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Cool heads meet, discuss heated growth issue
By Paul Brooks
Times Herald-Record, November 24, 2002

New Paltz - Nobody is going to pave the paradise of the Hudson Valley if the brain trust at Mohonk Mountain House can stop it.
"I think we have the brain power to solve all these problems right here in this room," New Paltz Town Board member Kitty Brown said yesterday. Brown was among 175 people - architects, farmers, planning officials and others - gathered at Mohonk Mountain House yesterday for a conference titled "Smart Growth Success in the Hudson Valley."

The event was sponsored by the Hudson Valley Smart Growth Alliance, a "regional partnership" of interests including environmental, land conservation and economic development groups, builders, realtors, tourism officials and planning agencies.

The problems seem daunting: traffic congestion, declining affordability of housing, loss of natural vistas and drinking water shortages. Some in the audience raised questions about affordable housing, low pay, and poor mass transit. There were calls to dismantle the property tax system. Orange County Commissioner of Planning David Church threw in the aging population, the flight of young people from the region and the growing need for sewer, water and other infrastructure. The most critical need: leadership.

"I see a lot of officials burning out," Church said Dennis Doyle, a principal planner with the Ulster County Planning Department, said communities need better ways to get the public involved.
Boards need to let people speak at workshop meetings and send out more surveys.

Organizers focused on Warwick and Marbletown and examined how those communities have handled development issues.
Stella Slattery of the Beekman Planning Board said she picked up new ideas on how to work with controversial issues from Marbletown's presentation. The extreme views come early, but the real key is to keep working to get all of the issues out, she learned.
Warwick recently adopted a new comprehensive plan and revised its
zoning regulations. It even disbanded its planning for a year while
the revisions were in the works. The town raised $9.5 million to buy
development rights from local farmers. The new regulations push cluster development and try to focus growth around the Village of Warwick as well. Said Mike DiTullo, president of Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress, "It's great to feel the buzz here, the passion and concern for where we are going to go from here."