Seven Peaks Developers Expected to Bypass Efforts to Protect Shawangunk Ridge Corridor

May 15, 2014
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference

Title

Seven Peaks Developers Expected to Bypass Efforts to Protect Shawangunk Ridge Corridor

Body

 

Action Item: The Trail Conference asks for your support of our efforts to protect a natural trail corridor on the Shawangunk Ridge. You can do this by conveying your concerns about the impacts of the Seven Peaks development project to the Mamakating Planning Board by June 1, in order that they be part of the ongoing critique of the Final Environmental Impact Statement. You can email your comments to: Planning Board Chair Mort Starobin and Board Members - [email protected]

Background

The 110-mile long natural corridor that is the Shawangunk-Kittatinny Ridge, and the Trail Conference project to complete the continuous greenway in New York, is threatened by a high-end housing project in Mamakating known as Seven Peaks.

Developers are currently putting the finishing touches on their Final Environmental Impact Statement. The Trail Conference and other groups, including the state Department of Environmental Conservation, posed numerous challenges and questions to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project in 2010. A recent workshop session between developers, planners, and representatives of the Trail Conference and the BashaKill Area Association left the latter two groups dissatisfied with developers’ responses and concerned about the future of the ridge and its environs.

The Trail Conference’s would like to preserved the entire parcel as open space but, short of that, our position is that the Mamakating Planning Board should not approve the project unless, at a minimum, provision is made for an adequate wilderness corridor along the western edge of the property. This corridor would provide a route for the Shawangunk Ridge Trail for the public to enjoy. The applicants plans currently indicate a narrow corridor, about one-mile long, unconnected to any other trail, and accessible only by being admitted past the community gate.

The Trail Conference remains willing to work with developers on creating an adequate, feasible plan for a trail through the property that is part of the Shawangunk Ridge Trail.

 

Talking Points

We ask that you indicate your support for the Trail Conference vision of a protected Shawangunk Ridge and the Trail Conference Shawangunk Ridge Trail project.

The Basha Kill Area Association suggests additional talking points that relate to Seven Peaks’ impact on water in the Basha Kill Wildlife Management Area in Sullivan County and on the Shawanga Kill in Orange County. For more information on these topics, visit thebashakill.org