Winston Farm hearing in Saugerties draws environmental concerns
By WILLIAM J. KEMBLE | news@freemanonline.com |
September 22, 2022 at 6:46 a.m.
SAUGERTIES, N.Y. — Winston Farm developers were asked to put more detail into an environmental scoping document that many public hearing speakers felt was short on attention to issues that have been voiced repeatedly during past several months.
The comments were made Wednesday during a session that drew about 190 people and 42 speakers, though most did not reference the document and did not provide the insight being sought by officials about how the project should deal with concerns.
“This is … a public hearing to comment on the draft scope … for the environmental impact statement process,” said David Brennan, attorney for the developers.
Brennan had been immediately preceded at the microphone by Catskill Mountainkeeper environmental attorney Emily Svenson, who was the first speaker to tell Town Board members that scoping document did not include the significant issues that the 800-acre undeveloped site deserves.
“Although the draft scope might look lengthy, it’s quite generic,” she said.
“The Winston Farm project … represents a fundamental change in the town of Saugerties and a new development hub as large as the existing village,” Svenson said. “It would replace 800 acres of forest, meadow and stream corridor with hundreds of acres of paved surface and buildings.”
Catskill Mountainkeeper also provided a preliminary biodiversity assessment of the site in a report from Hudsonia, which looked at the ecology that would be impacted by development.
“The proposed development project at Winston Farm … would be devastating to the ecosystems, wildlife, and plants of the site and the surrounding region,” Hudsonia officials wrote. “It would destroy large areas of significant habitat, much of it forested, and fragment much of the remaining forest. This would severely reduce the capacity of that forest to support numerous wildlife specifies that require large areas or areas distant from human disturbance (such as) many songbirds and certain raptors, snakes, and large mammals, likely reducing or extirpating their populations on and around the site.”
The concerns were not lost on Brennan, who noted that the scoping hearing was intended to solicit those types of concerns.
“Immediately we already agree with … the need to go through and do a thorough analysis and study of this project,” he said. “We committed from the outset, we committed to it tonight, and that’s what we’ll be doing as we go through.”
Brennan also said that there have been concerns raised about the “concept” plan that developers submitted earlier this year showing the extent that the project could be “built out” but was not intended to reflect what the actual project would look like. A map provided to officials showed 14 estate parcels, 76 single-family homes, a village area with 57 single-family units, 13 cabins, a commercial area, a boutique hotel, a hotel with a water park, an amphitheater with an events center, and campgrounds.
“That is a necessary component of the SEQR review so that we can study the maximum potential impacts,” he said. “What it isn’t is a site plan. It is not a proposal for each thing in each location but is an example of what could be built under the proposed zoning.”
Brennan added that some projects on the map are unlikely to move forward.
“It may be for example … an amphitheater or an indoor water park are not appropriate for the community (and) not supported by the site,” he said.
One of the concerns that was repeated several times by speakers was the need to recognize Winston Farm as a “carbon sink” that sequesters carbon to offset the harmful impacts of fossil fuel use. Residents suggested that the scoping document include a study of how much beneficial environmental impact currently exists at the site and how much would be lost through development.
Tokya Dammond said the review would be consistent with town efforts to reduce its harmful impacts on the environment.
“I’m requesting a carbon audit in line with Saugerties declaration (as a Climate Smart Community),” he said. “It should include emissions from the proposed development and the entire farm as a carbon sink…as well as the emission from the construction proposed buildings and paid services is needed in the audit.”
Several people spoke for family members who were unable to attend the session but wanted the scoping document to cover impacts on people who are growing up with environmental concerns.
Resident Bari Koral read a letter from her 13-year-old daughter, Tuli Caigan, who wanted board members to consider ways to have the scoping document protect the town’s environment and character.
“In five or six generations what will this place look like?” she wrote. “We are talking about destroying or dividing (a) forest that protects us…As more places become uninhabitable I worry for my future (because) we are the generation that will inherit climate change.”
