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

Plans for ridge development follow South Carolina model
By Jeremiah Horrigan
The Times Herald-Record, October 31, 2002

The photos show verdant lawns glowing in a golden sunset. Happy, smiling people gaze at rare birds and exotic flowers. Later, there'll be time enough for horseback riding and golf.
All is peaceful and calm at Spring Island, a "purist's recreational
community" located off the coast of South Carolina. Spring Island is the sort of gracious and expensive private community that developers hope to build on 2,700 acres of privately held land along the Shawangunk Ridge. That's what Roger Beck, a key figure behind the ridge development plan, told Gardiner residents last week when he presented the group with plans for developing Awosting Reserve, a parcel of ridge land owned primarily by Gardiner resident John Bradley.

Spring Island's Web site, chaffinlight.com, describes itself as a
luxurious "ultra-low-density private island community" of 410 homeowners spread over 3,000 acres that include a 1,000-acre "grand nature preserve." Home prices range from $250,000 to $7 million. The ads call it "internationally recognized, conservation-based and golf-, tennis- and fitness-driven." The concept behind developments like Spring Island has an environmental basis, Beck said yesterday. "The concept as developers is to present a way where man can tread lightly on the land. There are different perspectives on that; some would never tread on it at all or never cut down a single tree. We don't tread that lightly."
He said more information will be publicly released when the development plan is finalized.
While environmental groups are reluctant to officially comment on a
development plan because exact details have yet to be released, there's no question that when that time comes, they'll challenge every environmental and social aspect of it.

Local grant writer Glenn Gidaly summed up the major categories that
traditionally concern environmentalists: "Is there adequate water, does the plan comply with the existing comprehensive plan and is it needed?" The water question alone, in light of recent droughts, could be a critical area of inquiry when the developers submit their plans for state review, he said.

The Awosting Reserve lies like an island between two continents of
undeveloped land: Minnewaska State Park, at 12,000 acres the state's largest public park, and Sam's Point Preserve, the second-largest private preserve at 5,500, owned by the Open Space Institute. OSI has tried to buy the highest-standing ridgeline property from John Bradley in the past, offering what spokesman Bob Anderberg called a "substantial" purchase price, but the deal never happened. If all else fails, Anderberg said OSI was still eager to "revisit the question of protecting the ridge."