Daily Freeman
March 27, 2024
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. – Zena Homes developers have submitted plans to the town seeking approval for a scaled-down project that would need access through Woodstock.
The site maps and a 295-page stormwater pollution prevention plan— for a 30-lot subdivision that would use a 1,423-foot-long extension from Eastwoods Drive in Woodstock — were given to the town Building Department on Tuesday. It triggered a request for Ulster and Woodstock town officials to work together.
“I have asked the supervisor in the town of Woodstock to authorize his town attorney to talk to my town attorney,” Ulster town Supervisor James Quigley said.
Quigley said that the joint review is needed because the project requires all infrastructure and municipal services to travel through Woodstock to get to the 106.6-acre subdivision, which has no access from Ulster and no neighbors willing to provide easements.
“The town of Ulster fire company, the police and ambulances cannot get there,” Quigley said. “The Highway Department cannot get there. Therefore…the impacts are on the town of Woodstock and I’m going to ask for a joint lead agency with the town of Woodstock.”
Zena Homes is a remnant of the former Woodstock National proposal that originally included the use of 418.14 acres in Woodstock for a larger project with 77 townhouses, 90 single-family homes, and an 18-hole golf course. It was a plan by developers Evan Kleinberg and Eddie Greenberg and drew strong organized opposition. Last week, developers sent an email stating they have “no plans to develop Woodstock.”
However, Woodstock Supervisor Bill McKenna on Wednesday said the proposal will need his town’s approval before the extension can be added to Eastwoods Drive.
“They are going to need building permits for that, and it’s going to require a site plan,” he said.
“There’s a lot of wetlands in there,” McKenna said. “We have a Wetlands and Watercourse Law. So, depending on how impacted that is, it could take quite a while.”
Objections to the project were lodged last week from the Ruby Rod and Gun Club, which owns 15 parcels amounting to 408.3 acres near the proposed development site. Four of the parcels are adjacent to the entire eastern property line in the town of Ulster and one parcel abuts 1,111 of the developer’s 1,401 feet of property at the south end, which is adjacent to the town of Kingston.
Ruby Rod and Gun Club Vice President Brian Murphy said his organization has voted not to allow developers access to the club’s property.
“Since we honor New York state law that limits the use of firearms (to no closer than) 500 feet of an occupied dwelling we are…objecting to residential development on this parcel because our ability to hunt…would be constricted,” he said.
“We are responsible stewards of this beautiful wild environment,” Murphy said. “We are reluctant to compromise our hunting rights, which we have freely and responsibly exercised for 76 years.”
Developers on Wednesday could not be immediately reached for comment.