Planning Board to discuss Carvel at special meeting


 

PINE PLAINS — The Planning Board has scheduled a special meeting to discuss the Carvel Development Project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for Wednesday, June 4, at 7 p.m.

Nan Stolzenburg, consultant to the Planning Board, said the board is continuing to research and review the details of the DEIS.

"The board has asked me to look into finding someone to offer another opinion on chapter seven of the DEIS, which gives visual resources," Stolzenburg said. "This is because the board is reacting to the public comments that came in on that chapter. We would like to evaluate comments the board received to see if the comments are correct or not and how to respond to them. We haven’t decided on the person, but as far as I know, we’re moving ahead."

Visual analysis information in the DEIS has been a topic of concern at previous public hearings held on the project.

At a hearing in March, George Janes, executive director of the Environmental Simulation Center of New York City, spoke on behalf of Pine Plains United, a grassroots community group that has sided against the development project.

Janes spoke about the quality of visual simulations in the DEIS, which he said were not very good.

"For the most part, they use best case assumptions to minimize visual impacts of visual resources," Janes said at March’s hearing. "The area of the DEIS I focused on was on chapter seven, which is the visual resources chapter. My conclusions are that the ‘Photoshopped’ simulations do not provide accurate visual resources, which makes it hard to comment on because you don’t have good information to make a judgment. For example, there’s one part where it says trees will be removed from an area, but we still see those trees in the visual simulation."

When asked about the Planning Board’s intention to hire another person to evaluate chapter seven, Jordan Barowitz, Durst Organization’s director of external affairs, said the company was unaware of the situation.

"We have not been formally notified that the Planning Board intends to retain a visual simulation consultant," Barowitz wrote in an e-mail. "We believe the process is going well and are impressed with the Planning Board’s diligence in reviewing the public’s comments."

If the project is approved, it will add 951 homes to the town, which will be built over 2,200 acres of land purchased by real estate developer Douglas Durst in 2003.

Of that land, 1,772 acres are located in Pine Plains and 428 acres are in neighboring Milan.

Copies of the DEIS are available for public review at the Pine Plains Town Hall, Pine Plains Free Library and the Milan Town Hall. The DEIS may also be viewed at www.carvelpropertydevelopment.com.

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