The Town of Newburgh Planning Board will see the project known as Gardner Ridge, a proposed multi-family and senior housing project return at their next meeting on Thursday, November 16. The project appeared on Thursday, November 2 to provide updates to the site plans and address comments.

The proposed site location for the new development would be in the wooded hillside near the intersection of Gidney Avenue and Gardnertown Road. Residential parcels on Maurice Lane border the project and several businesses operate in the vicinity. Creek Run Road intersects with Gardnertown Road across the street from the site, and the Farrell Communities at Gardnertown are also located up the road on the hill.

The project is proposed on a 23.4 plus or minus acre parcel with 144 units proposed, 36 designated for senior housing and 108 designated for non-seniors. In previous reports, five proposed housing complexes with a clubhouse and parking lots for each of the buildings with a singular access road were identified.

Present at the board meeting on Thursday night were Darren Doce, P.E. of Doce Associates, Engineer Thomas B. Olley, P.E., P.L.L.C and Philip Grealy of Colliers Engineering and Design.

Also in attendance was the applicant’s attorney stating that the project was seeking from the planning board at the November 16 meeting if possible to declare lead agency and to declare a negative declaration with the board’s satisfaction of comments. The project was re-circulated for lead agency on October 5, and the 30-day response time frame has not yet lapsed.

Additionally, it was asked if possible for the board to schedule a public hearing on the project if they saw fit.

During the course of the presentation on Thursday night, each of the comments that were listed in the MHE Engineering memo for the project were addressed and have been noted by the applicant.
With the first comment, the applicant is working towards gaining Town Board and Highway Superintendent approvals for the realignment of Creek Run Road. Concerns about traffic have been discussed on the project prior.

The project anticipates 4,100 cubic yards of soil, primarily excess topsoil to be removed from the site for the project. With considered blasting on the site, a riprap slope is being replaced with vegetative stabilization. Olley later addressed that blasting, if needed, would be conducted through compliance with state and local laws. The competency of hard or soft rock would determine if blasting would be needed.

“If blasting is required, then there’ll be a full pre-blast survey of any of the surrounding structures to make certain that the before and after conditions are well documented,” said Olley. “So we’ll be very protective of the neighbor’s properties as we move forward.”

An outside user sewer agreement will need to be executed prior to stamping the site plans according to MHE Engineer Patrick Hines.

Revised plans for water main extension with hydrants will be submitted to the Orange County Health Department for approval and hydrants, if necessary, will have locations added within the site and water-main length was to be reviewed. Legal documentation regarding compliance with sections of the senior housing code must be provided to the town and a City of Newburgh Flow Acceptance letter, which was received back in 2016, would need to be added to the project file.

The revised site plans were referred to the Orange County Planning Department in September and a Tree Survey Map was reviewed by MHE along with a Tree Survey and Analysis performed by Hudson Forestry Services, LLC. Finally, various cost estimates for stormwater management, landscaping, tree preservation and water and sewer improvements will be addressed later.

The code compliance department made the request of the applicant to list the width of the emergency access road and to consider a sheet for the fire departments to review the location of the hydrants with ease and to list turning radius figures for vehicles.

Other questions were asked about walking paths throughout the site and the addition of electric vehicle charging stations on the site would also be reviewed. A lighting plan for the site was not included, only lighting for the road coming in, but would be discussed later on.