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massmm PUBLIC mm mmmmmme^^ w THE ALTiUVIpNT •'•>,'-•>'.'• '• ' , .^^^•^S''•v•' , '*''^' • '•>\% - ..v'r; ' : - . J'St' lit §.••- ****** jyQ'pj/jj? ****** DO NOT CLIP ANYTHING from newspapers. This is defacing library property, and anyone found doing this will be held responsible for the cost of the items defaced. ********************************************** No. 3 • THURSDAY; AUGUST 10,2^(56 For 122 years Albany County's independent newspaper High Point[forpreservation land to be€0itie part of Tliacher P#k — Photo by Jeff Thomas Deep woods: A foot path in the Helderbergs along a natural rock formation leads down the escarp- ment to the village of Altamont. Jeff Thomas recently sold the property that contains the geologic features known as High Point and Flat Rock; the 188 acres will increase the size ofThacher Park to ' 2,155 acres. By Melissa Hale-Spencer Delight and joy have been expressed by local leaders and residents \over last Thursday's announcement from the governor's office that 188 acres on the Helderberg escarpment — including High Point — will be added to John Boyd Thacher State Park. The state is purchasing the land from the Open Space Institute for $874,000. The \I'm delighted it's now going to be forever wild, which is what it should be,\ said Robert Price, who chairs the Knox Planning Board. Asked if the land could have been developed, Price said, \Only with great difficulty.\ He went on, \There's very little soil up there. It's good for growing hay. It's riot good for private waste systems. You have to \drill hundreds of feet for 'I'm delighted it's now going to be forever wild, which is what it should be.' institute, a not-for-profit conservation organization that works with the state to preserve open space in the Hudson Valley, bought the land from Jeff Thomas for $2.35 million. Thomas, . the founder, of WeatherGuard'^pbfing who has plans to develop several senior housing- complexes locally, b&ught the bulk of the property *\in 1995fromRobert Whipple for about $300,000. The land, which is located in the'town of Knox overlooking the village of Altamont below, stretches over a mile along the most visible edge of the escarpment. Two-and-a-half years ago, the institute, in the midst of negotiations with Thomas over the purchase, said the land was the final available piece of the escarpment and would be the last link in a chain of acquisitions it has made over the last decade. The purchase Will bring the size of Thacher Park to 2,155 acres. \I'm always delighted to see the preservation of land, particularly those connected to park land,\ James Gaughan, the mayor of Altamgnt, told The Enterprise. \So I applaud the outcome.\ He went on, \I see ourselves as the gateway to the Hilltowns. This is good for all residents and will draw people here and help Altamont business-wise.\. water. There are a great deal of karst features. \The planning board in Knox wouldn't have allowed houses at the edge; that would have made the village, of Altamont a hatigard. We said no to Bob Whipjpte and no to Mr. Thomas and pretty much stuck to it.\ In 2004; Thomas told The Enterprise he \vas considering dividing the land into \large estate parcels.\ Minutes from the Knox Planning Board meeting on Thomas's plan state, \Basically the idea was to have several long lots that went up to the edge of the escarpment, an idea that has been rejected by the board in the past.\ A dozen years before, the previous owner of the property, Robert Whipple, created plans to develop the parcel. Whipple, a farmer, had known the land since his childhood. He was assisted by Randall Arendt, a nationally recognized planner and proponent of cluster- development, who came up with ' a plan for clustering 21 homes on the property. The plan called for each home to be built on a five-acre plot. A path would have traced the undeveloped escarpment edge, and Whipple pledged to farm a field on the land until his death Whipple abandoned his plans after failing to get approval from (Continued on Page 12) 1 V- 8 re 1 1 ill Hilltowns considering strategies to keep rural character intact By Saranac Hale Spencer HILLTOWiNS — Rural char- acter is hard to maintain when farmlands are subdivided into residential plots. Planning Strategies treated to deal with encroaching develop- ment in rural areas aim to-pre : serve open spaces and farmlands while allowing for hew develop- ment in parts of the town. Helderberg towns have been discussing\spine pf these, larid- use cdhtftjis.ln sjn;effp$ to pro-: ted|iieir^^cj^tii^^j['fb|D^.- ' 'Bfei?n^' ,v |i^^,.; i W|sJ4l31p ? and Rensseia6rviile Kaye ^li : |e/c^ntiy considered sortie form of land-use * control, though none have com- mitted to one yet. \There's hot. just one, there has.tob| a lot of strategics,\ said Nan S.tojzeriberg, a planner who lias^prked , with seyeral local municipalities. $he favors a \toplfc()x ri approach to planning, meaning that a town can imple- ment different strategies to reach its goals. Some of the land-use controls laid out in the Helderberg Es- carpment Planning Guide in- clude such common strategies as site plan review, special permits, and variances as well algta haH'- dozen newer ideas like overlay zones, which are additional zoning districts that require more specific building standards for the areas that they cover. The guide is a handbook pro- duced in 2002 by the Helderberg Escarpment Planning Commit- tee that details the environment, (Continued on Page 19) Inside this week's edition starting on page.... • Opinion \HgB2 NeWS |Page9| • \ . .- ;'--.,. '••\ ,fji Community Calendar ^16| Classifieds ?»».&[ Sports l Pa a e27 8 llllllllllll • i •• ' 7\ 1 \•.' II III III Q?;pA IF \ 7 iiS-
