Town hears comments about proposed Sepasco Lake study

The Town Board is considering whether to move forward with a proposed study to determine if Sepasco Lake should be designated a critical environmental area.

The issue was discussed at a board meeting Monday at which eight residents questioned whether adding a layer of scrutiny over projects would protect a water body that currently is overseen by a homeowners’ association.

“I feel that people who own property on the lake and the Lake Sepasco Corporation and [Camp Ramapo for Children] could not take better care of that lake and protect it,” resident Valerie Kilmer said. “I don’t really feel that the town should spend any money [of the] town taxpayer. The town people can’t go use that lake; why would the town spend money?”

Sepasco Lake is about a half-mile long and 400 feet wide and sits behind properties parallel to state Route 308.

The Town Board member last month agreed to pay $4,200 for Hudsonia to develop a report that would allow Sepasco Lake to be declared a “critical environmental area.” Under such designation, any project that ordinarily would not require environmental review under state law would instead be

designated a Type 1 action, which requires a series of questions to be answered.

Property owner Brie Gallagher said current stewardship of the properties surrounding the lake is not always environmentally friendly and that a study might be helpful.

“I don’t know where everyone was when the promenade was being clear-cut,” she said. “Chain saws were running at night. All of the wildlife that was there for decades [is] gone.”

Former Town Board member Knick Staley, whose father developed the Sepasco Lake subdivision, said more information is needed about whether the critical environmental area” designation would make it more difficult to move forward with projects on parcels that front the lake.

“Would this hamper the development of these lots in any way or be a financial burden to the owners to get anything approved?” he said.

“The other major concern I’ve heard from the [property owners] is the association of all the owners around the lake have a lake management program which we pay for,” Staley said. “We have one of the best lake specialists in the state... [who] is very knowledgeable on how to keep Sepasco Lake pristine.”

Property owner Carl Parris, who oversees environmental tests for the lake, said there are shortcomings in the association’s oversight.

“If there was a landowner who wanted to put a motor boat on the lake and go water skiing, I don’t think we’d have any way of stopping them,” he said. “It’s a handshake that we don’t put motors on the lake. There’s no rule. There’s no regulation. We have no way of enforcing it.”