Belleayre Resort appears to clear final legal hurdle
The state Court of Appeals has declined to review a lower-court ruling that allows construction of the Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park, and the head of a watchdog group that has challenged the project concedes the development will proceed.
The Court of Appeals decision lets stand an April 2018 ruling by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court that the state Department of Environmental Conservation was correct in giving developer Crossroads Ventures the green
light to build the resort in the Ulster County town of Shandaken and the Delaware County town of Middletown.
Kathy Nolan, chairwoman of the Catskill Heritage Alliance, said all her group can do now is monitor the project for compliance with permits.
“We will be keeping a very close watch to make sure there’s no place where they are stepping outside the law,” said Nolan, who also is a first-term Ulster County legislator. “... If the resort goes forward ... then they will have certain requirements in terms of they way they do construction and they way they do their business.”
The resort plan, in various forms, has been on the table since about 2000. The Catskill Heritage Alliance has been challenging the plan since about 2015, when the developer last filed environmental review documents.
Nolan noted her group choose not to sign on to compromise agreements about how environmental reviews should be conducted.
The Belleayre Resort is to consist of two hotels — the Highmount Spa and Resort and the Wildacres Resort — on 740 acres that straddle the border of Ulster and Delaware counties near the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center.
Wildacres, on about 250 acres, would have a 250-room hotel, 163 other lodging units in multi-unit buildings detached from the hotel and an 18-hole golf course. The Highmount portion of the project, on just under 240 acres, would have a 120-unit hotel with spa facilities, 53 time share units in the hotel building, a multi-level lodge with 27 more time share units and 16 detached lodging units in eight duplex buildings.
Crossroads Ventures representative Jack Schoonmaker on Thursday called the Court of Appeals’ decision “good news” that the company expected.
“We knew it was coming,” he said.