Representatives and principals of the entity Woodstock National LLC have appeared before the Woodstock Planning Board to present the initial concept for a major development on about 520 acres in the Town of Woodstock. An additional parcel of land proposed for use in the development is in the Town of Ulster. The initial concept calls for the creation of up to 24 affordable housing units, 90 single-family homes in a conservation subdivision, 77 townhouses on the land in Ulster, an 18-hole golf course and a helipad located on what currently is an FAA-approved landing strip.
The site is Woodstock’s Zena Critical Environmental Area and Planning Board Chairman Peter Cross underscored that avoiding wetlands and wetlands buffers, forest preservation and preservation of wildlife habitat would be high on the board’s list of areas to be studied.
Alec Gladd of the White Plains-based law firm Cuddy & Feder said that the developers intend to preserve as much of the forest cover as is possible.
“The individual lots will be limited to the clearing that’s necessary for driveways, wells, the building envelope and just some area around for like a deck, pool and maybe a shed,” Gladd said. “At the south of the site we’re looking to construct multifamily affordable housing, 12 to 24 units. Putting it on its own parcel allows us to build it at a bigger scale than maybe it would be if integrated throughout the development with a goal of just maximizing the amount of affordable housing units.”
Gladd said that in about the middle of the layout would be the 90 single-family market-rate homes in a cluster subdivision design, which will preserve 50% of the land as open space.
“There are 55n acres of wetlands throughout the site with 111 acres of buffer area which we will be avoiding,” Gladd said. “There’s no direct wetlands disturbance and all the housing locations avoid any placement within a wetlands or a wetlands buffer.”
Gladd said that the 18-hole golf course would be largely in Woodstock with a few of the holes in Ulster.
“There would be a clubhouse, a driving range, a golf performance center and 16 rental villas for use by members only,” Gladd said. He explained that members of the golf club would be able to rent the villas for use by their guests who come to visit but the villas would not be available to the general public as would be hotel rooms.
Cross explained that the current discussions of concepts for any future development are preliminary and Woodstock’s Planning Board would be awaiting a formal application with site plans covering a multitude of details. The Town of Ulster also would need to approve development plans for the land under its jurisdiction.
