Legacy Ridge next in line

July 19, 2006


Legacy Ridge next in line
Woodbury sets public hearing

By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com
Woodbury - The town spotlight now shifts to a second proposal for a gated community seeking zoning accommodations similar to those Bill Brodsky got last month for his 451-home WP3 project.

Town Board members have set an Aug. 1 date for people to weigh in on 287-home Legacy Ridge after determining that the developer's seven-binder draft environmental impact statement was complete.

The houses would be built on slightly more than 300 acres off Smith Clove and Trout Brook roads, a quiet area near Cornwall in the northern part of town. All would have four bedrooms and cost $625,000 on average, according to the environmental statement. Most lots would be a little more than an acre.

The Legacy Ridge proposal surfaced in November 2004 at the same time as Brodsky's project. Like its twin across town, Legacy Ridge is seeking a reduction in the minimum lot size and classification as a "conservation cluster development" to increase the number of homes allowed.

In the case of Legacy Ridge, that would mean building 287 houses instead of the 164 allowed under current zoning.

In return, Millennium Homes, the Livingston, N.J., builder behind the project, is offering to donate 430 acres to the town for open space and upgrade an aging sewage plant that would serve its 287 houses. The developer would also turn over the water supply and water storage tanks it would build. Though smaller, the project has aroused some of the same concerns about traffic and school taxes that Brodsky's proposal raised. Some of the strongest criticism has come from neighboring Cornwall, the school district that Legacy Ridge children would attend.

The public hearing is set for 7:30 p.m. Aug. 1 at the IBEW training center, 27 Commerce Drive South, Harriman. The environmental statement may be viewed at www.hdrprojects.com/legacyridgeeis/.