Members of Beautiful Saugerties, a grassroots group opposed to the development of the 840-acre Winston Farm, on the site, which hosted the Woodstock '94 concert.
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.
Issues that Beautiful Saugerties had flagged as potentially problematic, including water supply and broader climate implications of cutting 275 acres of hardwood forest, are expected to be illuminated very shortly. The Winston Farm owners are almost ready to present their Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to the town board, with supporting expert analysis. Following that, the town may choose to do further studies of its own.
“The aquifer and water supply are critical to the conversation, because we really don’t know how much water is under there,” says Beautiful Saugerties spokesperson Andrew Cowan, pointing out the drought that struck the local area in summer 2022. “If you develop just the periphery there, by Routes 212 and 32, it could make sense because you don’t need to build roads and infrastructure and utilities or create impervious surfaces deep into the farm. They could still address their stated priorities of creating jobs, affordable housing, and light retail. So our hope is that a compromise can be crafted here that protects the aquifer and gets everyone involved some of what they want.”
“We expect to be releasing the EIS in the next couple of weeks, and we’ll be reaching out to the media and engaging with the community around the results,” says Sommers. “That’s really all we have to say right now.”
“Between our members and Catskill Mountainkeeper, there are several thousand folks watching this very closely,” says Cowan. “We don’t want to cast any aspersions on the property owners; we want them to be able to create a wonderful legacy there. They've been here a long time— they’re good guys, and no one's saying anything different.”
For activists and other state park-hopefuls, as the environmental review advances, the acquisition by OSI looks more and more like a beautiful could’ve-been fading in the rearview. Still, when we reached out to OSI for comment, the nonprofit’s Chief External Affairs Officer Eileen Larabee clarified, “OSI made an offer to purchase the property last summer. We were unable to come to an agreement. But the offer still stands.”
https://www.chronogram.com/hv-towns/winston-farm-in-saugerties-development-update-20285990
