It was standing room only at the Town of Fremont Town Hall on Wednesday, August 12, as concerned townspeople met for a regular town meeting at which the proposed Long Eddy river access improvement project was on the agenda.

The Delaware Highlands Conservancy (DHC) is under contract to buy a riverfront property next to the existing access currently occupied only by a house severely damaged by the 2006 flooding. It plans to transfer the property to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which has agreed to develop infrastructure to improve the river access there. The National Park Service has agreed to maintain the access. However, there has been a significant amount of opposition in the town to the initial “concept plan” for the access issued by the Sullivan County Planning Department, which depicts a parking lot with spaces for boat trailers and cars. A petition with more than 200 names on it has been circulated to try to squelch the project, which some critics refer to as “a parking lot on the river.”

Sue Currier, executive director of the DHC, was present at the meeting to address such concerns. She assured the board and townspeople that the DHC has no interest in foisting anything unwanted on the community. “It doesn’t have to be a parking lot. It could be that it’s just a place for a picnic area and a park,” she said. Heather Jacksy of the Sullivan County Planning Department was also there, and weighed in with similar remarks. “We don’t want to give you a parking lot if you don’t want a parking lot,” she said.

There are some residents who support developing the site in some fashion. Don Downs, who lives on one side of the parking lot and whose letter and proposal were printed in last week’s editorial section, presented another plan at the meeting as a possible alternative that would still have parking spaces, but he believes would be more practical than the initial concept plan, would leave many large trees standing and would address complaints regarding issues such as traffic flow. But most of those who commented at the meeting seemed critical of any type of development that would provide greater facility for parking, with reasons ranging from, “If you build it, they will come,” and fears that an influx of visitors “will ruin the whole atmosphere of the town,” to concerns that a parking lot could become a nighttime venue for drug use and other illegal activities.

Currier proposed to hold a session or sessions in the Town of Fremont in late September, at which townspeople’s ideas and suggestions about what they want for the site, including the points raised at Wednesday’s town meeting, could be taken into account, and a steering committee formed that would include a town board appointee. Superintendent George Conklin considered it premature to name anybody to such a body, but he and the rest of the board expressed themselves as open to the idea of community workshops at which town residents could provide input as to what they would like to see on the property. No precise dates were set, however.

After all who wished to comment had spoken, Conklin said “I would ask the board that I could poll them at the October meeting, as to some form of opinion about it... whether it should happen.” Although decisions about what type of development will ultimately be permitted at the site fall properly under the planning board’s purview, Conklin said, “It is a significant issue on the table,” and said he felt that the repercussions it has for the tax rolls and the residents of Long Eddy are important enough that the board should take a position.