GARDINER -- The Gardiner town board voted unanimously Monday to halt, for six months, considerations of all large subdivisions and most new construction above 750 feet on the Shawangunk Ridge.
The town will use the six months to update its zoning laws for that portion of the town, which include the slopes where the controversial Awosting Reserve development had been proposed.
"It's a good law," Supervisor Carl Zatz said Tuesday. "This particular moratorium is the right tool for the right job."
Gardiner began reviewing its 1992 comprehensive plan last year and produced a draft comprehensive plan earlier this year. Public input included strong support of protecting and enhancing scenic vistas, groundwater, biodiversity and tourist destinations. The ridge was singled out for special protection.
A committee, with land-use planner and attorney Joel Russell, is developing new zoning regulations to match the goals in the draft comprehensive plan. Many criticized the 1992 master plan because officials never adopted many of the zoning laws needed to enact it.
Ridge protection sought
Town officials feared landowners and developers would rush to propose projects before the code is updated, so they enacted the moratorium.
A proposed 12-month moratorium on large subdivisions in all of Gardiner fizzled a year ago, but voters elected several representatives in the last election on a platform that included heightened protection for the ridge.
According to the moratorium passed Monday, under current zoning 377 houses could be in the ridge district, some of it at elevations as high as 950 feet.
Much of that land is encompassed by the 2,660-acre Awosting Reserve, where landowner John Atwater Bradley and developers Chaffin/Light Associates had proposed building 349 homes and a golf course. Most of that land is in Gardiner.
The developer and landowner have been in dispute with each other and with the town over its decision to deny plans to build a sewage treatment plant at Awosting Reserve to accommodate the proposed new homes.
A call to the Awosting Reserve office was not returned. Others who own land on the ridge could not be reached Tuesday.
Proponents of the moratorium include the group Save The Ridge, which formed to oppose the Awosting Reserve project.
"This will give the town the breathing space it needs so it has a rational plan to cope with what they have coming their way," Janet Stern, a member of the group's coordinating committee, said.
