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OUR CONCERNS REGARDING
HUDSON HIDEAWAY
TOURIST CABINS PROJECT
(CASTLEMORE HOLDINGS)
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“SAFETY FIRST” – The message behind the ALLIANCE YARD SIGNS:
2020 Fire Code of New York State Section D107 – Developments exceeding 30 shall be provided with two separate and approved fire access roads.
• Pre-Submission Conference Notes (prior to the new Special Use Permit application for Summer Cottages, aka Tourist Cabins) by Bonnie Franson, Town Planning Board Consultant. She addressed Fire Code & the dictating additional access – see page 2, #5.
• Town of Esopus Zoning – Chapter 77. Fire Prevention §77-2. -
Environmental Board Report to Planning Board on Castlemore Cabins Development (1/17/24).
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Hudson Lane and Traffic:
• 5/9/23 Creighton Manning submitted an excerpt from the ITE's 11th Edition, Trip Generation Manual as a traffic study. The manual estimates that each cabin will only generate 0.34 trips per site, per day. *The manual assessment used does not address a dead-end road.
• 1/4/24 Ulster County Planning Board (UCPB) Advisory Comment Review states "Typically special permitted commercial uses such as these commercial uses being proposed nearby or surrounded by a residential use include standards that require access occurring from a State or County Route which are more adequately able to handle commercial traffic while removing the impacts of traffic from local/residential streets."
UCPB addresses the concern that Hudson Lane "measures 18' or less of pavement...", "with lack of shoulders." This proposes additional dangers to the community with additional traffic from 40 transient dwelling units, endangering families when they are out walking, riding their bicycles, etc. The school bus stop, for all children, is at the corner of Hudson Lane and River Road. The bus will not drive down the road to pick up our children, due to the nature of the road.
• 1/17/24 Town of Esopus Environmental Board (TOEEB) "strongly disagrees" with Creighton Manning's submission and believes it will generate traffic of up to 3.4 trips per day/per site.
• Dangerous Intersection at Rte. 9W and River Road with numerous accidents and a dangerous pitch when exiting Rte.9W to River Rd. Vehicles and trailer tongues "bottom" out when entering and/or exiting River Rd. The gouges in the pavement, created from the road pitch, are visible at this intersection. -
Incongruous With the Character of Hudson Lane:
Hudson Lane is in an R-40 Residential District, which includes most of the Town areas that are not served by municipal sewer or water systems, and exclude the denser hamlets in Town. This district was established to facilitate medium to low density residential development.
• 1/4/24 UC Planning Board Recommendations under "Community Character" stresses and quotes Town of Esopus Zoning 123-46 Special Use Permits (SUP):
C Decisions and Findings (1) (c) "That the proposed use of such location, size and character that, in general, it will be in harmony with the appropriate and orderly development of the district in which it is proposed to be situated and will not be detrimental to the orderly development of adjacent properties in accordance with the zoning classification of such properties."
(e) [1] "The location and size of such use, the nature and intensity of operations involved in or conducted in connection therewith, its site layout and it relation to access streets shall be such that both pedestrian and vehicular traffic to and from the use and the assembly of the persons in connections therewith will not be hazardous, inconvenient or incongruous with said residential district or conflict wit the normal traffic of the neighborhood."
* According to Town Code, this SUP application is a permitted use in an R-40 zone. This means the Town has a right to consider it, but it does not mean that it has to be approved. In black and white, on paper, zoning may indicate a specific use is permitted in a District, but it does not necessarily mean the use is appropriate for the land or location. The proposed project aims to put a commercial, high density, cluster housing, into a low-density neighborhood. -
Special Use Permit (SUP) – Castelmore Holdings has applied to the town for. Asking to be able to develop a COMMERICAL BUSINESS in a R-40 RESIDENTIAL ZONE!
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High Density Cluster Dwellings, in a Low Density Zone – The project aims to squeeze a staggering 39 dwellings into a 39 acre parcel (with nearly 1/2 of the acreage undevelopable) by using a loophole in the zoning law and calling the structures “cabins”. Unfortunately the term “cabin” can be loosely interpreted.
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Negative Environmental Impact on the ​water table, wastewater, wildlife, flora, fauna & light pollution (See EB Review of Project above; #2 link).
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Smoke Pollution for neighbors and the endangered short-eared and Indiana bats. Each site will have a fire-pit.
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Noise Pollution for the neighbors bordering the building site, on all four sides of the property.
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Federal Wetlands – Are contained within the proposed site contains, of which all have not been delineated, only the portions of the property that the owner requested. The Town has not pursued having all wetlands on the property flagged.
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Water Runoff Problems – would be created by the proposed project for the neighbors.
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Town of Clay, NY – Juntao Yan along with a couple of partners, similar to Derek Leung in this project, tried to move in and change zoning to their benefit. Thankfully, for those residents, the Town was in favor of keeping the land zoned as it was initially intended. The Town came up with similar, if not the same concerns, that we have been addressing with the proposed Hudson Hideaway project.
Intersection of River Road and Hudson Lane. School buses will NOT come down road to pick up students. Too hazardous.
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