kind of development of the property. Let’s get something straight. No one is seriously proposing that “nothing happen” at Winston Farm. This idea is being weaponized by people who wish to present a false “all or nothing” choice or who may actually be confused. But even if a few forward-thinking citizens like me believe that nature knows best, we don’t dare to dream that Winston Farm could be left to nature in the world we’ve actually created, motivated by profit and growth, both of which are leading us over the cliff of environmental and economic collapse.
In fact, however, there is an alternative vision, one which aligns with “the highest and best use of the land” (if use it we must) and cooperates with nature’s purposes of keeping the air clean and the water abundant, of sequestering carbon, and of increasing biodiversity. It’s called regenerative agriculture, a method which creates and improves topsoil instead of paving it over. Relying on permaculture methods of food production, it would place Winston Farm as a key part of the bioregional food production effort we are going to rely on in the near-enough future, as the economy (including the global supply chain which stocks our supermarkets) continues to collapse and the climate continues to change beyond recognition.
Seriously, everybody, how much longer do you think this American joyride is going to continue? Food security is going to be paramount any day now, and we’re going to have to grow what we need within our bioregion. The vision held by the current owners of Winston Farm is one of a future in which everything looks the same as it does now, only more so. But that’s not the future seen by better-informed people who aren’t captured by the no-longer-tenable myth of perpetual growth or the false promises of Wall Street, corporate America and our own government. We see a planet on which nature needs all the help she can get. What’s proposed for Winston Farm offers only destruction.
Granted, we need workforce-affordable housing here, but little if any of what would be built on Winston Farm would provide that. Besides, there are plenty of places to build new housing in Saugerties. We don’t need Winston Farm for housing. And yes, people need jobs, but there’s already plenty of zoning for commercial development in Saugerties. We don’t need Winston Farm for jobs, either. Tourism at the Woodstock level, which is an aim of the proposed development, is highly undesirable to many if not most of the residents of Saugerties. We already have a conference hotel, we don’t need another one. Etcetera.
The only reason to develop Winston Farm instead of other less sensitive areas for housing, jobs, commerce and tourism is to maximize profits for the current owners. They’ve already been offered $10 million for the property by Open Space Institute, more than double their original investment, but they stand to make multiples of that if they get their way with rezoning, and they’re “betting the farm” that the town board will go along. But investment is a gamble: you can win big, you can break even, or you can lose your shirt. The residents of Saugerties and the town board that represents us are not responsible for the outcome of their high-stakes bet.
So support the alternative vision that supports the future. Andrew Faust, an Ulster County resident with a national reputation for permaculture design and practice, will present this vision at the town board meeting on September 18 (7 p.m., Saugerties Senior Center). Come and hear for yourself what could be possible.
Janet Moss
Saugerties
The Winston Farm project will endanger the environment of the site
Many citizens of the Village and community of Saugerties are concerned about the proposed development of Winston Farm. I am joining their ranks in print here. I have pondered this issue for a while, and I have come to believe the project as outlined would endanger the environment of the site, and our community beyond, in many ways. I will mention only a few.
The village has been concerned for years about a secondary water supply. It has in recent years worked with the Town of Saugerties and the owners of Winston Farm to secure that supply in Beaver Kill Aquifer that exists beneath the site in the Beaver Kill Valley. The developers plan an additional well-head and water treatment facility to supply their needs. While that is admirable, independent testing has revealed that, although the estimated numbers vary, hundreds of thousands of gallons of water would be needed daily to operate the multi-faceted Winston Farm proposal. Even the lowest water estimates exceed amounts that it would require to function. This would strain the aquifer. Necessary additional testing, itself, would require protection of the area and surrounding areas, which are inhabited by our citizens.
By New York law, water supply for a town is part of eminent domain, as it should be. Therefore, we citizens must stand up and demand that the necessary back-up supply for Saugerties, Beaver Kill Aquifer, be protected on many levels — not only on the volume of its waters, but also on its conservation from contamination. I am rightly afraid that the proposed water park and car-wash, within the sites plans, would gravely impact the ground, valley and aquifer below Winston Farm. Sadly, depleted and contaminated water affects not only our citizens, but animal, insect and plant species as well. We need not be reminded that depletion of these precious resources have rebounding negative environmental affects for us, them and the land itself. Which brings me to the more ephemeral, but perhaps the most powerful impact of the extensive proposal for Winston Farm: its legacy as a place of history, agriculture and natural beauty. That value is beyond measure, because it is the bedrock of the love and pride that townspeople have for their home. In my view, that bedrock would be shaken by additional traffic, as well as crowding and the environmental impacts, above, that affect the quality of life.
My husband and I have owned property in Saugerties since 2006 and have lived here permanently since 2018. I have learned that the owners of Winston Farm are admired, upright community members who have given a lot to our town. They are patiently working with the village and town to address concerns, and they have invested a great deal in outlining what they see as a beneficial proposal for Saugerties. I see that the resulting benefits amount to financial ones, and, indeed, those are important to the community, but so are the ones that concern me and others. Therefore, I question the town’s reasons for considering zoning changes that are contrary to years-long protections and regulations recommended by the late Congressman Hinchey as far back as 1994, and more recently, Catskill Mountainkeeper and HydroQuest, the environmental consulting firm that conducted extensive water and geology tests that, by the way, are rigorous and objective while cautious and sensitive to the benefits of the proposal.
Finally, I am concerned about contractors who take plans to levels beyond the owners hands. I am afraid that they will not have the deep connection to our town that the owners have. That said, the owners are willing to hear us, so I hope that they create a less impactful use for Winston Farm. I hope for agrarian use, possibly as a farm education center. It is important that we vigorously express our concerns that, no matter what path the developers of Winston Farm take, they adhere to the safety and protection of our citizens’ water for the entire duration of their tests and plans, and I encourage anyone who reads this to go to hydoquest.com to review HydroQuest’s careful work at the bequest of Catskill Mountainkeeper.
Joanne Pagano Weber
Saugerties
Everything old is new again in Winston Farms (over) development plan DGEIS
The revised Winston Farm’s Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) has landed – harkening the heaping landfill proposed all those years ago. Side-stepping previous open-space victories, it looks like our loss. As a history lover, the DGEIS also brought me back to an earworm of my childhood.
Back before locavores or gastro-tours were hot Hudson Valley trends, John Hall led a youth chorus in the “Saugerties Song.” In it, community voices come together over late-80’s light jazz synth to sing:
“Will Saugerties grow gracefully?
Ten years from now, will it still be friendly?
Saugerties, it’s up to you and me.”
Not long after its release, Winston Farm was the muddy home of Woodstock ’94 — where some 350,000 attendees sang, slang mud and slid down the site’s infamous hill. Freshly past the milestone 30th anniversary of that event, developers have presented a plan to desecrate history along with hundreds of acres of hardwood forest, meadows and wetlands.
While this version eliminated an ironic aquifer-draining waterpark — it was replaced with even more hotel space. As in, more surfaces to prevent rain from replenishing the water table. Tough loss for already endangered wildlife and town residents who rely on this backup water source — but water-thrill-seekers can take heart that hundreds of acres of personal lawns may yet house slip’n’slides. Phew.
To face our children, the town must represent our needs — through regulation, oversight and soliciting community input. The town board cannot passively “hold onto [their] seats” as was joked — but must take the driver’s seat to steer us to a more sustainable future.
The ‘Saugerties Song’ may be an artifact, but ought to be an enduring anthem of our collective responsibility. That kiddie chorus admonishes us to consider: who is responsible for stewarding this place, and for whom?
Jackie Lieske
Kingston
Proposal for Winston Farm
I agree with Meyer Rothberg’s letter last week in HV1. It doesn’t matter one whit that the current owners of Winston Farm are locals. If they were thinking about making Saugerties a better place to live, they would not propose such a startling, aggressive plan.
If you add up the number of single family houses, condos/apartments and townhouses, it means over a thousand cars traveling through our town in one day. Many of those residents will even have two cars. And then additionally there will be campers (157 cabins and RVs), 450 hotel rooms, and a large retail space. When the weekend comes around (or maybe several times a week) 5,000 people may descend on the property to attend a concert. That is a nightmare — a traffic nightmare!
As someone else stated in a letter to the editor a few weeks ago, Winston Farm forests today soak up carbon, but the current proposal to turn the property into a mega “neighborhood” (HA!) releases tons of carbon into our little town.
On September 12, from 6:45 to 8:15 p.m. at the Orpheum (Theater 1), there is a public informational forum regarding the proposed Winston Farm development with town supervisor Fred Costello and Adriana Beltrani, senior environmental planner, who will give a brief history of the Winston Farm development plans, including the way we arrived at the current situation, zoning and environmental review.
Susan Fraser
Saugerties
