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Round 3: The Woods project in Philmont
By DEBORAH E. LANS
PHILMONT – This paper has followed the “progress” of the Woods housing proposal in Philmont since 2022 (stories ran on November 17, 2022 and April 27, 2023). That progress can best be described as circular, and the planning process itself is indicative of the challenges facing developers of all kinds in New York’s “home rule” environment.
The Woods project is for 16 market-rate homes to be built on a 22-acre site in Philmont, near Summit Lake. The parcel sits on a wooded hillside, across Summit Lake from the village, and is bounded on one side by an 11-acre conservation area that abuts the lake and on the other, uphill side by a large development called Summit Heights.
Before the Woods project was proposed by two local builders (through Clover Reach Partners), the town had approved proposals for a 140-unit development and a 72-unit project on the site. Both of those projects had been abandoned. The current zoning for the site would permit construction of some 44 one- or two-family homes, each on ½ acre lots.
Before the current owners bought the site, it had been on the market for more than seven years. Many Philmont residents walk the site on a trail that mistakenly was built through it by a Boy Scout.
A vocal group of homeowners and renters (Summit Lake Conservation Group), who mainly live on the village side of Summit Lake and would face the Woods, has vigorously opposed the project. The group’s concerns include damage to a site that may be a fly-over area for eagles (the group has not found any nests) and hosts other wildlife, diminished biodiversity, harm to their views and those of other town residents (even though the developers have provided renderings showing minimal effect on the viewshed) and a devaluation of neighboring properties (even though the homes to-be-built would sell at prices higher than most in Philmont).
Many village residents also express a kind of inverse NIMBYism, worrying that the project would alter the character of the community by bringing in wealthy homeowners (likely from “downstate”), diluting the scruffy nature of the village, albeit the project would also increase the tax base and bring in substantial other revenue.
Under New York’s home rule approach, approval for the project lies with the Village of Philmont or, more specifically and primarily, its Planning Board. State and local laws spell out the process for approval of a project like the Woods, the documents required to be submitted and the issues to be addressed, including environmental impacts that largely surface through review of the SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) form which an applicant must file.
Generally, a large subdivision undergoes a two-step review process, with a preliminary plan presented for planning board approval, following which a project is developed and receives a final approval, certifying compliance with the preliminary plans. Review entails examining engineering issues such as water runoff to flow from the construction, detailed engineering drawings, site plans for the homes, driveway and roadway details, clearing that will be done, and environmental impacts.
In late 2022, the Woods project received preliminary approval from the Philmont Planning Board. The opponents filed a petition for review with the state Supreme Court. Petitions for review typically entail detailed legal submissions by the parties. After the filing, one of the developers lamented that the monies expended by both sides and the village might better have been spent on efforts to rehabilitate suboptimal Summit Lake conditions.
On January 13, Judge Richard Mott sent the matter back to the Philmont Planning Board, on the basis that the public hearing it held (a public hearing is required for subdivision proposals) improperly occurred prior to the time that the application for the project was complete.
Although Judge Mott did not then invalidate the SEQRA finding the board had made – stating that the project raised no significant environmental issues – he did require a new public hearing on a complete application. He also pointed out that the board had failed to articulate the basis on which it was varying (as might be permitted) from requirements concerning access road width – a safety issue in the event of a fire or like circumstance.
On March 20, the Planning Board held the required public hearing. Among the opposition’s complaints was that the developers had barely amended their proposal, notwithstanding the many environmental concerns they had raised. Opponents demanded that the board conduct a new SEQRA review to address those issues.
After the hearing, the Planning Board met on April 17 and summarily approved the proposal by a 4-1 vote. The board did not articulate the basis for its acceptance of the narrower access road – a requirement flagged by Judge Mott’s decision – and it did not require a new SEQRA submission or conduct any further environmental review.
Unsurprisingly, another petition for review was filed before Judge Mott. Legal expenses mounted on both sides, as well as for the village itself. The project meanwhile was in limbo.
On October 13 Judge Mott rendered another decision. Again, he sent the project back to the Planning Board. He found that the changes – the minor nature of which was a complaint of opponents at the last public hearing – were nevertheless sufficiently substantive as to require a new SEQRA review prior to a public hearing. Judge Mott also found that the board could not waive certain access road width requirements. Other objections to the project were deferred until after the necessary follow-up environmental review and hearing process at the Planning Board.
The Summit Lake Conservation Group was “euphoric” that its concerns about the safety of the access road were validated by Judge Mott, according to member Karen Schoemer. The group hopes that – whether or not required by Philmont’s laws – the developers will now negotiate the details of the project with them, giving greater consideration to alternate plans, like clustered housing, which might lessen concerns about the environmental impacts of the project, the potential for damaging runoff, the degree of tree-clearing, the possibilities of harm to the ecosystem of the lake and the woods in which the project will be built.
The developers in turn are considering their options. Their goal continues to be – “In the midst of a climate crisis” – to build energy efficient homes in an environmentally-sensitive manner in a county that is experiencing a housing crisis, according to partner Jock Winch. Andrew Personette, a Philmont resident and another of the developers, says he is dismayed that “development” is viewed as a four-letter word.
Although the Philmont code would permit the building of nearly triple the number of homes as the project envisions, he and his partners have chosen to keep the project smaller. Although the Philmont code would not prohibit them from clear-cutting the trees, they have created a design that preserves more than 65% of mature trees in the project area. They have also promised permanently to dedicate about 20% of the site to conservation.
Last, the developers are quizzical about the fact that the opposition, which has dubbed itself a “conservation group,” is forcing the construction of an access road that will require substantially additional tree clearing and potential for runoff.
Affordable housing advocates point to the complexities of New York’s legal structure as one factor impeding the construction of more housing. Regulations start at the state level and affect many environmental and safety issues, as the Woods case shows. In addition, local laws may implement and amplify the rules and vary from town to town. Finally, the application and administration of the laws happens at the most local level.
Planning and Zoning Board members are required to undertake four hours of annual training on the law and their responsibilities under it. Compliance with the training requirement varies from town to town. The four hours can include a wide array of topics, and most are covered only superficially.
As a result, often (as was true in Philmont) when a significant project is proposed, a town’s attorney may sit in on the board meetings to advise and in hopes of avoiding costly missteps.
While the Woods is not an affordable housing project, its still-unfolding tortuous history illustrates why many believe that the state’s legal requirements and permitting procedures must be revisited, simplified and made uniform if the state is to see housing built to the degree it so dearly needs.
Disclosure: The author is the chair of the Austerlitz Planning Board.
Officials: COVID surge will last through January
By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
ALBANY — The COVID-19 surge is expected to last through the end of January, according to county officials.
The current surge in Albany County — with an unprecedented 1,003 new COVID positive cases in a one-day period Friday — is anticipated to follow similar surges of the omicron variant in other parts of the world, Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen, M.D., said at a press conference Friday.
“The forecast, according to the modeling that is being done, is that this will peak quickly,” Whalen said. “Our numbers will likely continue to grow through the end of January, and then hopefully, if the models follow what has been seen in South Africa and in the United Kingdom, we will hopefully see a steep drop-off.”
“I know people are tired of hearing these messages again and again, but we really need to work together and band together in our preventative efforts over the next couple of weeks to get over this surge,” Whalen added. “This is a critical time.”
Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy urged residents not to panic over the rising case numbers.
“Just two days ago, we had 471 positive cases and that was the highest we had, but we have learned a lot in the last two years. We learned how to move on and to base it on hospital statistics,” McCoy said Friday. “Before that record, it was 351, set way back on Jan. 12, a year ago.”
To address the latest surge in infections, the county has partnered with Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple and the state to hand out at-home test kits and KN95 masks, which were distributed locally at the village and town offices right before Christmas.
McCoy addressed concerns of vaccinated individuals who have become infected with a break-through case.
“I know people who aren’t really going out, who are so careful… They have been doing everything right for two years, but now they are COVID positive,” McCoy said. “The vaccine is doing its job — it is keeping people out of hospitals and it is keeping people from getting really sick. All the anti-vaxxers and those who don’t want to get the vaccine, look around you — 59% of the people in the hospital are unvaccinated. The people who are getting deathly sick are unvaccinated. The people who get COVID and have a little headache and a cold — the vaccine did its job.”
“We never said the vaccine was going to stop you from getting it,” McCoy added. “It was going to prevent you from getting deathly sick. So please, don’t panic.”
The county at press time had distributed 9,000 test kits in schools and to individuals, and 500 more tests were expected to go to school districts this week, with a second batch of test kits and face masks anticipated for distribution in communities shortly, McCoy said.
The full impact of the steep rise in cases Friday remained unknown, the county executive said at Friday’s press conference.
“We still don’t know the impact this spike in infections will have from today with the 1,000 new positive cases, but hospitalization and ICU numbers remained relatively stable over the course of the past two weeks,” McCoy said. “But if you look at New York City, there is a rise in hospitalizations, particularly among children. It went up 400% in New York City and in Suffolk and Nassau counties. I don’t want that to happen here — I am hoping [the omicron variant] comes in quick, and then leaves as quick as it came in.”
While the number of infections countywide has spiked, the number of hospitalizations has not risen proportionally, McCoy said.
“The reasons hospitals are not overwhelmed right now is largely because of our high vaccination rate,” he said. “I take pride in our vaccination rate — we are at 79% of the entire population of Albany County with at least one dose of the vaccine and 72% of the population is fully vaccinated. We can stop this and get back to some type of normalcy if everyone just gets the vaccine that is eligible to get the vaccine.”
Even with the high number of infections in December, the county saw 24 virus deaths, compared to 63 COVID deaths in December 2020, McCoy said.
Thea Dalfino, M.D., chief medical officer at St. Peter’s Health Partners, said her hospital had 82 COVID patients as of Friday, with 11 in the intensive-care unit and six on ventilators, the vast majority of them unvaccinated.
The hospital, however, is being overwhelmed with individuals looking to get tested for COVID-19, she said.
“In the hospitals, we are being overrun in our emergency departments with patients coming in with very mild symptoms or some with no symptoms requesting COVID testing,” Dalfino said. “We are making a plea to either get the at-home tests if you can find them, or go to urgent care or call your health care provider. Our emergency departments are for our sickest patients — those with shortness of breath or prolonged fever or severe dehydration. We really need to have our testing supplies for the patients who absolutely need it and who we can potentially treat.”
Deliveries of COVID treatments such as monoclonal antibodies were expected to be delivered to area hospitals this week, Dalfino said.
The dramatic rise in infections was not unexpected, Whalen said.
“We are starting to see what we had forecasted, which is exponential spread,” Whalen said. “This is likely due to the omicron variant.”
In the first half of December, omicron accounted for 30.9% of COVID infections statewide, Whalen said. Between Dec. 15 and Dec. 28, that number had risen to 74%.
“So omicron is the predominant strain that is circulating in New York state and we know that omicron is more transmissible than the delta variant, so this means more people will get infected,” Whalen said.
It is not too late for individuals who are unvaccinated to get inoculated, Whalen added.
“Vaccination is the best strategy to get us out of this, it is the best strategy to protect yourself and your family,” she said.
Face masks and social distancing remain critical during the surge, along with vaccinations and booster shots, Whalen said.
“All the community mitigation strategies that we discussed will be crucial in the next few weeks,” the health commissioner said. “It is true and there is some good news that omicron preliminarily seems less severe than the delta variant and that symptoms may be a little milder. The mild symptoms that we are seeing are likely due to the fact that people getting break-through cases are vaccinated. I don’t want people to think that if you are unvaccinated and you get omicron that it won’t be as bad.”
The omicron variant is more highly transmissible than previous iterations of the virus, so the total number of infections is higher, Whalen said. Going to the hospital for testing is strongly discouraged, she added.
“If you have mild symptoms, the hospital is no place to be tested for COVID-19,” Whalen said. “We know that tests right now are a scarcity. If you are feeling unwell, you should get a test if you can, but for now, given the spread that we are seeing, I would assume that your symptoms are attributable to COVID-19.”
