Since at least last summer, neighbors of a pair of properties on Prospect Street in New Paltz have come before the Village of New Paltz Planning Board to express their misgivings about proposed work they say at a minimum would change the character of the neighborhood.
Prospect Estates, LLC — Principal Bassam Serdah — is proposing significant work on adjoining properties at 5 and 7 Prospect Street: The former would include the demolition of a single-family home to be replaced by a two-family dwelling, the latter would see an addition built onto an existing single-family home for conversion into a two-family home. But some neighbors suggest that the plans for both properties are exploiting a zoning loophole for an area that sits at the line of the B-2 (Core Business) and R-2 (Residential) districts, with the former allowing for three bedrooms of unrelated occupants in each single-family dwelling to rent individual rooms to students attending SUNY New Paltz.
Both properties were under review at a meeting of the planning board held on Tuesday, April 16, and both had public hearings as well. Several neighbors spoke out against the projects, and though some acknowledged the property owner had addressed some of their concerns, they’re still unhappy with the plans by Prospect Estates.
Sarra Solomon lives at 14 Prospect Street and said the current residents have left the properties strewn with trash.
“There’s just so much garbage,” said Solomon. “There was one day there was garbage all over the lawn, and my daughter who’s younger decided to just pile it up in the walkway of the home and of the building and it really was there for a week just kicked through by the residents.”
Neighbor Aja Whitney confirmed the trash, but said it was “the least of my concern.”
“My concern is the safety and the disruption of the neighborhood that is, and that has been for the last ten years, except for the last couple of years when they started buying up all the property and turning it into a tenement yard,” said Whitney. “We know that there’s way more people living in these buildings than they’re supposed to…It’s young kids and it’s solos living for a small amount of time, short term. They’re in and out. They’re not part of the community, so they don’t care.”
Whitney said the long-term and short-term residents don’t gel on Prospect.
“It’s really upsetting for all of us that we continue to live in a beautiful neighborhood that’s being disrupted constantly,” she said. “This is emotional. This is where I live. This is my home. When they have people that are not part of the community coming in and disrupting the community, that’s upsetting.”
Some neighbors had specific issues with the plans, like Alison Nash, who’s lived next to 7 Prospect Street for 34 years. “This is where I raised my son,” Nash said. “This is where I host holiday meals and hand out Halloween treats to countless neighborhood children. I very much care about my home and my neighborhood.”
Nash did speak to the character of the neighborhood being negatively impacted by the plans for 5 and 7 Prospect Street:
“My neighbors and I have spoken about its importance knowing our neighbors and their children appreciating the beauty of the neighborhood with its historic homes and lovely gardens highlighting our participation in village organizations,” Nash said. “We expressed our concern about demolishing historic buildings and creating an out-of-character huge structure that the historical preservation commission termed a Frankenhouse.”
But Nash also said a row of trees in the plans for 7 Prospect at the border of her property are causing great concern.
“They’ll block the light and sight lines for most of the windows of my house, and they will cast shade on my flower garden, which is only the only sunny part of my property as the trees mature,” Nash said. “The roots can spread to under my driveway causing problems. They do not block the view of the parking lot and all they do is bring expense to the owners as this long line of trees provides no benefits and only cause harm.”
Former planning board member Noelle McEntee said she and her husband bought their home at 29 Prospect Street in 2017 from an absentee landlord who’d used it as student housing.
“We have gone through the very laborious and hard process of turning a family home back into a family home,” McEntee said. “And having been on the other side of this table, I have seen several proposals come through in the past, and the thing I always go back to is that you can’t necessarily control the people.”
McEntee said the village may have to answer difficult questions about how to coexist with the college in such a way that works for everyone and that encourages property owners, whether they rent to students or not, to be part of the community.
“It’s how do we build a structure and a system in a community that is supporting the values that we believe in as a community, such as making more family homes available to people, making sure that there is a better understanding of what is expected of you in terms of your property, to take care of your property, and to ensure that there isn’t garbage sitting out and chairs and such,” McEntee said. “When you compare New Paltz to any of these other beautiful towns in the area, the thing that sets us apart so much is that we constantly have…You can see the beauty of the charm of these old buildings, but they have been run down and they’re not taken care of and given the love like the Rhinebecks or the Hudsons or the Kingstons in certain capacities, not all.”
McEntee said she isn’t confident Prospect Estates LLC is up to that challenge.
“I have major concerns, especially after all of the commentary that my community, my neighborhood has given to these folks, how they didn’t immediately go out and make sure that things were taken care of and addressed, and that things that were falling apart weren’t immediately addressed, she said. “And so the concern here is not that we don’t want people to grow in their businesses to build and be better, but it’s truly respecting the values of like the historical buildings and the history here and also the fabric of this community.”
Despite the protestations of neighbors, the proposed work at 5 Prospect Street, at least, may proceed. At the meeting last week, the planning board identified no outstanding issues with that proposal, and asked for a resolution of approval to be drafted for their next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, May 7.
But issues with 7 Prospect remain, including a study of the proposed trees referenced by neighbor Alison Nash, and the potential for stormwater runoff onto neighboring properties. Those and other concerns are likely to be addressed at a meeting in May.
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