Housing developer gains planning board support

By BARBARA LIVINGSTON NACKMAN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: July 05, 2001)

Carmel - A developer who wants to build a 100 units of luxury housing inside the Centennial Golf Club had a significant obstacle removed from his path when the Carmel Zoning Board of Appeals interpreted the town code in his favor.

The zoning board told developer Paul Camarda last week that he can add land from the existing 465-acre golf course site to his property to meet town open space requirements. But in its ruling, the board noted that the town's code is unclear.

"Under the cluster provision, acreage of a golf course is open space and that acreage can be used to cluster adjoining property," zoning board Chairman Joseph Girven said. The town's definition of open space and common space used by residents is "ambiguous," he added, saying he planned to ask the Town Board to clarify the code.

The zoning board voted 6-0 in favor of the interpretation. Board member John Maxwell was not present.

"If there is an ambiguity (in the code) you have to rule with the property owner," Girven said.

The board's interpretation is a first step in the approval process, which moves next to the Planning Board, William Shilling, Camarda's lawyer, said.

No building permits will be issued for a while. The town is in the middle of its second, six-month building moratorium on residential subdivisions. The building ban is set to continue through October.

"The (town) code is to encourage cluster development and recreation, and I will do both with this project," Camarda said this week. The complex will have tennis courts and sports facilities, providing a shared recreation space for its residents. Since the units will not be visible from either Simpson Road or Fair Street, Camarda said, the complex will not disturb the area's scenic vistas and will maintain the golf course's feeling of open space.

Camarda's Hudson Valley Realty Co. in Carmel has been working for several years on plans for The Links, 100 townhouses clustered on 93 acres on the course's southwest corner. Camarda, who intends to market The Links to senior citizens and empty nesters looking to downsize, originally proposed building a mix of 35 single-family homes and 65 townhouses on the land surrounded on all sides by the golf course.

"I believe there is a tremendous market of Putnam and Westchester residents whose lives are changing," he said. "Why should we send that group to Dutchess and Connecticut?"

Kathy Travaglini, a 31-year resident of Carmel with a college-age child, said the town needs a place for older adults to call home.

"It wouldn't increase the school population and would provide housing necessary for people in a (growing) age bracket," she said. "I can't understand why the town gives him such a hard time."

Resident Matthew Bennett had hoped the zoning board would reject Camarda's request. He said open space should be undeveloped land. A golf course is designed by a specialist requiring that land be stripped of vegetation and graded with tons of sand, he said.

"I know of no park or any undeveloped piece of property to which people would gladly pay up to $125 for a few hours' admission," he wrote to the zoning board June 28.

The golf course is open to the public. Green fees are $95 Monday to Thursday and $125 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the busiest golf season. Centennial bought the former horse farm from Duke & Benedict Inc. and Benedict Dairy Farms, and spent $7 million to open the championship course two years ago.

Residents in the nearby Kelly Ridge neighborhood had rallied to oppose The Links when they suspected that their streets would become major thoroughfares for the new residents. Camarda has said that access to the townhouses would be from Fair Street, not Kelly Ridge. The developer will have to secure approvals from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York City Department of Environment Protection to construct a main road through wetlands off Fair Street.

The golf course abuts property off Route 6 where Camarda has said he wants to build a hotel conference center on 68 acres he has an option to purchase and on 19 adjoining acres the town of Carmel has agreed to sell to him. The town has said it will offer 9 acres of land nearby for the Western Connecticut YMCA to build its first facility in Putnam County.