What Effect Will Ulster Gardens Really Have on Our Town?

 Developer Jonah Mandelbaum faced a tough crowd at the public hearing of his project Ulster Gardens (aka Roundout Gardens North), this past week from neighbors that expressed very serious concerns about the impact that this project would have on the quality of life in the town. Issues of traffic were brought up, as well as the large size of the project.

Lets not forget we are talking 164 units, 50+ of those units are "affordable housing",  the staff at The Ulster Report is very concerned at the way this is being rushed through. It's being rushed through with strong support from Supervisor Quigs who got testy at the public hearing from neighbors voicing their concerns and from what we hear there may be video (stay tuned).

 When Rupco built Woodstock Commons, the town of Woodstock had Rupco complete an F.E.I.S., which stands for : Final Environmental Impact statement.

An F.E.I.S. is pretty much a tool for decision making. It's a document that will describe the positive and negative environmental effects of what is being proposed (the proposed action being Ulster Gardens) and is an essential resource for the planning board  to be able to look at to determine how the quality of life or quality of the human environment will be effected.

We feel it is really important that the town ask Mr.Mandelbaum to complete that study.  There is so many unanswered questions to a lot of  serious issues that could have potentially devastating effects on our residents and the local environment.  Besides the endangered species that could exist on that site like the Indiana bat and certain turtles; there was a draft E.I.S. done in Sept. 2006 that said the proposed site is considered highly sensitive for containing Native American era archaeological deposits. It also should be noted that Woodstock Commons (which was required to complete the study) is about half the size of what is being proposed for Roundout Gardens North.

There is no down side to having this done, it can only benefit the town and it's residents. We are not against development but why not have the best information possible so an informed decision can be made in the best interest of the town and our residents. What say you Mr. Supervisor?