a not-for-profit corporation   
P O Box 370    Kinderhook NY  12106    518-758-2646   

 
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ABOUT KNGG

 

KNGG

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

FOR MORE DETAILS - SEE HISTORY 2002, HISTORY 2003,

HISTORY 2004 & HISTORY 2005

In the spring of 2002 a group of Kinderhook citizens, galvanized by their concerns about the adverse impact of a proposed Widewaters shopping mall, formed Kinderhook Neighbors for Good Growth.


KNGG has grown to include over 230 members. It has raised and continues to raise tens of thousands of dollars to hire the legal, engineering, and traffic experts to analyze the constantly changing Widewaters’ plans.

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KNGG’s first major initiative has been to prevent the construction of the roundabout and the shopping mall as they have been presented. But KNGG has also undertaken other efforts to encourage proper planning, preservation, and positive development in the town.


KNGG’s tenacious encouragement has resulted in increased citizen comment via letters to newspaper editors, conversations with local officials, and participation in public hearings as KNGG continues to raise community consciousness about the critical importance of citizen participation in local municipal meetings and knowledge of local issues.


KNGG’s input on the Widewaters issues has remained ongoing.  In May 2002, 28 residents publicly voiced their concerns to the Town Planning Board about impacts of the proposed strip mall.


In August 2002 KNGG presented a detailed critique of the developer’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to the Kinderhook Town Planning Board.
Early in October 2002, when Widewaters filed suit against the Town in NYS Supreme Court, KNGG interceded on behalf of the Town, saving it—and its taxpayers-- thousands in legal fees.


On October 15, 2002, 39 residents, alerted by KNGG, spoke out against the proposed shopping mall, citing KNGG report about the developer's flawed DEIS. In October and December KNGG mailed 2 educational brochures with details of the negative impacts of the proposed shopping mall to all town residents.

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In August 2003, 38 KNGG Members spoke against the Widewaters SDEIS at a Public Hearing. Earlier, on June 9, KNGG Advisor Meg Moran had rebutted Widewaters at a Town Board meeting. This was the first time KNGG was officially placed on the Town Board Agenda.


On November 17, 2003, at the Town ZBA Public Hearing, 10 KNGG members spoke against granting Widewaters a variance for a flat roof on their big box. KNGG members and advisors proved it is not necessary to go up 8 stories to conform to the code with a traditional roof as the developer claimed. (Architect and KNGG member Alvin Knoll presented the ZBA with drawings to scale showing that this big box, if built in a traditional way, could be built to code with hip roofs that would reach only 50 feet as opposed to Widewaters' drawings where the building reached 100 feet).


On March 4 2004, 40 KNGG members spoke against the assumptions of  the Widewaters' strip mall proposal at the Planning Board's public hearing on the Widewaters Site Plan. KNGG Attorney Jeff Baker who reminded the Board that just because the DOT recommended a roundabout, the Planning Board should not feel obliged to approve it. KNGG Board member, attorney Meg Moran, rebutted Widewaters' traffic count data and exposed the errors of its projected date of failure of the roundabout using hard facts and figures.

 

KNGG showed the Planning Board that there was no room for expansion of the proposed roundabout, which was to have mitigated the additional traffic, thus forcing Widewaters to decrease the size of their strip mall from 5 buildings to 4 buildings. 


KNGG also has pursued other conversations and publicity opportunities that might help downsize or alter the proposed mall. On May 9, 2003, KNGG took out a 1/2-page advertisement in The Independent rebutting statements made by Widewaters on the flyers it mailed to town residents. On July 10 2003, Clayton Van Alstyne, former Kinderhook Supervisor said in his Chatham Courier, column "KNGG is actively fighting Widewaters and it's important for our community that they are. Their mission is to save Kinderhook from box malls and becoming a carbon copy of East Greenbush or Greenport."

 

For over two years, KNGG members attended all board hearings and meetings, wrote countless letters, and argued repeatedly that the proposed development was unsafe and would harm community character. On August 20, 2004 the Town Planning Board unwisely approved the application for Widewaters Commons without considering several adverse impacts.  The board relied on studies by experts that several of its members criticized as variously unreliable and inadequate.

 

Nevertheless, KNGG’s efforts did make a difference to the outcome:

      1. KNGG advocated successfully for the placement of a CONSERVATION EASEMENT on the back 9 acres of the parcel, limiting the development to the front 10 acres only. Green space will now prevail in the rear.

      2. Reports by KNGG’s lighting and landscaping experts helped to improve the specifications put forward by the developer.

      3. Under pressure from KNGG, Widewaters dropped one 15,000 square foot building from its plan, primarily because KNGG pointed out that there wasn’t room to build a roundabout if the building remained.

 

On September 23, disregarding the designs architect Alvin Knoll provided to prove that a peaked roofline could be built in compliance with the Town Code, the Kinderhook Zoning Board of Appeals voted 3-2 to grant Widewaters’ roofline variance so its 62,192 ft south building could have a flat, “big box” roof.

 

Because the ZBA failed to meet the legal standards and procedures required to grant an area variance, KNGG is pursuing an Article 78 action against the ZBA and Widewaters. KNGG is suing to have the roof design variance determination reversed.If we do not demonstrate strength now, we may imperil future effective dissent and allow public officials to continue weakening our zoning code.   


OTHER INITIATIVES

In September 2002 the KNGG membership voted to promote and sponsor a corridor study of the US9 and NY 9H corridor proposed by preservation architect Marilyn Kaplan. The organization continues to press the Town Board to implement this corridor study by allocating funds for it.

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The membership also voted early in 2003 to support the preservation of Lindenwold and its plans for restoration of its original borders.

 

In May 2004, KNGG Board member, Meg Moran, proposed a town moratorium on commercial building to the Town Board.


KNGG-sponsored Educational events have included a screening of the documentary, "Store Wars--When Wal-Mart Decides It Wants to Come to Town." During the past three years, KNGG has sponsored speakers Jerry Cosgrove of American Farm Land Trust, Jean-Paul Courtens of Roxbury Farm, Kinderhook, Smart Growth planner Norman Mintz, and Scott McKee from Scenic Hudson’s land conservation initiative.  KNGG also continues to co-operate with other local grassroots groups in opposing the SLC cement plant proposal for Hudson, NY. And in the winter of 2004, KNGG supported Friends of Hudson’s opposition to the tire-burning proposal of LaFarge Cement Plant in Ravenna, NY and received interested party status in the battle.

KNGG also supports the town’s creation of the new Kinderhook Tree Board.

 

KNGG has actively opposed Dunkin' Donuts application for a fast-food outlet at the same intersection where Widewaters plans their strip mall.

 

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