After enduring a dizzying number of Marbletown Planning Board meetings, the controversial Hasbrouck House residential subdivision in Stone Ridge was approved on Tuesday.

The local hotel company, headed by developer Akiva Reich, is ready to put shovels to soil after it delivers an escrow payment of $6,000 from Hasbrouck House, which would be used for scheduled site inspections while the development is under construction.

Hasbrouck Controversy

The Hasbrouck House development, located at 3805 Main Street in Stone Ridge, initially included six houses with six detached apartments on each home site. Months ago, one man noted that the detached dwellings seemed to contradict the town’s accessory apartment law, which required apartment owners to live full-time on the site they are renting out. Since the developer never planned to live in the houses, this didn’t fit the legal mold. Reich has since removed the apartments from his plans. Still, some neighbors are concerned that the project was a veiled expansion of the hotel, where Hasbrouck House would collude with the new homeowners of the subdivision to rent their dwellings out as Airbnbs.

In other previous meetings, project neighbors like David Cutler complained about how close a proposed access road to the development was to their properties. As much as the board tried, it was unable to sway Hasbrouck House from moving its location, as it adhered to the town requirements.

Elizabeth Ryan, owner of Stone Ridge Orchard, consistently voiced her concerns about the impact of the project on the surrounding landscape and the view from her property. She submitted a report to the town that claimed that the surrounding wetlands, marked on the site map, were improperly placed. However, Planning Board Chair Paris Perry said that the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation disproved that assertion. Ryan’s report also talked about the destruction of local pollinators that would come from construction. Perry added that neither the DEC nor the town had any regulations that dealt with the destruction of pollinators, so there was no legal recourse to address the concern. Ryan hoped that her report would move the town to re-open the environmental review process for the application, but the board said there was not enough information to do so.

Route 209 Hotel Partially Approved

An applicant for a would-be hotel at 4321 Route 209, across from Lydia’s Cafe, received partial approval while the town awaits needed paperwork.

The proposed hotel includes a collection of lodgings, with 10 rooms total, that will be designed to look like the aging barns scattered across the township. The applicant noted that the materials for the siding and roof will be made with locally sourced wood as well. The back entrance of the rooms will have a view of the untouched wilderness that lies beyond, offering hotel amenities in a natural setting, the applicant explained. No tree cutting will be needed for the project and North River Architecture is helping to explore what environmentally friendly features can be incorporated into the design. The guest houses will be hidden in the back of the lot, but an “accessory building,” designed to host markets, meetings, weddings and other similar events, may be seen from Route 209.

While looking over the final part of the environmental review process, one board member asked if any traffic signage would be needed near the proposed entry road to the site. Because the site is expecting dozens of attendees for various events at its accessory building, the signs could alert Route 209 drivers of heavy traffic. The board ultimately decided to review the need for signage in a year if there is evidence of a significant disturbance, Perry said.

The partial approval will allow the applicant to spend money on gathering details such as a stormwater infrastructure plan, DEC approvals, septic system approvals, and the final location of the proposed buildings as drafted by an engineer.