They know it on Central Park West in Manhattan. They know it in the Hamptons. They know it in Amenia.
It”™s all about the view. And Amenia has a beauty: the Harlem Valley as it unfolds from Route 44. It”™s the stuff of Currier & Ives, but because cars enter the scene from on high, there”™s an undeniable IMAX thrill.
“That view, at the end of the day, will remain,” Amenia Planning Board Chairman William Flood said. “That was a huge, huge issue with the public.”
Up till now, Amenia”™s spectacular view has not been enough to drive economic growth. Jobs are few in the rural town of 4,000. Even the sewers have conspired to crimp expansion. The noticeable money in the form of second homes was coming from elsewhere; 9/11 witnessed a spike in interest, according to Flood.
The year 2000 would prove a game-changer for Amenia, even if it only signaled the beginning of what has been an 11-year planning odyssey for both the town and for a developer who wanted to build a village within the town and, in the process, propel the town forward, notably with an already-sited sewage treatment facility it could never have afforded on its own ($5 million).
Silo Ridge, the town and the Dutchess County Planning Board consider the work so far accomplished to be “the new county standard” for such planning, both the town and the developer said, each citing the process as beneficial.
As Silo Ridge”™s head of operations, Robert Cainers said, gesturing south down the Harlem Valley on a sun-splashed early spring day, “Our goal is not to impede this beautiful landscape, but to enhance it. If we ruin this, we”™d really be shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Flood, who as a businessman is principal of Wassaic-based Oblong Valley Real Estate, said the 9/11-fueled surge in regional real estate has put housing beyond the reach of many locals. Silo Ridge promises 1,900 construction jobs for the town of Amenia and an additional 1,000 in the county. When the hammers fall silent, the developer foresees 730 jobs in the town and another 250 for the county. “The jobs. The tax input. The sewage treatment. It”™s win, win, win.”
The developer, Millbrook Associates, commissioned its own study and said per year the MTA would get $189,600 in tax revenue, Dutchess County $2,828,400; and the state $4,041,300.
As for crimping the property tax burden, Silo Ridge puts forth tax input per year of $327,943 to the Amenia Fire Department; $1,547,314 to the town; $2,056,832 to the county and $8,653,433, to the Webutuck School District.
Amenia until 2000 had two zones: one and five acres. That year it embarked on a remake of its comprehensive plan, at least in part because Millbrook Ventures L.L.C. approached Amenia with plans that transcended the town”™s ability to cope: apartments, subterranean gray-water management, a winery and townhouses.
The plan also envisaged ”“ and as a recent tour demonstrated is very actively envisioning ”“ an Ernie Els-designed golf course at the heart of a Robert A.M. Stern-designed village within Amenia. The nearby Wassaic train station provides a one-seat train ride to Manhattan.
Amenia can fail to ring the bell of recognition associated with Millbrook to the west and Litchfield County, Conn., to the east, an observation not lost on Cainers, who sees Amenia as a very marketable, yet thus far unrealized, complement to the region”™s horsey, second home-themed prosperity. “This is the town that time forgot,” he said. “Yes, it’s beautiful, but you see how difficult it is economically when children grow up and they cannot stay because there are no jobs. It breaks up families.”
The lack of modern sewers has long been a drag on development in Amenia, Deputy Supervisor Victoria Perotti said. Millbrook Ventures”™ facility that will handle not only Silo Ridge”™s wastewater, but the Amenia business district, as well, where currently buildings use septic systems.
Perotti, also a two-term councilwoman, said the project has moved forward under three overarching tenets: smart growth near to Metro-North and the crossroads hamlet; environmental awareness, with 537 of the development”™s 670 acres placed in conservation easement and Audubon International as a “partner in environmental stewardship;” and walkability, featuring 18,700 square feet of village-green type retail space, a spa and, for golfers a top-tier 18-hole stroll. Any doubts about charm should be completely quashed by the planned skating pond.
Silo Ridge also plans a 300-unit hotel, a winery restaurant and a conference and banquet center. Housing features 338 residential units offered in six different options ”“ 131 will be condominiums and 41 will be single-family estates. An additional 38 will be either vineyard or golf villas; 69 will be townhomes and there will be 59 “fractional units.”
Silo Ridge has been in the process since 2000 and Cainers, acknowledging the long planning process has been good for all parties ”“ “The town could never have afforded the sewage plant” ”“ said he would like to put a shovel in the ground immediately.
Flood noted the sewage plant was approved in lieu of affordable housing. Affordable housing, ideally, would be less critical in lieu of good jobs and, “It’s a definite jobs generator,” said Silo Ridge spokesperson Ali Sirota. “I think everybody is happy about it in the county.”
Flood anticipates the site plan review with its prescribed steps will take perhaps another year to a year and a half. Silo Ridge was recently granted a two-year extension on its already-accomplished work from the Planning Board, which is lead agency on the project, with Flood acknowledging the recession as slowing the process.
But both Flood and Perotti said that given all the town had done, the project was both on track and well-conceived.
“The right way,” said Perotti. “The only way we know how to do things around here.”
