Two weeks ago, Mazarella and committee released a Draft Comprehensive/Zoning Plan, which calls for a maximum of one structure on 20 acres. It can be read on the Town of Rhinebeck Web site at www.rhinebeck-ny.gov.

The plan has enraged large landowners as they feel it favors the large estate developer and devalues the property value of their land. They are calling for a 1:10 acre ratio, and in the case of working farms, a 1:5 acre ratio, in order to maintain the integrity of the neighborhood of Rhinebeck and the already tenuous financial soundness of the working farms, specifically in the National Historic Landmark District.

A group of Rhinebeck, Rhinecliff and River Road landowners hired Randall Arendt, author of the American Planning Association's book, "Rural by Design" to address the issues in the Comprehensive Plan. Known as the leading conservation land planner in America, he has worked with hundreds of municipalities across the country, to plan for growth without sprawl.

Even though the Comprehensive Plan Committee included concepts of Arendt's "four step" conservation subdivision approach in the Draft Comprehensive Plan and Draft Zoning Code, when he addressed the current issues and concerns of landowners Friday night at Morton Library in Rhinecliff and again on Saturday morning at the Town Hall in Rhinebeck, Arendt disagreed emphatically with the resulting Draft Comprehensive Plan and Draft Zoning Code now proposed on the town Web site.

Arendt focused on preserving a 1:5 density for the working farms, saying: "There should be an exemption for working farms. For example, the McLaughlin farm should be exempt, as that is their only retirement package. Preserve farmland; stay off prime farmland almost entirely."

He stressed that conservation design is a process where "We begin with the land and go from there; what cries out for conservation? The public view shed cries out for conservation and it's sensible to need to maintain the public view shed and rural character, avoiding fragmenting a lot."

Prescribing density not less than 1 unit per 10 acres for land other than working farms, Arendt focused on the following key points:



*Locate development rights near public water and sewer, as close to Rhinecliff Hamlet as possible, but avoiding expensive site changes in topography, on slopes.

*Protect important habitats of turkeys, owls, etc., which are also scenic public view sheds.

*Protect prime farmland with 1:5 density.



He stressed that down-zoning farmland to 1:20 ratio will rob the farms of 75% of their land's equity, and that 80% of open space is preserved with a 1:10 zoning for all non-farmland, what he called "a better solution than the Comprehensive Plan now proposed" by Mazarella and committee.

Pat McLaughlin of McLaughlin Farm said, "After Saturday's presentation by Randall Arendt, the McLaughlin's had to leave quickly to go to the Scholldorf farm to help them with a birth of a calf. A loss of an animal or a 'taking of land' which is what 20-acre down-zoning is, is a monumental loss to a farmer. It's about the land and the food. Plain and simple, No Farms No Food."

McLaughlin continued, "My family came to farm in Rhinebeck over 60 years ago; my mother was from Poughkeepsie and my father from Pendleton, Oregon. I have one brother and one sister. My brother tends to the farming, my sister and I both have jobs in Poughkeepsie; you can't survive by farming; you have to supplement. We come home from the jobs and do chores on the farm, which makes for a very long day. We all come running to help each other no matter what, we drop what we are doing, the McLaughlins, the Scholldorfs, Jamie Kibel and Michael DeCola, and others in this community who understand animals and land stewardship."

Christa Hines, whose family has been dairy farming in Rhinebeck for 55 years, said, "The 1:20 proposed zoning will create large exclusionary lots and sprawl with extremely large 'McMansion' structures in order for the developers to make their money back. That would not be a neighborhood, no sense of community, but rather exclusionary wealthy people living in mega-wealth in an anti-neighborhood setting."

Hines went on to say, "The 1:20 ratio looks like conserving the land and stopping sprawl, but not really. Mazarella and Wills are creating sprawl. They're stealing from me. 1:20 ratio devalues my land equity. We should be worried about preserving the farmer by not taking away their financial ability to continue farming, if their land gets devalued."

Hines added, "We're in the middle of a fireball. My father at 80 still works from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, and can barely walk. We feel we have a right not to be financially hurt by this."

Joel Russell, an attorney and planning consultant who has worked on historic land preservation with over 40 municipalities in the Hudson Valley, including Amenia, guided "Try to keep the plan relatively simple, accommodating the needs of landowners and various members of the community, while keeping the farmers viable in agriculture. Include the farmers on committees, listen to their concerns, and try to find reasonable ways to accommodate their needs. Some of the (proposed) zoning has gone beyond what many farmers find reasonable, like 1:20 acre ratio in the Comprehensive Plan."

Russell urged, "Don't allow hilly and wetlands to be counted toward the plan. And, use the 1:10 acre plan which is fair to landowners and accomplishes the town's objectives, rather than using what the town has proposed."

Landowners Steve Mensch and his son Jonathan have contemplated aspects of the

Comprehensive Plan and have expressed their thoughts as follows: "Our concerns about the proposed large lot 20-acre zoning in the Historic District are two-fold. First it would likely result in the creation of "large-lot sprawl"-a landscape inhabited by large 'McMansion' style houses instead of being kept rural. That's not at all what the Comprehensive Plan Committee members want to see happen; it's what they are fighting to prevent--but when you look at the logic of development at that low density on land with the soil types in our district, that's the way we see it going.

"Second, there needs to be a balance between town interests and private property rights. Property values are based on development potential and if you simply take that potential away at the kind of level that's being proposed, the results are economically devastating-a 75% loss in property value. It's true for everyone who owns undeveloped land and it's particularly hard on people like long-time farmers for whom land is their biggest asset. Everyone in town needs to step back and consider how they'd feel if the town mandated that their own property values were to be slashed to one-quarter of what they are today.

"We hired Randall Arendt to try to help us find a better, fairer way to protect our rural environment. Randall showed us that, by creating a structure through which people, whose land is in places desirable for growth, could buy building rights from people whose land is in areas that are to be kept truly rural. There can be planned growth without creating winners and losers. He also demonstrated that we can achieve real openness-80 to 85% open space-without resorting to the draconian large lot, 20-acre per house zoning that is currently being proposed," said Steve and Jonathan Mensch.

For the past several years, there has been a moratorium on large construction projects while a group of some 23 members had been reworking a development plan for the town, however the moratorium ends in January, 2009, thus a zoning and comprehensive plan must finally be decided on.

On August 14th, a public meeting will be held at the Rhinebeck High School at 6:45pm, to allow all members of the public and all interested agencies to provide their input on the scope of the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS).