Chairman & District 1 Legislator

Sullivan County Legislature

Bethel

To the editor:

I attended the July 12 Town of Neversink meeting about the proposed Kerilands project near Willowemoc. It reminded me of a meeting a few years ago at the Tri-Valley High School about the then-proposed Dollar General store in Grahamsville. Both meetings featured voices for and against, some promising economic riches, others warning of negative environmental and community impacts.

Dollar General ultimately was given approval, and shortly after it opened, I stopped by. I saw no environmental impact (other than a building on a formerly vacant lot), nor had Grahamsville changed for the worse. What I did see was a line of people waiting to check out, with employees busy throughout the store. It was a great sight.

In Kerilands’ case, the Town isn’t in a position to determine whether those 3,000 acres will be developed. It will merely determine how.

Here are the choices:

1. Property owner Jonathan Leitersdorf develops just 25-35% of the property as a conservation-based community, generating over $100 million in taxable sales and fueling job growth in an area that could use it. Traffic will come and go via County Routes 84 and 85, bypassing much of Willowemoc and using Parksville’s Exit 98, the newest interchange on Route 17. This option requires a Town-approved zoning change (the overly district).
2. Leitersdorf develops the property into a private 297-lot residential development that is already permitted by the Residential Commercial Mixed Use zone in which Kerilands sits. This would utilize the entirety of the property and likely change both the area’s ecology and traffic patterns. It would also have an impact on the schools and municipal services, as these would be year-round families.
3. Leitersdorf sells the property to a different developer. I believe he’s received interest over the 50+ years his family has owned this acreage, with offers well into the millions of dollars. If he can’t develop one of the projects he’s proposing, then it becomes a matter of the highest bidder for his land. Why else hold on to it?

I believe Leitersdorf’s intentions to build a community compatible with the area are genuine and worthwhile. But I also know his family’s plans for that property have been stymied before – for a reason that no longer even exists. (His grandfather stopped building what would have been a major regional ski resort because the Town wouldn’t permit him to serve alcohol. Neversink has since become a “wet” town.) So I don’t expect him to hang on to a property that he can’t do anything with.

Let’s face it: more people are coming to Sullivan County. Neversink residents have the golden opportunity to choose their neighbors now.