New Paltz town review of water park set for Monday By William J. Kemble, news@freemanonline Posted: 07/27/14, 7 Comments NEW PALTZ >> Town Planning Board members on Monday will review the environmental issues that need to be addressed during the site plan approval process for the proposed Wildberry Lodge indoor water park. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Town Hall on state Route 32. “The Planning Board is coming up with a scoping document,” board member Tim Rogers said. “We’ll be looking at what information should be included in that scoping document.” Developer Steve Turk, who owns the Rocking Horse Ranch in Highland, has proposed to build the Wildberry Lodge on two parcels totaling 57.3 acres between the Thruway toll plaza and South Ohioville Road. The indoor water park is proposed to be 70,000 square feet, with some outdoor features, and attached to a hotel with 250 to 275 rooms. “We’ve met with the (state Department of Environmental Conservation) and of course they’ve given us marching orders,” he said. “We pride ourselves on doing things the right way and want to be 100 percent in compliance. It’s all in the (state environmental review) and we want it to be a good project.” Turk in the application wrote that water park will “include aquatic activities and water rides for guests of all ages but primarily cater to families with young, elementary age children. The IWP will consist of several water slides including a giant family raft ride, a Lazy River, small wave pool, and a huge Rain Fortress. “The Rain Fortress is a four-story interactive aqua play structure with dumping buckets, geysers, fountains, overside squirt guns and multi-valve aqua stations where kids control water flows through ‘water trees.’” There would also be some outdoor water slide and pool activities that would be open during warm weather. The area would also have a 7,000-square-foot deck that would be converted to an ice skating rink during the winter. Turk said efforts to have the project be environmentally sound can be demonstrated at the Rocking Horse Ranch. “This (water park) will be a botanical destination,” he said. “We actually plan on a year round greenhouse ... as a walk through destination that would have even a separate ecosystem.” Turk said there will be an application filed with the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement but hopes it will be received well by the public because of the number of jobs expected through the project. “This project is going to employ upwards of 500 people,” he said. “There will be 250 year round employees, so it’s a good, realistically fit project for a PILOT.” Turk said there is an effort to have project be a boost to tourism in the region without putting a burden on traffic in the village. “We have three shuttles that bring guests right now...to New Paltz, to the Walkway Over the Hudson, and to the train station and the bus station,” he said. “So we’re a working model on how we can get our guests into the community without any kind of traffic jam up.” Supervisor Susan Zimet earlier this year said town zoning code will need to amend the current business and industrial zoning designation cover lodging that offers public recreation. “We have to change the zoning to allow for this new kind of recreational hospitality...that wasn’t in place 50 years ago when our zoning was created,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to shepherd the project through on that property,” Zimet said. “I think the feeling is you can keep fighting something but eventually you have to embrace something. This is...the first time we haven’t had a mall project breathing down our neck on that property.”
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 13:39:28 +0000
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