December 2018 The 2018 in review and the year ahead
We at Fallsburg’s Future would like to offer a brief recap of our actions over this past year and share with you an outline of our priorities for the months ahead. All in all it was a busy time for Fallsburg’s planning and development, and we are pleased that we were able to make a substantive contribution to the public dialogue, especially around the town’s updated Comprehensive Plan.
We lent our public support to the Basha Kill Area Association (BKAA) in its effort to protect the environment of the 500 acres that constitute the proposed Thompson Education Center campus. Early in the year BKAA challenged the legitimacy of the building permit that was issued in Fallsburg for construction of a large building for the TEC project without completing the Environmental Impact Statement for the overall project, which is mostly in the Town of Thompson, with a sliver of land in Fallsburg. We were given status as an “interested party” with the Town of Thompson to voice our concerns in support of BKAA’s challenge. The Planning Board, however, finally decided to give the building a green light.
We joined with the Pleasure Lake Homeowners’ Association in their effort to stop a developer from using blasting procedures at a nearby project that threatened the Pleasure Lake dam and surrounding environment. The permit for the blasting was denied.
We submitted complaints to the town pertaining to numerous business storefronts in South Fallsburg that were run-down and in violation of the town maintenance code. Most of the problems have been addressed by the building owners.
Aided by generous support from BKAA, we consulted with an engineer to get up to speed about the Fallsburg’s water and sewer system and the challenges it faces with over 200 new homes coming on line each year. We met with the town engineer to learn more about the water and sewer infrastructure in Mountaindale and the costs associated with operating, maintaining and expanding it. See our Update regarding this issue on our website.
We continued to reach out to other organizations like the Columbia Hill Neighborhood Association, the Rockhill Neighborhood Coalition and Catskill Mountainkeeper in support of their campaigns to protect the environment and align residential developments with Town codes and regulations.
Many of our members supported the successful campaign to elect Rebecca Pratt to the Town Board. Rebecca made her mark on the Comprehensive Plan Committee and one of our members served as her campaign manager. She took up her position in November.
We regularly attended Planning Board meetings and voiced our points of view when the public could make written and verbal comments. Often, our members were the only people representing the public but, through our regular FF Alerts and Updates, we were able to rally more residents to attend important meetings.
In our central effort during 2017-2018, we very closely followed the work of the Comprehensive Plan Committee as it updated the 2006 Comprehensive Plan. After their work was finished, The Town Board adopted the 2018 Comprehensive Plan Update (CPU) in June and we were pleased that many of its 100 recommendations reflected our concerns and suggestions. We saw that some of our input had influenced changes to the reconfiguration of the zoning districts that will help control development in the decade ahead.
On the other hand, we were disappointed that the town did not take action on reigning in several aspects of the Duplex Development Law or abolishing it altogether as one member of our group had advocated for in recommendations to the Town Board.
The year ahead
With the Comprehensive Plan and the new Zoning codes in effect as of last June, our group of concerned residents believe we must now focus our attention on the list of recommendations that need to carried out. A key recommendation is that the town set up an Implementation Committee to assist the Town Board in following through with those recommendations. We have identified specific areas we feel are important and should be focused on.
Fallsburg’s Future plans to focus on the following issues identified in the CPU:
[List of our priority areas in reader friendly language]
· An overall assessment of the cumulative impact of large-scale development
· Environmental protection of water, open space, etc.
· Aesthetics related to building design, public spaces, etc.
· Development of community parks and eco-friendly recreation facilities
We hope the Town can incorporate the results of the work and accomplishments of those who served in producing the 2018 CPU. We also hope to see better communication with the residents by improving the media by which the town meetings and decisions are disseminated to the public.
We will continue to update our website (www.fallsburgsfuture.com) and send out our Alerts and Updates through our email list. If you wish to receive our mailings, please send us your contact information to office@fallsburgsfuture.com.
We wish all of our friends and neighbors a wonderful new year, with the hope that our town continues its slow renewal and development in ways that improve the quality of life for all of us and our many visitors.