At the New Windsor Town Board Meeting on September 3 the Board unanimously voted to pass a law that will permit dense senior housing to be built on watershed lands of Browns Pond, a City of Newburgh reservoir. Town Supervisor George Green said that, in accordance with the master plan, the area would be “subject to stringent watershed regulations,” but that was not enough for several citizens who spoke during the public forum against having the Browns Pond watershed included in the densely zoned area at all.

Public forum, with City of Newburgh residents and a New Windsor resident speaking out:


Motions passed regarding the overlay zoning (including Browns Pond area):

In addition to the dense senior housing zoning law that was passed, the Board adopted a motion on water conservation, as was also reported by the Times-Herald Record. According to the Record,

The resolution didn’t spell out what that means, but Supervisor George Green says it means things like requiring residential development builders to dig a well to supply things like a lawn sprinkling system. Green says the town often exceeds its daily limit on the water it takes from New York City’s Catskill Aqueduct. When that happens, any water above the limit costs the town about three times the normal rate, Green estimates — and the town has no legal or practical way to pass that cost along to customers.

It is unfortunate that given New Windsor’s apparent need for additional water sources they voted to put watershed lands around Browns Pond in the dense housing zone. Browns Pond is a City of Newburgh reservoir and, given the water agreement between the two municipalities, will be a New Windsor reservoir as well.

Additional coverage here, here, and here.

On August 27, 2008, the Newburgh Waterfront Advisory Committee discussed at their regular meeting concerns about Browns Pond. The Town Board of New Windsor is considering proposed zoning which would permit high density housing to be built on watershed lands for this City of Newburgh reservoir. See additional coverage here and here.

“Here we sit, drinking sediment, because of that decision. And so it affects absolutely everybody who lives in the City of Newburgh.”

“In New Windsor, we used Browns Pond. And when you’d get out of the shower, you’d smell like the swamp. And they finally put out a big tank at Town Hall because the people were afraid to drink the water.”

Denise Ribble describes the proposed overlay district for dense senior housing in New Windsor, which would go within 300 feet of Browns Pond reservoir.

The history of Browns Pond; “in the past, two developments were given permission to build on Browns Pond…”

“To what degree has our City Council been informed of this?”

This Wednesday, September 3, will be the first New Windsor Town Board meeting after a zoning law affecting the reservoir of Browns Pond was tabled at the August meeting (see coverage here, “Is Browns Pond at risk?”)

It is possible that the Board might vote on the proposed code, “Local Law to Amend Chapter 300 Zoning Code – Senior Citizen Housing and Totally Affordable Senior Citizen Housing.”  At issue is proposed zoning that would allow dense development on watershed lands surrounding Browns Pond, a City of Newburgh reservoir.  Despite a robust expression of dissenting voices during the public hearing, Supervisor Green endeavored to dismiss their concerns.  It was only the delivery of a letter from City of Newburgh attorney Marc Gerstman, presented by City of Newburgh Water Department Supervisor John Platt, that moved Green to table the vote.

Bill Steidle, who worked for the DEC for thirty years and is a New Windsor resident, was one of the dissenting voices August 6.  He had this comment for the Newburgh Advocate:

The overlay district, as proposed, tells the world that New Windsor wants high density development on a hand full of parcels within the Brown’s Pond watershed.  It will get just that.  In my opinion, the development will create conditions that cause Brown’s Pond to be unsuitable as a water supply.  The City of Newburgh (and the Town of New Windsor) will then be forced to seek other sources of water.  To fund these expenditures, the Brown’s Pond watershed properties and Brown’s Pond itself will be sold to developers.  This will be a sad ending to New Windsor’s inability to protect the water supply and a myriad of other valuable resources.

City of Newburgh Residents Concerned

On August 27, the City of Newburgh Waterfront Advisory Committee met and had the Browns Pond issue on the agenda.  Mary Ann Prokosch wrote this synopsis from the Newburgh Chatboard Forum:

…The residents of the City need to be made aware of the deterioration of Browns Pond by development that has already occurred in New Windsor and the increased runoff that will further deteriorate the pond by the proposal of New Windsor to continue to allow 14 units per acre to be built around the pond in the form of Sr. Citizen housing. I would suggest every resident contact their councilpeople and city hall with their concerns in regard to the pollution of our water supply…

…The next meeting of New Windsor’s Town Board will be on Wednesday, 9/3 at 7:00 pm at New Windsor Town Hall. It might be a good idea for City of Newburgh residents to show up at this meeting. I don’t know if they would have the opportunity to speak but you might be able to grab a board memeber and express your concerns before the meeting starts. You could even try to give some of them a call before then. A petition would also be another way to express our concerns to this board and our own City government about how this decision by the Town of New Windsor actually has a bigger impact on City of Newburgh residents than Town of New Windsor residents. We need to get on this bandwagon.

Note: The photos above, dated 2001, 2004, and 2007, show Browns Pond and an increase in discoloration of the pond.  Diane Newlander offers her explanation in the opening video here. Supervisor Green offers a rebuttal to these photos (see the same post.) Asked for comment, Bil Steidle offered the following remarks:

I have not heard Supervisor Green’s rebuttal but I do know that he is well aware of the turbidity problems emanating at the Reserve development.  He has driven to Brown’s Pond many times after storm events and observed the discoloration of Brown’s Pond.  Likewise, he has attended many meetings dealing with the issue.  DEC has also been involved with both enforcement actions and attempts to correct the stormwater problems.