On September 15, the Marbletown town board held a long-awaited public hearing on its proposed Hamlet Overlay, a zoning amendment that would open High Falls and Stone Ridge to “missing middle” housing, primarily along the Route 209 corridor. The public hearing drew strong attendance and mixed opinions on the proposed amendment.

“A lot of this law is not necessarily changing a lot of things,” Rich Parete, the town supervisor, said at the conclusion of the public hearing. “It's just allowing an easier path for builders to be able to get houses and units for people to rent and live in.”

Vincent Martello, the former town supervisor of Marbletown from 2004-2010, said that he and that era’s board members were “really worried about hyper development working its way up the Hudson Valley.”

Martello said that now “we're in a full-blown housing crisis in Marbletown” but that the current zoning code is not solving the housing crisis because most of it is “restriction-based,” which results in developers not building due to the long time frame and high cost of developing affordable housing, which does not yield the same profit as more expensive homes.

“If we allow the broken status quo to exist without doing nothing, what we're really doing is turning our rural and beautiful Hudson Valley community that we all love into a rural Hudson Valley version of the Hamptons,” Martello said. “Is this perfect? It's not, but we can't do nothing because more years will go by and the crisis will only get worse.”

While many members of the public spoke in favor of the Hamlet Overlay, other community members expressed concern about water, traffic and whether the proposal would even lead to affordable housing.

One resident, Christine Herbes-Sommers, said “there's not one single place that guarantees the housing to be built will be affordable” in the proposal. Herbes-Sommers said this “calls into question the very purpose of this omnibus bill,” and called into question other claims made by the town board.

“The board has claimed, based only on anecdotal evidence and faulty assumptions, that this is a simple proposal, that there is wide support for this measure, that the need is great, that this bill will somehow leverage state support for sidewalks and tap water, that abbreviating the review process will save builders money, making housing cheaper,” Herbes-Sommers said. “I want evidence, and so should the public, and so should the board provide it.”

Herbes-Sommers said that the bill “discards the very reliable review process that has been in place in this town” and that the public has been “inadequately informed about the details and implications of this proposal.” Herbes-Sommers requested a public workshop and a town-wide referendum.

Another community member, Peter Lamerson, said that he has “a couple of questions” about the proposal while also saying denser housing is “not a bad idea” and that larger houses such as the one he lives in are “not efficient.” Lamerson said his questions came from hearing that there would be 1,200 units built, though he is unsure if that is true.

“You have denser housing, therefore I think it would be wise to look at both the water situation and the sewage situation,” Lamerson said. “I know about the water table in town, and I think that if you're going to go dense, I do request that the town seriously look at putting the stuff on city water from the get-go rather than later on. And then I think that the town should also tell us how many units this really is.”

One community member, Claudine Renner, said she is not against more housing but believes “we are putting the cart before the horse,” and the idea that more housing would assist the town in receiving a grant to expand the water district, as Parete has previously claimed and reiterated at the conclusion of the meeting, is “convoluted.” Renner was also concerned with traffic.

“A well was drilled on Route 209, August 25, went down to 375 feet. No water was then fracked, and that well was actually ours,” Renner said. “The same day there was this huge crash on the 209 and involved two cars, that did catch fire.”

Innis Lawrence, the co-owner and founder of Ollie’s Pizza in High Falls, said that he supported the proposal because many of his employees cannot afford to live in the area. Lawrence said that he provided consultation to Parete when the proposal was being created. Lawrence told the Shawangunk Journal that the issues with water and sewage were some of the first issues discussed.

“That's why the goal is what was said, trying to get a not-for-profit that has access to state funds to bring in a water, sewage district,” Lawrence said. “That's why I think that people's complaints feel like it's a bit backwards.”

In terms of traffic, one community member named Sabina said that her “impression” is that the majority of the traffic on Route 209 is through traffic, and therefore the idea that people working in Marbletown cannot afford to live in Marbletown could also contribute to traffic problems.

Tom Konrad, the chair of Marbletowns’ Environmental Conservation Commission (ECC), said he was not speaking on behalf of the ECC but voiced his support for the Hamlet Overlay and said it could help traffic concerns.

“Increasing density in walkable areas is a very good thing. It reduces vehicle miles traveled,” Konrad said. In response to Herbes-Sommer’s claim that the proposal would not guarantee affordable housing, “the vast majority, if not all, econometric studies about increasing housing show that if you increase housing at all in any way, it increases affordability.”

In response to concerns brought by members of the community, Parete said that Marbletown has struggled to obtain water-related grants due to the wealth in Marbletown’s community, “but if you do a housing nonprofit, there is money available for them to expand infrastructure.”

Parete also said that the board has spoken to the Ulster County Traffic Transportation Council, which has said that traffic is down by almost 20 percent in the past 15 years, which drew loud disagreement from the public.

“I think all of us here, most of us here, are going home to a really nice, secure place, and a lot of people don't have housing security,” Parete said. “And I feel it's our job as elected officials to strike a balance and try to ensure that everybody has housing security.”

The next public hearing will be held on October 6. Parete said that the board will continue to discuss the Ulster County Planning Board’s recommendation to lower the affordability threshold and encouraged community members to email Heather Moody, the town clerk, for the full text of the official law and any additional documents. Parete said that he is also available to speak to community members directly and Moody can also forward any written comments from community members to the board.