After years of getting lost in bureaucratic loopholes, local developer Floyd Kniffen finally received approval from both the New Paltz town and village boards to annex approximately 31 acres of his land — just north of Henry W. Dubois, near Harrington Street — from the town to the village.
“Welcome to the village, Floyd,” said Mayor Jason West at last week’s joint town-village board meeting.
Although Kniffen has an approved subdivision from the town dating back to 2004, he said that in order to build on that parcel and retain the open space that could be used as part of the proposed Millbrook Greenway, he needed to get village water and sewer. The only way to get village water and sewer is to annex to the village. That annexation could also be beneficial to the developer, because it could allow him greater density than he would have in the town.
The Millbrook Greenway that Kniffen hopes to contribute to is a proposed public park with at least 240 acres of land. It would follow the Millbrook Stream from North Ohioville Road all the way to Route 32 in the village. But the land for the greenway is owned by several developers whose land encompasses portions of the stream. To create the park in the way it was envisioned, it would require conservation easements from those developers — a binding legal agreement stating that they wouldn’t build on those sensitive lands.
Town Councilwoman Kitty Brown asked Kniffen if the amount of units he could build conceivably, based on the greatest density the village allows, could result in anywhere between 100 and 400 homes.
“Depending on the zoning they decide, yes,” Kniffen said.
Brown said that she was “very much in favor of increasing density in and around the village, but who determines the density you will receive?”
Supervisor Toni Hokanson explained that if the annexation was approved, it would be the Village Board that would decide what density that property would have. The Kniffen property is located close to both B-3 and B-2 residential density zones.