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State byway designation being sought
By Donna Cafaldo, Correspondent
(Kingston) Daily Freeman
March 7, 2006

ALBANY - Two local state lawmakers have introduced legislation this week officially requesting state official byway designation for the Shawangunk Mountains Scenic Byway and to see it added to the state's official byway system. The proposed 82-mile byway would link 11 towns and villages around the Shawangunk Mountains following existing state and county roads.

State Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope, and Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, have introduced bills with co-sponsorship from state Sen. William Larkin, R-Cornwall, Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun, R-Blooming Grove, and Assemblymen Clifford Crouch, R-Guilford, and Thomas Kirwan, R-Newburgh.

After five years of preparation, the state Scenic Byways Advisory Board last October not only approved the byway management plan but recommended the Shawangunk Mountains Scenic Byway receive state designation and become a component of the state Scenic Byways System.

Saying he was pleased to introduce the legislation, Bonacic added, "The Shawangunk Mountain region provides some of the most awe-inspiring views in all of New York state. With the designation of the Byway, residents and tourists alike will be able to experience the recreational, historic, and environmental resources of the area."

A steering committee of town supervisors and representatives from nine Ulster County municipalities, including the towns of Gardiner, Marbletown, New Paltz, Rochester, Rosendale, Shawangunk, Wawarsing, the villages of Ellenville and New Paltz, and the Orange County towns of Crawford and Montgomery has been preparing a Corridor Management Plan for state review and designation. The committee has also received assistance from the Ulster and Orange County planning boards and several other organizations. Subsequently the Shawangunk Mountains Regional Partnership was formed to implement the Byway's management plan.

According to the Regional Partnership's Executive Director Al Wegener, the route of the Shawangunk Mountains Scenic Byway will encircle and navigate the northern Shawangunk Mountains and link the towns and villages that have pursued the designation.

Wegener said the Byway route tells a story about New York state by reflecting the assets and attractions of the region. "Identifying a 450 million-year-old section of the Appalachian Mountains separating the Hudson River Valley from the Catskills (it) encompass and outlines a region of over 115,000 acres (and) provides scenic, natural, recreational and historic resources of statewide significance," Wegener said of the Byway.

Created in 1992, the New York state Scenic Byways program is currently administered by the Landscape Architecture Bureau of the state Department of Transportation. The program works in conjunction with other state departments, such as Agriculture and Markets, and Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

With currently over 2,000 miles of scenic byways in New York, mostly in the Adirondacks and Finger Lakes regions along with a small byway system in Long Island, the Shawangunk Byway is the first in the Hudson Valley area.

"The Shawangunk Ridge is known to be one of the most important sites for bio-diversity conservation and is recognized for having the most complex and environmentally significant ecosystems in the United States, if not the entire planet," Cahill said.

The route has much to offer as well as beautiful scenery, Wegener said. Byway resources include the Vernooy Kill State Forest, a 3,000-acre preserve located at the former Lundy estate in the town of Wawarsing. The site, currently in development, will provide a large recreation base that will include camping. There are also rail trail areas in the byway, waterways for canoeing and kayaking, areas for mountain biking and rock climbing.

"One is able to view mountains from every section of the road. The fact that much of the area is also agricultural provides beautiful views of fields as well as a certain types of architecture," Wegener said.

Ulster County Planning Board Chairman Dennis Doyle said "the Byway is an important compass to the future of Ulster County. This inter-municipal, cooperative effort has not only a management plan but a buy-in from local officials and many others. It should be supported."

One anticipated result of the state designation would be the improved ability of participating communities to benefit from the economic potential of tourism, something of great importance to Rosendale town Supervisor Bob Gallagher. Gallagher said it is one of the main reasons his town supported the Byway in the first place. In addition, Gallagher said supplemental training town officials will receive in terms of planning and zoning for their plan and the Byway designation creates a "win-win for everybody."

However Wegener said plan strategy is not so much about adding tourists but about expanding and redistributing those attracted to the Shawangunk Ridge, where access is limited, and into the Wallkill and Rondout Valleys for further exploration.

Wegener said state designation will not infringe on home rule of any of the participating municipalities, adding he has even found the state to be rather flexible during their plan's creation. Other benefits of the state designation are special consideration for funding for necessary improvements such as to existing roadways and for resource preservation.

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