The New Paltz Town Board is trying to dust off a pre-pandemic project — the designation of “critical environmental areas” (CEAs) that must be given consideration during discussions of development, particularly by the planning board. Before the idea’s momentum was killed by the shutdown of just about everything back in March, there had been vigorous debate about whether this move would save the natural features of New Paltz, or if it would grind development to a halt by making it too difficult to knock down trees and pave more pastures.
“It’s time to return to where we left off,” said Ingrid Haeckel, who chairs the town’s Environmental Conservation Board. More than 20 people spoke in favor of the idea when the public hearing was first opened in March, Haeckel recalled, but there had also been “questions on implementation.” To address some of those, Haeckel had brought along Michael Dupree, longtime chair of Hyde Park’s planning board. There are four CEAs in that town, and Dupree explained how their presence has impacted work on that town’s planning board.
Characterizing the Hyde Park volunteers as “a pro-development board,” Dupree argued that the CEAs Hyde Park put into place 15 years ago have made it easier to avoid the sorts of issues that can mire a project in years of cost and controversy. “Planning boards are supposed to promote the orderly development of the town,” according to state law, Dupree said. “The development community wants predictability and advance information.” It seeks ways which make it easier for a proposal to move through the approval process without unexpected delays.
What had happened prior to the designation of CEAs in Hyde Park, according to Dupree, was that developers would bring proposals that would maximize their own economic benefit without contemplating existing environmental challenges. Despite a number of local and state rules in place, projects in New Paltz also often appear to begin with only economics in mind, he said, resulting in public outcry that slowed the process as new issues were raised piecemeal over months. Dupree found “no fighting” in Hyde Park. Mitigations such as avoiding watersheds and clustering development to minimize the destruction of nature were in place from the start. “They just plan for it.”
Dupree believes that CEAs didn’t necessarily mean more studies for every project. “You already have more protections in place than we have” in Hyde Park, he maintained, and the planning board was in control of the process. CEAs were “just a way to let the planning board know that there is something important” in the area that should be considered.
Trained as a scientist, New Paltz town supervisor Neil Bettez said he understood the rationale for the planning board to consider impacts that go beyond a given property. “I was trained to look at the world from an ecosystem perspective,” he said, which involves “looking at the value of the whole system.”
What makes this CEA proposal politically difficult was that it would designate more than half of that portion of the town not inside the village limits as falling into one of six critical environmental areas. When the planning board discussed this at its January 27 meeting, the economic inconvenience to landowners was an area of concern.
Planning board attorney Rick Golden explained during that workshop meeting that the intent of creating a CEA is “to wave a red flag” when a project was proposed. Dupree took exception to that phrase, but Golden characterized it at the time as being language from the state’s environmental conservation staffers. The attorney said that a CEA creates “a penumbra effect,” because projects that might impact the designated area or extend beyond its borders must be given the same level of scrutiny. Golden doesn’t see a way for affected projects not to require more time and money. That effort might be expended prior to an application being submitted, but it will be expended. He added that this may be worthwhile in order to preserve features in the town.
Some planning-board members sought to reduce the scope of the designations. Others thought that such modifications might fly in the face of science. For example, member Amanda Gotto observed that New Paltz simply had a lot of features that were either unique or exceptional, which is what was needed under state law to designate a CEA in the first place.
“How lucky we are to have so much of these,” Gotto said.
Town board member David Brownstein, who voiced a number of concerns about CEAs during that January planning board meeting, told colleagues at the December 3 town board meeting that education and partners were needed. Noting that Golden had raised concerns that Dupree — with 15 years experience overseeing such areas — did not hold, Brownstein favored more education before moving forward. Dupree signaled that this might be an effective strategy. Two of the strongest opponents in Hyde Park had been convinced of the value of CEAs over time.
Why not start with less controversial areas such preservation of the Shawangunk Ridge? The concern was that the work might never be completed. “We have one chance to do this,” said Brownstein, the town board’s planning-board liaison.
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