'Hang On to Your Seats'

Winston Farm Developers Begin Push for Approval

News by Steve Ellman

8/19/24 • Land Use

Saugerties– The developers who propose to transform Winston Farm’s 840 historic and environmentally significant acres into something more domesticated and commercialized than mere landscape offered a first look last week at their current thinking.

Wednesday night saw a PowerPoint preview before the Saugerties Town Board; the full Monty arrived the next day with the release of the project’s Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement. Usually acronymized as DGEIS, it's a description, per state regs, of “purpose, public need and benefits” as well as "a statement and evaluation of the potential significant adverse environmental impacts at a level of detail that reflects the severity of the impacts and the reasonable likelihood of their occurrence."

The DGEIS runs 208 pages and examines the impact of up to 133 single family homes, 115 townhouses, and 800 condo/apartment units as well as “a campground with a 157 cabins and RV sites, 425,000 square feet of commercial retail space, a 150-room boutique hotel, a conference center with 300 hotel rooms, a 5000-person amphitheater, and 375,000 square feet of lab or light-industrial space."

Winston Farm updated plan calls for 799 housing units, commercial space in Woodstock ’94 site in Saugerties

By WILLIAM J. KEMBLE | news@comnews@freemanonline.com

UPDATED: August 15, 2024 at 6:02 p.m.

SAUGERTIES, N.Y. — As Winston Farm developers detailed their plans for an 840-acre residential neighborhood with hundreds of housing units along with with a commercial center during a Town Board meeting on Wednesday, opponents of the project also voiced their objections.

A draft environmental generic impact statement provided updated information about the development, which was discussed during a Town Board meeting on Wednesday. The plan showed an 840-acre project area along state Route 32 that would combine commercial, retail and residential development with quick access to the state Thruway.

“The sponsor’s preferred plan will create 799 housing units (from) a mix of townhouses, apartments, hotels, conference centers, cabins, and other residential uses,” wrote developers, who anticipate the buildout would result in 1,746 new residents.