Property owners of Mid-Hudson Sporting Clays were before the Town of New Paltz Planning Board in mid-November to discuss a potential violation of the town’s wetlands and watercourse law during an expansion project.
According to the planning board, roughly 3,000 feet of drivable pathways were established with fill material on a property at 400 North Ohioville Road, causing a disturbance to around 0.31 acres of wetlands and approximately one acre of wetland buffer.
Members of the planning board and Town of New Paltz Environmental Conservation Board (EnCB), along with wetlands consultant Mark Carabetta, and buildings and grounds supervisor Chris Marx undertook a site visit on Saturday, November 4 to review the issue.
A recommendation before the planning board following the site visit included seeking a professional wetland restoration plan from the property owner, detailing future removal of the fill material followed by seeding, planting and maintenance of properly installed vegetation.
In a November 9 letter to the planning board, EnCB chair Rich Whitney said the committee believed that doing nothing was not a viable option.
“To be clear, the EnCB does not support the flawed concept of leaving the fill material in place because of a misplaced concern that any restoration activities would be disruptive to the surrounding wetland areas,” Whitney wrote. “This type of approach is not supported by related wetland literature, nor been presented as a suitable solution by a wetland professional.”
During a planning board meeting held on Monday, November 13, Carabetta explained that the buffer was primarily devoid of fill.
“For the most part in the buffer, there wasn’t any fill placed,” Carabetta said.“They put down a gravel surface. It’s when the elevation sort of drops off into the wetland, that’s where fill was placed.”
But planning board deputy chair Lyle Nolan said that vehicles and equipment making use of the gravel-surfaced roadway along the buffer might have compacted the ground. Carabetta agreed that could cause restoration problems.
“I think maybe you remove the gravel and you sort of scarify the soil or maybe you put top soil on top of it,” he said. “If the roadway was used and it’s compacted, that’s going to prevent plants from growing.”
Scarification is loosening or tilling soil to prepare it for planting.
Mid-Hudson Sporting Clays was represented at the November 13 meeting by general manager Steve Meyen and attorney George Calganini, who bristled at the restoration recommendation.
“What you’re talking about is basically spending a lot of money on a property that is now worthless, completely worthless to the owner,” said Calganini.“It was originally bought with the expectation of doing a sporting clay course or an addition to a sporting clay course. Essentially, the property is completely worthless.”
Calganini suggested that the property owners would be willing to remove fill from “three specific areas,” but the potential cost of the full complement of recommendations was untenable.
“Removing things and doing work in the buffer areas, you’re talking about an expense that is really unwarranted and my client does not believe it’s necessary and they’re not willing to incur those expenses,” he said, adding that because his client has no active application before the planning board he wasn’t even sure why they were there.
Planning board chair Adele Ruger suggested that the property owner could either submit a remediation plan to the board or to the buildings and grounds supervisor.
“You don’t want to give it to us, you can give it to the building inspector,” Ruger said. “I’m sure he is adamant about going after these acute violations on properties. And this was a pretty big violation.”
Calganini suggested that the violation occurred “probably five, six years ago,” and that they would be willing to move forward with a compromise.
“Maybe if in the buffer areas you wanted some topsoil, three inches of topsoil, maybe they could do that, I could talk to the client about that,” he said. “Putting down some seed, something of that sort, removing the fill from those three areas where the pipes are and putting in some wetland seed. Maybe those are things we could do. But there’s not going to be any sort of a compromise here…We’re here and we’re willing to work towards a compromise. But we’re not willing to lay down and be killed.”
Later in the meeting, Ruger was skeptical that anything would be done without enforcement.
“Anyone can decide to plow through the wetlands and then do nothing and get away with it, right? That’s challenging,” she said, “This sounded like not much was going to happen. I mean, in my opinion, I don’t know.”
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