DEC puts the brakes on Tusten ridge top subdivision proposal

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

NARROWSBURG, NY — At least 50 citizens gathered at the town hall on Monday, July 21 for a public hearing on Eagle’s Nest Estates, a 146-acre subdivision Robert Wiegers proposes to develop along an Upper Delaware ridgeline, just south of the Ten Mile River confluence.

However, before the hearing commenced, the Tusten Planning Board provided a letter from Scott Sheeley of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), who argued that disturbance of a bald eagle nest is likely to occur if buffer zones are not incorporated into subdivision plans drawn by engineer Ronald Meyer.

DEC determined that such disturbance will likely lead to abandonment of the nest, which would constitute a taking, or unlawful disruption of normal behavior patterns and actions of bald eagles, a federally listed threatened species. Sheeley recommends that Wiegers eliminate development of lots 15 and 16.

Further, Sheeley said the planning board is not the appropriate agency to lead the environmental review of the plans, unless the members resolve to require changes suggested by DEC to mitigate bald eagle disturbance. Until new plans are drawn, the public hearing has been postponed.

The Friends of Crawford Road, an environmental watch group comprised of property owners below the ridge owned by Wiegers, believe the subdivision does not conform to town zoning law, and their spokesman, Frank Bernarducci, is pleased with DEC’s initiative.

“I think the DEC has made the appropriate comments. They have reiterated the points we have made all along. We are not opposed to development; we want to see the tax base increase, but not at the cost of the river, which is the Main Street of Tusten,” Bernarducci said.

Regarding the nest, DEC wildlife biologist Peter Nye said, “No land-alteration work has occurred in the vicinity of the subject nest, and the eagles returned this year and raised two young. The pair first nested there in 1993 and have had one of the longest stretches of comparable nesting success, fledging 23 eaglets since that time. That is an average of over two young per nesting attempt, quite high for eagles.”

Cell tower expedited

In other business, Rick Lander expressed his interest to erect a 300-foot communications tower on his Royal Oaks Estates property south of Narrowsburg. Last year, the town gave Lander a special use permit for a 200-foot tower, but radio communications engineer David Groth said, “At or below 200 feet, cell phone coverage begins to tighten up because of geography of the region.”

Lander plans to use a single-column guide tower, supported by cables. He plans to buy the tower from Bill Reynolds and move it from its current home in Monticello.

“We work with a number of lenders to link them with carriers and providers,” Reynolds said, indicating that Lander should not have trouble attracting cellular phone companies to the area.

Groth also said the higher tower should prevent the region from needing to erect more, lower towers.

Aside from one member’s concern about visibility of the tower from the river, Jackson surmised that the planning board and townspeople reached consensus that the region needs cell phone reception, and Lander filled out an application for a public hearing, which the board scheduled for August 18 at 7:00 p.m.

Code Enforcement Officer Stephen Stuart said the tower should only be visible briefly to paddlers on the river, and Supervisor Richard Crandall argued that the price of saving a life in emergencies as a result of better cell phone reception offsets considerations of visual impact.