At its March 10 meeting, the Gardiner Town Board passed a resolution designating annual fees for campground operators. Each campground will now have to pay the town an administration fee of $150 plus $20 per campsite, with a site being defined as space for one recreational vehicle plus one tent. According to town clerk Michelle Mosher, a fee structure for campgrounds was put into the town code decades ago, but not assessed in recent years. “It’s on our books, but it hasn’t been enforced,” she said.
At present, the only campground in the Town of Gardiner that would be subject to the fees is Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resort at Lazy River. The Samuel F. Pryor III Shawangunk Gateway Campground is administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission and therefore not under municipal jurisdiction. Lodging facilities that incorporate “glamping” cabins, such as the planned Heartwood resort, do not fall under the town’s definition of campgrounds.