Threats to the Ridge Actions that should be taken to save the Ridge About the Shawangunk Ridge Coalition Media coverage about the Shawangunk Ridge Learn more about the environment of the Shawangunk Ridge Conservation efforts on the Shawangunk Ridge Recreation on the Shawangunk Ridge Maps of the Shawangunk Ridge Links to supporters and affiliated sites Search this site for information Contact information for the Shawangunk Ridge Coalition Return to our home page

Homes, golf are planned for 'Gunks
Permits sought in Gardiner
Poughkeepsie Journal
By Dan Shapley, December 28, 2002

The Shawangunk Ridge's biggest private landowner took the first formal step this week toward building a golf course and housing development that has been rumored for months.

The plan calls for an ''Adirondack-style'' camp with a small village center and open lots for 349 cabins, cottages and retreats that would conserve 60 percent of the 2,660-acre Awosting Reserve under a conservation easement, developer Chaffin/Light Associates said.

''Our goal is to achieve the effect of man and nature having agreed upon the design of the community,'' Roger Beck, president of Awosting Reserve, said in a written statement.

The plan also calls for a nature center, golf course, fitness center,
swimming pool and restaurant.

Permit applications related to the development were filed in the Town of Gardiner this week, Town Clerk Michelle Mosher said. Town of Shawangunk officials also received copies of the plan, though no permit applications were filed because a subdivision moratorium is in effect into March.

Cliffs draw thousands

The Shawangunks -- known as the Gunks -- are a signature landmark in Ulster County and a destination for thousands of tourists and residents who hike, bike and rock climb on and around the white cliffs.

Research also has shown the ridge includes four rare natural habitats and 27 rare plant and animal species.

Awosting Reserve owner John Atwater Bradley's plan met with concern and outright opposition even before formal plans were
announced this week.

Critics fear it will harm the environment and create a gated community in the midst of a popular public recreation area. At least one Web site is already devoted to the opposition fight.

''It's premature to have an opinion on the specifics because we haven't seen the plans, but we are concerned about the impact of the development on the unique ecology of the Shawangunks,'' Cara Lee, director of the Nature Conservancy's Shawangunk Ridge Program, said. The Nature Conservancy manages the Sam's Point Preserve in Cragsmoor, and shares a border with the Awosting
Reserve.

The Nature Conservancy named the ridge one of the earth's ''Last Great Places.''

Established Shawangunk preserves -- the Sam's Point Preserve, Minnewaska State Park, the Mohonk Preserve and the Mohonk Mountain House -- allow public access.

The Awosting Reserve has at times offered limited public access on the ''Long Path'' -- a 326-mile foot path from New York City north to Albany that follows the spine of the Gunks.

Access to the Awosting Reserve's portion of the Long Path has been cut off for several years and the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference is seeking an alternate route.

The Awosting Reserve has been a part of The Shawangunk Ridge Biodiversity Partnership with the Nature Conservancy, the Mohonk Preserve, two New York agencies and six other groups. That consortium has called for protecting 15,000 to 25,000 additional acres on and around the ridge.

The Awosting Reserve development proposal would run counter to that agreement.

The Nature Conservancy and the Open Space Institute, which bought thousands of acres on the ridge, have each tried for years to purchase Bradley's land without success.

3 decades to acquire land

The Awosting Reserve calls its development plans a ''conservation
community'' that will balance ''environmental sensitivity, community
livability and economic viability,'' Beck has written.

Bradley, who calls himself a lifelong conservationist, took 30 years to buy the land that makes up the Awosting Reserve. Neither Beck nor Bradley could be reached Friday. A press release sent earlier this week detailed the plans.

Developers said they will use environmentally sensitive building techniques, take care not to disrupt the views from other points and build the golf course on an area that had been grazed by sheep apparently in an effort to mitigate the change to the landscape.

Chaffin/Light Associates was chosen to plan the development because of its experience building such communities in the Carolinas and Colorado, according to the press release.

''I suppose if there had to be a development in the Shawangunks, they would probably be pretty sensitive about it, but it just isn't the place for something like this,'' Keith LaBudde, president of Friends of the Shawangunks, said.

That group was instrumental in opposing a hotel chain's plan to build a hotel and 300 condominiums in the early 1980s on what is now Minnewaska State Park Preserve land.

LaBudde said his and other groups are working to launch a similar effort now.

To read about Chaffin/-Light Associates, the firm chosen to develop the Awosting Reserve, visit www.chaffinlight.com. To read about the opposition to the development, visit www.savetheridge.com