Gardiner – The forced sale of Awosting Reserve is just the latest move in the battle over development on the Shawangunk Ridge.
Developer John Bradley said Monday that he is being forced to sell 2,500 acres of land to pay off investors and Chaffin Light Associates, the firm he hired to come up with a development proposal in 2002 but fired in April 2004. Investors and Chaffin sued – and won.
Bradley is asking $35 million for the land that straddles one of the "last great places on the planet," as conservationists have labeled the Shawangunk Ridge. But Bradley appears to have won some battles closer to home.
Opponents had forced Bradley into a zoning battle with the Town of Gardiner and its Zoning Board of Appeals. He lost and appealed to state Supreme Court. That time, he won.
The town could have appealed Spargo's ruling but it did not.
Instead it forged ahead with rewrites of its master plan and zoning plan.
One piece of the zoning proposal allows for a central sewage plant on the lower part of the ridge; another would allow developers throughout the town to "cluster" housing. Both the central sewage plant and clustering were key elements of Awosting Reserve's rejected proposal.
"I suspect there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes," said Patty Lee Parmalee, coordinator of Save The Ridge. The group is one of the parties that opposed the original Awosting Reserve proposal.
The best alternative remains for a conservation organization to buy the land and transfer it to the Minnewaska Park that borders the parcel, she said.
