New York State Acquires 1,200 Acres of Forest in Catskill Mountains
Posted December 7, 2011 in Health and the Environment, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, U.S. Law and Policy
Moving smartly to protect drinking water, conserve wilderness and control flooding, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation today announced the acquisition of a 1,200 acre forested parcel in the heart of the Catskills, just east of the state-owned Belleayre Ski Center in Ulster County.
The land transfer constitutes the state’s largest and most important acquisition within the Catskill Park in a decade and marks a first year environmental protection highlight for Governor Andrew Cuomo and Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens.
The property, owned until today by the Crossroads Ventures team headed by Dean Gitter, had been slated for intensive development since 1999. NRDC and our environmental allies mounted a long-running campaign to protect this magnificent parcel, to secure a smaller development project on property owned by Crossroads and to advance smart growth in the Catskills region.
Protecting this magnificent 1,200 parcel will directly benefit the downstate water supply of 9 million New Yorkers. Had this parcel been developed, as originally planned -- with a hotel, golf course, hundreds of time-share units, roads and other buildings on steeply sloping lands – stormwater runoff would have drained directly into streams that feed the already troubled Ashokan Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to New York City and Westchester County.
The state’s acquisition, which will insure that this land remains “forever wild,” will also safeguard the adjacent Slide Mountain Wilderness, a cherished section of the State’s Catskill Forest Preserve. And keeping intense development off of these steep slopes will reduce local flooding risks in a region that has already suffered unprecedented flooding problems earlier this year.
Many current and former elected officials and environmental leaders helped to secure this milestone in drinking water protection and conservation. In addition to Governor Cuomo and Commissioner Martens, we want to thank former Governors Spitzer and Paterson, former Environnmental Commissioner Pete Grannis and his deputy, Stu Gruskin and former Environmental Secretary to the Governor Judith Enck.
In addition, Congressman Maurice Hinchey played a leading role for years in pressing the developers to preserve the 1,200 acre parcel. We are enormously grateful to him. And congratulations and thanks to our environmental colleagues, starting with the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development’s former director, Tom Alworth, and former attorney Marc Gerstman. Congratulations as well to Riverkeeper, especially Marc Yaggi and Bill Wegman, as well as Trout Unlimited, Theodore Gordon Flyfishers, NYPIRG and the Zen Environmental Studies Institute. And thanks also to Hilary Meltzer, Robin Levine and their colleagues, on behalf of New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
The outlines of today’s acquisition were reached in 2007. That year, then Governor Spitzer, New York City, the developers and a coalition of environmental groups including NRDC, signed a conceptual agreement that provided for safeguarding the 1,200 acre parcel to the east of the Belleayre Ski Center and envisioning a smaller project on less sensitive lands to the west of the ski center.
To be sure, some of our friends, including the Catskill Heritage Alliance, remain concerned about the lower-build alternative that Crossroads still intends to advance, to the west of the Belleayre Ski Center. Fortunately, the developers have agreed to prepare a supplemental draft environmental study for the proposed lower-build project. That draft, which is expected to be released sometime in 2012, will be subject of full public review and comment, and no doubt continuing scrutiny.
As for today’s milestone, we appreciate the decision of Crossroads Ventures, ably represented by Dan Ruzow and his colleagues, to recognize the importance of protecting this magnificent parcel for future generations of New Yorkers.
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Comments
Dave Channon — Dec 7 2011 05:21 PM
This purchase does not protect our forest. It enables a deeply misguided developer with a very poor track record to move ahead with his plans to bulldoze another thousand acres on the other side of the same mountain. This property was never in any danger because of its steep, inaccessible terrain in the most highly protected part of NYC's watershed, making it financially undesirable to develop. This type of land swap is a poor choice for cash strapped NYS to waste money on.
Eric Goldstein — Dec 8 2011 10:42 AM
Thank you for corresponding, Dave.
Unfortunately, the development threat to this magnificent 1,200 acre Catskills parcel was real. It was privately owned by a well-funded development group that had invested tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars preparing detailed construction plans with various architects and designers.
There were no local zoning restrictions or state or federal laws that would have prevented development on this site. And discussions we had at the highest levels of state and city government revealed no other credible obstacles to the massive and ill-advised construction project the developers envisioned.
If NRDC and our environmental group colleagues weren’t convinced that this development threat was real, we would not have spent years fighting the project in administrative proceedings or invested significant financial resources in bringing in experts from around the country to demonstrate the environmental problems with the proposed development.
As to what the state acquisition means for the developers’ plans to construct a smaller scale project on land to the west of the Belleayre Ski Center, yesterday’s closing is hardly the final word. As NRDC and our colleagues insisted upon, any lower-build development that occurs on other property still owned by the Crossroads developers must be proceeded by a draft supplemental environmental impact statement, public hearings and full public review and comment. Any future construction on these privately owned lands must be in full compliance with all local, state and federal environmental laws.
No doubt the review of the Crossroads proposal for development of its property to the west of the Ski Center will continue for years. And final decisions on the fate of such proposals will be made at a later date.
For now, it makes sense for all who share a love of the Catskills and who care about conservation, water quality protection and local flood control to celebrate the State’s largest Catskills land acquisition in a decade and the transferring of these lands from private ownership to New York State for incorporation of this 1,200 acre gem into the Catskill Forest Preserve as “forever wild.”