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.
