Riverkeeper’s opposition to the development at Monteverde

From:
August E-Letter from Riverkeeper

Monteverde Success Story

Riverkeeper’s opposition to the development at Monteverde in the Town of Cortlandt has been successful.

Members of an informal coalition consisting of Riverkeeper, Scenic Hudson, Hudson Highlands Trust and Palisades Interstate Park Commission each wrote separately to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Region 3 Director Willie Janeway, and the Town of Cortlandt, (cc’ing NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Grannis), expressing strong opposition to the developement at Monteverde.

The coalition requested that the DEC act as lead agent in the SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) review of the large development. The development was to consist of a 39-room hotel (an area of 67,400 square feet including 20 spa treatment rooms) 50 separate hotel villas (each with 2 units and separate car port) and a 286-foot slip marina. The site is on an unusually beautiful and intimate stretch of the Hudson River and would have impacts on important scenic, historic and environmentally sensitive areas.

First, the DEC responded by writing to the Town of Cortlandt instructing it not to proceed as lead agency as the Town had already stated it planned to do. Then, at the next Planning Board meeting, the Town’s Planning Board told the developer it had decided it would not consider the developer's Petition to Rezone (which is needed for the project), and was putting together a resolution of “No Interest” -- further efforts on the plans submitted would be “futile.”