A proposed subdivision to create 12 residential building lots in the Town of New Paltz is working its way through the planning board, but not without pushback from local residents.
The proposed subdivision of a 27.8-acre parcel at 203 South Ohioville Road owned by Sharad Deedwaniya has been before the planning board for several months, and is inching forward in much the same way as other residential projects before many other municipal planning boards. But the size and scope of this particular proposal isn’t sitting well with some of the property’s neighbors, some of whom have taken to social media to express their concerns, while others take it to local government.
At a meeting of the town planning board held on Monday, March 25, Karen Campbell said she and her late husband bought their home at 219 South Ohioville Road a year ago and she’s worried that the proposed subdivision could upset the tranquility she finds in her own home, particularly during construction.
“How long and how much impact and noisy construction will there be to build 12 houses on that property?” Campbell said, noting that the proposed shape of the subdivision could contribute to long-term noise. “If you look along South Ohioville every house is perpendicular to the road. With this particular plan it’s to build a crescent-shaped road to fit in even more houses within this 20-acre spot including some which are going to back directly onto (Route) 87.”
The proposal calls for the creation of 12 residential building lots on the property on the west side of South Ohioville Road, which developers note is permitted within the Agricultural-1.5 zoning district. Also under consideration by the property owner is the inclusion of accessory apartment uses within the ability of the land to support it.
According to a February 26 narrative provided to the planning board by Hudson Land Design Principal Daniel Koehler, the property is primarily “younger trees as it was previously used, at least to some extent, for mining of (sand and gravel).”
Campbell disagreed.
“This is directly adjacent to my home,” Campbell said. “This is a complete woodlands … It’s not just some young trees. In my short year of being here I’ve seen in that woodlands deer, turkey, squirrels, a fish, chipmunk, rabbits and a bear once. To me, this was part of the reason why I moved here, to enjoy the open woodlands areas not to be directly next door to a building development.”
At a planning board meeting held on Monday, March 11, Koehler described how access to the subdivision could work.
“Our proposal calls for a new town road that will loop in off of South Ohioville, circle through the property, and then continue back on through a different point egress along South Ohioville again,” he said.
Stormwater management is anticipated to be located in three areas of the property, with each lot containing a well and septic system.
“We do not anticipate any significant impact on community services,” reads Koehler’s narrative letter, further adding that with the continued declining enrollment in the New Paltz Central School District, the district could handle the arrival of new school-age students in the subdivision.
At the March 25th meeting, trustees asked if Deedwaniya might be willing to give the subdivision more breathing room by extending it into an adjacent property he also owns, but was told he would prefer to keep that property separate.
“Its location doesn’t really lend itself to helping out with any geometry of any of the lots,” said Koehler. “I think it would be appropriate to keep it as the property lines are today.”
The success of the subdivision proposal is not a foregone conclusion, though the developer has followed the planning board protocol and continues answering questions in the project’s EAF (environmental assessment form) and others raised by town officials. Neighbors of the property may take more convincing.
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