WAWARSING – Public comment will be accepted until March 8 on what could be the final approval of a sixty-four -home summer development in rural Greenfield Park.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has made a tentative determination to approve GT Gardens' application for a wastewater discharge permit. The development has been in the works for a number of years and will feature sixty-four, five-bedroom "bungalows" — measuring 1,800 square feet each — and a synagogue on the 109.8-acre site on Mountaindale Road. The new colony would also include separate men's and women's swimming pools, a meeting room, tennis courts, paddleball courts, walking trails and a basketball court.

The idea of a bungalow colony is a throwback to the heyday of the old Catskills once known as "The Borscht Belt," when such entities, along with numerous boarding houses grown to hotels sprang up like poppies throughout Ulster and Sullivan counties.

According to records, plans for the bungalow colony were first prepared in 2005. Chaim Rosenberg, business partner of GT Gardens developer Jack Mandelbaum, bought the property in November 2009 for $800,000. Its full market value is currently $229,412.

Questions remain over whether the development is considered a bungalow colony or condominiums. In May 2011, engineer John Tarolli, representing GT Gardens, said the land would be used as a bungalow colony; however, in a Feb. 8, 2013 environmental bulletin, the DEC described it as "a sixty-four unit residential condominium development."

The Wawarsing Planning Board gave conditional final approval of the project on June 26, 2012. Among the conditions required for approval were:

• County Health Department approval for water and sewer;
• An escrow agreement requiring $300 per unit for the first thirty units, to pay for town improvements to the Mountaindale Road/Route 52 intersection;
• A $30,000 escrow for construction inspection fees;
• Two bonds: one for $38,000 for swale improvement, and a $200,000 bond to restore the site if the developer abandons the project;
• Payment of all required fees before construction can begin.

According to reports on the project, the town contacted Mandelbaum several times between August 2011 and June 2012, notifying him of his failure to make timely payments for legal and engineering reviews.

GT Gardens, LLC, requested, and received in December of last year, a six-month extension of the Planning Board approval, presumably to gain time to get DEC approval.

At an August 2011 public hearing, neighbors raised questions about the legality of having more than one home for each septic system, whether the necessary wells would harm neighboring wells, and why such large homes would be called "bungalows."

Two questions that also concerned neighbors at the hearing are whether the homes will truly be seasonal, and whether the development would be exempt from tax rolls because a house of worship is planned there.

The "seasonal vs. year-round" concern was raised again at an October 2011 planning board meeting — when the board decided the project would not harm the environment — and yet again the following December. The board then suggested a note be added to the plans that stresses the strictly seasonal use of the homes, and that if in the future the homes were to be used year-round, planning board approval would be required.

Wawarsing Tax Assessor Mike Sommer said that his role in assessing the property for tax reasons hasn't yet begun, since it is still vacant land. He added that he couldn't predict whether the property would, in fact, be tax-exempt.

"Just because a synagogue may be built there doesn't mean it's tax-exempt," Sommer said.

Supervisor Scott Carlsen said he looks forward to the development.

"I support the project as presented to the planning board," Carlsen said. "Sixty-plus homes on the tax roll with DEC-approved water and sewer; we need new construction in our town."

A draft of the permit can be viewed and commented on at NYSDEC Region 3 Headquarters at 21 South Putt Corners Road in New Paltz. The headquarters can be contacted by phone at 256-3054, and via email at [email protected].