There are things that propertyowners can get touchy about: their sheds, right-of-way, fences, shrubs and most certainly their trees. Hence the bevy of signs up and down the north and south side of Henry W. DuBois Drive in New Paltz that say, “Save this Tree,” or “Save this Shrub” or “The Town Board wants to Execute this Tree.” The neighbors along DuBois are feeling like they’ve walked into a modern-day copy of The Lorax, and they’re organizing, preparing to battle, readying to tie themselves to their trees if they must.
Why would a green-leaning community, a place that proports to support open space and land preservation, bans on plastic straws and plastic bags (pre-Covid 19, of course, where all waste is seemingly good waste), want to cut down trees?
“Our goal is to take down as few trees as possible, and have the smallest impact we can,” said town supervisor Neil Bettez. “And if we do have to take any trees down, we work with the propertyowner to replace them to the best extent we can. We have funds for that within our grant.”
Bettez was talking about a $2.5-million grant, awarded to the town and village governments in 2018 by the Federal Transportation Alternatives Program, funneled through the New York State Department of Transportation (NYS-DOT). The two municipalities are required to provide a 20 percent match to this grant. They had originally applied for it in 2013, with no luck.
Rights-of-way surveyed
“That was before my time, but I do know that these grants are extremely competitive,” Bettez said. He thinks New Paltz was successful this time around because of the Empire State Trail being constructed, and “the fact that putting in pedestrian and bicycle access along the Henry W. DuBois corridor has been in every one of our plans for the past 20 years. It’s in our master plan, our Safe Streets to Schools Plan, our bike/ped plans ….”
Declared lead agency, the town government moved to hire Alta, an engineering firm whose primary focus at present is the design and creation of the 750-mile Empire State Trail from Battery Park to Buffalo. The town simultaneously hired Brooks and Brooks as surveyors. That firm was out on DuBois this spring surveying the municipal rights-of-way from the center of the road, getting measurements, poring through deeds, and providing their legal berth to widen the road for bicycle and pedestrian access.
Although applying for the grant was discussed in public board meetings, most of the residents who could be directly impacted along DuBois were notified when Brooks and Brooks had to come onto their property for the survey. Residents claim that they had little to no warning. They contend that the bike lanes do not need to be as wide as are being proposed. They say traffic is already dangerous, and would only grow more so if the road were widened to encourage cycling. They also don’t want to see their tree-lined neighborhood torn apart.
“We are very upset that this application was made with no attempt to contact the homeowners for comment who are directly impacted by right-of-way seizure,” said Naomi and Lou Aubain of DuBois Drive. “We were solicited by Alta for opinions only just before final decisions on construction. This is a small town, it is a multi-million-dollar project, damn the postal expense for notices.”
The secret plan
“The secret plan devised by Neil Bettez and his tree-killer cronies to turn Henry W. DuBois into a four-lane superhighway for out-of-town bicyclists involves nothing less than an arboreal genocide,” said DuBois homeowner Greg Olear, who lives at the corner of North Manheim Boulevard. “The street already has brightly painted bike lanes, but only sporadic sidewalks, because in many places the street isn’t wide enough to accommodate them. The plan Bettez has sprung upon us, with zero input from residents, mandates the demolition of much of the existing landscaping on both sides of Henry W. DuBois to build his unnecessary four-lane road.”
The grant calls for two five-foot-wide bicycle lanes on either side of DuBois, as well as a five-foot sidewalk for pedestrian use, totaling approximately 15 feet of widened road. Bettez explained that this was a state requirement for bike lanes, There has to be one on either side so that there is no counterflow.
“There is another alternative,” said Bettez. The grant allows for a “shared-use” path, where cyclists and pedestrians share a ten-foot-wide asphalt path with some sort of buffer between them and the motorized traffic. It would be similar, he said, “to the section of the Empire Trail that Ulster County constructed along Route 299 across from Lowe’s.” This alternative – one toward which Bettez and the project’s citizen steering committee appear to be leaning – “costs less money and creates less impact, as it would only be on one side of the road.”
Because village law requires that all propertyowners who have sidewalks abutting their land keep them plowed and free of snow and ice, the shared-use alternative would alleviate that responsibility for homeowners who have never had to take care of a sidewalk.
“Every day this plan changes,” noted Kristie De Cocco, the project manager from Alta, “I feel for the residents. I’ve spoken with everyone that has reached out to me and answered each e-mail, and I know how important those trees are to them. We want their input and their thoughts, and there are areas that they can have an impact on the design, like landscaping and buffers and vegetation and the look and feel of the trail.”
Too wide is too wide
Many residents worry the project is too wide, and will detract from their road and the safety of pedestrians and cyclists, rather than adding to it. There are existing lanes that cyclists use, but only patches of sidewalk that lead to nowhere.
“A five-foot bike path and a five-foot sidewalk are not necessary to keep bikers and neighbors happy and healthy,” said Kathy Rivera, another DuBois resident. “Make it smaller. It bothers me that so much space and trees will be taken, some of which are mine. These trees are necessary for everyone’s good health, now and in the future.”
Longtime DuBois resident Grace Gehman feels similarly. Less is more. “My fear is that they will blast my cliff, destroying not only the integrity of the land, but the huge old trees on it. In addition to widening the road, killing trees and requiring us to maintain the property they’re seizing from us; shoveling, insurance and taxing us when they go over-budget. It’s simply unnecessary. Enhance the bike paths they have in a responsible and organic way.”
According to De Cocco, there is a long list of construction concerns on both sides of DuBois. “On one side you have a gas line, on the other you have a water line. Then there is this valley by Colonial Arms where all of this water gathers; and then there’s bedrock in some places and utility poles on the south side.” What can feasibly be done and still uphold industry standards for use and safety? “There are areas where we could plead our case and have the path come in to eight feet, because there is too much rock, and it would be too cost-prohibitive to make it as wide as ten feet.”
While they are waiting to hear from residents at an upcoming informational meeting (via Zoom) on August 26, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., right now the design is leaning toward putting a shared-use path on the north side of DuBois east of Prospect Street and along the south side west of Prospect Street. De Cocco once again said that “It changes day-to-day, even hour-to-hour. We want input from the residents.”
Protecting the trees
“We want something that the residents and the town can be proud of,” said Bettez. “How great would that be for families to be able to ride their bikes or walk from their home or apartment building down to the pool or Village Pizza, or connect to the River-to-Ridge and rail-trail without having to be directly in the line of motorized traffic? Right now, I wouldn’t ride that street with my seven-year-old.”
“We’re concerned about the utter lack of transparency, strongly resembling secrecy, regarding this project,” said Feebe Greco, another resident of DuBois who along with her neighbors has been raising concerns, posting signs, writing letters to the editor, calling local officials, and calling for clarity on what will happen, where, and to what extent. “When we bought our home, we inherited the responsibility of protecting these trees. We’re stewards of this land, and these beautiful life-giving trees will not be massacred on our watch.”
The supervisor and De Cocco said that they have made themselves available, answered every question that they could. “We will continue to do so. We want people to come out to the meeting. We want their input,” said Bettez. “When Covid hit my office, the number goes right to my cellphone number, so I answer it!”
The project wasn’t taking any land that was not part of an existing right-of-way, Bettez emphasized. “There is no eminent domain here. And we will replace any fence, retaining wall, tree or shrub that might have to be removed. We also recently applied for and received a $475,000 green infrastructure grant that will help us to put in remediation and traffic-calming measures and hopefully improve some of the existing drainage problems on that street.”
De Cocco said that she understands the anxiety and uncertainty. “The plan is not finished,” she said. “We will lay out our proposed design at the public information meeting, and then we will open it up to questions and answers and comments and continue to take comments for two weeks. Then we need to seek town and village approval and the DOT’s approvals before we move forward.” SEQR involves historic sites, wetlands, stormwater runoff, and other negative impacts.
Some residents don’t have Internet access. Paul and Rochelle Bishop, longtime residents of DuBois, feel left in the dark. “I call the supervisor and no one gets back to me,” said Paul Bishop. “I write letters; I try to go to the board meetings; but now they’re on the Internet. There’s been such a lack of transparency with this. I think it was better when Jason West and Susan Zimet were busy fighting all the time. At least they weren’t taking down our trees!”
Why not instead of widening roads spend the money to improve the bike lanes that are already painted on the road, plant more trees, finish existing sidewalks, improve drainage and implement traffic patrols?
Bettez and De Cocco point out that the grant calls for adherence to industry standards that are mandated by the federal government and the state in terms of bike and sidewalk width and other criteria. They also claim that their top priority is to create an attractive, safe, nonmotorized bike and pedestrian access route along Henry W. DuBois that will help users get to the Moriello Pool or Village Pizza without having to get into a car, or to Minnewaska State Park and the Walkway over the Hudson.
Village mayor Tim Rogers, an avid cyclist himself, said that he completely supports the project and believes it will be a great addition to the network of bike and pedestrian trails that exist in New Paltz.
Fences and trees make good neighbors. It has to be seen whether sidewalks and bike lanes will do the same. Although the meeting is slated for August 26 at 6 p.m. via Zoom, residents are asked to confirm that time and date on the town government website, as it may be subject to change.
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