NEWS RELEASES
Proposed RV Park In Catskill NY Struggles With Campground Laws, New Regulations
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through Hudson Valley 360's website.
HudsonValley360.com, a news outlet in New York State, reports that a new RV park to be called Tiny Tines, is having a hard run of it getting approval from the Catskill Planning Board. The proposed 60-site campground set on 104 acres plans to rent RV units and cabins, yet it is up against a new campground law passed by the board on Sept. 4 of this year.
“We started working with this project last year,” Planning Board Chairman Joseph Izzo told HudsonValley360. “We realized we didn’t have a good enough code to review this type of project and the town board was working on the new law this year. People are concerned about the visual impact, trespassing, noise, lights, flooding and traffic.”
Patrick Prendergast, the engineer for the project, presented a revised site plan to the planning board to address these concerns and meet the new regulations. He plans to add gates on trails that link the campground to adjacent properties and have the campground well-posted to discourage hunting and fishing. He also added four handicapped-accessible sites to the plan and changed the sewer mains to 8 inches, as recommended by the board.
Board members pointed out that Prendergrast’s plan takes into account the setbacks for campsites dictated by the campground law, but does not account for the setbacks required for a residential-agricultural zone - 50 feet from the property in the front, 30 feet on the side and 100 feet in the rear. Other agencies have requirements as well. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a say about the pond and protected wetlands on the property; the NY Department of Environmental Conservation wants flat-bottomed culverts to aid the movements of amphibians; the Department of Health wants three bathroom stalls per sex in the community building.
“We’ve tried to comply with the long campground law by doing everything under the sun,” Prendergast said. “Now, there’s more.” But he and Tiny Tines owner Jason Kopemaick aren’t giving up. They’ve gone before the planning board eight times already, with more public hearings, meetings and reviews still to go, but hope to start construction on the project in 12-18 months.
Read the full story here.