Rushing
into the Saugerties Town Hall, late for a 4 p.m. appointment,
Bill Creen shakes his head and laments the ever-increasing
traffic along Saugerties roads.
"It
just keeps getting worse," he says. "This town is going
to have to start looking seriously at some infrastructure
changes."
Creen
should know. As chairman of the town Planning Board, he
has seen his position go from what he called a "small-town
operation" to a hectic, sometimes frenzied undertaking as
residential development booms across Ulster County's most
populous town.
"We were all caught short after 9/11," Creen said, sitting
on a table in a windowless office set up to accommodate
Planning Board operations, which, until recently, were headquartered
at the home of longtime secretary Juanita Wilson. "(Residential
development) just started exploding, and we couldn't keep
up with it all."
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - specifically the
destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City -
spurred a building boom in Ulster County that started in
the south and moved steadily north, according to real estate
agents and town officials. And with plenty of undeveloped
acreage, Saugerties has seen residential construction continue
to grow with no signs of slowing down.
Building Department records illustrate the trend: In 2001,
Saugerties issued 57 permits for new construction with an
estimated value of $5.55 million. In 2002, the town issued
91 permits for new construction valued at $11.786 million.
And by 2003, the number of building permits had jumped to
105 for properties valued at $13.380 million.
Town Supervisor Greg Helsmoortel said Saugerties is on track
to top last year's total, with 70 building permits issued
in 2004 as of early September. MUCH OF the new construction
is in the form of residential subdivisions. Planning Board
documents show that in 2003-04, there were 39 subdivisions
approved to accommodate 245 housing units. Another 15 subdivisions,
proposed to include 281 housing units, are awaiting action
by the Planning Board.
HELSMOORTEL characterized the building boom as being good
for Saugerties taxpayers, who, with an expanded tax base,
stand to shoulder less of the financial burden for schools
and other services. He cautioned, however, that the influx
of new families would mean increased demands on town resources
and schools.
"The
positive part of this is the expanded tax base," Helsmoortel
said. "The negative is that we may end up with overcrowding
in some schools and a strain on almost all of our departments.
Right now, we are able to absorb it, but we may get to a
point soon where we may have to limit (growth), which we
don't want to do."
SOME
in the community see the explosion of development as a threat.
Brian
Donoghue, who owns the Inquiring Mind bookstore on Partition
Street, said the idea that more development equals less
taxes is patently false. "The average family with two kids
is an $18,000 bill for schools in Saugerties," said Donoghue,
who co-founded the activist group Citizens Action for a
Residential Environment in Saugerties (CARES). "They are
not going to be paying $18,000 in school taxes. Just do
the math. The public should be made aware that development
is going to raise taxes. Anybody who says differently is
either lying or misleading the public."
Donoghue
blames the Town Board for not imposing stricter rules for
development or carrying out "cost of community services"
studies to determine the impact of development on town schools
and services. He said that, so far, the town had paid little
more than "lip service" to a Comprehensive Plan that was
adopted recently.
"Nobody
is doing any planning," said Donoghue, who believes development
interests hold sway over the Planning Board. "Everything
is short-sighted. There's no five-year plan, there's no
10-year plan. Everything is 'Let's deal with it as it comes.'"
CREEN SAID the Planning Board has no authority to stop or
slow development in accordance with current zoning, and
he said the board does not go out of its way to make things
more difficult for developers.
"This
town is probably one of the best in the county as far as
being accommodating (to developers)," Creen said. "We're
not giving them anything, but we're not making it harder
than it has to be, either."
HELSMOORTEL
agreed the town welcomes developers, but he denied they
have any undue influence over town policy. He pointed out
that the Town Board has turned down every request for payment-in-lieu-of-taxes
agreements that would give developers a break on taxes in
exchange for an upfront payment.
"We have quite a few builders coming in on their own," Helsmoortel
said. "So when one comes along and asks for a break, we
tell them 'No thanks.'"
TOWN Councilman Phil Tucker argues that recently enacted
and planned zoning changes, including new overlays to protect
the waterfront and entrances to town from overdevelopment,
as well as an ongoing water resources study, were an appropriate
response to the building boom.
"Right
now we are seeing a spurt of growth and I don't think that's
a bad thing," said Tucker, who noted $60 million in new
properties were added to the tax rolls last year. "You can't
tell people, 'No, we're not letting you build anymore.'
There is still a lot of property left to develop here."
Even
so, Tucker and other town officials concede new development
will require added resources, particularly in the town's
schools.
The
Saugerties school board is developing a new capital project
to improve infrastructure and ease overcrowding. But with
expanded facilities at least a few years away, Board of
Education President Vincent Buono Jr. said the board will
have to consider redistricting to move children out of the
overburdened Riccardi and Cahill elementary schools to less-crowded
facilities in the interim.
OTHERS
ARE concerned about traffic. According to Creen, vehicle
traffic on Blue Mountain Road has tripled in the last few
years. While in the village, police have had to take steps
to deal with trucks blocking streets while unloading.
The
town also is set to begin a water resources study to determine
whether an influx of new building could overstress the community's
watershed. Saugerties real estate agent Josh Randall has
called for a moratorium on subdivisions until the study
is complete.
"Water is not a commodity that restores itself," Randall
said. "We need to look at this very carefully."
ANOTHER
concern is Saugerties will lose the open spaces and rural
character that make it appealing to longtime and new residents
alike.
In response to the increase in development, Susan Bolitzer
helped start the Esopus Creek Conservancy. As its first
project, the group raised money to buy 156 acres of open
space between Barclay Heights and the Esopus Creek. The
group plans to incorporate as a non-profit organization
and continue buying open spaces in the town.
Bolitzer
said it is important for Saugerties residents to recognize,
before it's too late, the threat to community character
posed by uncontrolled development. "My fear is that our
beautiful open spaces and farmlands will disappear," she
said. "The developers are moving faster than the people
who want to preserve them."
EXPERTS SAY the Saugerties building boom is likely to continue
as long as interest rates remain low and could increase
dramatically if a second terrorist attack sends another
wave of downstate residents north seeking a safer environment.
"If
I had 1,000 houses to put on the market right now, I could
sell them within a month," said Ulster County real estate
agent Win Morrison. "I'm very bullish on Saugerties and
Ulster County."
Creen predicted the boom will continue for another few years
before tapering off and that the town eventually will have
to consider more limits on development.
"We're
a big township in terms of acreage, and you have a lot of
farms around here that have gone out of business; there
are a lot of areas ripe for development," Creen said. "As
things get tighter, restrictions are going to have to go
up. We are at that point, or near it, when we have to look
20 years ahead at what the town is going to look like. And
20 years goes by fast."
İDaily
Freeman 2004
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