"Public accountability" Letter to the editor Irwin Sperber

The disclosures presented by the president of Friends of the Shawangunks call for independent hearings at the Town and County level. Voters and taxpayers in Gardiner should pay especially close attention to John Hayes’ letter to the editor, “Public trust,” in Hudson Valley One, 2/23/22, pp. 23-24. His account of how laws and ordinances are being evaded in the construction of a “glamping” facility in Gardiner serves the cause of good government and sound environmental policy. Favoritism and cronyism in allowing a large-scale “glamping” operation to go forward without the required construction and environmental permits cannot be tolerated. Even if only some of these disclosures were true, their further investigation by appropriate law enforcement agencies would seem to be in order.

In allowing the regulations to be waived, the responsible public official (in Gardiner’s case, Town Supervisor Majestic) may well have the best of intentions. When any public official or regulatory agency allows a developer to proceed without the necessary permits for problematic land use, any halfway competent corporate attorney can readily invoke this legal and administrative precedent to justify other development projects (for a Walmart, a hookah bar, a casino, a dynamite factory or anything else) to go forward as well. It may well be the case that the developer is a good neighbor, a good friend, a generous campaign donor or an exemplary member of the community. And we can speculate about what might have led to this favoritism: Possible factors might include the official’s good intentions, indecisiveness, poor judgment, old-fashioned cronyism, an infatuation with tourism, sheer madness or some combination thereof.

Some years ago, an environmental attorney characterized a similar scenario, which has become evident in the Catskills during the rapid rise of property values, as “land anarchy.” But another characterization of it can be offered that is more graphic and, I fear, more realistic. This trend toward the relaxation (or suspension or waiver) of requirements for construction permits is slowly but surely going to transform Gardiner and other towns and hamlets in the Catskills into stark versions of Paramus. If public officials really cherish the pipe dreams underlying this dystopia, they might wish to consider relocating there. Unless this trend is called to a halt, Route 44/55 will take on the features of New Jersey’s Route 17, with glamping grounds and monuments to extinct species complementing the shopping malls, lit-up billboards and auto dealerships on both sides of the road.

Some Town supervisors, Planning Boards, town consultants and attorneys, mayors and other champions of “progress” seem to be enthralled by massive development projects. These projects are usually heralded as recreational stopovers, tourist bonanzas, environmental enhancements, job creators or, more gratuitously, as guarantees of new property tax revenue. Whatever the good or bad intentions of the cheerleaders for such projects, their long-term consequences of economic harm and ecological degradation are not what most voters have in mind when they go to the polls. We can only hope that Gardiner’s elected and appointed officials are prepared to address the problem at hand; if not, it will be up to the voters to hold them accountable.

Publication history:

Hudson Valley One /9/22