It has taken about five years since the start of the endeavor and it could still be interrupted by a lawsuit or two, but Rural Ulster Preservation Co. (RUPCO) officials are celebrating the town of Woodstock”™s planning board”™s latest approval of their $14.1 million, 53-unit Woodstock Commons affordable housing project.?The town planning board Aug. 4 adopted a 40-page resolution outlining the conditions under which developers may construct and operate the affordable housing project. RUPCO officials say they expect to break ground next spring.?The project, if it survives legal hurdles, one of which has begun, is to be built on 27 acres behind the Bradley Meadows shopping plaza on state Route 212 and will be clustered on about 7 acres of the property.
RUPCO, a nonprofit, was invited to Woodstock seven years ago by an affordable housing committee seeking a developer to help the town alleviate a shortage in housing that locals could afford. RUPCO followed guidelines in the town comprehensive plan and from the affordable housing committee and selected land near the Bradley Meadows plaza at the eastern gateway to town.
The official review of the environmental impacts began in 2005.
After granting approval in July to RUPCO to finish the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) review for Woodstock Commons, the town was sued in an Article 78 proceeding later that month, based on allegations that terminology in the documents was wrong and that the approval was tainted by conflict of interest. But town officials proceeded undeterred to the next phase of approval, providing the planning board resolution needed to move forward. The lawsuit is pending. Officials and opponents to the project say other suits may be filed.
Woodstock Commons seeks to provide housing both for starter families and senior citizens in the same complex, an intergenerational approach to housing, clustering affordable senior and affordable family housing so that 20 units are set aside for people aged 55 and older and 32 units designated as family units. A dozen units are to be set aside for artists.
