Decades from now, and likely far beyond that time, people who never heard the slogan "Save the Ridge" may look upon the vistas of the Gunks and feel glad. They may not even remember how many people once combined their efforts to prevent a treasured ecosystem with stunning vistas from being turned into a hamlet for millionaires.
On March 14 it became official. State officials closed on a $17-million purchase of 2,518 acres once proposed as a gated community of 350 homes called Awosting Reserve. The purchase was made by the non-profit Trust for Public Land, which immediately turned the property over to the state. The land will become part of Minnewaska State Park and Preserve, attached to some 30,000 acres of unique and fragile lands along the southeastern cliffs and forests of the Shawangunk Ridge, part of what the Nature Conservancy has called one of the 75 Last Great Places on Earth.
Patty Lee Parmalee, a spokesperson for the coalition who fought against the proposed development, said their success required "scads and scads of volunteers doing all sorts of things," from extensive pro-bono engineering and legal work, to affixing the ubiquitous red and white signs and bumper stickers urging that officials save the ridge.
But even as activists celebrated, they noted that important questions about the land's future remain unresolved. They say work to save the ridge isn't over, but has entered a new phase aimed at ensuring preservation and appreciation as opposed to avoiding what many residents saw as desecration.
Parmalee, who served as coordinator of the Save the Ridge Coalition, noted that people locally talk of an almost mystical connection with the Shawangunk Ridge. But she said its preservation was brought about by practical means and will have practical benefits. "What's significant is showing if a whole community is opposed to something they can get their will through [to public officials]. But you have to do the education," she said.
The land itself is invaluable as a unique ecosystem. "It's increasingly important as development spreads to save large pieces of land, so that nature can really develop in a natural way, so that large animals have space to roam and breed with a large enough gene pool and safe nesting areas, migration and food supply. If that piece of land had gone to development, it would have impacted on the natural processes of Minnewaska Park and Preserve and Sam's Point. This was a key parcel of land because it goes all the way from the ridge to the valley floor," said Parmalee.
JUST SAY WHOA!
The Awosting Reserve project was officially proposed to Gardiner town officials on December 23, 2002, in a process that project sponsors later acknowledged they kept quiet and then rushed to put on record before opponents could stymie their plans.
A press release announcing the project described it as a gated community of 349 homes, an 18-hole golf course, a "village center" and a sewage treatment plant spread across 2,600 acres in the towns of Gardiner and Shawangunk. The press release compared plans for the Awosting Reserve to the "great Adirondack camps of the past" and said the development would be done in an environmentally sensitive manner. It described this area as offering recreation, agriculture and "authentic rural communities."
Residents of those authentic rural communities reacted swiftly. Within days of the official announcement, groups had organized and begun publicly critiquing shortcomings in the development plan, citing threats the huge homes and related buildings would pose to the local water supply and questioning the possibility of wildfire on the ridge raging without emergency vehicles being able to negotiate the steep twisted roads planned by developers. Critics said the plan would degrade the vistas from the cliff top parkland and impact the view of the ridge from throughout the valley and would change the character of local communities.
On February 6, 2003, about 500 people packed the Wallkill High School auditorium for the official public meeting where landowner John Bradley and his development partners Chaffin/Light from Colorado held their grand unveiling for the subdivision proposed by the Awosting Reserve LLP.
During the course of a lengthy presentation, as the restless crowd listened politely, the partners said that their huge subdivision could be made to fit in with the area because developers would "commit to consider the vernacular of the native area," according to their consultant.
After the Awosting Reserve's presentation, congressman Maurice Hinchey went to the podium. He noted the plan was touted by developers as environmentally friendly but when he declared that "there is a stark difference between the environmentally friendly language and the reality of the proposal," the pent-up energy of the crowd burst forth in a prolonged standing ovation. Members of the Awosting Reserve team sat looking a little stunned. And their fortunes never really grew any brighter from there.
That early speech encapsulated the mainstream view of the plan, but opposing the plan required painstaking analysis of developer plans and public attendance at normally routine town government meetings. Opposition to the plan created a new political dynamic in Gardiner that swept a new town board into office, but painstaking engineering and legal matters were also pursued.
Parmalee said that work by engineer David Clouser raised questions about whether a proposed sewage treatment plant to serve the community was legal under Gardiner town zoning law. The language was somewhat ambiguous and when town officials sided with opponents to the plan, Awosting Reserve sued in state court.
The issue was not decided on for almost a year, and it was that delay which ultimately stopped the project, Parmalee said, because while the judge's decision was on hold, the development partnership fell apart and began legal action against each other. After musing a moment, however, she added, "If it hadn't been that, it probably would have been something else."
Indeed, the partnership of Bradley and Chaffin/Light seemed unable to fathom the depth of opposition to their plan, even as they made basic errors, such as getting their own phone number wrong in the environmental assessment form that served as their first official document proposing the matter. They touted golf lessons for high school students at their proposed 18-hole golf course as a benefit the community would garner from their project. As the process proceeded in fits and starts, the company e-mailed a revealing internal company report to a journalist, which among other information, discussed that Bradley and Chaffin/Light officials were having serious disagreements on how to proceed.
But ultimately after Bradley tried to fire them from the project, Chaffin/Light sued in Delaware where the Awosting Reserve LLP was formed and won. A judge ordered the land sold for $17 million, to help investors receive their money back.
Reached at his New York office to discuss the matter, Bradley said, "No comment, my friend."
NOW WHAT?
"Buying the land is not enough. It's a question of how it is going to be managed," said Cara Lee, director of the Nature Conservancy's Shawangunk Ridge program and a partner in the Save the Ridge Coalition.
Lee said that state management of its lands is a perennial problem, and observed that "Minnewaska [State Park] doesn't have the resources right now to manage what it already has, let alone add more acreage."
"But the state can manage it properly if they have the resources and it's up to the constituent groups to ensure they have the resources," Lee said. A relatively simple funding stream could be found in the state Environmental Protection Fund, which is now used entirely for purchasing land, but which Lee suggested could direct some funds toward managing sensitive lands the state already owns.
Within the overall question of state management are specific questions about the former Awosting Reserve lands. Due to quirks in the contracts between Bradley and his former partners, he retains about 235 acres of sensitive land. His plans for the parcels are uncertain.
Another question mark involves the roughly 290 acres around Tillson Lake that were slated to become a golf and county club. Where and how to allow the public to utilize the lake environs are concerns that are certain to heat up along with the weather. And state officials must decide whether to create another official entrance and parking lot for access to the new lands of Minnewaska Park and Preserve.
Restoration is another issue. Over the years he owned it, Bradley has damaged the land by carving logging roads, removing huge trees and mining shale in numerous places. How the state will begin to restore the acreage is a vital matter because invasive species are already integrating themselves in places where wild native species had managed to endure.
State officials with the Palisades Interstate Park Commission did not return calls seeking answers to management questions. But meanwhile, the public now owns the land. Members of the Save the Ridge coalition say that low-impact hiking should be allowed, but Lee said that an ecological assessment must be completed to find and protect sensitive or ecologically valuable sections of the parcel as part of any management plan.
"The question is true for the whole ridge, how to manage it so it's not overrun," said Lee. "We can't love it to death."
www.ulsterpublishing.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=363650
