Dover Knolls
The Dover Knolls Development Company II, LLC of Garden City Long Island, New York, is planning to build 1,376 homes and up to 245,000 square feet of commercial development on (1) the 853 acre former Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center (HVPC) campus, located east and west of NYS Route 22 near Wheeler Road; and (2) the adjacent 83 acre (former) Dykeman farm on Pleasant Ridge Road, west of Route 22.
The proposal for 1,376 housing units and commercial development is located in the hamlet of Wingdale, Town of Dover, in eastern Dutchess County, New York. On the campus and just to the west of Route 22 lies the Harlem Valley-Wingdale Metro-North train station, used by local NY and CT residents in the neighboring towns of Sherman, Gaylordsville, Kent and towns east.
In 1999, after several years of public meetings, the Dover Town Board created a special overlay zoning district, the Mixed-Use Institutional Conversion (MC) Overlay District. The purpose of this special zoning district was to encourage redevelopment of the existing Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center (HVPC) campus, rather than focusing development on the undeveloped fringes of the campus, which contain steep slopes and natural open spaces. As best stated by Joel Russell, a nationally known land use attorney and planning consultant who specializes in smart growth and New Urbanism, and who is the author of Section 145-16 of Dover’s Zoning Law,
The Town wishes to attract development to this site because it contains serviceable buildings and water and sewer infrastructure, as well as excellent highway and commuter rail transportation access. The purpose of MC Overlay District is to encourage the redevelopment of the campus of the former state mental hospital as a mixed-use community consisting of a combination of residential, commercial, office, light industrial, civic, recreational, and related uses, centered on a traditional hamlet center at the core of the old HVPC campus and the Metro-North commuter railroad station.
The main purpose of this zoning district is thus the reuse and redevelopment of the HVPC campus, to the extent possible, for long term economic development.
Under this Zoning Law, approval of a Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) for the HVPC campus requires a zoning amendment from the Town Board. The Town Board has considerable latitude in requiring an applicant to redesign a proposed project to ensure that it conforms to the purposes of the Town’s Zoning Law and Master Plan.
At present, the Dover Knolls application requests several zoning amendments from the Dover Town Board to allow the developer to build as proposed. The requested zoning amendments are substantial, and include changes that would allow development on steep slopes and near or in sensitive documented wildlife habitats, in and around the Great Swamp wetlands and their buffers, on adjacent farmland, and in open spaces intended for protection. This would in effect allow the developer to use the former HVPC campus to potentially build a vast sprawling subdivision, the largest in Dutchess County’s history. In addition, without adequate commercial and retail development there would be no offset to a dramatic increase in taxes. We are consulting with experts on these fiscal and environmental matters.
Last year, a number of steps were taken with regard to the project. On February 27, 2008, the Town Board voted 3-2 to remove site plan approval from the Planning Board. On March 3, the developer resubmitted the application, its fourth. On March 26, the Town Board reaffirmed Lead Agency status. On May 7, 2008 and May 10, 2008, the Town Board held public Scoping Sessions to re-solicit public input instead of using the prior 2006 Scope, as would typically be the case with a resubmission.
In this second scoping process, members of the public, the Town Historian, and groups such as The Oblong Conservancy, Friends of Great Swamp, The Pawling Nature Reserve, the Dutchess Land Conservancy, the Housatonic Valley Association and the Naromi Land Trust have all identified areas of potential negative environmental impacts that need to be addressed in the Final Scoping document and studied for purposes of the preparation of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).
Jeffrey Baker of the law firm of Young, Sommer, spoke on behalf of the Coalition for Responsible Growth for Dover (CRGD) and made comprehensive comments regarding the proposed amendments to Dover’s Zoning Law and the potential negative environmental impacts associated with the current Knolls of Dover application that need to be addressed by the Dover Town Board. Many in the community urged the Dover Town Board to conduct a thorough environmental review in order to protect the future health, safety and welfare of the community and, to the extent possible, adhere to the more rigorous Scoping document that resulted from the 2006 Scoping Session.
These comments, both written and oral, are posted here under Scoping Comments and can be viewed on video at the Town’s website, under the dates May 7th and May 10th. The result of this process was the Draft Final Scoping Document, prepared under the supervision of the Town’s planner, Graham Trelsted of AKRF, and reviewed for public comment at the June 11 Special Meeting. On June 25, 2008, the Final Scoping Document was submitted.
The Applicant filed the preliminary DEIS on December 24, 2008 and it was posted on the Town’s website on December 31, 2008. With the assistance of the Dover Town Planner, Graham Trelstad of AKRF, the Town Board reviewed the document for revisions and additions. After extensions were granted for additional review and revisions, the developer resubmitted the DEIS for completness on April 3, 2009. It was accepted by the Town Board on April 29, 2009 and posted on the Town’s Website on May 15, 2009 and May 29, 2009. The Town Board held Public Comment Sessions on the Accepted DEIS on May 30, 2009, 9am and June 3, 2009. The deadline for written Public Comments was extended to June 30, 2009, and the Planning Board had until July 20 to submit comments to the Town Board.
