Bethel plans its future on the ‘urban edge’

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

BETHEL, NY — Bethel’s makeover was being planned like never before as local officials, planners and performing arts center executives met at the August 11 town board meeting.

Commercial development in White Lake. Nearly $4 million in municipal sewer infrastructure along Route 17B. Four new zoning districts. New sidewalks to give the Kauneonga/White Lake area an improved village appearance.

Planner Tom Shepstone presented the town’s new comprehensive plan, which he completed with assistance from the Sullivan County Division of Planning and Community Development. Shepstone will begin preparing the plan’s review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. Public hearings will be scheduled over the next few months.

Gerry Foundation Executive Director Jonathan Drapkin attended the meeting to tell residents about the municipal sewer extension that will be built to run from the foundation’s Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, along Hurd Road and to 17 B, where it will connect with the current system.

The foundation has been working with the town to determine the best way to provide such infrastructure for Bethel Woods, which will open in July 2006 with a performance by the New York Philharmonic.

“It was rather an expensive solution for us, but the foundation wanted to provide this. And we think it’s in the interest of the town. The town has agreed that this will provide an opportunity for economic development,” Drapkin said.

“It will be our obligation to provide the funding either directly or indirectly through grants. We’re estimating that to be approximately four million dollars,” he said.

Bethel Supervisor Vicki Vassmer Simpson said the extension fits in with the town’s desire to promote economic growth along 17B, an initiative that the comprehensive plan lays out in the practical terms of zoning districts. The plan would replace the town’s existing master plan, created in the 1960s.

It would provide a foundation for updating zoning laws to accommodate Bethel’s 18-percent growth rate and guide future residential and commercial development.

If approved, the plan would establish four new zoning districts of increasing density along 17B: an agricultural district along the highway from Bethel’s western border to Perry Road; one that would permit small motels and hotels along the highway in the vicinity of the entrance to Bethel Woods; one that encourages commercial development in White Lake, Kauneonga Lake and along 17B to Pine Grove Road (an area Shepstone said should be like a “true village or hamlet”); and one that would allow higher density along the eastern stretch of the highway in Bethel as well as by the Sullivan County Airport.

Shepstone said that Bethel’s character is still predominantly defined by forests and farmland. Of the town’s approximately 58,000 acres of land, about 40,000 remain forest, and only about 3,400 acres are occupied by residential properties.

However, he said the town has seen a “quantum change” over the past decade: “Now there are more permanent homes than seasonal,” he said, adding, “Bethel is on the urban edge” at the center of the county. He also said many residents expressed their preference that the town preserve its rural character.

The proposed comprehensive plan can be viewed at www.shepstone.net/Bethel.

Bethel to adopt Toronto Dam Road

The board unanimously passed a resolution, committing to the adoption of the Totonto Dam Road once the topcoat of the road surface is applied to bring it into compliance with town specifications.

“We just have to go through the formality of a closing,” Simpson said. “It’s basically approved.”