The Planning Board recently voted 4-1 to grant a “negative declaration” for the expansion of the former Blackhead Mountain Lodge and Country Club under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR). This means the owner of the site, a California-based company called “RCBG JV Manager LLC,” won’t need to conduct an extensive environmental review before moving forward with it.
“Be it further resolved that the Planning Board issues a Negative declaration for the Action, concluding that the Action will not create any significant adverse environmental impacts and that a draft environmental impact statement is not necessary," said Chairman Joseph Hasenkopf.
According to documents filed by KARC Planning Consultants, a Poughkeepsie-based firm that has been representing the owner in its application with the Planning Board, the project would redevelop the site’s existing lodge, bar and golf course into a tourist resort with more than 120 hotel units, condos, tennis courts, pools, a spa, a wastewater treatment plant, and a restaurant.
For months, organizations like the Sierra Club and residents of the hamlet of Round Top have been arguing that the project does, in fact, pose an environmental risk. Jackie Dinan, secretary of the group Friends of Round Top, says the developer is underestimating the amount of water it would regularly use. The group hired its own hydrogeologist to analyze raw data collected by the developer as it drilled test wells last year. While the developer estimates its water usage at roughly 32 gallons a minute, Dinan says her expert puts that number closer to 35 gallons.
“I think one of the test wells that they drilled was over 600 feet deep — that’s three football fields," she says. "A well-financed developer can go as deep as they want and pull all the resources out, leaving the neighbors with their privately-drilled wells really struggling to access clean water for their homes.”
The Planning Board did not return a request for comment from WAMC, but the resolution finalizing the negative SEQR declaration requires the project to adhere to any standards set by the state Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Conservation, with potable water usage at no more than 32 gallons a minute. Hasenkopf also told KARC Consultants that, in order for the project to be approved, the developer needs to have a bond in place to cover any damage to nearby roads or wells during construction.
Friends of Round Top also worries the resort could discharge treated wastewater into a nearby stream, disrupt wildlife, remove 11 acres of forest, spike traffic, and increase the risk for flooding and landslides in the area.
“The consequences simply aren't a 1:1 or are always direct," she adds. "There are indirect consequences, and that’s what we were hoping a positive declaration, which is what we feel would have been the appropriate thing to happen [would do], that you look at all these things.”
Dinan says communication with the Planning Board hasn’t been great, and she feels the Board isn’t looking at these things in favor of economic development. The resort would be the largest development in the town’s history, according to officials. In its application, KARC has said the resort will bring jobs and customers to local businesses.
In public hearings on the subject, some residents have asked board members if they have a conflict of interest. Others, like Cairo Highway Superintendent Art Evans, have defended them.
“I know them to be good, honorable people, and for you to get up here and question their integrity and sully their reputations through insinuation was despicable," he said. "You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Dinan says she’s skeptical that the resort will really boost business in Cairo. Depending on how luxurious it turns out to be, she doesn’t see why guests would need to go into town for anything. But she understands the appeal in rural areas like Greene County that might not have a lot of development.
“We’re not anti-business. We want to preserve and protect the environment not simply as it is — we understand development is going to happen," she explains. "But we’d like it to happen in a way that’s balanced and doesn’t disrupt all the natural and man-made resources and beauty that are up there.”
The Planning Board still needs to approve the site plan and grant permits for the project.
