1.
BACKGROUND
The Town of Hurley includes a unique mixture
of open space resources. Its
northwestern limits include the upper slopes of Ohayo and Tonshi Mountains,
with a maximum elevation of 1,920 feet above sea level, which slope steeply
down to New York City’s Ashokan Reservoir, about 40% of which is within the
Town. The large central portion of
Town is an elevated upland plateau characterized by steep, wooded ravines which
drop abruptly to the flatlands lying on either side of the Esopus Creek at an
elevation of about 160 feet. These
flats contain some of the most productive agricultural lands in Ulster County
and are the source of New York State’s major sweet corn growing areas. The southeast portion of Town consists of
lower, rolling wooded lands. This area
also includes the hamlet of Old Hurley, a national historic landmark listed on
the National Register of Historic places due to its concentration of
well-preserved 17th century stone houses.
The Town established the Conservation
Advisory Council (CAC) to advise in the development, management and protection
of the Town’s natural resources. In
the winter of 2000-2001 the CAC undertook an Open Space Survey. Of 186 responses regarding issues of
importance, the three highest rated were open spaces for water conservation
needs (147), watersheds (140) and aquifers (142). Two-thirds of the respondents indicated that it was most
important for the Town to plan for the use and protection of its open spaces in
order to maintain Hurley’s rural character.
In 2002, the CAC applied for and received
approval of two grants to initiate open space planning. The first grant, from the Hudson River
Greenway Communities Council, was used to prepare an Open Space Resources
Inventory for the Town of Hurley. The
inventory has provided the background for work under the second grant to
prepare this Open Space Preservation Plan.
The inventory produced five maps illustrating Hurley’s open space
resources, large scale copies of which are hung in the Town Hall.
This report identifies the various open space
categories and their functions and suggests techniques by which each type of
open space can be preserved. The CAC
has identified specific sites in each category and assigned priority ratings to
each.
In addition to the open space survey, the CAC
held two public meetings at which the residents continued to express their
interest in preserving the quality of the Town’s water resources. As a result of the survey and the town
meetings, the work program for the Open Space Preservation Plan was modified to
include a separate, more detailed study intended to identify and evaluate
groundwater resources in the Town and recommend appropriate protection
techniques. Upon advice from the Town’s
consultant, Shuster Associates, the CAC hired respected hydrogeologist Dr.
Katherine Beinkafner to study the Town’s unconsolidated and bedrock aquifers,
wetlands and surface waters and make recommendations for measures to protect
them. (See Chapter VI)
The Hurley Town Board has called for this
Open Space Preservation Plan to be an integral part of the new Comprehensive
Town Plan which is currently being prepared.
The goal of that Plan is also that of the Open Space Preservation
Plan: Our challenge is to create a
plan that honors and preserves the best of Hurley – its beauty, its history,
its agricultural roots, respect for landowners’ rights, its friendliness and
its convenience – while acknowledging and preparing for the inevitable economic
and demographic changes that come with time.
II OPEN SPACE INVENTORY
The grant from the Greenway Communities
Council identified various types of open space. Excellent maps depicting many of these open space categories
were prepared by the Ulster County Planning Board as described below and
attached.
2.
BASE MAP AND
TOPOGRAPHY MAP
These maps provide an accurate
depiction of the Town including property lines, streets, water bodies and
topographic relief.
2.
LAND USE
FACTORS
This map illustrates the use of
all property in the Town and highlights the following:
·
Public lands:
NYS, DEC, Town, DEP
·
Private open
space: hunting/fishing clubs, recreation clubs, cemeteries
·
Agricultural
Districts and 480-a parcels (timber harvest)
·
Developed
lands: Residential (less than 10 acres)
Commercial/industrial/quasi-public/institutional
3.
DEVELOPMENT
LIMITATIONS
This map illustrates the
sensitive features which limit development in the town, including:
·
Slopes (15-25%,
25%+)
·
Wetlands: State and Federal
·
Floodplain
· NYC Watershed
D. COMPOSITE OPEN SPACE
This map (following) depicts the
following three categories of open space which are present in the Town as
further discussed in Section III.
·
Permanent Open
Space (Publicly owned lands, cemeteries and conservation easements)
·
Regulated Open
Space (wetlands and floodplain)
·
Temporary Open
Space (lands preserved under agricultural district and 480-a exemptions)
3.
OPEN SPACE
ALREADY PRESERVED
1.
TOWN-WIDE
LAND USE DISTRIBUTION
Based on land use categories
established by the Ulster County Real Property Tax Service Agency, land uses in
the Town are distributed as shown in the following table:
|
Land Use Category
|
Acres
|
% Of Total
|
|
Agricultural
|
1,040
|
4.6%
|
|
Residential
|
4,428
|
19.6%
|
|
Vacant* (inc. rural res. 10+ ac.)
|
8,497 (2,115)
|
37.6%
|
|
Commercial and Industrial
|
380
|
1.7%
|
|
Recreation, Entertainment, Community
Services and Public Services
|
1,400
|
6.2%
|
|
New York City DEP Land
|
5,689
|
25.2%
|
|
Wild, Forested, Conservation Lands and
Public Parks
|
1,154
|
5.1%
|
|
Total
|
22,587
|
100.0%
|
* Since many lots categorized for tax purposes as
residential are quite large in area and contain only one residence, those
residential lots with more than 10 acres have been included in the vacant land total.
As the table shows, the categories of agricultural,
vacant, New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) lands and
wild, forested, conservation lands total 17,521 acres, or 77% of the Town’s
total land and water area. Thus, over
three-quarters of the Town, is presently in some form of open space, as
illustrated on the following chart.
2.
OPEN SPACE
PRESERVED FOREVER
Two governmental
agencies control substantial amounts of permanently protected open space. The City of New York owns the Ashokan Reservoir and its immediate buffer with a total
of 5,689 acres plus additional lands and development rights it has acquired under
its watershed protection program. It
is possible that some of these additional lands could be disposed of in the
future if New York City is required to construct a filtration plant and no
longer is required to preserve open lands in the watershed. NYSDEC owns various parcels in the Town, as
part of the Catskill Forest Preserve, with a total of 934 acres.
In addition to
the major holdings of these two agencies, other public agencies and non-profit bodies own a diverse
mixture of properties scattered around the Town and used for schools, public
facilities, cemeteries and churches.
3.
OPEN SPACE
PRESERVED BY REGULATION
State and
federal regulations place severe restrictions on the development of certain
types of land to protect public health and safety. In the process, the open space value of this land is also
preserved. The two major categories of
such land in Hurley are the floodplain lands along the Esopus Creek and various state designated
freshwater wetlands scattered throughout the Town.
4.
TEMPORARY
OPEN SPACE PRESERVATION
In an effort to
protect agricultural uses and timber resources, New York State has created two
programs which provide reduced assessments for property owners who agree to
limit their land to agricultural production or timber harvesting for a
specified period of time. If the owner
sells the land for development during that period, all tax relief granted must
be repaid. While these programs do not
provide permanent preservation of open space, they do encourage it in the short
run.
4.
FUNCTIONAL
VALUES OF OPEN SPACE
Open space resources
serve one or more functions as illustrated in the following matrix. As the matrix illustrates, each category of
open space provides more than one function.
The following section discusses various techniques available to address
preservation of open space ranging from guidelines to encourage preservation to
zoning mandates to actual acquisition.
OPEN
SPACE
|
Type of Resource
|
Potable Water Supply
|
Ground-water Recharge
|
Ground-water
Discharge
|
Flood Control
|
Wildlife Habitat
|
Aesth-etic or
Scenic
|
Active Recrea-tion
|
Passive Recrea-tion
|
Maintain Rural Character
|
|
Ground Water
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wellheads
|
n
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aquifers
|
n
|
n
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Surface Water
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Streams/Rivers
|
|
n
|
n
|
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
|
Lakes/Ponds
|
|
n
|
n
|
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
|
Wetlands
|
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
|
n
|
n
|
|
Flood
Plains
|
|
|
|
n
|
n
|
|
|
|
n
|
|
Agricultural
Lands
|
|
n
|
|
n
|
|
n
|
|
|
n
|
|
Undeveloped Lands
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Forests/
Woodlands
|
|
|
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
|
Open
Fields
|
|
|
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
|
Ridgelines
|
|
|
|
|
n
|
n
|
|
n
|
n
|
|
Steep Slopes/
Rock
Outcroppings
|
|
|
|
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
n
|
|
Scenic Vistas
|
|
|
|
|
|
n
|
|
n
|
n
|
|
Scenic
Roads/
Gateways
|
|
|
|
|
|
n
|
|
n
|
n
|
|
Recreational
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Parks
|
|
|
|
|
n
|
|
n
|
n
|
|
|
Hiking/Biking Trails
|
|
|
|
|
n
|
|
n
|
n
|
|
|
Historic
Sites
|
|
|
|
|
|
n
|
|
n
|
n
|
5.
OPEN SPACE
PRIORITY AREAS
The CAC evaluated
open space resources and established priorities as illustrated in Exhibit A and
discussed below.
1.
WATER RESOURCES
1.
Groundwater. Wellheads
and Aquifers.
Hurley residents get water from their own wells, some of which go
back to colonial times. The major
private company, Rolling Meadows Water Corporation, has 776 customers in Old
Hurley and Ulster. Their water comes
from several sources: Kent Springs off
Hurley Avenue, a spring and well at Orchard Street, a well at Conifer Lane, a
well at Griffin Drive, and three wells in an aquifer known as the Esopus
Gravels on the Elmendorf Flats. There
is one small private water district in West Hurley.
2.
Surface Water.
Esopus Creek flows from the Ashokan Reservoir through the
Old Hurley hamlet from south to north, in good part beside the large Hurley
Aquifer. Several streams flow into it
from the west and one stream and
several intermittent streams from the east. The Esopus is considered quite pollution-free by the
Ulster County Environmental Management Council south of the Wynkoop Bridge and
slightly less so after that, principally because of the shallowness of the water. The area just before the intersection with
Mill Creek is being considered for a town beach. The land surrounding most of the Esopus is used for agriculture,
primarily sweet corn. The Esopus is
classified by the DEC as a Class B protected fresh surface water, suitable for
recreation purposes.
Kenozia Lake, the furthest west point of Hurley, is the only true lake in Town. It is surrounded by private land and Route
28 and provides the foreground for views of the Catskills.
Preymaker Brook and the
Waterfall on Hurley
Mountain Road is a unique, easily viewed feature.
Twin Lakes is part of the Binnewater Lakes System. The section in Hurley is a lovely, quiet
lake surrounded by fir trees with a large swamp at the eastern end.
Mill Creek and Hidden Lake. Mill
Creek flows past ancient stone fences, through picturesque woodlands and large
wetland. Nearby are a number of
enormous glacially deposited limestone boulders. The boundary between Hidden Lake and Mill Creek holds the
remains of a 200-year old dam. The
foundations of the mill responsible for the dam are near where the Creek flows
into the Esopus.
Sawkill Watershed. The
Sawkill is a picturesque stream running through the center of Woodstock. Part of its watershed is in West Hurley and
was the subject of a special drainage study in 1988.
3.
Wetlands.
There are 18 New York State-designated wetlands in the Town with several
of the largest near Joys Lane, Russell Road, and Stone Road. The area along Stone Road which includes
Stony Creek, a NYS-designated wetland, and beaver ponds is particularly
recommended by the hydrogeologist (see Section VI) as an especially good source
of water. Under NYS Article 24, the
Town of Hurley has the power to designate wetlands that are smaller than the
State minimum of 12.4 acres, but as yet has not done so. Wetlands are particularly good areas for
the preservation of wildlife habitat.
4.
Floodplains. The
U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has established a designated flood hazard area
along the Esopus Creek in Hurley which is a 100-year floodplain. Most of the Hurley Flats, prime
agricultural land, falls into this category.
One-hundred year floods may be expected to occur more often than once
per century in streams with watersheds that have been subjected to intensive
land development.
B. LARGE UNDEVELOPED TRACTS
1.
Land along
Hurley Ridge up to Morgan Hill
(zoned A-4). About a quarter of this
land is New York State-owned land which is protected, but the rest of it,
including the crucial area of the ridge itself from Dug Hill to the Town of
Ulster line is not. The views of the
ridge from Old Hurley as well as the views of the hamlet and the cornfields
from the ridge are outstanding. There
are historical remains, including many from pre-Civil War times such as the
first African-American community in the area, as well as vast evergreen and
mixed-wood forests in this area.
2.
The Mill
Creek Woods (zoned R-1) from
the O&W Rail Trail to Lucas Avenue–contains Hidden Lake, Mill Creek,
federal wetlands, seasonal streams and waterfalls, large hemlock forests,
limestone ridge and outcroppings, glacially deposited boulders, and hiking
trails. Two hundred years ago this
area included the Hurley Commons.
Thus, there are the remains of the town’s mill dam, ancient stone fences
and orchards and the original colonial road from Kingston to New Paltz as well
as much wildlife including deer, bear, coyotes, beaver, and turkeys.
3.
Land from
Walton Lane to Dewitt Mills Road (zoned A-2.5) Most of this property is owned by the Twin Lakes Lodge,
Hurley Recreation and a church group in New Jersey. It has lakes, swamps, streams, hills, a fern forest, pine groves
and hiking trails.
4.
Land from
Maverick Road to Tonche Mountain (zoned A-2.5 from the Glenford-Wittenburg Road to Rt. 28; otherwise
zoned A-4). The famous Maverick Concert Hall, an open-air concert center, is on
Maverick Road. Tonche Mountain is the
highest point in Hurley. There are
outstanding views from many high points of the Ashokan Reservoir, the Catskill
Mountains, and of the Hudson Valley to the east. The area has steep topography and a poor water supply. Much of this land is wooded with small
clearings for fields and there are some small streams and ponds.
5.
Land from
Stone Road to Spillway (or 28A)
(zoned A-2.5 except for the Department of Environmental Protection lands which
are A-4). Hundreds of acres of
undeveloped land lie between Stone Road and Spillway Road, much of which is
former farmland returning to forest.
This area is home or way station for at least 80 species of birds as
well as many mammals. Several large
quarry sites as well as numerous test quarries are scattered through the woods,
some of which have become ponds. The
area contains swampy areas, a lake and many small seasonal streams. A network of old logging and quarry roads
run through the woods making the area accessible to hikers.
3.
AGRICULTURAL
LANDS
Hurley Flats.
(Zoned A-4) Some 1,600 acres are currently in cultivation on the Flats,
primarily sweet corn, but also vegetables and flowers. This is some of the most productive
farmland in New York State and has been under cultivation since long before the
first Europeans settled in the area. An
ear of corn is part of the Town logo and most residents consider these fields
to be what makes the Town unique.
Although a good part of this land is in both a floodplain and a
certified Agricultural District, it is still zoned to permit residential
development.
4.
SCENIC
VISTAS
1.
Hurley Flats, especially the cornfields – the long vista
from Wynkoop Road south towards Mohonk Mountain and the view from Route 209
north of town over the cornfields towards the Hurley Reformed Church.
2.
The
Catskills from Rt. 209 south of Old Hurley Center – this view of the east-facing Catskill
front at the edge of the Allegheny Plateau is mentioned in Roadside Geology of
New York by Bradford Van Diver.
3.
Views from
Glenford-Wittenberg Road and Ohayo Mountain Road –
scenic views of the Ashokan reservoir and the Catskills.
4.
Views of
Hurley Ridge, west of the
cornfields from Wynkoop Road –
cornfields past old stone houses and farms to steep wooded slopes.
5. Kenozia Lake from
Rt. 28 – scenic views of the lake with the mountain
backdrop.
5.
SCENIC ROADS
AND TOWN GATEWAYS
1.
Hurley
Avenue from the Town line through Main Street – most of this is on the National Register of Historic Places. It contains 18th century stone
houses, one of which was the temporary
capital of New York State in 1777, the Hurley Historic Society museum, the 1853
Hurley Reformed Church, the Hurley Library, views of Hurley Ridge and the
Catskills.
2.
Wynkoop Road – although not even half a mile long, it
passes the Hurley Mountain Inn and the 1690's Wynkoop House (both major
settings for the movie Tootsie), the Esopus Creek, and provides views of the
Hurley Ridge and over the cornfields all the way to Mohonk Mountain.
3.
Hurley
Mountain Road from Rt. 28 to
Marbletown line – along Hurley Ridge past the waterfall, cornfields, stone
houses, old Dutch barn.
4.
Route 209 –
views of