Hudson River Valley Resorts (HRVR) has taken its first steps toward commencing Phase 2 of the redevelopment of the Williams Lake property in Binnewater, submitting materials for site plan and subdivision review by the Rosendale Planning Board. At its January 11 meeting, the Planning Board accepted the documents and voted to require the developers to deposit $7,500 in escrow to pay for professional review of the engineering design set, Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan and landscape architectural package as recommended by town planner David J. Plante.
HRVR spokesman Tim Allred briefly reviewed the history of the project — which he jokingly called “a recap of 20 percent of my life” — from the initial proposal in 2007 to the town’s approval of the Master Plan and establishment of a special Binnewater Lakes zoning district in 2014. Demolition and excavation got underway in 2015, and in 2016 the town approved the site plan for Phase 1: the installation of core infrastructure. “Our objective is to start construction in 2018 on the residential construction,” Allred said.
Chuck Utschig of Langan Engineering walked the Planning Board through the Phase 2 site plan, noting “what has changed and what has stayed the same.” Notable changes include a realignment of the complex’s main road so that it will be further away from the lake shore, rearrangement of the housing units in the Point Comfort housing cluster and relocation of water storage tanks from a high point on a hillside to the more screened location of the maintenance area, closer to the water and wastewater treatment plants. “There will be 120 total [residential] units in this phase,” Utschig said.
Construction of the hotel part of the complex will not be included until Phase 3, but that part of the plan also includes some significant changes. The resort’s spa services will now be offered within the main hotel building, while catered events will be held in a structure identified as the Event Barn. Allred explained that the original idea of constructing a health and wellness center for spa services had been abandoned after HRVR brought a series of professional spa operators to visit the site. “Not one thought ‘separate buildings’ was a good idea,” he said.
Also on tap for 2018, Allred said, was preparing the site for the snack bar planned for construction alongside the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, originally dubbed the Rail Trail Café. “But we’ll have to change the name,” he admitted, since a Rail Trail Café is already in operation in Tillson.
The site plan and subdivision application will now be sent to involved and interested agencies for review, including Rosendale’s Environmental Commission, police, fire, highway and water/sewer departments and the Ulster County Planning Board, as well as engineering and architectural consultants. The public hearing on the next phase of the Williams Lake Project was scheduled for March 8 at the Rondout Municipal Center.
In other matters before the Planning Board at its January meeting, Fortune 488, LLC submitted its site plan for the Tillson School Adaptive Reuse Project for review. The board designated itself lead agency for State Environmental Quality Review of the 32-unit residential project, which will be known as Tillson Garden Apartments.