Open Space Preservation Plan for The Town of Hurley

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 17^th 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:

* 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

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 18^th 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