Back to PRESS PAGE       (source) KINGSTON FREEMAN, KINGSTON, NY By Hallie Arnold Freeman staff Saugerties

RESIDENTS BALK AT MINING OPERATION

Hundreds of people sign a petition opposing the granting of a special use permit for the Saugerties venture.

³If we give them a special use permit, all the R-2 zones in Saugerties are in jeopardy². _ Bob Saturn Saugerties resident

    A group of Saugerties residents have gathered in the last two weeks 500 signatures on petitions urging the town¹s Planning Board to block a special use permit for a mining operation in a residential neighborhood in Veteran.
    Matt Corsa, backed by dozens of supporters, presented the petitions at last week¹s meeting of the Town Board. Corsa said when developer Gilbert Shott purchased a 45-acre lot north of county Route 212 and east of Blue Mountain Road, area residents were told he was going to subdivide the property for an upscale housing development.
    In 1998, the neighbors saw trucks loaded with stone leaving the lot, and soon after, some heard the sound of a stone crusher running on the site, prompting them to file the first of several complaints about the mining operation with the town Building Department.
    Shott¹s spokesman, attorney Richard Praetorius, said Shott was clearing rubble left from what was a late-1800¹s bluestone quarry on the site. He said Shott never exceeded the 1,000 ton per year limit for mining on one¹s own property, as regulated by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
    Praetorius said Shott plans to excavate a 22-acre lake on the parcel. To do so, he¹ll remove 100,000 cubic yards of stone per year, until 2.8 million cubic yards have been removed ­ a 28-year project. Any housing development on the site would be considered after the lake is finished, he said.
    Bob Saturn, who lives on Lodge Road, 1 mile from the mining site, said it would take 50 trucks full of stone a day to reach that goal, which would ruin local roads, create noise and kick up a lot of dust. He added that the potential drop in the water table caused by a lake of that size could hurt residential wells as well as affect both the Beaverkill Creek and wetlands on the property.
    And, Saturn said, if Shott is granted a special use permit to mine the property, it will set a bad precedent. ³If we give them a special use permit, all the R-2 zones in Saugerties are in jeopardy,² Saturn said.
    A mining permit application was filed with the state Department of Enviornmental Conservation on May 25, according to Praetorius, but a special use permit application for mining in a residential (R-2) neighborhood has not yet been filed with the town building department.
    Building Inspector Paul Andreassen, who ordered the mining at the site halted in September 1999, said there has been little to no interaction between his office and Shott recently. ³They¹ve been told to proceed, they must submit plans and so forth for a site plan review for a special use permit,² he said. ³We haven¹t seen anything, not even a sketch.²
    At last week¹s Town Board meeting, Supervisor Greg Helsmoortel said the town could not respond to the citizens¹ concerns until the permit application was filed, and the permit would be in the Planning Board¹s jurisdiction.
    ³The largest influence or input on the Planning Board is the public,² he told meeting attendees. ³People speak volumes, and we are listening to you.²

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