The Woodmont Properties development team came locked in and prepared to close the deal at the late February Town of Ramapo Public Hearing before the Planning and Zoning Board. The meeting before the PZB was for a First and Final Approval for Ramapo Woodmont Hills apartments, a proposed 384 unit 16-building rental apartment complex that would occupy some 50 acres south of Sloatsburg, NY.

Stephen Santola, Woodmont executive vice president and general counsel, stepped to the podium and made his pitch to the board and people in the hall, colorfully summarizing Woodmont Hills as a friendly, fun 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 a product such as the proposed Ramapo Woodmont Hills apartments doesn’t exist anywhere in this part of Rockland County. His positive spin on the proposed apartments alluded to market research that defined an affluent demographic of renters that would be the development’s “secret sauce” for success, with the apartment complex quite possibly acting as an “incubator” for Sloatsburg homeowners.

“These are folks who could carry mortgages,” Santola said, adding that Woodmont Hills residents would frequent Sloatsburg’s stores and restaurants and possibly even settle in the village themselves.

Some people welcome development in this part of Western Ramapo as something necessary and vital to the future of the community. Others believe the proposed density of development is outsized and portends a possible end to Sloatsburg’s bucolic offerings.

 

Sloatsburg Circled

With the Tuxedo Farms multi-family housing development inexorably inching toward life to the north of Sloatsburg and the proposed Woodmont Hills to the south, the village could find its stated semi-rural lifestyle hemmed in by dense housing.

Woodmont Hills would have the most direct impact on Sloatsburg due to its sheer size and scope and possible future consequences — the proposed construction of sixteen three-story buildings, just outside of Sloatsburg’s municipal control, would set a precedent in terms of the kinds of accepted building construction in Western Ramapo.

Village Attorney Richard Ellsworth, member of the Suffern firm Balsamo Byrne Cipriani & Ellsworth, said “Sloatsburg isn’t Red Bank” or “Montvale,” two places where Woodmont has developed luxury town homes and apartments.

Sloatsburg’s “concerns are real and many,” Ellsworth said at the February Public Hearing on the development, which was continued until Tuesday, April 8, at 8 p.m.

Ellsworth drew the town PZB’s attention to how significantly incompatible the proposed large apartment complex was to the surrounding – mostly single family home – community.

He added, “nobody’s going into Sloatsburg unless they turn around,” touching on one of the project’s large red flags — it is proposed to sit on a narrow flood-prone corridor along Rt. 17 that already experiences dense drive time traffic.

Woodmont Hills Red Flags – traffic flow, flooding & fire safety, to name a few

The narrow Rt. 17 corridor that slices through Sloatsburg is essentially a four lane highway with a snaking concrete divider that separates north and south bound traffic. The New York Department of Transportation stepped in years ago to erect the barrier at great expense to end the dangerous traffic conditions on that stretch of highway. The DOT to date has not indicated it will open the barrier, which promotes unconditional north/south traffic flow.

Without DOT intervention, traffic entering or existing Woodmont Hills could only do so on the the west side of Rt. 17. Any traffic entering or leaving Auntie El’s, which rests on the northwest corner of the proposed development, can only travel south. Depending on where the development’s entrance/exit would be, vehicles must drive approximately 1/4 mile south to turn around at a small u-turn area near where Rt. 17 merges with the Thurway.

Just as Sloatsburg Village Attorney Richard Ellsworth said, no resident of Woodmont Hills could leave the complex and easily turn north to drive into Sloatsburg. All incoming and outgoing traffic to the proposed development would enter/exit via southbound traffic, creating “dangerous turnarounds to and from the site.”

And that includes school buses, which would enter roadside acceleration/de-acceleration lanes at the complex to pick up any students. Current Ramapo Central School District rules prevent school buses from entering private property to pick up students.

To cross over and enter the development, traffic would have move north along Rt. 17, exit at the Sterling Mine Road and circle back south.

And then there are the rains and runoff and flooding along that particular stretch of Rt. 17.

Rt. 17 along the corridor in question has frequently been closed or narrowed into one lane stretches after heavy rains, notably after Hurricane Irene. Metro North Railroad made significant infrastructure upgrades to the area which to date have not been tested.

The Woodmont Properties team repeatedly referred to mandated runoff controls the development would have to put in place, which the group said would actually improve flood measures for the area via catch basins and drainage culverts.

Sloatsburg Fire Department President Joseph Hardiman said the bottom line issue for the department is safety, and that the municipality, the agency of first response for such a development, is just not equipped with the proper apparatus for three-story structures. The Sloatsburg Fire Department would not only need a ladder truck, which costs nearly $900,000, but a new firehouse to park such a truck — so the cost for fire protection for the proposed development is an escalating cost.

The SFD is geared and equipped to respond to the make up of the current community, which is primarily a single family area with mostly two-story structures.

The nearest fire department with a ladder truck is Suffern. A responding team from Suffern would have to drive north on Route 17 and turn around on Sterling Mine Road in order to reach any development on the west side.

Ramapo Land Company’s Legacy

As recently as 2007, Ramapo Land Company President Jack O’Keeffe envisioned luxury housing on one of the last stretches of the private company’s vast Rockland County land holdings that at onetime included Pierson Lakes, Ramapo Hamlet and further back much of Torne Valley, as well as other large swathes of land in and around Sloatsburg. But the effort to build on the current proposed site goes back at least a decade and includes the former Ramapo Hills proposal that has now morphed into Woodmont Hills. The origins of the Pierson land holdings, which the Ramapo Land Company represents, are rooted in 119 acres bought from John Suffern in 1795 by the Pierson brothers. Over the past several years, O’Keeffe has overseen the liquidation of the company’s land holdings.

Woodmont Properties would be developed on a large tract that stretches from Auntie El’s south almost to the Thruway exit along Rt. 17. The plot is home to the Ramapo Land office, as well as Auntie El’s, which would remain but become part of the proposed development. Additionally, the historic Smith House is set back on the property. A tavern that dates back to the beginning of the 18th-century, some local sources consider the site, with its various tavern incarnations, as one of the first colonial area structures in the Ramapo Pass. To the south of the Smith House is an early 18th-century cemetery, including a Revolutionary War grave site, which may also contain a slave burial ground.

The sale of the Ramapo Land Co. tract to Woodmont Properties is apparently contingent upon receiving approval from the Town of Ramapo to develop the property.

O’Keeffe addressed the PZB regarding the Ramapo Land Co.’s historical land contributions through facilitating sales for parkland throughout the surrounding community, including but not limited to some 300 acres to Ringwood State Park, 500 acres on Torne Mountain and Wrightman Plateau, and some 700 acres in Torne Valley.

O’Keeffe stressed that both the Smith House and the Revolutionary War Cemetery would be protected historical sites. He said after that meeting that he looked long and hard for a quality developer such as Woodmont Properties that would build exceptional housing beneficial to the whole Ramapo community, including Sloatsburg.

Woodmont Properties is scheduled to again present its proposal for a 384 unit rental apartment complex to the Town of Ramapo’s Planning and Zoning Board on Tuesday, April 8, at 8 p.m. Anyone from the impacted community is entitled to attend the meeting and address the board on the issue. The PZB can act to vote on the proposal after all parties present.