To many visitors and residents, the appeal of the Catskills region is its small scale: the mom-and-pop businesses that predominate in the villages, the miles of forest, the unspoiled mountain scenery and refreshing lack of traffic driving west on Route 28. To some, the area might seem economically depressed, but others have valued the slower pace and abundance of raw, natural beauty.
That partly explains why a ski mega-resort proposed by Crossroads Ventures L.L.C. on Belleayre Mountain, which is located on Route 49A in the town of Shandanken, has been mired in delays for more than six years. The project would also be located within the watershed of the Ashokan Reservoir, which supplies much of the drinking water to New York City”™s 9-million residents, and hence sounded alarm bills not just at the local level, but also among state and federal officials.
At the beginning of this year, the project was due to undergo judiciary hearings on six issues before the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), thanks to a challenge by the Catskill Preservation Coalition, representing 11 environmental groups. Now, however, many of those groups have gotten onboard and the review process is back on track, thanks to intervention by Gov. Eliot Spitzer”™s administration. After months of negotiations under the watch of the governor”™s office, a compromise agreement has been signed.
In essence, the agreement, announced by Spitzer at a press conference in Kingston a few weeks ago, calls for a reduction in the development”™s footprint, from 1,960 acres to 663 acres, of which 273 acres will be developed. It also entails the transfer of 1,216 acres of forest, previously slated for development, to the nonprofit Trust for Public Land. The resort will be confined to the western side of Belleayre Mountain. The eastern side of the mountain, which overlooks the reservoir, will be permanently protected as part of the Catskill Forest Preserve, with the state ultimately acquiring the land for $14 million.
In the redesign, Dean Gitter, principal of Crossroads Ventures and owner of the Emerson Resort & Spa, has expanded the portion of the development proposed for the western side of the mountain. The plan consists of two large hotels, 259 housing units (of which 60 would be built as detached single or duplex buildings), a golf course, underground spa, and conference center.
Â
Strict rules, no suits
Crossroads Ventures must adhere to strict environmental standards, which will be monitored by the state and the environmental groups. In exchange, those groups give up their right to take the developer to court.
The state, which owns and operates the adjacent Belleayre Mountain skiing center, will play an accompanying role in the development. The 1,216 acres it is purchasing from Gitter include 78 acres of the abandoned Highmount ski area. Highmount”™s trails and facilities will be restored and incorporated into the Belleayre ski center. The expansion of the ski center will enable customers at Gitter”™s resort to ski directly from their accommodations.
In addition, the state will provide $500,000 to hamlets along the Route 28 corridor. The money will be available for new signage and for façade and building improvements. The state also plans to seek “scenic byway” designation for Route 28, to prevent sprawl and preserve the mountain views.
“Jobs and (protection of) the environment can go hand in hand if we do things properly,” said Spitzer at the press conference. “If we design the project wisely, we can accomplish what we all want, which is economic vitality and preservation of our national wonders.”
Â
Spitzer hailed the proposed resort as raising the bar for new standards of green development, noting that it will be required to meet the requirements of LEEDS silver certification, as established by the U.S. Green Building Council and referring to leadership in environmental and energy design initiatives. The “organic” golf course will be designed to minimize the amount of trees destroyed and chemicals used. The facility will make use of the existing Pine Hill water treatment center instead of relying on a newly constructed own sewage treatment system, which had been a bone of contention.
Eric Goldstein, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the nonprofit environmental groups that signed the agreement, said that the process of negotiating involved “hammering out every detail. Virtually every word was contested. We”™ll be monitoring it very closely to ensure the environmental safeguards are actually delivered.”
Goldstein said the revised plan incorporates more sensitive siting of buildings. The number of homes and lodging proposed for a slope of 35 degrees or greater “has been dramatically reduced,” and the use of the “undercapacity” sewage plant in Pine Hill would result in a “vastly superior” project from “an environmental and water quality standpoint” than the original. And he said the restoration of ski tracks that are already there will have much less impact on the mountain than building new ones.
Tom Alworth, executive director at the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, which also signed the agreement, and previous chairman of the coalition, also expressed satisfaction with the changes. “The linchpin is the land preservation. We knew we had a good shot at protecting the east side, whose much steeper slopes are an inappropriate place to be building.” The east side of the mountain is also adjacent to the forest preserve, whereas the west side adjoins the area of the abandoned Highmount ski area and overlooks land that”™s been farmed, he said.
Â
Dozen issues
Judith Enck, deputy secretary for the environment in the governor”™s office and the person who brought the parties together, said that “over a dozen issues needed to be talked through” during the course of negotiations. She noted that Gitter still must submit a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS), as required by the state Environmental Quality Review Act, and obtain the necessary permits from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the water supply.
Several groups that were part of the environmental coalition opposing the project did not sign onto the agreement, including the Sierra Club and two local environmental organizations. Richard Schaedle, chairman of the Catskill Heritage Alliance, contended in a statement posted on the group”™s Web site that the project is still too large. He noted that some units are planned for high elevations and steep slopes, which could cause extensive runoff and irreparable damage to the mountain. Yet another concern is the potential cost of the development to taxpayers, both in terms of the incentives awarded by the state and the cost of additional infrastructure.
At the press conference, Spitzer noted that the $400 million project would create 1,800 construction jobs, 450 full-time positions and 150 seasonal jobs. He said it would generate $2 million in property taxes annually and another $2 million in sales tax revenue.
Â
Paul Rakow, director of marketing at the Emerson Resort & Spa and spokesperson for Crossroads Ventures, said more than 150 jobs would be “career positions.” In addition, the developer plans to team up with SUNY Delhi through its hospitality program to provide internships and other opportunities to students, he said.
However, he couldn”™t provide details about the financing of the project and possible tax incentives. A report by the former state comptroller, released in August 2006, was highly critical of Gitter”™s initial economic analysis. Crossroads noted that it planned to turn the management of the resort over to a franchised brand, such as a Marriott or Starwood, but the report questioned the plausibility of this, given that franchisors tend to locate in less isolated locations where there are clusters of other brands.
It questioned Gitter”™s analysis of the potential return on investment, noting that in his calculations he treated borrowed funds as equity. The report also said the impact of the resort on secondary growth was underestimated. “The Belleayre Resort project appears to be a speculative venture that may well endanger existing resource uses and end up placing unacceptable burdens on the state, city and local taxpayers,” the report stated.
Goldstein said the most significant issue raised in the comptroller”™s report was the threat posed by the new development to the Ashokan Reservoir, which is vulnerable both because it is a terminal reservoir ”“ water is piped directly from the reservoir to New York City ”“ and has already been affected by turbidity, due to the clayey soils. Should the proposed resort cause further degradation to the water, New York City and Westchester County could be required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to construct a filtration system, which would cost from $8 billion to $10 billion in capital costs alone, said Goldstein.
By eliminating all development on the eastern side of Belleayre Mountain, which drains into the Ashokan, the threat is removed, he said. A second reservoir, the Pepacton, might be affected by the development on the western side, but because it is not terminal ”“ the water is filtered as it passes through another reservoir ”“ and its water is in better condition, this isn”™t as much of a threat.
The other major economic concern of the comptroller”™s report was the substantial upfront cost of building such an immense project, which originally included a second golf course and many more buildings, said Goldstein. However, he said those costs will be reduced in the revised plan. For example, the 8.2 miles of roads that would have been constructed under the old plan have been reduced to 3.2 miles in the revised plan. He noted the first phase of construction is the building of one of the hotels, which will be located across from the entry to the Belleayre ski area. Besides precluding much new road construction, the hotel “fits a generally acknowledged need for lodging in this area,” said Goldstein.
Rakow said that although the resort will be smaller, it also will cost more, raising new questions about the financing and possible risk to the taxpayer. He said the original projected cost of $250 million has ballooned to $400 million, thanks to the delays and the additional green building requirements.
Alworth acknowledged that the compromise isn”™t perfect. He noted that the opposition, however, had been running out of options. Former Gov. George Pataki had thrown out six of the coalition”™s 12 issues, including the secondary growth impact, which limited the effectiveness of the adjudication process. “If we”™d gone to court to adjudicate, the risk is that the whole east side goes back on the table,” he said. “We”™ve got to this solution because we have exhausted the science, the politics and the law. We had no handles left to oppose it.”
U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, first called for a reduction in the resort”™s size a couple of years ago, a proposal that Gitter initially rejected. Hinchey has repeatedly voiced concerns about the project”™s impact both on the water supply and the current tourism economy, which he noted was dependent on the protection of the Catskill Preserve. “Revenue generated by the more than one-half-million annual visitors to the affected areas remains the lifeblood of the economy,” he said in a statement. “Any action that would negatively impact the scenic and ecological resources within the park would have significant adverse consequences to the tangible economic benefits currently being realized within those communities.”
At the press conference, Gitter said he hoped to begin construction in the fall of 2008 and be open in time for the 2010-11 ski season.
Â
