At long last, after years of review and occasional social media posts that have drawn hundreds of comments about the underlying issues, the public hearing about annexing the New Paltz Apartments project south of the college on Route 32 was opened at the town’s justice center on the evening of June 5.
Around a dozen people showed up to speak.
This project is on 60 acres of property that was once Moriello family farmland. Once built, it would have about 200 multifamily residential units, a total of 612 bedrooms with private bathrooms and common areas. Mindful that the location may be appealing to students, the developers intend on leasing the bedrooms individually. The built area would be less than 15 acres, with the rest being set aside as open space.
Developers have stated from the beginning that annexation into the village is necessary in order to secure the water and sewer hookups that would be necessary to support this project. Village law has, since 2003, forbidden adding water and sewer users outside the village line except in rare circumstances, which do not appear to apply in this case.
The parcel between this project and the university campus is one that was the focus of another proposed project about 15 years ago. Called “Park Point,” this would have been dormitories that weren’t built on campus because getting new student housing built faces numerous political and bureaucratic hurdles. That project was ultimately denied due to the developer seeking tax breaks. New Paltz Apartments is not Park Point, but some residents with long memories are concerned that it might pose a similar strain on local resources.
Don Kerr characterized this annexation as a “gift” to Mike Moriello, the lifelong resident who is a principal owner of the entities now nominally listed as owning this land, Beautiful Monster LLC and Andrew’s Wave LLC. Kerr raised concerns about the expanded police protection that would be needed. That’s also a question for town council member Randall Leverette, who was chair of the police commission in the Park Point days and recalls that the police chief at the time anticipated having to add two additional officers to provide sufficient protection. Neil Bettez, who while on the job as town supervisor also served as a police commissioner, asserted that in eight years of reviewing police reports, “students were never involved.”
Public hearings are a time when any member of the public can step up to the microphone to offer testimony, or submit it in writing, to have it added to the public record. It’s not a question-and-answer session. No one is on hand to check facts. Residents who doubted both Kerr’s and Bettez’s assertions later expressed that skepticism to this reporter, although none would go on the record and none provided evidence to back up that skepticism.
Megan Bianco, who is the director of community engagement for the pro-business Ulster Strong and also a relative of Moriello’s, said that this project abides by principles of smart growth and would add much-needed housing units to the community during an ongoing housing crisis. Local leaders such as mayor Tim Rogers have expressed similar sentiments; the rationale is that if many students choose to live in this complex, rentals elsewhere in the community might become available to families and young professionals and others who struggle to find anything at any price. Kevin O’Connor, CEO of the housing-focused Rural Ulster Preservation Company, is in support due to the “dire state of housing” locally. Michele Halstead, the vice president for administration and finance at SUNY New Paltz, said that there are 7,300 enrolled students and 3,400 beds. Halstead noted that more students are enrolling at the age of 25 or later, and that efforts to build the apartment-style housing older students prefer have been unsuccessful.
The next hour and 20 minutes was a discussion among town and village board members about the potential impacts of this project, which largely took place in the context of a motion to close the oral portion of the hearing and accept additional written comments through June 16. Deputy supervisor Kitty Brown and supervisor Amanda Gotto expressed strong misgivings about going that route, and ultimately were the only ones to vote against it. Their concerns seemed to stem from the lack of formal input by residents thus far. Brown, for example, noted that this is a “significant moment in New Paltz history” and that testifying in person should be the norm, but others such as Leverette did not see that submitting in writing would be less impactful on the decision. State law on annexation calls for a vote by each board on the question.
Some of the written comments already submitted included questions, Gotto noted. These may not be immediately addressed, because the annexation process does not require a response to every comment as did the environmental review that’s already been completed. Mike Baden, the village’s code enforcement director and a recognized expert in the municipal planning process, noted that many details will be tackled during the review of the site plan itself by village planning board members.
Brown expressed some frustration with the volume of documents to review and the fact that the electronic versions were not searchable; an independent check by this reporter found no difficulty in searching the annexation documents for specific text, but that doesn’t diminish that amount that must be read for a thorough review.
It seemed that those at the table for the hearing were unaware at the time that village law required annexation under these circumstances. Suggestions were raised about simply rezoning that portion of land to conform to the density needs, but village code forecloses that option.
One last concern raised before taking the vote on closing this hearing was that there would be four weekend days during the period when written comment will be accepted. Gotto wondered aloud if that was typical, and Rogers responded, “75% of all written comments are submitted on weekends.”
When the mayor was congratulated for having such knowledge ready, Rogers with a straight face replied, “I made that up.”
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