The environmental organization, Scenic Hudson, weighed in on the Town of Lloyd’s newly updated Comprehensive Plan. The town’s last plan was compiled in 2013.

 

Scenic Hudson’s Director of Land Use Advocacy, Jeffrey Anzevino, sent comments to the Town Board on the 2024 Plan. He acknowledged that Scenic Hudson and the Town of Lloyd, “have a long history of successful collaborations resulting in an amazing system of parks and open space that benefit town residents, supports tourism, and helps attract business.” He urged the town to not lose sight, “of what might be lost without a strong Comprehensive Plan that protects these open spaces. These resources will be at risk without protective Comprehensive Plan policies that does two things: directs development to places adjacent to the hamlet, where people can walk to services, and places with water, sewer and transit infrastructure and secondly, protects ecologically and scenic important lands. This is the essence of Smart Growth.”

 

Anzevino points out that the new Plan fails, not only to provide Lloyd with a Smart Growth future, but also fails to avoid the pitfalls of urban sprawl, suggesting that “more work is needed in the plan.”

 

Anzevino said the 2024 draft plan does not include a future land use map or ways to achieve Smart Growth for the town and its residents.

 

“As presented, the plan would simply facilitate a suburban development pattern throughout the ecologically productive Blue Point Diversity Area, the Esopus/Lloyd Wetlands and the Ridge Significant Biodiversity area” He adds that the Plan will not protect the Lloyd Bluffs, the Highland Bluffs and the Blue Point sub-units on the NYS Department of State designated Esopus-Lloyd Scenic Areas of Statewide Significance.”   

 

Anzevino wrote that the world has changed significantly since the 2013 Comprehensive Plan, which was compiled after the 2008 recession. Today, online shopping and remote/hybrid work, “has caused the retail and office markets to tank.” He notes that housing costs have risen as the town is experiencing an increase in development, which he characterizes as, “some beneficial, others not so much.” He stated that the hamlet is a positive, bright light for Lloyd, with the opening of two art galleries, a brew pub, a craft beer/coffee shop, a bike shop, new eateries and a new library nearby.”

 

Anzevino, however, is critical of the, “massive, out of context self-storage facility [on Route 9W] and an [in-progress] auto dependent senior housing facility [The Villages] being constructed on slopes so steep that huge retaining walls were required to hold up the roads and buildings.” He pointed out that other developments are also being proposed in environmentally sensitive suburban sprawl areas without water and sewer: the 800 unit Hudson Wine Village, the 166 Falcon Ridge project and recently a proposal to build a 134 unit apartment complex with more than 250 parking spaces on land that is zoned for 2 acre, single family homes on the Lloyd Bluffs. He said the Comprehensive Plan must recommend zoning that protects bluffs and biodiversity areas, “and instead promote development in walkable areas served by public utilities adjacent to the hamlet.”

 

Anzevino points out that the new Comp Plan fails to fully protect environmental and scenic resources. He states that the plan only includes four strategies that explore, review, consider protecting shorelines, sensitive habitats and view sheds. He believes that a Comp Plan must provide the foundation for future zoning legislation that directs large-scale subdivisions and development away from sensitive biodiversity areas and areas of statewide significance. He said the Plan should include wording that commits the town to designate these as Critical Environmental Areas that would result in giving the town more leverage to require a coordinated review. He said past Comp Plans recommended this, but the town never acted on it.

 

Supervisor Plavchak stated at the meeting that the Town had been unsuccessful in securing a grant to make Haviland Road a complete street.  Anzevino offered Scenic Hudson’s assistance to make the road more bike and pedestrian friendly.

 

Anzevino commended the Comp Plan for including guiding zoning principles, “that promote development in a manner that enhances the existing character and livability of the Town of Lloyd and its neighborhoods by enabling new development in nodal areas around existing corridors, the hamlet and available infrastructure.” A nodal area is defined as focusing new development in existing centers that are served by viable infrastructure with higher density, mixed-used development and with employment and housing in close proximity to public transit, biking and walking.

 

Anzevino stated that to achieve Smart Growth the Town Board, “must adopt zoning amendments consistent with the Comp Plan, and any recommendations should be front and center in the plan.”  

 

Anzevino suggested, “it should be made clear that public water and sewer infrastructure should not be extended to places to facilitate dense development of major subdivisions, in environmentally of visually sensitive areas, agricultural areas or places distant from the hamlet.” He said due to the newness of the Comp Plan and the zoning that will be needed to achieve its goals, Scenic Hudson recommends a moratorium on major commercial and residential developments, “at least until the revised plan is adopted and any necessary zoning changes are made. A moratorium is a temporary pause in project approvals to prevent projects from being considered under outdated zoning laws.”

 

Anzevino concluded by pointing out that Lloyd needs, “to prepare for and sustainably manage growth and to do so consistent with the principles of Smart Growth,” by encouraging development in and adjacent to the hamlet, [creating] walkable and bikeable destinations in areas with existing water and sewer. Extending water and sewer to outlying areas because someone wants to build outsized projects is the textbook definition of suburban sprawl, the antithesis of Smart Growth and costs taxpayers more to deliver water, sewer, police, fire and school bus services to these areas.