MARBLETOWN – Construction of the new clocktower commercial development in Stone Ridge can begin as early as spring 2017, town supervisor Michael Warren said this week. Roughly a year has passed since the project first came before the town and its planning board, with the interim bogged down by designs that frequently didn't meet town guidelines.

Early drafts of the project outlined a structure of connected buildings whose size and setbacks did not fit town zoning code, according to Warren. The current design plans call for a four building commercial site just south of Emmanuel's Market Place on Main Street/Route 209 and was dubbed by the supervisor as "a really nice design."

That final design emerged towards the end of last year after Warren called together members of different boards, lawyers and community members to iron out inconsistencies between what was being proposed and the town code. The biggest culprit, it turned out, were building setbacks and over the course of a two-session workshop, the assembled committee corrected language so that changes to the design could be finalized earlier this year after a series of public hearings.

Another project that is experiencing a long shelf life, and could prove game-changing for the entire Route 209 corridor, is "Green 209." Slated for construction across the road from Emmanuel's, the housing development was introduced to the planning board roughly a year ago as well, according to Warren. The project calls for more than forty homes on ninety-two acres of land, with each of its environmentally conscious buildings planned for being "off the grid."

Ultimately, the supervisor continued, the high cost of executing Green 209 stalled the project.

In Warren's lifetime, the largest proposal to land before the planning board was the housing development proposed for Stone Ridge Orchards behind Emmanuel's known as "Marbletown Green" and planned for almost three hundred homes plotted across the orchard at a cost of nearly $10 million.

"It was out of scale," he said. "It would change the town character."

Warren added that Marbletown Green was largely conceptual with no "science" behind the project. Nonetheless, residents were taken aback by the development.

"It woke people up who said, 'My god, we don't want that to happen again,'" he recalled.

Development in Marbletown is largely shaped by design guidelines that maintain the town's rustic character. Housing is guided by a 3-acre zoning, while commercial building is capped at 7,000 square feet per building to stay under the requirements of most chain stores.

Despite this, Marbletown has always received pie-in-the-sky bids.

"When I was a kid, I remember someone proposed Disney World," Warren remembered.