Williams Lake Phase 2 up for review
COTTEKILL, N.Y. » The Rosendale Planning Board this week will review the second phase of work on Hudson River Valley Resorts’ Williams Lake housing and lodging development.
The session is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 14 in the Rondout Municipal Center, 1915 Lucas Ave., Cottekill.
The Phase 2 application calls for, among other things, reducing the number of residential units from 164 to 120. The units will consist of 78 town homes and cottages, 34 detached homes and eight workforce units.
The plan also includes a reduction in the length of roads from 14,400 to 9,600 linear feet.
“The Phase 2 site plan reduces [road length] by reducing the number of homes in some neighborhoods, redesigning the layout of residential lots ... and modifying road layouts, including the employ of cul de sacs in several neighborhoods,” the developers state in their proposal.
Other elements of the Phase 2 application include moving an interpretive center from a residential area to a location that would make it available for public use along the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail.
“The new location will ... create easier access for the general public by car and facilitate parking,” the application state. “The interpretive center will be connected to the rail trail by a short trail connector.”
The developers also propose changing the location of a proposed water treatment plant to “reduce aesthetic and environmental impacts along the lake edge in close proximity to the beach area.”
Approval also is being sought for a beach pavilion in the area where a 4,100-square-foot fitness center had been planned. The developers wrote that the fitness center will be sought during the third phase, which also is to include a 130-room hotel and events barn.
Watchdog group Save the Lakes, in a press release, cautioned that holding over the hotel approval could affect the town.
“Reversal of the resort and residential components of the project has consequences,” Save the Lakes’ statement said. “[Hudson River Valley Resorts’] commitment to eventual feebased public access was contingent on the resort being ‘operational.’ With the delay in opening the hotel, that day seems to have moved further into the future. Reduction in the number of residential units, while reducing the impact on the land, also reduces the project revenue.”
Save the Lakes also said the fiscal analysis done during the town’s approval process is five years old and apparently subject to changes in the economy.
“The impact of the project on the town has become even more uncertain,” the group said. “In a worst-case scenario, despite [Hudson River Valley Resorts’] assurances that the hotel is just around the corner, the project could halt with it remaining unbuilt, leaving a large residential development with ongoing maintenance costs not shared with a resort.”