Responding to increasing public opposition, the Hurley Town Board unanimously withdrew a proposed moratorium on certain types of large-scale development as it prepares to adopt an updated comprehensive plan. The moratorium would have halted development on a lot or combination of lots totaling 15 acres or more, or where land development totals one acre or more. It was originally limited to the A-4 and A-2.5 districts, but was expanded in scope to include the entire town except for agricultural use.
“Over the course of the two hearings about the proposal, it became clear that Hurley residents did not favor a moratorium being enacted,” supervisor Melinda McKnight said after a second public hearing at the May 16 meeting of the town board. “We took their comments to heart and deferred to their judgment.”
Those opposed included developer John Joseph, who owns the property occupied by the West Hurley Hannaford supermarket and is in litigation with the town over its denial of a proposed Dunkin’ at routes 375 and 28.
“As everyone’s already noted, there’s any ongoing litigation currently, and I believe this moratorium will only lead to more. And I think I speak for more than myself as a taxpaying citizen, that the board should think very carefully and go through the process to not have more litigation expense to the taxpaying citizens of this community,” Joseph said.
Attorney Umar Sheikh, representing Arizona Hudson Valley, a firm that purchased the Twin Lakes property in 2018, asked the town to “seriously consider” what it is doing with a moratorium.
“Construction is only now starting because we’ve been through four lawsuits with the town,” he said. “Right. And there’s a fifth one ongoing in federal court right now. The basis of that federal court lawsuit is that this town is purposefully attempting to halt development, which it is not permitted to do,” Sheikh asked for an exemption for the Twin Lakes project. “There is a concerted effort by certain people in this town to stop development.”
McKnight countered that the litigation started long before the current board and administration was in office.
Raleigh Green, a Mountain View Avenue resident, was concerned about inevitable extensions beyond the nine months and cited a county planning board recommendation against a moratorium.
“That memo was not referred to when we had the public hearing a week later on April 18. I’m curious why that wasn’t shared with the public at that time. And it’s still not mentioned today,” Green said. “And lastly, we have so many lawsuits going on in town. This will inevitably lead to another lawsuit. And that’s your tax dollars, my tax dollars going towards lawsuits that we could have easily avoided.”
McKnight said the county planning board memo was posted on the town website.
Charles Gottlieb from the law firm representing Southern Realty & Development, which had proposed the Dunkin’ drive-thru, voiced his client’s objections. “A moratorium can only be enacted in an emergency or a crisis situation, and I see no emergency or crisis situation here. That is black-letter law. The revised moratorium still has no evidence of any of this type of situation. Yet it’s been expanded townwide,” he said. “Even the Ulster County Planning Board says this town board should not adopt the moratorium. They actually state that in the last five years only 20 projects [from Hurley] have been referred to the Ulster County Planning Board, two of them which may be considered significant.”
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