Developer’s permit pulled

Litigation expected

By FRITZ MAYER

BETHEL, NY — It was supposed to be a permit for a “curb cut,” which would provide entrance into a “wood lot access” affording the owner access to the property. But the entrance, on a busy stretch of Smallwood’s most traveled road, turned out to be much larger. After failing to come to an agreement with the developer on what the curb-cut permit allowed him to do, the Bethel town board revoked the permit for the entrance, and its use is now prohibited.

Councilman Richard Crumley said at the town meeting on August 14 that he and other board members, the town attorney and an engineer had looked at the work performed inside the gated access and determined that the developer had abused the access permit by performing work beyond its scope. The board notified the developer, Robert Van Zandt, who is based in the Bronx, that he could no longer use the entrance.

Councilman Robert Blais said the developer will almost certainly respond with litigation.

The entrance is located on Pine Grove Road in Smallwood, and the developer has a strained history with the town and the residents of Smallwood. Van Zandt owns about 200 acres known as the old golf course in Smallwood. He went to the town board in November 2006 to get approval for a planned unit development (PUD), which would consist of some 200 townhouses.

Residents of Smallwood and, specifically, members of the group Preserve Smallwood Country Life (PSCL), vigorously opposed the PUD, and in the spring of 2007, former Bethel supervisor Harold Russell asked Van Zandt to withdraw his plan. Van Zandt said he planned to pursue it.

Subsequently, at a public hearing regarding Bethel’s zoning changes, PSCL gained support from Delaware Riverkeeper, which said the land in question, a part of Bethel’s watershed to the Delaware River, is environmentally sensitive for reasons relating to freshwater wetlands, wildlife habitat and streams.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) agreed with this assessment and DEC officials informed Bethel officials in May that they want to be informed of any development plans and new development there.

The land is presently subject to a building moratorium as zoning in the town is being updated. Based on the issues of Smallwood’s existing population density and community character, and the DEC and Riverkeeper’s assessment of the property, PSCL has lobbied to have the land zoned forest conservation, which would limit development to one house per five acres of land.

Dan Sturm, the supervisor of Bethel, has said in the past that he agreed that the land should have a forest-conservation designation but that determination has not yet been settled.

In any case, Van Zandt constructed the entrance before obtaining any permit from the town. The town retroactively gave him a permit for the wood-lot access curb cut before later revoking it. In the view of PSCL director Jonathan Hyman, the entrance that Van Zandt created was the start of a process to build a road through the property, which would be tantamount to developing the property and, possibly, a violation of the moratorium. Hyman said, “The town has revoked the permit because the developer exceeded the scope of the original intent stated for the permit, which was for wood lot access to do surveying. What was suggested to the town was something along the lines of a meandering four-wheeler path. By the looks of the disturbance, it appears they are constructing more than that.”

An attorney for Van Zandt declined to comment on the matter at this time.

PSCL and another citizens group, Royce Road Alliance for Responsible Development, in recent months have urged the town board to take a more aggressive approach toward professional developers in the enforcement of zoning and building ordinances and the board is responding.

At the meeting, Crumley said, “We’re tightening up the ship.” He said the board is seeking a new lawyer to serve the planning board, who would be forceful in these matters.