Update: The Town of Ramapo Planning & Zoning Board voted 7-0 for approval of the Ramapo Woodmont Hills site plan. The development approval process must move through the New York Department of Environmental Commission and Department of Transportation before construction on the project would begin.
Talk to some locals and the take is that the deal is done, with the final vote just an official show piece. Others believe that more people in Western Ramapo will automatically equal more dollars for businesses. Then there are those that roll their eyes and ask who’s going to pay for the infrastructure upgrades. Pause. Answer: your taxes.
Dr. Harry Carter, a veteran chief fire officer, testifies on behalf of the Sloatsburg Fire Department during a May P&Z Board meeting.
Whatever you believe, the Town of Ramapo Planning and Zoning Board is scheduled to vote up or down Tuesday night the proposed Ramapo Woodmont Hills apartment complex, slated for just south of Sloatsburg, NY’s village borders. The Planning and Zoning Board takes up the vote at it’s regularly scheduled 8 p.m. meeting.
The Public Hearing on the development is officially closed.
The process of Ramapo Woodmont Hills began in late February when local residents discovered public hearing notice for a First and Final Approval for Ramapo Woodmont Hills apartments stapled to telephone poles along Rt. 17 near Auntie El’s farm stand. The Public Hearing rolled through two additional meetings which saw the Sloatsburg Fire Department and Village Attorney argue that structures could pose a fire hazard for the area, especially due to the confined and restrictive nature of traffic flow along Rt. 17.
The SFD, as agency of first response in case of fire, gave evidence that it is not equipped with the proper apparatus for three-story structures. During a May Planning and Zoning Board meeting, the SFD presented rebuttal testimony from Dr. Harry Carter, a veteran chief fire officer and fire commissioner and Chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners for Fire District #2 in Howell Township, NJ.
The Town of Ramapo Planning & Zoning Board is scheduled to vote on Ramapo Woodmont Hills Tuesday, June 10.
Sloatsburg attorney Richard Ellsworth called the proposed development significantly incompatible to the surrounding community, which is composed of mostly single family homes.
Ellsworth said that traffic to and from the complex to Sloatsburg would be minimal due to the nature of the Rt. 17 corridor. “Nobody’s going into Sloatsburg unless they turn around,” said Ellsworth, touching on one of the project’s large red flags — the narrow flood-prone corridor along Rt. 17 that already experiences dense drive time traffic.
Woodmont Hills, if given the green light Tuesday night, would sandwich 16 three-story buildings along a half mile 50-plus acre stretch on the western side of Rt. 17. When complete, the development will contain 384 one and two-bedroom apartment units. The development would be outside the village of Sloatsburg but within the Town of Ramapo, NY.
Stephen Santola, Woodmont Properties executive vice president and general counsel, said that Woodmont Hills will be a fun, friendly place for young professionals and empty nesters that would not only have a townhouse feel but be a beacon for “renters by choice.”
Santola said there’s nothing currently in Rockland County like the proposed Ramapo Woodmont Hills apartments, saying that company market research showed that an affluent demographic of renters would be the development’s “secret sauce” for success.
Santola said Woodmont Hills could quite possibly act as an “incubator” for future Sloatsburg homeowners.
Many believe that the complex is too large and dense for the narrow Rt. 17 corridor that includes Auntie El’s and the offices of the Ramapo Land Company as well as Smith House.
The proposed development is proposed for a parcel of Ramapo Land Company raw land that Woodmont Properties will purchase, with the sale contingent upon a yes vote by a Ramapo Planning and Zoning Board and NY state environmental approvals.
