WAWARSING – In a paperwork sense, the October 15th Wawarsing planning board meeting resembled a game of "red light, green light," with just the first item on the agenda getting a clear go-ahead and everything else being sent back to applicants for review and conditions.

Plans for a rabbinical college at the former Tamarack Lodge site on Route 52 in Greenfield Park, to be operated by Yeshiva of Ocean in partnership with Greenfield Resorts, LLC, is slowly coming together. Jeff Kaplan, representative of the two parties (and mayor of Ellenville), advised the board that the hastily produced site map he was presenting was the result of anxious applicants who were waiting for the subdivision okay so their project could start. Speaking of the applicants' desire to clean up the lot, which includes the removal of the homestead bungalow properties on the north side of Route 52, Kaplan noted how "the demolition work is a rather detailed and expensive job as a result of asbestos." He assured the board that a more detailed site map for the two lot subdivision would be forthcoming.

The Kinaloa Art School proposal that's caused considerable controversy in the historic artist colony community of Cragsmoor was given a provisional special use permit, with conditions. There are problems with the width of what is now a driveway and would become the school's entry road, as well as poor visibility due to brush and trees. Discussion between board members and the project's engineer yielded an agreement to move the driveway over 10 feet and elevate it 6 inches. A separate focus on the old barn studio's septic system resulted in the applicant agreeing to replace all plumbing with modern low-flow fixtures; otherwise the county health department said what is there now is okay and there is no evidence of the system ever failing.

The whole discussion almost came to a halt when Mary Lou Christiana, attorney for the planning board, mentioned that a change of use and the applicants' lot size could require a trip to the zoning board of appeals... until it was determined that the use of space hadn't changed, and the amount of parking had actually lessened from a previously applied-for twenty spaces to nine, rendering questions of lot size moot. The SUP for Kinaloa was okayed with conditions that a fence be built and some brush and old tomato gardens removed.

Woody's Auto Parts, also represented by Kaplan, applied for a special use permit to erect four storage trailers within their current eight foot surround fence. The containers would measure 40x46, include garage doors, and have a roof height of 18 feet and be used to store automobile parts, utilizing a Quonset hut-style roofing system.

Neighbors surrounding the 10 acre lot on Berme Road are not happy about seeing the storage roof line or any of the junk yard items from the rail trail there... which is being pegged as one of the town's future attractions. Many also pointed out potential problems with automotive fluids leaching into the ground and contaminating wells and groundwater.

Christiana reminded everyone that it is not the job of the planning board to make sure Woody's is complying with environmental regulations, and that if anyone felt an urgency to see if Woody's has any environmental violations they should contact the state Department of Environmental Conservation directly.

In the end, the applicant was asked to review their plans to see if a maximum building height of nine feet could be maintained, possibly by removing the Quonset roofs, as well as to look for a more aesthetically pleasing form of auto parts storage housing. The public hearing will remain open for the project.

Finally, a public hearing for Jeffrey Dumond's special use permit application to allow parking of his bucket truck used on his property will also continue. Problems were brought up with the amount and types of vehicles already parked on his property, so planners asked Dumond's representative, Mark Sapp, to submit a list of vehicles owned by the applicant and iron out other conditions of parking and noise so the proposal can be more fully reviewed at an upcoming meeting.