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Hearing for zone change by state park - 17 July, 2005
By LAURA INCALCATERRA
THE JOURNAL NEWS
A controversial housing project that would be in the midst of Sterling Forest State Park will be the subject of a public hearing tomorrow.
That's fine with Lou Heimbach, who has worked for nearly five years to bring to fruition his plans for a luxury housing development.
He started out in 2000 pitching an 18-hole golf course and 103 single-family homes on a parcel of more than 500 acres surrounded by the state park.
But the presence of timber rattlesnakes forced him to drop the golf course from his plans last year. New York state classifies the timber rattler as a threatened species, which prohibits their collection or killing, which could occur if their habitat were altered.
Heimbach's company, Sterling Forest LLC, is asking the Tuxedo Town Board to grant a zone change for the Orange County property, just over the border from Rockland.
Current zoning allows Heimbach to build 55 detached homes and up to 2 million square feet of light industrial uses and office space. He wants a zone change that would allow 107 single-family homes, but no office or industrial space, in a project called Sterling Forge Estates.
The Tuxedo Town Board will hold a public hearing on the environmental impact review that is required before Heimbach can get the new zoning. The hearing is to solicit comment on the project's draft supplemental environmental impact statement.
Sue Scher, co-chairwoman of the Sterling Forest Partnership, which opposes Heimbach's project, said the project's potential environmental impact had not been properly reviewed and the impact statement was incomplete.
The original statement focused on the golf course, but didn't focus enough attention on the housing, Scher said. Updating an impact statement that didn't focus on the housing to begin with was not a proper review, she said.
She said details were lacking about where the homes would be; the severity of cuts into the forest to build roads; and the impact on slopes, where disturbance could cause severe erosion, among other problems.
Scher also said the presence and migration of rattlesnakes remained an issue and had not been properly addressed. The Tuxedo woman said the impact statement failed to outline the steps that would be taken to address any impact to the snakes, their habitat and their migration patterns.
Heimbach said his company had spent millions to conduct the proper studies and any decisions regarding the impact statement were not his, but the Tuxedo Town Board's.
Heimbach said the zoning change he sought was very restrictive and would lessen the impact on the area. Homes without light industrial uses and offices would mean fewer paved areas and less traffic, he said.
"I think what we're asking would have far less impact," Heimbach said.
Scher said the project was inappropriate because it was located within the boundaries of Sterling Forest State Park, which scores of people had worked to preserve.
"I believe if there is to be development, it must be the most environmentally responsive development," Scher said.
A collaborative effort led to the creation of Sterling Forest State Park in 1998, when federal and state government grants and private sources provided $55 million to buy and preserve 17,000 acres of the forest in New York.
The area spans the towns of Tuxedo, Warwick and Monroe in Orange County and represents the last large unbroken habitat in the Hudson Highlands. It also is home the Ramapo River watershed, which provides drinking water for 2 million New York and New Jersey residents.
An additional $9 million bought about 1,000 more acres for the park, and several smaller pieces have been added since.
Heimbach said his company had sold the land for the park, and the 500-plus acres now under consideration also had been available, but was not purchased.
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