Rebekah Channell
Kingston Wire

'Hang On to Your Seats'

Winston Farm Developers Begin Push for Approval

News by Steve Ellman

8/19/24 • Land Use

Saugerties– The developers who propose to transform Winston Farm’s 840 historic and environmentally significant acres into something more domesticated and commercialized than mere landscape offered a first look last week at their current thinking.

Wednesday night saw a PowerPoint preview before the Saugerties Town Board; the full Monty arrived the next day with the release of the project’s Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement. Usually acronymized as DGEIS, it's a description, per state regs, of “purpose, public need and benefits” as well as "a statement and evaluation of the potential significant adverse environmental impacts at a level of detail that reflects the severity of the impacts and the reasonable likelihood of their occurrence."

The DGEIS runs 208 pages and examines the impact of up to 133 single family homes, 115 townhouses, and 800 condo/apartment units as well as “a campground with a 157 cabins and RV sites, 425,000 square feet of commercial retail space, a 150-room boutique hotel, a conference center with 300 hotel rooms, a 5000-person amphitheater, and 375,000 square feet of lab or light-industrial space."

Rebekah Channell
Daily Freeman

Winston Farm updated plan calls for 799 housing units, commercial space in Woodstock ’94 site in Saugerties

By WILLIAM J. KEMBLE | news@comnews@freemanonline.com

UPDATED: August 15, 2024 at 6:02 p.m.

SAUGERTIES, N.Y. — As Winston Farm developers detailed their plans for an 840-acre residential neighborhood with hundreds of housing units along with with a commercial center during a Town Board meeting on Wednesday, opponents of the project also voiced their objections.

A draft environmental generic impact statement provided updated information about the development, which was discussed during a Town Board meeting on Wednesday. The plan showed an 840-acre project area along state Route 32 that would combine commercial, retail and residential development with quick access to the state Thruway.

“The sponsor’s preferred plan will create 799 housing units (from) a mix of townhouses, apartments, hotels, conference centers, cabins, and other residential uses,” wrote developers, who anticipate the buildout would result in 1,746 new residents.

Maya Van der Meer
HV1

Winston Farm hearing in Saugerties draws mixed reviews

by David Gordon
September 25, 2022

Danny Melnick, the owner of a music tour and production company called “Absolutely Live,” said that he has produced music festivals around the world for more than 30 years, “and if anyone should be excited about an amphitheater in this area it is me; but I am not. Amphitheaters are huge; they accommodate thousands of people, and this is how our two amphitheaters, SPAC and Bethel Woods are designed. They must have parking lots many times larger than the amphitheaters themselves.” An amphitheater would bring in thousands of cars, as well as trucks and buses idling on Route 212 and Route 32, as well as sanitation and other service trucks entering and exiting the site. In addition, “sound checks and concerts can be heard almost a mile away. I have never worked at an amphitheater anywhere in the world situated in a residential community.”

HV1
Maya Van der Meer
Daily Freeman

Winston Farm hearing in Saugerties draws environmental concerns

By William J. Kemble
September 22, 2022

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.”

Daily Freeman
Maya Van der Meer
Daily Freeman

Winston Farm plans in Saugerties face objections

By William J. Kemble
August 18, 2022

Resident Gene O’Donovan, who owns property adjacent to Winston Farm, said developers are doing a disservice to the town.

“This project doesn’t have any responsibility to any of its neighbors,” he said. “It’s going to take Buffalo Road…and make it into its entrance to this property. Do you want your kids living on Buffalo Road to dodge the dump trucks as they come back and forth? I don’t think so.”

Daily Freeman

Saugerties

Chronogram

Winston Farm in Saugerties Development Update

By Anne Pyburn Craig

March 14, 2024

In 1994, the Winston Farm property in Saugerties made international headlines when it hosted the chaotic but memorable 25th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival. Over the years, environmental watchdog group Beautiful Saugerties has successfully fended off efforts to develop the 800-acre lot close to the town’s Thruway exit. Members have been holding their collective breath since last August, when Chronogram reported that the Open Space Institute had offered current owners Saugerties Farm, LLC just under $10 million to purchase 600 acres of the property for a proposed state park.

At the time, Josh Sommers—representing the owners, Saugerties residents Tony Montano, John Mullen, and Randy Richers—said that no deal was close to being struck and that the development proposal for a mixed-use destination venue that would incorporate housing, a boutique hotel, and an amphitheater was still moving forward as planned.

The River (Chronogram)

The River (Chronogram)

Open Space Institute in Talks to Purchase Large Portion of Winston Farm

by Will Solomon
August 17, 2023

The Open Space Institute, a northeastern conservation organization, has long been active in growing public lands in New York State. Founded in 1974 in the Hudson Valley, OSI has protected over 2.3 million acres in the United States and Canada, including over 150,000 acres in New York.

This has included adding over 13,000 acres to Minnewaska State Park and fundraising $3 million toward a visitor center that was opened in 2020, doubling the size of Fahnestock State Park since the 1990s and launching a major improvement plan in 2020, and adding over 1,200 acres to John Boyd Thacher State Park in Vorheesville.

The organization may soon have another acquisition.

Your voice matters!

This decision will ultimately come down to the Town Board, so our local officials are key to this process! Call or email, and let them know about your concerns.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Please submit letters to the editor about your concerns:

  • Hudson Valley One: submit at this link. Monday is the deadline for the weekly paper.