The developers of 106 heavily forested acres east of Zena walked the property recently and tried to set the record straight on what they see as misinformation about their plans.
Through the proposed development is in the Town of Ulster, access to it is from Eastwoods Drive, a private road in Woodstock. The road will need improvement. It continues onto the property, but as a driveway. It crosses a grass former airplane runway, noted on navigation charts as Strip in the Woods. The driveway loops around some of the property, where a single home stands that has been vacant for some time. It was occupied by Anita Yuran, who died some years ago.
The principals of Zena Development LLC told the Town of Ulster planning board on April 9 that they did not believe the road would require significant review beyond a building permit. They were awaiting clarification from Woodstock officials, they said.
An email from Woodstock building inspector Francis “Butch” Hoffman said, the road would have to conform to Woodstock standards. Because wetlands and watercourse protections apply, Woodstock planning referral is needed.
Partner Eddie Greenberg said he didn’t consider an email a formal determination. He was awaiting clarification on town letterhead.
“We’re not touching any wetlands or buffers in Woodstock. We basically went back to him and said, We don’t understand what are we actually getting it for. They asked us for a subdivision approval. We’re not subdividing anything in Woodstock,” Greenberg said.
The developers plan to build 30 homes on the Ulster side of the property, adjacent to more than 500 acres in Woodstock. The traffic study included in the paperwork shows a potential for 52 homes.
Greenberg said the subdivision plan was for 30 lots, not 30 homes.
“Except there are certain parameters within a lot that will give it the ability to have a duplex home, between the size of the lot for sewer and well, and all those things,” Greenberg said. “We didn’t want to get into a situation where there was a gotcha, where our traffic study only studied 30 single-family homes, and then somebody said, ‘Well, technically, you can actually build duplexes.’ So what we did was we said, Okay, instead of doing that, we’re going to overload it, and say, there are 56.”
Partner Evan Kleinberg said they want to keep options open. “We’re most likely going to do detached single-family homes, but we wanted to make sure based on the market, depending on what the demand looks like later on, and also duplexes can be more affordable than detached single families,” Kleinberg said.
The property is next to the Israel Whitman Sanctuary and the Zena Woods Critical Environmental Area. Opponents have identified several endangered species there. The developers have not listed all of them in their inventory in their environmental impact statement.
Kleinberg and Greenberg say some reports are in the works.
Throughout the discussion and property walkthrough, Kleinberg tried to convey the message that the development was scaled back from what was allowed.
Greenberg said he and Kleinberg were an open book.
“We’re genuinely trying to do it the right way,” Greenberg said.”Honestly, the way we feel about it is, all we can do is tell the truth. We’ll study it in every way we can and do what we think is the right way and do what is within our rights as a landowner and within the law. And we hope we hope some people that don’t like it will kind of come to our side. But I think at the end of the day, they’ll see that we’re genuine in what we’re trying to do.”
The developers say they want to cause as little environmental impact as possible. They plan on retaining 72 percent of the forest and the roads. Driveways account for five percent of impervious surfaces.
“It is not like what you would think of as a home development where you’re cutting every tree,” Greenberg said.
Heavy machinery needs to move through the land to excavate and grade the lots.
“The idea is we’ll do the infrastructure like the roads first. So the road system, which is sort of one main road that comes around, there’s a loop, and then a little bit of an extension with a cul-de-sac,” Kleinberg said. “We’ll do the road system first, which will then give the infrastructure for the equipment to come in.”
They have hired Steven Winters Associates, an energy efficiency and sustainability consulting firm, to figure out what is appropriate to plant there.
The two partners said the majority of their effort was on their 128-page application to the town board, including a traffic study, environment impact statement and wildlife inventory.
“But beyond that, we’ve interviewed a ton of architects, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what type of homes we want to build,” Kleinberg said. “What does the market need? Where is their lack of supply? Where has pricing changed? What types of buyers are flooding the market right now? These are things that we’re spending a lot of time on, because we want to make sure we build the right homes.”
Kleinberg said a homeowners’ association will bear the cost of road maintenance and will include a yearly payment to Woodstock’s fire department.
More than 500 acres of the property lie within Woodstock. The developers have said, based on community response, they have no plans to develop the Woodstock portion.
“I live locally,” said Kleinberg. “I intend to raise my daughter and future children here. We are not the type of developer that wants to blow in here and build something and sell everything and privatize and move on. So we want to be long-term stewards of this land. So with that Woodstock portion, we want to make sure that we’re making responsible decisions over a long period of time. So we didn’t feel like we had the right plan in place for that land.”
Kleinberg said they’ve met with the Woodstock Land Conservancy several times, as well as with other groups. They continue to gather input.
“Obviously, we made a presentation last summer that did not necessarily consult a lot of the local members of community, and we’ve learned a ton,” Kleinberg said. “We took a large, large step back, really tried to understand what’s our intention, what impact do we want to have on the community that we live in, and then made a decision that we’re not really in any position to propose something on that land.”
The developers are open to offers, but haven’t received any they believe near what the land is worth. The Open Space Institute in partnership with the Woodstock Land Conservancy made an offer that was basically exactly what the developers paid on a per-acre basis.
“Instead of raising money from our community members to fight us, maybe return that money, sit at the table with us,” Kleinberg suggested. “And let’s design the most forward-thinking environmentally sustainable development that could be the North Star of low-impact, wooded, sustainable, housing developments. This idea that conservation and concern for the environment has to live in conflict to building homes for the community, it’s an archaic idea.”
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