The Big News

We congratulate Crossroads Ventures on the conceptual greenlighting of the Belleayre Resort by Governor Spitzer, NYC regulators, and a majority of the groups formerly contesting its applications. It’s taken extraordinary efforts by all parties to a long and by all accounts, a difficult negotiation. The direction and the news are certainly major steps, and the Governor quite rightly pronounced it the end of the beginning. The project has indeed come far, though it has some distance to go before any ground is broken.

The good news is the process is moving forward. The troubling news is that the resort’s now likely to be built at a total size that’s changed relatively little since 2001. Because that’s the case, also little changed is the only thing that concerns us at The Phoenicia Times, its direct impacts on this community of ours. Those impacts, simply, are a reflection of how many people the site and the Town of Shandaken will have to accommodate. They’re not about golf courses or roads or runoff or things there’s plenty of regulators to review. Our town it appears, is about to double in size. What that means and whether on balance it’s positive or negative, we trust most people have long since formed their own opinions.

In saying the scale hasn’t changed much, that’s not to say what’s moving forward hasn’t shifted a great deal since negotiations began last November. It has changed considerably, all for the better, and again, we applaud the developer for their efforts. Over 1,200 acres, the whole eastern or Big Indian side of the resort, will soon go to the state as forest preserve lands. Crossroads, fortunately, is being very well compensated at over $10,000 per acre for this gesture, more than recouping, it seems, the whole of its investment in the project to date. The actual development footprint has dropped from 573 to 273 acres which is very good, and the total private investment is officially up to $400 million. And although everything is now sited west of the Highmount post office, the project is still upwards of 80% in Shandaken. That’ll be good too if the increased value eventually shows up in our municipal tax compensation.

Our hope, our expectation, has long been that any agreement reached would reflect something that’s a compromise between what was first proposed and what most of us who live here would find acceptable. Some, no doubt, will take the view that’s what’s already happened. Certainly from the land use standpoint, from the purely environmental standpoint, this is indeed a compromise project and a much improved one. From the standpoint however of total size and local impacts, its 928 guest rooms is larger than the whole project as first proposed, measured by the impact of people and materials coming and going and working and staying there.

Belleayre Mountain where it turns out Governor Spitzer learned to ski, will certainly benefit, and what’s good for Belleayre will certainly benefit Shandaken. The long dormant Highmount ski center is being acquired by the State, to be rebuilt and integrated with the resort and with the rest of Belleayre. And although the full extent of the State’s investment on the mountain is yet to be announced, we’re pleased that DEC will finally release its long awaited Unit Management Plan, so that it can be publicly reviewed, as it should be, together with the resort.

Of the eleven groups comprising the former Catskill Preservation Coalition, we respect the choices made by each to accept or not accept the plan announced last week. Each of course has their own constituency and national, statewide or regional agendas. Those that did sign on believed that what was achieved environmentally was as much protection and positive precedent as state laws would ultimately provide. Those that didn’t sign on believe they can continue to mitigate impacts through the SEQRA process as the law and their status as parties to the process permit. All of those groups deserve recognition for their work to date, which has already and through the changes now agreed upon, served to benefit everyone impacted by the project. The developer too deserves enormous credit, both for the high quality of the planning work these changes reflect, and for ultimately showing far more flexibility than previously seen.

The process will now go forward, expedited no doubt, by the full faith and credit of the Governor’s enthusiasm. Still, it’s a process with a structure, a somewhat open time frame, and variables. Soon, we expect, a public Scoping process will begin for the new development planned for Highmount and probably for other changes not previously reviewed. That process will culminate in the drafting and submission of a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement by the developer. Once that’s reviewed and deemed complete by DEC, a public comment period of probably 60 days will begin, with public hearings to be scheduled. Final decisions, both on the possible scheduling of a new SEQRA issues conference and on adjudication remain to be made.

And so the SEQRA process goes on. We’ve long held it’s where the resolution to all the issues rightly belongs, and we’re pleased the dialogue will now reenter the public sphere, where it too belongs. We encourage everyone to keep faith with the process and participate as it unfolds. We hope people will see what’s happened as a new opportunity to work together toward the best possible future for everyone in this town we all share, all treasure equally, and are all equally responsible for.
BP