Ulster officials delayed a decision on whether to recommend a deeper environmental review of the contentious Zena Homes development, opting to visit the site first.
The Town of Ulster Planning Board on Tuesday deferred its decision on whether to issue a positive or negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQR, pushing the matter at least into April. A negative declaration is a written finding by the lead agency that a project is not likely to have a significant adverse environmental impact. A positive declaration means the agency has determined that one or more potentially significant adverse environmental impacts may result, triggering a full environmental impact statement.
Zena Development is seeking a negative declaration for its proposed Zena Homes subdivision, which would allow the project to proceed without a full environmental impact statement.
The community group Stop Zena Development and other opponents want the board to issue a positive declaration instead.
“I don’t want to make any kind of a resolution myself until the board members see the site,” Planning Board Chair Frank Almquist said after a lengthy discussion of wetlands, wildlife crossings, septic design, and forest impacts.
Opponents of the project said they were encouraged by the delay.
“We expected a negative declaration,” said Zoe Keller, co-chair of the Stop Zena Development. “I’m relieved to see they are taking the process seriously.”
Stop Zena Development has argued that the proposal raises both safety and environmental concerns for Woodstock. The group says the subdivision would rely on a single long access route along Eastwoods Drive, raising questions about emergency access, evacuation, and road safety, while any second access road could damage forests, wetlands, and wildlife in the Zena Woods Critical Environmental Area.
The project was originally proposed as a much larger development called Woodstock National, with 191 homes, a golf course and a helipad. That plan was later withdrawn and scaled back to a lower-density 30-lot residential subdivision. Of the roughly 626-acre property, about 100 acres lie in Ulster, with the rest in Woodstock. Zena Development has said construction would occur on the Ulster portion of the site.
In October, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation designated the Town of Ulster as lead agency for the project’s SEQR review. Since then, critics have argued that officials have not fully accounted for the development’s effects on neighboring land and residents in Woodstock.
Zena Development, meanwhile, said it was frustrated by the board’s decision to wait.
“We were extremely disappointed with the outcome of last night’s Town of Ulster Planning Board meeting,” Eddie Greenberg, a principal of Zena Development, said in a written statement on Wednesday.
During the meeting, Greenberg said the project had already been subject to “an extraordinary level of review” and that potential impacts had been addressed through redesigns and mitigation.
““We have done everything we were asked to do at every stage of this process. We are simply asking for a fair and timely decision.” Greenberg said in a written statement on Wednesday.
Zena Development’s team described several recent changes to the proposal, including a revised internal road layout intended to reduce grading and disturbance and conceptual septic layouts for each lot. Representatives also said they were open to using a larger, more protective culvert at a wetland crossing if town officials or regulators favored that approach.
Town Planner Max Stach said he still saw unresolved questions, including engineering issues and the potential for forest fragmentation—the breaking up of a large, continuous forest by roads and development, which can disrupt wildlife movement and reduce interior habitat.
“The one impact that I think is the toughest to judge, is the idea of the forest fragmentation,” Stach said.
Almquist said the largely new board had not yet visited the property and that seeing it firsthand was important before making a determination of environmental significance.
Noah Eckstein is the editor-in-chief of The Overlook. Send correspondence to noah@theoverlooknews.com.