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Board Wants Meeting on Development Pitch
12.26.2006
Michael Woyton
Poughkeepsie Journal
DOVER PLAINS — The Dover town board has asked a proposed public meeting on the former Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center be delayed.
At a recent public workshop with Benjamin Companies representatives, the town board asked the developer to continue working on alternatives to parts of the proposed development before information is presented to the public.
"If you go in front of the townspeople with something the town hasn't signed off on, it will cause friction," Councilman Richard Hawthorne said.
He said it should wait until the developer can put a plan before the board on which everyone can agree.
"If it takes another year, it takes another year," Hawthorne said.
The 800-acre Dover Knolls development is owned by the Benjamin Companies, a Long Island firm that purchased the former hospital in October 2003 for $3.95 million.
Nearly 1,400 homes
Almost 1,400 residential units, ranging from apartments and townhouses to estate-type homes, are being proposed.
About 900 homes would be built within a half mile of the Metro-North Railroad station, if approved as planned.
Alternative scenarios include preserving the 83-acre Dykeman property, which Benjamin purchased for more housing, and leaving 90 percent of land more than a half mile from the railroad station as open space.
Michael Zarin, attorney for the developer, said his client wanted to get a sense from the board that, conceptually, the overall plan, as presented so far, works. After that, he said the fine tuning, along with the environmental review, can proceed.
"We get a lot of calls," Zarin said, "asking what's happening.
"We thought that the board and the developer would go before the public and tell them what we have been working on," he said.
Town Attorney Shannon Martin LaFrance said the developer didn't need to wait for board consensus on the entire project before starting environmental studies.
She urged all parties to continue cooperation.
"Compromise isn't a bad word," LaFrance said. "That's going to be road that leads us all to the place we want to go."
Michael Woyton can be reached by mwoyton@poughkeepsiejournal.com
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