News
Rasco: DuHamel Letter in Response to Stipulation Agreement
March 29, 2010
This letter was written in response to reading the Rasco Stipulation Agreement, produced in the FOIL process. The Dover Town Board determined Rasco was a pre-existing facility, effectively allowing a solid waste project, banned under current Town Code, to begin operation, pending Site Plan Approval by the Planning Board. Surprised the Town Board chose not to to fight this determination, Stancy DuHamel wrote,
“It would appear that the alternative method of determining whether the project is grandfathered is to take it thru the courts. That route would necessarily involve legal fees, and I am curious to know the amount of the legal fees our Town Attys estimated it would cost to argue that the project was not grandfathered, and moreover should not be located above our water supply.”
This letter was read into the record at the April 5th Planning Board meeting.
*Note: printed post date is for chronological clarity. Actual post date is August 13, 2010.
“Petroleum Contaminated Soil Re-use Application in Dover,” TMI, March 17, 2010
March 17, 2010
The Millbook Independent covered the Dover Planning Board Meeting of March 15, 2010 at which the Rasco Application was discussed:
“We have concerns about the contaminated soil leeching through the Swamp River and traveling up to our reserve,” [Sibyll Gilbert, Vice Chair of the Oblong Land Conservancy] said from the podium. “Why should the Harlem Valley be the site for contaminated soil dumping from other areas?”
Gilbert suggested RASCO go through the State Environmental Quality Review, or SEQR, and that the planning board extend the public hearing period. She also submitted at letter to the Planning Board that stated: “The Oblong’s preserve, located downstream on the Swamp River, could be damaged by spills of soluble contamination, and the conservation of amphibian and reptilian species, for which this preserve was created, could be irreparably harmed. These species are particularly vulnerable to low levels of contamination.” She also stated that the environmental impacts are very complicated and “require knowledgeable technical support to provide adequate advice to the Planning Board. The SEQR process must be used to advantage to provide adequate time and the necessary resources to review this application.”
The Housatonic Valley Association stated in their written comments that they are concerned that the proposed operation involving the storage and use of petroleum contaminated soils (PCS) is close to a New York State-designated Critical Environmental Area (CEA) and that they would like to see a full environmental review (SEQR) conducted for the project: “We believe that the DEC permit was issued prematurely and that a more thorough review should have been taken by the agency to account for any remnant contamination that may be present on the site.”
- See article in The Millbrook Independent, March 17, 2010.
*Note: printed post date is for chronological clarity. Actual post date is August 13, 2010.
Rasco: Public Comments to Dover Planning Board, March 15, 2010: CRGD, OLC & HVA
March 15, 2010
The Coalition for the Responsible Growth of Dover, the Oblong Land Conservancy and the Housatonic Valley Association submitted written comments at the March 15th meeting of the Dover Planning Board.
Coalition for the Responsible Growth of Dover
Oblong Land Conservancy
Housatonic Valley Association
*Note: printed post date is for chronological clarity. Actual post date is August 13, 2010.
Rasco: Stipulation Agreement between Dover Town Board and Planning Board and Rasco Materials LLC
December 1, 2009
- Read Stipulation Agreement Between Dover Town Board and Planning Board and Rasco Materials LLC
*Note: printed post date is for chronological clarity. Actual post date is August 13, 2010.
Dover Knolls DEIS Public Comment Period Ends
September 13, 2009
On June 30th, the public comment period ended for the Dover Knolls DEIS. Many constructive comments were entered into the public record both in writing and during the public hearings, including fiscal and hydrogeological reports from CRGD’s experts. Significantly, the comments of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation credited the work of CRGD’s water expert, noting that our water report was both “well prepared and accurate.”
Included here are Comments from the Dover Planning Board and the Town Planner, Graham Trelstad, AKRF. Trelstad continues to work with the Town Board and the developer as both teams consider alternatives that incorporate the substantial public comments from State, County and Federal Agencies, CT DEP, regional and national environmental groups, residents and neighbors.
Please see comments listed below for more detail.
Flesh out Dover Plan but keep it moving/Proposal still has unresoved issues
June 29, 2009
The Poughkeepsie Journal invited the Coalition to author a guest column to share its concerns about the Dover Knolls DEIS for the redevelopment of the Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center.
– Please see the Editorial and Valley Views, June 28 2009
The accompanying Editorial offers what we consider to be a balanced view: it recognizes the importance of phasing and ensuring sufficient water capacity for both the project and the current residents, while at the same time encouraging the redevelopment of the site. The author asks that the Town Board allow adequate time to weigh the serious issues while keeping the process moving. Decisions the Town Board makes this year will have lasting effects long after this Town Board, the developer and the current residents are gone.
“The Town has every right, and obligation, to hold the developer to high standards, especially since this project is bound to have a major impact.”
The developer, Alvin Benjamin, was invited to write a guest column as well.
Across the New York Border, Creating an Entire Village
June 24, 2009
–Go to Article, Litchfield County Times, June 18, 2009
Dover Knolls Project Nears Deadline; Many Impacts, Little Time
June 16, 2009
– Go to Article, Millbrook Independent, June 10, 2009
The Darkling Plains of Dover; We Sound the Alarm
June 16, 2009
– Go to Editorial, Millbrook Independent, June 10, 2009
A point of clarification: The Town Board did hire its own consultant as Town Planner, Graham Trelstad with AKRF, to advise them throughout the SEQRA process.
Dover Knolls DEIS is Accepted; the Public Comment Period is open
May 18, 2009
On April 29, 2009, the Dover Town Board accepted as complete the Dover Knolls Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS.) Residents, local and regional government officials, board and committee members, Interested Parties, neighbors and organizations from surrounding towns in NY and CT, are strongly encouraged to attend and comment on the DEIS at one or both sessions to be held at the Dover Middle/High School: Saturday, May 30th at 9am and Wednesday, June 3rd at 6:30 pm. Written comments may be submitted through June 30th.
We in Dover, Dutchess County and New York State have only one chance to get this project right. Our concerns encompass but are not limited to ensuring that: 1) local taxes don’t increase because of costs associated with an imbalance of residential options, additional school construction or wastewater facility upgrades and maintenance; 2) the Aquifer is not compromised by an unsupportable number of new residences; 3) the Great Swamp, the second largest wetlands in New York State, is not irreversibly compromised by inadequate wetlands boundary protection or an inappropriate Water and Wastewater Treatment Facility; 4) residential and commercial/retail construction is concentrated around the train station and on the existing footprint of the former Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center, thus minimizing traffic and impervious surfaces; 5) steep slopes are left untouched, thereby preserving our natural resources and the Appalachian Trail viewshed, and minimizing the effects of increased stormwater runoff.
There is indeed much to review, and the Coalition will continue to offer input during this critically important process.
– Please see DEIS, Accepted as Complete by the Dover Town Board
Dover considers 1000 Megawatt Power Plant
May 17, 2009
Many town and county residents, and neighbors from CT, attended the Advanced Power (AP) presentation at the Dover High School Wednesday night, May 20th during a special meeting convened for that purpose by the Dover Town Board. The company proposes to construct and operate a 1000 megawatt power plant, Cricket Valley Energy (CVE,) in Dover, NY, west of Rt 22 and along the Great Swamp River.
We have only recently learned of the proposal but the application process is proceeding quickly; AP has an option on the property and intends to file its application and begin the scoping process in June. The benefits to the town and region are economic. The company estimates 500 local construction jobs and, once complete, revenues of $4mm a year, to be split with the County. The drawbacks thus far appear to be environmental, with negative impacts potentially reaching far and wide.
While most of the cooling of the plant would rely on air condensers, the company estimates that between 250-275,000 gallons of water could be used daily. Whether drawn from the Aquifer or from the bedrock below as AP proposes, this level of water consumption poses a great concern to residents who rely on the area’s water resources.
The chemical composition and direction of emissions from the three, 250-290 foot stacks will be of concern not only to residents of the Harlem Valley, but to those who live in the paths of the carrying winds. Comparing the resultant air pollution of the proposed natural gas power plant favorably to that of a coal-fired electric power plant as AP did during the meeting seems to us to set up the wrong argument; the better comparison would be to our air quality as it is now. A coal-fired plant would never have been proposed in the first place.
The 25-30 permanent jobs are estimated to last for about 30-40 years, as the estimated useful life of the plant is about 60 years. “It will be either re-used or torn down,” one of the members of the CVE team responded to a resident’s question.
“Any major project creates both economic benefits and environmental impacts,” Town Supervisor Ryan Courtien said during the meeting, as quoted in the Poughkeepsie Journal. ”The benefits include construction and post-construction jobs, increased tax revenues for the town, county and schools and increased local spending. The impacts include pollution, noise, change in landscape, traffic and more impervious surfaces.”
This impacts of this project should be considered in conjunction with the impacts of Dover Knolls and within the contexts of our Master Plan and the constraints of our water supply. One PoJo blogger suggested constructing windmills on our farmland: A low-impact power generation alternative that preserves open space and agriculture, our Greenway and wildlife corridor, without water or air pollution.
The links are down to the Poughkeepsie Journal articles apprearing on May 1 & 11, 2009, but you can search www.poughkeepsiejournal.com
Dover Town Board Unanimously Passes Hudsonia Biodiversity Mapping Study
May 8, 2009
On April 29th, Supervisor Ryan Courtien led the Dover Town Board in passing Resolution #1142009 in Support of Biodiversity Mapping in the Town of Dover.
Hudsonia has mapped several towns in Dutchess County, most recently the Town of Amenia to our north. With many towns left to map, we are honored and proud that Dover was selected by Hudsonia as the next to be inventoried. This study will inform land use decisions for generations to come; the results will help guide the Town and Planning Boards when faced with both strategic and pragmatic decisions, and should prove to be a valuable reference tool for developers and conservationists alike.
– Please see Resolution
– Please see Hudsonia Presentation to the Town of Dover
Restore NY Funding Application for Dover Knolls’ Demolition Proposal
May 4, 2009
Please see the attached Letter to the Dover Town Board, submitted last week in connection with a Board meeting dealing with the Town’s proposed Restore NY funding application. The application is for funding to demolish two buildings on the Dover Knolls property. It was read into the record by Town Board Member Richard Hawthorne.
CRGD reiterates an ongoing concern, stated previously during the Scoping Sessions and during Town Board discussions of the Stimulus Funds Application, over the possibility of on-site burial of C&D and therefore the possible contamination of our water supply. We believe that the Town should maintain control and supervision over the expenditure of all Restore NY funds obtained in connection with the demolition of buildings: ”the Town Board can and should insist that any Restore NY funds obtained be spent to ensure that all demolition project materials be taken off-site and that nothing be left on-site or back-filled in the tunnels.”
– CRGD Letter to the Dover Town Board April 29, 2009
CRGD weighs in on Dover Town Board’s Completeness Review on the Preliminary Draft Environmental Impact Statement
February 22, 2009
CRGD President Carolyn Handler recently added to the Dover Town Board’s discussion and debate of the completeness of the Dover Knolls DEIS. The Coalition notes that the Town Board was under no legal obligation to make the document available to the public and appreciates the openness with which Supervisor Courtien has chosen to conduct the review.
In a letter dated February 11th, addressed to Supervisor Courtien and members of the Town Board, Handler begins with acknowledging this process:
“CRGD recognizes that the formal public comment period for the DEIS will not begin until the Town Board determines the DEIS to be substantively complete and thereafter schedules a public hearing to receive comments. We also note that the Town Board made the DEIS available to the public on the Town’s website not long after it was filed by the Applicant on Christmas Eve, having rightly concluded that given the complexity and size of the Proposed Project, the public should begin the process of familiarizing itself with the contents of the DEIS at the earliest juncture– even though, as we recognize, the DEIS is currently undergoing revision as a result of the Town Board’s own completeness review as lead agency.” Read more
Dover Town Board Continues to Review the Dover Knolls Preliminary DEIS for Completeness
February 22, 2009
A number of Town Board and special meetings have been held to review the Dover Knolls Preliminary DEIS for completeness. Working closely with input from Town Planner Graham Trelsted from AKRF, the Board is accepting comments as to omissions that would cause the DEIS to be declared incomplete. This is not a time for comments on DEIS, only as to what needs to be revised or submitted by the Applicant before the Town Board declares the DEIS complete and thereby begins the public review and comment period. CRGD did submit comments on February 11, 2009 which are a matter of public record and which are available here.
Some of the public discussions were reported by Harlem Valley Time reporter Jen Barry in her article published on January 30, 2009.
– Please go to the Harlem Valley TImes, “Dover Knolls prelim plan before Town Board”
The Town of Dover and the Dover Knolls Development Company make a Joint Application for Federal Stimulus dollars
February 22, 2009
The Town of Dover and the Dover Knolls Development Company (Dover Knolls) created a Joint Public-Private Partnership to apply for federal stimulus funds to aid in the demolition of abandoned buildings on the site of the former Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center (HVPC) in WIngdale, NY. The property is owned by Dover Knolls, and the developer is currently engaged in the SEQRA process having filed a preliminary DEIS on December 24, 2008. A Draft Application for stimulus funds was submitted on February 2, 2009, to the Town for review and is linked below.
The partnership is seeking approximately $20mm in federal stimulus funds to demolish 11 buildings. The proposed benefits are threefold: Dover would get a jumpstart on the eventual teardown of buildings identified as not worthy of rehabilitation and which many residents consider eyesores; an estimated 355 jobs would be created in Dover for local and regional residents; the developer would save $20mm of already budgeted Construction and Demolition (C&D) costs to raze these buildings and dispose of the debris.
CRGD has always been concerned with on-site burial of HVPC C&D debris given the presence of asbestos and lead paint, and the existence of the area’s water supply so close by. Given the haste with which stimulus funds (if obtained) must be spent, and considering that the Dover Knolls DEIS is still under SEQRA review, CRGD has requested the Town Board declare all C&D debris associated with this Application to be “environmentally suspect” and make arrangements for disposal off-site.
We reiterated these concerns to Congressman John Hall at a public forum in the Town of Beekman, NY, on February 21, 2009. CRGD suggests that to the extent funds are made available for this project, the Joint Partnership reapportion some of the cost of demolition to cover the cost of removing all associated C&D debris.
– Please see Harlem Valley Times article by Jen Barry, “Dover to apply for federal stimulus aid” covering the Town Board meeting on January 28th, 2009 to discuss the Application.
Dover Knolls submits PDEIS on Christmas Eve
January 10, 2009
Dover Town Planner Graham Trelstad “cautioned residents not to assume that because the document was available for consumption that the Town Board had signed off on any part of the document at this point”. Reporter Jen Barry does a nice job in her article, posted below, summarizing Town Planner Trelstad’s presentation.
— Please see The Harlem Valley Times article.
A bit of history on Graham Trelsted’s firm, AKRF , and why we think intermunicipal input and collaboration on these larger development projects is so important:
AKRF is working on many noteworthy projects in our region; close to home is one in which they are “developing an intermunicipal overlay zoning district to preserve biodiversity for several Westchester municipalities.”
Many residents, municipal officials and environmentalists in the Harlem Valley towns along the Rt 22 Corridor would like to see an intermunicipal approach to water, waste water and biodiversity issues. This coordination is especially critical between Dover and Pawling because we share the aquifer and the Great Swamp, and the Pawling Sewage Treatment plant discharges into the north flow of the Great Swamp River which flows through Wingdale into the Ten Mile River and on into the Housatonic.
While the plant still has capacity, bringing Wind Rose and Dover Knolls on line will require a coordinated effort between the two towns toward water supply and sewage treatment and discharge. The Pawling and Dover Planning Boards should coordinate on any projects that propose to disharge treated waste into the Great Swamp River; as more towns in Pawling and south pipe waste to the Pawling plant, development projects in Dover may be curtailed. Working together on Wind Rose will provide a process template for the Planning Boards going forward.
Collaboration matters. The Coalition calls upon our elected officials, the Planning Boards, and the Pawling Conservation Advisory Board and the Dover Conservation Advisory Committee to work together to guard and preserve our natural resources while encouraging sensitive development and economic growth.
Coalition for the Responsible Growth of Dover holds fundraiser
November 15, 2008
The Coalition held its first fundraiser and membership drive on Saturday, November 1, 2008, at Old Drover’s Inn in Dover, NY. Thanks to the volunteers from Dover, Wingdale and Pawling, and neighboring towns in NY and CT.
Please see article from the Harlem Valley Times
First Annual Fall Fundraiser
October 27, 2008
Please click here to view the flier
Wind Rose Scoping Comments
September 25, 2008
Scoping Comments
–Dutchess County Department of Planning & Development, September 18, 2008
–Dover Planning Board Chair, September 20, 2008
–Appalachian Trail Conservancy, September 24, 2008
–National Park Service, September 23, 2008
–Pawling Conservation Advisory Board, September 24, 2008
–Pawling Planning Board, September 24, 2008
–Tim Miller Associates, September 24, 2008
*Note: printed post date is for chronological clarity. Actual post date is December, 2010.
