Hiddenbrooke: Is Time On Our Side?

by Jack Sine

It’s all about the water. Well, it’s also about the lack of water, and limited sewage, and too much traffic, and overcrowded schools, and the spiritual nature of the place…and, oh yeah, it’s also about making a buck.

The story begins here: a fellow from Westchester named Larry Kalkstein and his group purchased 123 acres of the Hiddenbrooke property on DePuyster Avenue excluding the monastery and its related buildings. His goal is to build upscale housing on the property. But there are a bunch of problems about building on that property and the biggest one is water.

The hidden waters of Hiddenbrooke

“When it rains, the mountain weeps and we get floods in Jessen Park,” said Bernadette Clemens whose house abuts the Hiddenbrooke property. “Its not just runoff from the rain, it’s all the hidden springs underground. That’s why it’s called Hiddenbrooke. The water carries all the sludge from the mountain into Lake Carol and it fills up with silt. Kids used to be able to fish in it, now it’s mostly mud. Can you imagine if they start cutting down trees to build houses? It will be massive erosion and we’ll be up to our necks in muck.”

Her husband Chuck agrees. “When the people next door built their house, they had a perq test done and it showed no water problem. Then the rains came and they literally had water running through their cellar. We don’t have that problem because we have sump pumps that immediately remove water before it does any damage.”

A perq test is simply a matter of digging a hole and timing how long it takes water to accumulate. The only problem is that the Clemens’ neighbors had theirs done in the summer, and a perq test is supposed to be done in the rainy season.

Jessen Park is a small development of family homes that was originally part of the Hiddenbrooke property. It’s located on DePuyster Avenue just north of the property and has a large pond called Lake Carol that collects runoff from the mountain.

“Jessen Park is an example of what happens when you build on watershed land,” said Shannon Burke Murphy, granddaughter of the last caretaker of Hiddenbrooke, David Burke. “When you do, you’re going to experience tremendous water problems. And Jessen Park is just on the edge of the property. Where they propose building will be much worse. The place is loaded with natural springs. The environment is just not conducive to building.”

Shannon and some colleagues have banded together and formed Friends of Hiddenbrooke whose goal is to restore the property to its natural beauty and to make it an outdoor asset for all of Beacon. They plan to work with the City of Beacon and any other concerned groups to preserve the land.

“It’s critical to save this property,” she said. “The watershed filters and cleans the runoff as it finds its way to Fishkill Creek and the Hudson. The whole area is interlaced with small streams that rush with water when it rains or the snow melts. At the same time the underground springs gush water. Who could build on property like that?”

Joe Neville, a local building contractor, agrees. “When you have ground water, you have a problem; when you have a lot of runoff and springs you have a problem so big that it could be financially unfeasible.”

City engineer Art Tully of Lanc and Tully Engineering and Surveying, PC, agrees about the presence of underground springs. “I don’t know how many springs there are because I haven’t done any formal work up there as yet, but there are underground springs. The pond up at the monastery is full year round regardless of how much rainfall we have, and that could only come from a spring.”

Logistics of a growing city getting too big for its britches

“It’s more than a water problem,” says City Councilwoman Deana Leake. “It’s about schools and sewers and traffic and crowded schools. The east side of Beacon simply cannot support another 75 homes along with the water they use, the waste they generate, and the traffic they create. DuPuyster already has too much traffic. The sewer and water systems are old and overstressed. Forrestal school is bursting at the seams. And when we have a drought, which happens every few years, that means 75 more families depending on our limited water supply. It just doesn’t make sense to stress our infrastructure to the breaking point.”

But what of the property and school tax dollars that would be gained by putting this property on the tax roles?

“Beacon would actually lose tax dollars if that happened,” said Bernadette Clemens. “Several studies have been done on overdeveloped communities, and in everyone of them, the last buildings to be built cost the community approximately $1.25 for every $1.00 of tax money coming in because of the increase in road maintenance, garbage, sewer, water, and additional teachers who have to be hired.”

Deana Leake agrees. “As a city councilwoman I’ve gotten a unique insight into the infrastructure problems in east Beacon and it’s just too much to ask the system to support 150 new adults and their children. There is hardly any more building land in the city. What we need is open space for our citizens, not more developments like the ones on 9D north of I-84 that have created horrible traffic and other problems.”

Everyone who has dealt with Larry Kalkstein has said he and his attorney have been very cooperative, recognizing Beacon’s concerns and trying to adapt his plans. But the almost unanimous feeling is that he didn’t understand what he was getting into. All potential buyers for the property were informed that the city council planned to rezone the property from what it is now – quarter-acre lots throughout – to lots of one acre fronting DuPuyster to two acre in the next group to three acre in the back. They are hoping to avoid that by “clustering” the homes. They have also offered to give 80 acres of the property back to the city for recreational purposes.

“It seems very generous on the outside,” said Bernadette Clemens. “Buy he can’t build on those 80 acres, they’re too steep. And if he kept them, he’d have to pay school and property taxes on them. By giving them back to the city, he gets a tax write off.”

Hiddenbrooke needs our help

“The Hiddenbrooke property up by the caretaker’s house where my grandparents lived is really farm land,” said Murphy. “The soil is rich and fertile and it took them decades to build that up. You don’t subdivide rich farmland, you farm it. Maybe cooperatively. And the rest of the property needs help. Invasive species like the Norway maple have started to take over. My grandfather used to control them, but that was back in the late seventies. We need to organize a care giving effort once the community gains the land back.

Plans to get Hiddenbrooke back

The seeming unfeasibility to build on Hiddenbrooke has not been proven yet. There needs to be a mandatory New York State Environmental Quality Review Act impact review which will examine water as well as many other potential problems. That is in the future and, if the property passes that, Kalkstein still has to submit his own engineering assessment to the planning board and city council, preferably done by a licensed hydrologist – a specialist in all forms of ground water and its effects. Then our city engineer would review that report and make recommendations. Kalkstein has yet to make a formal proposal to the planning board and he has received no permits or approvals from the city.

“It’s a very long process,” said Mayor Clara Lou Gould. “It will take a very long time to decide if Kalkstein will be permitted to build. In the mean time, the city council has directed me to look for ways of funding a buyout of Kalkstein’s group and bringing the Hiddenbrooke property under the wing of the city for the enjoyment of our citizens. I’ve already applied for an open ended grant for open space preservation from one group and there are numerous other groups we’re looking into. Fortunately, time is on our side.”

Groups like Friends of Hiddenbrooke and our elected officials are just beginning to take steps to preserve this pristine piece of Beacon. It’s the beginning of a saga that will last several years.

We’ll keep you informed of how it’s going.

Jack Sine is a freelance writer and advertising/PR consultant who has lived in Beacon for nearly three decades.

Comments

[AntiTreeHugger]

See what is happening to Beacon, tree huggers. Preventing this area from becoming a major city. It's just a shame.

[Yes]

VOTE YES!!! Vote yes for hiddenbrooke development you liberals.

[margret]

Why should this be a saga? Someone bought the land. If the "friends of Hiddenbrook" want it let them put out the cash instead of trying to force someone elese to pay the bill for them.

[Jeff B]

Sheesh, for the record... the Friends of Hiddenbrooke are attempting to raise the money to buy the property. They just want the progress to be slowed enough that they have the opportunity to buy the property before every tree is cut down.

Major City? You're kidding right? Hiddenbrooke is the last piece of open space in the city. They can build about 50-60 houses there. Putting 50-60 houses on the property is NEVER going to make this a major city. You'll just add about 180 people to the population base. Add that to the current base of about 14,000 within the Beacon city limits. and you've got a grand total of 14,180. Sorry buddy-boy, that still makes Beacon small.

Tree-hugger? Maybe. Liberal? Sorry, wrong label.

I'm personally interested in slowing down the process enough to see what the options are and seeing what's best for the City of Beacon. If it ends up being houses that go on that property I don't have a problem with it as long as the process allowed for all the alternatives to be looked at. Just because there's open space doesn't mean that you have to plant houses on it. Once Hiddenbrooke has houses on it, there will never be any way to get the property back.

Better to proceed with caution than to destroy the property and regret it later.

And one last thing... there's no vote taking place on this, so you can't "VOTE YES." It's a discussion and a dialogue and a way to see if there are other options.

Feel free to vote on the Library. That's the only election taking place this month. Meanwhile, consider the possiblity that the Hiddenbrooke property might be worth trying to keep undeveloped.

[peggy smith]

Is there a hidden agenda?? I don't think it has anything to do with saving open space. Why would our City want to purchase (Hidden Brook ) 120 acres of land for 3 million dollars of tax payer money when they were offered 80 acres of that land for free. THat's right Presrock Corp was donating 80 acres back to the City & the Sisters. What is the deal? Then the City slips the vote to purchase the land through without a public vote.
Is it ok that building is going on everywhere else in town, no matter how small the lots. Is it who you know in town? We all need to pay more attention to how our tax dollars are being spent.

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