Some Woodstockers regard any club that would want their town to be a member with great suspicion. Thus, Woodstock’s participation in a state program making it easier for developers to get approval for projects that included affordable housing drew some flak during the June 11 meeting of the town board.
The board nevertheless voted 3-2 in favor of adopting the state Pro-Housing Community Program certification pledge. Town supervisor Bill McKenna and councilmembers Anula Courtis and Laura Ricci voted in the affirmative. Maria-Elena Conte and Bennet Ratcliff were opposed.
Requirements for the program include a letter of intent, a town-board resolution, five years of permit data, a zoning map and zoning summaries, said housing committee chair Katherine Tegen.
Michael Veitch, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for town board in 2023, took issue with the pledge.
“I’ve looked this thing over, and it appears that primarily it’s cities that are signing up for this program in New York State, not villages. I guess my question is, Don’t you think you should solicit some public input on this before going ahead and telling the state we want to do this because you may not want to do this?” Veitch asked.
Responded housing committee member Deborah DeWan, “There are many communities, including some around us like Shandaken and other communities in Ulster County, who are signing resolutions and letters of intent so they can have access to resources of the state.”
The county, whose own Housing Action Fund (UCHAF) encourages public-private partnerships to build affordable housing, has offered to help local-government applicants to the Pro-Housing Community Program with data collection.
“This is a pledge. It’s not a commitment to pass laws, change laws,” DeWan said. “Laws dealing with land use and zoning and housing happen at the town level.”
Not committed to anything
Ratcliff said he was confused about the process. He said the information on the program mentioned a pledge but not a letter of intent.
Tegen said the letter of intent was one of the required steps. She added the library, which was applying for a separate grant from the Empire Development Fund as part of a consolidated funding application, might not get the grant if the town didn’t follow the requirements for the pledge.
“But it would not be necessary to pass the resolution? It would be either necessary to either pass the resolution or just sign a letter of intent? I’m very confused about this,” Ratcliff countered.
The exchange became more heated.
“I have a quick question for our councilman. Is there a reason why you wouldn’t want to sign a pro-housing resolution for the people of the town that you moved to, and actually might have even displaced longtime locals? Is there a reason you wouldn’t want to?” asked Rachel Marco-Havens.
In later discussion, Ratcliff expressed concern that some of the need for certification was to benefit the library, but that nobody from the library was present at the meeting.
“I actually do not support some of these things here, like a broad range of housing developments. I support affordable housing, accessible housing. I don’t support a broad range of building in Woodstock,” he added.
The benefit for the library was a byproduct, Ricci said.
The carrot and the stick
Ratcliff didn’t understand why the town needed to pass a resolution to get state money.
“That’s the carrot and the stick,” McKenna replied. “We’ve all looked into it. This does not commit us to anything. It says we’re pledging to work towards creating housing.”
But Veitch said the resolution opens the town up to all kinds of development. “I just want to say to the three of you who’ve got elected, if you had stood up before the voters in the last election and said you were running on a platform to open up the Town of Woodstock to total development, I guarantee you would not have been elected. And what you just voted for tonight, is just that,” he said. “I’ve looked into it. I’ve probably done more research than you have on this thing, and it is not suited for Woodstock. It is completely not a Woodstock program. We are not Poughkeepsie. We are not Newburgh. We are not Kingston.”
Veitch dropped his final rhetorical hammer. “I’m sorry, but you’re selling the town down the river,” he said. “And I don’t say that lightly.”
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