My name is Ross Williams.  I am a member of the Milan Town Board and I served for four years as a representative to the Pine Plains Planning Board through the completion of the DEIS.  While my comments today draw on that experience, they are mine and do not reflect the position of the Town of Milan.

I have attended all of these hearings and made my comments on the DEIS earlier.  I do not intend to critique the DEIS today, but rather to comment on the process and to suggest a path forward for the Dursts and ultimately the Planning Board.

There has been a remarkable consensus among stakeholders making comment in this process (DC Dept of Planning and Development, DEC, Scenic Hudson, Dutchess Land Conservancy, the Poughkeepsie Journal, and the public).  The consensus is that this project is too big, inappropriately designed, and too destructive of the natural environment.

I would like to join others in thanking Pine Plains United and their 700 members who have come together and put their money where their mouths are to provide the planning Board with expert review and analysis of this DEIS to help their community.  What they have done is truly remarkable.

It is very important that the Pine Plains planning board and the Dursts recognize the consensus that exists and the expert support of that consensus now on the record.

There is much good to be said about the Dursts, however, it is unfortunate that they have made this a lawyer-driven process rather than a planner-driven process for the last 2 years.  The product is, as you might expect, one built on contention, not the collaboration of which Alex Durst just spoke.

No responsible party in this room would deny the right of the Dursts and Landmark National to develop this property.

However, the Dursts need to recognize that municipalities also have rights … the right to develop comprehensive plans for their community, to enact zoning laws, and to enforce those laws.  The Durst organization needs to be cognizant of those to a greater degree than they have been to date and they need to support the municipalities in their efforts, including the escrow funding to do the necessary work.  To date, Milan still does not have the necessary escrow funding we have sought.

So let me suggest a path forward for this project.  I suggest the following:

1. There is no point in proceeding on this project until after Pine Plains has completed its zoning.  There is no need to do further work to then do it again.
2. When zoning is completed, the project should be redesigned with the guidance of stakeholders in the process to make this a truly community-based planning process.
3. Specifically, I recommend Durst establish an ‘advisory team’ with representatives from: the two towns, Dutchess Land Conservancy, Scenic Hudson, the DC Dept. of Planning, and Pine Plains United.  And I recommend that they fund their participation so they can really participate and apply their respective expertise.
4. Revisit and modify the scoping document as appropriate.  Examples I would cite include a real definition of open space, and establishing parameters for the ‘as-of-right’ analysis that is the starting point for the number of units the project is allowed.  To date, that has not been done to Milan’s satisfaction, and it has not been done at all with respect to Pine Plains proposed, and hopefully soon to be enacted, zoning.  I would also suggest that the project be expanded to include the 90 plus existing lots that were excluded, I believe improperly, from the project early on, and perhaps to include the additional 98 acres we learned this last week that thy have recently purchased. To do otherwise is to invite the allegation that the SEQR process has been improperly segmented.
5. Based on the new scoping document and the redesign, create a new or revised DEIS (or as we learned from Jon Lyons today, an SEIS) that can be the basis for another round of community dialogue, like we have experienced.
6. I am convinced that if a truly community-based planning process involving the stakeholders is used, the project approval will sail through.  It will have many fewer units, will be more protective of the environment and will be more considerate of the communities’ interests.

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