When Not-For-Profits Take Over The Neighborhood

In 2011 OSI purchased 857 aces from the the Mohonk Mountain House. In December 2014 the Mohonk Preserve purchased this land from the Open Space Institute. A plan was put onto motion to install two parking lots with fee booths, boardwalks over marshes, and permanent structures for providing ease of use for the property. Nineteen acres on Butterville Road was to be subdivided for development of a 5,000 square foot residential structure right in the view-plain of their own park.

History

The Mohonk Testimonial Gateway tower, circa 1907, served as the entrance to Mohonk Mountain House until 1945. Since then it served as a residence falling to shambles and currently is uninhabitable. It is in the middle of a residential neighborhood and one mile from the Village of New Paltz. It is also adjacent to State Route 299.

Another part of the land was the home of a 350+ member CSA called Brook Farm. See This Land Is My Land, Planet Waves 2013. There were also families living in the two farmsteads on the property. They were asked to leave and OSI installed their friends. The Glynwood Institute replaced Brook Farm as an "farm incubator." This means people pay big money to learn how to farm and market their products. In return they get land to work on this and other land when they graduate from their experience. This is by lease and can be terminated at any time. The Glynwood Institute makes out because the products are short cutting the local market and sold to high end markets who pay very well. Their total net assets are currently over 21.7 million dollars. They are building a new barn on the property that is not part of the application for the Testimonial Gateway Project.


Proposal

The Mohonk Preserve assumed the lease for the Glynwood Institute in the purchase. They also applied for a special use/site plan and subdivision. Two separate parking areas along State Route 299 totaling 90+ parking spaces, spaces for two horse trailers, and 3 spaces for buses. Eleven Structures will be built on the property ranging from boardwalks leading to bird-watching blinds, to a 1,200 square foot cabin for "educational purposes." No plans for what shall become of the Gatehouse itself other than it shall be restored. Who will live there? Will it be a museum? When it was owned by the Mohonk Mountain House, a fortune 500 company, it was left to squalor. Now owned by a not-for-profit the burden of a 2 million dollar rehabilitation is on donors and taxpayers in the form of grants.

The 19.1 Acre subdivision on Butterville Road was first applied for as a 5,000 square foot residential structure that would be sold off to counter the costs for purchasing the land. Then the applicants changed their mind back and forth from a barn, to a residential structure and then, back to a barn. There are already two farmsteads with associated barns and all sorts of carriage houses on the property. One hundred and ninety nine in all (199). There are no such needs for any more additional structures.

This subdivision is also adjacent to and part of OSI's RIver to Ridge Trail. OSI has dismantled the historcal Studley Barn in order to build something that better suites their needs. A residential structure. OSI claim's that the barn would cost too much in rehabilitation. However, recent inquiries disputed this fact and many locals and Studley family advocates have voiced their negative opinions. Take a look at the new "barn" replacement. One can only imagine how many times more the new structure must have cost in comparison to fixing up an old historic barn.

One year earlier OSI put a fence around large portions of farmland on the Wallkill Flats. This was to deter locals from riding snowmobiles. However, this goal fell short due to the evidence of snowmobile tracks all over those same fields this past winter.

All documents on file regarding this issue can be found at Town of New Paltz Planning Board. Audio and video recordings can be found on YouTube in two locations. Usaivideo on YouTube and New Paltz Public Access also on YouTube. Also an article from the Times Herald Record.

Town Planning Board Meetings

Beginning in September 2014 the Town of New Paltz, the Mohonk Preserve, and the public have had ample time to decide whether this project warrants a Full Environmental Impact Statement as required by NYS SEQRA Type I projects. Or, can it proceed by the merits of what the Mohonk Preserve thinks is the right thing to do.

Update 6/2016: The New Paltz Plannng Board issued a negative declaration disregarding the need for a Full Environmental Impact Statement.

Update 10/2017: Another year passes with no improvements except underground power to the Gatehouse.

The Mohonk Preserve has compiled several of their own studies on the land. These integrity of some of these studies have been questioned. For example, requirements for safe passage and travel along State Route 299, the main artery in and out of New Paltz, as well as mountain passage for folks on the other side of the ridge, has been overlooked as "minimal impacts". As it stands traffic has been a major concern for at least a decade and has only gotten wore each year.  Also in the vicinity of the proposed parking areas along State Route 299 (Scenic Byway) the accident rate is well above state norms for similar intersections. This was overlooked as well.

One group called the Citizens of the Shawangunks has been very vocal in this process. Present at every planning board meeting, the Citizens have submitted dozens and dozens of comments regarding issues with this project. Their comments are brushed off as irrelevant by Mohonk and its supporters. However, these are the people who live in the immediate vicinity and who have first hand knowledge of how this will effect their neighborhood. Many folks have put their homes and land up for sale as a result of this project. See Letter to New Paltz Planning Board. Hundreds of others have also come from far and near to voice their opinion. The town keeps a video archive of all the meetings. Also 2016 meetings.

Current Status

Currently the Town of New Paltz Planning Board has given full approval of the Gateway Application. The Mohonk Preserve and its supporters all feel that the Town should 'Trust" that the Preserve knows what it is doing. They have been proactive in conducting their own studies and should be allowed to proceed with plans, just like the relationship between the USDA and Monsanto. However, many issues still remain and traffic is still a major concern. The Transportation Evaluation Study is here for review. There is also more information needed on the subdivision application because no one really knows what is to become of it, not even Mohonk or OSI. Mohonk does however plan to sell this back to OSI after subdivision approval. One can only imagine who will be the lucky owner of 20 acres in the heart of the Mohonk Testimonial gateway. That person must be very important.

The issue of fire is an important topic left completely out of the studies endorsed by the Mohonk Preserve. With increased traffic and tourism comes an increased risk of fires in the foothills and on the ridge. The Shawangunk Mountains have seen four (4) major fires in the last ten years that have burned thousands of acres. All fires were presumed to be human induced.  Luckily no one has been adversely impacted except maybe the wildlife. Many thousands of dollars and the lives of first responders' were put on the line. See Times Herald Article.

And along the lines of ethics, the Town Planning Board and the Mohonk Preserve have an apparent conflict of interest with the Town of New Paltz Engineer (David Clouser & Associates) being recently acquired by the Mohonk Preserve's consulting firm Barton & Louguidice.

See Some Examples

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One of the rooms inside the Gatehouse
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In cased you missed it while driving along RT.299, the Preserve marked their proposed entrance to the parking lot.
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Clearing for new underground electric to the Gatehouse
Take action and sign the petition for NYS Attorney General to investigate Fink and Pardini's complaint against the Mohonk Preserve, Friends of the Shawangunks and the Shawangunk Conservancy