Last month, members of Outdoor Venture Group reintroduced their Forest of Fun Aerial Park, a rope course park proposed for Scotts Corners, to the Town of Montgomery planning board and residents. This project sparked mixed opinions from all parties involved; residents who live near the project site raised concerns about potential noise and light disturbances, while Orange County officials commended the applicant for bringing a unique, eco-friendly venue to the town and county. The group returned to the planning board last Monday, October 28 to provide updates on the project plan and address residents’ comments.

Kelly Naughton, an attorney with Naughton Torre Law, opened the discussion with a video showcasing Outdoor Venture Group’s adventure parks in action, including footage of people trekking through obstacle courses and riding zip lines. Several customers in the video compliment these parks for their physical activities, various course difficulties, and exhilarating moments.

“One of the big things that needed to be clarified was what kind of park this is for Aerial Adventure, there were some concerns about the zip lines, whistling, and things like that,” Naughton said. “We wanted to start and show this video to you and the audience.”

Lara Pruschki, a civil engineer from Engineering & Surveying Properties, summarized the project updates. Since the last meeting, the developers submitted a written response to the planning board addressing comments from residents and the county. Per the request of the Fox Hill Bruderhof community, the site plan features more fencing and screening between the park and Bruderhof to mitigate some of the disturbances.

“We’ve met with the adjoining owner, the Bruderhofs, and we extended the fence line along the eastern boundary of our parking lot to have a little more buffer between the two properties,” Pruschki said. “We’ve also done a little infill of evergreen plantings on the eastern boundary to help screen between their properties.”

Pruschki also listed the park’s hours of operation, which will go as follows:

a. During March and April, the park will be open on weekends to select groups from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and be closed on weekdays.

b. During May, the park will be open on weekdays from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

c. Starting in mid-June, the park will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. throughout summer and Labor Day.

d. Between September and November, the park will revert to its spring schedules; it will be open on weekdays for select groups and on weekends for special events. The park will close from December to February.

Bahman Azarm, founder of Outdoor Venture Group, added that the park could attract anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 people annually, depending on the park’s marketing and other factors during the year.

During the hearing’s public comment, several residents reiterated their concerns about the noise, light, and safety issues that this project poses. Residents were especially worried about traffic, emphasizing that they already endure frequent slowdowns and accidents on Scotts Corners and that this park, in tandem with other ongoing projects, could further worsen the intersection.

“My concern is the noise and what they can do to mitigate it. Right now, we live behind Berea Elementary School, and since COVID, Berea has their dances outside, and you would think they were in our front yard,” said Jeanne Cannatella, a resident from Lake Vue Drive. “Sound does travel, so if they’re having a park that’s open until 11 o’clock at night, you could hear kids screaming in the park, as you saw in the video.”

“One of the things that we’ve had problems with is the traffic. There is such a large amount of building going on 17K and Route 208 and the traffic is becoming a problem now, which I believe hasn’t been addressed at all by this board,” said Don Berger, another resident. “We have talked about traffic for many years and nothing seems to get done about it. I know New York State and everyone says there’s no impact, of course it has an impact, and we gotta mitigate that impact.”

“They have to have some kind of traffic light if they’re going to this. I’m all for something like this because we’re outdoor people, we love being in the outdoors and something like flying through the trees sounds like fun,” said Karen Stemmler, a resident from Bailey Road. “But I’m concerned with the traffic and I feel sorry for these people right here in the front because it looks like it’s going to be right off their back decks.”

“Thank you for the additional fencing and the screening, we appreciate any screen that can be done there,” said David Blough, a member of Fox Hill Bruderhof. “But we are simply very concerned about having a public venue in our backyard and how it will affect us and change our property use.”

At the end of the discussion, Planning Board Chairman Fred Reichle stated that the board received the project’s updated plans on October 25 and that the town’s engineer sent comments to the developers earlier that day. He and the board agreed to continue this hearing during their next meeting on November 12 at 7:30 p.m. and will review the plans in the meantime.

“You’ve gotten our engineer’s comments and we got your new plans on Friday, so we’ll work on reviewing that and you can respond to the comments,” Reichle said.