December 2017 The Year Behind;The Year Ahead

Fallsburg’s Future is a group of concerned local residents. We have been closely following Fallsburg’s town meetings and advocating for the kind of development that will ensure a healthy town for all of us to enjoy in the years ahead. We learned a lot about the town’s planning process during this eventful year, and look forward to 2018 -- with eyes wide open. We believe our attendance and participation in the Comprehensive Plan Update since August (a process that should be completed early next year) helped shape the CPU’s far-reaching recommendations and establish many of the new regulations in the Town’s revised zoning code and districting map that will guide decisions for the next decade.

We supported the Town Board’s unanimous decision to impose a year-long moratorium on the authorization of new residential developments in order to give the town the time to undertake the CPU. The moratorium, which allowed for many exceptions, concluded last July. Systematic implementation of the CPU’s recommendations in the coming years should go a long way to preserving the rural nature of our town. The CPU has the elements needed to moderate the trend that has allowed Fallsburg’s rapid and poorly conceived suburban-style development over the past decade. If Fallsburg had implemented the recommendations of the previous 2006 Comprehensive Plan, we would not be facing the serious challenges before us today. The surge of residential developments and gated communities threatens to overwhelm our natural habitats, our roads, sewer and water systems. It is the type of development that does not encourage year-round economic sustainability or a sense of shared community that is at the heart of thriving small-town life.

The current draft of the CPU, which is the fruit of the work of a seven-person committee of representative residents and the consulting firm hired by the town, has many strong points, including:

- Increasing the land area of the AG district, which helps protect more farmland from development

- Greater control over acreage requirements for homes built in the REC districts which eliminates the ability of developers to increase the number of homes they are allowed to build

- Greater regulation of Duplex Developments that can improve their visual impact and help make them more a part of the community - Expansion of rules for conservation design methods, including Cluster Development that will help establish more Open Space

- Stricter regulation of summer camps that limits the ability to develop year-round homes within them

- Creating the Neversink River Overlay Protection District which will help protect the town’s primary aquifer Members of Fallsburg’s Future, in addition to having a representative on the Comprehensive Planning Committee, attended all Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) meetings to monitor development projects and speak in the interest of the community when possible. We presented compelling charts, maps and information highlighting our concerns at various venues, including at events like the Columbia Hill Neighborhood Alliance “Friend-Raiser” in August.

We also reported on the meetings through our website and emailed Updates and Reports that keep interested residents abreast of the often obscure developments at town meetings. Our reports circulated through our Facebook page and the Rock Hill Neighborhood Coalition Newsletter as well as the Basha Kill Area Association newsletter, The Guardian, reaching thousands of interested residents.

2018 Preview

We are very clear what the next phase of Fallsburg’s healthy development requires. We are looking closely at ways to support Fallsburg officials in the implementation of the recommendations of the soon-to-be-adopted Comprehensive Plan Update.

We expect that transparency and timeliness regarding the availability of public documents and meetings will be given serious attention.

We hope that the town will create some form of implementation committee that will work on a voluntary basis with town officials to find solutions that will be financially feasible for Fallsburg.

The challenges we face are many but not insurmountable. Everyone recognizes the growing problem of traffic congestion and safety, for example. While the creation of more sidewalks may be financially prohibitive given Fallsburg’s budget constraints, we can envision improvements, such as white lines delineating protected pedestrian traffic, that will make our roads safer at lower cost. Zombie properties, which are ugly, depressing and dangerous, should also be on the short list.

We anticipate collaborating with the Delaware River Watershed Initiative to bring greater awareness to the need to protect our precious water resources in the Neversink and Mongaup watershed areas.

We hope to work with Catskill Mountainkeeper and other important environmental organizations that bring together smaller community groups like Fallsburg’s Future to study our problems and come up with feasible solutions that our town can afford.

We will continue to engage with our municipal officials, pressing them to find the resources to ensure code enforcement, infrastructure requirement surveys, and continuing planning efforts.

And we encourage residents, especially those with legal, financial, environmental and economic expertise, to join in our activities and efforts to promote ecologically sound and sustainable growth in our community. Please visit our website (www.fallsburgsfuture.com), sign up for our email Alerts and Reports and follow us on our Facebook page.

We are planning for a Spring Meet and Greet for Fallsburg’s Future so stay tuned for more details.

Let’s get Fallsburg back on the right track with a vision that includes all its residents!

All the best for the holidays and the year ahead,

Fallsburg’s Future Executive Committee