Board extends comment period for Red Wing mining request

The town Zoning Board of Appeals has held open the comment period and public hearing on a Red Wing Sand and Gravel request to have its entire property considered part of a zoning district in which mining is allowed.

Written comments will be accepted through Oct. 5 while the public hearing has been continued until the board’s Oct. 19 meeting.

“With the written materials, we want everything in,” board Chairman Scott Bergin said. “We don’t want anything coming in at the last moment when they’ve had months and months.”

The application by Red Wing comes after several years of disputes about whether the entire property belongs in the Mining Overlay District, which had its map revised a year ago to conform with language in the town’s Comprehensive Plan.

Red Wing Sand and Gravel filed a state application in 2008 to develop a new 125-acre mine accompanied by an 84-acre lake adjacent to a depleted 36.5acre mine on its property. The town Planning Board in 2014 turned down a request by Red Wing to renew the permit for operations on the 36.5 acres.

The Town Board began working on the zoning amendments in 2011 after learning that language in the 2009 Comprehensive Plan called for limiting mining to current operations but that a map produced by Dutchess County showed mining would be allowed on entire parcels. Efforts to simply update the map drew objections from Red Wing officials.

Town officials responded to threats of litigation by expanding language in the Comprehensive Plan. Included in the town actions was use of Red Wing’s own language in the state application to justify adopting the revised map as a zoning amendment rather than simply a correction.

“The Blandings turtle is a New York state threatened species with only a few isolated populations found in this area of Dutchess County,” the language stated. “These turtles and their habitat are within the Mining Overlay District and on the lands upon which new mining activities are proposed.”