A plan to convert an unused barn on Jennifer Oz LeRoy’s Malden Turnpike property to a wedding and entertainment venue was approved by the Saugerties town planning board on Tuesday, March 21. The plan includes permission to host a riding club and a 40-foot-by 60-foot concrete patio on the property.
LeRoy hopes to cater occasional weddings and parties on her property, where she now boards horses and gives riding lessons. She is actively using one barn, and wants to convert a second barn on the 81-acre property to a wedding venue.
Neighbors would be unlikely to be bothered by noise, given the distance, architect Cirro Interrante argued. “The closest house is 800 feet to the northwest,” he said. “About 450 square feet is a wooded area, and also a house about 1500 feet away to the south, and about half that distance is a wooded area.”
Leroy said events would be well supervised, and she expects the kind of people she would have at events would not be likely to have loud music or become disorderly. “I’m going to have an usher at the entrance at every event at the front to make sure that they come in quickly.”
The dirt driveway can be very dusty in hot, dry weather. LeRoy said she maintains the driveway, watering it down when needed. Don Tucker, speaking for Walter Sparling, who lives near Malden Turnpike, said Sparling has no objection to the project, but he wanted to be sure that the dust from the road would be controlled.
William Knight, who lives just north of LeRoy, said he plans to build a house in the near future that would be within sight of the riding barn. “I’m not sure how that would impact us.” LeRoy said she would consider planning trees to screen the property or work with his concern.
Board members wanted to know how many events might be planned annually. These would be included on the map as limitations. After some discussion, the board and LeRoy agreed to 20 events with 150 people in attendance, with a possible modification after one year.
The planning board approved the proposal unanimously.
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